donate to those in need (dog gives life to save family)

EDIT:

THE MOST AMAZING THING IS IN THE WORKS. I seriously had to pick my jaw up off the floor when I read the email response I got from Yellow Brick Home. Kim & Scott are going to send this family a gift card so they can get a custom painting of Nana for their new home!! It is just so generous, incredible, amazing, & wonderful what they are doing. The art they sell in their shop is insanely beautiful. Seriously, check this out.  It will be the most perfect way for the family to honor Nana’s life & for those 3 little girls to remember one truly amazing dog. I am so excited for the family to hear about what is in the works for them. I hope they jump up & down, just like I did.

My faith in humanity is completely restored. Thank you again, Yellow Brick Home – you guys are awesome!!

 ——–

Yesterday I posted about the second California messenger bag I made. I had every intention of selling it, but I think I have found a better use for it.

Nana

Earlier this month I read about how a Dog Gives Life To Save Family. Back home for me right now is a small town called Westfield, NY. This happened not very far away. As it turns out, recently I learned that the family is related to one of my Momma’s co-workers. That was when it really hit home. My mom told me how the family has 3 little girls (ages 6, 3, & 6 months old). She also mentioned how they lost EVERYTHING – only the human lives were spared. Can you even imagine?

I think what I am going to do is pack up that bag with tons of handmade goodies for the girls & some special treats for their Mom & Dad. I have a few ideas, but if anyone has an cute little girl sewing projects please let me know!! I was told the family does not need clothing, but that everything else is welcome. I was going to collect donations too, but their are already some places set up where those can be sent (taken directly from the news article):

“Members of the public can donate to the family by visiting thepetschers.blogspot.com/2012/01/petschers-home-nana-hero.html, which is a Paypal donation site, set up by Petscher’s family in Florida.

Jamestown Electric Supply, 2211 Washington St., Jamestown, is also accepting donations for the family. A donation box for money and clothing has been set up at the office. The phone number there is 664-2618″

The blogging community is always so giving. I really hope that if you are considering doing a giveaway this week, that you instead send it as a donation to this family. Or maybe if you own an Etsy shop filled with adorable things for little girlies, you could spare one to send them. I am sure it would make their day.

If money or supplies are a bit tight for you right now, the least you can do is vote for Nana to be featured on this year’s calendar. The calendar supports the local animal shelter & features the top 12 animals. Right now, Nana is at 11. It takes only a minute of your time (& willingness to give up an email address – but no spam mail so far!!) to “sign up” & vote. I can only imagine how much it would mean to the family to see their hero featured on the calendar.

More importantly, if you could just spread the word so this family can receive as much help as possible.

make CA bag #2

I made another bag.

Here it is:

CA bag #2

This time I decided to do a solid on the outside (navy blue) & the print on the inside. It is much easier to see items on the inside of this bag because it is not as dark as CA #1 – totally a preference thing I think.

back

I realized I never showed the back of CA #1 – this is CA #2 (though both have the identical seam on the back).

Here is what the inside looks like:

pocket on the inside

It is hard to tell from the pictures (because it is SUPER dark & gloomy out today so I needed artificial lighting), but the colors are white, khaki (not yellow as it looks, very similar to the outside of the bag), a light blue (like an aqua color), & navy. The pocket is the same navy material as the front.

what the pocket looks like (iphone for scale)

holding a 15 inch MacBook Pro

I really think my favorite part of these bags is the button & loop closure. These little ones make me smile every time I see them. & they certainly seem fitting with the whole California idea. This picture also shows the true texture & color of the bag the best.

another adorable button

This bag is made with Ikea fabric & Joann’s fabric. The outside was a Kivik cushion cover, the navy blue is from the same pillowcase I used to make the first bag, & the inside material is from Joann’s — I love the navy & khaki combo. It feels classy, but still has a bit of a fun aspect on the inside.

