Mortimer's Mom

Buzy Buzy!

A 3 day weekend.... what to do, what to do????

First off, Dumpling now eats lunch at school, and they asked for a cloth placemat daily. Since it's a Kosher environment, I figured she would need 2, one for meat, one for dairy. I was just going to take a big placemat and cut it in half, but then, I figured I could do better. For the details, head over to the craft blog.

 

We also took the kiddos to the farmers market. it's always buzy there, like during berry season, but I have NEVER seen it as buzy as during TOMATO season. Wow! the italian families buying vats and vats of tomatoes, filling the trunks of the cars! I simplly couldn't resist and came home with this small 30+ pound bag of roma tomatoes. It took me about 4 hours of prep and 2 hours of cooking, along with the biggest plant of basil I have ever seen (it was as tall as Dumpling and as wide as Beach Ball!!!) to turn these tomatoes into a 10-container batch of homemade tomato sauce. We had it for dinner, it was delicious.

Corn is also in season. Beach Ball likes corn....

Just call me Junk-Mother

We have a great DYI show in Canada called Junk Brothers, where two brothers go out on trash day and pick up stuff people throw out, bring it back to their studio and turn it into something else. Like a stove into a hot-rod BBQ, or a decrepit desk into a really snazzy video game console.

Anyhow, today, I stopped by my former employee/friend's new apartment to check out her new digs, help her pick some paint colors and install some deadbolts. She was having some layout issues in her kitchen/dining room area, hoping to make a small home office in there too. She was going to move her flat table everday, changing it from her dining table to her desk. I told her that would not be great in the long run, because the minute she needed to leave a project out on her desk, she would find herself eating on the couch.

she did, however, have this great dresser in the corner. She didn't like it, it was too high to use as a desk or sideboard.....

  We headed over to Home Depot, where I gifted her with a basic wood saw. She purchased a piano hinge. We sawed off the front of the drawer, hacked away at the bottom a little bit, using a paint scraper and hammer as a chisel, and 20 minutes later, we had a snazzy flip-out drawer:

Here she is, sitting at her new hideaway home office, which will now reside in her Mortimer's Mom redisgned dining room. A little TSP and steal wool and that baby is going to be a prized posession!

In other news, I have been on a purging binge. I have totally decluttered the kids play room and the living room. Tomorrow, I attack the front hall and vestibule. We are clutter-people, we keep crap way longer than necessary, nd with 2 kids, it's just out of control. So I'm throwing it and giving away anything and everything that crosses my path. I will make a list of books I have and if anyone wants them, they'll be up for grabs. And the girls had a lemonade stand today, pictures later, must upload first.

Therapy, MM's style

The last couple of days have definitely been therapeutic for me. It's been a shit year so far, let's face it. Between the BB rejection, the B12 debacle, the husband in the hospital, the busted knee followed by surgery, both dogs having "incidents" and Dumpling turning 4 going on 14, it's really been a shit year.

So I've been doing things to recharge MY batteries lately. First, my oldest friend K visited for a few days, and then the Urban visit was a major highlight. We had such a good time, it was relaxed and easy going and we got along just like on the computer. After they left, there was a void. So I went to the movies. A lot. There is something about being by myself in a dark room with a story to escape for 2 hours. For me, that's what a therapy session is.

Also, yesterday and today, I went back to my sewing machine. My Doll Quilt needs to be mailed out tomorrow and I've had a pillow case project in my head for weeks now. if you are interested in such things, both projects are up at Ubercrafty.

Finally, a reader who happens to live in my city and is an OT came to my house yesterday and did a session with BB ****. Most of the delays that we documented a few months back have been caught up. Yeah BB! Her knees are still locked in certain positions and she crawls funny, but thanks to M the Amazing Babysitter, she's already playing dog in the park and except for her language, she's pretty much on par with other soon-to-be 2 year olds.

***How nice was that? She read my post way back about BB being at a one year-old level and offered to come over for a second opinion. We have been working with BB on her delays, but to have someone else, who is weeks away from her own referall come over and check it out, it was soooo sweet! Thanks again N!

