blog

before:

Old, beat-up, possibly bedbug infested desk I found in the alley.
after:

I took the drawer handles off and sanded the whole thing, then primed and painted with 2 shades of yellow paint by Benjamin Moore: Sundance and Banana Yellow. I varnished the top with some leftover Varathane I had from making the little mushroom table, although in retrospect that was kind of a mistake because the can had little flecks of rust in it that I had to pick off :/

Of course I also had to fill the screw holes from the old handles and drill new holes for the vintage crystal knobs I stumbled across at the Little Hardware Co by my house. The big drawer at the bottom right has a secret compartment for all my secret secrets and on each side there’s a little pull-out tray in case I need more desk space.

Cost: the desk itself was free, and although I spent like, $130 on primer and paint and wood filler, I have enough of all those things left to refinish the dresser and maybe even the piano. WHO KNOWS. Anyway the most $$$ expense was the crystal knobs, at $7.50 each, but I think they are worth it, they look so much better than the old bulky drawer pulls.

I meant to post this last night but Taylor slept late and I was too tired, but here is the outcome of this:

Now, just so you all remember here is Taylor Classic:

… and after taunting and tormenting me for days with veiled threats about going platinum or red or ginger, here is the result, New Taylor:

What!? I asked him why he went silver and he said it’s because he’s an old man (he’ll be 31 next week, oh BOOHOO I’m 33 and a half) and this is merely the first phase in his becoming Roger Sterling.

Hopefully with less infidelity, heart attacks and blackface! Anyway, I think his REAL ~hairspiration~ was this grey muzzled little fellow.

In related dog news, I think Kichou and Georgie are really and truly finally reaching some sort of we-don’t-hate-each-other accord.

Please observe the crossed paws. Can playing and snuggling be far off?

Remember when I said I hadn’t done any more work on my self-portrait painting?

Supplies: painted canvas board, all my sketches, carbon paper, tape and a 9H pencil that hurts my teeth to use.

I can finish this tonight! I will finish this tonight!

Someone took the batteries out of this dog, he is all deflated.

Stay tuned for an exciting post later tonight that addresses this issue:

THE MIND BOGGLES.

I am sososo close to being finished my project! I think it’s turning out pretty great but I’ve built it up so much that when I finally do a big ~reveal~ you all are going to be like “Really? THAT’S your ‘big project?’” *eyeroll*

In other news I thought I’d give a little update on my plans from this post. How’s it all going? Did I do all the things I said I would and did it make me feel better? Let’s see:
1. Start going to the gym again. I did this for a week and then I threw my neck out, ugh lame. I’m not beating myself up over it though (that would be detrimental to the whole making-myself-feel-better thing anyway), the whole neck thing was unforeseeable, and if there are no other neck related crises then I’m going to REstart going on Thursday.
2. Canceling the water delivery service and donating the money I used to spend on it to a water-specific charity. In the background of this picture of Sym you can see the LAST jug of delivered water. SO CLOSE TO BEING DONE! I’ve decided to donate to Charity:Water; 100% of the donations they receive goes toward water projects and you can really set up an automatic monthly donation through my Paypal account. This appeals to both my philanthropic side and my super lazy side, haha. EDIT I figured that while I had that tab open I may as well sign up and make my first donation. And you know what? I do feel better!
3. Restart work on my self-portrait painting. I haven’t even touched this because I’ve been CONSUMED with finishing my big project. Whoops. However, working on anything creative helps, and the big project has also helped declutter my apartment, which is a bonus. That’s always a bonus!

So. Basically I haven’t really accomplished anything from my list yet, but somehow I still feel better. I think it wasn’t so much doing what I put on the list, but more just concentrating on what I could do to create positivity in my own life (which the list brought into focus) that helped to make me happier. So like. I guess it worked! Go me!

This week I went through my links on the right-hand side there and deleted a bunch of dead blogs and added some new ones. I also added handy-dandy buttons to get to Ask Pacey (ask for advice!) and the lookbook.nu I started for Symphony (become a fan! hype her looks!). So like, look at my stuff and my friends stuff, and if you’d like to do a link exchange leave a comment 🙂

For your trouble her is a picture of Taylor being attacked by wild Poms, and I swear this is my last post about nothing today!

Georgie is growing like a fuzzy little weed. She's all long coltish legs and wispy hairs. People keep asking me if she's had a haircut , but she's actually just kind of grown out of her puppy coat.

She has her rabies shot tomorrow and then no more vet appointments until it’s time to have her spayed, thank goodness. I’ve been taking her in every two weeks for vaccinations and I’m Over. It.

Since Symphony wasn’t around when I made the cinnamon sugar doughnuts this weekend, I saved some for her to try on Monday. Her verdict?

