Renewed Upon a Dream

One Little Plant Cozy

2013-05-30T09:00:00.000-04:00

Today I'm participating in Habitual Homebody's crochet along! This month, we're doing a cute crochet plant cozy. This is my plant, meet Jill:

Jill is a plant that I got when I was picking up flower pots for my front porch. I decided that I needed a little green for my office for work, and Jill fit the bill. She's just a little succulent, and she looks a little like a cactus. She looks pokey, but really she's just fuzzy.

I made Jill's cozy with leftover yarn from the big granny square blanket. I followed the pattern from Hopscotch Lane as it applied to my plant. However, my ruffle turned out a bit bigger than theirs. I think I needed to tone down the ruffle a bit in order to get it to stand up straight, but I kinda like the way it turned out.

Jill now sits on my desk at work. I hope I can keep her alive, I tend to kill most plants, but I think she's supposed to be pretty easy to take care of, so we'll see if she can last!

Crocheted Granny Square Afghan for our Queen Bed

2013-05-17T08:50:00.000-04:00

It's Friday, but I'm off work today! This is the first "vacation" day I've had in 2013. And it's not really a vacation day because I'm pretty much just making up time off from all the extra hours I worked earlier this week going to Chicago for some training. But it's GLORIOUS! Nothing to do today except get some grocery shopping done. How stinkin' lovely! Wish I could have Fridays off every week :)

For the last few weeks, I've been working on a pretty big project. Now, it's finally ready to show you! Eeeeee! I'm so excited about this one! Check out our new granny square afghan!

This is the first time I've completed a really big blanket. It's also the first granny square project I've done ever! Sewing them together did take some time, but I had a system to it that made it not too bad. I created all of the squares first, then sewed large squares together in sets. Instead of going through all of my little squares & sewing in the ends all at once, I sewed them in individually as I chose them to sew into the large squares. Does that make sense? So kind of a sew as you go kind of thing so that I wasn't sitting around for days just sewing in loose ends.

I used the pattern & colors directly from the Garden Patch pattern on Lion Brand's site here. It was just so pretty I had to keep it as it was. It adds so much color to our previously pretty dull bedroom. Plus, it's great for pulling over us in the middle of the night when it gets chilly with the windows open & the ceiling fan on.

There are many different ways to sew squares together, but I did mine by taking the two squares I was working on and placing them together, right-side facing each other. Then I whip stitched the edge that I was sewing together through the back loops only (with one of the green yarns). When done, fold it open & you can't even see the stitching, & it's pretty quick to get it all together.

I did end up with a good amount of yarn leftover. I'm gonna run over to Ikea today too in order to pick up some fluffy pillow inserts & make a couple of pillow covers with the leftover yarn for the living room & bedroom. Pretty excited about those too!

Have a good weekend friends!

What's Up With Me Lately?

2013-05-16T16:18:00.001-04:00

Maybe you've noticed, I haven't been blogging as much as I used to. Time, you know? It's just so stinkin' limited around here. Mostly because I work 3 jobs - 1 full time, 1 part time, & 1 bookbinding business & I have a medical resident-husband (meaning, I have a 4th job as homemaker too). Plus, bonus, I'm going BACK to grad school. Why? Because I'm nuts that's why.

I just started this week, but I'm going to Penn State - World Campus. That means it's Penn State, but online, which is going to be interesting. I'm enrolled to get a Graduate Certificate in Statistics, & I have plans to possibly go on for a masters when that's done (but that depends on the fellowship match results etc). The cert will take a year, and the masters would take another year on top of that if all goes according to plan... a little longer if not. I've been saying for a long time that I should have done something with math. I originally went to college wanting to major in accounting, but after one really bad teacher, I changed it to law. Then after being a paralegal for 3 years discovered I don't like law at all! Woops! Got a masters in public administration. Got a job at the U.

Now, both my full time job & my race timing job involve a lot of data management. Like, that's pretty much what I do... database development & management basically. With a little finance thrown in. I love data! I love numbers! I love manipulating data. Thus... I'm getting some education in that field everyone seems to love to hate, stats.

Anyway, so there's that, I'm back at the school thing. Also, I just don't have that much to talk about lately. Life is in one of those stagnant phases where we're just hangin' out. We've decided not to really do anything with our new condo since we wont be here but a year. We are also completely lacking in the things that I assume most people our age are consumed with - working on the house/yard &/or raising kids. So the majority of my days look basically the same. Side note, have you heard this? Anyway, that doesn't leave that much to blog about on a regular basis.

I have been crocheting a lot, & I have a big project coming up to show you tomorrow. I also know of approximately a whole classroom full of babies being born soon so I'll have some things that I'll be whipping up for them... Then hopefully there should be some fun things happening this summer that I may blog about, you know, weekend trips & such. Plus of coarse I'll be letting you know when there is anything cool happening in my shop, so my blog posts wont be stopping completely, they just may or may not be as frequent. I'm not gonna stress about it, you shouldn't either :-)

Testimonials For My Handbound Books

2013-05-07T10:17:00.002-04:00

It had been a while since I last checked my reviews on Etsy. For some reason I'm always scared to look... you know, what if one of my packages was destroyed by the USPS and the receiver got it all mangled & took it out on my review sheet? I know, this is probably an unreasonable fear, but still, I hold my breath whenever I dare to go in there.

But, when I looked at them the other day, I was greeted by a bunch of great comments on my books! It makes me sooo happy when I see that the books I sent along are loved & that the people receiving them were happy with their purchases! I thought I'd share a few of my favorites.

Coptic Stitch- Birds

"Beautiful book! Perfect for inserting photos as well as writing. The paper is nice and thick, too." - Jane

Leather & Lace in Grey

"My anniversary is the 31st, however we were celebrating a week early by going out of town. I had contacted Sara to see if she could get it to me in time, along with a special request: to have our wedding vows placed on the inside page. Sara was so accommodating. She responded to me within 10 minutes of my email and said she would have it to me in plenty of time. She was true to her word. The journal arrived in plenty of time and was a huge hit with my wife. It took me a while to write a review but what do you expect from a guy, especially one who waits until the last minute to get an anniversary gift. A big Thank You to Sara for providing a high quality product in a very timely fashion. One of the best purchases I have made." -Steven

Large Brown Leather Journal

"My son will love this. Received just as I expected. Thanks so much." -Carol

Clover Coptic Stich

"Very quick processing and I love the journal. I use it everyday now. :)" -Lauren

These totally made my day :) Thank you to my customers who left these reviews! I appreciate it so much!

