Lofty Endeavors, or My Debut in Four-Inch Heels.

I went to my first gala this weekend. It's been a lot of fun to think about dresses, shoes, jewelry, hair, nail color and other gala-related fashion details. I found my dress a month or so ago at a thrift store for $10. Don't panic on my behalf though: I know you are probably picturing the scary 1980s prom dresses that populate most thrift stores, but somehow I found two excellent formal dresses on the same day, plus some other non-formal finds.

Around here (in no particular order).

• On Saturday, I opened the fridge and found the cocoa powder in there. Oops.
• I have only been to the grocery store twice since June. I have been to the market at the Old Port twice or so for fresh veggies and to the corner convenience store a lot. Somehow this is working for me.
• I am working on a challenging and fun artistic freelance project.
• Did the title of this post make anyone else think of Counting Crows circa 1994?
• I only have about a month more with Booboo and that thought makes me so terribly sad I can't think about it too long.
• This summer I finally found coffee beans that make coffee I really enjoy. I used to like the beans from this one place near my apartment, but then the coffee started tasting like dirt. After I inquired about why their coffee now tasted like "la terre," as I put it in French, I found out that they had changed the blend's mix of beans. Unable to find anything better, we drank overpriced, dirt-flavoured coffee with a hint of "burnt" for months. Finally, I decided to experiment with beans from a different place in the neighborhood. My first try was an improvement but a little weak; the second try was perfect. I am now on my third bag of that coffee. No more dirt coffee for me.
• I finally ordered beautiful embossed stationery with both our names on it in mid-June. A lifetime supply probably. I went with stationery instead of an address stamp, because I figured our address was likely to change at some point. It was a little too risky. I had the beautiful cream correspondance cards shipped to my parents' home, and they arrived just before everything exploded. I never saw the stationery, which is probably for the best. I had been so unreasonably excited about that goregous stationary with our names embossed on it. I guess it will get recycled.
• Thankfully I had also ordered some for myself with my monogram. My dad mailed that to me, and I have been thoroughly enjoying using it.
• My car turned 20 years old in April. But I don't drive very much anymore. Maybe once a week, often less. But the car works well still, much to my surprise and happiness.
• I find I love having a life that is so local. I love walking to work and having most everything I need a short distance from where I live.
• I am not looking forward to winter coming. I keep telling myself if I can survive 'til spring life will look better. I just need to survive this death of our marriage and my life as I had expected it and make it to spring and wait on some sort of rebirth.
• Shoveling. Ugh. Do I need to say anything more?
• I have a bag of green tomatoes in the fridge. I bought them to do fried green tomatoes. I have been unable to motivate myself to do that though. My level of energy is more on the basic sandwich-level of Maslow's hierarchy of culinary needs.
• Last week I spent $11 and some change at the thrift store and got a pair of jeans, a skirt, and a top that all fit. This helps. Baggy jeans do not.
• I was undecided on the skirt but thought that for $3, it was worth a shot. Once I got it home, I realized it is kind of the perfect skirt. It is black with thin pinstripes, plus it's quick drying and ideal for travelling. A pretty great find.
• It's still raining. I don't mind.

Not cat-proof.

I had wanted to find a cat-proof solution for my plants this summer. So I was thinking of vertical hanging bags. But then S came up with this free solution using stuff we had already. Not as pretty as what I had envisioned, but it was okay with me and probably easier. And I liked that it was re-purposing the shelves the previous renters had left when they moved and did not clean all the random stuff and trash out of their/our storage unit. So...it seemed like a good idea.

I thought it was cat-proof. I mean, I didn't think there was enough room to walk around the pots on the shelves. I wanted to ask S to help me move the shelf to be centered in between the windows so that it was not close to either window sill, but that didn't happen before everything fell apart. So the shelf has stayed in its location.

It is clearly not cat-proof. 

That's Pippi on top of one of my my non-flowering daisy plants. 

I bought these daisy plants back in May. Well, they are supposedly daisies, but there are no daisies at all. I have two pots of leaves. Just leaves. Leaves that I try to remember to water. They appear to be pretty comfortable.

The daisies are refusing to bloom this summer. Maybe it is an act of solidarity?

Pippi is not this cat's real name. It's just what I named her. Her real name is probably, you know, a French cat name. But, even so, she seems to like the name Pippi too. She comes when you call her by it.

Does anyone else name the neighborhood animals you see around and then actually talk to them using their not-real names?

Pippi did not seem to mind too much that I got in her face with a camera.

