Young, Hip and Handy

You're About to be Redirected to My New Blog!

2011-12-12T20:02:00.004-05:00

If you're reading this on the home page, you're about to be redirected to my new and improved blog, Savvy Young Something. Enjoy!

Updates and Silly Texts

2011-12-09T10:24:00.001-05:00

You're probably wondering where the heck I've been and why I haven't posted anything at this most joyous time of year. Well, it's because there's about to be some big ch ch changes around here (on the blog at least). I hope to have these changes made by the end of the weekend before I head to some exciting blogger events around DC. Until then, I leave you with a text convo with the boy from yesterday night that still cracks me up:

Boy: how is the blog?
Me: Im sewing
Boy: Sewing what?
Me: Pouches to put the numbered ornaments in
Boy: Sick!

Gotta appreciate the support.

My Mom's in the Cover Story of the Post Magazine, NBD

2011-11-21T09:11:00.001-05:00

As I've mentioned before, I worked in a year-round Christmas store for the better part of my young adulthood. My neighbor owns the store and my mom is the assistant manager. This week they were the cover story of the Washington Post Magazine! Check it out! Christmas never ends at the Christmas Attic

Speaking of Christmas, I stumbled upon 97.1 WashFM this morning and realized they are already playing their all Christmas music all the time. I know plenty of people think it's way to early, but it was just too cheerful to turn off on this Monday morning. If you're not in DC, I believe you can find them with the I Heart Radio app that clear channel pushes so heavily (around here at least). They literally play all Christmas music 24/7 through Christmas.

I'll be back later this week to catch you up on some of the projects I've done in the last month, an adventure I went on last weekend, and some of my plans for the Christmas season. Have a great short week!

Map Fail.

2011-10-28T14:30:00.001-04:00

Having majored in urban planning in college, I love maps. But sometimes an aerial view can go a little awry.

Take, for instance, a portion of this year's Marine Corps Marathon course map.

This ridiculously inapprop map can be found here.

Nope, that's not a joke.

Happy Halloween weekend! Good luck if you're running on Sunday!

Another Throwback Costume

2011-10-27T19:07:00.001-04:00

Some of you may recall last year's My Little Pony costume, which I'm still pretty pumped about. Everyone knew who I was, and I was right in the area of cute-but-not-skankalanky--exactly where I like to be on Halloween. For those of you who want details on last year's look, check out this blog post.

If I were to do it again this year (which I gave serious thought to doing), I might wear leggings instead of pants. Target has pretty cheap leggings in a variety of colors, and it might have been a little cuter. And you would've been able to see the hearts on the ankles of my pants better. I also would've worn short sleeves because I was HOT last year. Oh yes, and I would have reconsidered the jewels around the neckline, because that very subtly but totally ruined my shirt.

But enough about last year. It's time to move on to this year.

I should preface this by elaborating a bit more on my previous statement--you know, that I like to be in the area of cute-but-not-skankalanky. There's something about going to Party City and buying a super sexy version of Dorothy or Red Riding Hood that freaks me out a little. And it makes very little sense to me. Call me crazy but neither of them really seemed like hobags, so the repeated portrayal of them as such seems a bit off. But to each her own.

While I stay away from skanky territory, I'm also not a girl who wants to throw my femininity out the door when Halloween roles around. I like to hover around looking good but not slutty. (I think this is generally a good rule of thumb any day of year.) What I lack in slut-tasticness I attempt to make up for by being a little bit clever. After all, a conservative cat next to a skanky cat is not cute, it's lame. You have to go a different direction.

This year I'm pulling some inspiration from Jessica Quirk over at What I Wore and going as Carmen Sandiego. What can I say? I love the throwback costumes. I'll be wearing black leggings, a black shirt, red belt, red hat with a yellow ribbon, and black gloves. I used this costume as a fabulous reason to buy a cute rain coat that I can actually wear again, so I'll be sporting that as well. Still deciding whether I should wear boots or my fav black pumps.

photo of this cool cat found here

What are you going as this year? How do you find inspiration for your costumes? I'd love to hear what other people have planned for this weekend!

Guest Post at Chic Done Cheap

2011-10-25T14:03:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of being featured over at Chic Done Cheap. Check out my post about the Young, Hip & Handy Toolbox Essentials and explore the other great information that Maizie has to offer!

Projects in Progress...

2011-10-24T12:41:00.001-04:00

It's been a while since I posted anything about DIY projects that I've completed at home. That's partially because I have so many project in progress, but not quite finished yet. Many of them involve my living room, so I'll give you a preview of a few things underway:

As you may have guessed, a few of these projects involve spray paint. I also have a project underway to deal with the sparsely decorated wall above the gigantic hand-me-down sectional in our living room...which I would show you if only I could locate my camera cord at the moment.

Stay tuned for updates on projects that should be finished very soon!

A Quick Beginners' Guide to Pinterest

2011-10-11T17:03:00.000-04:00

It's getting to be about that time when you might see something online and think "I should put that on my Christmas list". Or, if you're thinking ahead, you might be thinking about your Christmas shopping already.

One of the best things to happen to Christmas shopping for the 2011 season is Pinterest. As I described in this previous post, Pinterest is an application that is basically an electronic version of cutting pictures out of a magazine and pinning them to a bulletin board. With Pinterest, you can virtually "pin" images of what you want for Christmas onto a pin board, include price info and size too. The best part? Pinterest maintains the source of the original pin and you can view its original source by clicking on the image.

Never used Pinterest? You have to "request an invite" on the site, but that takes very little time. Alternatively, you can ask a friend to invite you, which speeds up the process a bit.

Pinterest can be a little confusing at first. "Re-pinning" pins from the boards you follow is pretty self-explanatory. You just roll over the image and select "re-pin". Pinning your own images can be confusing. In order to do it, follow the directions at the top of this page. They're a little less complicated than when I first started using the website.

Once you install the "Pin It" bookmark on your browser, you can click on it anytime you see an image on a page that you like. In your window a grid of all the images on the page will show up. Simply roll your mouse over the one you want to pin and click "pin". Then you can add a description/comment and list how much the item costs (if it's something to buy).

One CRITICAL thing to do is try to pin your image from a unique URL. For example, if you see something you like on a blog and you're on that blog's main page, click on the title of the blog post itself and pin the image from there. That way, your image will always go to a page with the original image and content. If you pin from the main page and then click on the image, then you will go to the main page even if the image has been cycled off and is on older pages.

The same thing goes for online shopping. If you see an image on a page that you're browsing, click on the individual item and pin the image from that item's unique URL.

One limit of Pinterest I've noticed is that some particular online retailers don't use image files on their item detail pages. In this case, sometimes it helps to pin it from the list of items but include the URL of the item itself.

I hope this makes sense. If anything in this post doesn't make sense, leave a comment and I'll clarify.

Happy pinning!

Sale Alert: Anthropologie Decorating Sale

2011-09-29T14:25:00.000-04:00

As I've mentioned in a past post or two, I am definitely one to swoon over anthropologie's home decor selection. Today I got an email about new items added to the their home decoration sale. While most of their beautiful textiles are out of my price range, there are some very affordable hardware options. Here's a few things pretty thing I would pick up if I had any good reason to buy them and wasn't depressed by the credit card bill I paid yesterday:

This industrial/rustic table is really versitle. It would look great in a feminine room with a few rustic elements, or a masculine studio apartment.

Althea Side Table - $99.95, was $198.00

I wish I had somewhere to put a couple of these cool vintage-looking pendant lamps. The reviews say that the wire isn't long enough, but for that price you could easily switch out the wire yourself or rework it so that it's hardwired into the ceiling. From a renter's perspective, I actually like that it's not meant to be hardwired!

Sequoia Cone Pendant - $29.95, was $58.00

You all know my obsession with hardware. This sale is full of gorgeous knobs and hooks that used to be over $10.00 and are now reduced to about $3.00, which means we penny-pinchers can actually buy more than one of them.

I love the vintage look and gold accents of this flower knob. It also comes in lavendar and ivory.

Sussex Rose Knob - $2.95, was $10.00

This knob is part of the series that I bought for my desk. Which I still have to tell you all about. There was a bit of a change in game plan. And actually, I'm wondering if I should buy these instead, now that they're on sale...

Paterre Knob - $7.95, was $14.00

Another pretty knob. This is the kind of hardware that you would want to use to dress up your inexpensive Target or Ikea finds and make them look more high end.

Morning Glory Knob - $2.95, was $12.00

Hooks are always a great thing to have in your house. I don't know where I'd put this one, but I like the modern look of it. Maybe hang your dog's leash or an umbrella from it by the front door? Now I'm thinking about how I want a dog...oh dear.