This one is a bit different than the first one; it is a bit wider than the other one (it snugly holds a 15 inch MacBook Pro, the first one was more 13 inch MacBook Pro sized), there are more pockets & of different sizes,  & I did the sides a bit differently.

bag #2 on the left, bag #1 on the right

I like the “pleated” or brought together look of bag #2 a bit more than the first one I think. It makes the bag have a bit more of a feminine look to it, where as the first is a bit boxier. Again, I think that is just preference.

I also made the strap on CA bag #2 about 2 inches longer than the first one. This looks better given that the bag itself is a big wider. The strap is a bit thinner also, but still is well padded.

The next 2 I am going to make will both be made with darker outside material. We shall see how that goes – I also got some new inside materials!!

 

Forgive the spacing in my next few posts, between making these bags & daily life it is taking me a bit more time to get around to actually posting. Maybe I can crank out bags #3 & #4  so that I can get back to posting a bit more regularly.

be leaving on a jet plane

to go to CALIFORNIA!!

Lesson of the day folks: if you have a crazy idea, suggest it to a few other people & it just might actually happen!! That is pretty much how I ended up planning a trip to San Francisco!!

You see, Ben has to go to San Jose, California for a week long training thing. It always bums me out when he has to be gone that long, especially when he gets to go somewhere awesome. In the past he has had to go to places like Baltimore & Reno. This time it was California. When I found out I immediately wanted to go too. Ben has never been to CA. I went there once on my 16th birthday to visit my awesome uncle who lives in Palm Desert. It was seriously an amazing trip, even if I came home & learned that I had mono the entire time I was there. If you ever have to have mono, spend a week of your sickness in CA. Sure I slept a lot, but it was awesome.

Anyways, so I voiced my crazy idea to join Ben & he “yeah that is an idea” shrugged it off. Persistence paid off though when I mentioned it in front of his work buddy (who has to go to the training too) & his girlfriend. They pretty much thought I was a genius & I did the whole “I have been saying this for weeks” thing. Needless to say, over dinner & ice cream we decided it was really going to happen. & it is going to happen.

WE ARE GOING TO CALIFORNIA. Now you understand why I needed a new bag & Ben needed a new luggage tag!!

Thanks to SouthWest & the whole Austin seems to be a pretty common hub for plane trips, we snagged direct flights from AUS to SJC for a pretty reasonable price. The plan is the boys will fly out there, be all trained & stuff, then us girlies will come join them & spend a glorious time vacationing together. We (the girls) will be flying into San Jose to meet the boys & then we will all drive us to San Francisco to spend the majority of our trip before heading back to San Jose to fly home. We all managed to get on the same flight back, which is sort of a nice little miracle.

I am SUPER excited. Last time I was in CA, I was very far south. I flew into LAX &  spent most of my time in Palm Desert. It is going to be awesome to see a bit more of the state. Since I have been to Seattle too, I am curious to see if San Fran is more like Seattle or Palm Desert. I am hoping for Seattle culture & Palm Desert weather.

There are SOOO many things to do in San Francisco. If anyone has been or has advice on “have to do” sort of stuff I will certainly take it into consideration. Here is what I am thinking so far:

• Fisherman’s Wharf
• Golden Gate Bridge
• Alcatraz
• Exploratorium – a museum of sorts I think
• hot air balloon ride – would be sweet, but sounds $$ & I do not know if that is everyone’s cup of tea
• whale watching (do they even do that there??) again, maybe not for everyone…. we shall see
• dipping toes in the ocean (I have been there done that, but Ben needs to, I decided)

Ideally there will also be some running (hopefully on semi-level ground such as a park or something), eating, maybe a little shopping, & I really really really want to go to a zoo or aquarium. We do have a couple of friends who live in the area so hopefully they will have advice on some not-so-touristy things we can do too. I do not need to spend the ENTIRE trip being a touristy nerd.

