Author Archives:

minor home improvement

Posted on by Chris
5

There are puh-lenty of large projects to be done around this place, the sort that are weather-dependent so you can lug piles of stuff outside or paint. Sometimes the best kind are the ones you don’t plan or even really know you need.

Our dining room is just an offshoot of our living room. There is a long wall behind the bench next to the dining table that has presented difficulties in hanging art – it needs to be hung high enough so diners on the bench can sit without bonking their heads but not so high that it hits our low mid-century ceilings.  Til today, these three Ikea pieces hung there (and I apologize in advance for the bad Seattle winter lighting and harsh reflections).

I liked them because they brightened the place up and they were cheap. But yesterday, we went to the Chinese New Year festival down in the ID and happened into the Wing Luke Asian Museum and the GIFT SHOP.  I love me a museum gift shop.  And without even knowing that I was looking for something, I found our new dining room art.

I have long loved Nikki McClure, an artist out of Olympia who does papercut books and calendars mainly. I found some prints in the gift shop!  You can also buy her stuff here.  I paid a little more than that but I figure it’s for the good of the museum.  After a quick trip to Target, we have this.

Yes, I know – dumb light reflection. But you get the gist. I thought they were very apropos for the dining area.  So long, Ikea mums.

Off to the boy hairs cut.

ba-bling ba-bling

Posted on by Chris
3

First of all. This is a bit of a ridiculous thing to post, kind of like how to make toast or something. But I am posting it anyway.

Also, my Facebook status this morning had to do with my current and utter lack of motivation.  Let me make it clear that I bought the supplies for this idea weeks ago and just completed it today, despite the fact that it took MAYBE all of ten minutes.

But I digress. I’d been coveting something like this for a while, a way to display jewelry on the wall. Too pricy, for sure, but I like the idea of seeing what I have so that I might actually wear it. My original idea was to get one of those old wooden thread spool holders at Goodwill but of course, when I want to find something, I can’t.  On to Plan B.

Cup holders! Those little hooks you can just screw into the wall!  I bought several in different sizes, and actually planned to tie a ribbon across two of them for earrings, but then I found two lovely little wooden bowls while searching for the spool holder.

In other brilliance, I’ve got several necklaces made by friends that bear mentioning. There are two in the bottom row with all sorts of lovely beads and rbbons were given to me by Jeanne, who has an Etsy shop where she sells her work.

And the one next to it was made by Sue, out of Scrabble tiles, and the best part, shrunken photos that I’d posted on Facebook! How brilliant is that!

And now I get to see my pretties every day!

But that’s enough progress for one day.  I’ll be lucky to finish making the chili I started.

pinteresting

Posted on by Chris
2

It’s sweeping the nation, nay, the world, you know. This Pinterest thing. I know some of you already are on board. “On board” – ha, that’s funny.

It’s basically a visual way to collect your favorite things online – a virtual bulletin board. Any time you see a photo of something, you “pin” it to the board of your choice.  I currently have 1,441 pins on 18 boards.  You can find things in your own internet travels, or on the boards of someone else – that’s called “repinning”. You can even “follow” the boards of friends or people who seem to have similar taste.

The problem is I’ve been spending too much time “pinning” and not enough time going back to try the stuff I’ve pinned!  What good is collecting it if you never use it!  So tonight I’ll be making this off my Yummy board -

Chicken and dumplings

In crafty land, there are MANY, MANY things I would like to do off my Craft board. One hardly knows where to begin.  Maybe this -

DIY Atomic Starburst Mirror

Or this -

Pleated Bag

The beauty of Pinterest is when you pin something, the original URL to the item is preserved, so you can go back to the recipe or pattern or whatever the source is. And it’s so FUN to see everything collaged in one place.

I’ve got a Garden board to help with outdoor inspiration. Scenes like this move me to get going on the backyard -

Now that's a garden

Or this paver patio I love -

Paver Patio

If there is a photo, you can pin it. Some of my favorites are my Little Bits of Awesome board.

