Spare time

One of the things I promised myself in 2014 was to have more fun. While I hope this year has an exciting adventure or two, part of having fun is a desire to relax and just enjoy what I have right now... whether that is reading, organizing my home, spending time with friends, or clearing my head. 

One of my friends started selling jamberry nails this year, and praised them. While it reeks of frivolousness I thought it would be fun to try it out. Decorated nails is something I've never done before- but I want to be that person!  I ordered four sets, including one for my girl. 

I tried out the mint colored chevron last night. It was a little time consuming my first try, figuring out sizes, getting all my manicure tools in the same place, learning how to handle them... But it was also really easy. Each kit covers at least 2 applications for both your toes and hands, and can last on your fingers for about 2 weeks. At $16 per sheet, getting me 2 "manicures" and 2 "pedicures" applications each sheet, they suddenly don't seem so frivolous anymore.

Overall I really like them. They feel a little like window clings that you decorate with at Easter, which I'm still not used to. I'm waiting to see if they are as durable as they claim to be (and if I correctly applied them!)

 

Last day of 2012

Here's what I did the last day of 2012: turned $4 CK (from the local thrift store) boot cut jeans into skinny jeans, which I needed to fit in my new riding boots i got for Christmas. Thanks to my sister for the help!

We laid the pants flat and inside-out, flattening and aligning along the inside seam. We put one leg of my other existing skinny jeans that I wanted to match on the outside seam, and pinned the interior of the leg to match.

We ended up seam ripping the crotch since there was so much fabric. Depending on your pants, you may be able to skip this part. The pins were then tapered gently from the leg out on a curve to as close to the existing bottom of the crotch center point as possible to ensure I didn't lose any height in the waist of the pants.

We sewed the first leg from the crotch down to the leg so the fabric wouldn't bunch at the top. I then tried them on (right-side-out), liked them, and then turned them back inside-out to cut the excess fabric off the newly sewn leg. We left a 1/4 inch excess from the new seam.

We repeated the process on the other leg, the whole process taking about an hour.

They looked spectacular, especially for $4.

Wasted Space

A few weeks ago I impulse purchased a box of those space saver bags at BJ's wholesale club ($19 for 10 bags). I figured with the kids outgrown clothes alone I could use them all pretty quick. I have always been a sucker for their infomercials - so I was pretty excited to try them out.

I found my chance when I was putting away my maternity clothes this past week. That's right - I'm back in my pre-baby jeans!! I am still employing Spanx for dresses and skirts and whatnot (which are seriously great too) but it is cause for celebration. Thank heavens for breastfeeding because I haven't gotten to the gym at all yet.

Anyway, here's the overflowing tub. I tried rolling all my clothes to fit - and they didn't. I obviously stopped rolling them when I reached the top and just threw the rest on there. But believe me, all the clothes are packed TIGHT in that tub.

So then I put them in the space saver and vacuumed it up. I still rolled all the clothes to get the most I could inside the bag.

Two misconceptions I had before using this: 1) For some reason I thought that the vacuum hose had to fit inside that white clip - and when it didn't I was scared I wouldn't be able to use them. Fortunately it just has to go on top of the clip when its opened. It creates enough of a seal to vacuum all the air out anyway. 2) For some reason I thought it would be lighter when I vacuumed it up. It still as heavy as a brick. Why did I think air weighed so much? lol.

But in the end I'm happy with the results. Basically the clothes are stored much flatter, and a smidge more compact than I was able to do rolling on my own. Flatter is better for storing here though because I can stack several of the completed bags on top of each other to reach the same height as the tub. If I was doing this with pillows, stuffed animals, or blankets, I know that the results would be ah-mazing.

Improving My Swag

I did a very small home improvement project this week, but its quite often the little things that make you the happiest. Both because it solved a very annoying problem and also because I accomplished a house project. Yay!!

When I made my curtains, I didn't realize that the weight of the curtains wouldn't allow them to slide along the (flimsy but free) curtain rods. I simply had put a sleeve at the top and expected them to pull along. They didn't. They constantly got stuck and we'd end up either with a wacky swag when we tucked them back or would end up pulling the top of the curtain rod apart. And often enough I wouldn't even bother pulling them back because it was so annoying to fix them.

So after a few years (I'm pretty good at ignoring things), it finally got to me and I bought two packs of clip on rings for them. I got each pack of 14 rings for $7.50 at Big Lots and they work amazingly. (I've seen packs of 7 at Target for $10, so I thought this was a pretty good deal.) The added 3 inches also gives the drapes a little drag on the floor so it did help them look a little more hefty.

