Posts Tagged ‘decorating’

The Blanket Problem

By Brit

I started making this blanket. I was so excited. I saw this post on Apartment Therapy and knew I needed it. I tried knitting this weekend at the cottage. Ginny tried to teach me, well she did teach me. I just sucked at it and couldn’t knit as fast as I can crochet. So, I decided to crochet a blanket for our bed.

It started out awesome. I bought 6 skeins of yarn this week so I could get a start. I googled how big the blanket needs to be for our queen sized bed. I measured it out with Matt’s help and I started. I worked on it for 6 hours the first night this week.

The next day I decided I wanted to crochet in bed because it was freezing cold (and I wanted to take a nap, duh) outside. I laid the blanket, which had just more than a foot done, and it laid more than a foot off from each side. It hung 15 inches off the bed on each side. The blanket was almost three feet too big.

Are you fucking kidding me? Ugh. I was through almost four skeins of yarn and barely had more than a foot. If I kept going at this rate, the blanket was going to cost me almost $100 to make. Are you fucking kidding me?

So, I did the only logical thing. I took it apart and rolled all of the yarn into a ball and started over. It tested my sanity and today I finally got past the point I was at a few days ago.

It’s getting there. I need more yarn, and when I remeasured I guess how I crocheted it somehow it shrunk and now it’s just the size of our bed, if not a tad smaller, and FUCK. Oh well. It’ll be the best blanket ever, and I’m not taking it apart again.

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This entry was posted on January 21st, 2010 under Home.

Worry, Worry, Worry

By Brit

If you’ve ever met me for more than about 10 minutes, you would know that I worry about EVERYTHING. Seriously, everything.

Case and point? Last night Lucy got into the trash can when we were out at our association meeting. Better than the normal trash in the kitchen, she got into the bathroom trash. The bathroom trash that I hadn’t emptied since, well, you don’t need those specifics. We came home to a dining room full of nasty bathroom trash and the suspicion that my wonderful dog ate a tampon. Yeah. Fucking gross.

We can’t tell if she ate it for sure or not, but we can’t find it. So yeah, awesome. I’m convinced she ate it and that it’s working its way through my little baby’s tummy and intestines and that she’s going to have to poop it out and if it doesn’t come out then she’ll have to go to the vet and then she’ll need surgery and AHHHHHH. She’s fine. I’m stupid. And before you start on me for leaving the trash so she can get it, she’s never got into the trash before and it was moved so that we could continue painting the bathroom, so eat it.

So, I worried about the bathroom painting project and I have this awesome knack for letting the whole world know about things before I should and well, this is how the bathroom turned out:

So, there. The bathroom turned out perfect. I’m a perfectionist and I can’t handle things not looking perfect the whole time. I probably just need to learn to chill-the-fuck-out and calm-the-fuck-down and just let things flow. It looks amazing and I can’t wait for the next room!

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This entry was posted on January 14th, 2010 under Home.

OFFICIALLY the “World’s Worst Painter”

By Brit

A few days ago I got this awesome idea to paint our powder room. We’ve been living in the condo for just under a year now, ok maybe like 9 months. Either way, Matt’s dad wanted me to wait a year to paint so that we could make sure that we didn’t need the builder to come in and fix anything (we need to have them fix a couple, ok, maybe like 10) things around the house. Anyways, the powder room was free and clear of any problems on the wall that need to be taken care of. I decided it’d be an awesome idea to paint it.

From the time I had the idea to the time I started taping up the room and painting was probably less than 2 hours. Hey, I move fast. It’s a cute little bathroom and I needed a project so that I could do something every day while I’m not working. This was an awesome idea, and hey, it worked. The last three days I’ve been doing almost nothing but painting, well I painted each day, for about an hour – the bathroom isn’t that big.

So why has it taken three days to paint this tiny powder room?

I’ve never painted a wall before in my life. I grew up with white walls. My mom’s house has always had white walls (I couldn’t stand it) and when my dad bought a new house he had someone come in and paint the walls … you guessed it, white. The condo is all completely white, too. It’s too bland. I need some COLOR! Anyways, I figured I could paint because I’d seen it done a million times on HGTV and well, how hard could it be?

I started Tuesday night. It took me about a half hour to tape everything off and then I got to the painting. It was awesome.