“Cinnamalicious!”

Taylor and I went to the movies twice this weekend. On Saturday we saw Scott Pilgrim vs. the World with my friend Morgan. I thought it was good, I really like the graphic novels and I was apprehensive that Michael Cera would RUIN IT because basically:
a) Michael Cera plays one character in everything, and that character is Michael Cera.
b) his face is really weird. He did not grow up cute.
HOWEVER the movie was really cute and clever and fun and actually made me hate Michael Cera LESS.

Verdict: APPROVED

On Friday I learned about another free outdoor movie that was happening in David Lam Park in Yaletown on Sunday night. It was a screening of Back to the Future so OBVIOUSLY I had to go. Symphony didn’t want to go so she stayed over an extra night at her dad’s (which worked well since she missed a night last Thursday when she went to Sasamat Lake with her friend Ali and didn’t get home until bedtime). Taylor and I invited our friends Rich and Jenn to come with, and after our learning experience t the Karate Kid we were much better prepared!

Tips for an outdoor movie night:
1. CHAIRS CHAIRS OMG BRING CHAIRS. Sitting on the ground for a picnic or event where you are getting up and doing stuff is fine, but for a two-hour movie it is NOT. I picked these sweet rainbow beach chairs at London Drugs for 50% off and there were a life/leg/butt/spine saver.
2. Think hard about your food choices. Stuff you can eat with your hands is good. Stuff that requires cutlery and a table-surface is not. Taylor and I brought poutine to The Karate Kid and it was almost impossible to eat because the containers were too hot and I spilled gravy on my blanket.
3. Bring a garbage bag and just take your trash with you instead of stumbling around in the dark looking for a bin.
4. A cooler is good, but you don’t need to CRAM it with ice since outdoor movies generally show at night. If it’s big enough to hold stuff like cups and a water bowl for the dogs (if you have dogs, and if you don’t have dogs, WHY NOT??) that’s a bonus. You don’t want to be shoving sticky, wet dishes in your purse at the end of the night.
5. Don’t bother sitting too close. If you sit further back you’ll have more room to set up camp and the audio sometimes has a weird echo at the front.
6. If you are planning on drinking (and I mean drinking anything, even water), be aware of bathroom situations. In some parks the facilities close at dusk so you might have to hold it all night.
7. Have fun!

Our sweet camp: rainbow chairs, my Birds of a Feather rug from UO, dogs (Georgie is behind Taylor), snacks, friends.

Some of our sweet snack spread. Rich and Jenn brought 3 kinds of Kettle Chips, crackers & brie, lemonade and cider. Taylor and I brought peach slices, strawberries, champagne grapes (they are tiny!), sparkling lemonade and pomegranate soda, and of course, mini donuts! These were cinnamon sugar donuts I made with the recipe that came with the donut maker. They’re good but the recipe made FORTY-TWO donuts omg.

Happily, this movie started earlier than The Karate Kid and since we got a ride home Taylor was able to stay for the whole thing instead of bailing before the exciting conclusion.

I realized I forgot to post about (mostly) finishing my patio makeover!

I haven’t exactly figured out how I’m going to transform the rainbow umbrella into a patio umbrella yet- I keep vacillating between attaching it to the fence, attaching it to the table and making it free-standing. I’ll probably figure it out sometime around next May, but for now, here’s my finished patio furniture in its natural habitat.

before:

after:

These pictures really highlight the progress the ivy has made! The before was from May 2008 and the after is from today.

It’s been rained on a few times and at first it seeped a milky liquid, which was gross, but now it seems to be fully “cured,” which is good because it this didn’t work out I was going to have to scrap the whole set. Now I just need to find the time to actually sit out there!

You all probably thought I quit popsicles in favour of mini doughnuts. NOT SO, and last night after doughnuts but before dinner Sym and I made…

What made these popsicles super strawberry? We used TWO POUNDS of strawberries to make them!

step one: wash, hull & quarter

step two: apply blender We used no extra liquid for these so to get the blending started I put in about half the berries and mashed them down with a spoon. Once they were blended I added the rest.

step three: strain out any big chunks using a colander & bowl

step four: using cheesecloth, strain out as many seeds as possible I probably could have gotten even more seeds out if I’d done this a second time but I was feeling impatient and it was almost 7pm by this point.

step five: make popsicles! After being strained twice, we had enough (very thick) juice for eight big popsicles, six small popsicles and for Sym to have a mini-glass to drink.

step six: enjoy! These popsicles weren’t overly sweet because I didn’t add any sugar/sweetener or other juice; just pure strawberry goodness.

Sym’s verdict: “Strawbalicious!”