I have a confession: I am obsessed with Etsy. I definitely lose myself for hours at a time just browsing. I spent a couple hours the other night perusing the "Geekery" section where I found a plethora of vintage and handmade goods ranging from a Captain America Nintendo Cartridge Clock to a complete Jayne Cobb gift kit from Ma Cobb. I find Etsy's website much easier to use than eBay, in which I never was interested in the first place. I also think the website is easier to browse.
You can search by item type: Vintage, Handmade or All items and then by a number of categories including Art, Furniture, Weddings, Papergoods, Needlecraft, Pets and Holidays among many others. Whether or not I'm searching for something specific, I feel like I'm on a treasure hunt and strike gold every time. You can also take the Etsy Taste Test and identify which objects from a given selection you like and you will have suggestions that fit your taste on your home screen every time you log in. I like that I'm able to "favorite" items I like and come back to them later, or use them to browse different Etsy Shops for similar items. I think the taste test works almost too well. I log on and I'm teased by all the neat things on my home page and can't resist that first click to learn more about something I see.
I've watched a coworker become obsessed with Etsy over the last several months as she prepares for her wedding in October. She has definitely purchased some unique items that will make her wedding extra special and ensure that all her guests leave with the couple's monogram imprinted on their brains. However, I'm pretty fond of the custom wedding hanger she ordered. As I've watched my coworker order more and more from Etsy, I've become wary of creating an account. I know it can be a slippery slope. I can see myself having a hard time resisting that perfect fill-in-the-blank-here that I just have to have and going nuts with PayPal. I've managed to resist until the last week.
While searching Etsy for maps to create my desired map art in my dining room, I caved. In order to save the location of the maps I found, I had to create an account to add them to my favorites. Now I feel myself teetering on the edge, just looking for a reason to purchase all the neat things I've found. There's not a lot separating me from slipping down into Etsy-mania. I hardly sit on my computer and surf the internet, yet I find with Etsy I can't resist. It compels me to sit and look. Yesterday, I found myself checking to see if an iPhone app existed for Etsy to make mobile browsing easier. (A couple 99cent apps do exist, but I'm not sure they are official). Trust me, it's bad when I start shopping from my cell phone.
So far, I've managed to not purchase anything just yet. But be warned...I've probably already found the perfect Etsy birthday or Christmas gift for you.
Does anybody else have an unhealthy obsession with Etsy or another website? What other neat things have you found while browsing Etsy? Anybody make neat things that they sell on the site?
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
The Man of the House!
It is a pleasure to be writing in this blog now. I have just been introduced to the blogosphere and am now writing my own blog If You Give Your Wife A Cookie and am contributing to RedCoatGamers. Allison wanted me to contribute to her blog as well and it is really exciting.
I recently posted something that I think relates to both her blog and my own. As I contribute more to this blog I will continue to come up with posts that work for both hers and my own. His and Hers blogs... How romantic.
I recently posted something that I think relates to both her blog and my own. As I contribute more to this blog I will continue to come up with posts that work for both hers and my own. His and Hers blogs... How romantic.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Hot, Hot, Hot
Ever seen that episode of The Office when Michael returns from his Jamaican vacation with Jan? He brings back a steel drum that he practices in his office forever playing the one line: I'm feeling hot, hot, hot. Not without reason, I've had that stuck in my head for days now. I saw the rerun of that episode on TBS the other night and it's been flippin' hot here for days.
Okay, it's been typically Washington, DC in July hot all month, but this massive heat wave hit us on Thursday and it's been sweaty miserable since. Last night I turned on the news to catch the weather (like it's going to be anything other than hot...) before bed and it was 90 degrees at 11pm with a heat index of 100 degrees! Holy Cow! I guess I should be happy with the fact that my A/C has been running nonstop and the house is 85 degrees at best. That's approximately a whole 15 degrees cooler than outside, but it just feels [Insert completely whiny voice here] so hot.