I’m painting! Yay! It took me about an hour and a half to paint the bathroom and I was on top of the world until I got to the last wall … I ran out of paint. It turns out that a quart of paint will not paint an entire room; no matter how much you want it or how hard you try.

This brings us to yesterday, when I went back to the store to get a full gallon of paint (thinking ahead, or something). I painted the last wall and touched up the parts that needed it and I was so excited I almost tore the tape off right there.

It’s a good thing I didn’t tear off the painter’s tape because this is what the bathroom looked like:

Yeah. It’s that bad. I repainted it today with a second coat over everything and well, I’m hoping it turns out. As it stands right now, though, I am the officially the world’s worst painter.

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This entry was posted on January 14th, 2010 under Home.

Today’s To Do

By Brit

I think it’d be a good idea for me to make a to-do list every day. It’ll probably be the same, but at least I’d be a bit accountable (if only to myself) for things that need to be done around the house. There are a million little things around the house, and I need to get most of them done, and most days I’d rather just watch the telly, sleep and hang out with Lucy-d0g and Sir Bubs-a-lot (the rabbit).

If I do a form list for things to do every day it’s not going to work though. I know this. We’ve tried to do it before, a cleaning one with which rooms we’d clean everyday. Yeah, let me tell you how that worked out.

Anyways, today’s to-do list includes:

  • finish painting the powder room
  • actually edit all of the photographs I took this weekend
  • do the dishes
  • clean Sir Bubs-a-lot’s cage

Hopefully I’ll get it all done. I’m hoping, a lot. I feel a nap coming on. :(

Also, tonight we get to meet our neighbors. We moved into the condominium complex after it had been completed and most of the people have lived here for 2+ years, so we’ve met the people on either side (ok, I’ve said hello to one of the next door neighbors, but they refuse to be sociable) and one couple in the next building over. It’d be nice to make friends with the people we live near. We’ll see how it goes at the condo association meeting tonight. Wish us luck.

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This entry was posted on January 13th, 2010 under Other.

Onward to 2010!

By Brit

I can’t believe 2009 is almost over. It seems that the year flew by. So many things happened this year both good and bad.

Our year started off in Matt’s old apartment. I made dinner. He lit a candle. It was amazing.

I went to Guangzhou, China. I went to fucking CHINA! Oh, and Japan too.

There was also a trip to El Paso, TX in there for work. I finally got my picture taken in front of an airplane engine, with a TERRIBLE haircut :/

Matt bought a house. We are still working on making it our home.

There were many nights and weekends spent at Matt’s parent’s cottage (hell, we even lived there a month).

Luce came to live with us for a month. She couldn’t handle when I was away flying, so she went back to live with my dad.

We watched every Tigers game together; we even managed to go to a few downtown.


I had not one, but TWO surgical procedures. Oh, and a colonoscopy.

I got a bunny for my birthday from Matt. Bubs C. Stand is the cutest bunny, EVER.

I got sick and couldn’t fly anymore. Lucy came back to live with us. We had puppy parties with Gryff, Aparna and REB.

Matt got me stuck on sushi. I now have an insane love for this crap.

We spent our first Christmas together (last year we were at our parents house alone).

I couldn’t have asked for anything more this year. It’s been amazing. I can’t wait to see what 2010 brings us.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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This entry was posted on December 31st, 2009 under Home, Other.

Christmas Time!

By Brit

It’s almost December and after Thanksgiving which means it’s DECORATING FOR CHRISTMAS TIME! Since I’m not going to be out strengthening the economy and making Christmas presents, I spent a little extra on Christmas decorations.

Matt’s parents were gracious enough to give us their old artificial pre-lit tree. It’s gorgeous, but the lights didn’t work. Ginny and I spent the better part of the afternoon taking a gazillion strings of lights off from the Christmas tree. It looks amazing now, I’m really excited with how it turned out. Lucy likes it too, she keeps sleeping near it, or staring at it.

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This the first time I’ve actually had a full size tree that I can do what I want with. I could do all white lights because I’m ANAL and have pretty ornaments of two colors because everything has to match.

We even put lights on the balcony. Oh yeah, they have a wireless remote on them so that I can turn them on and off without getting a shit-ton of snow in the living room. I’m so excited for it to snow!

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This entry was posted on November 29th, 2009 under Home.

