Week in Review: 10/29

Remember my dry-erase weekly menu? Here's the same concept for a perpetual calendar. So easy and clever.

The bummer in my pursuit to not eat things without weird preservatives (Exceptions made for Oreos and Halloween candy of course.) is that it's hard to find easy, instant, warm food options. Until I was introduced to making my own frozen burritos. I left off the jalapenos and added onions. Yum.


This headboard is amazing, but even more so when you see how the chevron pattern was made from normal striped fabric.

This is my new favorite site. The product descriptions (especially for the headache and allergy medicines) are hysterical, but then when you click on "bored?", the magic really begins.

Have a wonderful Halloween weekend!

Something's Missing

Let's see, there's Duke Blue, Carolina Blue, UCLA Blue, Tufts Blue (Tufts?!) ... WHERE IS KENTUCKY BLUE?!

disappointing image: Wikipedia

Some New Note Cards

Last Christmas I made a lot of stamped note card sets for gifts, but since then, I kind of lost interest (At least I didn't buy that many stamps...) and have been designing the cards in InDesign or Photoshop Elements to print out. Here are some I made this week. I want to pinch their cheeks I think they're so cute.

I'm also trying to decide what I want to do for Christmas cards. Do I want to do postcards like I did for our housewarming party? The pros are that I still have a bunch of postcard stamps (Someone promised to get all their coworkers' and friends' new addresses but never did. I won't name any names. ; ) ) and additional postcard stamps are less expensive than regular ones. However, if I have the postcards printed professionally, that will cost a bit of money, they'll be digitally printed (to keep the price down and since it's a small quantity) which always results in shoddy cropping, and I'll have a ton of extras since we have about 60 people we mail these to and the quantity choices are normally 50 and 100. If I printed my own postcards, they'd likely get wet in the mail since they wouldn't be shiny and waterproof. Any other solutions out there? I think I'll be printing at home and mailing in envelopes.

And the Paint Goes On

House progress is coming along slowly. The kitchen wallpaper stripping and painting and office painting wore us out, so we've been putting off further projects. But it's time to get back to the home improving.

My parents kindly came in one weekend and we were able to get the living room, dining room and guest room painted Olympic's Quaking Grass. 

Before you think I've completely lost all sense of taste, please know that the hardwood floors will be installed in a couple weeks (Good riddance, blue carpet!) and I've picked out some neutral slipcovers.

And then one Saturday I got the pantry painted, shelves relined and organized. It looks so much crisper and cleaner now.

Next on the agenda: painting the trim white so it will be ready for the quarter-round once the new floors are in. Exciting!

Week in Review: 10/15

I wish my weekend plans involved the above. But there will be some barbecue, so you take what you can get.

I never wanted to go to Iceland, but it looks pretty fantastic.

In honor of my new stainless steel dishwasher and my new stainless steel stove (As soon as I pick it out. What are your thoughts on gas vs. electric?): how to polish stainless steel.

Adorable spray-painted cups

My First Craft Project for the House

Ta-da! My first craft project for the new home. So easy one can barely call it a craft project. I combined this dry erase board idea from paper n stitch with this adorable menu printable via How About Orange. Now if only I could start using it regularly and sticking to it. ; )

Feeling Very Hipster

Maybe hipster's not the right word. Trendy? I don't know. In the past week-ish I have acquired a bike for transportation, an iPhone 4 (There's been much happy dancing.) and a yoga membership, so what does that make me? Cooler than two weeks ago? Probably.

In what Lee defines as my habit to "Name Any Purchase Over $100" (We should name the house!), meet Helen. Helen is named for Helen of Troy because they both have a gorgeous design that has led men (and women) to engage in expensive and obsessive behaviors. Please play Words with Friends with me. (I'm kmearley. You might also include a message letting me know who you are because stranger = danger.)

Have you noticed that as iPhones get smaller, they need bigger cases, and are now quite large? I have no idea what the actual size of my phone is because of her gigantic case. With the case, she is probably one of the bigger phones I've ever had, rivaling my first cell phone from 2000. (I've had a cell phone for the past decade. Wow.)

My bike does not have a name yet, but she's pretty sweet. She has taken me to work and back twice and we even went through the bank drive-through together. That was classy.

And special thanks to my dear husband for successfully attaching my basket (It was $15 (with coupon) from Michael's. Yay for not spending $50+ on one!) with a classy combination of zip ties and wood. I've questioned Lee's use of zip ties but it has held up well.

(Okay, I admit the zip ties were originally my idea but that was before I realized there are holes on the rack for screws, which seem sturdier than zip ties. But so far, so good.)