Bashful Brass Hook - $2.95, was $12.00

Simple and pretty hooks are surprisingly expensive, so this one is a steal. You could mount a bunch of them to a 2x4 like I did with my coat rack and hang it pretty much anywhere in your house.

Tarnished Hook - $2.95, was $12.00

There are sooooo many more goodies on their sale site that would be adorable in my home...and yours!Happy shopping!

Grownups...sort of

2011-09-27T15:50:00.001-04:00

I love being in my mid-20s.

Friday night the boy and I used a coupon to go out to dinner at Mexicali Blues in Clarendon. After dinner we stopped and picked up a bottle of wine, some brie and a baguette, and went back to his place to watch TV and spend our night in, prompting the following conversation:

Me: This is nice. I feel like such a grownup.

Kyle: Yeah, this is nice. But let’s not give ourselves too much credit. Tomorrow we’ll be loading a ton of cheap beer onto a booze bus that will take us to the Brad Paisley concert where we’ll drink more.

Me: Touché.

Right now we get the best of both worlds. Cheers to being sort-of grownups!

Rain and Shine

2011-09-09T17:43:00.000-04:00

It's been very rainy this week, so I was very happy when I came down the stairs and saw the sun shining through our door. I also loved my roommate's rain boots by the door. Isn't it fun how rain wear can be some of the sunniest pieces in a wardrobe?

Like the coat rack? View how I made it here.

The Completely Clueless Car Buyer's Guide to Buying a New Set of Wheels

2011-09-09T17:06:00.000-04:00

I’ve been wondering for a while when I would actually feel like a grown up. I thought it might happen when I got my first real job, but it didn’t. Then I thought it might happen when I moved out of my parents’ house. Nope, not that either. Then last Sunday, I finally found it. It turns out I just needed to buy a car. I guess there’s just something about committing to spend thousands of dollars that feels grown up-ish.

I have to admit, I had no idea where to begin when it came to buying a car. I did a little poking around the internet, but ultimately called my dad and straight up asked him, “What’s the first concrete step in this process?” So I’m giving you my firsthand account and step by step process in painful detail so that those of you that are about to embark on the car buying journey will know just what you need to do.

Step 1: Decide on a Budget

My day job is related to affordable housing, so when it came to finding a place to live, I knew exactly what I could afford (less than 30% of my income). When it came to buying a car I looked all over the place, but couldn’t really find a definitive answer on how much of one’s income should go to a car payment. So I ran my numbers and decided what I would be comfortable with. Here’s how I did the math:

I took my monthly take home pay, subtracted my housing costs (estimating the variable things like water and electric), subtracted other variable costs like food and gas (which I knew would change), and then subtracted fixed costs like my gym membership. At that point I was left with basically two line items: savings and fun. So I determined what amount I wanted my savings to be, how much I would reasonably need for fun (I know my patterns), and then determined what amount I had for a car payment. I determined that I could do between $250 - $300/month on a car payment, but preferred to keep it at $250.

Simple Budget Equation:

Take home pay – rent – utilities – gas – food – gym – savings = car payment + fun*

*fun = reasonable amount and not pipe dream

Note that I was not too focused on the monthly car payment, but I had to use it basically to work backward and determine what a reasonable total amount would be for my budget. At that point, I still didn’t really know how much total I could spend without having an interest rate in mind. That’s when I went to my bank and found out that they were offering as low as 3.99% APR on used cars. I plugged my monthly target, the down payment I was thinking about, and the interest rate, and a projected 4 year loan into a few of the many auto loan calculators online (like this one on edmunds.com) and determined I could very reasonably afford a car under $16,000, but I could go up to $17,000 if it was really worth it.

Step 2: Research cars

Once I had a budget, I could more realistically look at potential car options. Many websites offered the same advice my dad had: make sure you give yourself options! You don’t want to get your heart set on a specific model because you’re going to have a much harder time getting a good deal that way. As I mentioned in my previous post, I was originally interested in the Rav4 and CRV, but found out through my research that they were a bit out of my set price range. I did research on hatchbacks on Edmunds.com, US News, and a few other websites that came up in a Google search. That’s how I decided that I liked the Fit, but also wanted to look at the Matrix, Mazda 3, and other comparable cars that were on the used lot.

Step 3: Get pre-approved for a loan

I was able to fill out a form online, get pre-approved for a loan, and pick up paper work all in under 4 hours. Frankly it was a little scary how easily the whole process went. I felt like they were handing loans out like candy. But I also know that my credit is spotless and a loan and interest rate are all just formula decisions.

When I applied for the loan online, I actually asked for about $3,000 more than I planned to use. The bank came back and actually approved me for $3,000 more than I asked for, and approved me at 4.29% for up to 5 years (I had asked for four). I didn’t get the advertised 3.99% (I’m assuming) because I don’t have any debt history outside of credit card payments. This is the one time that NOT having student loans comes back to bite me. I could select the original loan amount over the 4 years that I had requested, but I opted for the higher pre-approval amount and longer term, knowing that there was no penalty for not using the full amount or paying the car off in less than 5 years.

Note that you don’t need to be pre-approved to get a car loan, but it is nice when you can walk into a car dealership with your own financing ready to go if you need to use it.

Step 4: Get out there and look

I felt the same way about the car buying process as I did about finding a place to rent: I had to get out and see a few things I knew I didn’t want in order to really know what I did want. To that end, last Thursday my dad and I went down to Woodbridge to see a few cars before everyone closed. First we went to Carmax. I wasn’t impressed. The problem with a “no haggle” sticker price is that the prices, at least in our area, were kind of unreasonable. I suppose by agreeing not to haggle you also forfeit the ability to haggle a good deal for yourself. Also, they really didn’t have much in stock. I heard the Carmax out by Dulles is bigger, so maybe it’s a different story there. But used car inventory is down, so who knows?

After we looked at Carmax we went over to Hendrick Honda. Looking back, I should have approached the first dealer differently. Instead of telling them that I wanted to look around at their used cars, I told them right away that I wanted to see the Fit. Rookie mistake. Once you tell a car dealer that you’re interested in a new car, you’re really going to have a tough time getting them back onto the used car lot. Honestly, you really just have to walk over there yourself and leave them following you. This process requires a certain tolerance for being assertive almost to the point of rude, but once you’ve done it a few times you feel a lot more comfortable having taken control of the process.

I test drove a Honda Fit on Thursday night, and that’s when I realized that I wasn’t totally prepared for the negotiating process. It was also almost 9 pm, and I had hardly seen any other cars. I knew I wasn’t ready to buy. So we took the salesman’s card and went home. No love lost. It was valuable going out and looking at cars. It really prepped me to zero in on what I was most interested in and begin to think about what I should aim to pay on each various model.

Step 5: Determine what the dealer paid for each car and how much you should offer

When calculating what you should offer on a new car, you first want to figure out about how much the dealer probably paid for the car. Edmunds.com lists MSRP, invoice, and “true market value”. MSRP is what the factory is suggesting the dealer should charge for the car. Invoice is theoretically what the dealer paid for the car (although often the car cost less). True market value is about what you can expect to actually pay for the car and falls somewhere between invoice and MSRP.

The prices on the Honda fit were:

Invoice: $15,340

MSRP: $15,900

True Market Value: $15,701

You may have noticed that I mentioned that a car doesn’t actually cost the dealer the “invoice” price on the car. The dealer may have had rebates from the factory that knocked $100-$300 or more off of the cost of the car. They also have this thing called “holdback”, which is basically a rebate that the dealer will get something like quarterly, so that it looks like they paid more for the car, but they’re actually getting money back on it eventually. I read online that for Honda, holdback is about 2% (about $300 on the Fit). So while the dealer invoice price is $15,340, a dealership may end up paying less than $15,000 on a Fit Base.

Once you determine about what a dealer paid, you have to start adding expensive crap back into the equation. Once of the most expensive things is the freight fee, something I’m a little ashamed to say I knew nothing about when I started this process. Freight on Hondas appears to be $770 across the board. I still think it’s a little silly that the price a dealer pays to get a car to the dealership is considered an extra fee, but oh well.

Then you have to add in profit. I know, I know, those scummy car dealers don’t need profit! They’re scamming you already! OK, let’s be reasonable. This is still a money-making venture so you really do have to factor profit into the equation. I read that 3-5% is reasonable, so I added about $500 to the price.

Once you have the purchase price that includes profit and freight, you have to think about tax, tags, and fees. Tax is about 3% on cars in Virginia, tags run about $100, and many dealers charge $350-$400 in document fees. Once you add all this in, you have your “out the door” price.

In my mind, the “out the door” price is the only one that really matters to me. It’s the amount that I have to come up with between loans and a down payment—how it breaks down between the purchase price and fees is really the dealer’s problem, not mine.

