Bathtime Genius

Do you ever have a brilliant idea and think yourself a true genius--only to google your idea and discover that it's been done before?  Almost as bad as googling your future child's potential name only to discover a woman who murdered her family was named the same thing.  Disappointing.

Anyhoo, here's my brilliant, genius, breathtaking idea that's all over the internet already.

Hanging Bath Toy Storage

We have a little boy who LOVES the bathtub.  We have quite a few bathtub toys that I try to rotate through to keep things interesting, but there seems to be so many all the time.  We didn't have a good storage system for them (plastic bags that I feared would mold or the shower floor were the big ones) because I was living in denial that it was a problem. I also refuse to spend $15 on a scoop that suctions to the wall of the tub because 1. my grandma would say that's a ridiculous product to own and 2. I like to keep as much room in the shower as possible, so I wanted a more flat option.

"AHA!" I said to myself, "I'll make a hanging toy bag out of a lingerie bag!"  A lingerie bag would solve all the dilemmas, it'll hang flat against the wall of the shower, it has holes and will drain properly to avoid mold, and it's meant to be washed so that it'll hold up over time in the shower.  Plus they were $1.50 at Target.  This is the one I got:

It didn't have a hook to hang (many other brands do, if you look around) so I took a small piece of ribbon and sewed it into a loop at the top.  I still need to pick up a suction cup hook, but in the meantime it's hanging from Dillon's shaving mirror in the tub and works perfectly. 

All things outdoor

I wrote this post two full weeks ago but had a photo uploading issue.  So we are all going to pretend that you are reading this on, say, May 18th.  Then, I'll post the "update" post in a few days and you'll be amazed, okay?

I plan on updating here what is happening in our lawn/garden/flower beds.  Every year I have taken some pictures to help me remember what is what and which plants are flowers vs. weeds but then I loose the picture so I'm putting some thoughts here so that I don't lose them.  Nothing disappears from the internet, folks.  Remember that.

So a quick tour of the yard is in order.  Starting in our backyard, you might start by eating dinner on the patio and then look to the left and see this:

Lots of different kinds of hostas.  I think they need to be divided again, because this area seems very crowded.  There are also lots of forget-me-nots but I don't really like them and I should pull them out next year.

Next up is the garden.  It's looking great!!  We have  pumpkins, spinach, carrots, beans, peas, onions, and kohlrabi (I think that's what is growing there, it may be weeds) growing from seed.  Then I bought eight tomato plants (six are beefsteak & roma for canning) and four pepper plants because I can never get those to work well from seeds.  We were gone last weekend and everything jumped out of the ground and it looks like I'm a gardener!!!  The jury is still out as to whether or not I will have to put a fence around this to prevent veggie loss.

In the back of the house we have something interesting going on: A large row of hostas.  They aren't placed along the fence, but about 8 feet in so there is a bare spot behind them full of crazy weeds.  We're just leaving it.  Someday maybe we'll get some more bushes or trees for back here and I can make it look more intentional, and disguise our view into our neighbor's house a little better.

What to do with this strange space back here?  Bushes?  Trees?  Chicken coop?

Next up on our stroll around the house is our side yard.  It's really bad looking.  I've given up hope that it will look good this year. We stuck down those square pavers under the garbage cans and called it a big improvement.  TaDa!

Weeds, hostas (again!), rose bush climbing a strange trellis

By the way, our lawn has really gotten away from us at the moment.  It's pretty comical to me, actually, because there is a distinct line between our neighbors yards and our yard in regards to the millions of dandelions we have popping up.  I'm unwilling to spray them this year though because we have a little boy who literally puts grass in his mouth yet.  So all our neighbors probably think we are the shame of the neighborhood, and I don't care.  Not a priority to us!

On the front of that corner is this cool climbing flowering plant.  I love it because there are always hummingbirds here.  I might try and install some sort of trellis in front of the garbage cans to help hide them and this will grow beautifully on it.

Slowly training this to climb across the top of the garage.  I cut some off when I thought it was dead but it turns out I shouldn't have cut it.  Whoops!

Around the front of the house is this crazy, curly, ugly bush.  We're trying to embrace it.  We have a whole stack of mulch and weed barrier that I AM GOING TO GET IN THIS YEAR so that all the weeds will be gone and pretty black mulch will be here instead.  Along the right side is a new hydrangea plant that will be my favorite thing, I think.