Since I didn't make the curtains wide enough for my huge windows they're hung on (I was too cheap and honestly didn't know the "twice as wide" rule), I am considering moving them to the dining room when / if we repaint it or I find a better option for the living room. I guess I could also try and find more fabric and do four panels on each window to "beef it up" but again, I'm cheaping out for now. Right now our living room is grey with red as our accent color, and we were considering painting the dining room grey with burnt orange accents, so that may nix the whole red curtains in the dining room idea. The kitchen is a very dark grey with yellow accents - so we think it would flow well, but are still undecided; I really don't have enough burnt orange in my life.

Before:

After:

October Catchup- the fourth

One of the other things that kept me busy during October was my future sister-in-law's bridal shower. I can't begin to tell you how lucky I am to have such an amazing brother-in-law and future SIL. They're mcNugget's godparents, and definitely some of our best friends. They just moved home - after years of us all living states apart, and I cannot wait to hang out with them every week!!

My key responsibility for the party was the invites. They're getting married New Years Eve - and we're all in the wedding. We decided to have a Winter themed shower - so here's the invite I designed. I did the trees by hand - all using a program called "GIMP" (I am trying it out - since its free- until I can save up the money for Adobe Photoshop; its working really well!). I kept it close to her wedding colors (Red, Black & Silver) - trendy, and not too "Christmasy". What do you think? Obviously I removed all their information :)

I had them printed at FedEx Kinko's on cardstock - and they cut them all for me (YAY!). Here's a tip - 5X7 envelopes are really expensive, so go with a smaller photo size if you don't need the 5X7. We did though, so I spent the extra money on the envelopes from Staples.

Also, we asked everyone to bring a Christmas ornament for their future tree. I found this fabulous idea on Pinterest.com - and made them one out of this invite (original photo found here). I'll do the same out of their wedding invite after the wedding. (Sorry I didn't capture my actual ornament yet, I'll have to get that sometime soon). A box of 4 glass ornaments cost $4 at JoAnn fabric - and I still have two more leftover to make us an ornament from our extra wedding invites.

October Catchup - the first

Well I abashedly have some catching up to do. The short of it is that things have been going great - even if the days themselves seem like a bit of a struggle. Forrest through the trees, right? The highlights:

• Breastfeeding is going well, and we're even pumping to store up for a night out (and daycare next month)
• Managing two is a bit of a challenge, but having two children is absolutely incredible (and amazing, and all the synonyms that can't begin to express how happy my children make me ... everyday i squeal at least once with absolute glee).
• I'm watching a lot of TV
• I have not yet starting on my house projects (which makes me sad)
• I have started reading a new book series (the Ice and Fire series - currently reading Game of Thrones, it's so good and quite like the HBO series)
• I can't wait to go running and back to the gym

Beyond that, we've been having aot of fun as the holidays have officially started. I've queued up a couple of posts for what I'm calling the "October Catchup". Here is the first entry:

I have a bad back; its been that way since high school. Chiropractors were like a drug to me- and the only real help is going to the gym to strengthen my (very weak) abs and back. So I was quite sad when the baby carrier (the Jeep carrier) we had for McNugget didn't work - it pulled way too much on me. But McMuffin likes to be held; a lot. I wasn't geting anything done, so my friend mentioned that she would loan me her Moby wrap when she saw me next. That was going to be a while so I hit up Craigslist and scored one for $10 (they originally sell for $50) from a lady around the corner who hadn't sold it at her yard sale.

And I love it!! I had to watch a Youtube video to learn how to wear it, but it really doesn't pull at all once I got it right. And McMuffin's a big boy! So take a look on Craigslist if you're in the market for one; it's wonderful!

Better Sleep for Baby

At 11 months, we saw a dramatic change with our McNugget going to sleep. She just wasn't ready mentally- too much to see and do. Although we tried it for "a minute", we weren't really "cry-it-out" parents - nor were we rock her to sleep every night parents.  We realized we had to find another way to let our girl - who has always been a terrific sleeper - settle herself down.

Even though she was obviously tired, she just wasn't ready to be dropped off for bed after reading, prayers and pjs. We made a few changes in the couple of weeks that we were having sleep issues, and now bedtime is a 15 minute routine again!

