make it look sorta professional, or something

The one thing that I've never really mastered is woodwork. As careful as I always am with measurements, I seem to lack a certain-something when it comes to finessing angles together into something that doesn't look like a woodworking acid trip.

That's where I enlist the boyfriend to help me. I needed to make a frame for the Time to Eat? painting I completed last weekend. The painting itself wouldn't hang over the phone jack, so I needed to make a frame that would give it extra length and depth. Since Lou has scrap wood, a better eye, and a compound miter saw, he was the natural choice to ask for help. He was willing and able, which made my pleas for help less pathetic.

We found a really old piece of wood, full of character, that was just big enough to cut four equal pieces to make up the frame. A couple 45 degree angles, wood glue and a band clamp set up the frame, and the piece was complete! Since the phone jack is finally covered, I don't have to constantly remind myself about how I can't use my phone purse.

be mine?

The one thing I do not like to do is to buy store-bought greeting cards. That sounds repetitive... buy store-bought? You know what I mean. Moving along!

Valentine's Day isn't a holiday that I readily celebrate. It seems awkwardly awkward to dedicate one day out of the year where you NEED to go above and beyond, and spend your hard-earned money on things that the television says your significant would LOVELOVELOVE.  I'd rather celebrate my love everyday. Well, everyday that he's nice to me, and/or makes me French toast. Are you reading this Lou?  FRENCH TOAST. I KNOW YOU ARE READING THIS. PS, HAPPY VALENTINES DAY. ... can I have some French Toast?

But alas, the holiday and my inability to successfully pick out a card from aisle 5 in CVS gives me a great excuse to craft a card for my Valentine. I made this one out of card stock, a color sampler that I saved from the Home Depot, and letters I cut out from a magazine. If you're going to make a card for your Valentine today (or for a birthday, wedding, Bar or Bat Mitzvah!) don't forget to personalize it! 

Nothing says I LOVE YOU like creepliy cut out letters from a magazine.

sew all.

On Saturday morning, I made a list of things I had hoped to accomplish over the weekend. As you can see, I crossed off only one item from the list. I didn't just sew more, though.

I SEWED ALL.

After a marathon sewing session, the entire quilt top is now sewed, pressed and complete! All 224 squares of glory. All 70"x80" of fabricky goodness.  Well over 50 hours of work went into just making this section of the quilt: Cleaning the fabric, pressing it, cutting it, arranging the strips on the muslin, sewing the squares, pressing them, cutting them to size, then sewing them into columns, and finally into a quilt. 

it's really hard to get a picture of how big it actually is!

It's not perfect. In fact, as quilt making goes, it is indeed far from perfect. My columns are straight, but the rows zigzag a little. Or, a lot. But it's mine, and I made it. I'm really proud of that! My next step is to choose a backing/binding fabric, which I will need 6 yards of.  I better be on the lookout for JoAnn Fabric coupons!

Zoe Strauss: Ten Years

Yesterday I was lucky enough to accompany my two great friends (who you may remember from earlier blog adventures ) to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to view "Zoe Strauss: Ten Years". After circling the museum for what seemed like forever trying to find a parking spot through the waves of visitors (good for the museum but unfortunate for my road rage) I finally headed in, skipping the admissions line because they were nice enough to grab a ticket for me. It was an amazing show, but left me feeling utterly… I dunno… uncomfortable.

New York Times reporter Karen Rosenberg shared her thoughts on exhibition: But where the article shines in its description of Strauss' past I-95 exhibitions and her ability to capture the essence and grittiness of the moment, it fails to convey the feeling that one gets viewing her photographs within the confines of the museum. Rosenberg notes that: "This [exhibition] feels a bit overloaded, if deliberately so, with 170 prints and 3 slide shows arrayed in a space much smaller than the football-field-size site under the highway." I do in fact believe that large number of prints was a deliberate move, forcing the viewer to acknowledge the daily blight that surrounds our so-called "comfort zones".

But what makes the room feel overcrowded is not the work itself, but the massive amounts of viewers that have paid admission to view these scenes of life captured in neighborhoods that lie far from the PMA. You wouldn’t be able to pay these people to take a tour of Camden, Biloxi, or Hunting Park, let alone meet the people that are the subjects of the photographs. Strauss has raised my consciousness through this juxtaposition, making the safe world of the PMA feel utterly uncomfortable, and making me yearn to view the photographs under I-95. I haven’t felt that moved by an exhibition in years, and for that she deserves a whole-hearted WELL DONE. 