B -I-N-G-O

Zombie Survival

To start pinning, you need to request an “invite”, which can several days or even a couple weeks. Once you’re accepted, prepare to lose hours of your life. Even the Geek pins! Mostly guns and robots, but still.

Happy weekend! I’ve got things to make and cook, zombies to survive…

holidaze

Posted on by Chris
2

Post Christmas Debriefing:  

The littles in our house, being 13 and 11, have been questioning lately. Not the boy/girl kind of questioning, but the Santa-Kind-of-Questioning.

Especially the 11 year old. I’d say most of his friends have firmly crossed over, but he is hedging his bets. He has asked several times “Is Santa real?’.  ”Of course he is”, I say. “Who else brings the Santa presents and fills the stockings?!”  The Girl Child has been threatened with pain of death if she spoils the dream, but I think even she isn’t QUITE sure.

So on Christmas Eve morning, we trekked downtown to see Santa, the REAL Santa, at Macy’s.  We now have photographic evidence that he is real. That night, cookies and milk were left, with a note reminding Santa about Jack’s unmarked stocking.

Santa did not forget.

It was a splendid day. Gifts, ham, friends. Ham. Although there was a minor catastrophe when the oven element burned out, and we barely squeaked the biscuits out. I hope Santa brought you some magic that day too.

(P.S. About my previous post where I vowed to take it down a notch, well.  Hmm. I did make some gifts, but of course caved to the allure of having a party – THOUGH it was only an open house thing. I made a couple soups and people came to eat them. Tasty.)

But now!  It’s time to put all this away til next year.

We have no New Years Eve plans because A) I am socialized out and B) I can barely stay up past 10 pm.  So we will eat well, including a coconut cream pie if the element gets fixed today (fingers crossed). And tomorrow the house goes back to non-Christmas. A fresh start.

I looked back at last year’s New Year post and was embarrassed to see that the big goals I had for the year were nowhere near completion: the garage and backyard and purging. To be fair, it was a jam-packed social year. Which is why we’re slowing it way down this year to focus on the homefront. For the first time in many years, I have not organized any camping trips for the summer. Not one.

Which should leave us plenty of time and energy to tackle that godforsaken pit of despair known technically as our garage. We are starting to save so that when it’s cleaned out, we can finish it and have another room for living. These kids aren’t getting any smaller.  Whether we’ll have enough money for that this year remains to be seen, but at least it will be ready.

The backyard is high on the list too. We did plant a feed trough with tomatoes last year, and this year plan to step up the edibles production. Luckily, our friend Farmer Fels and his lovely wife start many fabulous seedlings and share some with us. More conifers and less weeds, maybe some plushing of the spit of grass. So it looks less like a nuclear bomb cleared it and more like this.

I actually do love our little house, despite its one bathroom and lack of dishwasher. I have big plans for the kitchen if the money tree ever starts blooming and even the ceiling. But in the meantime I’ll have to settle for little fixes and lots of hard work. I’m excited to get started and have big hopes for 2012.

May the new year bring you health and prosperity and good times spent with those you love.  I’ll be busy getting the backyard ready for ribs and pie.

our youngest turns 3

Posted on by Chris
10

Today is Jack’s third birthday. Hard to believe it’s been that long. Technically we’ve only had him for 2 years and 10 months, but we’ll round up.  Prepare yourselves for cute overload.

This is Jack on his “gotcha” day, with his mom. We all looked pretty different three years ago.

And here he was at Grayland this summer. You might notice his nose is no longer black – he is what’s known as a “dudley”. Which seems pretty fitting, if you know him.

We love him to bits. Happy birthday, boobah.

and it begins

Posted on by Chris
7

Today is December 1st.  24 days remaining until Christmas.

In recent years, my holiday mojo has been declining. What used to be so fun now just seems like drudgery, something to get through. This year, I vow it will be different.