If you’re following my math, you probably realized that we’re up to about $17,000, which was way too high for me to really consider. I determined along with my dad that I really wanted to be out the door at $16,500, and we used that number in our negotiating process.

The math on a used car is slightly different (and less complicated). Basically you go to Kelly Blue Book and Edmunds.com and use their tools to determine how much the car in front of you is worth. Both have apps for iphone and Droid, so definitely download those and charge up your phone for use on the car lot. Once you know what the car is worth you can determine whether the price on the car is completely unreasonable or right on target. Based on that information, you can make an offer targeting to pay about, or slightly under what that car is worth. Keep in mind that you won’t (or rather shouldn’t) pay freight, but taxes, tags and doc fees will still apply.

Step 6: Get quotes

I read on a discussion board that one buyer gathered quotes from a bunch of dealers via email, and then used the quotes they each gave her to negotiate the best deal. I figured it wouldn’t hurt, so I went to a bunch of different Honda dealers and requested a quick quote on their 2011 Honda Fit Base. Warning: when you request quotes online from dealers, you are letting the lions loose. They will hunt you down, email you auto emails, personal emails, and call you twice in one day and leave you two messages. They want your business. What they will not all do is give you a quote. With the exception of Hendrick Honda in Woodbridge, any dealer that gave me a quote pretty much quoted MSRP, some with freight included and some without. From what I could tell, they wanted me to talk to them really badly, but they didn’t want to give me a number. This is hilarious to me because I could’ve sold THEM the Fit at this point, I liked it enough. All I really cared about was the price they would give me and whether they had any Fit Bases in stock.

I had one dealer email me and say “many dealers will probably quote you a price that doesn’t include fees, so it will look artificially low.” Um, excuse me, but no shiznit, Sherlock. I asked you for a quick quote online, you think I didn’t read all about the pricing on these things? Sure, some of them quoted me under $16,000, but I could tell when the price of freight was included and when it wasn’t. Also, this was a dealer that avoided giving me a quote via email.

Sorry, I’ll stop venting. The only thing that getting the online quote really did for me was help me determine 1) who actually had the Fit Base in stock and 2) just how high some of these dealers wanted to start. It did not really get me anywhere in terms of haggling a price down, but it did help me determine where everyone was starting. It also gave me a contact to email at each dealer when I finally did get an offer from another dealer. It was good practice and prepared me for the aggression that comes at you when you walk ~~through the doors~~ onto the lot of a dealership.

Step 7: Get out there and mean business

There are various tips online that say the best time to shop is on a weekday, or at the end of a month when the dealer is trying to meet a quota or earn a bonus and therefore has a greater incentive to sell you a car. Well, I went on a weekend at the beginning of the month and still got a good deal. Granted, it was Labor Day weekend and car dealers are clearing their lots for 2012 inventory. But more than anything, getting a good deal is all about knowing how much the car is really worth on the market, and being willing to walk away. So it’s alright to get out there and shop at the internet-determined non-optimal time. As long as you know your stuff, you should be fine.

Last Saturday afternoon my Dad came over and we headed out car shopping. I decided to hit up Honda of Tyson’s Corner because they were supposed to be getting 5 Fit Bases in that day, and it was close to other dealerships. Before I stopped there, I went over to Koons Tyson’s Toyota so that I could look at their inventory of used cars. I actually found a 2008 Toyota Certified Used Matrix there with about 39,000 miles on it for about $15,000. I liked it, but I wanted to get a firm price on the Fit as a basis of comparison, so we went across the street to the Honda dealer.

Having learned from my experience Thursday night, when I arrived at the Honda dealer I started on the used car lot to see if they had any options. When I determined that they didn’t, I mentioned to the salesmen that I had been looking at the Honda Fit. They had literally just received a shipment of them, so I actually went into a garage and saw the car before it was prepped for the lot. I knew then that I definitely wanted the Fit and I was ready to make it happen if I could, so we started the deal negotiating process.

Step 8: Negotiate a deal

Because I haven’t mention it enough already, getting a good deal is all about knowing what price you should reasonably expect from a dealer. Don’t expect to be able to negotiate a good deal without doing your homework first.

The salesmen at Tyson’s Honda could tell we liked the Fit in the garage, but this was the part in the process that felt most awkward to me: throwing out a number. So I stood there looking at it for an awkward minute or two. Thankfully my dad stepped in and threw out my number, which I suspect made the offer sound more credible. He told him that I wanted to be out the door at $16,400. The salesman looked a little shocked and told us the usual “we don’t make much of a profit on these units” but went inside to talk to the general manager to see what he could do. The manager offered me $16,887 on the car, about $400 more than my high goal. I told him sorry, no can do, I had to draw my bottom line somewhere. He told me it was a great value and I told him I respected that, but ultimately I have to keep my finances in mind and look at significantly less expensive used options. So I walked away, just as I had been prepared to do all day. I took the writing in offer and the salesman’s business card and went on my merry way. On to the next, on on the next one.

Step 9: Make a freaking decision

Next, I went over to another Honda dealer near my house. I did the same thing: looked at their used cars, saw a few Matrixes (Matrices?) that were more expensive than the new Fit. I could probably have knocked at least $1,000 off of them according to Kelly Blue Book, but they still would’ve been a little pricey.

Then I went over to the new lot where, I’m sorry to say, a nice but painfully awkward young car salesman attempted to sell me on a car I already knew everything about. In fact, he didn’t even believe me when I told him the car has 10 cup holders. He told me he thought I was confusing it with a different vehicle. Here’s a tip for you, car salesman trying to bond with me over our mutual attendance of UVa: Someone who graduated from that fine University probably doesn’t enjoy being told she’s wrong about something that she appears to have studied more than you did. I know I sound mean, but dealing with these guys all day was like fighting off piranhas. Only there was way more awkward silence involved.

All that aside, Bill Page couldn’t offer even close to what I was willing to pay and what Tyson’s had offered me. When I told them I wanted to be out the door at $16,500, they brought me back an offer that was still well over $17,000. Having my other offer in hand, I considered this laughable. Also, I didn’t really want a black or bright blue car, and that was all they had, so I didn’t feel bad walking out on that either.

At this point, I didn’t quite know what to do. $16,887 seemed high, but it was so far my only option on the Fit. And according to the math I’d done earlier, it wasn’t completely unreasonable. My dad and I decided to come back to my place to run the numbers on my options. My only other real option was the 2008 Toyota Matrix I had seen at Koons Tyson’s Toyota. This is where the kind of cooler (yep, I’m a dork) decision making came into play.

We looked at Kelly Blue Book and determined we probably couldn’t knock much off the price of the Matrix. So we estimated that I would be lucky to get out the door with $15,500 on that car. There also weren’t any financing deals on it, so I would be using my preapproved 4.29% loan to finance it.

Although the Fit was over $1,000 more expensive, it was being offered with a .9% financing deal. Once I calculated how much I would save in interest over both 4 years with the lower financing rate, the difference between the Fit and the Matrix was only about $400. Keep in mind the Fit was brand new and the Matrix had nearly 40,000 miles on it.

After I calculated the difference with the interest rate, I went on Edmunds.com again and used their “True Cost to Own” tool, which factors in and compares the money you’ll lose in depreciation, and how much you’ll pay for insurance, gas, repairs, etc. over the course of 5 years on different vehicles. The price to own the 2008 Matrix was definitely more than the 2011 Fit, but a lot of that was depreciation on the Matrix over the first 2 years. I didn’t have to worry about as much because the car was already almost 4 years old. What I did notice was that the Matrix was estimated to cost about $2,000 more in gas over the 5 year period than the Honda Fit. With math like that, it was clear that while the Matrix would save me $1,000 up front, the Fit was a better value. The Fit also got higher ratings from many different sources, and has more cargo space.

With my value information in hand, I decided to call my guy Guillermo Murillo at Hendrick Honda and see if they could improve on the deal that Tyson’s had given me. “G” said he thought he could, but they weren’t going to get any more Fit Bases in stock until this week. He really did seem like a nice guy and I would’ve liked to work with him. I was willing to wait on the car for about a week, but the .9% financing, an American Honda deal and not a dealer deal, was ending on Monday night. So even though they could potentially bring my price closer to the $16,500 I wanted, I could end up spending more than $200 in interest if I ended up with a higher rate. Even Guillermo said I should take the deal from Tyson’s, which I definitely appreciated.

So I called up my salesman at Honda of Tyson’s Corner to tell him I was still interested in the deal and asked him if he still had any in stock. He did, so we arranged to meet as soon as they opened Sunday morning so that I could buy the car.

