Don't worry, I have been...just not here. With recent (and frustrating) changes at Blogger, I've decided to move over to Wordpress. You can find me at http://bohointheburbs.wordpress.com/.
See you on the flip side!
the daily resistance of monotony
Don't worry, I have been...just not here. With recent (and frustrating) changes at Blogger, I've decided to move over to Wordpress. You can find me at http://bohointheburbs.wordpress.com/.
If you're anything like me, you simultaneously look forward to Halloween and are surprised at its sudden appearance. Every year, I think I will pull out the stops and do something crazy-wonderful costume (usually Ziggy Stardust is my aim). And every year, I say the weekend before Halloween, "I'm not going to have the time to put that together. What can I be?"
So, dear readers, I've pulled together some emergency costume ideas for you.
1. Use way too much hair goop, slather it all over, especially at the front.
2. Take a section of your hair at the front and comb it straight down.
3. Hold the piece flat against your head and lay your index and middle fingers across it. Hold it tight.
4. With your other hand, slide the bobby pin toward the back of your head (between the two fingers), while not letting go of the hair. This will cause the bobby-pinned sectioned to be pushed back, while the parts you were holding down will stay in place, creating waves.
5. Blow-dry that motha. Then remove the bobby pins (or leave them in if you'll be partying hard).This sounds strange, but it's the same general process that genuine flappers used, though they had neat gadgets to do the work for them.
Everyone wishes they had a woodworker for a grandpa. Someone to build neat toys for you that you can pass on to your own children some day.
Well, guess what? I do have that grandpa! And this is no "sitting in a rocking chair on the porch, whittling away at a block of wood" grandpa. No, he has huge (and scary) machines, heaping wood piles, and some serious style.
Over the years, he's made a bunny-shaped coat hanger and various animal puzzles for Kayden. He made a book-thong holder for me. And a huge, sturdy rocking horse that I pretended was for Kayden, but it was actually for me too.
He also lets me shoot guns when I visit, but that's another post for another day:
I'm a hat-maker 90% of the time. Sometimes I'll throw in a custom-ordered book thong or a custom-ordered baby blanket or a custom-ordered scarf. But it's not often I set out to make any of these items for the hell of it. The reason why is that I love hats and wear them all the time.
The real reason, though, is that it takes me about 2-4 hours to make a hat (depending on the complexity). And after I make a hat, I can spend time adding artistic touches to it. I like being able to kick out a "base" quickly, then do the interesting work to make it a special Bitter o'Clock hat.
What I can't do is work on the same stitch over and over again, with no end in sight. And with nobody ordering that product (and therefore, no deadline and no tangible motive for doing it), I lose interest.
With all that being said, I was setting up my designated craft area last week when I came across my Unfinished Projects drawers. A big pile of sad, half-finished (or half-unfinished, depending on your perspective) projects just filling up precious space.
(And sadly, this is not even all of the projects...)
With the weather getting warmer and fewer people thinking wearing a skein of yarn on their heads in 70+ degree weather is a good idea, the business was slowing down. I decided it was time to work through some of those projects.
First up was that pink lacy thing you see up there. It was supposed to be a jacket, I think? Maybe a shirt? I have no idea. What I do know is that I had no intention of seeing it through. And so, in the grand tradition of "Bitter o'Clock turns unfinished shit into neckwarmers," I turned it into a neckwarmer (or rather, a cowl, which is pretty much a baggy neckwarmer):
Next up, the blue thing.
Now, I remember where I was going with this. I was going to be a baby blanket for a pregnant coworker. Well, I believe that baby is now five years old and I haven't been at that job for four of those years.
And so, it becomes a neckwarmer:
Crochet Infinity Cowl- Mesh Shell Pattern in Summer Sky Blue
Now, lest you think I'm all about the lazy style of crocheting, here are some projects that were actually begun with the intention of being neck accessories. Granted, I intended them to be scarves, but whatevs...Neckwarmers!
Crochet Infinity Cowl- Buttercream Scarf with Stripes of Dark Red and Orange
Crochet Flower Neckwarmer with Gold Button- Scarflette in Purple and Olive Green
By the week's end, I had finished five of the projects. Watch out for more upcoming finished projects (oh, let's just call it like it is, they'll probably be neckwarmers) next week!
Remember my post about creating an illusion? Here is another article about creating illusions in photography, found on Bitter Sweet Blog. Her solution to creating steam is hilarious.
Click here to go right to the article.