April in Review

2013-05-01T10:41:00.000-04:00

I am sooo glad April is over! Too many showers... we'd better get some crazy pretty flowers out of it. Too cold too. I'm ready for spring & it looks like maaaaybe it MIGHT be here?!?! I'm totally ready for some nice days for races instead of freezing all the time.

So let's break it down...

April... in family time:
Days off with my husband: 0 (damn NICU)
Walking trips to Coldstone: 0 (again, we need to make up for lost time in May)
Days watching my parent's dog: 9- I learned that walking 2 crazy dogs by myself 3 times a day is a challenge!

April... in work:
Races run: 0- time to get back on that
Races worked: 4- one every Saturday of the month!
Days completely off work: 4

April... with friends:
Parties: 2- Baby Jackson's 1st birthday, and Mandy's baby shower!
Book Club: 1- we read "The Art Forger" great book!

Aprl... in blogging:
Most popular post: Crocheted Dishcloths
Fun series: Spring Cleaning

Here's to making May a little more spring-y!

Open Spaces, Letting it be, & What I'm Learning About Waiting

2013-04-29T11:08:00.000-04:00

Usually, when I move to a new home (which has happened a LOT of times in the past 9 years since I graduated from college) I want to get everything unpacked, put away, & up on the walls within the first 24 hours of being there. I'm a JOY to move with.......

I always want to fix things. I've never owned a home, but I haven't let that stop me. I've painted numerous rooms, I've repaired cracks & gashes in walls, I've landscaped, put in new hardware & fixtures, built & put up shelves, even bought a new refrigerator when ours broke & our landlord told us it was our responsibility. Yea, that happened.

Landscaping in the front of the old house

I've always wanted the place I lived in to feel like us. To feel not-so-temporary. To feel like "home". I felt like I needed to fix it up in order to do that.

Now we are in our new condo. We moved at the beginning of February. We'll find out where we match for Fellowship in November. Our lease ends at the end of January. If we match here, we'll probably start looking to buy a house as soon as possible. If we match elsewhere, we'll be moving at the end of next June. That means we only have another 9 to 14 months in this condo. I'm finding that having that end-date in sight has changed my perspective & I have been able to chill more in this rental than I have in any of the ones I've had before.

We've been here almost 3 months (wow!) What have I done to the place? I touched up the paint in the kitchen where there were some scuffs & such. They had left a can of the paint in the garage, so it took about 2 minutes to run around with a roller & touch up spots on the walls. We also replaced the shower-head in the master bedroom with one that we got at Home Depot for about $20. The one they had was just too annoying to deal with. And we had the landlord fix the constantly dripping master shower.

That's IT. We don't even have much stuff up on the walls. I used some nails that were already in the walls to hang up a clock & some wedding pictures & we hung up B's office shelves & the wine rack & a calendar. When you live with a medical resident with crazy hours, a calendar is a MUST! The rest of the walls are bare. I have some pictures & mirrors & things leaning up against the walls where I thought they might be able to go, but it's curious the lack of urgency I feel to actually put them up. Especially when I know that in about a year I'll just be taking them down again.

There are a ton of things I was going to do. Things that I'd do if we were going to stay here longer. I would cover the window treatments in the living room with prettier fabric, I'd paint in there too. I wanted to build a massive dinning room table, but then I was thinking, oh my gosh then we'd have to MOVE that giant table in just a few short months... it can wait. I thought about building a cabinet for the master bathroom for that space behind the tub, but what if there's no place for it when we move?

Our current "dinning" table

We even went shopping for some new chairs for the living room, as we only have the sectional & one chair in there right now & it feels like we need more seating. But, we're now not going to get anything. We don't know what will fit where we eventually move & don't really want to buy some cheep furniture just to have something there for the next couple of months. I was thinking of getting a new grill too, but there's the same issues with that. I'm at the point where I'd rather wait & buy something nice for a home that we're going to be in for a long while.

So what AM I going to do? Uh, not a lot. Do you even understand how RELAXING this is?!? I never knew! It's freeing to me in the exact way that The Nester talked about in this post, only for different reasons. There are still some little changes I've got in mind. Things like changing out pillows, covering our blackout curtains in the bedroom with some prettier fabric (those go with us when we move). I bought some new hot pads the other day, that was exciting, haha! I'm gonna focus on replacing some small things of ours that are bad or falling apart with better things... not really adding more stuff (that we may or may not need) to our collection.

Because really, our place now is like 100x better than our old place without having to do any changes to it. I actually like having open spaces in our layout & on our walls. Our dog loves running around our house... and even if he completely wipes out (which totally happens) he's not going to injure himself because we have too much furniture. It is amazing having all of this space! I'm completely surprised at my serious lack of desire to fill any of it. Maybe it's a result of feeling so cramped in the old place for so long, or maybe since we just moved I'm already thinking about having to move as little amount of "stuff" as possible next time, but I'm absolutely loving the feeling of openness in our new place.

So there it is. We are living with our rental just the way it is. Minimal changes ahead! This is what rental life is supposed to be right? It's time to start taking advantage of the situation :)

April Series: Spring Cleaning- Kitchen

2013-04-25T11:14:00.000-04:00

I'm so glad that April is almost over! The weather has been not fun (it SNOWED yesterday) and I haven't gotten to see my husband much (dang NICU!) Plus, I must admit I'm getting tired of cleaning every day. I don't know if the method I chose this year for spring cleaning- deep cleaning one room per week rather than doing the whole house in a weekend- was the best idea or not. It does have some drawbacks for sure.

But this week, I've been working on the kitchen. I put this one off because it's probably the hardest in the house for me. The normal cleaning is fine, doing the counters & floors & cleaning the appliances & such, no big deal. The part that I hate is cleaning out the fridge, taking everything out & washing the inside. Cleaning out the pantry & wiping down all the shelves. Taking all of our kitchen utencils & pots & pans & silverware & flatware & everything out of all the cupboards & wiping down the shelves in all of the cabinets. Oh my gosh it's a long slow agonizing process. But, when I think about what would happen if I didn't do this every once in a while (aka once a year) how gross things could get eventually, I'm glad I do this. This is where you keep things you EAT off of. You want it to be clean right?

I've also been wiping down the outside of the cabinets as I complete the inside. Taking special care around the handles of them, since that's the spot that's touched every single day. I got up high & wiped the top of the cabinets down too, it gets pretty gross up there. I also have been doing a little bit of purging of things like pots & pans that are not good anymore. I still plan on purging & cleaning under the sink as well.

At least I get to use my fun kitchen scrubbies to help my cleaning along :)

To clean the big appliances, I'm using these methods:

Oven- ours is self-cleaning, so I'm running the self clean & then wiping down the inside when done! Also taking out the racks to clean them in the sink.