Pride of the neighborhood

Farther to the left, my in-laws recently bought us that crab-apple tree to replace the dead olive tree that we cut down last year.  It's my son's birthday gift, and I'm excited to take his picture in front of it every year to document both of their growth.

Needs to be weeded

Along the other side of the yard is another mess.  I started weeding and mulching this sucker and got about 1/2 of the way along the house before my wrists started acting up so then the weeds crept back in along the other half before we finished it.  The right side looks lovely, but I'm hoping to finish off the other half (to the left of the A/C) this year and then along the fence another year.  It's just too much for me.

Where we sttarted

I will finish the stone border along here at some point.

Wild! Full of lots of bulb type plants, purple round flowers, tall grass, and weeds.  And Creeping Jenny.  Lots of creeping jenny.

Thus concludes our tour of the yard.  I hope you are still with me and I didn't bore you to death, and that my weeds didn't burn your eyes!  I'll post another update farther along into the summer to see how much improvement has been made.  Will she get the mulch in??  Are those kohlrabi plants or just weeds??  Will the neighbors start collecting their torches and pitchforks??? Stay tuned to find out!

Making Spirits Bright

This isn't a Christmas related project.

When we moved into our new home, it came with a few projects.  A couple big projects.  The previous owners had relocated a stairwell, and the resulting hole in the floor around the new stairwell is just surrounded by a 2x4 guardrail that wouldn't hold a person back if he leaned against it.  Maybe someday I'll post a picture, but for now I'm a bit too embarrassed that we haven't addressed this yet. 

The other project is our kitchen floor.  When Frank (the previous owner who we shame at least once a week when we discover some quirky house thing) moved the stairs, they left the space in our kitchen that used to be the stairs without any flooring.  There is a plywood piece there, but no linoleum.  We have two "bald" spots in the kitchen floor, resulting in not level, trip-down-the-stairs-potential. Okay, okay, just one picture and only if you promise not to comment:

Aside from those two big projects, we have some funky stairs (perfectly functional, just funky), missing quarter round trim on the trim next to the Frank-refinished floors, trim that desperately needs repainting, a very retro front screen door, and only a couple of other assorted projects (including a someday project of completely redoing the kitchen because I have pans that won't fit in any cupboard and am living without a silverware drawer separater because I can't find one small enough to fit in any of our drawers).

Anyhoo, that's life!  And when you discover you're pregnant at the same time that you purchase your first home, finances become a big topic of conversation.  Needless to say, we're hoping to chip away at the kitchen floors and railing soon.  BUT this post is about making my spirits bright.

The new stairwell had a light fixture along the side.  Picture any bare lightbulb you might find in a closet or basement ceiling.  That's what we had going.  It blinded anyone in the living room when it was on, because it didn't have a shade.

Well this weekend, we finally tackled that stupid little project and IT FEELS AWESOME.  I came home from work on Friday to discover my husband installing our new, $15 light fixture from Menards.  It was easy as pie, and Dillon didn't even have to perch on a ladder or dangle from the 2x4s surrounding our stairwell to change it out. I love having a tall fella in my life.

Removing the "Basement ceiling" light fixure

Installing the new, fancy, light fixture

I can't express how much this little, easy change encouraged me in our house-fixing.  I know it was a 10 minute project, and I didn't even really help.  But I feel like we can do anything.  Our house is finally OURS.  No longer is it Franks old house.  We are free to change it up however we want, and I am so excited.

So the next thing we plan on (for the moment) is tackling our flooring.  Because our kitchen will hopefully be spruced up eventually (think 5-10 year goal), we didn't want to go with fancy flooring.  So we found some peel and stick tiles on sale at Menards this month that we're pretty ready to commit to.  The tiles, plus some grout, primer, grout floats, sponges, tile spacers, and assorted supplies will hopefully run us under $200.  We'll have to see how much plywood has to be replaced after we tear out 3 layers worth of orange, red, and green speckled flooring that Frank just kept covering up.  Yikes.  Maybe we'll have to buy a crowbar, too?

All three layers, each with its own plywood underneath.  No wonder we have issues with the floor being level and flat

In the meantime, I'm still throwing ourselves a little parade every time I use our stairwell light.  It's amazing how finally tackling the smallest of projects can be so encouraging. Maybe it's my hormones.  After all, I did cry the other day because I had such a hard time finding the fish sticks in the grocery store.

