Basement Tidying

Not all projects are glamorous. Along with the fun of choosing paint colors and scouring TJ Maxx for that perfect turquoise vase comes stink bug eradication, washing the windows, sweeping, vacuuming, swiffering (is that a word?), laundry, dishes, taking out the trash... and lately, cleaning the cave in the basement.

Our basement is finished except for one room, which holds the washer and dryer, HVAC unit, hot water heater, and a whole bunch of stuff that we don't really want to look at on a daily basis. My husband, while I love him dearly, is of the "close the door and forget it" mentality, while I (as you should have guessed by now) am of the lying in bed and thinking of new ways to organize things variety. The basement has been bothering me for a while, and a few weeks ago I took the time to organize it. Here are the before shots:

And after:

I actually only threw away two grocery bags full of trash - everything else has been rearranged (I always was pretty good at Tetris). I know, not super exciting... but still super satisfying.

Home Improvement: Bathroom

Has anyone read this article? {LINK} What do you think? I read a lot of decorating and so-called "lifestyle" blogs myself, but I don't let myself feel bad about my house not being "perfect." As Sadie says toward the end of the article, blogs are not a true representation of reality. Before I take pictures of finished rooms, I always clean them up. To illustrate, here are pictures of the upstairs bathroom that I've been working on over the past few months.

Before, it was painted a color I can only describe as flesh tone. Plus, there were weird unpainted stripes near the ceiling and near the floor, which were probably intended to be artsy, but just left me confused.

Once we moved in, the bathroom started looking sad and lonely.

I painted the walls "Silver Drop", and Jason and I put up the train rack. The plate, candle, and lantern were TJ Maxx finds, and the print on the wall is from this great Etsy seller.

To illustrate my point above about blogs being an inaccurate representation of reality, here's what the bathroom really looks like, cat litter box and overflowing trash can in all their glory:

Spring!

After this winter, I'm so glad it's spring. Having tons of primrose pop up unexpectedly in the garden was an added bonus!

My Desk

Last weekend the sun came out, and I was finally able to climb out of the nest of quilts I've been hibernating in since December. Of course, the first thing I did was find some things to clean and organize (if you don't know me in real life, and if you haven't figured it out by reading this blog, organizing is one of my favorite pastimes.) My instinct is always to group like items together and then put them away into neatly arranged boxes. Generally, this works for things like tax returns and old photos, but it doesn't work for art supplies.

Half of my art supplies were down in my basement sewing room (henceforth known as "the craft bunker"), and the others were in drawers on my desk. I brought everything up so that I could have everything at hand while I worked on my journals and other experiments. I also covered a shoebox with paper and made some smaller origami boxes to hold my cork stamps.

Yes, I love art supplies. I recently acquired some nicer colored pencils and some watercolors. I also discovered that there is a Utrecht store right near my office in the city. This could be dangerous.

What are your favorite art supplies?

Living/Dining Room

For months after we moved in, this room was completely empty. (Well, empty aside from the empty boxes and old furniture I was trying to sell on craigslist.) I tend to have a very exact picture of the furniture I want, and have a totally unrealistic price I want to pay for it. But, we now have a couch (bought on sale!), a table (on sale!), a side table and lamp, and chairs ($20 on craigslist, but still need to be painted). The "coffee table" is two of the $13 tables from Ikea, acting as a stand-in until we can get a real table. I like this one from Pottery Barn, but not for $400.

We also need a chair, and I like this one from Room and Board, but once again, I'm not paying more for a chair than we paid for the whole couch.See the nook over by the door? Ideally I'd like a bench, to make sort of a foyer/entrance area. Then I would like the furniture fairy to pay for it and deliver it to the house for free.

New Projects

Because I currently have 4 work-in-progress knitting projects, 2 unfinished quilts, and 11 library books to finish, I thought the most obvious thing to do was to start a few more projects.

(1) I have decided to participate in the Pinwheel Sampler Quilt quilt along (links to individual blocks are on the sidebar), hosted by P.S. i quilt. I love pinwheel quilt blocks, and that someone else will be doing all the math for me! This will also be a good opportunity to use up a lot of fabric scraps. [Also check out the flickr pool.]

I already completed the first 2 blocks (there will be 16 for the quilt along, but I think I'm going to make a total of 25 for a larger quilt.) You can see them hanging on the wall above my new sewing table! My previous table was only large enough for my sewing machine, and so I still had to get down on the floor to cut anything. Now, I have ample space to both cut and sew without crouching down on the cold basement floor. Thanks, craigslist guy who was moving to Norway the next day and sold me your Ikea desk for super cheap [even if you took it apart wrong and now I have extra hardware].

