Hey Look a Craft

Aka my job has been taking over my life! I have spent so much time working lately due to various problems and issues at work that I haven't had much of any time for crafting in the last three months. My life has revolved around working, sleeping and maybe just maybe grabbing some food in between. It's coming to an end however and I can finally work on having a real work/life balance for awhile. Or at least until the next problem rolls around, as it undoubtedly will. But all the work has definitely been worth it, both in overtime pay which has helped us save for a house faster and in experience at my job. I've now worked through some of the most challenging situations we're likely to see, and now I will be much better prepared if heaven help us they happen again in the future. I've also gotten a chance to do some networking with managers from other mills as they have come in to help us from time to time.

Now that I've gotten off track talking about work, it's time to focus on the fun weekend activities instead! Ages ago I saw a cute door decoration on pinterest courtesy of Marsh madness and I knew that it would eventually make a great front door decoration. Our last front door decoration which we put up just before Christmas only lasted until about February until Steve declared that it was clearly a winter wreath and couldn't stay up any longer. We ended up going nearly five months without anything pretty on the front door because I just didn't have time to devote to crafting or even buying anything.

With work settling down, I took a trip last weekend to Joann's to see what kind of fun goodies I could find. I ended up with several cute storage boxes to use in our linen closet, tissue paper for another craft (coming soon!), a cute wooden letter and a roll of decorative packing tape just because I thought it looked pretty. I also found a cheap certificate frame at Home Goods that was just what I wanted for this project. Originally I thought I was going to paint the wooden letter, but then I realized how fun it would look with the packing tape wrapped around it!

The frame and partially taped letter. See how well they go together! I never would have guessed that this combination would be exactly what I wanted. I used a razor blade to cut lines in the packing tape so that it would go around the curves smoothly. There were a few places where i should have cut smaller pieces for a better fit around the curves, but it still looks so pretty. I didn't cover the entire back of the letter because it won't really be seen and the packing tape was $7 a roll!

I used some of my free ribbon from Steve's grandmother from my awesome ribbon rack to wrap around the letter and the frame so that I could hang it. It does clatter a bit when we open and close the door, so I might have to find a better way to secure it if the noise ends up bothering me, but if it doesn't then all the better!

Inspirational Canvas Art

My typical process for finding and doing new projects and crafts usually involves cool ideas staying open in tabs for a week, spending a few more weeks in a bookmarks folder, and then finally just maybe I'll get around to gathering all of the materials if I still want to do it.  My canvas art project followed this path closely and ended up taking forever to finish because I kept running into road blocks.

Not knowing what kind of challenges I would have, I knew as soon as I saw the original post on elise blaha's blog that it was a must do project.  It quickly got delayed though when I decided to wait and borrow art supplies from Allie instead of buying paint, brushes, and a canvas new.  I did end up having to wait until a cabin trip, when we would both be home. (I'm totally giving away how long I've been "working" on this, it's bad)

The next delay was completely due to laziness and forgetfulness because I needed to pick out stick on letters to use.  I wanted pretty letters that were at least an inch tall because the canvas is pretty big.  I originally thought the canvas was going to be too big, but I liked how it looked in the end.

After I got the letters, cut them out, and laid out on the canvas I thought it was going to be a quick and easy finish.  Yeah, right.  Turns out that scrapbooking stickers do not stick to canvas despite being great on paper.

The letters a and n in the lower left corner were my starting point and they curled up and did not adhere to the canvas one bit.

Discouraged, I did a bit of internet searching and found out that contact paper would probably stick to canvas.  I didn't want to cut out the letters by hand so I decided again to wait until I was home so I could mooch off of mama.  She has a sizzix machine and several alphabet sets which I hoped would suit my fancy.

Thus over Christmas vacation, while Allie tried to best my glitter ornaments, I cut letters, peeled them, and painted my canvas.

DIY tip: Tweezers were the best tool for peeling the contact paper and accurate placement on the canvas.  Not wanting to free form the letters meant I had to forgo punctuation because the sizzix sets didn't have any, so I'm choosing to ignore that minor flaw.