As for our accommodations while we are there, Ben found this place on AirBnB. It sort of makes me think of more permanent couch surfing. The impression I get is people rent out their property (similar to like a time share or rental property) through this site. You can stay anywhere from a couple of days to months at a time. Since we will be a 4-person gang, it seemed like the most reasonable deal. This way we get our own bed rooms & bath rooms, but will have a common area to hang out in & even a kitchen should we feel the urge to cook. I am a bit nervous/skeptical about not having a true hotel confirmation, but so far it seems like a sweet deal, so I am trying not to worry too much. At least it is not as bad as finding housing/shelter on Craigslist or something like that ; )

As more details get set into place & more things confirmed, I will certainly be posting a bit more (& of course when we get back from the trip). For security reasons, I will not be mentioning when we will be in CA (because I am paranoid like that), but it will be during spring break season. We might be a big nuts when it comes to that aspect, but who cares…. it is CA!! Plus, this is my first true SPRING BREAK VACATION!!

SPRING BREAK WOOO!!!!

[that is what I have unofficially named this trip]

make a bag & a luggage tag

Well, the title sort of gives this one away: I made a bag & a luggage tag yesterday.

In fact, I have been so full of craft lately I ran out of white thread for my sewing machine & have very little black left. Darn, guess I have to go shopping!!

Here were the Pinterest images that I used as inspiration:

• luggage tag by Skip to my Lou – instead of adding a clear pocket on mine, I just made a business card slot. I get creeped out that people in the airport are all stalkers & I do not want them knowing my address.
• messenger bag by mommy by day {CRAFTER} by night – basic style was modeled off of this, I did not use a pattern though because I hacked/sewed pieces of an Ikea cushion cover together to make my bag.
• messenger bag with cute little buttons by OCD (obsessive crafting disorder) — again I sort of just picked certain aspects of this bag I liked & altered them a bit to make them unique

On to my stuff:

• As I said before, the outside of this bag was made from an Ikea cushion cover. I use Ikea fabric ALL THE TIME. Last time I made a tote bag, I used it & it has held up fantastically. Another reason, often I pay $4-5 for the cushion cover & end up with 1-2 yards of durable fabric. No other place I have gone has been able to beat that deal. Ikea also has “real” fabric you can buy that is pretty reasonable, but I much prefer dumpster diving in their “As Is” section for fabric.
• I tailored this bag specifically for me – I wanted a shorter strap (I hate when messenger bags flop around your body when you walk), the strap had to be padded (laptops get heavy after awhile), I wanted to be able to fit my laptop & other junk plus I wanted a pocket for my iphone & kindle, & I wanted something that could substitute taking my big old backpack on a plane as a carry on
• The price break down: $4.99 for the light/cream colored fabric (Ikea cushion cover), $.99 for the navy blue liner material (Ikea pillowcase), $1.29 for the green fabric (but really more like $.64 because I used the majority of the fabric before on this tote bag project), $0 for the buttons (they were from a skirt that looked better without the buttons) = TOTAL: $7.27 !!

it is long enough to fit my 13 inch MacBook Pro with room to spare

i absolutely LOVE these buttons

I used a little light weight shipping padding material inside the strap to make it padded

one pocket for my iphone (left), one pocket for my kindle (right)

I am calling this my California bag, but the reason for that will not be revealed until the next post ; )

Here is the luggage tag:

• This was a super easy & fun little project – I am certainly going to be making a ton more of these
• As I said before, I prefer the little pocket so that all the world is not reading my name, email address or physical address, but I am paranoid like that
• I choose the colors because Ben needed something on his nondescript black suitcase. It is insane to pick out, hopefully this will make it a big more noticeable. The darker colored fabric is pretty thick so  the luggage tag itself is pretty rigid (it is bendable, but not floppy, if that makes sense)
• To attach it to the bag all you do is loop the rectangle part through the strap & pull it tight
• The price breakdown (sort of hard to estimate because it was pretty small pieces of fabric), but I would say under $5 (probably closer to $2-3). The dark fabric was an scrap piece of Ikea fabric leftover from some other projects & the orange I found at Hobby Lobby for $2 for 1/2 a yard (obviously I still have a good chunk of that left).

the white indicates where the pocket the business card slides into is, I pulled it out a bit so it is visible

the back is bright colored so it will be recognizable on the luggage

These might just be my two favorite craft projects so far. I would also absolutely make both of these again. Neither of them were so complicated I needed to have a pattern & they both turned out so nice. Maybe if I start now by next Christmas I can make a luggage tag for everyone in my family!!

