A Little Surprise....

So I got home today and opened the side door for Tinkerbell (the dog Alyssa and I share...long story for another day) and there lay a white bag with a very sweet surprise! Alyssa dropped off a set of these snuggly burp cloths and a receiving blanket for me to give to an old student who just had a baby! She makes these and sells them on Etsy. They are too cute for words! I was thinking about wrapping a cat up in one. But I'll save them for the baby.

That was not all! She got the sweetest little surprise ever just for ME! I've wanted it for a few months but live on the opposite end of town from West Elm, so I don't get there often. Alyssa lives pretty close so she surprised me. I love that girl!!!! So, no more waiting, here it is...

Isn't this the cutest?! Yes, I know...it's a butter dish. Come on, people, it's an OWL butter dish. I'm not even using this for butter. I just want to display it someplace that I can see it because it makes me happy. That's what life is about, right? I guess it's the small things. Thanks Alyssa! I love it.

                                                           XOXOXO
                                                             Stacy

My first Mini Pick-Me-Up .... Completed!

   Yay! Well, as you know from my previous post I did not get this done this weekend. Though my lovely husband was nice enough to get the light under the shelving installed on Saturday. Such a love he is.I did the rest yesterday and after some minor measuring issues was finally able to complete this project.

My love of a husband placing the light I purchased from Ikea. Unfortunately for him.. it is one of those under cabinet jobbers. They all were. So, he has to improvise as you can see  below.

 

He added a piece of wood to give the connection plate the cabinet it needed. 

Next for the install.. Note the other piece of wood above.. again faking out the light into thinking it is attached to a cabinet. Genius, husband, genius!

And we have light! 

Even in the dark. Amazing.. and sort of spooky too.

Next comes the curtain update. I decided to just make it fuller rather than add a color band..

So... I had to cut some off of the existing curtain because I did not buy enough fabric. Measure twice. Cut once. My new motto. 

Now showing that I have not cut too much off. Measure 4 times. Cut once. Updated new motto. Now time to cut some off the other curtain. I am hoping that I don't end up with a curtain that is looking for a flood.

There are those fabulous binder clips. Other people have duct tape. I have binder clips. I prefer to be the gray duck in the crowd. Or goose depending on your locale or age.

Yes. That would be yet another spool of thread almost out. I went through 4 this weekend and before that have never run out of one in my life. I guess I haven't been sewing enough. 

The finished product. A full skirt.. Lighting under the shelving and some little touched of happy in the corner. A vase with fake pink ranunculus and fake baby tear moss with a wire basket behind to store odds and ends of cleaning I may need in this area. I am not usually into fake flowers but down here I am a realist. Nothing will grow. Well upon further thinking maybe a hosta?  :) Oh... I almost forgot. The model in the picture is Ella. She seems to think there is something of interest under that skirt. Bummer for her to only find paint.

Oh and....I thought you might want to have a refresher of what it looked like once upon a time... 

Yuck. I forgot how bad it was.. 

Next on the docket: To find a cute place in my laundry room  to put up these cute little clothespin stickers my lovely cousin Stacy gave me. You can pick your own up here. 

 

Ciao for now. Headed to paint that pesky trim in the entry way. 

Alyssa

What did not get done this weekend....

    If you are anything like me, then you have many.. many unfinished projects. This weekend we did not have kids and I mistakenly thought, 'Oh, I am going to get so much done!' Yep. That was a funny thought. So, while I did get all of the blankets and burp cloths I made up on my Etsy site and get a couple of blog posts up... which all took more than awhile. I did not really even put a dent in my list. So, now I share with you the projects I did not get done. I hope you will see them completed soon. I did also work on another project this weekend. I can't share that one right at the moment though. I will post something as soon as I am able to.. so you have something to look forward to! :)

My aloe. My sad, sad aloe. It has grown wild and needs to be replanted. After seeing my cousins terrarium, I thought it might be cute to put the aloe in horizontal glass planters on the 2 shelves. I did a little research and found the perfect planter at Crate & Barrel... but they are $29.95 and a little steep for my budget at the moment. So, I am going to try Homegoods and Joann tomorrow.

Next... My truly sad front entry. We changed the door out last fall due to the poor condition our old one was in. This was an affordable option that gave us a bit of a tax credit. We got a new storm door too.. with the pull-down screen. Now, if it only it would get warm so we could use it! Well, with this one, I was hoping to get the trim sanded down and painted again. I have all the items ready to go in the entry, but alas... I did not get to it this weekend. So, hopefully tomorrow. I do have the holes filled in though as you can see from the detail shot. I also need to get the carpet tiles cut at the wing wall and then tape them all together. (Flor tiles) I want to get the sanding and painting done before I connect them so I can easily get them out of the way during "construction". 

To the right of that front door I changed out some frames with kids art that hadn't been changing out due to the advanced age of said kids and lack of art coming home. I was hoping to fill holes and touch up this wall paint. Again. Not done. Argh. This is our front entry. The entry of all things good and money according to the wonderful world of Feng Shui. Money that we could sure use right now and I have this crappy unfinished soon to be warm and inviting front entry.

 

My laundry bin/ new fabric storage... I got this at Hunt & Gather a few months ago and bought this super cute fabric at Sewtropolis to make a liner for it. Yep. That is as far as it has gotten. Finally... I was also really hoping to get 'My first mini-pick me up' completed... Which did get done today finally. Whew.. at least one thing got done.