As a last ditch effort, I emailed a bunch of other dealers to see if they could give a better price. Had I not been so exhausted from car shopping I would’ve probably called them, but I couldn’t bear the thought of fighting off another salesman. Instead, I sent them all emails that said, “Thanks for following up with me on the 2011 Honda Fit Base. I actually have an offer in writing from Honda of Tyson’s Corner for $16,887 out the door. If you can do better, I’d love to do business with you.” Short, sweet, and to the point.

I heard back from a few of them that said they couldn’t match the price. Rosenthal Honda of Landmark told me that they had sold out of all their Fit Bases with the average price a little over $18,000. One dealer even sent me the following email on Monday, which made me feel great about my purchase:

I did hear back from someone at Pohanka Honda of Fredericksburg on Tuesday, and he said he could knock a couple hundred dollars of the quote I had too. But, the financing deal was over, so it didn’t make much of a difference anyway. It was interesting to note, however, that the two best quotes I got were from dealers somewhat significantly south of DC and right off I-95. I plan to keep this in mind when I have to buy another car.

Step 10: Arrange insurance

You have to give proof of insurance to the dealer so that they can register the car on your behalf and let you drive it off the lot. I needed to get new insurance for this car that was now in my name, so I got online quotes for that too. Esurance and Nationwide both quoted me over $100 a month, but Geico, using my discount as a Navy Federal Credit Union member, quoted me less than $900 for the year. This was definitely the lowest quote I got, and I was able to set it up over the phone with an agent so that when I got to the dealer I could call with my new car’s VIN number and get the car insurance on the spot.

Step 11: Purchase your glorious new set of wheels

My dad didn’t think I needed his help when I went to buy the car, so I was prepared Sunday morning to go alone. Then I realized that because they knew I was coming the night before, they would have the car prepped for me and perhaps ready to drive off the lot. I obviously couldn’t do that if I drove a car there, so the boy was nice enough to come with me. I was really happy he went because it was nice to have someone else “on my side” during the buying process. He was actually the perfect person to accompany me because he was just as foreign to the process as I was, and he just sat there and let me do my thing (which he is always quite good at). I think that had my dad been there, I would’ve been tempted to take a back seat to the process, and I imagine that the men in the dealership would’ve talked to him more than me. Oh yes, Kyle also provided plenty of entertainment and company for me while I was there, which was great because buying a car is not a quick process.

I carefully signed all my paperwork and managed to get out of there without signing up for an extended warranty (which I had discussed with my dad beforehand). Shout out to my car salesman Shabir Baba, who was really nice and helpful and followed up with me today to make sure everything is going fine with the car.

Step 12: Revel in your grownupness and badasschick self

The car buying process is stressful and there are plenty of places to screw it up. I didn’t quite realize it until I went out to dinner Saturday night and, still in car buying mode, was ready to fight off the waiter and see if he’d throw in dessert for free. But this process was amazingly empowering too. In less than a week I got preapproved for a loan bigger than I’ve ever had in my life, determined what car I wanted, negotiated a great deal, and bought a brand new car pretty much all by myself. I couldn’t be happier with my decision and I’m so pumped about my new car. You better believe I celebrated with a few dranks and dancing Sunday night. Cheers!

Get Your Groupon to Merrifield Garden Center

2011-09-08T10:58:00.001-04:00

One of Today's Groupon deals is to Merrifield Garden Center ($25 to spend $50). Not only is Merrifield a beautiful place to pick up fall-friendly mums and pumpkins, they have a gorgeous Christmas shop. In fact, my sibs and I used to go see Santa at Merrifield and I'm slightly ashamed to admit that just as we were on the cusp of disbelief this guy had us leaning towards the side of believing. In our defense, he's really convincing.

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Merrifield Christmas Shop via

Yes, I am buying a Groupon to Merrifield today, September 8, so that I can use it on Christmas stuff (in a few months obviously). I like to plan ahead. For only the second time in my 24 years long life, my fam won't be traveling to upstate New York for Thanksgiving (tear). This means I also won't be able to hang a Henderberg's wreath on my front door like I did last year. But, as I mentioned in this blog post of yore, I love real pine wreaths and I fully intend to hang one on our door again this year. Given that a nice wreath will probably run me at least $25 and probably more, I'm going to stow this Groupon away for a wreath and hopefully a few more beautiful Christmassy things (get excited roommates!).

As for pumpkins and mums, I'll be using my groupon to Craven's Nursury for those!

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Meet Fiona!

2011-09-06T17:01:00.002-04:00

Friends, I’d like to introduce you to my new best bud, Fiona Fit.

My new BFF

That’s right. I bought a new car this weekend! A couple weeks ago my old ’97 Camry finally bit the dust after our 7 years together, leaving me with no transportation for a week until my sister went back to college and I could drive her car around. My little brother will be driving that car to school starting today, so I was under a bit of a deadline to buy a new car.

While my Camry and I had a pretty good relationship, it routinely failed me in one regard: I had a really tough time feeding my furniture buying habit with the proportions of the cargo area. Example: I bought two patio chairs at Target earlier this summer, took them out to my car, realized there was no way they would fit, and had to call my roommate to come pick them up in her Ford Escape. So when I started contemplating a new car, I really wanted something that was more flexible when it came to carrying around bulky items. I had my eye on mini SUVs like the Toyota Rav4 or Honda CRV, but once I realized how much used ones were selling for and what my budget was, I knew it wasn’t going to happen. That led me to start looking at hatchbacks.

Originally I was planning to buy a used car, thinking that there was no way I could afford a new car that suited my needs. I was reading reviews of the Toyota Matrix and the Mazda 3 when I saw another car come up over and over again: the Honda Fit.

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What really sold me on the Fit were two things: great fuel efficiency and this brilliant thing that Honda calls “the magic seat”. I’m not sure why it took car makers so long to come up with something like this for a small car, but it’s brilliant. The magic seat allows the back seats to fold down really low so that the backseat and trunk form a completely flat surface. When the magic seat is folded down, the Fit has cargo space that rivals some small SUVs and definitely beats the Matrix and the Mazda 3. And the Fit can get over 40 miles to the gallon on a highway!

To see how the magic seat works, check out this every so slightly ridiculous video demonstration of it:

I learned so much by going through the car buying process. My dad helped me out big time by teaching me how to determine what I should offer on a car, and by going car shopping with me. The boy was also a big help by going with me to actually purchase the car (I shopped Saturday and purchased Sunday). I was totally in control of the process, but it was nice to have him there to add another person to the buying side of the table and keep me company during the lengthy purchase process.

I absolutely love love love my new car. It’s perfect for me—it will get me to and from work while saving me money on gas, and I’ll be able to pick up furniture on Craigslist without borrowing my parents’ minivan. Yesssss! The more I drive the car, the more I feel like I’ve made a smart decision, and that’s really comforting when I think about the thousands of dollars I spent and will continue to spend on this purchase. And so far my car has not been affected by the recall, but even if it is, that can be taken care of pretty quickly. I'm not stressin' it.

Oh yeah – I almost forgot to mention that to make this new car thing even sweeter, I got an amazing deal on Fiona. Seriously, I was collecting quotes from other dealers and communicating with them throughout the buying process, and only one other dealer came close to the price I got on the car. I even had one dealer say that if Honda of Tysons Corner was willing to sell me a Fit for the price I paid, I should “run, don’t walk” to snag the deal because the Fit is in such high demand.

Sarah and Fiona = Friends forever

I mentioned that I learned a ton by going through the car buying process, and I’m going to dedicate an entire blog post to the process. I know there are plenty of you out there who have already grown up and bought a car, but I’m determined to help out those of you who were like me two weeks ago: almost completely clueless.

So what happened to my dear old Camry? She’s still in my possession, but I plan on attempting to sell her on Craigslist in hopes that she might be a bit more valuable to a person who can fix her and drive her than she would be to a dealer. When I finish that process, I’ll be sure to tell you about that too.

I know Camry, I'll miss you too.

Handy Girl Shout Out: Dress Dyeing Diva

2011-09-02T12:00:00.000-04:00

Over the summer one of my roommates was in the wedding of two of her good friends from college. She had a great time and absolutely loved all the personal DIY touches that the couple had added to their ceremony and reception. The bride and groom are quite colorful people (in the good sense) and they opted to have the groomsmen wear colorful ties and tan suits while the bridesmaids wore orange dresses. Oh, I should also mention that the bride and groom and a lot of the wedding party/attendees graduated from Virginia Tech, so they have a special place in their heart for orange.

Well, one great party/college reunion and a late night trip to Taco Bell later, Marla had a pretty but very orange dress. Not that she didn’t love it for the wedding. It’s just that if she had been shopping for a cocktail dress this probably wasn’t the color she was picking, and it also probably wasn’t one she was likely to wear again.