Fridge- I'm using this step by step process. I'll put a open box of baking soda in when I'm done.

Microwave- This is pretty easy, just boil a bowl of 50/50 water to vinegar in the microwave to steam it up a bit, then wipe it down.

Dishwasher- I HATE doing this, sooo gross. But it must be done. I'm using this method!

Garbage Disposal- Not as bad :) I'm using this method and plan on making some of these this weekend to keep it smelling fresh!

Coffee Maker- We use vinegar pretty regularly to clean this. I'll also throw the actual coffee pot in the dishwasher to clean it up.

I'll also be cleaning the garbage can (gross) and steam cleaning the floors. I'll do a bit of cleaning of the underside of the hood above the stove too. Woot! Oh & a trip to Home Depot is in order too for some new drip bowls for the stove. I'll probably get these ones. It looks so good when they are nice & new & shiny!

So is the kitchen anyone else's least favorite room to clean? I'm assuming I'm not alone here. It's a TON of work!!!!

Crocheted Kitchen Scrubbies

2013-04-19T09:41:00.000-04:00

I don't know about you, but I wash all of my pots & pans, knives, and wine glasses by hand. I have a dishwasher, but I find it's best to wash these specific things by hand. So I'm doing dishes unusually about twice a day. I always used to use a sponge to do this, but I was having to replace it all the time! Sponges do not last very long do they? Well, I came across this new option recently & had to give it a try!

Yea! Little kitchen scrubbies! These turned out to be about the size of my palm, maybe a little bigger. I used a pattern I found on Nadine's Patterns. They are made of tulle, so they are scrubby, without being really abrasive.

I bought a red & a blue roll of tulle from JoAnn's. They are by the cake stuff... I don't know why, but you know the area that has all of the cake decorating supplies, yea, it's over there. I looked all over that store & finally found it :) I'll save you the time. You cut the tulle in half before crocheting it, so those rolls are going to last me a while! I predict I can probably make about 4 scrubbies per roll. Which is great! It's under $2 for a roll, so that is much cheaper than buying sponges. Plus they are just cute don't you think?

Little cuties right? One side is pretty flat, and the other side has the little ridges that you see above going into a spiral. This is done by doing back look crochets instead of regular ones. I do love these & am looking forward to throwing out all sponges. Yuck! What do you think of them?

April Series: Spring Cleaning- Living Room

2013-04-16T09:30:00.000-04:00

This month I'm doing a series on spring cleaning. Who doesn't like cleaning right? Um.... me, I don't like cleaning. But I dislike a dirty gross home even more, so I do what I gotta do :)

For my spring cleaning this year, I'm focusing on one room or area of the house per week, so that I don't have to spend a whole weekend cleaning (which I don't even have because I'm working a race every weekend this month) and so that I can work on it a little bit each day. One downside to this method is there is no euphoric day of having the entire house sparkling, but I think the benefits to my sanity are worth it.

I focused on our bathrooms, and our master bedroom in previous weeks. This week I'm focusing on our living room. One of the weird things I have had to work on this week is the walls. The walls in our living room were not repainted before we moved in, so they have a number of scuff marks all around the room. The kitchen had these too, but I found the paint for the kitchen in the garage, and was able to paint over any marks about a week after we moved in. But after opening every can of paint left there, I could not find any for the living room. So while we contemplate repainting the whole room, I had to get rid of the scuff marks that were really driving me nuts.

I started by doing the smaller ones with a large pencil eraser. I'd read about this once somewhere, and it did actually work really well, without leaving any additional marks on the wall. For some of the stubborn ones, I went around with a magic eraser. This was able to remove the rest of the marks. The paint however is pretty flat, so when sunlight hits these spots & you're looking at the wall from a certain angle, you can see a little bit of discoloration from the magic eraser. So I would recommend trying a pencil eraser first. If I owned the place, I would be fixing this immediately... but since we're renting here for only the next 9 to 14 months (depending on the match) I'm not convinced that it's worth it. It's a big room & would require a large amount of paint to re-do the whole thing.

So that's done. What else have I done/is on my list to do in the living room? Well...

-Vacuum everything... moving furniture to get under & behind everything
-Dusting
-Clean TV
-Clean windows (including the outside of windows for those on the balcony
-Vacuum furniture
-Wash throw pillows
-Wash throw blankets
-Wash Mojo's blankets & bed from this room
-Clean piano
-Look for/clean any cobwebs along ceiling
-Wipe down baseboards
-Individually clean any nicknacks/replace seasonal ones
-Sweep balcony

It's nothing too earth shattering, and it's really not too hard.

How's your spring cleaning going this year? Have you started yet, or are you one of the lucky ones who has a cleaner come in to do it for you? Someday........

My Favorite Crocheted Kitchen Dishcloths! Great Mother's Day Gift

2013-04-12T09:32:00.000-04:00

I'm so excited to show you guys these! Who knew I could get this excited about a dishcloth? But it's easy to get excited about them when they turn out looking like this:

And like this

Aren't they the most fun dishcloths ever? I had planned on making just two of these, the purple & green ones, but I ended up continuing with them & making another set of orange & pink ones. I'm planning on giving the second set to my mom for Mother's Day :) They make a great gift!

Ever since I've been using my set I feel that I'll never go back to using a store bought dishcloth. These are so much more... scrubby. They are more sturdy too. Plus you gotta admit, they are pretty!!!

I'll probably end up feeling the need to make more of these soon... must buy more cotton yarn! For this project, I used this pattern from Ravelry, which I originally found via Pinterest! It's free! I also used Kitchen Cotton yarn from Lion Brand in Snap Pea, Grape, Pumpkin, & Cayenne. It's a super easy dishcloth that you can whip up very quickly. I love that it's pretty solid too (not a lot of big holes like in some crochet dishcloths). They are seriously lovely! If you're looking for a great dishcloth pattern, try this one out!!

I'm linking this post up to the Pinterest Challenge, hosted by Young House Love, Bower Power, Sparkle Meets Pop, & Red Bird Blue.

April Series: Spring Cleaning- Bathrooms

2013-04-10T09:00:00.000-04:00

After cleaning the big, purge-intensive master bedroom last week, I wanted something a little easier this week. So I'm going with the bathrooms.

Bathrooms, to me, are not super fun to clean, but they aren't super hard. I normally clean each of my two bathrooms every other week, one then the other. Back & forth. So they never get SUPER dirty. That's when it's really no fun. Plus I wipe down our sinks every day, which helps a ton.