Seriously though, these were tons of fun. This is actually one of those things I would not mind making 100 of & selling. Maybe if I do not find a job soon…. maybe….

have some favorites – part 3

It has been awhile since I did one of these & thus high time I started doing it again. Here are the first & second ones I did. It is such a quick & easy way to review multiple items (most of which tend to be food) in one post. Plus, what better way to start your day than writing a list of things you are absolutely adoring at the moment.

• Eco SMART - recently, we have had the worst trouble with ants. I am not sure if that is just a “winter in Texas” sort of thing or it has to do with the fact that we have actually been getting rain on a regular basis. Either way, we had ants. The itty bitty little black dot sort of ants. I hate ants, more than anything else creepy crawly in the world. Bring on the spiders, but ants, HECK NO. We tried those little ant trap things (that just caused more ants to come in or made no difference), I tried cinnamon, I tried chili powder, we cleaned for days & nothing seemed to be working. Neither Ben or I really wanted to resort to spray, but we settled on this. I was super worried about spraying in the same area as the cats (most of our ants were in our kitchen area – the same place we keep the cats food). This stuff is same around children & pets though, so that made me feel a little bit better. It is also safe on the environment, which is a huge plus. We sprayed once in the kitchen & have yet to see a single ant!! I also sprayed along our doorways/patio entrances to deter any new buggers from entering. While this stuff does have a very strong odor, it smells like peppermint. If there is going to be any strong smell, peppermint is probably the least offensive. In fact, the first night I think my sinus got nice & cleaned out (it smells like we filled our kitchen with Vicks vapor rub). If the choice is smell peppermint for a few days or deal with ants, I would gladly choose the peppermint any day. Seriously, best stuff ever. We picked up ours from Target for $3-4. 

• Storm Skin Cycling Shorts (not pictured) – As I mentioned here, cycling shorts are a must have when it comes to biking (or anything more than very rare pleasure biking – ie mountain biking, or biking for speed or distance). Not only do they have padding in all the right areas (hence the reason you are NOT getting a picture of them on my body, here is a link of the mens version), they also have elastic around the knee/thigh area to keep them in place even as you pedal.
•  Go Lean Crisp cereal/granola stuff – I picked this out to try at the grocery store mainly because it was on sale & appeared to have less sugar than the more delicious option of cocoa puffs or any cereal with marshmallows in it. As it turns out, this stuff is actually awesome!! You could absolutely eat it in yogurt, but it is wonderful with just milk (or vanilla Silk, which I prefer). It does not taste healthy. It still has a sugary flavor to it, but also has real fruit in it. I love finding healthy food that turns out to be yummy food too.

• one the same note, I love Craisins – the grocery stores must have a terrible time selling these because I always find them on sale. They come in a bunch of different “flavors” (the regular cranberry ones are good, so are orange, blueberry & pomegranate) & are a super easy way to eat fruit if you do not want to have to clean it, cut it up & then eat it. AKA this is a lazy healthy eater’s sort of snack. Lots of people I know put them on salads & stuff like that too, but I just like eating them by the handful – or by the bag as the picture shows.

