Sunday Happy

I don't know about you, but the past week has left me with a knot of dread in my gut. There has been a lot of utter bullshitbeing shoved in our faces, invoking feelings of rage and dismay and I am trying to figure how to be in this reality. It's scary and strange and leaves me feeling a little crazy. Add that feeling to a little mid winter blues.... I am not exactly of sound mind these days. (Ha, have I ever been?)

But there was a lot of good things. Little simple things like making pizza with the littles or walking through ice covered trees at 5 in the morning. New doors, a head of messy hair, a hint of blue sky. My little bits of happiness that really make me appreciate all the good that I have in my life.

And today, well I need to decompress my brain. I am going to take it slightly easy with work and do a news detox. No NPR. No NY Times. Do a little cleaning then chill. A good book, lots of hot beverages, a walk in the woods, some watercolor paints. The simple things to clear my head. You should do the same.

Some of the internet from the week.

-Bill Nye explains: what would happen if all the ice melted on Earth? We need to know this.

-Aziz Ansari’s Monologue on ‘Saturday Night Live’: Transcript. Not just funny..Smart and real.

-This shit is for real and scares the crap out of me. The Doomsday Clock Is Reset: Closest To Midnight Since The 1950s.Digging a hole now

-These paint palettes are making me want to paint.

-Love otters? How about a giant otter? Scientists Discover Prehistoric Giant Otter Species In China.

-A little advice can go a long way. An easier way to make cookies. Thanks Deb

-Sublime Opening Titles to the Style Frames Design Conference Animated by Eran Hilleli. Just really good.

-WATCH THE AMAZING CHINESE ART OF BLOWING MOLTEN SUGAR INTO GLASS

And a few pictures from the week.

Take care.

-C

Sunday Happy

If a big ass pile of balloon animals (and balloon swords and flowers) doesn't make you crack a smile, well then, that just sucks for you.

A couple of littles slept over this week and took over the house with balloons. Not only did the kids bring their own balloon kits, but the mr has a crap load of balloons himself that he inherited from my late brother-in- law Richard (he would be so happy to know that the mr uses these balloons to drive me crazy....thanks dude) And to top it off, we stopped over at the loft with the kids to grab a few things and there was as large bag of blown up party balloons that must have blown into our yard. Those also ended up in the car ans back at the house. Seriously, the house was flooded with balloons. It was kinda amazing.

This week has gone by like a blur.   The mr finally got his wish and got himself a couple of fish. One is a gold fish which he named Lefty, and the other might be a goldfish that I named Dead -in- Two- Weeks (yes, I am an asshole). I am not exactly thrilled to have fish for a few reasons, mainly that I have been fish traumatized. Back in college the mr went through a fish faze. He would get a beta fish, name it, feed it, love it, then a week later the thing would jump form it's fish bowl and commit fish suicide. It happened 3 times.  So yeah, fish don't do it for me, but the mr is happy so I deal. Plus these fish are goldfish and the tank has a cool lid that grows plants. We shall see.

There was some other stuff, like apartment stuff that happened this week, but mainly it was a quite week.  We did finally tackle the kitchen pantry which I painted pink,and started putting up the shelves. Now i just need to pick a color tile for the floor and just get it finished already because once that happens the kitchen will basically be all done. And I will be so happy and I will take lots of picture to show you.

And it's Sunday. You got any plans? Doing anything spectacular? I am still not feeling 100% which I blame on the weather. Super cold and crazy warm... the ups and downs really screw with me. (but those warm days were really so nice) Winter just needs to dump some snow and let me be cozy for a bit. (not happening this week) But what can you do? For me, I hope to keep it slow today, maybe do some napping, reading, drinking of too much coffee. Just as long as I order the flooring, I should be all set.

Some of the internet browsing I did this week.

-It's 6 am, I am running at the gym, and I get a text from the mr. It's a link to this, Dyson 360 Eye. Why he was looking at vacuums at 6am, i could not tell you but what I can tell you is no cleaning robots. NO.

-The world after a snow storm always makes me so happy and peaceful. There's actually a scientific reason why the world gets quieter after it snows.

-The More You Swear, the More Honest You Are. Fuck yeah.
 

-I think I might try this for the mr this week. Roast Pasta Before Cooking it.

-I love mustard and am very interested in trying some on this list. THE MODERN PANTRY GUIDE TO THE WORLD'S BEST MUSTARDS

-Saving my pennies for a someday purchase of this Staub Round Cocotte. But this one by Martha is really good too and sooooo much cheaper.

-Muffins are basically cupcakes that people eat fro breakfast, don't be fooled. Why Muffins Are a Trap.

-Walking In America Remains Dangerous. I would be lying if I said I was never afraid of getting hit.

-Bees Have Just Made the Endangered-Species List. It sucks that it has come to this, but it's good that there is awareness and protection now.

-This dude is pretty badass. Sweater Selfies: Man Knits His Way Around The World

Have a lovely day!

-C

Upstairs Update

Everyone is asking how that house is going so I figured an update was in order.

Around the beginning of March we hired a guy (with another guy that was like 80 years old) to remove the back roof and to frame out the addition. We were planning on doing it ourselves but when it came down to it, it was going to take to long and was not something that I was entirely comfortable doing. It was still winter out, I have never removed a roof, and it just seemed like it was better to just have someone that does it all the time do it. And oh am I glade we did. These guys were awesome and a little nuts. We had a start date for a Tuesday, but on Monday morning, the mr gets a phone call from the head guy asking if he was going to go to the house and let him in. "Of course, I'll be there at 8 tomorrow" said the mr.  "No, we are here right now" said the roof ripper off man. "Ok, be right over" and the mr rushes over to the house. When he gets there, the guys were already in the house. The had claimed onto the roof and started ripping it off from the outside.