1. We started winding her down with a different bedtime routine. We first let her play in her jumper or gave her a bath - since she loved both of those. It only took about 5 minutes for her to wear herself out using both methods.
2. I decided to use the rocker for story time and prayers. If she still squirming around after 5 minutes, into the crib she went. If she needed a couple of minutes of extra cuddling - that was okay too. But we didn't rock her fully to sleep; we kept putting her to bed while she was still slightly awake. The rocker was just to 'settle' her for bed. 
3. We bought room darkening blinds. She's used to noise at daycare, but since its the summer and the sun is out until 9pm, it was hard for this early bird to understand why she had to go to bed! The old blinds had to go anyway - they had dangerous cords. We got these cordless darkening blinds at overstock.com (love that site!) for about $50 per blind. We were able to use a 10% off coupon, and they were cheaper there than we could find at JCP or Lowes. As a bonus we also got the 3% back from Upromise using their click through link.

The blinds are amazing. Bo says they were just about the easiest things in the world to put up - and they REALLY darken the room. We always use them for nap time and bedtime, and have even used them to keep the heat out of the room during the day.

See the difference where they're covering the window compared to where just the curtains are? LOVE them.

McNuggets 1st Birthday: the Prep

It finally happened, our little McNugget turned 1. It took me more than a month to plan and prep for, but the event was a huge success in my eyes. The first thing we did was pick a theme - and I wanted it to be something special to her.

Several months ago, we realized she has a special place in her heart for the color yellow. How did we know this (since she can't talk yet)? Well, anytime we'd wear clothes with yellow lettering, prints, etc. she'd  trace her little finger on the yellow spots; when she saw the yellow craft bumble bees at school that was hanging on the ceiling, she'd reach for them every day. And then if you give her two of the same toy, one yellow and one not, she'd always pick the yellow one. Cool, right? So when I saw this Macy's department store advertisement, I knew I had my theme.

Invites were next - I pulled a photo from each of her months to show her age progression over the past year. Obviously I've removed all the sensitive data (like our home address), but otherwise this was the invite. We only had about 25 invites to send, so we printed 10 (using 1 hour 4X6 photos at Target) and emailed the rest. We asked everyone to dress in yellow - which is apparently not a color most have in their wardrobe because while half everyone showed up in yellow, the other half said "this was as close as they could get".  

Then it was time to arrange for the cake. My husband's coworker has a side business for cakes and we loved the one she put together for McNugget's christening, so this one was a no-brainer. I just sent her the Macy's add, asked her to do something using the couch and flowers, and the below is the BEAUTIFUL cake that they came up with. It seriously made me cry when I saw it, and I have to say that it was everything I could have ever wanted.

I also sewed two lemon table runners that I know will be useful for the next few parties or summer get-togethers.



The next part was party decorations. I bought 21 yellow and white paper lanterns from "5 and Below" (they were $5 for 3). I figured I could use them for future parties or as decorations in the new nursery.

We bought some faux lemons on clearance ($4) at target for filler - which I've wanted since our wedding (where we used real lemons as vase filler). They always remind us of where we spent our honeymoon in Italy.

And my sister brought us wildflowers from the place where she was interning (free).

A few lemon scented candles from Homegoods (9 in a pack for $4). You can see the gift table and flags captured in the photo as well.

The kids favors were yellow bubbles tied with either a tie or bow (for the boys and girls). The idea was to keep them entertained at the party and afterwards, but we forgot to have everyone take them when the came in. I've been passing them out as we saw the kids in the weeks since. ($12) We used some of the leftover yellow ribbon from our wedding- kids don't care, right?

For the adults, I had lemon and vanilla salt water taffy and yellow-white striped swirled candy sticks (which in the chaos we also forgot to give out) that we bought down the shore (McNugget's first trip to the beach) two weeks prior.  

I spent a few hours sewing a yellow and orange flag streamer (apparently called bunting), and found the most fabulous Cinderella-inspired card cage which I will be keeping out on our porch and use for future parties. We (the husband) had to spray paint it yellow (original color in the second photo below). This was the most expensive item - at $30 - but I knew we could get years of use out of it in the garden or just as decoration for future parties. Heck, she may even be able to use it as the card cage at her wedding!! You can see it painted in the middle of her gift pile below. I was originally going to get a regular old bird cage to spray paint yellow, but couldn't muster the $30 for something so "normal". When I saw this though, they had me.

(before)

So that was our successful first adventure into birthday decorating. There were details we overlooked (like a special birthday candle - fortunately I had some leftovers from other events in the cabinet), but overall it was exactly what I had envisioned to help our little girl celebrate her birthday.

Pregnant in Heels

No, this isn't a post about the odd show by the same name (really women think like that?) but rather about my new gift for myself. New heels.