I know the paint looks blue here, but really it's much more purple like in the picture below.

 I let the paint dry for a few hours before peeling off the letters with the tweezers.

The "y" had some paint bleeding, but very minor!

Paint bleeding under the contact paper was a concern and it did happen a bit, but I think it adds a hand crafted look to the project.  The bleeding was minor and from a distance you can hardly see it.

Ribbon Storage Rack

Here's yet another project that has been finished since before the holidays, but I've not found the time to share it.

I got a box of great ribbon (expensive too!) from Steve's grandmother when we moved in back in August and rather than leave it in the box where I would no doubt forget about it, I wanted Steve to make me a rack to store it on.

I based mine on a set of photos I found on flikr via pinterest (and yes I want to copy them all, so fabulous) and made the dimensions so it would fit in the space next to the window in the craft room.

Steve couldn't make the cuts to have the dowels pull straight out the front like the original, so he drilled holes in the sides and I pull them out to the right.

One side has these cute wooden toy wheels stuck on and the other side has a groove cut into the dowel so I can slip metal clips into the groove.

These clips keep the dowels from sliding out of their own volition and are easy enough to pull off when I need to take off a spool of ribbon.

This was great to have around at Christmas; it made it so  much easier to incorporate ribbons into my wrapping.

I may prime and paint it at some point in the future, but for now, I'm pleased as punch!

DIY Wall Art

Here's another (mostly) finished project, this time I turned the blank wall in our bedroom into a mini gallery:

The painted ship is from our trip to Greece, the temple canvas is from Greece too, but it's a photo I had printed on canvas from Canvas on Demand (highly recommended!!).  The two smaller photographs are from Pisa and the water treatment plant in Saudi Arabia, and the four hand water colored paintings were made for me by Allie after Algebra ruined the first set.  The empty frame is supposed to have a print in it, but I need to find someone to print it for me.  I would love to get it printed on rag paper, but I'm not sure that's feasible.

The three white frames are from my grandmother and are actually supposed to be spray painted black,  but I lost my steam on those in the fall after I had primed them.  By the time I was ready to get them finished it was way to cold outside to spray paint, so they'll have to get finished in the spring.  The wooden frame was also supposed to get primed and spray painted, but it ended up back in the stack of reject frames and got forgotten about instead.  The three black frames I bought from Target after I decided to get this project (mostly) finished.

I really thought I wanted all of the frames to be painted black, but now I think I'm really enjoying the random assortment of frames and colors up on the wall.

Easy Ikea Upgrade

Sprucing up an Ikea clock that probably cost less than $10 to begin with doesn't seem like the most effective use of time.  In this case though, I needed a clock and already had one even though it wasn't quite what I wanted.  So I decided a few coats of spray paint was all that would be necessary to improve it.  I used Rustoleum's flat black paint and hopefully can use the rest of the can on a future project.  This ended up being a really quick, simple project too, which is always nice when trying something new.

I started by taking apart the clock and cleaning the plastic frame.  After a few thin coats of paint on the front, I decided to do a few on the back as well because it was just a touch too transparent.

The original blue peaking out against the new black spray paint.

I let it dry overnight before putting it back together just to make sure everything was hardened and ready for reassembly.

Putting the clock back together was almost the hardest part of the project.  It took a couple of tries to fit it all together and to get it to start again.

I decided to leave off the plastic cover because it was pretty scratched and I liked the nice crisp look of no plastic.

I'd really like to be able to do some more spray painting in the near future, but I've got two main problems to work out.  The weather is quickly becoming regularly crappy, and I can't paint if it's going to rain for days on end.  And a bigger problem is I need to figure out how to better cover the sidewalk when I do spray painting because I've left more than a little paint on the sidewalks, and I cannot imagine that makes management happy.

On the Walls

One of the hardest parts about moving into a new space is feeling like it's really yours and we like to combat that feeling by getting stuff up on the walls.  So over the last week I've been working on getting some color and fun up on our poorly painted white walls.