My roomie had paid over $100 for the dress—not too much by bridesmaids’ dress standards, but it’s still a lot for a recent MSW grad still looking for a job (are you hiring?). Not wanting to let the dress hang in her closet unused, she explored the idea of having it professionally dyed. When that turned out to be more than she budgeted, she turned to the idea of dyeing it herself. We reasoned that whether she screwed it up by dyeing it or left it in her closet, either way she wouldn’t be wearing it, so she didn’t have much to lose.

She searched the internet trying to find instructions and materials to dye her dress navy blue. I pointed her to Sherry at Young House Love’s wedding dress dyeing tutorial where she could get some pointers. The one thing she kept worrying about was the fact that she would be attempting to dye polyester, a synthetic that doesn't take stain as well as a natural fiber like silk or cotton.

She ended up buying a kit online from Pro Chemical & Dye and used the instructions for it that they have online, and which also come with the kit in the mail.

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Don't worry, you don't use all of these to dye a dress. The kit came with different colors.

At first she was a little worried that the dress would turn more of a brown, but as the blue began to take, the orange became less and less visible. After she finished the dyeing process she hung the dress up to dry in our laundry room with a tarp to catch the water dripping from it.

The result? A perfectly dyed navy blue dress that she can wear to weddings, cocktail parties, and other formal occasions for as long as she can fit into that dress. Which will probably be for a while because she is pretty little.

It looks black in this picture, but it's actually a deep navy blue.

Speaking of size, Roomie does have one warning: because this process requires you to boil your dress for an hour or two, the dress will likely shrink a little. Not too much—it still fits her, but she can tell it’s tighter. So if your dress already fits like a glove, this may not be for you.

A beautiful dress for my beautiful roomie!

Hardware Makeover

2011-09-01T01:06:00.002-04:00

Last fall I purchased some knobs on HomeDepot.com for a dresser I had just snagged and refinished on Craigslist. At the time I had only begun to scratch the surface of the amazing design blogs I now read almost daily, and I really didn’t know what kind of hardware I wanted for this piece. I was so used to adding glass knobs to new pieces, but they just didn’t fit this piece at all. I also knew that this dresser needed 12 knobs, so I couldn’t afford to splurge on super pretty anthropologie knobs like the ones I just ordered for my desk. So I settled on brushed nickel flower knobs from HomeDepot.com and paid about $2/each for them.

After my room began to take shape and I started falling in love with a gold accent here and there, I knew that the knobs I had on my dresser weren’t working for me. I would love to put some gold O-ring hooks on the dresser, but I’m looking at buying a new car and a new computer soon (and possibly a new TV for my room—it just turned itself off twice in the last 10 minutes) so I really need to be budget conscious and work with what I have to the extent that I can.

Inspired by my recently purchased but not yet received anthropologie gold knobs with white patina, I decided to makeover the knobs currently on the dresser. I had actually been thinking about doing it when my favorite bloggers decided to spray paint some of their hardware. I took it as a green light from the blogiverse to start my project. Luckily I was able to complete with materials that I already had on hand.

First, I unscrewed all the hardware from the dresser. Then I stabbed holes in a box about 2 inches apart from each other using a screw driver. I then loosely screwed all the knobs into the holes in the box. Once the knobs were in the box, I set the box down and set all the knobs so that they were facing up.

I used two types of spray paint for this project: a white Rustoleum Painters' Touch primer from Home Depot, and a metallic Design Master Brilliant Gold spray paint that I picked up from Michael’s a while ago when I repainted some picture frames. Warning: This brand of gold spray paint smells a little funky.

First I sprayed a thin layer of primer on the knobs while they were facing up on the box. The layer didn’t quite cover, but that was OK because I planned to put another layer on it. After I sprayed the tops, I put my hand in the box and flipped them over, letting the knobs hang from the box so that I could easily spray the sides and skinny parts of the knobs. Then I flipped the box back over and let the knobs dry sitting straight up again. Unfortunately I was so focused that I forgot to take a picture of this step in the process L.

Once I had sprayed two layers of primer on the knobs, I moved on to spraying the knobs gold. I used exactly the same process to spray the knobs gold as I did with the primer. This type of paint dries kind of matte, so I didn’t have to worry too much about ruining the metallic finish. And because I planned to add a patina to the finish, I knew that if the gold finish had a few imperfections they probably won’t be visible.

After I the second layer of gold paint dried, I took the knobs inside and set up a work station with the knobs, a small paintbrush, some paint, and a rag that I cut from an old t-shirt. I used an off-white Martha Stewart paint sample that I bought over the winter from Home Depot (and also used to paint the IU on my boo’s chair).

To add the white patina, I simply brushed on a coat of white paint to the face of the knob, making sure that I got paint in all the crevices. Then I took my rag and rubbed off the paint, leaving a thick-ish coat of paint in the crevices and a light layer of patina on most of the smooth surfaces. After I got top painted, then I brushed paint onto the sides and the neck of the knob and then wiped it off, making sure to leave a light layer of patina. The knob looks especially good if you can get a little bit of shine through in some spots. I painted and buffed off the paint one knob at a time, as I found that the paint started to dry and was harder to buff off if I tried to paint two knobs at a time.

Once the paint dried (which didn’t take long), I put the knobs back on the dresser and admired my work. I also made a somewhat miserable attempt to photograph the finished product. Hopefully you get the picture. I’m much happier with this new finish. It has a bit more character and matches the style of my room better. Of course I’d still love some slightly more stylish knobs, perhaps of a different shape, but this is an excellent no cost alternative.

Before

layered prettiness!

Before

After!

If you were to tackle this yourself without already having the materials, you should be able to get spray paint for under $10, so it wouldn’t be an expensive upgrade at all. Next time you see beautiful hardware you love but can’t afford, look around at Home Depot or Lowes and think about how you can upgrade that inexpensive hardware to look more like the designer pieces!

Going on a Cardboard Safari

2011-08-26T13:54:00.000-04:00

I've admired Cardboard Safari's collection of cardboard animal trophies for a long time, but the big ones always seemed a bit out of my price range. Today I realized they were on sale at Joss & Main, so my plan is to pick one up and decorate it so that it looks like it belongs in a house full of four girls and not a boy's bedroom. Not quite sure what route I'll take when it comes to covering it, but here are some options I've contemplated:

pinned here via snowandgraham.com

pinned here via flickr.com

Now it's just a matter of deciding which animal to buy. I kind of like the moose more, but maybe it's just because he's so small and cute on that wall. The deer is a bit more feminine, but potentially harder to cover because of all its antlers. What do you think?

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I might call an audible and go with the rhino.

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Side note: I actually purchased a mini cardboard safari animal trophy from West Elm last winter as a cheap little housewarming gift for the boy. West Elm had listed the wrong dimensions on their website, so I complained that this little guy was a lot littler than I had expected. They were discontinuing the sale of them through West Elm, so they credited my account and told me to keep Mr. Mini Buck. Awesome!

Side side note: My boo told his buddies that I made Mini Buck out of a pizza box. And it seems they believed him momentarily. Ha! I wish.

Why Every Smart Man will Join Pinterest

2011-08-25T10:09:00.000-04:00

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Pinterest is one of the coolest sites I’ve seen in a long time. I love it because it’s brilliantly simple: a tool that lets you store every cool thing you see on the internet, sort it, and share it with your friends. I used to email myself links of things I loved, and now I can just pin them. I hardly even use the etsy “favorite” function anymore because I can pin the picture on any one of my boards.

Which brings me to my main point today: it’s in a man’s best interest to join Pinterest.

Before you guys all scoff at me and think, “why would a man want to be on THAT posting pictures of pretty living rooms and outfits?” Why? Because your girlfriend/wife/mother/sister/daughter is on there posting pictures of pretty things she loves. Things that you could buy for her.

Now I’m not saying that Pinterest is an invitation for you to surprise her weekly with gifts. I’m just saying that when you want to be thoughtful for a special occasion and get her something you know she likes, all you have to do is check out a few of her boards and find something she’s already listed. For example, I pin a ton of stuff from etsy. If my boo were to look at my “So Stylish” or “Art Ideas” board, he would find a multitude of reasonably priced items that I would love to buy for myself.

Follow this board.

Not only can a man use Pinterest to give the lady in his life exactly what she wants for that special occasion, he can also sound like he actually cares about how she’s decorating her house. If my man took a look at my “Dining Rooms” board, he would be able to have a conversation like this:

Sarah: I’m so tired of sanding this dining room table.

Kyle: Really? Are you refinishing it?

Sarah: Yep, a dark stain.