Startling Orange

You might have missed the press release, but the inevitable is about to happen... The lovely D of Hope Springs and I have decided it was time to let our husbands meet and spend time kvetsching about public bathrooms, the proper way to do dishes, and obscure baseball statistics that nobody but the two of them care about. They have, in fact, met once before in Chicago. But this before Herb was a blogger, back when we didn't know he was just as quirky as Mortimer's Dad. So this time, the geekiness and oddness will be let loose.

So with such dignitaries coming to stay with us, I decided it was time to turn out guest room from an all-purpose storage room with a spanking-new mattress standing on its side to, you know, an actual guest room. Past guest have stayed in the attic, which is lovely, but the bed is a pullout. So a while back, we decided that we would actually make a proper guest room. We purchased the mattress after the basement reno and sort of never went anywhere after that. Last night, we were watching the premiere of HGTV's Design Star (it's Canada, we get everything later!) and we saw a bedroom that both caught our fancy. Bold but not bright orange, with chocolate accents. Coincidentally, we have already purchased a dark brown headboard, which is sitting in the box in the hallway.

Off we went to Home Depot, where we zeroed in on Startling Orange immediately. A small pint of a nice brown called Wild horse will be used as some sort of accent. And because the basement bathroom is a nice hospital shade of salmon (the previous owners loved 2 colors: bright yellow and all shades of salmon), we will also infuse a bit of personality to that room with something called Green Crush. The overall color pallet is very Jonathan Adler. It's bold and fun and totally appropriate for the basement, which is pretty dark. (I wish I had the guts to do the rest of the house like that, but I might get tired of it if I saw it all day everyday)

The first coat is done and it already looks fantastic. I'll show you as soon as I'm done. What? Don't you always re-do your spare room before your guests come to stay? I'm hoping this will appease The Goddess....

Commiting a Sin Against Martha

Sidenote: the pasta was delicious! Way better than boxed stuff!

I have been buying/subscribed to Martha Stewart magazine since issue #4. (Hey, I'm in Canada, it took me 3 issues to get track it down!). Except for a few months after University when I let my subscription lapse for lack of funds, I have every issue. In a really crappy particle-board bookshelf (Martha would not be proud). Over the years, I have gone back to them, re-read them, search for stuff in them. They have been great for information and inspiration. But you know, it's 2007 and everything is on-line now. And the crappy bookshelf is now falling apart. So I needed to rehouse the magazines somewhere else.

Except, I don't live alone anymore. I don't live alone with my husband. We live with 2 kids and 2 canines, and the 6 of us have an incredible amount of crap. So after the last basement reno, I started considering maybe it would be time to let them go...... But I couldn't do it.

So instead, tonight, for no reason except the fact that I had 4 issues lying around in the breakfast room, I started committing the ultimate sin against Martha: I started going through the magazines, cutting out the pages I wanted to keep, and, it pains me to admit this, recycling the rest..... I know! Martha herself once answered the question by saying you should keep them intact and pristine, not clip them!

But I came up with an hopefully Martha-approved solution: I got very pretty binders, and a big ole stack of page protectors, and I'm cutting the whole pages and putting them in page protectors. There are 3 binders: Food, Crafts and Good Things/Other. So far I've only gone through about a dozen magazines, but I kept only about 30 different pages or sets of pages, so really, I'm glad I'm doing this. For example, i don't garden, at all. So there are at least 2 issues per year and 10 pages per issue that are of no interest to me. And I really don't think I'm ever going to re-read the 17 page in depth research on weather-vanes.

I hope Martha forgives me.

Black is not the new black

Further to my bathroom makeover, I went shopping for bathroom accessories: something to hang the toilet paper on, something to hang 2 hand towels on, something to disguise a couple of extra rolls of toilet paper and finally, a garbage can.

You know what? Apparently, people don't like black accessories in bathrooms. Even the mega-Umbra does only one set in black, and it looks like bent twigs. Not the look I was going for. I went to specialty stores and big-box places: all chrome or white. The high end places had catalogues we could order from, but I am not spending hundreds of dollars on a former coat-closet!