• this next one might seem a bit weird, but my favorite lotion ever is Johnson & Johnson’s unscented baby lotion – I had to take the stickers off of mine because they were peeling off the bottle & that drives me nuts, this is what it regularly looks like. You have to be careful though, because some places jack up the price on this stuff. I got a 27 oz bottle for $3.50 at Sears (of all places, random I know). Here is what I love about it: it is WAY cheaper than any high quality face or sensitive lotion (ex: Aveeno, Lubriderm) but is essentially the same, you can use it on your whole body, but it is also gentle enough to use on your face (1 bottle for every thing = awesome!!), it is SUPER smooth/soft, & if you get the unscented kind you do not end up smelling like a baby (which is a good thing, unless you want to smell like a baby, then get the scented kind). I also love this stuff because it is the first lotion I can put on after I shave & it does not burn like crazy. It also keeps my legs (which get MONDO dry) feeling moisturized for pretty much 12 hours at a time.

• Plackers flossers (as I promised on this post). It is important to know the level of hatred I have when it comes to flossing my teeth. It is gross, sometimes it hurts, the sounds make me want to puke & did I mention it is the grossest thing ever?! Anyways, these little flosser things are genius. I do not really understand how or why it makes flossing better, but here are my thoughts: you do not have to hold an entire string of gross floss, the tension on these makes it easy to slip between your teeth without that terrible pulling feeling/clicking noise, they make it easy to reach the impossible to get to back teeth, they supposedly whiten the spaces between your teeth while you are flossing, they taste minty fresh & it really does not hurt to floss anymore. As gross as it may be, before these little lovely things, I probably only flossed once a week. Now that I have these, I floss EVERY SINGLE NIGHT!! & no one has to hold me down kicking & screaming to do it. They sell these all over the place too. I recently saw them in Target where they had like 30 flavors/kinds including ones for kids!! I really like these so much I may even stash a few in my car for out to dinner emergency situations.

• Snapfish – if you do not already know about this picture site hold onto your hats because it is going to blow your mind.  Here is their website. Basically it is the same concept as taking your photos to Walmart or Target & getting them printed out. In fact, you can go to Walmart or Walgreens & have them printed there after uploading them to the site. But for those of us not on a time crunch, you can save about $.70 a picture (usually more) by uploading them & having them shipped directly to your home. They ALWAYS run sales/deals & multiple times have penny pictures. I recently purchased 13 5×7 prints for my mom. The total cost was $6.41. With shipping included that is less than $.50 a picture. AWESOME!! I would even hazard to say that is probably less than it would cost in ink to print them at home. & these are professional looking, quality prints!! In short, they are awesome, I have used them probably 10+ times & never ever been disappointed & they always have sales & promotions – you cannot beat that!!

 

This may be the most random of the “favorite lists” I have created thus far, but hopefully some of these reviews are actually useful to some people out there. 

finally have a REAL bedroom

As any other once dorm ridden human being will tell you, there are certain milestones that really make you feel like an adult.

When you live in a dorm, moving to an apartment where you have your own bedroom is a big deal.

When you live in an apartment, moving to a better apartment where you have your own bathroom is a big deal.

Once you have a nicer apartment, you begin to crave nicer things. For example, when you have your own mattress (that you were the first person to sleep in) it is a big deal.

As nice as that mattress is, eventually you want to feel even more spoiled you want to move on to having a mattress that does not just lay on the floor.

THAT MY FRIENDS IS A BIG DEAL.

When Ben & I moved into our apartment in Knoxville we brought with us the full size bed & wimpy metal frame Ben had since he moved out of his parents house (circa his sophomore/junior year of college). I have no idea how old the mattress was back there – probably at least 5-10 years old. It went from his first apartment, to Blacksburg where he went to grad school & then on to Knoxville & the first apartment we lived in together. Needless to say, after a few months in Knoxville we decided to upgrade to a real mattress – & we fell in love with it. But it was a queen sized mattress & we were not in the market to buy bedroom furniture so we plopped that sucker on the floor & called it a day. It was a good thing too, because 2 years later we would be selling almost everything we owned to move to Austin.

