easy leveling

My new home hack --- using yarn to make sure that staggered art work ended up even with each other.....way easier than learning to use a laser sight, and one less thing to keep around the house.

Taking this photo also helped me to have a 'during' and an 'after' photo.    For the before, just imagine a very empty wall....

I did not take photos of all the calculations I did to make sure that I had them mostly evenly spaced along the wall.....woohoo math!  Anyone who says they don't need fractions isn't thinking of how often they are used in everyday life.

Kitchen hardware

We are loving our new place and did a fairly easy project in January that we can enjoy EVERY day.    We put in kitchen hardware.    Some cabinets had hardware we didn't like and others had nothing at all.  We were hoping to complete the project over the holidays but to get what we wanted we had to order it online, of course.....it was worth the wait, having only 3 large drawers we wanted substantial handles for them, and we got that -- they are each 13" long!     I am glad we have only 3 drawers since the pulls with 2 holes are tough to install, lots of measuring and it has to be exact.

All in all we got them all installed in one day, and are so happy to have them.  It really improves the look of the kitchen and its so much easier to open the cabinets.....

Mr Fix It

I have to brag on K for a few minutes - he's become quite the Mr Fix It.  Neither of us are very handy and so we are always so surprised when something we do actually works - I think he may have to admit to himself he IS handy now!!

Our blender had been leaking for a while, not a lot but it was definitely getting worse and was making a mess when we'd use it -- we use it a lot since we blend veggies for soups (its a texture thing).  Anyway, I'd resigned myself to having to buy a new one -- way back we'd tried to buy just the glass pitcher and couldn't find it so I figured parts weren't sold separately.  He kept at it, and found a way to buy the gasket and blade assembly and we figured out how to swap it out, and its like a new blender!  it cost $15 instead of $100+.   I also love that it allowed us to only replace what was really wrong and not toss an entire blender in the trash. I'm far from green but really do try to 'reduce, reuse, recycle'.

His other accomplishment was huge!   Our refrigerator is still fairly new and it infuriated us that the ice machine has never worked well.... we even had a repair man come out when it was under warranty and he did nothing and told us he guessed people in the country it was made in didn't use ice....what?!?!   ridiculous.

So we've gone on for years with ice trays, buying bags of ice and being annoyed (our old fridge had the water line FREEZE in the door, so we were used to ice/water dispensers in the door not working).   K did some research and found that ice maker is known to have issues, he ordered a new one, installed it (all by himself I never even saw the part) and suddenly we have ice to spare!  Why we waited so long, I'll never know, but I love it....We tossed the ice trays.....

It really is the little things that make my day, I'll drink more water now since I like it cold and he can have real 'iced' tea which he loves!!

Last of the curtain projects complete!

This past weekend, I finally finished a project I'd had in mind for the last 6 months and had started working on a couple of months ago.

Our media room has french doors with glass panels. We've been wanting to get curtains for the doors both to block out some of the light when we watch a movie and to give privacy since it doubles as an extra guest room when my family comes to visit (a queen size air mattress fills up most of the room).

We thought about buying some but quickly saw they were more expensive than we were willing to spend, so we had the idea to make some.

I took measurements, picked out fabric (and then I made a second trip to the store since I'd bought only enough for one panel, not two). I do not own a sewing machine nor do I know how to sew very well (my experience is with sewing on girl scout patches and those didn't turn out too pretty), so I was lucky that I was able to get my friends Jay and Gwendolyn to help. Gwendolyn is the craftiest person I know, and the two of them made a beautiful art car so Jay is crafty in his own way.

I went to their house on Saturday and got their help to make them (read: they made them for me). Their experience with sewing (and her mom a phone call away) was invaluable. I had the fabric pinned, but they gave great suggestions of making another fold so we had finished edges, and so we pretty much started over, with the ironing board and a bunch of pins. Jay can sew!
Added bonus: I got to spend much of the day with both of them and their 2 cute kids. Advice to Stella - find a man who can sew and who will kill bugs, just like your daddy!

That night Kevin and I hung the curtains - they are on tiny cafe rods and they block the light really well for the movie watching and really make that corner of the room look much more complete.

Thanks Jay and Gwendolyn!

Here is a before and after shot (I actually remembered to a take a before picture!)