Week 5 Project

I've wanted to redo the throw pillows for our bed for a while now because, well, when I made the original ones I wasn't really sure what I was doing.  I could have chosen better fabric, and made my seems straighter and made cuter pillows.  So, using a video tutorial from The Crafty Gemini I'm going to make three new pillows that will hopefully look something like these...

I want to make monogram designs in buttons on each using the two bigger pillows for letters and the one smaller pillow for an ampersand.  The plan is for blue buttons on brown pillows to coordinate with our bedroom, so now the only decisions left to make are what font to use and whether to use our first initials, R & N, or our last initials, A & W.  I think I'm leaning more towards R & N since we've used the A&W theme before.

Because this project promises to be time consuming I'm taking it in steps and this week I'm tackling the first two steps.  First - pick out fabric and cut all pieces.  Second - sew the button monogram to one of the pillow fronts.

After some further research I found a tutorial for the button monograms at Adventures of one Crazy Lady.  I can't wait to get started!

Project 3 carries into Week 4

A little bit of last week's projects will carry over into next week...

- The Media Purge from last week continues: get rid of 5 things and take the sell box to Half Price Books

- Reading: read one of the books I borrowed from Caitlin - I'm through chapter 8 now, and I'm amending this goal to reading one chapter each night until I'm done.

- Crafty Goal: Add three rows (12 squares) to my blanket to complete the first pattern - see, even I got mixed up on this one because I managed to do 12 squares before I realized that three rows would be 18 squares, so I still have six more squares left to go.  I'm just excited to get this done so I can lay out the rest of the pattern and get cracking! 

This coming week is packed full of things to do, but I probably won't be working much this week as the family I work for have relatives visiting.  This will leave plenty of time for all these things... I hope.

Thursday is Festival of Nations at Richard's school, and we just finished prepping the dough for the spiral cookies we're going to bake.  Saturday is the Midwest Gaming Classic which we're attending with some of Richard's colleagues before we all go to the best Chinese restaurant for lunch and before I head off for a night of work.

One Project a Week: Project 3 comes in 3's

Yes, reading that book fell by the wayside last week, mainly because I was reading so much news.  Wisconsin certainly has plenty of news lately, and quite a bit of it relates directly to us.  Richard is now in his third year teaching and it seems every thing that happens puts that job further and further into jeopardy.

We went to the Capital yesterday to join in the protests, and even ran into Jeff and Jennie, so I'll post photos later.  I'll be honest - I'm having a hard time dealing with a lot of the chaos coming our way, so occasionally these projects may have to be put on the back burner.

- The Media Purge from last week continues: get rid of 5 things and take the sell box to Half Price Books
- Reading: read one of the books I borrowed from Caitlin
- Crafty Goal: Add three rows (12 squares) to my blanket to complete the first pattern

Hopefully I'll get all of these goals done early in the week so I have time to do many, many other things like go to work, scan and edit some photos, and maybe even go thrifting.  But for today?  We're cleaning the house.

Project 2: De-cluttered Media

1) Cancel daily paper and go back to Sunday only

2) Clear out 50 old magazines.  Recycle them, rip them apart, or sell them - just get them out of the house. 52 down, who knows how many more to go.
- Recycled: 45
- Box to sell: 7

3) Finish reading one of my borrowed books from Caitlin. 

4) Find five books and/or cds to sell.  My book and music collection is getting ridiculous.
- Box to sell: 5

I'm quite happy with the progress I made, especially being so busy and all over the place this week.  The one thing I didn't get to was reading the book, but I think three out of four isn't bad.

One Project a Week - Project 2: De-cluttered Media

Very simply put - we have a media overload in this house.  We are constantly reading books, magazines and newspapers, listening to music, and watching movies.  So this week's project comes in multiple parts but because this is another cleaning/organizing project I have a head start from last week.

1) Cancel daily paper and go back to Sunday only - done today!

2) Clear out 50 old magazines.  Recycle them, rip them apart, or sell them - just get them out of the house.

• Recycled: 11
• Box to sell: 3

3) Finish reading one of my borrowed books from Caitlin.

4) Find five books and/or cds to sell.  My book and music collection is getting ridiculous.

• Box to sell: 1

That's it for this week, and the creative projects start in week 3.

Project 1: Organize Office Complete

I've taken a tip from Theresa on how to keep myself accountable using my blog.  I'll make a post or two every Thursday about what I've completed and what project I plan for the next week.  So here are the pictures of a rather clean and organized office and I will post later tonight on what I have planned for next week's project.

Save for the one broken remnant of the bed that hasn't quite made it to the dumpster yet, and will have to wait until the parking lot is less icy, the office is done!

You can probably tell from the pictures that we're big Apple computer geeks, and have a certain affinity to outdated technology.  For those of you keeping count at home that's six computers and two typewriters in the office, and each one is perfectly functional.

There may be just two people in this house, but there are three desks in our office.  (And yes, that's one of my photo lamps just hanging off the shelf there) The dark wood one is our most recent acquisition and when we move into a house (one day) the secretary's desk will go in the living room and the large corner desk will make its own way to Goodwill, but for now we make good use of every piece of furniture in the room.

The two bookshelves were the first pieces of furniture that my parents owned when they started out together. There is a third shelf that my father recently sanded and stained that now sits in their den.

It may look a little chaotic on the shelves, but things are certainly easier to find than they used to be.  Oh, and that little pink traincase on the bottom shelf is the most recent addition to my suitcase collection, a gift from my dear friend Jennie.