Clearly, I need to plan an outing to view her Billboard Project around the city. I think seeing the photographs, larger than life in Philadelphia's neighborhoods, will have me appreciating her work more than I do now.

package details.

I was so excited yesterday! You probably already saw that I had my first sale over at Etsy. HOLLA! After my euphoria settled into amazement, and the amazement settled into wonder, I began to think: How should I package my item?  It's not everyday that I send someone a package in the mail, and I don't want to just throw the bag in another bag, slap a stamp on it and ship it off. I want my recipient to feel like they're opening up a gift! I want them to feel special! So what to do?

Unfortunately, there's not much I can do with the flat rate box, but once she opens up the box she'll be greeted with this:

A colorful printed envelope, a thank you note, a receipt, a business card and colorful tissue paper round out the package. If I'm going to be serious about selling my crafts online, then I need to let the purchaser know how much I care, and how I truly appreciate their purchase. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be doing this.

celebration!

My lovely friend Kara just became my first customer on Etsy!  I'm bursting at the seams with love. She purchased one of my favorite wine bags, and I'm so glad that I can send it to her, all the way over in Germany!

bag #1 out of 10... SOLD!!

time to eat, larry?

This past weekend, I finally finally FINALLY finished painting our kitchen. A small feat for some, but it took me awhile. 3 days to be exact. OK, not an entire three days. Just Friday night, plus Saturday and Sunday from about 10am-3pm. Alright. I watched a couple episodes of House Hunters on HGTV while I was painting. And Chopped. Busted. Now, everything is painted the same color! Even the phone jack. We don't have a land line, so this jack has been completely useless to us thus far. I can't hang my Droid up on it, as you see here. And we don't have an actual phone number, so even if I plug in my phone purse, I can't dial anyone to tell them I'm talking to them over a purse. Why else would I have a phone purse? Sheesh.
 Dilemma, dilemma, what to do. Finally, I thought of a solution. Cover it with a painting! But, I didn't have a painting. So, I made one! I had a tiny little canvas leftover from a project that never was, along with the brilliant idea to use some of my cheap-o acrylic paints. Squeeze, squeeze goes the paint, and voila! Instant phone jack hider-overer cover thing. After the globs of paint dried, I decided to give it a coat of  Mod Podge to seal it all up. I ran into a slight problem though. I was hungry. And my glob painting turned into this <--

It's all good though.  As soon as I make a frame for the hungry painting, it'll go right up on the wall over the phone jack.  I still wish I could call people from the phone purse, though. Our opossum Larry would be proud. He's always hungry, seeing as that he lives in our trashcan. Larry and I have a lot in common. I like to curl up in that position, too. Just not on rancid chicken bones. That's where we differ. 

UPDATE: Larry was set free this past Tuesday! After carefully dumping him pouring him from the trashcan into a have-a-heart trap, we loaded him up into Lou's truck bed for his little journey.  I tried giving him a carrot, but he was angry and peed all over the place.

up and running!

Guess who just opened their first Etsy shop?
THIS GUY.  GIRL.  YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.

Visit the Nodyl's Noodles Shop on Etsy!

tasks at hand.

This morning as I arrived into work and settled in with my cup of coffee and giant jug of water, I started thinking about my tasks at hand for the day.  No, not work tasks, silly. Relatively speaking, I've been here long enough to know what I have to do during the day. Which is to act busy. BUSY!mustgotocopierMAKECOPIES!! MORE COPIES NEEDED ALWAYS.sobusyWHY?.PHONECALLS! notimetotalktoyou. TOOBUSY! GAWD!

The tasks that I speak of are actually the ones that I accomplish after work. You know... did I make plans for tonight with anyone? Did I pack my gym clothes? Jeez! Did I remember to shave for said gym visit? Is there enough chicken in the fridge for me to make a sammich after work? How about two sammiches?  (no, yes, yes, Yes, YES.)

I forget what my point was. Oh, right.  There was no point.  I just wanted to use MS Paint today.

so that's how you do it?

I think I may have finally learned how to take a picture with my digital camera.  I learned how to adjust the settings, and I started taking pictures of... well, everything. I hope they keep getting better, I'm so close to posting my bags on Etsy!

6 years.

I've been at my job for six years today. SIX. YEARS. Say whaaaaaaaaaaa...?