Kyle: Oh right, because you love the look of dark wood tables and light painted chairs.

Sarah: Wow you have really been listening to me!

Brilliant!

If the man is really smart and fully embraces Pinterest, he can get it to work in his favor too. He could start pinning things like this Darth Vader alarm clock:

Darth Vader alarm clock

Or this nice messenger bag:

j.crew Abingdon messenger bag

And then his lady knows exactly what he wants and won't buy him something silly like a hawaiin button down or socks.

A man can also pin pictures of things he finds awesome, including: zombies, amazing basketball dunks, demotivational posters, etc. I would caution that pinning of the wrong variety could backfire. For this reason I suggest that men stay away from creating boards like “Hot Girls” or “Annoying things my girlfriend likes”. Also a bad idea: following ex girlfriends or women that show too much interest in you.

So men, seriously take Pinterest into consideration. When your lady unwraps her next present and says, “Oh thank you! How did you know?” you will definitely thank me.

Desk Jewelry

2011-08-24T13:16:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned before, I love love love hardware. It’s like jewelry for your furniture, and just like jewelry can make or break an outfit, hardware can really pull together different elements of a room.

Recently I’ve been looking around for some knobs to put on a dresser that I painted earlier this summer (and intend to write a post about soon). I saw this beauty on Pinterest about a month ago and loved the texture and subtle gold tone, which I have in different elements in my room already.

buy here. pinned here.

But when I realized it was $14 at anthropologie, I pinned the image, longed for it momentarily, and moved on to find something cheaper.

I checked out a my other favorite hardware sources including World Market, Home Goods, and etsy, but I couldn't find anything that suited my taste. And still the square Parterre Knob stayed in the back of mind. Finally last week I decided to at least see how it would look, so I ran over the anthropologie, darted through their door at 8:50 pm like a total a-hole (they close at 9) and made a beeline for their hardware section.

I’ve learned from experience that the way you picture something in your head rarely works as perfectly as you envision it to look, so I picked up plenty of options. Like, 12 aqua or neutral knobs. I also picked up two little dishes that were super cute and only $4/piece. The girls who worked there must have thought I was really in love with aqua I also happened to be wearing a tone on tone aqua outfit that included a blue/aqua necklace.

Yep. Our house is a mess.

Some of my purchases. A few of them weren't available online.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

I came home and displayed the finds to my roommates, who sweetly swooned over my purchases. Then I took them upstairs to my room to see how they all looked.

I decided I liked the neutral ones and narrowed it down to the Mother of Pearl knob and my original heartthrob Paterre knob. I honestly still love the white patina on the gold knob, and I really like the studded texture. Something just wasn’t quite right though. While I preferred the texture of the Paterre knob, the Mother of Pearl knob was a better shape. As you can kind of tell, this desk has quite a few curvy lines, in the curved corners of the table top, the detailing below the drawers, and the pattern I stenciled on top of it, and a square knob didn’t suit it all that well.

Still, the Mother of Pearl one wasn’t doing it for me. That’s when I remembered that there was a round version of my original heartthrob online. I’m not sure I love the Rosette Parterre Knob as much as the square, but it has the same texture I am definitely in love with, and I think it will look really good on my desk. I still haven’t been bold enough to pull the trigger on buying four knobs that would cost twice as much as I paid for the desk, but I think it’s gonna happen soon. And when it does, rest assured that there will be pictures!

buy here. pinned here.

Lovey Dovey Breakfast Dish

2011-08-22T09:29:00.001-04:00

I saw these on Pinterest a few weeks ago and made a mental (and written) note to make these one morning.

pinned here

The boy almost always has a can of cinnamon buns in the house, so when he suggested he make them this weekend I volunteered to do the ~~baking~~ arranging on the pan. I took each bun and unrolled them a little, rolled one end in towards the other, and pinched the bottom to make the hearts. Not as glamorous as making homemade cinnamon buns, but a fun twist on a delicious classic nonetheless!

A Birthday Present for the Boy

2011-08-21T17:32:00.000-04:00

The boy turned 24 last week, and I have to admit, I was feeling a little lame about my plans for him this year. I had set the bar pretty high in previous years, but this being his fourth (!!!) birthday we’ve spent together, I wasn’t feeling all that creative. I know, it sounds pretty lame. Especially given that two years ago I crafted him his own “GI Kyle” (duh, his name) and last year I gave him this sweet watch he’d been eyeing for months:

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But this year I had to be practical. We’re both busy, we both pay rent now, and there’s stuff he actually needs. So I bought him a new pair of Sperry’s to replace his old and disgusting ones (that I also bought him two years ago) and made plans to go to the Wharf, a great seafood restaurant in Old Town, Alexandria where ma boo could get his favorite dish: crab cakes.

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Then, last week I got ambitious. For a while I had kicked around the idea of refinishing an old chair for the boy to put on the side of his bed that doesn’t have a night stand. I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right, a chair is a lame gift too. But trust me, this one is cool for reasons you will soon find out. Anyway, Tuesday evening after work (his birthday was Wednesday) I stopped at Goodwill to see if they might have the kind of thing I was looking for. I am rarely one of those people who walk into Goodwill and walk out with a ton of treasures, but this trip was perfect. I picked up this beauty for $4!

As you can see, it needed some work. Namely, the back had to be glued back onto it, but that was a pretty easy fix. After my trip to Goodwill I headed a mile down the road to Home Depot where I snagged some Elmer’s wood glue, a can of colonial red spray paint, and a can of spray clear protective finish.

I was under a bit of a time crunch so I raced home, changed into my painting clothes, and set up a spray painting station in my back yard. This is the part where I tell you why this chair thing is cool: My plan was to spray the chair red and stencil an Indiana University (his alma mater) symbol on it. Not only does he love any opportunity to display something IU in his house, he would also have a good football/basketball chair.

Side note: if you’ve ever met someone who went to IU, you know that they are totally in love with their school. I also have it from a good source that the comeback of IU basketball will be the greatest sports story ever told.

Anyway, back to the chair. First I lightly sanded the chair and wiped it down with a damp rag to get rid of the dust from the sanding. Then I went to work gluing the back onto the base. I squeezed some wood glue into the holes that hold the back and then used my fingers to spread the glue so that it covered the hole for the spokes. I also put some glue onto the actual back itself. When you do this kind of a repair, especially on something like a chair, make sure that you look to see if any glue has dripped down onto the legs, and wipe it off before it dries.

In my haste, I didn’t actually wait for the glue to dry. Instead, I flipped the chair over and got to spraying. I figured the glue would still dry while the paint was being applied. I like to flip a chair over and spray the legs first so that the seat and back don’t get messed up if the paint is still a little tacky. I didn’t prime the chair because I intended to give it a distressed look, and I just wanted the wood to show through when I sanded it a bit. I sprayed a couple of light coats to the legs, making sure that my hand was always moving and that I was about 8-12 inches away from the surface I was spraying. When spraying, it’s always good to remind yourself that you don’t need 100% coverage on the first coat – that’s how you end up with a gloppy, runny finish.

I only had to let the coats dry about 10-15 minutes before I applied another one, so it was a quick process. After I sprayed the bottom, I flipped the chair back to its normal position and sprayed the top. When you’re using spray paint, it’s good to pay special attention to the corners because they can easily get missed.

I let the chair dry about 15 minutes before I brought it back into our basement. Once it was dry, I started my stenciling process.

In between spraying coats of paint on the chair, I made my own IU stencil using file folder and a symbol I found on the computer. I search for the IU logo and printed it on an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper. I had decided that I wanted the IU to be max 9” tall. I didn’t have to worry about width because the symbol is taller than it is wide. I actually printed the IU symbol to this size using InDesign, which I’m lucky enough to have on my computer. But, if you’re willing to not be quite as precise, you could probably use the regular picture editor on your computer and print a symbol about 10” tall.

After printing the IU, I used painters tape to secure it to the file folder, and then used a ruler (ok, it’s actually an engineering scale that I have leftover from an urban design studio class) and a craft knife to cut the IU out of the folder. Yes, I did this on top of a diet coke box and our coffee table. Ordinarily that wouldn’t be a smart move, but our coffee table is a mess and I plan to refinish it, so I wasn’t worried about ruining it at all.

After I had made my stencil, I sprayed a stencil adhesive (available at Michael’s) on the back of it and stuck it to the chair. Then I used a mini roller to role some white paint I had on hand onto the chair. This is kind of the point in time where the file folder stencil idea isn’t the greatest thing, because it gets wet and doesn’t totally stay stuck to the surface. I’ve learned that I can’t really rely on stencils to produce clean lines, so I was kind of ready for this problem anyway.

