Crafts and Pinterest Craziness

This house is big, folks.
So big that I get exhausted after trying to figure out how to decorate one room.
I have like 10 more rooms to go.
Its going to take a long time.

This is all probably because I get these bigger than reasonable ideas in my head and then commit to executing them. Remember the quilt?

So, what exactly have I been doing that has taken me so far away from the blog? Mostly admiring other people's craftiness on pinterest and then doing a toned down (read "pinterest for dummies") version here at home. Here's the story of the room creations so far.

 Curtains. A serious amount of curtains. The funny thing is that I'm not even close to finished in all the rooms. Our neighbors see everything and we don't even care any more. These red and black and white ones are in the office. I love them because they are so lively to me and give a home to the red things we have.

 We're not limited to window curtains. There are even tiny curtains, curtains under tables, curtains everywhere. These ones hide the ugly in the office in one of the Ikea Expedit hacks. I love the little pop of color it brings to the desk.


Then there was the basement playspace. It was dying for some color and fun, since it is after all for play. You might remember the canvas from the photos below used to be in Owen's nursery in the old house. It had a big giant tree on it. Here I re-purposed it and after months on etsy and pinterest decided on a peacock with loads of beautiful fabric feathers. I sewed each feather (and the peacock's body too) and then adhered it to the canvas.  I originally thought this was going to be an easy project, but after about 2 weeks in, I realized that sewing those feathers is a nightmare, the smaller the feather, the more annoying to sew and that there has to be a lot of strategy in pattern choice, size of feather, how it works with other feathers etc. 3 months later I finally finished the damn thing.

I like how it turned out though, and I love that it gets to show off so many of my favorite fabrics. I love love love beautiful fabrics. I probably shouldn't be allowed in fabric specialty stores alone (JoAnn's doesn't count, they have a crummy selection).

Anyway, after the peacock was done I made a bench seat to go along with it, got some coordinating pillows, and viola, sitting space in the play room.

Then, with those same fabrics, I made covers for all the ikea storage boxes that fit into the giant expedit storage furniture thing. They were all boring white before, and now are lots of various pops of fun color.

 All the while, since oh, say October. I've also been working on this afghan. I picked the three main colors I chose to use in the living room and started crocheting because I'm always cold and need blankets pretty much everywhere. Its been a labor of love that I work on only when I have time, so I'm still working on it and don't expect to really finish it until summer or so, when I probably won't need to use it at all. Sigh.

 Do you see that lovely chartruse string in the middle? Don't worry, its just an end that I haven't trimmed or crocheted into the stitches there. When I'm tying onto another skein of yarn I'm so professional in my technique, don't you think? There are about 50 of these types of leftover strings from my lacluster tying on all over the blanket right now.

And then of course, there are still many around the house crafts that I've been working on. We FINALLY finished the last of the caulking last month. I bit the bullet and spent an entire weekend in this shower caulking every tiny little crack.

 Whats that, you can't see the caulk? Fantastic, that's the way it should be. Really, though, in this close up, you can see the lines of fun I had that day. Not those kinds of line's folks. I'm not that crazy.

 So there you have it. Our list of to-do's is still long, but at least you know what keeps us away from you dear readers!

Until we meet again!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Its February, the cold is bitter, and life feels rather depressing with day after day of below zero windchills and temps (we've have 40+ such days this winter so far). There is a tiny bit of sunshine tucked away in mid February. A day to celebrate those we love and cherish so very much.

Drew and I have had exactly .01 minutes to ourselves since Christmas. I was utterly exhausted from lots of various stresses (maybe more on that later, but maybe not), and desperately needed a moment to not think about anything but food and wine.

It arrived. A hot date on V-day. We sauntered down to Barrio, a local Minneapolis tapas place (which momentarily reminded me of our honeymoon in Spain, and then I started to really want to go to Spain again, which lead to daydreams of vacations, and for 10 glorious minutes I was on my way, alas, reality regained hold when the waitress alerted us to the many specials of the evening). Barrio is a trendy place, famous for being a tequilla bar (which in solitary form really wasn't super appealing to me, but the Margarita, on the other hand, had my name written all over it), and because of its trendiness they expected a big crowd for Valentines day meaning the tables were exactly 4 inches from the one next to you. You think I'm kidding. I'm really not. I heard the two ladies alongside us the whole dinner. Had I been bored on my own date I probably would have joined theres, it was much like we were sharing a table. Luckily, I wasn't bored at all, since I had such a handsome face to look at and lots to talk about.

When we planned our date, I took care of dinner and the sitter, and left the rest up to Drew. I've grown tired of being the "event planner" in our life, and so I've handed it partially off to my dear husband, who for the first time, took it on like it was his job (because I guess, now it is). I was pleasantly suprised that he planned two things, a trip to a a local icecreamery called Sebastian's in uptown where the icecream is all made in store everyday, and then on to a movie.

The icecream was so delicious. I had some chocolaty heaven thing. I forget what it was called but the icecream was dark dark dark chocolate and it was filled with surprises of health, little crunch things and other chocolate chip things. Mmmmm. Just thinking about it makes me happy.

Since it was something like 6 degrees out, icecream isn't in the same kind of demand as it is in say, July. So Sebastian's has a little discount plan: the colder the weather outside, the more you get off. I think we ended up with 20% off or something. A girl feels good when she gets icecream and its on SALE.

Then we went to the theater to see Her. Drew picked the movie. Props for staying in the romantic comedy genre. It was an interesting movie. I can't say I really liked it or didn't like it. The plot revolved around a man falling in love with his computer, but not in the comic relief  kind of way. More like in the serious lets make this digital/human love thing work. It left me feeling all disturbed on the inside and asking all kinds of weird questions. Like "Will this shit really happen someday???"
The weirdness though didn't spoil the fun of being on an uniterupted date. I loved it. I love dates. I wish I could go on one every week.

And so, I've decided, in the coming months after a period of adjustment, I'm going to start going on one at least every other week. I think it will help me stay sane.

Valentine's day wasn't all about Drew though. The boys were in on the fun too. Collin worked out his valentine's for school, which thanks to pinterest, turned out adorable.
See for yourself:

We're all about the puns on words around here. Plus, I felt less guilty handing out goldfish crackers than candy. Mostly because I feel bad for the kids with moms like me who take that candy and throw it away. Luckily my boys don't miss it.

Owen, on the other hand, still doesn't realized valentine's day is over, and I have no plans of ruining it for him. All day today he's been saying in his little Owen voice "happy walentine's day, momma! I wuv you!" to which I just scoop him up and thank him graciously. The kid is so darn adorable and I love hearing it that I won't really mind if it goes on for a week or so.

Anyway, in the yearbooks of our lives, this valentine's day went down with great success. No gifts were necessary, it was all about the time and understanding that those we love are exceptional parts of our lives, and deserve to be celebrated every so often. Although, Drew did get me some alcohol that I really love. I'm not sure how I feel about what that seems to say, but we'll drink to it, nonetheless!