I found some cute floating shelves that will serve as open cabinets. I will have to find something to camouflage the rolls of TP on them. And since I'm not thinking black crochet doilies, I will be on the lookout for some sort of black box that will fit 2 rolls. I did drive to an architecture salvage place and found a set of black ceramic accessories from the 40s (TP holder and soap dish), but it's meant to be tiled into the wall. So my dad took the Dremel to it and made some holes so I will be able to screw them in tomorrow.

Finally, I bought this mirror, which I hung vertically instead. I'll show you the final shots tomorrow.

Wanna use my bathroom?

This is really more of a DYI project than a craft project, for now. But as you will see, it can evolve into an arts project....

Our main floor powder room used to be a coat closet. The previous owners took a 1920's house with one bathroom and did their best to stick toilets wherever they could. So the former front hall closet became the smallest, peach-est powdered room ever. I hate peach. HATE it. But it's a 3 by 4 powder room, so I let it be and closed my eyes whenever I went in there. Except a few weeks ago, I had enough. So I ordered this.

yesterday, I took everything off the walls and patched them. I changed the two light fixtures because the cheap blue ones that were there were totally useless (though it made the peach more bearable). This morning I primed because years of DYI TV shows have thought me you should always apply fresh primer before you wallpaper. Then, I wallpapered for the first time in my life. I still need to get a new mirror and some black accessories like a soap dish and towel ring. Also, what will go up first: a picture, a drawing, kids scribble?

GYCO April

My April Aprons are documented on Ubercrafty.

Get Your Craft On! MARCH

March's theme for Get your Craft on was RECYLE.

At first, I was stoked. I love making something out of something that had a previous life. But then, as I started thinking about what I should actually make, I was stumped. I couldn't think of anything. At least nothing I hadn't already tried or wouldn't be able to accomplish (I refuse to start anything I can't finish - I have enough WIPs to last a lifetime)

Then I got busywith the Dumpling's 4th bday, so I figured I would be totally lame and do the ultimate act of recycling: presenting you guys with crafts projects I've already done but never blogged about! I didn't have any pictures of me wearing the t-shirts I'm constantly altering, ripping, adjusting. But I did have pics of a few other things:

• the mobile for Dumpling's country house room,  fashioned from all the KLB holiday cards and some left over wire.
• The mittens (several more pairs than pictured) I made from all the sweaters that I didn't like anymore or had met an untimely death by the cleaning lady (love her, but damn she shrinks a lot of stuff). When we spent a week at the country in January, I felted a whole bunch of sweaters and made a TON of mits for the kids, myself and my friend IH.

But really, I felt itchy to do something. And then, the cleaning lady shrunk a J Crew wool tunic that I loved, but that was already a bit past its prime had a hole and a stain....    

I've had a really cute Japanese embroidery book for a while now, but never had anything to embroider (it's not really my thing). But after shortening the sleeves and fixing the trim around the neckline, which hadn't shrunk, the tunic was perfect for Dumpling. So I took out my embroidery floss, my cute book and Voila:

Farrah F. is the COOLEST!

I came home today and Farrah Fawcett was waiting for me. What, you don't believe me? Here, look:

See, I told you! And you know what? Farrah (and her alter ego) is absolutely the COOLEST. OK, so technically, this was a holiday swap that should have landed on my doorstep some time in January.... But Farrah, she knows how to make up for being a tad late!

First, the box was full of goodies: cute socks, the most FABULOUS pouch for CDs, adorable notes with the girls' initials (which will come in super handy for all the bday gifts they bring to their friends), super funky tissues and a lovely bracelet. I mean, everything in there was fabulous and it made for a terrific gift. But Farrah has one more gift for me....

A book. A scrapbook. Super pretty on the outside. But the inside, oh the inside!!!!! I don't even have words to describe it to you! I had to take a picture of each page and show you! Basically, she created a page for each month of our first year as a family of four. There is currently a handmade notecard in each photospot, which she suggested I remove and replace with a family picture taken each month, so we can journal our first year as a familly. But I could never take those cards out completely, so what I have decided to do is to indeed put a picture on each page for each month, but I will use the notecard to write a little something to the girls, so that they can read about their first year of being sisters.

Farrah, you ROCK!!!!!