I'm Baaaaack!

Yes, it has been awhile.  Let's pretend I've been here all along and you weren't missing me terribly; that way, I don't have to apologize.

Long story short: I got a job.  I got promoted.  I got stressed out.  I got REALLY stressed out.  I quit.  Once again, I am the anchor to our financial boat.  I'm looking for something part time.  Now stop asking me if I've found a job yet.  Jeez you guys...

I've completed several fun projects recently, and even managed to snap a picture or two of them, so you all can look forward to that.  I've done a handful of things for my sister's wedding, so you'll have to wait until after the beautiful day of September 7th to see those.

Just so I don't neglect to show you my projects, I will let you know I made some amazing baby shoes for a friend who is recently preggo, a movie, a super secret project that took FOREVER for my sis' big day, canned some things, baked some things, threw a bridal shower, made a pillow, grew some plants, painted a dingy rolling cart, and a few other things I'm sure I'll remember eventually.

Now that you're on pins and needles waiting for all those glorious posts, I'll leave you hanging.

Our New Ottoman

Once day, a long long time ago, I found this AMAZING Quaker Oats wooden crate in an antique store. I maintain that we got it for $15 or less, but D believes it was a few bucks more. The bad part??? It's warped beyond belief. Two corners no longer sit on the ground, and it is a definite parallelogram. Really messed up. Hopefully you can get an idea of this from the picture (can you see the right corner lifting off the carpet?)

My plan was to create a lid for it and use padding to turn it into an ottoman. Instead, it sat (upside down!) in front of my couch for a few months first because that darn warped box seemed like such an awful project.

I finally did it! My hubby and his dad helped us make this lovely lid, which I then covered in 3" foam and fabric. The lid has two "support beams" on the underside which sit right up against the box, keeping it in place. We also used some random 3/4" trim all the way around to create a little edge to keep the lid in place. Hopefully you can see it in this pic:

That way, we didn't have to damage the box to get the lid to stay on. Also, we can store some things in there. Like the bottle of wood glue that I've forgotten about until now.

We were planning on installing wooden feet on the bottom (two slightly shorter to balance out the warped corners) but that would just make it too tall. And when it's sitting on the carpet, it doesn't wobble much.

I am soooo happy with how it turned out. It definitely was a project, because we had to cut individual pieces of wood specifically since it was so warped. But I'm in heaven.

Also, I tried to find out how much this little box was worth, since I was putting my feet on it. And I found out that the company that's listed on the side went out of business in 1881. I don't know what that means, but it sure makes a pretty ottoman!

Here, have another picture of the pretty wording.

"Yet another photo of my towels" OR "How I managed to use 2 1/2 rolls of paper towels in almost two years"

It's true. I bought a six-pack of paper towels when I got married and moved. We have 3 left in the cupboard and half of one on the paper towel holder.

It was a very easy transition to "nearly paper-free" for my family. Here's how to do it.





First, go buy yourself some new towels. Body towels, hand towels, washcloths, kitchen towels,
and kitchen washcloths. Also, get some cloth napkins that aren't too fancy. You know you want to, because all of yours are old and worn out and mismatched and stained from the cocoa recipe you decided to use. Here's the key: MAKE SURE THEY MATCH. In my house, kitchen stuff is yellow/white, and bathroom stuff is brown/tan.

Secondly, find a convenient place (or two) for your old towels. Mine go under the sink with cleaning supplies and in a closet. Tell everyone in your home what the new towels are for, and the old towels are for cleaning or
for things that will stain. It's easy to tell, since your new towels all match and your old towels are...old and gross. It's so nice to be able to wipe up the sink, dust, wash the windows (try cutting up old thin PJs), wipe up spills on the floor, and dry the car after washing without having to think about which towels to use.

Lastly, your cloth napkins are to be used. Even for spaghetti sauce or chocolate or yucky fingers from dinner. Because they're not too fancy and intimidating and it's okay to yuck them up.

It's really very easy and I don't think I do any more laundry from them since I tend to wash all my towels/dishcloths at the same time.

