But this week, it is time to deep clean both bathrooms. What does this look like? Well for me, I will be doing my normal cleaning schedule, including:

Take everything out of the room & clean sinks & showers & baths with bathroom cleaner.
Clean the mirror
Replace hand towels & wash shower mat
Clean toilet inside & out
Empty out garbage
Vacuume
Clean the floors with bathroom cleaner

Plus I'll be adding these extra tasks:

Wash the windows
Scrub the shower door
Replace bleach tablet (or anti-rust tablet) in the toilet tank
Clean out drawers/cabinets under the sink and/or medicine cabinet
Wash shower curtain in 2nd bath (we never use this shower, but it still should be cleaned!)
Check walls for cobwebs &/or scuffs
Wipe down the floor & window molding
Dust light fixtures
Wipe down cabinets & hardware

Yea, it's not super exciting, but it's not too hard either, especially when you do it a little at a time. I did my normal cleaning stuff over the weekend on both baths, so I'm focusing in the detail stuff this week. Just a couple of things a day & we're good! Since we just moved, the most time intensive thing on this list isn't bad for me... but before our move, it would have taken me a little while to clean out my cabinets. We had a ton of random stuff down there! Plus going through my makeup & lotions & such can take a while. But right now, my bathrooms are really slimmed down, so it's not bad at all!

I actually don't mind cleaning the bathrooms. It's much better than cleaning the kitchen!!! (That's my least favorite). How about you? Do you really hate it or not mind it so much?

Introducing Ribbon Bound Albums!

2013-04-08T11:30:00.000-04:00

I've been dreaming these up for a few months, and I'm so excited to finally be able to announce that they are ready & in my shop for purchase! This is a brand new collection of albums, bound with ribbon, that are available in 3 different sizes. I have several made, ready to send out, and I'm also offering them made-to-order, with many different options for you to choose exactly how you'd like your album to look!

They are so stinkin' pretty & I'm so excited about them!

These albums are made with care by me. Each one is covered in gorgeous Japanese Chiyogami paper. This paper is probably some of the most beautifully crafted in the world. It's made of mixed kozo (mulberry) & sulphite (wood pulp that's been treated with peroxide or hypochlorite) silkscreened with amazing patterns. The bound edge is covered with my favorite Japanese bookcloth. The textured cardstock pages, which come in black or white; are bound together with colorful 1-inch satin ribbon.

Large Butterfly Design & Large Floral Design

The large design is approximately 12.5 inches by 12.25 inches & about 1 inch thick at the binding. Each page has a useable space of about 10 inches wide by 12 inches tall. They come with 22 pages (44 front & back). I picture these being used as wedding albums, but they could be used for many different things. Wouldn't they be beautiful as a parents album for their child's wedding or as a gift for a couple's vow renewals too?

Medium Floral Album

The medium design is approximately 11.5 inches by 9 inches & about 1 inch thick at the binding. Each page has a useable space of about 9.5 inches wide by 8.5 inches tall. They also come with 22 pages, or 44 front & back. I created these with a specific purpose in mind. When I got married, my mom took a ton of pictures the day before, at rehearsal & dinner, and also the morning of the wedding, breakfast, getting ready, etc before the photographer arrived. I wanted a really nice album to hold these special pictures, and this is what I came up with! Obviously, it could be used for whatever you wish, but that's how I envisioned them being used. They'd also make great baby albums or larger sized guestbooks!

Small Blossom Album

The small design is approximately 8.7 inches by 5.75 inches & about .75 inch thick at the binding. Each page has a useable space of about 7 inches wide by 5.6 inches tall. It also has 22 pages, 44 front & back. These smaller books would make great baby albums, guestbooks, and/or gifts for teens! I keep thinking of them as little books to house pictures for a baby's first week of life. How cute would that be!?

Since I'm also offering the books made-to-order, I have tons of options for you to choose from! If you would like to design your own book, you'd need to pick a size (small, medium, or large), page color (black or white), cover paper,

bookcloth color,

and ribbon color.

Custom orders will take about a week for me to make, prior to shipping. So keep them in mind for the next album you need! I had so much fun dreaming these up & I'm in love with how they have turned out! They are very beautiful & would be cherished in your family collection. What do you think of them!?

If you're ready to order, be sure to sign up for my email list below! You'll instantly get a coupon code for free shipping on your album.

Mojo Needed a New Dog Bed- So... I Crocheted One!

2013-04-05T09:33:00.000-04:00

Yea, it's true. I crocheted a dog bed cover. Hehe! Mojo really was in need of a new cover for his bed that is in our bedroom. I was looking around at different ones... I wanted something colorful & on the plush side. But nothing was really standing out to me, so I decided I'd create one myself. As you know, I don't really know how to sew, so I went ahead with crocheting the dog be cover.

And guess what!?

He loves it!

It took quite a while to make. I used Lion Brand Hometown USA yarn in Fort Worth Blue, Charlotte Blue, Billings Chocolate, Green Bay, and Daytona Lemon. This is a nice thick 6 weight yarn, but I crocheted it in a pretty tight stitch (each stripe contains two rows of half double crochets) so it took some time & a good amount of yarn :) But the result is a really plush cover!

I made it as all one piece, then folded it in half & sewed it together along the edges inside out, then when I only had half of one of the sides left to sew, I turned it right side out & stuffed it, then sewed the last edge together with my yarn. Mojo was pretty excited about it as I was creating it. I kept in in the living room on the chair or floor for a while when I wasn't working on it, & he was always checking it out. It felt like I was making a blanket! It could have been a blanket before I sewed it into his bed.

These colors would make a really fun baby blanket for a little boy too. Cute! I love picking out colors for new projects. There's so many kinds of yarn out there & they are so colorful! I didn't realize it, but my husband pointed out that Mojo's new bed matches his plaid collar! You can kind of see it in the picture above. I took these pictures last weekend when I was outside on our little porch (in a sweatshirt, but it was sunny, so I had to go out there)! It was so beautiful out & there were tons of people out for walks & bike rides! I have a feeling I'm going to be spending a lot of time out there this summer :)

My Dream House

2013-04-03T14:00:00.001-04:00

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Moen, Incorporated for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.
Both in our new place & in the place I lived prior to our last house, I have done a lot of walking around my neighborhoods. Both neighborhoods have beautiful houses in them. Houses that from the outside, include some of my favorite house features. I feel like I've had a ton of time to think about what I would love to have in my dream house if/when we ever buy one. I've lived in 7 rentals, just post-college. Yep, I'm special like that. So I've had a lot of experience with different types of places, different quirks, & different features that I now have a good handle on what I love about a place & also what I hate or what I would avoid if we were to buy.
One thing that I absolutely love about many of the houses in my current neighborhood is the big front porches. I love a huge front porch. I grew up with one, and in the spring (when it actually feels like spring) summer & fall, my parents are constantly on the porch. Literally. When B & I go over there we spend the entire day out there too. I love being outside, and even sitting on the porch to watch a storm come through is so fun! It's one of the things both B & I really want some day.
I also love that people seem to take care of their property around here. It's the type of place where people put wreaths on their door for each season. Where neighbors say hi. Where I'm sure there will be plenty of Christmas lights up on houses in December. I can't wait to see the flowers in the spring! This place is going to be beautiful when it starts turning more green!