After I had rolled on 2 – 3 coats I pulled the stencil off and evaluated my bleed problem (somewhat significant). I took a damp paper towel and tried to wipe most of the bleeding clean, using my finger nail to try and maintain the hard line. While the IU stencil was really easy to cut out, it’s actually not a very forgiving symbol to paint because its lines are so straight and it’s really noticeable if you can’t paint a solid line. I wanted to put another coat of paint on the IU but didn’t want to use the stencil anymore, so I took some narrow painters tape and taped off all the lines. In hindsight I probably should’ve taken this approach the whole time and simply used the stencil to draw on the symbol on the chair and then taped it off. Oh well. With a combo of my finger nail, a wet rag, and some light sanding, I was able to make the line look pretty sharp.

I think Kyle would be OK with me describing his style as casual all-American (seriously, this guy loves Amurica). So I wanted to give the chair a bit of a distressed, lived in look. I did this by lightly sanding down the paint in some places where you might see natural wear and tear, like along corners and edges, on the legs, front of the seat, etc. I then took a damp rag and wiped off any dust created by the sanding.

At this point I was pretty much dancing around thinking about how awesome of a girlfriend I am. I’m always excited when I finish a project, but I was seriously pumped about this. My roommates told me it was awesome and I wasn’t modest about it. The only thing left to do was spray a protective finish on the chair and I’d be done. This was necessary because while the plan is to have this chair next to the boy’s bed most of the time, I knew at some point it would make its way down to the frat house that is their first floor. Because I wanted the IU to stay intact and keep paint from rubbing off onto someone’s clothes, I decided to seal it post-distressing process.

I knew I could spray the chair in about 45 minutes total so I made a plan to leave work right at 5 and have the project done in time to pick up the boy for our 7:30 reservation…

Well, that was the plan at least. But when I got home and started spraying the protective finish on the chair, the very layer of spray paint I was attempting to protect started bubbling (!!!!!!!!!).

I wanted to cry. I think I sniffled a bit. This project had gone so smoothly up until that point and I knew that any delay would prevent me from delivering the birthday present on his actual birthday. The only silver lining was that I had flipped the chair over and started spraying the legs first, so the IU and most visible parts of the chair were fine. Knowing that this had just become a more involved process, I packed up for the day and went to get ready for dinner.

The next day after work I sanded off the bubbled paint really well, and was able to apply a new coat of red paint with very few mostly unnoticeable problems. After letting the legs dry, I brought the chair inside and applied three coats of Minwax Polycrylic protective finish using a foam brush. Polycrylic is a great finish to use over white paint because it doesn’t yellow and would keep the IU looking nice. I also used a different foam brush for the parts near the white paint because I didn’t want the foam brush to pick up any red particles and distribute them across the white paint.

Finally the project was done. I love it! And most importantly, so does Kyle. It looks great in his all American room and will be perfect for watching the IU – UVA football game (wahoowa!). Maybe by then I’ll have a UVA chair painted too!

For fun, here are a few more pictures of the boy's room, which I think suits him pretty well. Excuse the inappropriate street signs.

Handy Girl Shout Out: She Built a Boat!

2011-06-07T16:49:00.000-04:00

Today I'd like to give a shout out to another handy 20 something and a pretty bad ass chick who is, well, frankly, a bit more bold than I am in her handy endeavours. A few months ago my friend Roxie decided she was going to build a row boat...and much like anything else she tries in her life...she did it. In two months, just in time to enjoy it for the summer. And yes, it floats. HOW did she build a boat, you ask?? Lucky for you she wrote an entire blog about her boat-building experience so that you can see why she decided to build it, how she got started, her materials, child labor, the big reveal, etc.

Roxie was nice enough to invite me to her boat revealing party Saturday evening, which basically consisted of a few of us renting some additional river vessels from Jack's Boathouse, paddling around the river for 15 minutes with our drinks in hand/cup holder, and then linking up boats and enjoying a relaxing float down the Potomac.

Basically...it was awesome. And now that I have a Groupon to Jack's Boathouse to go kayaking or canoeing on the weekdays, I'm hoping we can all take off a day and enjoy ourselves out on the water again. Cheers to friends, fun on the water, and another handy lady!

A Fairy Tale I Can Believe In

2011-04-29T12:39:00.001-04:00

Like many women across the US, I woke up this morning at the ungodly hour of 4 am and proceeded to my Royal Wedding viewing party. OK, it wasn’t really a party so much as hanging out with my mom on the couch while we ooo-ed and aww-ed over the outfits, hats, Will and Harry, and of course, the beautiful bride. I watched in exhaustion, taking a brief five minute nap while I awaited their step onto the balcony and the fabled kiss. Still, I have to say, it was so worth it.

photo via

To get some things out of the way:

I loved Kate’s dress. I expected it to be a little bit more modern, but she looked amazing and classic in true Kate Middleton style. Plus, any nod to Grace Kelly is rarely a bad move.
Pippa looked amazing. Not many people can pull of a dress like that, and she rocked it.
James Middleton is cute! And did I hear he was 24? Hmmm….
Harry? Wow. Just wow.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, time for my slightly more serious analysis of the occasion:

I know that there are a lot of people who think that the royal wedding obsession is ridiculous, and to a certain degree, I agree. If I actually lived in Britain I might be a little ticked about the use of public dollars for this type of event the while government takes austerity measures. But politics aside, there was just something about this particular love story that had me captivated long before the engagement was announced.

When I was little, I heard all the Disney Princess stories. Frankly, a few of them were a little insulting. Why should girls wait around for their Prince Charming to come and rescue them? I don’t know about you, but I always thought of a relationship as more of a partnership deal. I’m all for a guy being protective or defensive when it’s necessary, but I prefer not to end up in one of those damsel in distress situations (no matter how many times I wipe out in a pair of can’t-quite-handle-these-while-drinking heels).

I love this royal love story because it’s not a Disney Princess story. I love it because it celebrates modern couples. Kate and Will obviously have fun together and it seems as though mutual respect is a big part of their relationship. When Kate takes the thrown, she will be the first queen with a University Education. She and Will lived together in college as friends, and lived together as a couple prior to the wedding too. Kate helped Will stay at University and then pursue his career in the Military, and he has developed a very close relationship with Kate’s family.

It takes one confident woman to land a prince, and Kate Middleton made Will work for her. By now everyone’s heard the story where someone said to Kate, “You’re so lucky to be dating Prince William,” to which she replied, “He’s lucky to be dating me.” She was totally right. Their relationship would never work if they had the attitude that she should be grateful to be with Britain’s heir to the throne.

Kate admitted that she was heartbroken when she and Will broke up for six weeks in 2007. But she didn’t wallow in self pity. Instead, she joined a women’s rowing team, went out on the town, and let the paparazzi photograph her out with London’s most eligible bachelors. She took the opportunity to learn about herself and become stronger without her beau. To this day she says that while their time apart was difficult, she values it very much. When Will did come back, Kate was cautious but obviously moved forward from the break up and let the relationship grow stronger. Had their relationship ended right there, she still would have had her dignity intact. There isn’t a woman in the world that can’t learn from the way she handled that situation.

When Kate reached Will at the altar this morning, Will looked over lovingly and told her she looked beautiful. The couple shared so many knowing glances throughout the service and leaned in for private conversations throughout the very public affair. Even their kisses were short but comfortable, showing they love each other but don’t have to show the world through some smacker on the balcony.

photo via

One of my favorite parts of the ceremony was the Bishop of London’s sermon, which I watched attentively and read through a few times afterwards. The Bishop spoke of a deep love that is not the end but rather the tool through which we become the best version of ourselves and find ourselves most fulfilled. It was one of the most eloquent, realistic views on romance that I’ve heard in a long time, and a welcome break from the love story that we see so often in the movies.

A few phrases from the Bishop’s sermon that really resonated with me:

"We stand looking forward to a century which is full of promise and full of peril. Human beings are confronting the question of how to use wisely a power that has been given to us through the discoveries of the last century. We shall not be converted to the promise of the future by more knowledge, but rather by an increase of loving wisdom and reverence, for life, for the earth and for one another.”

To read the full sermon, visit the official Royal Wedding website.

I probably just scared away all men potentially interested in me with this discussion of serious relationships and marriage. No worries guys, I’m not trying to get that serious right now. According to Princess Kate I have another 5 years to figure things out. But I hope you’ll respect me for thinking realistically about the way relationships work and knowing what I want from mine…eventually.