One Project a Week - Project 1: Organized Office

I often pick certain dates to begin changes in my life or my routine.  I say I'll start at the beginning of next month, or the beginning of the year, or even on my birthday, and often these changes sputter to a stop for one reason or another.  This time, it starts today.

I have so many wonderful ideas for making things and so many projects in various states of completion.  So I'm challenging myself to finish one project a week for the rest of 2011.  My idea is to focus on one main project each week while perhaps working some on coming projects.

This week is a house project - the office.  The office has been in a state of upheaval for quite some time now.  We tried having an extra bed for guests to sleep in but it was rather hard to work around such a large piece of furniture that was usually used only two or three times a year.  So we moved the frame to storage and the bed to the dumpster (it's had a good long life) to free up that half of the room.  Even after rearranging and adding a new desk and a second bookshelf from the basement the room the room is much more open, airy and easier to breathe (and work) in.

The office is half way there, all that is left is to organize a few things and clean some more.  Wish me luck!

Be My Valentine

My Richard, he knows the way to my heart.  This past Valentine's day we kept things lo-key by venturing out for an early lunch the Sunday before.  We went to the Fox and Hound restaurant that we'd heard nothing but wonderful things about and had some amazing food.  He also gifted me with a brand new desk that we spent Sunday afternoon picking out and building.  I know I'm not the biggest fan of big box stores, but after venturing to so many office and furniture places we found the perfect piece at Walmart, yes, Walmart.  It's a Better Homes and Gardens desk with a large top, filing drawer and plenty of space.

I gave him a bag of goodies, including a tiny Marvin the Martian promo sculpture that I had found on my recent trip to Savannah, and a subscription to Netflix.  We kept things simple and lovely, which is the way I like my holidays.  And we had a nice moment of nostalgia while we were cleaning out the office and found some of the old Valentines I'd given him.

I know Valentine's Day is a week past, but I hope everyone had a lovely one.

Eagles of Prairie du Sac

Last weekend Richard and I took a quick trip to Prairie du Sac, just a bit west of Madison, to watch the eagles and get away for a night.  It was really amazing to see so many bald eagles congregated in one place, and I even got a few good photographs.

It snowed the entire day we came home.  Big, heavy, wet flakes.  It was beautiful but a little hard to drive in.  On the way home we stopped at Hawks Inn, where we got married, just to see it in the snow.

Treasure in the Trash

My friends know I have a knack for discovering treasure in the trash. When I lived in my favorite apartment in Oshkosh I shared a dumpster with many of the businesses on Main Street and the things left protruding from and beside our dumpster were always interesting to say the least. I once stubbed my toe on some reel-to-reel recording equipment that was nearly as big as me, but I imagine this little gem must have been discarded from the used bookstore.

I found this book on the ground beside the cardboard recycling, where it had probably slipped from the rest that had been deposited there, I picked it up to put it into the recycling and while it may not exactly be a treasure the book wooed me and I brought it home with the intention of salvaging the illustrations inside.

It was missing its cover, starts on page 157 and continues only to 572.  It is probably a piece of a much larger manuscript, and I've been unable to find a title or author so I've reached an impasse in researching it.  When I flipped through it again this morning I came across something I hadn't seen before - a leaf that had been pressed and dried between the pages.  It's things like this that make me smile, knowing that the object in my hands had a life before me.

edit: Google books is my hero - I now know that the book is "Wife and mother: or, Information for every woman" by Pye Henry Chavasse and was first printed in 1888 and is still printed (without illustrations) today.

New Year, new plans

We're more than two weeks into the new year, and I've made no solid resolutions because I always need to give myself time to think.  This year I think I will depart from my usual list of projects and things to do, and go with the bit more abstract, self-improvement goals...mostly.

Pick up my camera more often.  After the trip to New York I found myself falling out of love with my cameras and taking pictures.  I realize this is mostly due to my limited movement and not getting out much, so as I gain more movement I resolve to pick up my camera more often, and to challenge myself with photography.

Get better.  I realize this one is rather abstract, but after so many issues with my back I am glad to be slowly recovering my strength and I plan to work on it as hard as I can.

Create.  All I tend to do is muse and sketch out ideas, and I plan to motivate myself to create more.  I'm going to set aside some time each day just for creating.  No cleaning the office or organizing my pit of a desk, just making.

That's it for now, but I'm sure there will always be more to add.

Adventures in Thrift Land

Because we are terrible at reading calendars we mistakenly thought today was the 50% off sale at the Habitat ReStore (it's actually next Saturday) and made a trip out to Wauwatosa to see if there was anything we desperately needed for the house we're still trying to buy.  While there wasn't anything we needed to pick up for the house we did have some great little finds, and now I know where I'll be picking up a sink for my often dreamed of dark room.

I had a little thrill when I saw this box on the shelf among the other hardware.  Not only am I a sucker for great vintage packaging, but one of my littlest cousins is named Atlas and when we come across fun things with his name on it we like to pick them up to give to his parents and while these aren't exactly practical I also needed nails this size, so they had to come home with us.  I picked a couple other things, but since they're gifts I'll wait to share those.

After lunch we decided to drop by Goodwill where I found these fun little vintage ornaments.  I have a soft spot for Shiny Brite christmas ornaments, and while only the seven blue ones on the right are actual Shiny Brite, but for just 49 cents I can deal with a few duds.