As I said before, when we got to Austin, one of our first purchases was a new mattress. There was absolutely nothing wrong with the new hunk of memory foam, but it took up residence just like our last one had:

Floor + mattress = bed? Yeah it was fancy smancy. But we craved more. Sure it was lovely having camping furniture in our bedroom, but there comes a time when you do not want a red folding chair in your bedroom.

It freaked me out so bad because I constantly felt like I would wake up & someone would be sitting in it. CREEPY!!

Luckily, Christmas came along & our out of state parents tried to come up with something to get us. Instead of doing a bunch of small things we could buy ourselves we asked for one thing: Amazon gift cards.

We had a plan all along. We wanted a REAL bedroom set. The result has been nothing short of miraculously. I feel so grown up getting out of bed & not having to pull myself into a standing position. We actually have two nightstands now rather than just putting stuff on the floor & they match (& match the bed)!!

This is the queen bed frame we decided on: South Shore Vito Collection Queen 60-Inch Mates Bed, Chocolate

It took about 2.5 weeks to actually get here, but it was free shipping with Amazon Prime, so you cannot really beat that. Especially since it came in a SUPER heavy (140 lbs.) box. The UPS guy now really hates us, I am sure of it. As far as actually assembling it, it took us probably 2 hours. It really was not that bad though. Everything was pretty much pre-drilled or very easy to screw in with only a screwdriver (though admittedly we used a drill – it would have taken forever to do it all by hand). The bed frame pieces & parts were very similar to how Ikea sorta stuff works.

These are the night stands: South Shore Vito Collection Night Stand, Chocolate

The night stands were SUPER easy to put together. I could have easily done both of them in a few hours by myself. Again, the directions were easy to read. The wood itself of these pieces is actually very stable (not quite as particle boardy as you would think). Each one is fairly decent sized though. If the need arose I could easily fit a cat in each of them : )

Since we are big grown up people too, I decided it was time for a comforter upgrade to match our pretty new chocolate colored bed frame. It is actually a Tommy Hilfiger down alternative comforter from Ross ($40!!) & a now discontinued duvet cover from Ikea called Ransby ($24). The duvet was actually only available in a King size, so with a little “hemming” (by little I mean about 14 inches) on one of the sides, I turned it into a queen.

Beans the cat loves the new look – it really brings out her eyes.

This is how it broke down:

$450 (which ended up being free due to our combination of Christmas presents & Ben’s Amazon card “points”) – YAY!!

$40 for the comforter

$24 for the duvet cover

TOTAL: $64 for a whole new bedroom!!

I cannot wait to hang the frames & get a matching set of lamps for the night stands to fully complete the look. The room feels so bright, airy, & grown up now.

Now I absolutely love my bedroom & THAT IS A BIG DEAL.

run

I have officially finished the second week of my running program which is supposed to get me in good enough shape to run a 5k (3.1 miles). 

In some ways, it has been harder than I thought, in other ways, easier. 

The hard part: getting out the door. Seriously. It takes maybe 10 minutes to get myself ready & my stuff gathered & actually get out the door to go running. That being said, it is always the part I dread. That is right. It is not the running part I hate, it is the getting ready. Maybe I am doing something wrong in the get ready department, but as soon as I am dressed & out the door everything else seems easy. Perhaps that is my pure laziness showing its ugly head. But it is the truth. 

This is my get ready to run routine:

- put on running clothes (luckily it has only down poured & been freezing on one of my runs so this is fairly simple)

- pull back hair (since it is short it is a bit of a pain, but a sideways baby french braid has been doing the trick)

- put on deodorant (Ben picks on my, but I would feel way too stinky if I skipped this step)

- brush my teeth if I have not done so recently (again Ben picks on me for this. my theory is what if you need to get CPR & mouth to mouth done?! I at least want to thank the person saving my life but not having stinky breath.)