I want a beautiful kitchen. I really think that I'd like to have grey cabinets. I like the look of white, but I feel like they'd be a really big pain to keep clean. I want pretty countertops... not sure what kind; just not laminate. And a backsplash, I've never had one of those... and an island. I love the one we have now. I'd love some stainless steel appliances. I'd also love one of these.Kiran Spot Resist one-handle pulldown kitchen faucets (get one at Lowe's & check 'em out on Facebook or Twitter!) with a stainless steal sink. (I've had a white ceramic kitchen sink before, so hard to keep clean!How amazing would it be to not even have to touch your faucet to get it to turn on. I know that would come in handy for me all the time. I've always got a mess goin on or my hands full! Its finish also resists fingerprints and water spots! The Moen Kiran pulldown spout has 2 spray functions, aerated stream or the powerful cleaning rinse, with pause feature. Its Relex system offers smooth operation, easy movement and secure docking.

I also want a basement. I've been wanting a basement for years. We still didn't get one in this rental, but I'm going to have one someday. Unless we move somewhere that doesn't have basements I guess. I know they don't really have them in AZ where my brother lives. They just give you so much extra space! Finished or unfinished, I don't really care, I just want the space :)
I know too that hardwood floors are very "in" right now. But, I actually really like carpet. I admit it, I do. If not carpet than a super large & plush rug that covers the majority of the floor. I like sitting on the floor, I like that my feet aren't freezing all winter. It's so much easier to keep looking nice I think. With my wood floors I had to vacuum & steam them basically every day if I wanted them to look good. With the carpet, I don't have to steam them, just vacuum every other day or so & give them a good wash periodically. I know there are lots of arguments against carpet, but I like it, & I'm sticking to it (at least for now) haha!
These are just some of the basic things that I'd really like to have in any house that we buy. They don't have to be there where we buy it, but after all of these years of renting, I certainly know what I want. Watch me be super hard to please when we finally do go house shopping haha! :)

April Series: Spring Cleaning- Bedrooms

2013-04-02T09:30:00.000-04:00

It's Spring!!! So they say...... I have my suspicions.... but, nevertheless, it is spring & that means it's time for spring cleaning! Yea!!!! Uh.... yea.

This year, instead of going through our whole place over the coarse of one (no fun) weekend, I've decided to tackle one room (or group of rooms) every week. I'll share what room I'm working on that week with you all ever Tuesday, so if you want to participate with me you can!

I'm not doing all of my cleaning on one day during the week either. I just don't have time for that with work & race season starting. I'm doing a couple things every day. When it's broken down like that, it seems to be much easier to me.

This week we're working on the master bedroom!

First on my list for the master bedroom include going through my closet. I've started on this task already. I did a pretty major clean out when we moved, but now that the seasons are changing, I want to get rid of a few more things that I wasn't really wearing over the winter, or can't see myself wearing this summer. I know there are some people who like to hang on to everything, just in case it comes back in style or they decide to wear it someday, but I'm not really like that. I get rid of things all the time. I do keep a "painting outfit", but other than that, I'm constantly cleaning out my closet.

The other two pretty big things that I need to do is wash the curtains & flip our mattress. I'll probably do the curtains tonight, but I need my husband to help me with the mattress, and he's on a rough rotation this month, so grabbing him to help me do so might be a challenge. It'll happen though :) On a related note, it's time to switch out the bedding. We use flannel sheets in the winter, it's now time to change to the regular sheets..... which I have to find.... hum... where did we put those...

Then there is the general cleaning. On my list:
Dusting
Vaccuuming (move furniture to get behind/under things. I'll also be using this on our carpet)
Clean the walls & doors
Baseboards
Clean the windows
Vaccuum/clean the mattress
Clean ceiling fan (might need B to help with this one too as our ceilings in there are HIGH)
Wash all bedding including pillows, comforter & cover
Clean out baskets & nightstands

Maybe put some things up on the walls? They are sooo bare right now!

Am I missing anything? We don't have a ton of stuff in our master bedroom, because our old one was about half the size of our current one, and we just haven't filled it up. So cleaning shouldn't be too hard :) Good luck with your bedroom cleaning this week too!!!

Crochet Along with Habitual Homebody

2013-03-29T09:04:00.000-04:00

I've had a super crazy-busy-stressful week this past week at work. So glad it's finally Friday. This week was implementation week of a new database system that I've been working on developing with our programers for the past year. We transferred all of our data into the new system on Wednesday & have been fixing bugs in the system since then. So it's been a little nuts.

However, I did take a little time last night to create this headband.

Alycia at Habitual Homebody hosts a crochet along every month & I just learned about it recently & really wanted to participate! The link party actually went up yesterday, but I didn't have time to whip it up until last night. I totally made this in bed too. It was really easy & didn't take very long at all. You can find the original pattern here at All About Ami.

I had to change it a little bit, probably just based on the yarn & hook I used. Plus I tend to be a pretty tight crochet-er. So the numbers are a little different on mine, but it still turned out pretty lovely.

This is a great piece for the weather we're having right now, when you feel silly wearing a winter hat, but don't want to be walking for a long period of time outside without anything covering your ears. I park almost a mile from my office every day, so the walk can get pretty cold. Headbands are great for me at time time! I'm glad I could crochet this on such short notice with some yarn I had laying around!

Bring on the Warm Weather! Spring Floral Wreath

2013-03-26T09:30:00.000-04:00

I finally went ahead & made my spring wreath for this year over this past weekend. I'd been putting it off because it didn't FEEL like spring... but since it now IS supposed to be spring, I figured it was acceptable.

I'd been really wanting to make a big full floral wreath for this year, but I wasn't sure how to do it. I thought that it would be pretty hard to do. But it turns out, it wasn't hard at all! It actually was really really easy, took very little time, and looks great! My husband says it's his favorite wreath that I've made.