I'll post this completed project next.. Enjoy! 

Alyssa 

Everybody needs a place to poo....

    We have 4 peoples..... 3 cats .... and....drum roll please... 2 bunnies living in our house. Our little 1950's rambler. Did I mention our house is little? With all these animals comes lots of litter boxes. So we decided that we need to consolidate into 1 larger litter box. That would be one for the cats and one for the bunnies. Please note.. the bunnies are kept in a cage (most of the time that is). 

    

   Today was the day to clean up the bunnies cage. They have 2 litter boxes located in the corners of their little cage (that my husband and step-son also built.) I should mention my husband is handy with tools and also an architect.

    Well, I had this grand idea that the rubber membrane material he used for the bottom of the cage would be great for the little box.  As it hasn't deteriorated from their escapee urine. The plastic litter boxes we purchased from the pet store have started to deteriorate where the bulk of their urine ends up. See below how they are living currently... not usually this messy but it is at the end of the week right before clean out time... 

Yep.. A mess and they like to move their corner litter boxes around.. So my idea is the create one that is more "built-in". These bunnies are going to be so fancy with their new built-in pooper.. If they only knew how lucky they are! (Also, note how they like to get in between the litter boxes and not necessarily in them... naughty bunnies.. )

So... My husband Eric went to work. It started out with many trips to different Home Depot yesterday because the first one was out of some of the items he needed. (What's up with that!? Warehouse shopping... whatever..) Then yesterday he cut all the pieces he needs to create the little box. I am sorry to tell you I do not have photo's of all the little pieces.. I only thought to post this to the blog after this project started to get hairy.  ;)  Here is the completed little box though! Cute..

    Next it was onto the lining.. Which was where things started to get a little hairy. He is using the membrane underlayment for showers, etc... which is what he used on the floor of the bunny cage and seen to work well with their nails, etc. After thinking through a couple of ideas to make sure there are no seams and cracks for urine to escape. He cuts a piece that will fit into the box exactly and then scores the backside in the areas the membrane to create the corners. This is all fine and good until he gets to the point of gluing the 2 corners together to create a perfect waterproof bag shaped like his box. First the glue bottle does not want to open.. So, he find a wrench and literally wrenches it open :) (Hahahaha... Yes, I crack myself up... but I digress) Oh wait... I forgot to show you his fabulous gloves for doing this sticky work... 

Hot, I know.

   Then being the glue is fairly unhealthy to breathe in he goes to work outside (it is a low VOC PVC glue... so not terrible.. but not great either). Where it is 42 degrees but feels like 33 degrees...(quoted   from The Weather Channel.. Minnesota weather is awesome in May). Needless to say the glue doesn't want to play nice in the cold temps and so he comes in and starts to use a blow dryer to help the glue set.. as you can see below. 

Yes. He is having a ball at this point. This not working he goes outside again to add some more glue.... and is reallllly unhappy after this... 

Alas, after all this effort and it was about 2 hours of effort he gets his little membrane insert completed. Unfortunately it does not fit as he envisioned... 

The sides are a bit warped and don't fit as snug as he wants... Thumbs down. Ugh.. and time to noodle a bit... 

The solution. Binder clips. Who knew! They keep the lining snug and add a little bunny bling the their new little box.. One other bonus.. the binder clips will allow us to pull out the membrane and really wash it out in the sink if need be..

Oreo the first to try out the new digs... I think he likes the bling...

It fits snug as a bug in a rug.... Coco getting his sniff on..

Other poo related projects... Our massive 3 cat litter box.. This one required cad drawings to make sure if fit between the sewer pipe and furnace.. My husband is a doll and nothing short of perfect in every way. As Mary Poopins.. Oops... Poppins would say.

 This is our dumb as a box of rocks/ lover cat named Trouble.  Checking out the new digs... and Yep... he thinks.... I will test it out too.. Seriously, this cat is a hoot. 

Ps.. This cat is 18 pounds to give you some scale reference as to how large this litter box is.

With that I must say good-bye...

Alyssa

Sewing crazy....

So.. I have been on a project focused week. One project per day.. depending on the size. Thursday and Friday were eaten up entirely to sewing... I make burp cloths & blankets for friends and am now selling them on Etsy. So the end of the week became a sew-a-thon. I have a few other projects (home ones..)to share with you once I complete them and get the photo shoots done. For now.. I leave you with my sew-a-thon... and a sneak peek at my messy office.

 Let's start out with my little mess at the end of a very productive day... Yep.. don't think there should be 6 threads there.. 2 would suffice..

 Color me happy in thread... yes.. that is a bandaid wrapper in there.. I poke myself with the seam ripper. and yep.. the light died on my sewing machine as well. That one took me awhile to figure out why I was getting these unsightly shadows on my sewing area...

 My messy sewing area.... I do look out onto our lovely front yard.. now only if it would stop snowing! I realize it is May... and wish Mother Nature would realize that as well.

My lovely mother loaned me her cutting table for my sew-a-thon... which I also turned into a ironing table..Oh.. and that is Jed, the cowboy light switch plate, in the back there..

Ciao for now... 

Alyssa

Ps... I just caught my husband in a bit of a pickle trying to make the lining for our bunnies new litter box.. I will be sharing those photo's soon!