Please don't judge...

Ok, so we're in a bit of a transition.  A transition from two to three.  Or four to five.  Our office/dog bedroom is going to be the Guppy (as the babe is known around here) room, so we're in the process of cleaning it up and moving the office to the guest room which will now serve double duty.  The dogs have been evicted officially.  

But MAN is it a lot of work.  I wish someone would come do it for me.  Sort of.  Please don't judge.  It's a mess.  

First order of business was clearing the room of kennels.  We still use "baby" Buck's at night.  Olive's is just for when we leave them in the evenings.  We're going to move her to our baby gated kitchen and then try to leave her solo (fingers crossed for no destruction).  In order to make Buck feel safe/secure in his new location (and make it less unsightly, I made a cover for his kennel to match the living room.  Just so happens I had the perfect amount of material leftover from the extra pillows I made for the sofa...

Hard to see, I know.  Here's the the new kennel cover...

I didn't use a pattern but instead just kind of held the fabric up to the kennel and sewed as I went. I used my serger (yay) and even used it to make the "blind" hems on the bottom and edges.  Was definitely trial/error, but it looks quite good if I say so myself.  

Next up is patching a few holes with some spackle.  Of course, the house was painted when we moved in, and we like it, so we've left it.  However, I had no idea what color they used, so I did a little sleuthing.  I know they used Glidden paints because they left some decrepit cans in the garage.  I picked up a whole load of chips and believe I found the correct one:

So I'm off to Home Depot (again) to pick up a little can to do some touch ups.  I'm considering taking down the shelves (at least on the left side of the window) because I bashed my head into them several times while cleaning up the room.  It'll be a while before the Guppy can do that, but it might save me from further head trauma.  Might, I say.  

Btw, when looking at these photos, it seems like our whole house is greige.  Yech.  I promise, there is definitely color.  More to come on the Guppy's room...

Mason Jar Madness

Raise your hand if you DON'T love mason jars?  Anyone?  Yeah, that's what I thought.  They're just the most multipurpose vessel out there.  Canning?  Obvi.  Juice glass?  Duh.  Sewing kit?  Made one 10 years ago for college. Cocktail shaker?  Now that's one I hadn't heard of yet... and of course I want one now.

I'm that guy...

You know the guy in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the dad who sprays Windex on everything because he thinks it fixes everything?  I'm that guy.  Except in my world, it's vinegar.  Plain old white vinegar.

Our water is exceptionally hard.  The water heater lives outside in a special metal cabinet, and we have no place to put a water softener without building a new cabinet --- not something we feel like taking on.  Along the way, I discovered what an incredible cleaner white vinegar is, so I buy it by the gallon+ (thanks Costco!) to descale shower doors, the crud around faucets, windows even. Its uses seemed endless...

I dropped off my Mom's sewing machine at the repair shop and am relying on my old machine as back up for the sewing class I'm taking.  As it happens, I use the same bobbin case in both machines, so I had to pull out a back up.  I put it in the old Brother and it started SQUEEEEEELING.  I practically took the machine apart looking for the source only to decide that it was the bobbin case.  A little rusty, it looked pretty much perfect, but I decided to give it a cleaning.  Spray, spray with the vinegar and a little bit of scrubbing and whaddya know?  No more squeeling.  

Vinegar fixes everything.

Prezident's Weekend

What a difference a weekend makes.  There is something just incredible about staying home while most everyone else is traveling.  We had a lovely weekend filled with the bike rides, the beach, puppy time, cooking, and crafting.  So much fun that I want a do-over!

First thing's first.  For anyone who may stumble upon this, you have to check out the Ventura Meat Company in Ventura, CA.  We've been a couple times now, including this weekend when we picked up some rib eye and some bacon - both of which were the best I've had.  Serious.  Like a heart attack.  Which I'll probably have because I consumed both this weekend.

Next up, we celebrated a friend's 40th.  I made her a bit of a gag gift (a serious gift with the root being a joke) of a black and white gingham apron.  Rush wanted to make her a loaf of bread, so I sewed up a matching bag for the bread...thanks to Say Yes to Hoboken for the tutorial!

Bread and home-sewn bread bag