I'm feeling crafty.

On Fridays, I tend to feel like I want to do something crafty. Maybe it's because the house is all clean.

It's almost Easter (hey, lent has started), so I started looking for some Easter themed decorations to make. I settled on this project from Martha Stewart for today:

I'm still mid-project and don't have everything I need to finish it up, but here's a sneak peak:

I'm hoping to make a Michael's run tonight to get the necessary supplies to finish it up.

And Freyja?

She's got nothing better to do, so she's napping...

And snoring away...

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

Happy 40th

I was out of coffee this morning, so the bf, Freyja and I made an early morning Starbucks run. Being a Seattle-ite, it's almost sacrilegious not to love "the Bux..."

And this week is Starbucks' 40th anniversary! So I couldn't help but pick up a bag of their new Tribute Blend...

Thanks for all the good times and great coffee!

[And I love their new logo, don't you?]

A new project, perhaps?

Since we live in an apartment and won't be here (hopefully) for much longer, I've been looking for ways to make the place a little more our own. There are so many things I would change, but since we rent, we can't do that. Our apartment has a lot of (tacky) built in pieces of furniture and we don't have any more room, so furniture is out of the question. All I can really do is find smaller items that fit in with what we already have.

Well, I was up early this morning and was just surfing the internet when I came across this:

Source

Not everything in the picture is my style, but I loved the idea of framing old blueprints. But after a little time on eBay, they aren't easy to find and you aren't likely to find a specific building. I turned to google and the only Seattle area blueprint I could find online was this one of Pike Place Market from 1921:

Source

It's not exactly what I was thinking, but it is a well-known landmark. And it's just a picture on the internet, not a print I can just order.

Then I got thinking... I'm an okay painter, why not buy a canvas and do my own? 

So... that's what I'm going to do.

And during my search, I found this cool vintage Seattle map showing parks and playgrounds from 1909 (once again, just a photo, not a print):

Source

I LOVE this one. So I'm going to try to do this one for sure. 

Canvases are on sale for 50% off at Michael's, as are some of the their paints, so I think I'm going to be making a run tonight... I'm really excited [ and a little nervous : / ] to see how this is going to turn out...

I'll keep you updated.

Best. Invention. Ever.

Okay, so maybe not the best invention of all time (because I know if you asked the bf, he'd say the iPad), but it's definitely my favorite invention of the week:

The Bounce Dryer Bar

I hate doing laundry. And unlike most people, it's not just the folding. It's everything about it. I've got to cart loads of clothes (we seem to have more laundry than most two person households), re-sort them (because the bf usually just tosses things into either side with no regard for color), fight them into the machine (it's one of those stacked W/D combos), pour in soap (which inevitably makes a mess), bleach if necessary (which is ever so tedious, trying not to ruin the clothes I'm wearing), actually remember to move them (I seem to have to rerun them again far too often), dry them (and hoping I remembered a dryer sheet), fold them, put them away, fight the dog for the dryer sheet and clean up pieces of said dryer sheet for days.  

No one likes doing laundry.

But this little invention makes what is an unbearable a little more bearable. No worrying about whether I actually used a dryer sheet. No problems with running out of dryer sheets (at least for three months). No more fighting the dog for the dryer sheet, having to pull pieces out of her mouth and cleaning it up off the floor. not to mention it's actually cheaper (at least here) than a box of dryer sheets that would last the same amount of time.

I've had mine for a week now and it's working great. I did see (via some googling) that a lot of other people have had problems with them falling off, melting, ruining clothing etc. I haven't had a single one. 

My recommendation? Buy one and try it first with a load of old towels. Because it's totally worth it.

Now I've got to get back to DOING the laundry, not just whining about it [if only whining DID really get things done :) ]

Whoopsie.

Sundays are great. We try to get our errands and chores done Saturday so that we can do nothing on Sundays. So yesterday, we stayed in our pj's all day and watched season 3 of Lost.

I mean, how could you not want to cuddle with this little thing?

Well... I think she just about pushed me past my breaking point (it's a good thing she looked so ashamed of herself).

I try to wash our sheets on Mondays. Freyja usually follows me around as I'm doing my chores, so nothing unusual as she follows me into the bedroom while I strip the bed. I assumed (very wrongly) that she had followed me back out. Ten minutes later as I'm unloading the dishwasher, I hear her whimpering and crying... I have to admit I was freaking out because I thought she was hurt. As I'm frantically trying to find her, I figure out she's still in the bedroom.

And I open the door to this:

That's right. She had somehow gotten underneath the mattress pad and decided it would be easier to chew her way out rather than climb back out the way she came. So the whining and whimpering? She was stuck.

Normally, I would have gotten furious (let's just say I'm not known for my patience), but I think I was so shocked that I just started laughing.

So I did make her wait a bit before rescuing her (just long enough to snap a few pics).

I think she looks pretty embarrassed...

And maybe just a little ashamed. 

Here's to a much calmer Tuesday.

The joys of ironing

I am not a domestic diva. I hate all housework, with one exception: ironing.

I learned from my dad how to iron because "it looked fun" and somehow, it still is. So I do 99% of the ironing in our house; even though none of it is mine. 

It doesn't hurt that the bf can't iron to save his life (but that's okay, he's good at lots of things I really hate doing). And I can't send him to work looking like a kid that just started dressing for school on his own.

So, I iron a few times a week.

And there's something kind of rewarding from turning this:

into this:

Say goodbye to the old couch pillow

We have the world's ugliest pillow on the couch. It's covered in slightly dirty fake suede (it's not even classy enough to call "faux"). It's lumpy and limp. So after my mom visited and left a stack of fabric remnants, I decided just needed to recover that pillow. 

I'd seen yo-yo's done before in quilting, but had never had an excuse to try them out. They're basically round circles of fabric hand sewn to form a pouch and flattened. Below are a couple of pictures of the process:

Partially done

Completed front

I may not be the neatest hand sew-er

I finally finished it up this afternoon. The bf (he's the one who uses the pillow) is at work and doesn't know yet, so I hope he doesn't mind...

I do think it looks a million times better...


(just ignore the ugly couch)










How about you?