Matt came home last night with a surprise! No, silly girls. Not flowers! LUSH! He loves me!
Archive for September, 2007
what’s better than flowers?
Thursday, September 27th, 2007take a guess tuesday : week two
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007When we moved into our new home, I was looking forward to many things. Which of the following things (if I had to) could I easily do without:
a. the king bed
b. a dishwasher
c. two bathrooms
d. the “girls”
stationery swap
Monday, September 24th, 2007Join me in a Stationery Swap! It’s an international affair.
pillow talk
Monday, September 24th, 2007If nothing else, play the video while you read the remainder of post.
Of course, the key to a beautiful bed is decorative pillows, and lots of them. Magazines discuss properly layering the pillows for a desired effect. Well, that’s all fine and dandy, but for those of us who are practical and don’t/can’t sleep with all those dang pillows, it creates a pillow problem. What do people do with all these pillows when they are sleeping. I refuse to place them on the floor, so they usually sit on my bedside table. And, sometimes, they sit there several days at a time. So, let’s talk pillows. Decorative bed pillows, that is. What are you supposed to do with them at night?
tied up tshirt
Monday, September 24th, 2007I was on a mission. I was determined to replicate what I had seen a girl do to her T-shirt. From the looks of things, it was as if she had cut straight down the sides of the t-shirt (from the armpit down to the bottom of the shirt), then, cut slits up the shirt, about an inch apart (in a ladder-like fashion) and tied the slits together. I had hoped to find better directions on the internet, but instead I found a brief summary and reference to a book entitled, “99 Ways to Cut, Sew, Trim, and Tie Your T-Shirt into Something Special“.
So, I took an old T-shirt, laid it down flat and cut up the sides of the shirt. Then I cut slits approximately 1/2″ apart from each other, each slit was about 1 1/4 ” long. Essentially, I had 1/2″ tabs all the way up the shirt.
Next, I lined up the shirt up and tied square knots all the way down, making sure I didn’t skip a tab.
The results were very close to what I saw this weekend and I can honestly say my prototype turned out rather well.
Some things to keep in mind.
- This would be a great project for teenagers. I think younger children might find it a bit tedious.
- Make sure to use a shirt that’s a little too big. When you cut and tie the sides you are making the shirt smaller. Of course the longer you make the tabs, the smaller the shirt will be. I imagine you could even vary the lengths of the tabs so it is fitted to your shape (ie. girls, you can make the T-shirt a little more fitted).
- I made my tabs 1/2″ wide. If they were any wider, I think there would be too much skin showing. If they were less wide, I think you risk tearing the tabs.
- The possibilities are endless. I think I might continue straight up the sleeves as well to see what it looks like. The sleeves would be a little capped then, I would think. Also, I think layer tshirts of different colors could be really cool, and would probably have less holes on the sides.
racecar storage
Monday, September 24th, 2007Over the past few months, Matt has seriously considered selling the racecar. With spare time so precious these days, making it to a race weekend, not to mention maintaining the car himself, is almost impossible. We also have no garage and no real off street parking or driveway to speak of. This weekend we had every intention of bringing back the car (currently being stored on my family’s farm) and putting it up for sale. We knew that there was some question as to whether or not the trailer would actually fit through the gate into our backyard, but we figured we could park the trailer on the street and store the car in the backyard while we put everything up for sale. After measuring the trailer’s width (it IS too wide to fit through the gate) and reading up on ordinances (it is illegal to store the trailer on the street), we aborted on the mission.
Once we got back home we started problem solving and the wheels in our brains (which work very differently and can be a very good thing) started whirring. What could we do to make it possible to store the car in the yard while we are trying to get it sold? Well, of course the gate would need to be wider somehow, which would basically mean replacing the fence. But the fence is in poor shape anyhow, it honestly wouldn’t hurt to replace the gate along the side and behind the house, right? But, how much would THAT cost. [Looked online for pricing information.] Oh, not that much. Much cheaper than we originally thought. What about a permit? [Looked online for permit required.] We wouldn’t need a permit as long as we stuck with wood fencing. We can do that ourselves. If we replace the fence and the gate, we’ve solved the problem. We can store the racecar after all in the backyard…but it will kill the grass when parked near the fence. But, the grass there isn’t growing that well anyway. Should we make a permanent parking spot there? Should we put gravel down? Oh, what about those extra bricks by the shed left by the previous owners? We could use those to extend the patio out a bit, place a walkway to the parking spot, put bricks down for a parking spot and also make a walkway from the parking spot to the shed. Yes! That would look really nice. We should really look into this some more this week.
