Catching Up

Or should I say Cleaning Up?

Meet our new Maid, too bad he doesn't do windows. Faye has had battles with each and every other cleaning machine that we have tried to use. In my opinion its a combination of our carpet that acts like Velcro to her hair and her absolute hatred of any vacuum machine (I think they could tell). Our last straw, after many many straws, was our fifth vacuum dying to their inability to keep up with Faye, right before the family was coming for Easter. We have been saving our pennies and decided enough was enough it was time to get professional help. Round One? Definitely goes to the machine.

Speaking of pennies, we also have been saving up for our new family member. Meet Gino. He's all new and shiny. Our family rule, since we both can't have the car of our dreams, is to work till one of us can. Well the last couple of years it was my turn with my little Beetle, and now Mark gets his turn at the wheel. Its always fun to play with new toys, especially when those toys can take you out to dinner too.

There has been a nice little break in the action around here at CBF. I have been able to catch up on the much needed taxes/ bill organization, plus I have gotten to swatch for some new proposals. I can admit I was pooped after all the work for the book, booklet, and misc magazines that the last two weeks were my re-charge. And my batteries were a bit dead, so to speak. Whenever this happens, I move. Whether its writers block, creative block, or a design block; I have never been successful to drudge through it. I have to break away and find other things to re-charge myself. So that could be a walk (which gets infinitely more fun once spring finally comes- still waiting here in Cincy), do another craft (I have been knitting baby socks for the millions of babies my friends* and family are all having this spring), or go to fun places (we just saw Bruce - I don't know what it is about concerts but my brain can totally relax and I get all these creative juices once it does.). So after my break-away routine, I am back in fighting action. I have a couple of new designs cookin that I can't wait to show you all soon!

But more on that later, I'm heading back to test our maid on the stairs.

*I have to give a little shout out to my super friend, Tiff, who just delivered her first baby this past weekend! And what a baby at that- almost 11pounds, I know I am impressed!

Weekend Re-cap

Before And After: Foyer
Originally uploaded by rchach.

What I should have been doing was finishing my manuscript or finishing a new pattern I have been working on or finishing a new sweater I am crocheting, or swatching for a new proposal I am working on, what I did instead was paint. And paint and paint for two days straight.

Our hallway, stairs, and foyer was this hideous yellow and burnt orange stain color with gray-brown ceiling. Incredibly depressing colors (kinda hard to tell in the photos) SO I decided to cheer things up a bit. All I can say is that I must have been channeling "Pushing Daisies" or another bold set design color; b/c the house is very vibrant now. In some lights it looks mint chocolate chip green, in others, its aqua, and in others it's baby blue. I was going for smoky blue, so oops. Guess it shows that you can't always trust the "color to go" samples (you know the ones that you can paint on your wall at home- its in my before photo), and that I should not be allowed to venture into a paint store alone. Either way, it certainly makes me chuckle every time I walk by (and because its almost half the house- I'm cracking up all the time). Its definitely more fun then the mucky yellow. Here's two other views, the hallway and the coat hooks.

Busy Bee

I was quite the busy bee this weekend.

Besides getting ready for Passover tonight, I tried to finish up the little details in the bathroom and start 2 new projects (more on that later). For my quick fabric artwork, I wanted to add a little touch of something before I called them done. So I swung over to Primrose Design, to learn a little embroidery.

Man is it neat. I really never have tried embroidery before, and I was so happy to find it so peaceful. I learned the coral stitch, the pekinese stitch, the scroll stitch, the Palestrina stitch, the wheatear stitch and so much more. Really, if you have some free time; go check out her tutorials. They are so awesome! and I am pretty jazzed how cute my little artwork came out because of her help.

Not Normal

blossoms
Originally uploaded by rchach.

I've decided that I am just not normal.

Yesterday, I stayed home from work because I was super sick. Now, I think normal people would spend the day in bed or on the couch resting up. Maybe reading a book, watching old movies, drinking tea, eating crackers? Not me, when I get sick I revert to a stubborn kid, that just doesn't want to sit down. Literally, I throw hissy fits if you make me rest, that's not normal.(Especially when it looks like this outside)

In my delirium, I decided to work on the bathroom. Thankfully, I was smart enough not to attempt any painting, but I did tackle the ugly window. I am happy to report, that I think it turned out pretty well; esp since I was super out of it yesterday. Man it was easy. All I did was scrape off all the old paint, tape up the window, spray frosting, then stick on fake lead, and paint it with window paints. Couldn't be easier. Since I was pretty proud of myself, I moved on to the artwork in the room. I cut out random shapes, ironed them on to the fabric I bought, and now I am embroidering them together.

I am still a bit off today, I probably should have glued my tush to the couch. Oh well, I can't change me now, I'm just not normal. I'm craft obsessed no matter how I am feeling.