I got my supplies at Hobby Lobby. A vine wreath & a pre-made bouquet of flowers. I found it was less expensive to get a bouquet than to buy each bloom individually. They have a ton of options, I had a hard time choosing! I liked the colors of this one though, so purple & yellow it is! I also used a hot glue gun & glue sticks & some wire cutters that I had on hand.

To make your wreath, first cut the blooms off of the bouquet. I left about 2 inches of each flowers stem. You'll use this stem to attach the flower to the wreath.

To arrange my flowers on the wreath, I separated them by flower type & attached them to the wreath one flower type at a time. This way, I could make sure that I had them fairly evenly distributed around the wreath. I started with the largest ones first (the big yellow ones) then applied them one by one 'till I got to the smallest ones. When you stick the stem in the wreath, they actually stay pretty well. But since my wreath would be hanging outside, I also used some hot glue on each stem to make sure it stayed for the long haul.

It turned out even better than I thought it would! I'm thinking of making another one for my mom for Mothers Day or Easter. The size is nice & the bouquet gave me the perfect amount of flowers to cover my vine wreath & make it look very full. I love it & it makes me smile every day!

Do you like my new door? I love it, but it totally gives me a reflection when taking pictures! Hi friends! Have you ever made a floral wreath? If not you should try! It's so much easier than it looks :)

I linked this post up to:
Whipperberry

Red Chunk Cord Scarf

2013-03-22T09:30:00.000-04:00

It looks like I've gotten into the habit of showing you all my recent crochet projects on Fridays. So here's another one I whipped up the other night.

We really need some sunshine around here so that my pictures aren't so dark... gaaah!

Anyway, this is a pretty basic i-cord scarf. Don't know what an i-cord is? There's a great video tutorial of this (& tons of other crochet stitches) over at New Stitch a Day. I'm so in love with this fairly new site. They put up a video tutorial of a new crochet stitch & a new knit stitch every day. So pretty much every morning I'm watching a video & thinking of things I want to make with the new stitch presented that day. There's just so many choices!

To make this scarf, I started with a full ball of Vanna's Sequins Yarn by Lion Brand. I made a really really long i-cord with this yarn until I only had about 10 ft of yarn left. Then I wrapped the cord around my neck over & over, making some loops longer than others. I ended up doing this a few times before it laid in a way that I liked. Then I took either end of the looped scarf, and put them together with the rest of the loops as they came together in one spot (in the photos, this place is behind my neck) I wrapped the remaining yarn around all of the loops of i-cord, so that my loops would always stay put, tied it off, and was done!

Have you made a scarf like this before? I really like that it's super light on. I would call it a spring scarf because it's so light. Now if only spring would begin here in the mitten......

Blueprint Plaid Folk Art & Handmade Charlotte

2013-03-20T09:00:00.000-04:00

I love getting packages in the mail! It's so much fun to come home all tired from work to have that pretty brown package sitting on your front porch. It's like the day instantly improves! It's even better when you aren't exactly expecting that box. It's kinda a wait, what could this BE!?!?! kind of moment. Yippy! So the other day I came home to a pretty box in front of my door. When I opened up the mystery box, it turned out to be some FolkArt stencils & related supplies to test out from the nice folks at Plaid!

I decided to use my stencil on a project I've had on my list of things to do for a while. I got this little bedside table from my parent's a while back. It's super old, has been around forever. In fact, while cleaning it up for painting, I found scrunched in the back behind one of the drawers an old paystub of my dad's from 1978 (he made me shred it & flush the shredded paper down the toilet because it had his personal info on it). There was also some pages from the Detroit Free Press from 1960 with an article about "old maids" (single women in their 20s) being picky & fussy. The author was very glad that there weren't too many of them around any more because of their bad personalities.

Anyway, here's how the little guy turned out after painting & stenciling.

Here's what it looked like before.

Yikes right?!?! I wish I knew who this table was made by, but I couldn't find any kind of stamp anywhere. My brother has the matching one in Arizona, but his looks much better. This one was in the basement for as long as I can remember & my mom used it to keep her laundry detergent on down there. Now she has her nice new laundry room though so she no longer needed it. I cleaned & painted it white like any other piece of furniture I paint (sand, prime, paint 2 coats) in basic white.

Then came the fun part, trying out my stencils! I got a leafy stencil that I really liked the design of. Great for spring! I keep waiting for the little leaf buds to appear on our trees outside, but no such luck yet. (In fact, it's been snowing the last few days!) These stencils were so easy to use! I cut out the shapes that I wanted to use to make it easier to tape them to my surface. I used painters tape to secure them so that the tape wouldn't take off my white paint.

Then I poured out some of the FolkArt paint I was sent, and used my provided sponge applicators to dab at the stencils. I made sure to get a small amount of paint on my sponge, rather than a lot, which could easily bleed under the stencil. I ended up applying 3 coats of paint to my project to get it to the vibrancy that I wanted. 3 easy, dabbed on, light layers & it was done!

Once I took off the stencil, I could see that it turned out just the way I had been picturing it! Pretty cute right?

It's been a while since I have used any kind of stenciling product, so I was kind of nervous about how this would turn out, so I was extra careful with my painting of them. I'm glad I was though because it's always better to do more light coats than end up with too much paint going onto your project at once.

Interested in these FolkArt Stencils or other Plaid products? Check them out in these places!
Plaid on Facebook
Plaid on Twitter
Follow Plaid on Pinterest

I wrote this post as part of a sponsored campaign with Plaid and The Blueprint Social. All opinions in this post are my own.

Check out these other fun projects made using stencils from Plaid!

Our Drippy Shower Drama

2013-03-19T09:30:00.000-04:00

When we moved to our new place, there was only one thing that was really bugging me enough that I felt we had to make a move to fix it asap. Our leaking showerhead in the master bathroom.

Our shower was dripping at a rate of about a drip per second & it was sooo stinkin' loud when we were trying to sleep in the same room. Not to mention all of the water that was being wasted & the fact that I had to clean the shower practically every other day so that we wouldn't get any mold. I just couldn't understand why no one would have fixed it before we came. The previous tenants weren't drove nuts by it?!

I thought it would be an easy fix. When your faucets or showerhead is dripping, it's usually a problem with the shut off valve (not the faucet). I found a pretty good video of the process here. We had a single Delta shower shut off that looked like this:

First thing first, I had to find the water shut off valve in our new place. I found what I thought was the valve in the laundry room next to our water heater. But, I couldn't get the thing to move. I tried & tried, but that thing was stuck. It made me think that maybe that wasn't it, and that I needed to look elsewhere. So after searching high & low & coming up empty, I consulted the Google.

