Green Patterned Wall

I am FINALLY finished with my green circle patterned wall.  I started on this wall April 2010.  The wall stayed unfinished since August 2010.  When I started on the wall last year, I knew I wanted to be finished before the school year ended.  Now that another school year is almost over, I wanted to hurry and finish the wall.



My Baby's Bassinet

So, since I'm doing the whole "Montessori" esq thing I'm not buying a crib since the baby will be sleeping on the floor eventually.  I found this crib on Craigslist for $20. 

(Sam was really worried when we picked this up from a church that children died of malaria in the crib.  I told him that the woman that sold it to us used it for all of her kids.  He said that he didn't see any kids when we picked it up so that means they all died while sleeping in this crib.)

It's a vintage crib with super ugly lace around it.  Just thinking about lace makes me itch. 

So I knew I was going to recover it but I didn't know what fabric to use.  I forgot I found a twin flat sheet at Goodwill originally from Target.  I love all things colorful and graphic so I decided to make a cover for the lace.  If for some crazy reason I wanted to have the lace back then I could just rip out the seam of the new fabric piece.  I also made a fitted mattress sheet with the same fabric.  I've never made one before so it looks kinda crazy underneath but it will last through washes and such. 

 

I love this print and would paint my walls in this pattern if I had the time or the money to pay someone to do it.  Now I just need some baby pop art to go with it.  I'm sure it's what Maria Montessori would have wanted.

Creden-zzzaaahhh

I would like to someday replace my ugly tv stand with a Credenza.  Put all of the video games and dvd player in the cabinets.  I guess I would have to drill holes in the backs for the cords to go through.

This one is in S. City and is $100

Like

This one is in Cape and is $210.  I want to email this person a link to the first one to show them how much better and cheaper it is.  Craigslist people are DILUSIONAL.

This one is also in S. City and is only $85.  Good price.  Still like the first one better.

Small Things

I love the idea of living in an efficiency apartment and having to find interesting ways to save space.  In this dream EVERYTHING has a dual purpose.  My toilet would also have a sink on top.  My microwave (or toaster oven) would have burners on top.  I would use those little ketchup bottles you see on airplanes.  I would also have an awesome divider in my room to separate my bedroom from my living room.  My bed might even come down from the walls!  Also in this dream everything is super high design and expensive.  As if I have this great job and make lots of money and only live in a 250sqft apartment by choice. 

When I was younger I used to want to turn my bedroom into a mini apartment.  You know, because I didn't live under my parents but rather leased the space until I could get on my feet.  I paid for my room with dish duty and laundry folding (I don't understand how anyonce can enjoy folding laundry).  Once I even put an ice tray in my room and filled it with water.  That was going to be my sink.  That lasted minutes.  I used to tell my friends that when I moved to the next house (army brat) that I would be getting a mini fridge.  With what money and permission?  I never even asked for that.  I still don't have a minifridge.  My mom now lives in a town house in DC that is small in comparison to her past places and has 2 full size fridges AND a mini fridge.  She used to also have a freezer.  My mom is a "collector", not a hoarder. 

If my husband and I ever break up for some reason and we are still alive (because most likely it would be a double homicide), I will move into a super small place.  I'll look for the smallest place I can find.  Give me a 200sqft challenge.  I am trying to get my husband to make Russell a loft bed so we can maximize the space in the kid's room.  I want EVERYTHING to be able to fit under his bed.  Closet, dresser, bookcase, toy box.  Under a twin size bed.  If Russell asks me for a minifridge when he gets older I will probably buy one for him and be super jealous about it.  I feel like it all starts with the minifridge.  Maybe the minifridge will have an attached microwave on top with burners on the microwave. 

Here are some super cool space saving appliances

This one is still a possibility. (above)

14" and 7 1/2" deep

Griddle, toaster oven, AND coffee pot. 

This is a sink AND dishwasher.  The only reason I have a two sided sink is for washing dishes. 

This has a cooking top, oven and dishwasher.  BRILLIANT!

This is a washing machine that uses the old water to flush the toilet.  I don't think it's for sale yet.



Stop Moving Your Head!

I told Russell to look tough.  This is what he gave me.

Russell likes to wear his mohawk up when he goes to karate because he likes it when people say stuff like "Cool mohawk Russell!"  He also doesn't know the meaning of "Stop moving your head!"

I went to Value Village today because they were having 50% off all coats.  There was a certain coat that I wanted back in October that was one of those long belted buffers in ELECTRIC BLUE!  I really should have bought it back then.  So I wanted to see if it was still there.  Of course it wasn't.

BUT, there was a fooseball table for $13. 

So it came home with Russell and I.  He was super excited about it.  He really didn't want to go to the store in the first place but he thought it was awesome we now have a fooseball table.  It will eventually go in the basement.  Right now it's in the dining room until Russell has had a chance to show all of his friends and we're done challenging each other.  Russell moves my goalie when I'm not looking.

Small but much needed improvements

Today Sam put some stuff up around our house.  Thanks Sam!

Before this door didn't have a handle at all.  Sam informed me that the door was put on backwards and that the hinges should be on the other side.

This is another space saver thing.  It's a rod with hooks.  Repurposed rods and hooks.  It works just the same.  I don't have matching stuff because it's not that serious.  People with matching things have too much money and time on their hands and should probably be shot.

Here is a wine rack that is above my sink.  I won't be grabbing anything from the rack for another 4 or 5 months.  I don't like the sign that is there but when I took it down I noticed a huge hole.  One day I will replace it with something that WASN'T purchased at the dollar store.

This here isn't new.  I just haven't shown it yet.  It's rice bags that I hung up last fall.  Nothing fancy.

Rasterbator!

I found this idea from someone elses blog.  I think it was called Not Martha. 

Anyways, she did a picture like this of her and her husband.  I found the program (that you can download for free) called Rasterbator.  All you do is upload the picture you want and then you have options such as the dot size, color, landscape, how many sheets wide, etc.  I didn't really know what to put for dot size because it was in mm and I didn't have a ruler on hand.  So I just picked 15mm.  I originally did 5 pages wide landscape but the other pages were too much.  I suppose someone that is good at planning things out before they do them (not me) would have cropped the picture first.

So I cut out all of the sheets while watching Bethenny Getting Married on HULU. 

Then after a run to the store for tape (I totally had 3 rolls of tape that have completely disappeared.  I even looked on top of the refrigerator because Sam likes to put things there.) I came back to piece it together.  The piecing together job was not the best as you can see.  My mom would probably make it perfect but seriously, it's just regular printing paper, nothing serious, I might get bad reviews and throw it away (I mean recycle it).

I hung it up on one of our new plaster walls to the left of the window. 

I used some of that 3M tape that is supposed to not damage your walls (since I don't want to put nail holes in our new plaster walls).  I haven't had a good experience with the 3M tape so far but it's all I have.  I'm interested in that UGlu stuff that I saw a commercial about.