- blow my nose 100 times (someone explain to me why running makes me nose turn into a river because I do not understand this one little bit)

- pee (running always makes me have to pee when I start, but by the end I do not have to pee anymore, another thing I would like explained)

- gather my running stuff (iphone – set to my intervals for that day, shoes, iphone arm band thinger, headphones, key, tissues – see above, & my sun glasses – I seriously cannot run without them)

- open door & go (no turning back, at this point you just have to do it, like it or not)

The easy part (aka the part I do not mind): the actual move feet on pavement, running part of it. I use to think I hated running after having some terrible experiences with it running track in high school. Maybe I was just burnt out. I never minded running in soccer (which I played for 16 years), but just flat out running for enjoyment was just never something I did. I think that is why when I started running again I always stopped. This time I am using a “running program.”

Basically I set up my iphone with certain intervals & follow them. Usually they are something like 1 minute steady, 1 minute slow or .25 miles steady, .25 miles slow & then you just repeat it until you reach the distance you need to. Having these has really helped me. Rather than just flat out running for no good reason, it gives each run a purpose. Each one is not so difficult it feels unmanageable. Yeah I got really out of breath in the beginning, but that is what I love about this program. It has built in walk times to help/ force you to recover before you push yourself so hard you are dying. You can also adjust the runs to what you are feeling that day. On days I am feeling great, I add additional intervals or job through the “slow” interval. 

I have to admit using RunKeeper has been really awesome. It helps that Ben is always running & I have something to work toward (ie beating him at everything in life – especially distance & pace when it comes to running).

I have also added an exercise page to my blog to keep more of my running info. I also will put the stuff about biking in there too (though I have been super slacking in the bike department – if running takes a long time to get ready for, biking takes an ETERNITY…. need to work on that).

I am super proud I have completed 2 weeks of running, that is the longest I have ever really stuck to it. We really need to sign up for an actual race somewhere near Austin so I have motivation to keep this up, but so far so good. 

Who knows, maybe we will even sign up for a 10k in the summer!!!!

make a crate great

While browsing my best friend Pinterest I stumbled upon this: 

found here

Because our cats are not real cats & one of them is convinced he is a dog (Cid) we have a crate just like that. Oh & the fact that we moved from Knoxville, TN to Austin, TX in only a Toyota Corolla & Honda Civic with both of cats sleeping together in that also might have something to do with it. The crate hangs out in the corner of our bedroom & Cid sleeps in it (told you, he thinks he is a dog). It is also there because I worry about tornadoes & want to have easy access to it if I need to shove the cats in there & bring them into a closet or evacuate them to somewhere safer (I know I know, paranoid much? why yes, yes I am).

Needless to stay, a black metal crate is not the prettiest thing in the world to look at, especially since I keep it covered because the cats use it more that way (I make caves for them, they love it, you can judge me, I do not care).

But back to the creation of my cover. I did not take pictures as I went along because this is certainly a two handed project. It is also SUPER SIMPLE. You could use any fabric you want. As it turns out, I had an extra body pillow cover that I got for $2.50 at Target that was the perfect height for this project. That meant one hem for the cover was already done. All I had to do was measure it length-wise around the crate (2 sides & the back) and then sew the whole thing to the top. Easy peasy. 

Amanda says it best,

“For the crate cover, just measure your crate and cut your fabric about 2″ bigger (enough for hemming). You need 5 pieces: Front, Back, Top, Side, and other Side. Lay the top piece on the crate (wrong side up) and pin the Sides to the top piece (also wrong side up) so that they hang down in place. Make sure you leave enough room to hem the bottom, but don’t do that until the very last step. Go ahead and sew the two Side pieces to the Top piece. Then repeat with the Back piece. Sew at the top and also on both sides of the Back piece. I was constantly putting the cover back on the crate in between every step to make sure it was fitting correctly.”    

Her cover looks a ton more professional than mine because she made fancy bumper pads. Someday I may attempt that for the cats, but right now they are going to have to just stick to a towel & Cid’s baby blanket (it came home with him from the shelter, he loves it).

