Lately I have been listening to the same album on my iPhone instead of shuffling. I know, how old school. I don’t listen to it in order if that is any consolation. I guess mostly because I don’t want to be skipping all aroung when I am on the subway. I would rather set it and not think about it. Well today for kicks while my favorite song on the album was playing I hit the genius button. Now I have a playlist of 25 songs from my iPhone which are similar. Just like that. I know, genius has been around for a while. I know, it is really a little lame I haven’t tried it yet. What can I say, sometimes I am a creature of habit. Better late than never.
Porridge
For my birthday I got a rice cooker with a setting for porridge. Just like the three bears. Tee hee. I have been using this setting to make steel cut oats for breakfast. It is great. I get everything set up the night before, I set the timer to be ready when I get out of the shower and voila! Hot oatmeal for me and M in the morning. I don’t know if you have made steel cut oats, but they are messy and time consuming. 45 minutes and a pan with oatmeal stuck to the bottom if you aren’t constantly stirring and then sometimes even when you are. In the rice cooker, it is so easy that I could have hot oatmeal everyday. Look out cholesterol, you are about to get lower.
Paid Off
A few years ago I decided it would be a good idea to go back to school for a year. So I went part time, took out a student loan and went to FIT to learn how to make jewelry. If I had to do it all over again, I would. I love to learn new things even if I don’t end up using them in my real life as much as I would like. I don’t really make jewelry, although sometimes I bang something together. Well yesterday I sent what will be my final payment for my student loan! What a nice feeling. Next month we are also making the last payment on our upstate property! Whoo hoo! This December we are going to feel like millionaires! But don’t worry, we are planning on saving and even investing a lot of that money for the first few months.
Kids, Don’t Try This at Home
I am a sucker for advertising. I like nicely designed things which appear easy to make. As you may have read on this blog, M&I are attempting to built the ReadyMade MD100 shed. Neither of us has any construction experience whatsoever, but they claim two people can build this in one weekend for the relatively small sum of $1500. A bargain! Maybe this would take one weekend if you had two highly trained, seasoned carpenters. And that is only if they have the site prepared (or are building on a perfectly level site) and have all of the material delivered and pre-cut. I hate to sound bitter here, but as M&I forge ahead with these plans, we are noticing a lot of things that were designed in the name of cheap instead of right. There is nothing 16″ on center, which means when we are interested in putting up paneling instead of the corrogated metal, uh oh, nothing is 4′ wide so we have to put in extra studs. Yikes, we have a significant snow load, the roof they designed may not be enough… sigh. I would like to thank my dad and grandfather again for coming out and helping until late last night. We got A LOT done. The frame is up, the roof has plywood, we even have some of the siding in place. We still have at least a long weekend of work ahead of us to put in the doors (one sliding glass and one steel) and to finish the roof (we still aren’t exactly sure what has to happen there) and finish siding the whole thing. I am not going to say don’t buy the plans if you have your heart set on one of these, but keep in mind, one weekend and $1500 IS too good to be true.
Arm Warmers
The cold weather is setting in and as you might be able to tell from my posts, I am already in knitting mode and on the hunt to find things that will help keep me warm. I saw these super cute arm warmers which at first I thought were knit, but they are actually re-purposed knee socks! I love the color and they seem super easy to put together. The pictures help a lot. I actually like knee socks because they help keep my legs warm but I bet this technique would also work with the arms of a sweater that just isn’t working for me as a sweater anymore. via
More Felt Love
After posting the felted pin cushion I started to get the itch to make something myself and what better than a felted bag! Mags Kandis posted this beautiful free pattern for a bucket bag. I especially love the embroidery embellishments. In fact if you click around Mags’ site you will see a lot of inspirational embellishments. I am also intrigued by the link to kiva.org and I plan to find out what they are all about.
Felt
While browsing around Supermarket I saw these adorable felted pin pods. The design and the color are just wonderful. So vibrant and rich. It helps that they are made of my favorite material in the world. I especially like the view of their cute little bottoms. I don’t think I could decide on just one! If I were more of a sewer I might consider, but $62 is a little dear for someone who hasn’t managed to sew a straight line in years. The felted bowls on her site remind me I have some yarn waiting to be knitted and felted into some bowl shapes of their own.
Spontaneous Movie Watching
I have had Netflix for a really long time. I remember the one thing that I was sad about was that I was losing the spontaneity of going to the movie rental store to pick out a movie to watch that very evening. I got over that pretty quickly since the good outweighs the bad. Things were improved slightly (and then much more so once Starz got on board) when Netflix introduced their Watch Instantly feature. But I have to admit I still missed browsing through new movie titles and seeing things that I had forgotten I wanted to see or something that I hadn’t even realized came out. Just recently I noticed a new basket by the return counter of my local library with movies. I figured I would take a quick flip as I was waiting in line and was surprised to see a few that I had wanted to see, but forgot to put in my queue. The spontaneity I was looking for is now back! The best part? Totally free for a whole week. That is something you never got at Blockbuster.
Lovely Weekend
This weekend was lovely. My birthday was Friday but the celebrating was spread out which was great. Friday M&I had soccer so there was not a huge celebration. To be honest, as I get older I need less and less of a celebration. I did receive a lovely pair of earrings from M which I have been wearing since. Saturday Dad, Diane and KB trekked to the city to have tea with us at Lady Mendl’s. 5 courses of wonderful goodness later, KB had to get back to school. The rest of the group made our way to Pearl Oyster Bar in a very leisurely manner winding from Soho to the West Village. Yum, lobster rolls! Tonight I plan to break in my new rice cooker from D&D. Thanks again everyone for making this a wonderful few days! Thank you also to those who sent card, ecards and called.
David Trubridge
I have been meaning to post about my love for David Trubridge’s light for a while now. I first saw his lamps in New Zealand and have been lusting after one ever since. I love the lighteness of the wood, but the overall size of the lamp. I love that when you buy one, they come in a box not much bigger than a ream of 11×17 paper and you have to put it together yourself. Even with the 50% price drop since DWR has been carrying his Coral Pendant, the price tag has been holding me back. The DIY part of me has been thinking I could come up with something similar. Finally someone has posted directions on how you can make a very similar, although much smaller lamp. I think I am going to have to try for my own DIY design.
iamlizbeth.com 