And then two days later , the roof was gone and the skeleton of the addition was up.  It was fantastic and amazing and we were so excited. SO worth hiring it out!!!!

Our next move was the roof,(to keep out the snow ans rain) which those guys ended up came back and throwing on for us. That was another job we were planning on doing, but when the mr crawled onto the roof to measure for materials, he came back down and said to me"hell no. not doing it" (He is terribly afraid of heights)

After the roof went up, we still had a lot of demo to do. It took us a few days to finish removing the rest of the walls and all the layers of flooring. Then it got really freaking cold out so we boarded off the upstairs with insulation and did some stuff downstairs.

We were on a good roll, getting shit done, about to start framing, then the shittest shit ever happened and Sean died. We didn't go back over to the house for like 2 weeks. (shit head, you were suppose to help us) We lost all motivation and I was in no state to be doing any work that required power tools or crow bars.( I probably would have cut a hand off or accidentally set the house on fire) So yeah, no house work. But over these past 2 weeks we have slowly gotten back into the swing of things. We have cleaned up the upstairs, framed out all the wall and are moving right along. Next is windows, (which is now more just a matter of picking some we like and ordering them) running all the electrical, plumping the bathroom, insulation the ceiling and walls, then getting an inspection! But that will be a breeze.... haha.

So that's what's been going on in the house. Fun fun fun!

Hopefully I will have another update on other parts of the house for you guys soon!

-C

Super Cute DIY Heart Pins

This past Christmas, my (kinda)mother- in-law gave me and the mr these really cool honey bee pins in our stockings. Nothing fancy, just a little pin, but I think it was one of the best gifts that I had gotten all year. The pin lives on my winter jacket.

And now I am into pins.

So a couple of the little's came over yesterday after school for crafts and dinner and I figured a bit of pin making would be a perfect little project for us to do. And being that it's the big V day coming up,  making these pins heart shaped was more then overly appropriate. (What's Valentines day without cute little hearts?) Well pin making we did, or I did, not so much for them. They made a few, but in the end, they were more excited to beat the crap out of the mr and to eat carrot shavings with peanut butter and nutella.. Totally ok with me because really, I was the one that wanted a little craft time and the mr did need to get his butt kicked.

Sure I made these pins pretty much for myself, but imagine the possibilities. Make a bunch to give out to your friends, family, neighbors, or even the mail man!? Or if you have yourself a little, how great would these pins be make and to give to all their little classmates. I know that if received one of these pins in my homemade shoe box mail box meant to collect all of my candy studded, drugstore bought valentines. I would have been elated and rocked that pin all year long on my super cool backpack.(grade schooler, they have all the fun) Right after I finished painting and gluing all my pins, Miley then decided that they were freaking awesome and wanted to make a bunch more.... Well little little, to late, time to go home. But I did give her a bunch to bring back with her. She will just have to bug her mom to make some more.

And sure, I mention valentines day when talking about these pins, but really, hearts are for everyday, and are still really great long after V day is over.

Handmade heart pins = love!

Stuff you need for some awesome pins.

• Polymer clay (I used white but any color will do)
• red and white paint (preferably enamel or a high gloss paint) and a paint brush
• bar pin backs (I bought these at Michael 's craft store. 64 for like 3 bucks!)
• industrial strength glue (E600 is great and is used and recommended by many a crafters)
• rolling pin or wooden dowel
• small heart shaped cutter
• sharpie pen to write on pins (optional)
• Glitter( also optional)

A couple notes. You could use red clay but I have found that when I buy the red dyed clay, its always harder to work with and plus, it stainsyour hands. Also, I like to seal the clay and enamel paint does the trick. If you don't want to paint it, just pain on a coat of clear sealer.

Start buy kneading a chunk of clay a little bit to get it to a workable state, then roll into a ball and roll out flat. I rolled mine out about 1/3 of an inch, but I also knew I wanted to squish it out a little flatter once I cut the shapes out.

Cut out your hearts, or if you want, free form them.  What I did was used my tiny heart cookie cutter to cut the initial shape, but then used my thumb and squished them all out a bit bigger.

Note here.. Hears are awesome and amazing, but other shapes....Go for it. You probably have a shit tone of those pin backs.

And just before you bake them, make sure that the pins you are using will fit behind the hearts. (if you notice any visible pin, just smoosh the heart out a little more).

Into the oven,, out of the oven. Read the package to make sure, but the stuff I used only needed to be baked for 15 minutes at 275

Once out of the oven, let completely cool and harden.

Once the hearts are cooled, go ahead and paint them. Use straight up one color, or mix and make a few different shades. (red, white and pink are nice together)

You can add some glitter to the wet paint to add a little bling....

Or add designs or what have you. Do whatever feels right.

Now stick a pin thingy on the back of each heart with a blob of glue. (If you use the E600, make sure to use it near a window or somewhere ventilated.. it really stinks for a few minutes)

Let the glue dry (this glue was completely dry within an hour, but follow glue package instructions)

And if you want, grab the sharpie, make sure the paint is really dry (at least an hour) and write a little something on the hearts.

And now the hard part.. which one goes to who and which one (or 4) do you keep for yourself. (you can always make more!)

Have fun!

-C