I bought a pair of Anne Klein iFlex heels (taupe with a peep toe) in Marshall's the other day ($39). Can I just tell you how much I love them? Even at 24 weeks pregnant they are beyond comfortable. I have no trouble walking or even carrying the baby - not bad for 3" heels. Plus I get complements on them all the time and they go with EVERYTHING. I was really quite sad I had to 'retire' all my other heels during this 'labor of love' - but at least for now, I can still rock some sexy footwear.

Much Organized Mail

Our clever wicker baskets were a little messy and a little falling off the wall from the heaps of mail we threw in them, so I was waiting for another solution to make itself apparent before I hung them up again on my newly painted kitchen walls. I also didn't like the idea of hanging brown wicker in my cool modern kitchen -so the mail has just sat on our dining room hutch for the past few weeks.

When the pile got too large for me the other day, I realized two things: 1) I could use the scanners at work for free (yes I checked) to mass-scan my paperwork and thereby reduce what we needed to keep in hard copy. 2) I had purchased two black metal office folder hangers (each with three tiers) at our furniture sales when the company moved last October. They cost me $1 each- and even though they'd been sitting in our storage room since then, I knew I'd use them sometime! And I just looked these up: originally they had been $50 each at Officemax - yeah, you can do the dance with me - that's a $98 savings!



I had been looking into cool vintage steel bike baskets, and while they'd be more creative, they were mad expensive. One of the metal wall folder pockets made for a perfect replacement; nothing like a hundred-cent solution! And I even hung it on my own. Yes, I'm proud of myself, so what?

I have plans to use the other to corral the husband's enormous magazine collection in the bathroom as soon as we do a little touch up on the paint.

Lamp Love

I made a spontaneous purchase the other day - in the form of the Eiffel tower. Well an Eiffel tower lamp to be more specific.

My husband and I fell in love in Paris - on a high school band trip - though it took us years to realize it. That, along with our honeymoon to Italy gave us a real love for travel-themed items. We almost did a travel themed nursery for our little mcNugget but were having difficulty finding enough components to make it work... maybe this time around!

So anyway, I came across this piece at our local HomeGoods, and having admired the target version for a few years - had to pick it up. I didn't love the lamp shade on the target one, and it was too expensive (currently marked at $45) to not absolutely love. This homegoods version cost me only $24, and the wheat-colored drum lamp shade was more my style than the other.

So we bumped our in-need-of-repair set of $19 Ikea lamps for two mis-matched ones. The oil-rubbed desk light we had gotten at Lowes on clearance a few weeks ago for $30. I love that style of light and one of our Ikea lamp shade kept falling off thanks to my dog's nose bumping it every day - so I had to  replace it.

Here's the Lowe's lamp with our Ikea one:

And here's the new lamp set during the day:

And the close up of the two new lamps:

And the functioning but not great Ikea lamp - I have 3 if anyone is interested!

I love the new lamps. I was a little nervous at first that it was such a spur-of-the-moment buy, but just sitting in the room makes me happy. I actually have texted people about it. Its the little things, right? I think it makes the room look a little more formal, and a little less cookie-cutter. Plus the dogs enjoy them too. :)

Another Gliding In Style

Well I screwed up the photo taking - only capturing the footstool part of this project, but the glider was made of the same stained and gross material. My friend is having a baby this month and the room theme is 'jungle' for her little boy. I went with her to look at the $25 set on Craigslist and the glider was well made and the cushion on that portion was thick and fabulous. I'm actually a little jealous of it!

So we picked out the upholstery fabric, I cleaned it up, and brought the new chair and footstool to her baby shower last month. I think it turned out fantastic. We did have to replace the cushion on the footstool (it was saggy) so the whole project (chair, fabric, and cushion) was under $50. Not bad! And its something no one else has exactly the same!



Time Keeps On Ticking, Ticking, Ticking - Into The Future...

14 days from today is McNugget's due date. If he or she doesn't decide to pull up stakes he/she will be evicted in 21 days. Hooray!

But in the meantime, I'm playing the waiting game. Its pretty much my only activity that I have been permitted to do. I'm sneaking in doing laundry and light cleaning here and there -but really, I'm not able to do much more than that. But with energy through the roof, I really am in need of keeping my hands and mind away from idle... hence the nursing covers and shopping cart covers from last week.

To quote my mom "good Lord, please let this baby come before she sews something else!" Well, sorry to say, the baby hasn't come yet so I picked two new projects - which didn't take very long, but had FANTABULOUS results. I'm still dancing around the living room in celebration of them.