Thanks to Allie we have our canvases from Greece stretched.  No more ridiculous thumb tacks holding them to the walls, yay!

Across the doorway from this painting are our masks from Sri Lanka.

And if you look through to the kitchen, I hung up one of my favorite posters.  This was part of the British culture event back in March and I tracked down the event coordinator and convinced him to let me have this poster.  I really wanted it to be framed instead of thumb tacked to the wall, but with everything else going on to get the apartment spruced up new poster frames are a low priority.

In the living room we hung up this poster of Delicate Arch, from a hiking trip Steve and I took a few years ago. 

I also hung my favorite new clock up in the living room.  We had one like this in college and it was always a great conversation starter.

The second bedroom is coming along slowly, but I did put up a clock and our diplomas. 

The only thing I've done in the bedroom so far is to add my name blocks to the dresser, but there is a lot to go on the wall, I'm just still in the process of getting it all ready for hanging.  We're hopefully going to end up with a collection of prints, paintings and photos hanging on the wall across from the bed since the wall is completely empty right now.

Life Update

I was hoping to have an awesome post about our recent trip to Illinois, but instead I'm up to my eyeballs dealing with insurance and cashier's checks because we bought a new (to us) car last night!

It's exciting and a relief to be done car hunting, but I know that we'll have to do it again soon to get a second vehicle once I get a job.

Tune in Monday for more exciting blog action!

New Apartment

It was almost a year ago when we showed you our first Saudi apartment, and now we've moved on to our first apartment in the US. It's been a huge task getting everything ready and actually moving. I once again feel like I've been tossed into the adulthood ring, and it's not a fight I'm loving so far. The sheer number of decisions we've had to make, and the money that has gone with it has been exhausting and I'm ready to just settle and live in the apartment for awhile before anything else major comes along. So, here's the scoop on our new digs. We looked at a bunch of different apartment complexes and one awesome old house before deciding on this complex. Even though our apartment is on the second floor, it's turning out alright, but moving everything up the stairs was a big challenge.

The living room still needs a bit more work, but this is the basic layout for now.  Unfortunately that's the only wall we can put the tv on, so we're pretty limited on ways to arrange the furniture.  The sofa was probably the worst part of moving in because if you've ever moved a sleeper sofa you know exactly how heavy they are.  It took three people to get it up the stairs and it almost didn't fit through the door!  Totally worth it though because it was dirt cheap and it's in really great shape; let's just hope we don't move again anytime soon!

Our little dining area.  All of the furniture here is from Steve's grandmother so thankfully that saved us some dough, and the china cabinet gives us some nice storage for the larger appliances.

The china cabinet is even kitten approved!

The kitchen is pretty small, but with a dishwasher and a microwave it's hard to complain.  The one big downfall is that there are only two drawers, which has proved to be a bit challenging.  Between what Steve and I already had and what we were gifted at the wedding, there was very little we had to buy for the kitchen, although we still need to pick up a trashcan, hence the plastic bag hanging from the cabinet.

The main bedroom.  We painted the wall Gem Turquoise the first weekend we moved in and it looks great!  I love the new white furniture and although finding a coverlet that worked with the wall color was a bit challenging, we picked up this one at Target and it fits in nicely.  The pillows are a bit of a hodge podge collection, so we'll have to see about new ones in the future.

We had the dresser at the end of the bed originally, but it was such a tight squeze that I think I prefer this layout better.

The bathroom is pretty standard; we painted one wall Polished Silver and I'm still debating whether to paint the L shape wall around the shower or not.

The second bedroom is currently a bit of a mess (to say the least) but hopefully it will straighten out in the next week or so and be a nice craft/hobby room.

So far the most challenging part has been getting used to the vertical blinds.  We aren't allowed to take them down, unfortunately, but I'm strongly considering finding a way to hang a curtain rod over top of them, because opening and closing the blinds everyday is a huge pain.

