The Man's Day

Yesterday was the Man's 30th birthday. To celebrate, he had eggs, toast, bacon and sausage for breakfast. Then there was pizza for dinner and a hockey game. The game was fun and the Pens won. We even picked up Malkin bobbleheads. I'm not a huge hockey fan, but he enjoyed the game.

Then we came home and watched a movie and had birthday cake. Very exciting day, I know, but that's his idea of a good day. Very healthy. He did redeem himself by getting on the treadmill today, however.

Love you, babe!

Ikea stuff

I stop in at Ikea every now and then, since we are lucky to have one very close to our house. I mostly just like to look and get some ideas, since most of the furniture and stuff is not what I'm looking for at this stage. Every now and then, though, I get something that I love.

I picked up this canvas for the bedroom. Isn't it lovely? Those are just my colors. I don't know where I'm putting it yet, since its too large and doesn't look right above the bed, but its going in there somewhere.

These vases were there the last time I stopped too. Aren't they cute? Sorta like labware. I have a soft spot for labware, I think.

I also bought this poster. I don't know what for, but I like it.

IT IS FINISHED!

The yo yo quilt is now done. Hallelujah!

Another apron I like

I saw this apron the other day at the Tie One One newest flickr set. Its over at montessoribyhand.blogspot.com - the Emmaline Apron. How cute is that? Completely reversible. I especially like the red polka-dotted one. She has patterns for sale!

This time a project was successful!

I did manage to finish one successful project. Okay, its not quite finished, but almost (I have a small closet area I'm still ignoring). I got the Man to fix the baseboards in the house and I painted them. Yay! It looks much better, I think.

When we refinished the floors, we made them darker, so they no longer matched the baseboards. The baseboards were a nice shade of orangey tinted oak. Not my thing.

I thought maybe we'd replace the trim altogether with something nicer, but that didn't seem to make much sense when we priced it, so we left what baseboard was there and added it to the wall that it was missing from. Then we put on all the missing shoe molding. There are still a few gaps between the floors and the baseboards in the spare room, but whatcha gonna do? Not a big deal.

Then I primed it and painted it all white. Looks much better. I had a little dog running around the whole time who really wanted to be in my lap or chew on my arm, but he didn't do much damage. I only found a few little foot prints of paint on my floors and they were damp, so they came right off. Twirp.

Oh, and I discovered something else. This is probably elementary, but I didn't know it. This is my baseboard before. Kinda disappointing.

This is after. After what? CAULKING. Yay! Caulk is my new best friend. I've run around caulking all the gaps in the trim that I can find and everything looks so much better!

Now if I could just get the Man to put up crown molding in the bedrooms. Wish me luck! He's been dragging his feet for weeks!

Maybe someday I'll post again. . .

Where did January go? I don't feel like I've gotten much done, so where have I been? I really don't know. . . I'm going with the excuse that my real job has taken up more time than normal. Just that time of year.

One of my other little projects that I didn't get around to posting about was a set of pillows for Dutch to sleep. Well, it started out as a set. I bought box pillow forms and soft chocolate-colored fur and spent too much on them. Then I set out to make the pillow covers with a zipper in the band. Oh my word. These did not turn out well.

The zippers were really p*ssing me off. I couldn't get those right for the life of me. I did finally get one in, but I had to practically shave all the fur off around it to get it to zip up. Then I had a heck of a time sewing the fur together and keeping the edges even. Much too slippery and a bit of stretch in one direction.

It turned out okay, but so not worth the money in materials. He promptly peed on this one, so I couldn't return that pillow form. But I did return the other pillow forms and retrieve a little bit of my wasted money. Dutch tried it out and will get on it now and then, but he eventually retreats to the folded up blanket in our bedroom.

I still have the other pillow pieces cut out and I think I may just get a cheapo flatter pillow form and make pillows out of those and see if he'll sleep on those. I hope so.

Roman Shades?

I forgot to mention several weeks ago that I finally tried my hand at making a roman shade for our kitchen door. I was thinking that if I liked it, I may do it in other rooms. I bought some white Egyptian cotton for the front and backed it with plain white muslin. I bought one of those Wright's Roman Shade Kits on sale for $12ish and I bought the fabric on sale for maybe $6. This is how it turned out.

Nevermind that my door is ugly. I'm not sure I like the shade. Its okay. Then I saw that Ikea sells them for $6.99. Okay, so this was clearly a dumb idea. My other problem is that after hanging it, there was so much condensation on the inside of the window, it started to soak up on the bottom of the shade. Now there's that faint brown line from the water on it. I've stapled the dumb thing to a piece of wood to hang it. Clearly this whole thing was a dumb idea. Back to the drawing board.

Oh, and about the kit? It was fine, but clearly overkill. The brackets were waay larger than I wanted to use and I have plenty of cording and tape left over. Maybe I could sell what's left on eBay and salvage something from this experiment.