At least someone is getting some pleasure out of the no-daisy daisy plant.

 

 

Patching things up.

Over the last few years I have been focusing on being more eco-responsible and really incorporating the reduce-reuse-recycle thing into my daily life. When we moved to this apartment almost two years ago, we tried to look for things we needed at second hand shops first, and that preference has continued, though we don't really need much these days.

I've started re-purposing old things we have to meet new needs. It's been a fun challenge. Learning to sew has opened up so many more possibilities of modifying my clothes or making stuff out of repurposed t-shirts. When I patch up a hole in my favorite shirt or in my most comfy jeans, I get a thrill from the pioneer feeling of it all. I love feeling resourceful and making stuff last longer.

There are more green changes I'd like to make in the coming months. One goal is trying to find somewhere to buy eggs without packaging. I've heard the market in town sometimes has eggs, so I am going to give that a try in the coming weeks. I'm also working on improvising patterns to make some fun clothes I'll wear out of my large collection of unworn, old t-shirts. And I am really looking forward to growing some some herbs and veggies on our back porch again this year...only this year I'll elevate the containers of edible things so the local outdoor neighbors' cats can't get in them.

Anybody else have any eco-friendly goals to implement this summer?

Advent Bags

This was a Christmas gift I made for someone last year, as I was just beginning to learn to sew. I used old t-shirts from various events during my teenage and college years, and re-vamped them into little Advent bags, each one different. It ended up taking long than I expected to make 25 bags, so my plans of doing another set of these have been set aside for now. Instead, this year I have been busy sewing a couple of different gifts, and I'll post photos of those soon.

Making a "toutou" (Part 1)

I recently decided out of the blue that I wanted to learn how to make little fabric stuffed animals to give as gifts. So this past week I did some research and planning, and then bought the necessary materials. On Friday, I made my first one: an elephant for a friend's daughter's 1st birthday. Instead of using a pattern, I decided to make my own since I figured it couldn't be that hard. After researching some images of elephants, I began doing some rough sketches and decided to base the pattern on the above drawing.

I was originally just going to wing it with the fabric I bought. I think I must prefer having a bit of a sense of risk when attempting creative projects: When having people over for dinner, I regularly try out new recipes, and I often improvise with various craft projects. But for once, I decided to do a practice version.

I got some pieces of old t-shirt from my "to re-purpose" collection, and cut out my pattern and pinned the "right" sides together.

Then I sewed around the elephant and two ears, leaving an un-sewn space in the elephant's tummy. I trimmed the edges and turned it right-side out.

Then I stuffed and stuffed and stuffed. And noticed the trunk was as long as the legs....and that I forgot to make a tail...oops. As I stuffed, the elephant shape altered as it became three dimensional.

Looking at the stuffed elephant, I realized my pattern needed some adjustments to make it look less....horse-shaped. I also decided that the two-legs design looked funny on a 3-D stuffed elephant. S explained how to alter the pattern to make four legs, and made the new pattern pieces for me. So I made some changes and started elephant version 2.0 with the actual fabric...and hoped this one would come out more elephant-like. (To be continued...)

Finally getting around to the hallway.

When we moved into our apartment in July 2010, this wall pictured above was unfinished white plaster. It was the only white part in a very yellow hallway, which is a color continuation of the yellow and red walls of our dining area. The new wall replaced what had been a door before the bathroom renovation that was done before we moved in. So to make the hallway look normal again, we had bought the yellow paint in almost the same shade of yellow as the rest of the apartment, but then we never got around to sanding it down and actually painting it. Finally, this summer we got inspired and did it. (We also learned that a primer coat would have been a good step not to skip. Oops. We are hoping the yellow paint will outlast our time in the apartment, despite the lack of primer.)

Once the wall was painted to almost-match the rest of the hallway, I was ready to get up some pictures that had been waiting since the move to be hung. I did a draft of an arrangement by laying the frames on the floor of our dining area and re-arranging until it felt right to me. Then, I made "patterns" of each frame out of paper to be recycled, which was a method I learned about here.

I taped the patterns on the wall and re-arranged until the collage was like I wanted it. Then measured and marked each pattern with the spot where the hanger needed to be nailed for the frame to hang in that exact spot.

Then I nailed the hanger hooks right into that spot, removed the papers, and hung the frames in their respective places. It worked really well, and I only had to re-do one nail for which I must have done a wrong calculation. Yay, for less unnecessary holes in the walls!

Chopped.