It's not a total shock. I think. Maybe it is. I've been expecting this day to come for awhile... but not really expecting. Confused yet? I am. To commemorate this lackluster momentous day, I posted a little blurb on FB stating: "I made it to 6 years at this same job. Exciting, yet very depressing at the same time." My cousin replied: "either way you look at it, it's an accomplishment in and of itself. now, go buy yourself a present. xo" (Believe me, I'll be buying myself a present in the form of an ice cream sandwich after the gym tonight. Again, exiting and yet very depressing.)

And a former teacher-slash-wise woman-slash-mentor of the ages said this: "Try going to the American Craft Council Show in Baltimore the end of February. Talk to some of the artists. They are making a living doing what you love. Tick tock!! Life is short. Start to show your work in a gallery. Isaac would be proud."

Touché, touché, touché. Kick in the pants received, and greatly appreciated. I immediately booked a hotel room, purchased a three day pass to the event, and requested a 1/2 day of work that Friday. I'll have my business cards by then, my Etsy site up and running, and plenty of samples to bring with me. I think it's high-time I start taking bigger risks to achieve my goals.  Let's do this.

craft night!

On Wednesday, I was lucky enough to host 3 very crafty girls for an evening filled with fun, food, wine and art.  Which are some of my most favorite things, if you don't mind me sayin'!  Some lovely items were crafted, and good times were had by all.  All in all, a very successful night!

I actually did some prep-work for our art-rendezvous on Tuesday night, since my goal was to make 10 wine bags that I could put on my Etsy site. I thought it would be so much easier to iron, cut and pin all of the bags together before our gathering, since I tend to overtake the space that I'm working in. Plus, I like to sing Erasure  whilst cutting fabric, and it's slightly less embarrassing to do that alone.  It's also slightly more embarrassing to admit that.  But I did what I set out to accomplish, and by Wednesday I was ready to assemble!

6 years of paint, plaster, latex and paper.  ...done?

detail of upper right corner

During our crafting session, I sewed and completed all 10 bags which I am thrilled about!  But, that's not all.  After drinking copious amounts of wine and stuffing myself full of tiny little hot dogs and pretzels (insert omnom here), I whipped out the ol' painting I've been casually working on for the past 6 or so years.  ... I think... I'm actually done.  For the moment, here's what it looks like. I love where this painting is at right now.  My goal is to find a place in the house where I can hang it up.  I haven't had a 'hanging-worthy' painting in quite sometime.  SCORE!

adventures in wonderland.

 Lou and I took an impromptu exploratory journey around some neighboring towns this past Saturday.  It was amazingly refreshing to get out of the grind of being placing and doing things... weekends always fill up so fast on that stuff.  We winged it and let our instincts direct us on where to go and what to do.  In Narberth, we found a lovely shop called Sweet Mabel, skipped around the train station, and found a cute little pastry place for a mid-morning nosh.  Next, we went hiking in (or near) Smedley near Swarthmore College.  In our attempts to find the college campus, we ran into a local Community Arts Center which unfortunately was closed, but we saw some awesome stuff on the grounds of the center!  I can't wait to go back and check out the gallery!  Then, we were off to the town of Swarthmore, where we explored the campus, and I put on an extra 2 lbs. by eating a bacon egg n' cheese sammy covered in hot sauce on a poppy bagel at a local cafe.  OMNOMNOM.  We closed the adventure by stopping at Produce Junction.  Loading up on veggies is always a nice way to complete the day, don't you think?

 

do more.

Lot's of fun things are happening, including this!
My first informational artist/biznaaaaz card!  How exciting! Look at all of the exclamation points I'm using so far!  Lou and I went on an adventure this weekend (which I'll detail in the next post...) and two women that I met admired my tie purse.  After speaking with them, both asked "Do you have a contact card?"

Ugh, my heart sank!  My reply? "Ah, no!  I've been meaning to make them for so long.  One day I'll just have to do it."

I FINALLY DID IT!  I like the quirky design. More importantly, I think it incorporates all of the important information that I'd like to share with everyone, including my blog and my new Etsy Shop, which I started setting up yesterday!  I don't have any items uploaded in the shop yet because I want to make sure I get all of my wording correct and I definitely want to take better pictures of the items.  The ones I have now are a little blurry and not-so-professional looking.

Things are moving along nicely in Nodylville if you ask me!  I'm following the quote I have on my new little necklace charm.  DO MORE.

bueller? anyone?

I feel the urge to craft today. Or at least do something, DAMNIT.