Christmas Rehashed

courtesy of (or rather, stolen from) my sister

Okay, I didn't really mean to be away for quite so long, but I guess I just haven't been feelin it, ya know? I don't feel like I've had time either. But now I thought I'd share a few things that I didn't before.

First, a couple Christmas presents from Etsy. Remember the ring I bought for myself? I bought another one for one of my sister-in-laws along with a cranberry pearl ring from the same seller, lucie39. Cute. Darn, I wish I had bought one of those for myself. If hers was big enough to fit my ring finger, I might have.


I also bought one of these custom stamps from sweetpaperie. I want almost every stamp in that store. It came in a cute little white box with a green striped ribbon on the outside and it was sealed with a scalloped circle and a label with the name of the company on it. Very cute. I'm a sucker for cute packaging as well. I didn't think to take a picture of that, though.

I made a little coat for my sister's dog as well that turned out to be waaaaaay too small. Thus, no picture of it on her. She's a heck of a lot longer than I remembered and she's got a thicker chest than I guessed too. Darn. I do have enough leftover fabric to try again though. I'll have to make it longer and move the belly strap back a couple inches and maybe the second time will be a charm. Or not. With my luck. I thought it was cute though.

courtesy of (or rather, stolen from) my sister

courtesy of (or rather, stolen from) my sister

For Dutch, we bought him another coat. I know. Its pathetic. Its just too darn easy to want to dress a little dog. Its a brand we just found at W*lM*rt and it fits him nicely. Its Max-a-Million which I guess is a brand just for boy dogs, which, I suppose there is a need for. Most dog clothes, especially for the little dogs, are very girly. These were cheap enough and cute. Its his captain coat. Captain Dutch. Nice, eh?



Anyway. That's some of the Christmas gift highlights. The Man and I didn't buy each other anything this year because we've been buying so much stuff for the house. We got our new entertainment center delivered a few days after Christmas and ordered a new flat panel TV and signed up for satellite. Supposedly that is his gift. I want an iPod, but I haven't ordered it yet. I'm still freaking out about spending all that on TV. Oh well. I've never had cable or satellite or anything like that and he really hasn't either. The skies are falling.

Panic and Gratuitous Puppy Photos

So today I'm starting to panic. I've got several loose ends for my gifts and I haven't made a blessed thing to take up to the parents' house. Eek. I usually make cinnamon rolls for Christmas Day, but we're probably going up tomorrow, so I can't very well do that before. I guess I will have to make them up there. Tomorrow is the family get-together at Grandma's and I don't have anything to take to that.

Today, The Man got up and went straight to work and he'll be there until 11:30 or so tonight. So, I thought I'd be all productive today and get all this stuff done. Right. I've done loads of laundry, washing dishes, cleaning the kitchen and wrapping presents. That's all the further I got. Now I've got wrapping paper and ribbons strewn around and no, I'm not finished.

I need to get my act together and get packed as well, but first, I really need to sit down and do some of my work, since I probably won't getting much done now till Wednesday or Thursday.

In the midst of my wrapping and panic, there is this. My little man who really needs a bath before we head to Grammie's house, staring out the window because I'm ignoring him and he's bored out of his mind. I'd love nothing better than to curl up with him and take a nap. Perhaps tomorrow, little guy.

Paper ornaments

I like playing with paper and making snowflakes and stars and the like. I haven't done much this year because it seems like there has been no time, but this post over at HowaboutOrange had lots worth exploring, I think.

Kitchen Problem

I found a solution to one of the problems in the kitchen. Sort of, anyway. I found this scroll thing at Penneys and hung it up the other day. It fits on that hole nicely. Now, if I could just figure out what to do for the gap between the stove and the wall . . .

Darn. I thought I got it cheap. Its even cheaper now!

Painting on Panelling

So we decided, or rather, I decided the other day that I was going to paint the panelled wall in the living room. I'm thinking about painting all the basement panelling, but that would require that I get my butt in gear and get working on organizing all of the rest of the junk that was deposited in the basement when we moved in. To be fair, I've done a lot, but I've hit that point where I've just plain old lost interest. I'm hoping to regain it in January.


ANYWAY.


I figured what the heck, lets experiment with the wall in the living room. So I put up tape and put down some blankets and primed it. Okay. Not bad, but you can totally still tell there's panelling under there. I thought the lines might be interesting, but no. Just looked like painted panelling. I even used a tiny artist's paintbrush to put primer in all the cracks and lines. It took me 3 hours! For a teeny, tiny wall.



So then we decided. Why not use spackling and fill in the lines? So why did I paint the lines again? I don't know. Because I was bored, I guess. I convinced the man to go find me some spackling and put it on. He was thrilled. He did, however, comply and started putting up the spackling. After I criticized his job and messed up one part he was working on (it was a really wonky gap between sheets of panelling), I decided to butt out and leave him alone. Except he had to go to work. And I can't handle looking at the mess and not doing anything about it. So I finished it. I know. He was torn up about missing out.