I don't know about anybody else, but the heat results in me making poor decisions. Take last night for example. After peeling off my work clothes (stuck to my skin after the walk from the metro station) and getting more comfortable I couldn't decide what I wanted to do for dinner. The heat makes my appetite disappear, but I felt I should try and eat something. I decided to have a glass of wine while I thought it over. My appetite didn't return, so I had a couple more glasses. I ended up giggly and drunk and irritating the heck out of my husband. Finally around 9:30 I broke out the Whirly Pop to make dinner. Nothing does the body good like buttery, delicious popcorn and copious amounts of wine. Needless to say, the heat didn't really help with the hangover this morning.
I was pretty amused when my mom emailed me the following cartoon though:
How are you all staying cool? Does the heat cause anybody else to make poor dinner decisions? Am I just blaming the weather for my poor decisions?
Okay, it's been typically Washington, DC in July hot all month, but this massive heat wave hit us on Thursday and it's been sweaty miserable since. Last night I turned on the news to catch the weather (like it's going to be anything other than hot...) before bed and it was 90 degrees at 11pm with a heat index of 100 degrees! Holy Cow! I guess I should be happy with the fact that my A/C has been running nonstop and the house is 85 degrees at best. That's approximately a whole 15 degrees cooler than outside, but it just feels [Insert completely whiny voice here] so hot.
I don't know about anybody else, but the heat results in me making poor decisions. Take last night for example. After peeling off my work clothes (stuck to my skin after the walk from the metro station) and getting more comfortable I couldn't decide what I wanted to do for dinner. The heat makes my appetite disappear, but I felt I should try and eat something. I decided to have a glass of wine while I thought it over. My appetite didn't return, so I had a couple more glasses. I ended up giggly and drunk and irritating the heck out of my husband. Finally around 9:30 I broke out the Whirly Pop to make dinner. Nothing does the body good like buttery, delicious popcorn and copious amounts of wine. Needless to say, the heat didn't really help with the hangover this morning.
I was pretty amused when my mom emailed me the following cartoon though:
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Abracadabra.... Organize Closet!
I wish I could simply wave a wand and accomplish large tasks with nothing more than a flick of the wrist. In actuality, organizing the closet really wasn't that monumental of a task. I'm also one of those people that love an afternoon spent organizing things to unleash their full efficiency potential. My husband thinks I'm crazy.
Our closet under the stairs would probably afford Harry Potter more room than the one at the Dursley's residence, but it's been an inefficient mess since we moved in. Everything was more or less piled and thrown in there and my earlier attempts at promoting some type of order failed. (The command hooks I bought and attached to the wall to hold our broom, etc. all fell down). It also didn't help that the door needed to be sanded down on the bottom and we were unable to open it more than 8 inches or so without scratching the wood floor. Not only could you not get into the closet, once you squeezed your way in, you had to dig through piles of stuff to find the paper towels or whatever else you needed. It wasn't working and my anally organized self was screaming inside every time I opened the closet.
I was so excited to finally tackle this project, I neglected to take any before pictures. I realized too late that I didn't even have any pictures of the closet from before we moved in. Suffice it to say the closet was so bad I forbade guests from opening it when they visited. Here's the pile of stuff that had all been residing in the closet under the stairs once I cleared it out to start fresh.
Once the closet was clear, I swept it out and dusted off the shelves inside. In order to work some magic, Shane and I picked up two ClosetMaid Laundry Shelves at Home Depot along with a ClosetMaid Broom and Mop Organizer. Shane drilled the holes and I helped him to install the shelves and organizer with the included hardware, I could then get down to my organizing business. That pretty much involved me looking at the various fabric bins, plastic milk crates and Rubbermaid containers and grouping like items together.
Once I had all items sorted and rearranged into appropriate containers, my closet looked like this:
It's still a little bit cluttered for my liking, but trust me, it is a huuuuuge improvement. There are some items, like the cardboard box above, that will move to our shed once we have one. All that's left to do in the closet is to install our plastic bag dispenser, purchased from Ikea, and eventually install a light fixture.