(2) In 2008, one of my reading goals was to tackle the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list (current standing: 69/1001). This year, I've decided to try to read as many books set in different countries as possible. I'm not taking into account the nationality of the author, just the setting of the book. So far, I've visited 7 countries:

3) I did manage to finish one project. These are reusable snack bags that I made using this tutorial. My sister gave me a store-bought bag like these for Christmas, with the stipulation that I copy it and make one for her. She got the brown one, and the other went off to a friend.

I should have stayed in New Mexico

On Tuesday night, a wet snow was falling, coating every tree branch. I was so enchanted that I went outside very close to my bedtime just to take pictures. Ah, snow, I thought, how romantic and beautiful you are.


On Friday, my office was closed as more snow fell. After a nice sleep, I uncharacteristically made breakfast not consisting of cereal. The name of this breakfast is comically difficult to write in a way that doesn't sound like murder or scandalous pregnancy.

I made a Dutch baby. I baked a Dutch baby? I ate a Dutch baby? Whatever; it was SO GOOD and you should make one for yourself immediately, using this recipe.

On Saturday, I was confronted with this:

The next day, after 3 hours of flinging snow onto piles taller than me, we had successfully unearthed 3 vehicles. And there was much rejoicing.

Projected accumulation is 10-20" for the storm coming tomorrow. We had about 30" this weekend, so if we get the maximum we'll have a total of 50" on the ground. I am 58" tall. I will be sure to wear a brightly colored hat so that you can find me.

FO: The Warmest Hat in the World

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have done it. I have created The Warmest Hat in the World. (Don't worry, this isn't like a Highlander "There Can Be Only One" type thing. There are other warm hats out there.) I started with the Thorpe pattern, and then added a star pattern that I made all by my little self. I modified the earflaps as well; the original were a little too Roman gladiator for my taste.

I used 100% wool yarn from Finland - it was gifted to me without a label, so I'm using my powers of animal fiber recognition to guess. But, that wasn't enough - I also lined the hat with fleece. I used TechKnitter's tutorial, which I highly recommend.

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Yesterday I saw a guy standing on a median holding a hand-written cardboard sign that read "Help for Haiti" and a ratty plastic can. I don't know what upsets me more, the fact that someone would use a disaster for his own personal profit, or that some people probably gave him money thinking he really was going to give it to Haiti relief. Yesterday I also saw a bus hit a parked car (which was illegally parked, so they sort of had it coming) and today I saw someone have a seizure at a bus stop. Ah, city life.

Some Things

1. Someone stole my space at the train station yesterday morning, and then someone stole my locker at the gym. By "my" I mean I've been using the same ones for 8 months and therefore the entire DC metropolitan area should be aware and accommodating. You see, I always use locker 6, and if it's taken, I use locker 12. Today I had to use locker 16! Outrage!

2. Our electric bill for this past month was $300, and we weren't even warm! If I had jacked up the heat so that I could lounge in tropical temperatures I could at least comfort myself with the idea that it was worth it. But no, I eat dinner wearing my down coat and wear a hat constantly, even when I sleep. It takes 3 times as long to change my clothes because I have to wear a minimum of 3 layers.

3. The odometer on my car hit 88,888 miles yesterday. It was probably the most exciting thing that happened to me all week. Am I OCD about numbers? I'm so excited that our anniversary will be on 10-20-2010 this year, and I'm so glad my mom carefully planned (not really) to have me on 5-25, because 5 is the square root of 25. My house number is also a palindrome (and see item #1).

4. Twitter. What's up with Twitter? I understand the basic premise, but the whole # @ thing confuses me. I just think it all should be a little bit more organized.

5. I haven't knit anything in 2 weeks. But, this upcoming weekend includes a bonus day off, so the office printer, Ravelry, and I had a little private time this morning before everyone else showed up to work.

Home Improvement: Bedroom

The first time I looked at our house, I knew that I would have to paint this room. The previous owners had good taste in color, but I think they went a little nuts with this green:

And hot pink curtains? I'm not sure how their eyes didn't explode out of their sockets every time they went into this room, but someone they managed to survive living in it with their vision intact.

I painted this room shortly after moving in, before we got the carpet replaced, so I had the luxury of spilling paint wherever I pleased. Here's a "during" shot, after the first coat of primer went up. (Proof that it has to get worse before it gets better)

I do not take responsibility for the leopard print pillow. Before we met, Jason bought several items from the previous owners of his house, and that pillow came with a daybed. The cat became obsessed with it because she obviously has very bad taste.

Here's the after. I stayed with green, but toned it down. See those two closets? They're both mine.

One of these days I'll get around to making a quilt for our bed. But until then, I have more rooms to paint.