2 steps forward, 1 step back

We had quite the weekend planned.

We were going to go to Chicago and see the river turn green, enjoy a pint with my bro, and eat ourselves silly in Greektown.

That is until the evil computer eating monster barged in and destroyed the hard drive on the good computer. Thank goodness for external hard drives, Hubbie's thesis is not all lost. But a vaca trip was out of the question, when you are desperately begging your computer to work again.

Always trying to be positive, I thought I should taking the opportunity to make headway on the bathroom and ugly window. I spent Saturday doing the prep; caulking, spackling, sanding (I love wet sanding), and priming; while looking out the ugly window at the pretty sky. Great progress made. So I pulled the hubbie from the dead corpse of a once called computer, and we headed out for a nice dinner. Yummy!

Well, sometime that night while I slept little gnomes must have crept in and temporary good away my ability to reason. Because when I woke up I painted the bathroom this color, then to make matters worse, I painted it like this. Maybe I was channeling 1986 or Harry Potter or trying to make the inside match the outside. Who knows. All I know is that it was awful. (I tend to think that a good designer, has the ability to be wildly creative, and still realize that in the end their vision was terrible. Or at least that's what I'm sticking to)

Needless to say, after a laughing my tush off for quite awhile. We took a trip to Lowes to try another "vision" out. This time I took my inspiration from my crochet hook case, and painted the room a dusty aqua. I have a few more techniques to do to the walls, then I am going to be highlighting it with this, this, and this fabric. Much better right? Yeah I think so too.

So in the end, the cancelled trip didn't really give me a finished bathroom; but I got a good laugh and I think that's all we can ask for.

How I, again, avoided doing my taxes this weekend

I am not opposed to taxes. I am just highly unwilling/ super lazy; in preparing them. All the mumbo gumbo language makes my engineer's head hurt. Even with turbo tax (which is wonderful, really), I still really loathe doing them. (And sure I guess I could hire someone to do them, but that's like hiring someone to paint my house. Its not going to happen until I am physically incapable of doing it, its just not in my DIY code.)

With a free weekend ahead of me, I knew I had to start. So I got really comfy, brought in some coffee, my current cardi, and opened Turbo Tax. I got partway through the startup when I needed a second cup of coffee; and I thought, while opening the silverware drawer, we really could use some jewelry in here. "I think Anthropologie was having a sale." And out the door I went. Came back with a mixture of knobs, and started to put them on. Realized quick that I needed a different drill bit. So oops, guess I'll have to run to Lowes. While there thought, "I think the motifs need some makeup too". So I bought some paint. Came home and happily wasted the day pretty-ing up the joint (and totally forgetting about the taxes!).

That night while looking through the mail, I saw a had a package. It was the yarn I bought for my bolero for KT's wedding. What luck? Well, I had to get started right? I couldn't go back to taxes now. There was Sunday, right? Naturally, I dived right in. The yarn, Elann.com's Esprit, is fun. Its super elastic. And will be very curve hugging for me- I like it. And I love how the motifs are creating another motif when they are joined. I bought gray not knowing if I would like the yarn, and I figured I can wear gray with anything. Now that I'm started, boy I wish I chose a kelly green or bright yellow. Something for spring, you know? Oh well. I'll just have to make another.

Sunday morning I awoke bright and fresh, even with the time change. Ready to conquer the taxes. But first I'll take a run with Faye. She'll like that, its almost cruel not to take her when its so nice out. Back at home in the shower, my mind wandered a bit thinking, Man, I hate this bathroom. The wall paper, the chair rail, everything. Its coming down, today! Now we had had the bathroom on the house task list for a very very long time. But as much as I hated the bathroom, I hate removing wallpaper more. (But not as much as taxes..) After a long annoying day of removing the paper, and all the rest of the ugly bits (we had so much ugly in here, we are going to have to remove it in shifts for our budget). I have ensured myself with another project that will at least take the rest of the week, and no time for taxes. Yeah!

Hope you all had a productive weekend!

*Update for the relatives* We finished the taxes last night. No more worrying needed! Now just give us another week before you come see the bathroom.

Recycled Demin

Holy cow there are a lot of great ideas out there today!

Check out Ultra Touch. (via inhabitat) Recycled Demin into Insulation!

Talk about my worlds colliding. Oh, and you can help too! They are collecting demin to turn into insulation to put into a school. Man, what a great company. I am so blown away.

From this.... To This.

Multi-tasking, Conflict mediation, Crisis Aversion... All a success!



Due to 3 wonderful friends that could help the sleep deprived (us) stay calm and chipper. So all in all, only 3 trips to Lowes, 2 nights without water, 1 call to the emergency Plumber. As you can see we still have many late nights and weekends to go, but we couldn't be happier with the start. And no matter what, I no longer see Red in my kitchen!



If you want the gory details, feel free to check out my flickr pics.