Just keep in mind that no matter how "paper-free" your household is, you should always keep an emergency paper towel roll on hand, because some messes are too yucky to be thrown in the washing machine. Like cleaning up the area around the mousetrap. Or dog vomit. :)

A photo heavy post...

Oh, HELLO there, tomato.


I see you've brought friends!



And look at that lovely little pumpkin-shaped one.


Remember those three little tomato plants I got for my new box? Well they aren't so little anymore.
They're ginormous. I after 63, I stopped counting the tomatoes. Too many, perhaps??? Never.

I thought I would give you all a nice tour of my deck. Oh, I wish it were a beautiful 5 acre farm with gardens and flower gardens and landscaping, a chicken or two, grass mowed with a push mower, a picnic table and fire-pit. But we aren't in "the right place" for a real home just yet (remember that whole unemployment thing??) so we have a deck. This is me, making the best of it.

I'm attempting to grow as many vegetables as possible in pots. The tomatoes are obviously going very well. Additionally, we have:

Peppers (complete with bloom):
Peas (a total failure on the left there, since they dried up after a long weekend away and haven't recovered yet)

Green beans (a similar story on the top there, only I think there is an additional "something is eating the leaves" thing going on):

Carrots (down on the bottom, we'll have to see how these manage, since I'm fairly certain that root veggies were not intended for 5" deep pots):

And more peppers (on the right):

Rounding out the deck tour, we have

More carrots (in the blue pot):

Cucumbers (doing surprisingly well with lots of blossoms and what I can almost certainly say are FUTURE CUCUMBERS!):


All I need are a few lawn ornaments and I'll be "that neighbor".

P.S. I selectively excluded the hanging basket that I have because it is the only non-edible plant I got this year and is completely and totally dried up and pathetic. *sigh*

New happenings

I started my new job at the end of January, had a long long long training experience there, and finally was starting to get out on my own and do things for myself. I experienced so much stress during this time, I wasn't sure if it was the normal "you are new and just have to suck it up and get over the hurdles" kind of stress, or if it was "this job is so genuinely stressful that you can't stop thinking about it" kind of stress.

Needless to say, I was constantly worrying about it, constantly thinking about what needed to be done for work, constantly dreading meetings with my supervisor because of the things she would instruct me to do, that I was terribly unhappy. I had thought that after the initial hurdle of stress, things would get better. Then, I looked around at my coworkers. They were always busy, constantly missing deadlines because of insane workloads, constantly under review and covering their butts. I heard one woman (who recently resigned) threw up every day before coming to work. The (good) benefits were keeping a lot of people trapped there.

And I didn't want to get anywhere near that myself. I hadn't taken care of myself at all since I started working--no haircut, no exercise, no decent (ie semi-healthy) meals, no relaxation, no crafting. My last day there was Monday, the 27th.

So we are back to being a one-job family. I feel bad for relying on my husband for so much, and that he is trapped at his job for the money and benefits. At the same time, I know that I made the right decision because of how relieved I felt on my last day. So I'm back to job hunting, and in the meantime, I'm trying to live as cheaply as humanly possible.

Yesterday, I spent my time doing something that I haven't had time to do. Something that makes me unbelievably, undeniably, unimaginably happy.


I rearranged, re-folded, and organized our linen closet. Ahhhh... that's better.

And it was a free activity!

Basil

There must have been a heck of a storm here today while I was working, because I came home to a catastrophic fracture to one of my lovely tomato plants. Darn. Hopefully a little string will help it recover??

Also on the patio these days is this little Basil plant in a custom, handmade basil bucket. I just used a free online font that was made up of dots and copied it onto a piece of paper. I got several of these little tin buckets from the dollar section of target, filled them with water, and froze them. This helps to keep the bucket from caving in when you...you know...go at the dots with a hammer and nail. Then I just planted my basil seeds and luckily nothing has rusted.



There is a cilantro bucket half completed in my freezer right now, because the ice fell out and refused to go back in. Now that it's half completed and there are holes punched in the sides, I can't fill it back up with water and I'm stumped about how to finish it up. So, the basil is lonely. And lovely.

P.S. I'm sure this has already been thought of somewhere out there in the craft world, but not anywhere where I heard of it, otherwise I would have posted a link. Enjoy!

Tomato box

Last summer, I watched as this lovely family planted (a beautiful variety of) tomato plants in their yard in wooden boxes. I know, it doesn't sound that exciting. Oh but it is.