The Google told me that lots of condo just have one main water shut off valve. Commence panic. I was like, crap that means I might have to get someone else to do this! This stinks! But, I went ahead & contacted the HOA, explaining the situation & asking where the shut off valve was if I had access to it or what the process was to get it shut off for a period of time.

In response, the HOA sent someone out here to show my husband the valve while he was home on vacation the other week. And... it was where I had originally thought it was. Except he couldn't get it to move either. Apparently some other people have had this same problem & forced the valve & ended up breaking it, resulting in a major water disaster. So I sure am glad that I didn't try to force it any more than I did!

The HOA guy made an appointment to come back later in the week to replace the valve. That did require him letting the whole building know that he was going to shut off the water to the whole place. Hubby was still on vacation when he came, so that worked out well. And now we can shut our water on & off easily! I was so excited, thinking that I was now going to be able to fix the leak.

When I got home, I got started! So first think I needed to do after shutting off the water was take the shower valve apart. I got out my trusty set of allen wrenches & got to it. Only that little screw would not budge. I put all my muscle in it for at least a half hour, then told B that I needed to go to Home Depot for some lube to get the thing to move. After applying some spay lube to the valve & letting it sit for an hour, I tried again. Then I had B try. No luck, the thing would not move.

By this time I was starting to feel frustrated for sure. It felt like I was getting stopped at every single step of the way. I had finally hit my last straw when I realized in order to do this thing I was going to have to drill it out & replace the whole thing. So I decided heck with it, I'm calling the landloard to fix this. That's one of the benefits of renting right? Getting stuff fixed for you. I figured I had put in a good faith effort & it was now time to call in the professionals before I went ahead with ruining some of their fixtures. Maybe they had some other trick I didn't know about to get the thing off.

Finally, I was able to make an appointment for them to send someone out here. The plumber guy came, couldn't get it off either, and drilled it out, just as I thought. Then he had to leave to go find a new fixture to put in... and was gone for 2.5 hours. (Whaaa?) So there I sat with no water, my shower all busted apart, waiting for this guy. Just when I was starting to get really mad (& craving some hot chocolate that I couldn't have since I didn't have water) he showed up. I guess he had to drive many towns over to find the part he needed to replace. Mmm-hum. Whatever, just get the job done.

10 minutes later it was fixed! He cleaned everything up & we tested it. And it worked! And didn't drip! Oh my gosh do you know how exciting that is!? I keep forgetting that it's fixed & feeling dread when I realize I have to go in there, but then remembering that it's fixed & it'll be silent when I walk into our bedroom! Woooooo hooooo! You have no idea how exciting that is unless you've lived with a constant drip in your sleep for over a month.

Lesson I learned? Sarah you're a renter! If you're encountering obstacles every step of a house project, it's okay to go ahead & call in the pros. Let them deal with it & save yourself the stress!

What's in my Toolbox? Tools I Use for Bookbinding

2013-03-18T09:30:00.000-04:00

If you don't know, bookbinding requires a ton of tools. Yes, a ton. Well, I guess it depends on what kind of books your binding, but I have a lot of tools that I use regularly in my business. Some are things you may have laying around your house already, especially if you're a regular crafter. But others might be new to you! Here are some of my favorite bookbinding tools (not including paper, that's a given).

First things first, you have to have a bone folder! Mine is small, only about 4 inches long. I also use a 12 inch metal ruler, and a small awl with a round wooden handle. This is used for pre-punching holes in my paper or leather so that my stitches are straight.

Sometimes I need to glue pretty papers or bookcloth onto bookboard. I use a standard bookboard, along with my glue brush & PVA bookbinders glue. I usually use my paper cutter to cut my cover papers. It creates nice straight lines. I'm also currently using it to cut pages for a new project that will have sturdier pages with straight edges.

I have another different cutter for bookboard. My Zutter Cutter works wonders & makes cutting bookboard so easy. I love that it has a little ruler at the bottom that holds my bookboard at the correct spot for cutting. It's so easy to use too once you figure it out.

There are a few options for the type of thread you can use to sew a book together. I use waxed linen thread. You can also use unwaxed thread, and wax it yourself, or use it unwaxed. The purpose of have waxed thread is that it bunches & knots much less if it's waxed. I like to buy mine pre-waxed so that it's nice & evenly distributed. I really like the Crawford brand thread, it comes in tons of different colors!

Photo from here

There are a bunch of other things that I use only once in a while, depending on the book. I have a roll of cord to make my quarter leather journals, lots of ribbon, bookcloth, headbands, and "super" used for spine reinforcement. I buy the majority of my supplies locally, at Hollanders. They do ship their products, so if you're interested in learning about bookbinding, check out what they have!!

A Peachy Spring Cowl

2013-03-15T09:00:00.000-04:00

Is it warming up here in the mitten? Uh... not really... well... some days. The other day it was sunny, then cloudy, then blizzard-ing, then sunny again all in a matter of 8 hours. But it is a teeny tiny bit warmer on average I think. It's just sporadic. We're not quite to this point yet, but there are days in spring around here where you turn your heat on for part of the day and your air conditioning for another part of the day (speaking of which, guess who HAS air conditioning in their new place... THIS GIRL! Oh yea, it's gonna be awesome not having to sleep in a puddle of sweat during the summer anymore).

Anyway, I've gotten off track. I know that some of you out there are starting to experience warmer weather. Lucky ducks! I had a bunch of leftover yarn from my peach slouchy hat that I decided create a little springtime cowl scarf with.

Yea! I love this! One of these days I'll get around to writing patterns for these, but I've been on a kick lately & haven't stopped to write things down. Hopefully in a couple weeks I'll have a big pattern day! For now, this scarf is a combination of single crochets & crossed triple crochets in two different colors. The key is using a really soft yarn to give it the spring-y feel & look.

I'm always ending up with a bunch of leftover yarn from my projects & not really knowing what to do with it, so I'm glad I came up with this way to use some of my stash. I've made a hat & this scarf with this yarn & still have quite a bit left. I used Caron Simply Soft yarn for this project.

Is it still cold where you live? I'm just watching the morning news right now & seeing that it's supposed to snow tonight. Really? About 3 inches. Really? Where is spring!?!? Come quickly spring :)

My March WhimseyBox Project

2013-03-12T09:30:00.000-04:00

Last week I got my most recent WhimseyBox in the mail! I recently won a contact that they hosted in which I now get one year of WhimseyBoxes free! Woop! They have a fun community over there where you can post your recent projects. They don't have to come from your WhimseyBox supplies, but it's fun to post these projects on there too. It's a great place to go for inspiration for new projects as well!