So, if we can store the racecar in the backyard, is it worth keeping?
weekend wrapup…and camera conundrum
Monday, September 24th, 2007Over the weekend we went to the Virginia Tech football game (vs. William and Mary, thanks for the tickets Allison!), make a pit stop to see my family and pick up the race car (which we aborted, more on that later). The weather was gorgeous (even if it was a bit warm for football), we tailgated with some friends (thanks to the Pankey/Davis clan for the drinks and grub), went to see the memorial (we were especially moved by the game tickets placed by the Hokie stone of several victims), bought Hokie Effect tshirts at the bookstore (I am going to figure out how that girl made her tshirt), and finished off the evening with dinner at The Cellar (which, by the way, no longer serves Greek Spaghetti on game days, FYI).
Throughout the day I did not carry a bookbag, a tote bag or a purse. I was naked. In my pockets I had sunscreen, my cell phone, a lone check to pay for the tickets, a pen, and feminine products. I wore a hat and my sunglasses and Matt carried my cash and drivers license in his wallet. It felt strange not having anything to hold on to, but very liberating. And, although I would have liked to have pictures that captured the day, I was glad we didn’t bring it along. It would have just been something to carry.
Which, leads me to the second half of the article title…I really enjoy taking pictures, but dislike lugging a camera along with me. Does anybody else feel this way? I want to capture certain moments in life, but sometimes if you have a camera it seems more trouble than it is worth? And, with my limited skills as a photographer I find it overwhelming all of the buttons and settings and unfortunately have very little interest in understanding how it all works (therefore each time I touch the camera I am asking Matt to set it in “dummy mode” for me and ultimately don’t always get the best shots). Then, on top of it all, Matt is clearly the photographer and has an exceptional eye for gorgeous shots. Me? I just see things I like and want to document it. Remember this little place we drank beer in Bruges? You know, where all the locals were and the lab was sitting at the bar with his owner? Oh, look. Here we are at Blowing Rock, North Carolina on our first trip together. I am sure some of you can imagine us as old geezers, showing slideshows ala Jim and Bettie… I think I should really just start getting in the habit of having a camera out with me at all times when sightseeing (not caring if I look like a complete dufus tourist) and just start snapping away. Maybe I will (a) get used to having it with me, (b) become more acquainted with the settings, and (c) feel like taking it everywhere.
take a guess tuesday : week one
Tuesday, September 18th, 2007Beth plays this little game every now and again, so I decided to add a little spice to my blog as well. At least for you loyal viewers out there. I know some of you will buck and refuse to answer the question, while others of you will enjoy playing along.
The beginning of fall is my most favorite time of the year. Well, until the beginning of spring, when we are able to open up the house again, and then spring is my favorite time of the year. But, hey, isn’t it better to have two favorite times of the year? I do believe so. So, here goes. Which of the following things do I NOT necessarily look forward to in the fall?
a. fall cleaning
b. having to cook soups and stews again
c. NFL
d. college football
e. lawn maintenance
f. all of the above
g. none of the above
h. a and e
i. b and c
j. c and e
k. b and e
l. c and d
Sidenote: If you ever had Dr. Robertson, you will know his multiple choice questions were just that. Multiple, multiple choices. Up to ten at times. Don’t worry. I’m not going to make it a habit to overwhelm you each week. Just for the first one. For fun.
juno…and then some
Monday, September 17th, 2007It looks like Hollywood has gotten the message. You can actually have a good screenplay, great actors and voila! an exceptional movie. And Fox Searchlight seems to be the leader of the pack. After Little Miss Sunshine had such success, actors are willing to stick their necks out (and often take a paycut) in order to do something REAL. This shift may be shortlived, but it has me so excited.
One of their newest releases, Once, has gotten very positive reviews.
And, blowing everybody away at the Sundance festival wasJuno. Now, we just have to wait until December when it is released.
But the Darjeeling Limited, which I am sure will be a winner in my book, comes out this month!
oh, what a beautiful morning!
Saturday, September 15th, 2007Oh, what a beautiful day! The front that moved through last night pushed out the heat and brought us cooler temperatures, bright, blue skies and a nice breeze. This morning we made some coffee and tea, walked to the Farmer’s Market, popped into a specialty cheese store (they have Raclette, but it’s $12.50/lb.!) opened up the house and turned on ESPN College Gameday. are gearing up to watch some college football, maybe do some grilling for dinner? There is hope that sticky summer weather is coming to an end and bright, crisp fall mornings are on their way!