I should also mention, that Shane sanded down the bottom of the door so we can now open it all the way up to get inside the closet. Not only can I find what I'm looking for, it's much easier to get inside too! We would even have room if Harry Potter wanted to visit.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Quick Bathroom Upgrade
Despite the lack of posts over the last month, Shane and I have been keeping very busy around the house. Last Sunday we were feeling extra motivated and completed several posts-worth of projects. Our quick bathroom upgrade was where we started after a post-church trip to Home Depot.
I find it somewhat amusing that I willingly went to Home Depot after church on Sunday. When I was a kid, my parents forced us to go to the hardware/home improvement stores every Sunday. We would go to church and then they'd take us out for a treat at Spunky Dunkers or Dunkin' Donuts. We'd think we were getting a great deal until after leaving the doughnut shop we would pull into the parking lot at Builders Square. Was that only a Midwest chain? Does anybody remember the days of Builders Square before Home Depot and Lowes were the only options? I have distinct memories of walking around the home improvement store in my church dress, wondering if my parents would ever let me get home to play again. Fittingly, I sent my mom and dad a text as we pulled into the Home Depot parking lot on Sunday announcing that the apple doesn't in fact fall too far from the tree. They chided me for not stopping for doughnuts first!
Anyways, back to the purpose of the Home Depot trip. A few weeks ago our poorly installed (not by us!) towel bar fell off the wall in the bathroom. It turns out that the people that flipped the house and sold it to us did not install a lot of things correctly, often using incorrect hardware. The worst was the shelf in the closet in the guest bedroom that fell as I was hanging things up in there. Unsurprisingly, we saw that they had used the wrong screws for the towel bar. Since the bathroom hardware was ugly, cheap and builder-grade, we decided to replace it all.
Here's the before pictures:
I guess I didn't have a picture of the towel bar before it fell off the wall
You can't see it here, but the towel ring was awkwardly placed on the wall and kind of low.
After using the hooks on the back of our door for a couple weeks, we finally decided it was time to head out to the store. At Home Depot we picked out Delta Silverton hardware in a chrome finish. We purchased a 24-inch towel bar, towel ring and a pivoting toilet paper holder.
Once home, the installation was pretty easy. Each item came with a template for us to accurately mark and drill the necessary holes. Once drilled, we placed the dry wall anchors (we have plaster walls here) and screwed in the mounting brackets. After that, all we had to do was slide the hardware into place. Our towel bar was a smidge longer than the previous one and we moved the towel ring up a couple inches on the wall, leaving us with some holes to patch. Since we have to patch the walls, we're contemplating a new paint color for the bathroom. The previous owners didn't leave us any paint, and I think the bathroom color is ugly anyway. I have no idea when we'll tackle that project, but at least the new hardware added a touch of class to our bathroom in the mean time.
I present, the after pictures:
I'm a fan of the pivot feature to change the roll!
Do the little, quick projects make anyone else as happy as they make me?
I find it somewhat amusing that I willingly went to Home Depot after church on Sunday. When I was a kid, my parents forced us to go to the hardware/home improvement stores every Sunday. We would go to church and then they'd take us out for a treat at Spunky Dunkers or Dunkin' Donuts. We'd think we were getting a great deal until after leaving the doughnut shop we would pull into the parking lot at Builders Square. Was that only a Midwest chain? Does anybody remember the days of Builders Square before Home Depot and Lowes were the only options? I have distinct memories of walking around the home improvement store in my church dress, wondering if my parents would ever let me get home to play again. Fittingly, I sent my mom and dad a text as we pulled into the Home Depot parking lot on Sunday announcing that the apple doesn't in fact fall too far from the tree. They chided me for not stopping for doughnuts first!
Anyways, back to the purpose of the Home Depot trip. A few weeks ago our poorly installed (not by us!) towel bar fell off the wall in the bathroom. It turns out that the people that flipped the house and sold it to us did not install a lot of things correctly, often using incorrect hardware. The worst was the shelf in the closet in the guest bedroom that fell as I was hanging things up in there. Unsurprisingly, we saw that they had used the wrong screws for the towel bar. Since the bathroom hardware was ugly, cheap and builder-grade, we decided to replace it all.