It’s Never Too Early

By Brit

To think about Christmas, right? I mean, I can always think of things I’d love to get for Christmas. Here’s my list so far.

091109olivetree

Yes, that is an olive tree. Through Nudo, you can adopt an olive tree in their grove for a year. What an awesome idea. The best part? In the spring and in the autumn, they’ll send you the olive oil from the respective harvests. It’s a bit spendy, but you get olive oil, from your own tree! I love everything to do with olives, so this is an obvious choice.

—–

091109mixer

A KITCHEN AID MIXER. Duh, it’s on every woman’s wish list. I just can’t decide if I want the cobalt blue or the tangerine. The blue is pretty, the orange is pretty, and it’s Matt’s favorite color – which will give me some bonus points (not that I need any though). I used my dad’s Kitchen-Aid last week when I was home, to make french bread. I couldn’t believe how easy it was! It’s probably the most extravagant thing to have in the kitchen, ok maybe not, but it’s something that I will have, someday.

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091109crockpotA Smart Pot Crockpot. Set it and forget it! I’ve never had one, but I’ve always been intrigued by starting something in the morning and then magically, when it’s dinner time, it’s ready! That’s pretty awesome. Even better that now I’m working and Matt’s at home throughout the day. He doesn’t like to cook much, and well, I don’t like to ask him because I like to do the cooking. This solves all the problems. (It’s also now the correct crock pot, there was one I wanted specifically, but I couldn’t remember. Em helped <3)

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091109wiicard

A points card for the Nintendo Wii. Our Beatles Rock Band is coming tomorrow (WE CANNOT WAIT! SERIOUSLY), and we’ve already made a list of the songs we want to download. I think there are like 100 songs already. Awesome. Pat Benetar and No Doubt here we come!!!

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091109greys I love Grey’s Anatomy. LOVE LOVE LOVE. There’s really nothing else to say about it. I don’t have season five though. I used to spend hours every week watching Grey’s. I’m in love with it. I can’t wait to watch the episodes I haven’t seen in awhile again. At least we know that Meredith and Derek are together now and I don’t have to wait to find out what’s going to happen, right?

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091109pwIt’s the fricken Pioneer Woman. I’ve loved her website for years and now she has a cookbook! She makes the most amazing foods, and takes amazing pictures. Ginny and I have decided that there’s probably really like four of her running around that ranch and that it’s really in Utah and Marlbolo Man is  some kind of mormon with fifteen wives … seriously! How else can she keep four kids in homeschool, keep her house clean AND cook and take amazing pictures. Ok, maybe I’m jealous.

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091109bookcaseIKEA’s Expedit shelving unit. I’m in love with this. I’m planning on turning it on it’s side and then using as a quasi side-board. It’s really another thing for storage. We need a lot, a lot, a lot of storage, and this will fit the bill, at least for a little bit of storage. It’s so pretty and it’ll look great with my Fiesta dishes displayed.

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091109boxspringUm, we don’t currently have a box spring for our bed. We tried using the double sized box spring from Matt’s old bed under my queen mattress, you can imagine how well that went. It’d be nice to have one and not worry about ruining the mattress we have. Really, that’s about all I can say about that.

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091109cameraA Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-H20. It’s a 10.1 megapixel camera with 10x optical zoom and super steady shot image stabilization. My camera takes shitty pictures. I’m not going to lie, they’re terrible, and grainy, and embarrassing. It wouldn’t hurt to have a 16GB memory stick for it too, right? This is the one thing that I really, really, really want for Christmas this year (hint, hint, MOM – I know you read this).

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091109ringI wouldn’t say no to this either :)

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This entry was posted on November 9th, 2009 under Other.

Bubs Has A Condo

By Brit

From the day we got Bubs, Matt decided that at some point he’d need a bigger cage. We knew the “starter pack” would, in fact, be a starter cage for him. We just didn’t know at what point we’d need to get something larger. Every time we go to the pet store, Matt always looks at the bigger cages. Honestly, I’m not sure how much bigger they are. I mean, it’s still a cage that sits on the floor, there’s a little bit of a ledge, but other than that, it’s the same thing.

091014cageThis cage is all of $159.99 at PetCo. You’re kidding me right? For $150 I was sure as hell I could build something better for a hell of a lot cheaper. I began researching soon after we brought Bubsy home. I came across the Michigan Rabbit Rescue, among others (mainly QRabbit, but for some reason their site isn’t up).