Oh, and I should add that putting on the spackling makes a bit of a mess. Bits and pieces seem to fall on the floor a lot and then, if you have a little tiny dog running around who thinks he's a vacuum cleaner, you'll probably spend a lot of time, saying No! Don't eat that! and picking it up off the floor and prying open his little jaws to take it from him. That just adds to the fun. Put said dog elsewhere if you have brains. I don't.


Then I sanded down the whole wall with a sanding sponge - not as much as it sounds - just rough spots really. Then he filled in any low spots with another layer of spackling. Okay, so that worked alright. But the paint? Ugh. I put 4 coats of primer and 3 1/2 coats of paint on this darn wall. I'd say it turned out alright. Except that now there's a really obvious gap in the corner where the panelling ends and the plaster begins. I'm not sure what to do with that. Put trim in one corner of the room? I do like it better, though. I think it lightens up the room. Not that my all-white room needed too much more lightening, but you know.


Before picture here. After picture here. I know. Its hard to tell how well it worked, but it worked well enough.

And they're off . . .

I finally got the company's customer Christmas gifts on their way. Remember the candy packaging? This is the rest of the box.


We got some ridiculously wonderful-smelling coffee from Prestogeorge, our favorite coffee, and packaged it up with some tea, biscotti, jelly beans, chocolate-covered pretzels and Ghirardelli chocolates. Yummy. I hope they like them!

I'm so glad to have them done and on their way. We carried 18 of the boxes into the post office last night at 6:30 and it was freeeeeezing out. Two went to the UPS Store to head to Canada and I'm not sure about those ones arriving. The guy behind the counter was no genius. But I'm done. Now, if only I could finish my gift buying.

Fluffy girly ruffly apron

Okay, so I decided the other day to use some of my "scrap" pile from the yo yo quilt to make myself a ruffled apron, a la Morgan Moore at One More Moore. Sorta. I didn't make all the ruffles the same size, because my fabric strips were not the same size. So they are graduated with the largest on the bottom.

I think it turned out cute. Its rather girly for me. I like it though. I'm thinking about posting this one up on Etsy and see if anyone bites. I bought more black and white fabric to feed my ongoing black and white obsession and I may tweak it a bit to make more. I don't know why. Because I can.

In keeping with the black and white theme of the post, here's some more. This is my baby. Ain't he growin up too fast?! He's a whopping 3.7 pounds now! In this first one, he was 1.7 pounds.

Hand Towels

I love monogrammed towels. What is it about them?

Today, I monogrammed a set of 4. On the second one, the needle fell out and screwed up the towel. That really pisses me off. I can't seem to figure out why the needle comes out. Darn darn darn. Now I have to go back again and get towels. I'm so wishing I could avoid all stores at this time of year. Or any time of year, for that matter.

But the other 3 look great!

Christmas Decorating

We finally went and got our Christmas tree this week. Well, it was Monday, so I'm a bit slow in posting. We went to Nutbrown's Christmas Tree Farm. It was nice to find a local place and cut our own for a change. The past couple years, we just didn't know where to look and hadn't spent much time looking either. I think we got a Concolor fir. Its different. The needles are long and soft. I hung up some little wreaths in our front windows and a few on the kitchen cabinets and decorated the mantel. Its looking a little more like Christmas here!

Doggie Vest

I made my little man a vest the other day. I think its cute, but I don't think he likes it. When he is forced to put it on to go outside, he comes back in the house and rubs his shoulders on the ground, trying to bite the collar. When I take it off for him, he shakes it and chews on it a bit. "Take that, you stupid vest!"

I sent the picture to my parents and the next morning, Dad called me and wanted to know why I was dressing up his dog in girly clothes. Poor Dutch. I guess he has a mean Mom [snicker]. Maybe I should make my parents dog one so he can feel stupid too!

The pattern is here. I love that little red plaid vest on the little guy there. I'd have used something like that if I had seen it. I made mine with prequilted fabric and finished the edges with purchased binding and added a collar.

Pillows again

I finally made another set of pillows for the couch. These I like, even if they are a bit boring.

I got the fabric here. Shipping is a bit slow, but not any slower than they said it would be.

I wanted to get some white faux fur for pillows too, but I haven't found any yet. I did buy a nice green velvet as well, but I'm holding on to it, not wanting to cut it up. Its so soft and shimmery. Yes, I'm an idiot.

Candy, candy, candy!

This weekend, I started to put together some customer Christmas gifts. We're going to get some Prestogeorge coffee to put in them, along with biscotti, Ghirardelli chocolates, jelly beans and chocolate-covered pretzels. The jelly beans and pretzels were loose and needed to be repackaged, so we picked up some bags at Michaels and I made some striped paper to print for tags. I cut the paper into 3" x 4" rectangles and folded them and used double-sided tape to attach them to the top. Aren't they cute?