So this month's box came looking like this:

From the supplies in my box, as well as a few embellishments of my own, I made this really cute memo board

I love it! I received some plain boards, a pad of paper, and some rubber bands. I also received some black & gold washi tape. I like the black & gold tape & will be using it in the future, but I had these purple designs on hand, and really wanted to use them for this project.

I used my purple washi tape to cover the board, then covered that with some white & purple polka-dot tape haphazardly. I then wanted to add a little something extra, to I put on a little paper doily & some pink, purple & red buttons with some hot glue.

I used the provided rubber bands to hold the pad of paper to the board. For now, this is sitting on my desk, but I think I'll try to add a good magnet on the back so that it can hang on the fridge. It would make a great board for my husband & I to leave messages for each other, especially when he's working nights & we don't get to see each other!

I've been loving my Whimseyboxes! I love the packaging they come in too. I've been keeping my boxes for additional craft storage. I can keep ribbon & lace in them & printed crochet patterns & hooks & other various crafts in them too. They are very sturdy!

Do you receive Whimseybox? What did you create this month?

Crocheted Dog Bowl Rug

2013-03-08T09:30:00.000-05:00

Being in our brand new place, my husband requested that we have Mojo's dog dishes sit on a mat in the kitchen. I was fine with that request, because that meant that I got to crochet a new mat for him!

I ordered some Zpagetti Yarn from Lion Brand Yarns. I had originally ordered one solid colored & one multi colored, but I got an email that apparently this stuff is super popular & they were out of the prints. So I requested that they just send me two solid colored ones instead. The thing with ordering this yarn is that you can't choose your colors. I'm sure they must sell it in some stores, but I hadn't seen it around, so I ordered it since I didn't really care what colors I got for this project. It's made using scraps from garment manufacturing. Cool huh?

So anyway, I got my yarn & received black & yellow. I started crocheting this by starting with a chain, then single crocheting around that chain on either side, and continued with rounds of single crochet until I ran out of the black yarn. I did all of my increases on the corners, but I didn't really keep track of numbers of stitches, I just kind of figured it out as I went. Then I switched to yellow & did three rounds with that. I used all of the black yarn & probably a little more than half of the yellow.

I think this was a pretty good project for my first time trying out the Zpagetti. I was able to play around with it & see how it formed & worked best. It was a good size too. Each ream of this yarn doesn't really contain that much, as you can see. So it's best for smaller scale projects. If you're wanting to crochet a large t-shirt yarn rug, you'll probably want to just head to the Goodwill & pick up a bunch of XXL t-shirts & cut your own yarn. I'd love to try this sometime too!

Have you used Zpagetti yarn or your own t-shirt yarn before? What did you make? (Link it in the comments if you have a blog or flicker pics!) I've seen little bowls before, and rugs like mine, but any other fun ideas out there?

Our New Condo! A Little Introduction

2013-03-06T09:30:00.000-05:00

Finally, I'm going to introduce you guys to our new little condo. Keep in mind that we did just move in & haven't gotten to putting much on the walls yet. And it's much bigger than our old place, so it's much more open. We're trying to figure out the best ways to make this place our home. So excited!

So let's go front to back. Starting with the living room!

Coffee Table Build & Dresser to TV Stand

This photo is facing the front of the place. The living room is HUGE. We're contemplating getting rid of that chair in the corner & getting two new chairs & reorganizing the set up a little bit. But this is working for us for now.

Green Dry Sink

This is looking in the other direction. I really dislike the window treatments, but they will probably end up staying... maybe I'll think of a way to temporarily cover the fabric on them with something prettier. That dark green is just so not my thing. I also kinda am getting the urge to paint this room. It just looks too pink-y to me. I'd love a nice cool really really light grey.

Off the living room are the stairs to the front door (we're on the 2nd floor). There's also a large deep closet down there which is great storage. There's also the laundry room off the living room, which also contains the heater & water heater.

Then moving towards the back of the house is our kitchen.

OMG it's enormous! To me anyway. We have an island. I have never in my entire life had an island! Looove it! The cabinets are really nice too. I don't think I ever showed you all pictures of our old kitchen, but it was just a builder grade galley kitchen. Super small. Plus the laminate counters were different on the right hand side of the kitchen than they were on the left (suuuper classy). This is a major improvement. I even kinda like the green paint on the walls. I wish it was a little more minty, but it's pretty nice.

Turning around, there's a little kitchen nook where we have our table. We're thinking about a new table for this space. Maybe a round one?? Not sure. Also, we need more wine, as you can see by our sadly empty wine rack. Also you can see the start of the railing there on the right side of the picture, that's to the stairs to the back entrance, into the garage. Really nice garage! We can park in it! And bonus, it doesn't flood like our old completely non-functional one did.

To the left of where I'm standing when I took the above picture, is the office.

Box of handbound books, Finished File Cabinet, Built Desk

B's desk is on the other side of the room, so our seats are back to back. He doesn't have the giant window like I do. I love that window! So huge & beautiful to look out when I'm at my desk!

Then, past the kitchen nook there is a hall with some closets, and a bathroom on the left. Then there is a spare bedroom, which is kinda our "moving storage" right now. We need to get in there & finish up that stuff, so there's no pictures yet of that room. But then at the end of the hall is the master bedroom.

Round Bedside Table Refinished

This is from around where the door is to the room. To the right is a giant walk in closet. We can both keep our clothes in the master closet! Yea! Remember what our old closets looked like? Haha, yea.

B's Dresser

My Dresser

We also can fit both of our dressers in this room, which we could only fit my small one in our old room & B's larger dresser was in the office. This room also has high vaulted ceilings which I didn't really get a picture of. We put our black-out curtains in here. B likes these for when he works nights & needs to sleep during the day. I think they are ugly though & plan on covering them eventually.

Oh & see that in the last picture, that's a master bathroom too!

YEA! We have double sinks, a jetted tub, separate shower too! And look, I can see more than just my head in the bathroom mirror. Love that :) Our mirror in our old place was very small & placed very high (I think, but I'm only 5'0, which could have been part of the problem). What should I put in that space there on the right in the picture by the sink & tub? I can't figure it out.... some kind of candle thing?

And that's that. That's our place. Lots of projects to do to get it to the place I'd like it to be, but we'll probably move slowly on them. So much is going on lately & race season is starting up very soon, so I'm gonna have some really full weeks. Love it though! We'll be staying here 'till residency is over, so it was important that we found a good place that we liked. I'm very happy with it & while it's not my "dream home" or anything, I still am very happy & it's a HUGE improvement from where we used to live.

What do you think of our new place? Any ideas for fun things we should do with it? Suggestions for paint colors for the living room?