Pug Muffin

Some recent pictures of my sweet dog, Toca!

Polaroid Painting

When I was trying to find something unique to give Stacy for Valentine’s Day, a livejournal friend posted a Polaroid painting that she’d commissioned. I couldn’t resist copying her idea (so not so unique but still quite special). I emailed a picture and what I was looking for to the artist and shortly thereafter I recieved this beautiful, tiny, painting of Stacy, Toca, and myself.

The Poloroid Project seems to be on a hiatus but the artist, Danny Brito, has plenty of incredible art available on his site. Check him out! Buy his stuff!

Cuckoo for Clocks

I’ve always wanted a cuckoo clock. It stems for my extreme love for the simple, colorful, shape-driven art of the Germans and Swiss. It reminds me of my favorite art of Mary Blair, an early illustrator for Disney. This year for my birthday, my sweet cuckoo bird of a boyfriend offered to buy me one of my choosing. I found one that had almost everything I wanted. It’s quartz so it doesn’t require constant attention, it’s colorful, it has an actual cuckoo bird that pokes out every hour, it plays a different song every hour, and it has a cute pendulum. The one thing it’s missing is moving characters or water mill. I’m in love with it because I fall in love with inanimate objects some times.

Upgrade!

I’ve owned my place for 10 years and when I moved in I wanted to paint my bedroom and replace the floors. Time went by and I painted every other room in the house more than once but never got around to the bedroom. Last year around this time, I decided that I was really ready to get moving with the bedroom fix up. I didn’t want to do it on the cheap and have it end up looking like it but I also didn’t want to go into debt doing it. After months of daydreaming, saving, and being lazy about getting the process started, a friend of mine had some work done by a reputable contractor. When I got my tax return this year, I contacted the contractor and after a few phone calls, emails, and in house visit I got a quote that I was happy with and put down a deposit.

We completely emptied the bedroom and moved the mattress to the floor of the office. It was so exciting to come home from work at night to see what had been accomplished that day. It was finished in 12 days. We moved back in which required constant trips to Target. That first night we sat on the floor of the closet area for about an hour just taking it in. I am aware that it is not some great revelation to have a room in your house remodeled.  Our finished product is probably a pretty average bedroom but compared to what we had it is quite thrilling for us.

I originally thought I would do a before and after picture post but I can’t bring myself to show the before pictures. The state of the room was just terrible.

I highly recommend the work of the contractor, Jeff Doan - My South Florida Handyman.

Work done by contractor:
Replaced the bathroom vanity/sink with a new counter that would make the sink wheelchair accessible
Replaced the mirror, medicine cabinet, vanity light fixture, hall light fixture, door knobs, and all outlet and lightswitch plates
Replaced the carpet with bamboo hardwood flooring
Repaired and painted the walls and baseboards
Repaired and painted the doors
Refurbish the closet doors/tracks on the smaller closet (edges were ugly gold, now dark espresso brown)
Removed the closet doors/tracks from the larger closet
Installed closet system in the open space of the larger closet

We replaced almost everything in the room.

No debt was incurred in this process. I am extremely happy about that.

On to the photos!

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Sewing Notions

I’ve wanted a sewing machine for years but I assumed that I wouldn’t be able to effectively use one without being able to use the foot pedal. A few months ago, someone told me about an affordable sewing machine that had functionality that allowed one to start and stop sewing with a button and a slider tool to adjust the sewing speed. I put it on my wishlist and mentioned to Stacy that I’d like it for my birthday. He was darling enough to cater to my impatience (as he often does) and let me have it when it arrived one week early.

The sewing machine, a Brother CS-6000i, is beautiful. It was easy to get started as the machine has drop-in bobbin and is self-threading. I practiced on some scrap fabric and then moved on to a couple of kits. Here are the results. Not too shabby for having the machine for less than a week.

Pillowcase

Side view of pillowcase

Quilt for Toca

My Quilty Triumph!

Next, I shall try sewing from a pattern and trying curves.