Their boxes are much larger and are handmade, and of course, filled with more exciting varieties of tomatoes; but I'm in this for the food and so I stuck with varieties of the trusty favorites.

I recreated this exciting tomato plant box myself, with a vintage wooden crate found in a dusty corner of an antique store. I just added a few wheels since the soil and plants make this one heavy planter, used some plastic garden liner stuff from HomeDepot, and TADA!!!!

I took this picture last week and already my plants are loaded with blossoms and have really taken off height-wise. It's going to be a sweet, tomato-filled summer for us!

My happy curtains...

Don't they just make you happy? They make me so happy every time I wander into our office.

The best part is that they aren't TECHNICALLY curtains. Technically, they're tablecloths. You see, I never actually sewed, cut, or otherwise altered these ($4 target clearance) tablecloths before I hung them in my office, so they still count as tablecloths.







The ring clip thingers were purchased at JoAnn's, bringing the grand total for these babies up to $16. Just the way I like it.

Epic Snow Battle!

I had my first day of work on Monday, then I stayed home on Tuesday and Wednesday because of the weather.  I was probably being a bit wimpy for staying home Tuesday, but all I had to do was read a lot of "new employee" literature and I wasn't going to risk my life to go in and read.  This morning, however, we awoke to snow, and lots of it.  We received about 15 inches in the past 2 days, and there were blizzard warnings in the area.  This means there were huge snow drifts that had to be photographed. 

 That's the dusting we received on half of our deck, the 3 feet we received on the other half.

The snow reached to my husband's butt.

And a snow drift at our downstairs neighbor's door that reaches to the window in one area, bare concrete patio right next to it. 

The furnace went out last night, but it only got to 67degrees in our apartment; it's better now, though!  Both my husband and I stayed home today, so our snow day consisted of my reading, his work on the computer, and soup and grilled cheese for lunch.  Wouldn't it be nice if every day was a snow day???

The bathroom

This is our bathroom.  Pretty cool, huh?  

Well I think it's cool anyway, since we got this nifty shelf from my parents for Christmas.  It helps us to fill up our giant bathroom, and it is an excellent place to put towels for those of us who don't remember until we are actually IN the shower.  

Also, I'm showing this to you today because I remembered waaaay back in October that I promised to show you the gift I made my mom for her birthday.  Unfortunately, I can't as it's currently hanging above the mantle in her home; fortunately for us, I made myself a replica since I liked how it turned out so much.  It's that nifty wreath above the towel bar.  Here's a close up:

Green and white wool felt rosettes, painfully hot-glued to the wreath form, inspired by THIS etsy seller, handmadecollectibles.  So there you have it, my bathroom wreath duplicating my mothers birthday wreath inspired by someone else's wreaths.  Like it?

Old & New

Things around here are changing!

See that?  It's our old Christmas wreath awaiting deconstruction.  Unfortunately, it's now covered with snow and I really don't want to bring it in the house anytime soon.  I missed out on taking a picture of the imprint our old tree made when we "gently lowered" it off our patio to the dumpster.  It was old, now it's gone.

Next up is the tragedy of my Zumi 2.0 that I was so excited about.  It came with some small cracks in the case covering the battery compartment that finally broke off.  So I'm sending in my "old" one for an even newer one.  Hopefully it will be back in time for our little trip to Sturgeon Bay in February.

And this is us, being an oldy moldy married couple.  We've been married for 6 months!  (I know its a little silly to celebrate, but this is the only year I can get away with it, so I'm doing it!)  I made lots and lots of homemade yummies for dinner that night, using this recipe:

I think it's old, originally from my grandma.  I made homemade egg noodles (with a vintage noodle cutter thing) for homemade chicken noodle soup and homemade buns and this cake:

It's not old, but it sure looks impressive, I think.  So come and visit us so that we don't eat the whole darn thing ourselves.

The last thing that is Old/New this week is that I got an offer for a job!!!  New career, here I come!  I start on the 31st, and am a little nervous for it.  I did get to go purchase some new dress clothes for it though!  This job is in another city, which means that eventually this apartment that was our home for the first year of our marriage is going to be our OLD apartment, and that we will be needing a NEW apartment closer to my new job. 

Things are changing!  I've got to go child proof our home for my nephew, who I'm babysitting today.  Yikes.