I knew I loved Will and Kate’s love story, but I definitely didn’t expect to be so moved by any portion of the ceremony the way the sermon moved me. I can’t say that I’m ashamed of my sappiness though, because I finally figured out why I love Will and Kate so much, and why they're such a big draw to other girls my age: They're mutual love and respect is the kind of fairy tale that we can believe in. It’s not that we all want to be princesses; it’s that we look forward to watching our own modern love stories unfold. And when they do, we can only hope that we’ll conduct ourselves with the poise and confidence of the new Princess Catherine.

“As the reality of God has faded from so many lives in the West, there has been a corresponding inflation of expectations that personal relations alone will supply meaning and happiness in life. This is to load our partner with too great a burden. We are all incomplete: we all need the love which is secure, rather than oppressive, we need mutual forgiveness, to thrive.”

“Faithful and committed relationships offer a door into the mystery of spiritual life in which we discover this; the more we give of self, the richer we become in soul; the more we go beyond ourselves in love, the more we become our true selves and our spiritual beauty is more fully revealed."

Sarah's Guide to Surviving a Government Shutdown

2011-04-07T09:51:00.004-04:00

Well, I guess it’s a good thing I saw the lion cubs when I did because there’s a good chance that starting Saturday those little guys won’t be on display to the public.

Yep, that’s right, we’re talking government shutdown today.

A little tid-bit of information about me: Like so many other 20-somethings living in Falls Church/Arlington/DC, I work for a government contractor that shall remain nameless. And I work exclusively on federal projects. Yesterday I received an email informing me that all employees working on contracts affected by the government shutdown would be forced to use vacation time throughout the duration of the shutdown, and that we would not be permitted to bill to training, general business development, sick time, or comp time during the that time.

Womp womp.

It’s cool, I mean I didn’t need that time to go on vacation with my family this summer or enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. But if I’m forced to take vacation hours, I would really rather spend them on, oh, I don’t know, maybe an actual vacation? Which got me thinking…why not take a vacation? I mean one of the greatest things about DC is all the free stuff there is to do here, and if none of it’s open, why not get out of town?

Tips for Planning Your Forced Vacation

You have to be very careful about planning your government shutdown-forced vacation. After all, it’s not like planning any other vacation. You have no idea how long this forced vacation will last, so you have to find an activity that you can get to quickly (to maximize destination time and minimize travel time), and that you can get home from quickly in the event that Congress magically comes to their senses and realizes that holding their hands to their ears and yelling, “I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you!” is not exactly the way to reach a compromise.

The key is to use exactly the amount of vacation time you’re forced to take, but not end up in a situation where you have to take extra time because you can’t get back quickly enough. This pretty much eliminates the possibility of airplane travel, unless you are super lucky and have a family member that works for an airline and you can fly standby for free. You also probably want to keep costs down since, let’s face it, you might be forced to take more vacation time than you have, which is also known as leave without pay.

Air plane art found here.

I recommend leaving tomorrow night if the shutdown looks extremely likely and taking what would amount to a weekend trip, but then extending it if you aren't allowed to report to work come Monday. So what are some good options for DC government employees and contractors? I’ve gathered some options that you might find useful.

Head to the beach. This option is probably a no-brainer, and one you’re itching to fit into your schedule anyway. If you’re like me, you’ve reached your palest point of the year. Even though we’re into spring, the weather hasn’t been quite warm enough to get you outside on a regular basis, and last summer’s tan is gone and gone. So head to one of the southern beaches and get a little sun. South Carolina is only 8 hours away! The more people you can pack into a hotel room, the cheaper it will be.

Weather in potential beach destinations this weekend and next week:

Ocean City: Kind of chilly honestly, in the high 50s – low 60s

Virginia Beach: A little warmer than Ocean City, mid 60s – low 70s

Nags Head: Mid 60s

Myrtle Beach: Low – mid 70s

Hilton Head: Mid 70s

Photo found here.

Go camping in the Blue Ridge Mountains or Virginia foothills. A bit of a caveat here: In order to go camping, you’ll have to find a place that isn’t run by the National Park Service because the National Parks will likely be closed along with the federal agencies. Still, if you can find a state or local park, grab a few friends, borrow some camping gear, and take a quick camping trip. You may also want to find a place where you still get cell phone service, since you'll want to know when Congress has finally passed a budget and you can go home.

Visit a friend In NYC. There are many express buses that run directly from DC to Penn Station in New York City. You can pick them up near Chinatown, in Union Station, and even in places like Rosslyn and Bethesda. The best part? You can get most of those buses for $50 round trip or less. And since you’re riding by bus, you can wait till the day of to schedule a reservation and be home in 4-5 hours.

Visit Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water. I’m a bit of an architecture geek, and I’ve been enamored by Falling Water since an art teacher showed my 6^th grade class a picture of it. The architectural icon is only about 4 hours away, and you can order tour tickets online for $22. If you’re really trying to get adventurous, you can extend your trip to Pittsburgh, which is only about an hour and 15 minutes from Falling Water.

Photo found here.

Go back to college. If you live in Arlington, you and 10 of your closest friends all probably graduated from a Virginia state school, and a few of you probably still have a sibling in college. Shack up with them and party like you used to before this whole grownup nonsense set in.

Take the distance out of your relationship. Every one of my serious relationships has involved anywhere from 2 – 12 hours of distance at some point, so I know that this one might be dumb to mention because most of you that are in a distance relationship have probably already considered this option. Since you have the time off, take the opportunity to go visit your sweetheart. Even if they’re working, you can probably kill time by yourself during the day and still spend time together in the evening. Maybe you’ll even get married and be able to tell your children, “Hey, remember that whole week we got to spend together because of the 2011 shutdown?” It’s a beautiful story, isn’t it?

Just get out there. Some of you are probably thinking, wow, all of these options sound like so much fun, except that I don’t know anyone else that is forced to take time off. That’s a fair argument. But I’m banking on the fact that most people who will be forced to shutdown probably work for a company that’s pretty big, or a federal agency that has a large office. There’s bound to be someone in your boat that wants to go somewhere. Get some of your colleagues together that you’ve been meaning to hang out with outside of work and go somewhere.

Wherever you go, remember to keep your smart phone or your computer nearby so that you can access your office email and keep tabs on the latest updates from the Hill. That way you'll be able to have a better idea of just how long your vacation might last and plan accordingly.

Whatever you do, just don’t waste those precious vacation hours. Spring is the season of rebirth! Do something spontaneous and turn this forced shutdown into your adventure of 2011.

Bringing in My Mid-Twenties Like a Kid

2011-04-05T10:15:00.001-04:00

This post is, oh, maybe about two weeks late, but I just found my photos from it so I decided to post about it anyway.

I turned 24 a few weeks ago and spent most of the day acting like the small children surrounding me. First, I went to the National Zoo where I saw the 7 LION CUBS! People may knock the National Zoo, and maybe it’s not San Diego, but it’s free, and they had 10 LIONS there: 7 cubs, 2 mama lionesses, and one big badass lion. I literally power walked through the zoo just to get to the "Great Cats" exhibit. Then I stood there for probably 30 minutes, insisted on watching the lion cubs’ every playful move, and was totally enamored just watching them sit up on the top level and sunbathe with their mothers. I may have even stood on the little ledge that’s meant for children until I realized that I was actually blocking the view of the small children standing near me. Including the kid who was taking pictures with his Nintendo DS, which prompted me to remember that I was actually 24 and that the equivalent of that toy when I was his age had one little screen, was not in color, and had absolutely no photo taking capabilities. But I digress.

Quiz: Who is the most mature person in this picture?

Basically, the lions were AWESOME. I had to restrain myself from belting out every song from the Lion King. I love them. And, OK, yes, maybe it wasn’t the coolest way to spend the day, but I did inspire one of my friends to visit them on her birthday, and my office mate wants to see them before she moves out of DC. So apparently I was just paving the way for other nerdy animal lovers.

I also saw some other animals at the zoo including the gorillas, elephants, and tigers, but apparently the panda was the only picture worthy one.

To continue my animal-adoring birthday, we left the zoo in time to get back to the PetSmart near my house and play with the dogs at the Lost Dog Rescue adoption event there. The puppies were so adorable and I gave serious consideration to bringing a dog home with me, which is still a serious consideration but one that I’ve tabled for the moment.

After PetSmart, I went out to dinner with my family to Anita’s, a local chain of restaurants that serve good cheap "New Mexico Style" Mexican food. I’m trying to find another good Tex-Mex/Mexican place near my house, so pleeeeaaasse let me know if you have any recommendations for Falls Church/Arlington.

Then I went out in Arlington with my friends, including 2 of my 3 roomies (roomie 4 was out of town unfortunately).

Maybe I spent the better part of my day celebrating like I was turning 6, but I don’t care because it was awesome. And I kicked off the 3 month birthday marathon in our house, so I have plenty more celebrating to look forward. May turning 25 be just as fun as 24!