This was a long time coming. I had been thinking of cutting my hair for months, maybe a year. But I only had the urge every now and then, so I waited. And waited. And finally my hair reached my elbows, and I always had it tied up in a bun to get it out of the way. Realizing it was finally long enough to do something useful, I knew that I didn't just want to trim a few inches to get it to my "ideal" length, I wanted to cut enough off to donate. My thinking was that if I was going to cut 4 or 5 inches anyways, why not 12, if it could be "recycled" and do some good? But it took me a while to reach the point of readiness.

After I got permanent residence and began to look for work, I decided it was time to cut my hair. Following the instructions on Pantene Beautiful Length's website, I prepped my hair and gathered it at the nape of my neck. In the moment before I made the first cut, tears sprang to my eyes and I realized the connection between hair and identity, and how long those 12 inches had been a part of me. I took a deep breath, told myself that it would grow back, and cut. Cut after cut, until it seemed like I had made a hundred cuts. By the end, I was hacking it off without much precision, as I tried to free myself from the tenacious last strands. At last the elastic-banded foot of hair was separated from me, and suddenly it became hard to believe that my hair had really been so long. Looking in the mirror, I saw my hair at a length it had last been about 14 years before. Freshly cut and still uneven, the change made me feel more sassy. More awake.

The next day, I straightened my naturally wavy/curly hair so I could even it out more easily. Since the back part was much shorter than the front (because of the way it had to be cut in the pony tail), there was a lot of work to do. Instead of going to a salon, I stubbornly determined I would make it look good on my own. After some time, it was even and looked about the same level of quality as when I go to an inexpensive, walk-in salon.

I like my new look and have had positive feedback, but I don't think it's the optimal length for my hair type because my wave-curls seem to do much better at a longer length, when they have more weight to keep the poofiness down. However, I do think the change was exactly what I needed and I am enjoying the feeling of possibility these days.

PS. Pantene Beautiful Lengths only requires at least 8 inches for a donation. I had some split ends, and just wanted to give more to make sure they definitely had plenty of use-able hair.

Ma nouvelle bibliothèque

I have always liked libraries, but there have been some years in my twenties where I went to them rather infrequently and somehow began to buy books I wanted to read instead of going to the library.* About two years ago, after the accumulation of too many books resulted in over-flowing bookshelves, I decided to check out the online website of the Chicago library and saw that you could order a specific book to be sent to your preferred library branch for pick-up.Genius.

Then it hit me: Libraries are like Netflix, but for books.

I mean, it's a revolutionary concept in our consumerism-driven society: You can borrow books you feel like reading and then give them back when you are done. FOR FREE. It's brilliant. So after my epiphany of the miracle of public libraries, I began checking out books again. I adjusted to the idea that you do not have to own a book to read it.** And even if you really like it, you don't necessarily have to buy it.***

However, since living in Québec, I hadn't explored the public library system until yesterday. Armed with proof of residence and a photo ID, I went to get my library card at my local branch. After a few painless minutes, I received my card and set off to expectantly wander among the stacks to acquaint my proud-library-card-owning-self to my new library home. After browsing through two floors, I think what stands out most is the realization that French books and English books are intermixed on the shelves. This surprised me, as I guess I had expected it to be like my local library in Norway, which had a somewhat lacking separate English section off in a corner.**** So I was surprised by the amazing opportunity to be able to chose from books in both languages, side-by-side within an arm's reach on any given subject! It says something about the frequency of bilingualism in Québec that the books are arranged this way.*****

Yay for eco-friendly and economic book reading!


*This might have come from living in Norway with a local library that had a very small English section. Or perhaps because my local library in Chicago didn't have the books I wanted to read and I didn't want to trek all the way down to the main branch.
**Though I am a fan of underlining and marking in books, so that obviously had to stop. 
***But every now and then, I will still buy a book because there are just some I'd like to keep.
****Which is completely understandable in a non-English-speaking country, of course. But sometimes you just want to read in your native language.
*****Unless, of course, this kind of stuff is regulated by the government, which, I guess, is possible.

Grounded.

So, as you know, we recently moved into our new apartment that just had a bathroom renovation. The bathroom is huge and looks nice.

But.