Awwws Kitty

Algebra has had a hard couple of days as evidenced by the photo above.  She went to the vet on Tuesday for surgery and within a few hours of picking her up yesterday she'd pulled out almost all of her sutures.  So we picked up this awesome collar from the vet and she's had it on for most of the day yesterday and today.  It also messes with her balance and along with the pain killers from the vet, she's one pathetic little kitty.  She's back at the vet today getting the sutures redone and an antibiotic shot to help prevent infection.

Poor kitty has also had to do an unusual amount of riding in cars these last few days.  Since she wasn't doing well with the sutures and collar yesterday, we had to take her with us when we helped Allie move in to school. She actually does remarkably well in the car and doesn't really fuss or cry; she just spent the time sitting on my lap trying not to randomly fall off because of her less than stellar balance.

Between getting ready for college move in day and cleaning up the house a bit it's been insanely busy the last few days, but it's so refreshing to be able to be busy and active, especially outside, without the hot desert sun beating down on us.  We've actually been cold during the nights when it's gotten down into the low 60s and high 50s (that's 15-17 C for all you international readers).  It's been months since we've seen temperatures that cold.

In other news, Steve has successfully gotten a job! Super yay!  We'll be moving to Michigan, starting apartment hunting, and browsing for furniture for said apartment over the next week or so.  I still haven't had much luck, but hopefully that will improve soon.

Chores

Every now and then, Algie likes to pitch in and help around the house.

She's pretty good at checking the washing machine.

She's great at folding laundry, and by folding I mostly mean laying on it.

She can even help load and unload the dishwasher!

After a hard day of work like this, it's not surprising to find her conked out taking a nap.

In the Garden

Despite being in the desert, it's nice to know that plants can in fact still grow, although it takes a lot more work to keep them alive.

We started green onions from roots we saved from a few dinners.  They're doing well now, but the first try didn't live very long.  We also tried onions, tomatos, and celery from seed but none of them made it past sprouting before dying.

This basil however has been growing pretty well the last few weeks.  Steve planted it as part of the Green Group's fundraising project.  In a few more weeks, they'll sell the basil plants on campus in part I think to raise awareness of the group.

Back porch gardening is a bit messy, with all of the pots lined up on cardboard, but it's fun to watch them grow.

Algie even likes to come out and help.

Tasty Treats

One of the benefits of an international student body is great exposure to a wide variety of delicious treats we've never even heard of!

We were just recently exposed to some fantastic Brazilian dessert treats, and I thought I'd share my favorite one with you, because it looks easy enough to repeat on a much too frequent basis!

The pink arrow is pointing to the brigadeiros and the purple arrow is pointing to another super tasty dessert I loved, but I don't remember it's name.

Recipe modified from Maria Brazil to suit what I could actually cook with.

Brazilian Brigadeiros

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 stick of butter or margarine

2 heaping Tbsp of Hershey's Cocoa.

In a heavy saucepan mix chocolate with condensed milk and add the margarine. Cook in low heat stirring constantly until you can see the bottom of the pan. Continue to stir for another two minutes. Pour onto a plate and let cool completely before you form the little balls. Butter your hands slightly to form the little balls. Roll the balls in chocolate sprinkles and put them in small paper cups.

I've got to say, I like the furnishings much better in these apartments.  The blue walls and white/tan furniture looks really sharp.  Plus it seems more comfortable.

On our way to the party, we walked past the stairway to nowhere.  It's been like this since we got to campus, and kind of looks a bit silly don't you think?

Fear Driven Action

Have you ever taken action to try and prevent a fear from becoming a reality?  After reading about several tragic house fires right at the end of 2010 I realized that if something like that were to happen to us we'd have quite the disaster on our hands.  This realization coupled with 3-4 fire alarms going off in a two week span and the fact that I have no idea whether we have any kind of disaster/accident insurance drove me to do something to try and mitigate potential disaster.

Since we got back from Athens, I've slowly been creating a home inventory of all of our possessions.  I started by going through room by room by memory and copying down anything I could think of. This surprisingly captured a significant portion of our possessions.  It definitely helped that I try to have a PEEP (place for everything and everything in its place).  Now I'm going back through and adding items I didn't remember we had.  It's also been a great opportunity to clean out a bit, since if I couldn't even remember it, we might not actually need it.