She also has an extra piece I did not bother with – the front. Because we do not actually crate up the cats ever, the door is always left open. Having the piece in the front just ending up getting caught on the hinges, so I skipped that part & just hemmed the front fabric.

She is exactly right though, 90% of the difficulty in this project comes from “trying on” the cover to see how it is fitting & making adjustments as you go. All in all it was fairly simple though. I would say this is about a 1 hour project. Probably a bit more if you want to make the front (especially if you want to do the cute little ribbon detailing).

Here is mine:

 You will notice a bit of blue peeking out from under the cover. We have to keep the top of the crate padded so that Beans the cat can sleep up there. Yes, my cats use their crate like bunks beds – Beans gets the top & Cid sleeps inside. I do not have normal cats!!

It is so much nicer to look at the cute gray & orange circles than a ratty towel covered crate. 

paint a matte

As you may recall, up until about 2 days ago, this is sort of what our living room looked like:

I wrote all about those awesome state prints & the whole mess of it almost 7 months ago [omg that feels like just yesterday] on this post. There is also a past post about the love affair [that continues to this day] that I have with my couch.

But anyways, my poor little NY & PA were in frames much too small in comparison to the HUGO “There’s no place like home” frame in the middle.

Plus the prints themselves just look jammed in those frames. In fact, they were. The prints were even a little bunched on the edges so they would fit into the frames. It was pretty much a design failure.

PA print, no matte = :(

It drove me nuts. Not keep you up at night thinking in horror about it nuts, but more like the nuts where every time you see it/walk by it you get that little twitch sorta thing.  

Insert matte. Or if you want to be all technical – make matte.

Matte: a sheet of cardboard placed on the back of a picture, either as a mount or to form a border around the picture.

Technically, that is exactly what I did. I took a piece of cardboard. I painted it. I stuck that sucker behind my print. I threw them both into a larger frame. I slapped those puppies back up on the wall & called it a day. 20 minute project – heck yes. 

PA print, with matte = :)

It is super duper strange how it looks like the blue is in front of the print. I swear it is not. Seriously folks, I painted a piece of cardboard with leftover oops paint I had (the same color from this project) put the print on top of it & shoved them both in a cheap-o Walmart frame (the kind the glass pops in & out of the front & the back is made of plastic). The heck yes that does not look half bad for how much it really cost sort of frame. 

Sure the matting is not professional. Did I mention it is just painted cardboard!? But check out the difference it makes in comparison to how the whole room looks now:

The frames do not look like just specks of dirt on the wall!! There is a pop of color that is brought out even more in the matching of the oops paint in the frames to the wooden containers under the coffee table. Everything looks all balanced & I feel as if the world is at peace [except when I think about that stupid blind/curtain situation in the living room]. 

Oh & that big hunk of black blog on the couch — that is my favorite blanket ever. 

Things are really starting to come together in our condo. Thanks to the wonderful holiday that just occurred Ben & I purchased some bedroom furniture, which has spurred an entire bedroom remodel. It is really coming together well. As soon as the final pieces are assembled & arranged I will do a post on them. Since the whole set was purchased on Amazon it will also be a review of sorts. Fun stuff. I cannot wait to share it!!

Until then, I have been crafting like crazy lately & will be sharing some of the Pinterest projects I have actually finished!! Check out my “Made!!” board if you want a few hints. 

zen again

This is the second of my posts about my book Zen Soup. Where I include my favorite quote of another chapter of the book. (here is my first one)

This chapter was about having a “beginner’s mind” — i.e. a mind willing to learn because it is “not afraid of not knowing nor convinced that they already know what they don’t.”

I love learning new things, so this chapter was right up my alley. It make me want to go back to school so much. Except for the whole money & tests thing. I wonder what I would go back & study?

Here is the quote for today:

“What is now proved was once only imagin’d.”

~ William Blake