The first project was to reupholster my kneeling chair. The second was to recover my computer chair (I'll post more on that later this week). I picked the chair up off of freecycle - having wanted one forever, but not willing to spend $70 to buy it. The fabric was pilled (as the girl mentioned in the ad), but all in all the chair was in great shape. She left it on her front porch so I just picked it up while I was in the neighborhood.

So I just unscrewed the four bolts from each the top and bottom, then cut fabric to fit, pulled it tight on the chair and stapled. I like to alternate sides for stapling so that my fabric doesn't get too short in any one direction. I save the corners for the end - creating small tight pleats.



All told the chair was done in under an hour - and for the cost of 1/2 a yard of upholstery fabric ($5). Doesn't it look superb?!?

"Seamingly" Thrifty Sewing - Part 1

One of the things I didn't get at my baby shower - (gasp - can you believe there was something that I didn't get in all that stuff?!?) - was a nursing cover. Sooooo my sister advised me to make one and I quickly agreed. I have heaps of fabric remnants in my craft room - so all I would need was an old double ring belt.



Said sister and I ventured then over to the thrift store to donate some clothes and books (thereby clearing out a smidge more of our house) and came across a heap of fabulous belts at somewhere around a hefty $0.50 each. I knew the raspberry colored one would be perfect for some of the old fabric I had. We also came across the most awesomest (yes spellcheck, that's a word) orange fabric that used to be an IKEA duvet cover for a twin bed. The fabric cost $5, and I scored another bright orange belt to match; then I was off to the races with a HUGE smile on my face for my purchases.

For nursing cover 1 - aka the "winter" nursing cover, I used an old curtain panel that I had made a few years back which had a more heavy-duty fabric. I already had sewed up the sides and even had spent the time giving it a muslin backing. Finishing the cover would simply be a matter of cutting away the hook end and stitching up the new open end.

Then I took the belt, cut about 8" off of the ring side, and sewed it in between the front layer and the muslin. Way too simple, and hello, it cost maybe $0.50.

So onto my "pricey" summer version of the nursing panel. This one used that fabu ikea duvet and the orange belt. I just cut away a square corner of the material (so that two of the sides were still stitched together) and sewed in the belt. The fabric is cotton and stretchy, light, and airy - and I made it intentionally smaller so I wouldn't be sweating with a baby and all that fabric. I did need both sides though to make sure it really did act as a cover. Heck, you could even use a large pillow case or two to make these.

This one was a portion of the $5 panel and the $0.50 belt. Even if I threw away the rest of the unused material, that's a far cry from the $35 one that all the other moms will be sporting at the park. AND it's green since it's reused stuff. (Hooray!)

And here's me modeling it on my very pregnant belly.

But of course it would look better on someone else. Enter my very willing (and adorable) model:

Just don't tell his dad - he's afraid that life as a model will ruin his street cred.

Camera Envy

I have camera envy. My sister Val just got a Nikon SLR camera for her graduation - and I'm totally jealous. She's a wonderful photographer just with a point and shoot, and after week one, she's proving to be even more now that she's better equipped. So I want an SLR so I can be just like her.

However, my two cameras are only a year or two old - the petite Sony pocket point cybershot and shoot 1 year, and the larger Sony Cybershot is from two Christmases ago - so I can't justify buying new. I considered trading the big one in, but cameras are so cheap now that they wouldn't give me much for a two year old camera anyhow. PLUS, I realized Val has taken classes in photography - where she gets what the heck an F-Stop is and what ISO means. I don't. So I devised that I really must not be using my cameras to their fullest extent - perhaps only 40% of the current cameras' abilities- and by golly, if I'm going to spend another $500 on a camera (plus accessories), I best know the basics of how to use it; otherwise, I might just let the big expensive camera sit on the shelf and let my pocket camera do all the daily work.

So I'm giving myself an ultimatum. If I want a better camera - go and figure out how to use the ones I already have. I know my larger camera has a manual setting on it - as well as a few others (P, A, ISO), where they set the priorities for how the camera does it's thing. I just don't have the skills to identify which buttons to push yet! So I have a few paths I'm hoping to use in the next year:

1. Take an hour-long class at the camera store in-town
2. Join the monthly camera club at the library
3. Photograph the crap out of everything to learn on my own - especially mcNugget!
4. Take a few week non-credit class at the community college or school district (assuming mcNugget will give me the time)

But before McNugget shows on scene, I'll have to look elsewhere for my lovely subjects. Trotter just happened to be close at hand (well, truthfully, he's never far from being underfoot- where as you have to go looking for Missy under a table). Here's some of the many faces of Mr. No-Pants himself - you can tell he HATES having his picture taken ;)