I took a look back at what brought the unfun in past years – it was the stress. From doing too much and buying too much. Things started off well enough most of the time, but then quickly spun out of control. I could not catch my breath en0ugh to find the joy in any of it.

Not this year, dammit.

New Rule #1.  Buy less.  Whatever we buy this year has to be paid for with cash, so we have to watch it carefully.  And really, we don’t NEED anything. Sure, I like a present as much as the next person, but I can get by with a new peeler and maybe a Tom Bihn bag.  And I will try to get the kids a few things they really want, but no need to go nuts as in years past. No more artsy kits that sit unused, or plastic bits of crap.

New Rule #2.  Make more. Which goes along with Rule #1.  I have several handmade gifts on my list.  I’ll be saving money and moving onto…

New Rule #3.  Do the joyful things.  Like making presents.  Decorating. Cookies! Christmas music. Lights. A day downtown.  Things that memories are made of.

New Rule #4. Keep track. I’m really hoping that my mom’s old-fashioned way of organizing will help me stay on top of the madness. I got a tiny spiral notebook, and made notes for food I want to make, each person on my list, crafts  to do, and money spent. I used to try to do that in Google docs, but for some reason it never really worked. In this case, I think physically keeping it all together might do the trick.  We shall see.

New Rule #5. Let it go.I don’t need to do a big party every year with lots of expensive food and work.  Soup and cookies are just fine. Ham sandwiches on Christmas Day.

When all else fails, have a cocktail and find some little thing to be grateful for. Find the quiet of the season.  Wishing you all peace this month.

bigness

Posted on by Chris
Reply

Bits and pieces

swirling in my head

bumping

crashing

blocks of black

and gray, with the occasional burst

of yellow,

sometimes white.

Breaths that won’t go in,

can’t come out.

Lines growing deeper,

time growing shorter.

The path feels less familiar,

no signs to guide me.

Bigness all around me,

all inside me.

Shall I Make more

to Be more

to Get more?

Churn and turn the black and gray

into brightness.

Gripping whitely,

gripping tightly.

Finding light.

great expectations

Posted on by Chris
3

It’s been a struggle, people. A mighty struggle.

To put it plainly, I live with a 13-year old Girl and a 10-soon-to-be-11-year-old Boy. There is  a whole lot of stuff going on in their little heads lately, is all I can think.

The Girl Child has been busted twice recently for lying, and likes to be rude when she knows better. This morning she had not made her lunch when it was time to leave. I dared to  suggest she get up earlier or spend less time changing her shirt (40 minutes?! really?!), and then it was on with the rudeness.  I ended up saying nothing and leaving on my own, though I did wait at the bus stop to make sure she made it.

The Boy Child has unexplainable freak-outs. Yesterday, he showed me his birthday list, which had only three things on it, so I suggested he add some other things to it. Since, you know, odds are more than 3 people would like to get him a gift.  He completely lost it. Tore up his list, declared he didn’t want a birthday, threw stuff out of his room, rolled around on the floor.  It was nuts. A mark of how nuts: he threw NIGHT NIGHT into the hall.  Night Night slept with me.

I KNOW there are hormonal and pre-teen demons at work here. I’m reasonably sure they are good kids.  But GOOD LORD, this stuff is exhausting. I also know we are not the only ones with these demon children – I am pretty sure there is a support group for it, and it’s called vodka.

I know they are stretching new muscles and finding their way, dealing with stresses we know nothing about. I refuse to give in and be bullied by my own kids. I  expect them to be part of a family where we respect each other and try to be nice, for crying out loud. To be responsible for fixing the hurt they cause with the words they say without thinking.

I know the day will come when they turn into people who can control their emotions, maybe not say things that make no sense when you suggest a new morning routine or more birthday presents. I fear it will not be soon enough.

In the meantime, make it a double.

a family photo, back in the day