I decided it would be best to make him a NIC (Neat Idea Cubes) Rabbit Condo, or in their absence, a similar product.

091014cubesI found these cubes at Bed, Bath and Beyond. They were $14.99 for 16 pieces which would make this, if that’s how you’d use it. I ended up leaving BBB with 2 boxes, for a total of $29.98. Awesome. This was going to be a lot cheaper than a $160 cage. I bought 2 packages of 100 cable ties (one at first, which wasn’t enough so I trekked back out to Lowe’s for another). Which totaled just under $10.

While at Lowe’s I found window locks with a bolt so that maybe I could keep the little punk in his cage without him escaping.

091014bolts

With three of these locks, I should be able to keep him in his cage. There’s a lock on each level of the condo. The total cost for these was $6.50 (got them on sale!).

So, this is the final product, a 3 cubes x 1 cube x 3 cubes (measures about 43.5 inches by 14.5 inches by 43.5 inches) rabbit condo, with 2 different levels (and the bottom floor) for his jumpiness.

091014condo

I used four rugs I got from IKEA at $2.99 each, which happen to be not on the website anymore. But they’re awesome, we must have seven of them in our house now (I hope there are still some at IKEA! I should probably head back tomorrow after I drop Matt off at the airport for his Vegas trip).

So, this is his condo. For $57.94, we finally have our living room back, and he’s as happy as can be. And, I saved $100, which is even better.

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This entry was posted on October 14th, 2009 under Home, Pets.

The Project

By Brit

This project has been, oh four months in the making now? Maybe even longer. We’ve been living in the condo for almost seven months now, so I’ll probably guess this project has been six months in the making. Whatever, it’s BEEN FOREVER.

The whole idea started with some art that I had made when I lived in my apartment.

091014apt

Ok, mostly I framed pictures I had taken from around the world. You can barely see it in the picture, but I really wasn’t focusing on showing off that part of the room. I had seen something similar to this on Apartment Therapy, this one I saved because it was a step by step guide to how to hang them.

091014apttherapy

However, this post was completely forgot about yesterday when Ginny came over to help me hang the pictures we had chosen (all 16 of them, I have a problem with everything being symmetrical). She did an amazing job, I only ever handed her the hammer and some nails.

091014ginny1

She was very hard at work, and I was standing around taking pictures which she was getting pissed at. Eh, the pictures got hung and it was fun.

091014wall

This is the final product. I’m so happy it’s finally done. It’s Matt and my artwork, pictures we took around the world, and I couldn’t be happier that it’s a part of us.

Also, the picture was taken on an angle, which makes it a bit distorted. I can’t wait to paint the wall to finish the room (or, hell, any of the rooms). Now which color to paint …

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This entry was posted on October 14th, 2009 under Home.

Another Reason

By Brit

WHY I LOVE GINNY. She’s the best, seriously. This weekend, she gave me her marble cutting board/kneading board/do everything board. I’m in love with it. It’s making me cook more. I’m glad that she decided she didn’t knead (hahaha, I crack myself up) it anymore.

091008marble

She also does random shopping and picks things up that she thinks she might like or use and when she gets them home, she decides they’re not right for her. (Ok, this is what she tells me, but I don’t know how much I believe it. I still love her to bits though).

A few months ago, she brought three shadow boxes to hang on the wall. I loved them instantly, I just didn’t know what to do with them. They’ve been sitting in our garage (along with about a million other things) while I walk past it and shake my head everyday that TOMORROW! I will! put at least one box away. Yeah, hasn’t happened.

Ginny brought her sister to see our house today and I was showing them around and when we got to the garage she saw the shadow boxes. I knew what she was thinking “that ungrateful bitch! I knew she didn’t like them.” That was totally not the truth. I just do more putting together the house things when she’s around, for some reason. I think it’s because she helps with the projects and Matt’s been really busy with work lately (which is GOOOOOD!). Either way, I put them up tonight. They’re gorgeous. I love them.

091008boxes

Matt immediately thought that his first edition Nintendo Gameboy needed to be the centerpiece of the display. He put it in there when I was making dinner. The candlesticks are from Matt’s dad’s mother. I’m in love with them. They’re real pewter and sturdy and I can’t wait to find a permanent spot for them.

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This entry was posted on October 8th, 2009 under Home.