Archive for the ‘home’ Category
Sickness in the House
Blizzard 2011 was memorable: kids playing in the streets, our neighbors helping dig people out, snowbanks that are four to six feet tall. But, as all good things do, it came to an end and my husband went back to work on Friday as did most everyone around here… except for my daughter. Little A is sick with the flu, so there hasn’t been too much going on here except for lots of snuggling on the couch, periodic temperature checks and lying around in PJ’s all day for her.
There’s been a lot of time spent in the kitchen these last few days… I need everyone to be back in school and work so I can stop eating so much! We did celebrate Chinese New Year at home, but will have the BIG family gathering in a few weeks… and then celebrated my husband’s birthday yesterday with a homemade bolognese lasagna (Saturday night went out with friends for a grown-up night). The house still smells like garlic and rich Italian sauce.
Hilarious Product Placement
In the meantime, I’ll be back in full force next week. I’d love to do a little “craft-along” project with whomever would like to join.
Thank you, readers, for sticking around,
thank you for reading along,
thank you for all your comments both on the site and private.
It means the world…
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A new online catalog for eye candy!
See my pins on pinterest
Tags: Friends and Family, living, winter
Reading Lonny Mag
Am I the last person to know that some of the staff of Domino Magazine went and started Lonny Mag? Happy, happy, happy… I’m excited to be able to thumb through this decorating mini-bible.
I kept my last year of Domino magazines tucked away in a basket, but seriously, I do thumb through them from time to time, looking for bits of inspiration for home, for design ideas when I craft to entertaining… and how disappointed was I when they stopped publishing.
Thanks, Lonny Mag, for resurrecting some beautiful work!
Tags: home, home decor, magazine, wasting time
Catching up on Crafty Inspirations
I love these artists, bloggers and their creations… they just make me drool. Check them out if you dare.
Image from http://donnadowney.typepad.com/
- Donna Downey’s wall art
- Oh Fransson! Book Tour and Giveaways
- Anna Maria Horner’s Rainbow Around the Block project
- Tatertots and Jello Complete Blog Makeover giveaway and Bumble Bee Birthday
Of course, this is just a handful of things to check out. I’m completely backlogged with articles to read and projects to finish.
Other random Friday thoughts…
- I’m excited about working with new reporters at Craft Critique.
- Still working on the t-shirt quilt, but finished a couple of baby blankets.
- After hosting a party, I usually have two to three (relatively) unproductive days. I need to clean up.
- I can’t believe Thanksgiving is nineteen days away.
- Most of my family will be in the Philippines for Christmas = early Christmas shopping and gifts.
Hanging Pictures – Part Two
After a little deliberation, I started my installation of our framed pictures. Hooray.
Then I stopped after one. Boo.
(Inhale…) My husband came home, looked, made a comment that made me think he seemed unsure of the placement, (the hallway isn’t that wide, and the pictures are 8×10 or larger), therefore I became unsure of my logic and decision-making in decorating, so I stopped. Whew, run-on sentence… yes. Now we’re/I’m reconsidering and replanning.
Maybe the frames will go in the dining room now. Everyone can enjoy the pictures, there’s plenty of room… I don’t know that I like the layout so much here. The drawback about the dining room is that there isn’t a lot of light. This could be a good thing too, because we don’t want a lot of direct light on the pictures. (Don’t want them to fade.) Wintertime there’s a ton of light reflecting off the snow. But, the hallway has directional lighting (recessed can lights) for framed art.
I’m trying another layout. Now there’s an empty space for which I don’t have a matching frame. There’s another wall at our living/family room. Maybe I’ll try that spot tomorrow. Can I just hire someone to do this? My patience is being tested, I know.
Tags: decorating, diy, frames, home, home decor, pictures
Installing the Pencil Sharpener…Ugh
Everyone likes a nice sharpened pencil, right? We used to have an electric pencil sharpener, but either that was a victim of moving four years ago or it’s at my in-laws home somewhere. Then we have all these little pencil sharpeners that come in art kits, school supply kits and the like. Some of them are decent, but most don’t cut it for me. They make for weird sharpening angles and lead (graphite) pieces falling out. Time for a good old-fashioned pencil sharpener. I bought this a while ago, and finally figured out a good location for it.
So here I go again with another DIY installation. Unlike the glass shelves in the kids’ bathroom (thought I wrote about that), this was a little challenging. You wouldn’t think a little ol’ sharpener would bring me a little grief… it looks like it was successful, but I’m lucky that 1) no one was here to witness my running up and down stairs to gather equipment, 2) no one was here to listen to my “potty-mouth” and 3) my 3 year old doesn’t understand when I swear when I get really frustrated.
This looks like it was properly installed, right? The sharpener is anchored into the oak door jamb where I predrilled holes, matching the position on the anchor. Solid oak is TOUGH, or maybe my drill bits are crappy. After checking the anchor position, I saw that one of the holes was drilled slightly off. Like enough that I had to drill again. So, that wasn’t too bad. Now for the actual attaching…
I took apart the sharpening mechanism, so I could get a better angle to put in the screws. At this point, I realized the predrilled holes were too small. It was so hard to manually drive in those screws, so I put down the anchor and screws, took out a larger drill bit and drilled holes again. Grr. I placed the anchor back, put the screws in place, then used the drill to start screwing them in… thinking I would use the manual screwdriver at the end. I didn’t want to break any plastic or crack the oak (which now I realize could be impossible for me). I nearly stripped the heads off two of the screws. Grrr, again. Took out the manual screwdriver, started turning that top screw… it seemed to turn so easily. Too easily. See that hole in the picture? The top part of the screw BROKE off.
And, here’s the other almost-mangled screwhead.
At least it works, and the sharpener doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere – for now. The husband just shook his head after I told him…
Tags: basement, diy, home improvement, tools