This is part of a series in which I gave half-assed advice on product photography. Part one was about brightening your photos, while part two was about getting rid of the background clutter.
Back in July, when we were so young and fresh-faced, Keene and I walked through what would become our home. We oohed and ahhed and peeked in rooms. We mentally redecorated the living room and pictured the children playing in the backyard. We immediately began the process of buying the house.
But you know what we should have done? We should have been pulling the previous owners' clothes out of the closet. We should have knocked all of their dishes out of the cupboards. We should have pushed their toolboxes off of the workbenches in the garage. Because you know what we found once the house was empty and ready for us to move in? A whole lot of particle board.
Bowed particle board in the closets. Sticky particle board in the pantry. Waterlogged particle board in the garage. There was more particle board in the house than in all of Home Depot.
So, I've had some people ask for pictures of our various upgrades and repairs. (Yes, really! This isn't a situation where I just want to talk about something, so I say, "People have been asking me ________." No, people really have been asking me. Seriously, I can prove it.) So here are our latest projects.
Pantry
This was the very first thing we blew money on fixed up. Now, this is actually a picture of our closet, but the shelves are similar to those in the pantry. Meaning, exposed particle board, haphazardly installed, and awfully inefficient where space is concerned.
Keene started by ripping out all of the shelves. Turns out, the walls behind the shelves were just as gross:
We repainted the walls and Keene installed wire racks instead:
And then he installed a broom/mop/child-holder on the back of the door:
Now, ten points if you can spot our next repair in this picture.
Think you've got it?
Yup, the door itself. Notice how it awesomely opens so that it effectively blocks you from the rest of the kitchen? We have found that that area is like a little Bermuda Triangle: In the span of four feet, you have a bathroom door, pantry door, two spice cabinets, the fridge, and the dishwasher all vying for the same opening space. At least once a week, somebody finds him or herself trapped in this mess of doors. While it may not solve the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, replacing the pantry door (so it swings in the other direction) will be a quick and easy fix.
Before:
After:
Here is a dramatic reenactment:
Garbage Disposal
Moving along, we also installed a garbage disposal. I wish I had pictures of the before/after and installation process. But that would have been very boring, so I didn't do it. Instead, here's the after:
Spider Tree
There is a large fir tree in our front yard. It was so close to the house, it literally pressed on it. An inspector told us that it would eventually have to be chopped down, as it would wreck havoc on the house. We decided to just trim the branches which were touching the house--rather than chopping the whole thing right away.
So we started with this:
And we started chopping branches.
And then we discovered something horrific: old pine needles literally two feet deep below the branches. Which emitted strange, green fumes and set forth hundreds of wolf spiders when we tried raking them.
Blehuhuhchu. That's the sound I made. Over the course of a weekend, we alternated chopping branches with exorcising the pine needles using a snow shovel and garbage bags.
Once the trunk was naked from seven feet down, we called it quits.
Landfill cleanup
One thing we did notice during the initial walkthrough was this:
A large pile of junk, garbage, and rotting wood. "No worries," we thought. "That'll be gone before we move in! Yay!"
But guess what was waiting for us once we moved in.
Another weekend of hauling garbage to the curb and further testing our garbageman's boundaries.
Kayden's New Room
Finally, a fun project! Kayden got his loft bed about four years ago:
For those not in the know, a loft bed is basically a bunk bed, except instead of a bed on the bottom, it's just open space. Or you could think of it as a bed on stilts.
Anyhow, the loft bed was fun and novel when Kayden was a little boy of eight. But now he's a strapping young man of eleven and the loft bed has lost its appeal. Every night, climbing up and down a ladder has started to wear on him. Moreover, his new room has a lot less space than his room at the old apartment, so we were facing a serious organizational dilemma.
So I came up with a brilliant idea.
We took out the mattress from the loft and measured the area:
Then we had a piece of heavy plywood fitted (albeit very tightly fitted) to the area:
Keene bolted the plywood to the metal bars, using carriage screws, nuts, and these weird metal things:
Then we lay down a rug which appeared to be made from the fur of a Muppet.
Maia did the honors of smell-testing the new carpet:
Keene built a wall-hung bookshelf, which was promptly filled to bursting:
When times got hard and our motivation wanned, Kayden pushed us to keep going:
And gave his approval of his new reading- and play-nook:
Lastly, we moved Kayden's mattress (temporarily on the floor) to underneath the loft and his desk against the wall. I wish I had taken a before picture to show what a huge change this was and how much space it created for him. Next time, next time.