When you look closer, there are a few problems. Some are relatively minor like the paint not being entirely finished and some of the "white" paints in the room not matching. Or the missing finishing metal piece that goes around the toilet pipe covering the hole where it goes into the wall. Or the lack of a mirror and medicine cabinet above the sink.* Or the door being cut too short and not "square." Other errors are not so minor: the sealant around the tub has missing spots that might leak to whatever is below us in the not-too-distant future, the hot and cold water plumbing is reversed, and the tile and grout on the floor are already cracking. (Mind you, this cracking happened within two weeks of installation!**) And then there was our major problem:  the electrical wiring was done unsafely. S knows more (and cares more) about our electrical wiring than the guy who did the repair work, who had set us up with ungrounded wiring in a bathroom of all places.***

At first I thought the renovation guy was trying to do a good job, but was just not the best at doing some stuff, but after seeing his electrical wiring short cuts (who does that???), we think he is an overall devotee of short cuts. But no worries, thanks to S and his wide range of skills, we are slowly upgrading the apartment.**** And we are now grounded.

*We bought some of our own that I guess we will take with us when we move.

**These things are frustrating, but I keep reminding myself that we do not own this apartment and we did not hire or pay for the renovation.

***As in, there is an actual possibility of, you know, electrocution.

****And shed/locker. Just the other day S created a new floor in our shed/locker. The original flooring was not even at all (maybe at a 30-ish degree angle?), and he created a new floor to go on top of the existing one using only the resources of what was in the shed. The shed was left FULL of junk (ex. old mug collection) from the previous renters and we spent several hours cleaning it out. We did keep a few things (old pieces of cabinet doors,bricks, plywood, etc) to re-purpose into shelving, flooring, etc., as we try to upgrade the shed/locker into something useful.

Moved In. Mostly.*

Well, we got moved in last Sunday and the builder/renovation guy finished the bathroom on Monday.** Though we have been unpacking this week (along with doing other random stuff like getting our recycling bin and the car window stickers that allow us to park in our neighborhood), we are still surrounded by boxes and living in chaos. Yesterday afternoon we hit up some retail stores and two thrift stores to try to find curtains, curtain rods, a bathroom mirror, armoire, medicine cabinet, etc.*** We had some great success on finding items on our list (and a few surprises not on our list!) but we still need to look at some other thrift stores for the remaining missing things.

One of the most satisfying deals from yesterday was our new bathroom mirror. We first looked at Canadian Tire and only saw a couple standard medicine cabinet options that were considerably more than we wanted to spend. Then we checked out Winners, which is like a Marshalls, and they had a good, large mirror with a black frame. However, we want a white frame since our new bathroom is very white and we are enjoying the breezy, airy feeling that white on white creates. So we were going to buy it and paint the frame white, but it was $39, which still seemed quite expensive to us, though I guess it is probably a decent price for a 33 1/2'' x 33 1/2'' mirror. But since we were not crazy about it, we decided to wait and check a couple more thrift stores before re-considering buying that one, and amazingly....our very next stop was a thrift store that had one mirror. A 31'' x 31'' mirror with a white frame.**** It had a couple stickers on it as it seemed to be previously owned by a teenage girl, but they came off with zero sticky residue. (I think they were perhaps static cling stickers?) So... a large, good condition mirror for only $5.99. Yay!

We ended our day with a sense of victory at finding good deals on quality items and the excitement of re-purposing discarded things to give them a second life.***** This makes me quite happy.

*Well....not our couch, chair, and dishwasher which are in the basement of S's dad's home.
**Well, I don't call it finished, but the guy said he is finished. There are some paint places he missed and one of our formerly yellow walls had a door ripped out and new wall added, so now the former door area is covered with white plaster stuff and not yellow paint, so we have some painting to do, I guess...? S also repaired the door which the guy did not hang very well.
***Yep, no mirror or medicine cabinet above the sink was put in during the bathroom renovation. Isn't that pretty standard?? Maybe it was forgotten? And I had to ask specifically about the shower curtain rod, because there was no rod. The guy brought a rod in on Monday.
****And oddly enough, this size is actually better than the other size would have been anyways, due to the size of the sink. I plan on eventually repainting it white to get the crisp white-white color we want, but repainting white on top of white will be much easier than on top of black.
*****We only bought a couple things at the retail stores. Like the plug thing for the dryer and the pull chains for the fan. We found almost everything at the thrift stores....including two nice wood curtain rods.

Over-run by old t-shirts?*

I LOVE this idea for three reasons:

1. S and I have lots of old t-shirts that have stains or whatnot, and I have been trying to figure out good ways to use them.
2. I have been wanting to learn how to sew for about 6 months now.
3. I am trying to be more eco-friendly.

*These are different than the t-shirt bags I have previously seen tutorials on; these have fun drawstrings!