Eventually, I'd like to gather additional details for our most valuable items, and try to get an idea of the overall replacement value.  This will come in handy later when we have to get our own renter's insurance.

Another reason I wanted to get this started now, is because our possessions are relatively limited here, as we could only bring what would fit into our suitcases.  I'm also not including anything that was provided with the apartment because I honestly don't feel responsible towards it.

Despite all of this work, we'll definitely have to repeat this when we get home, as we both left a considerable amount in storage at home.

Has anyone else considered doing this?  How do you keep track of all of the information?

A Modern Beauty

Shortly after the newest eatery opened on campus, Steve and I went and got some tasty frozen yogurt.  To my despair, this was one of those moments where I regretted getting caught without my camera.  It actually happens a lot here, because there are just so many interesting things going on.  Like watching the maintenance staff clean windows on campus, with a cherry picker.  That's the kind of awesome stuff  I miss out on when I don't have my camera.

Thankfully, the beautiful decor at the froyo shop was still there the next time we needed our desert dessert fix.

I love the bright, bold colors contrasting against the stark white walls, and the light fixtures are gorgeous and artsy.

While the chairs and tables are all plastic, the colors are still strikingly beautiful.

How much do I love these lights!

This interesting snaking ribbon was used mostly to divide the space into the sit down area and the ordering area, but wouldn't it make a unique bookshelf/display area if the bends and turns were adjusted a bit?

Compared to our apartment decked out in browns and tans, I'm ready to move in with the froyo.

Valentine Craft

Have I ever mentioned that I'm terrible at admitting that I've changed my mind?  I'm not terrible at actually changing my mind, given a convincing, logical argument, but fessing up to it is not my forte.  It never has been either.  The time I spent weeks sitting in my closet reading the Harry Potter series because I didn't want to admit that it was not in fact a dumb book about wizards comes to mind.

Lo and behold, it's happened again.  Bunting has been popular to say the least in the crafting world for a while now, at least since last spring perhaps longer, and it's only now that I'm willing to admit that my first instinct when I see bunting isn't "ick."  I have no idea why I changed my mind, but the Christmas star bunting I made back in December just tickles my fancy.

So, this brings us to decorating for Valentine's Day.  I didn't decorate because I'm one of those crazy/awesome new house decor at each holiday kind of people, but because our house is drab and needed some color.  The holiday simply offered a good color theme.

I got the idea for this stained glass hearts craft from Flower Patch Farmgirl and I just knew I had to try it out.

This started with me spending some quality time with the vegetable peeler.  Apparently, a pencil sharpener might have been more practical, but these were big crayons, and I'm working with limited craft goods.  After shredding all of the crayon colors I wanted, the rest was cake.  The only trick was to make sure not to put too much crayon shavings down because I wanted the light to shine through.  It was easy enough to move the crayon goo around between the wax paper sheets while using the iron to melt them.  Sadly, this was the first time I'd used our iron and ironing board.  If they hadn't been provided we really wouldn't miss them, but at least they've earned their keep now!

I used my two hole punch (there aren't three hole punches here and all the binders either have 2 or 4 rings in them) to put holes in the cut out hearts and then threaded and taped them to some red sewing thread.

Close up of the hearts strung across our living room windows.

I made some small hearts from the scrap pieces so I taped those to the thread instead of hole punching them.

The railing overlooking the living room.  The light comes through the hearts in the middle of the day and it does a good imitation of stained glass.

The hearts finally replaced the Christmas garland in the study.  The only problem I had with the hearts was some cracking around the edges where I cut out the shapes.  I suppose you could iron the hearts again to reseal the edges, but I didn't think it was necessary.

I can't wait until next year, because I've seen some really cute crafts out there that I just don't have the supplies to do over here!  Between the new paintings and these new decorations, I think the apartment is definitely starting to look more cheery and personal.