Here's the before pictures:
After using the hooks on the back of our door for a couple weeks, we finally decided it was time to head out to the store. At Home Depot we picked out Delta Silverton hardware in a chrome finish. We purchased a 24-inch towel bar, towel ring and a pivoting toilet paper holder.
Once home, the installation was pretty easy. Each item came with a template for us to accurately mark and drill the necessary holes. Once drilled, we placed the dry wall anchors (we have plaster walls here) and screwed in the mounting brackets. After that, all we had to do was slide the hardware into place. Our towel bar was a smidge longer than the previous one and we moved the towel ring up a couple inches on the wall, leaving us with some holes to patch. Since we have to patch the walls, we're contemplating a new paint color for the bathroom. The previous owners didn't leave us any paint, and I think the bathroom color is ugly anyway. I have no idea when we'll tackle that project, but at least the new hardware added a touch of class to our bathroom in the mean time.
I present, the after pictures:
Do the little, quick projects make anyone else as happy as they make me?
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Pearl Jam Pillow
I love finding new uses for old things and creating new ways to keep memories. This project came about because Shane had a concert t-shirt that shrunk and no longer fit him, but was still too big for me. I suggested making it into a pillow. This allowed me to dust off my sewing machine, received as a wedding gift a year and a half ago and not yet used.
We had an old 12"x12" light blue pillow from Ikea laying around that I thought would work perfectly. The problem with light blue pillows from Ikea is that they get dirty and stained over time. This way, I was able to give new life to a t-shirt and a pillow!
I started by cutting the front and back of the t-shirt into two 13"x13" squares, which allowed for seams once it was sewn together. I had to use my fabric shears for a lack of better options, but I would highly recommend a rotary cutter (looks like a pizza cutter) and mat for straighter and better measured cuts and more ease in general. The jersey cotton used for t-shirts is a pain to cut as it's stretchy and you want to keep the fabric flat and somewhat taut to get the best cut and the right measurement. Even with Shane's help, I think this was the most difficult part of the process. We then ironed our two t-shirt squares to get them smooth and flat for sewing.
Once the squares were nice and smooth, I pinned the right sides facing each other on the inside and the backs facing out. I then sewed 1/2" seams on three sides. On the bottom, I left a gap of about 6" in the middle, to allow me to turn the pillowcase right-side out and stuff the pillow.
Once the pillowcase was flipped and the pillow was stuffed inside I then sewed the 6" gap closed by hand.
Here's one side of the finished product:
Portia models the other side on the couch:
I have another t-shirt project I'm planning on tackling sometime in the near future. I want to make a quilt using t-shirts from college. My Mom is going to lend me her rotary cutting tool soon, so I can get to work cutting up all those t-shirts I have taking up space in my closet.
Are there any other neat t-shirt craft ideas out there you want to share?
We had an old 12"x12" light blue pillow from Ikea laying around that I thought would work perfectly. The problem with light blue pillows from Ikea is that they get dirty and stained over time. This way, I was able to give new life to a t-shirt and a pillow!
I started by cutting the front and back of the t-shirt into two 13"x13" squares, which allowed for seams once it was sewn together. I had to use my fabric shears for a lack of better options, but I would highly recommend a rotary cutter (looks like a pizza cutter) and mat for straighter and better measured cuts and more ease in general. The jersey cotton used for t-shirts is a pain to cut as it's stretchy and you want to keep the fabric flat and somewhat taut to get the best cut and the right measurement. Even with Shane's help, I think this was the most difficult part of the process. We then ironed our two t-shirt squares to get them smooth and flat for sewing.
I have another t-shirt project I'm planning on tackling sometime in the near future. I want to make a quilt using t-shirts from college. My Mom is going to lend me her rotary cutting tool soon, so I can get to work cutting up all those t-shirts I have taking up space in my closet.
Are there any other neat t-shirt craft ideas out there you want to share?