Masking Tape vs Net Curtains

I know what I'll be using in the future:



It might be a bit of a faff for something that may not last that long, but for a rented place it's perfect. And since we are planning to rent for a good while yet, I can see it coming soon to a window near me!

This idea and the image above is from a book called Patterns in Design, Art and Architecture and were created by textile artist Claudia Caviezel.

Via My Weblog, via Apartment Therapy.

Customised Furniture

Our first collaborative project! Hubby and I worked together today to bring an idea to life that's been festering in our collective brain for quite some time. We were finally pushed into action by our dog, Monkey, who decided to pee up our trusty orange Ottoman-thingy yesterday. We think it was a show of jealousy for Hubby's Mum, who was visiting and making a big fuss of VV.

Anyhow, on to the project. I'd show you a before pic, but my dratted camera is refusing to let go of the lovely photos it has. Soon I will show it who is boss and let go of it... So, I'll have to describe the original piece of furniture instead. It was a cube of foam, with an orange slipcover. We've got two of them and they've justified their paltry 20 euro price tag a million times over - we put our feet up on them, rest our laptops on them, and eat dinner off them. (And apparently, if you're called Monkey, you pee up them too!)

Here's what one of them looks like now (sorry that they aren't the best photos, we had to use a camera phone):





Oh, what's that? Oh yes, it's a special slot to stow a laptop, that's what. A small (and we think, cool) effort on our part to declutter our living room. At least now my laptop has a place to rest when it's turned off. It'd probably overheat if we put it in there turned on, so this also gives us a good reason to shut it down when we're not using it, something we've not been very good at doing.

The whole thing took us a couple of hours, all told. Hubby was the chief foam cutter and had the excellent idea of reassembling it with the aid of cocktail sticks (to hold the cut parts together, internally). I was chief seamstress.

We're thinking up a treatment for Ottoman number 2 now. And is it an Ottoman? We used to call them poofs in the UK, but perhaps that was peculiar to my family. Don't suppose it is spelled like that, either.

A Crafty Corner to Call my Own

Insanely jealous of my best friend and her new house, replete with a designated craft space, I just had to do something. So, I claimed a small area of VV's room for myself. Since he's still in our room I'm sure he doesn't mind. I promise to move once he does!



I am pretty sure that my craft output, at least sewing-wise, will increase now. It was just too much effort to get the sewing machine out every time I wanted to use it. Now any time I get a spare 5 minutes (and it's usually only 5 with VV about), I can nip on the machine and make something. Check out the next post to see what I made today...

A Sun for our Son

Hubby made a great lampshade, modelled on the Sun, to replace the Moon that I smashed to smithereens a while back:



VV loves it and we're pretty keen too - if I switch the light on first thing, it gives us a few extra minutes in bed in the morning.

Two Tricky Tables

As in tables that do tricks! First up, The Flip Table from flipfurniture, which turns from a neat coffee table into a dining table with stools. Excuse the pic size, but I couldn't work out how to save the full size photos from their site. Mosey on over to their site to check out the high quality pics yourself and to catch the video.






And second, a ingenious expanding circular table from DB Fletcher Design, best illustrated by this video, but you can also get the gist from these photos:



I just love furniture that transforms, hides away or otherwise does nifty things!

He gave me the moon...

...and I broke it! Super talented hubby turned a boring white globe ceiling lamp into a moon a while back and last week I trashed it in a spectacular sheet changing accident (it was hanging over our bed). Thankfully no one was hurt in the shower of glass shards, but sadly the lamp is no more. So this post pays homage to the amazing, but short-lived, moon lamp.

Things I want to do...

There are so many things I want to do, all rattling around in my head, that I thought it prudent to note them down. Here goes, in no particular order:

1. Catalogue all my books in Library Thing. Totally anal I know, but I love it. Have persuaded myself that there is a point to this wanton time-user - if our books ever get lost, burnt or otherwise destroyed we can work out a sensible insurance claim. Of course, that will require household contents insurance.
2. Get household contents insurance (see #1).
3. Post more often to my blog. See, I'm doing this one already!
4. Finish making the rest of the fleece nappies. They have already been cut out by hubby, so it's not that much work.
5. Make a nappy bag that both of us will use (no flowers, then). Needs to have cunning strap arrangement so that it works with the baby wrap.
   
6. Make a boring wrap for hubby to use. Again, no flowers.
7. Get on with The Tapeworm. Progress thus far has been slow.
8. Declutter. No small task, but I'm getting great tips from Unclutterer. My hubby pointed out that nearly all the clutter is mine and I have to agree. We started today with a new rule - nothing new can come in without something going out. So, we took a vase to the Salvation Army shop before we set off on our Saturday Adventure.
9. Become more ethical. Very large task, but we've already started. We use washable nappies and we've just signed up to an organic veg box scheme. Yep, there is one here in Finland, but it doesn't run in the winter, when nothing grows. We also just bought some biodegradable nappies to use during the journey to and from my Dad's place in Spain at the end of the month. Sadly we're flying, but next time we'll go by train. I've been thinking ethical for a while, but Leo Hickman's Life Stripped Bare: My Year Trying to Live Ethically has just spurred me into action.

That's all I can think of right now, more to follow and hopefully progress reports too...

Phantom cat pee

So, I'm taking VV for his umpteenth nappy change this morning when I smell something nasty in the hallway outside the nursery. Smells a bit like sick, so I grab the barely-used muslins to wash and change VV's top. Then I pass through the hallway to the kitchen and the smell is still there. "Perhaps it's the rug," I think, since the Monkey (the Chihuahua) has taken to leaving midnight 'presents' there, and put that in the washing machine. Job done.

But no, job most definitely not done. Back to the hallway I go and notice an odd splattering of brown liquid, from which the smell is emanating. Thinking it's a bit strange that I didn't notice it before, I thoroughly wash the floor, bookshelf, part of the walls etc. Smell gone, I empty the bucket and then turn around to see that the brown spots are back! No cat to be seen (suspect #1).

Looking upwards I see a spray bottle with a brown substance in it and a visible leak - case closed. I think it's plant food for the Boston Ferns. Turns out that both pets are innocent and husband is to blame! But at least there's a clean rug and extremely clean hallway now. I'll add 'wash hall rug' and 'wash hall floor' to Chore Buster now. I'm adding chores as I manage to do them, so that eventually I'll have a schedule of chores that it's actually possible to complete in one day with a baby.

The washing machine lives!

Phew...

Bought a new book

And very excited about it I am too! Having recently decided that I actually rather like sewing, I broke my loosely-enforced craft book embargo and treated myself to Sew and Stow by Betty Oppenheimer.

Based on a quick read through, it looks most excellent and appeals to both my crafty and anal sides. Now to choose a project...

Conquered the mountain at last

The mountain of ironing that is. Unbelievably I have been trying to empty the ironing basket since Monday and I have now succeeded. I knew having a baby in the house would make things difficult, but I didn't realise quite how difficult! I think I'll try Chore Buster for a while and see if that helps keep the boring housework under control so I can get on with more important things (like crafting!).

Edit: And now I have cleaned the black mould out of the washing machine. Sadly this seems to have killed it completely. Praying that leaving it alone and turned off for a while will sort it out.

Now on to some sewing - finishing the pocket nappies I started so I can get on to something more exciting.