I've been feeling very blah lately.  Much of that feeling comes from being sick.  I'm on my 11th day of not feeling 100%, and now instead of it taking a toll on my physical well being, it's taking a toll on my mental well being. At first I was all like, "Nah, I'm OK!  It's just a cold, it'll pass! Life is good!"  Now I'm all like "I want to do something, but I'm still sitting on the couch moping about my lack of actually doing anything. What should I do?".  It's a vicious crappy cycle, based solely on my inability to GET THE F&*$ UP AND DO SOMETHING. Plus I keep having coughing fits which annoy the shit out of anyone I'm around. So I'm better off doing something by myself, or at least that's what my head is telling me.

The thing is, I want to do a bunch of things: Go out to get a beer with real people, sew more rows of the quilt, cook a delicious meal, exercise, socialize.  BE PRODUCTIVE.  But who wants a fogged-head, coughing, snotty mess hanging around them? Anyone? Anyone know the effects? It did not work, and the United States sank deeper into the Great Depression. Today we have a similar debate over this. Anyone know what this is? Class? Anyone? Anyone? Anyone seen this before?.... sorry, I got carried away in the Bueller moment.

So tonight, my plans are to hit up hot yoga at 6:15 (<--check!).  Cook a nice soup out of all the awesome produce I've gotten from Produce Junction (<--check!).  Do something crafty (<--check!).  And for chrissake, make actual plans for tomorrow night (<--friggin check!).

(updates in bold!)

the netti disaster

Last week I was discussing the netti pot with my sister.  There's been a lot of talk surrounding the ol' netti pot lately, especially with that brain eating amoeba down in Louisiana.  I'm pretty sure my brain would welcome the challenge of some lame-ass amoeba.  I'm from Philadelphia.  There's so many chemicals in this water, I'm surprised I haven't magically transform into a Marvel Comic character. Anywho, here's an excerpt from our email correspondence.  (<-- doesn't that word sound official?  I feel like I'm on CNN or something.)

Me: I was thinking before that I had strep symptoms (feverish with the sore throat).... turns out it was just hot snot dripping down my throat.  It has since coagulated and formed a party in my sinuses.  FOR SHAME.  I'd use my netti pot, but I'm afraid of brain eating bacteria.  What is this world coming to?!

Sister:  Jill, you absolutely crack me up!!!  I can’t take that Netti pot thing.  I think I would accidentally drown myself.  “Young woman dies from drowning herself with Netti pot.”  Haha.Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I want Dayquil.  I’m working from home today, which always makes me feel a little bit better with a cold. 

Me: PS, did you see the headlines in the Trentonian today?  Check it out.  So sad.

 This is what happens when you Print Screen, Ctrl+V, and MS Paint.  You get an email like this.

glüvs: sicky pants, part duex.

There's only one benefit to not feeling well.  Actually... there are two: Unlimited amounts of ginger ale, and craft projects that take minimal amounts of effort.  Every winter, I stock up on gloves (pronounced glüvs) because I seem to frequently misplace them.  On Friday, I almost threw my pair of glüvs in the garbage at work.  I blame this on being discombobulated, thanks to the never ending cold/flu I'm enduring.

Yesterday I decided that it was finally time to tailor the stock of glüvs that I have.  Why, you may ask, do I have to tailor glüvs?  Because, person that is asking the question, I only have 9 fingers.  But, you probably already know me, so you already knew that.  Here's how I fix the glüvs.  

modeling whilst sickypants.  bright lights and lipstick do wonders.

completed project! all 36 digits seem happy.

First, I turn the left glüv inside out.  I sew a straight line from the index finger down to the base of the glüv, basically cutting off the thumb.  This gets rid of the pesky extra digit.  Next, I try the glüv on (inside out) and use a fabric safe pen to mark where my fingers hit on each digit.  I sew a contoured line to the shape of my finger on each digit of the glüv, and snip off the extra fabric.  I turn it right side out, and TA-DA! Custom pair of glüvs!!  It's super easy, and I love having glüvs that fit properly.  You may wonder why I don't just wear mittens to conveniently hide that fact that I have a small physical anomaly?  I have two answers.  1: Mittens make my hands sweaty.  2: Why should I?

sicky pants projects.

Since Tuesday, I've been battling the dreaded post-New Years cold.  You know, the one where friends ask you to sample their different beers, and you nonchalantly comply.  I tried to pretend that I was winning the battle with the cold on Tuesday and Wednesday, but Thursday through Saturday, my body was all like NO.  Yesterday, in between taking naps and drinking tea, I completed a little craft project. 

Back story! Since Lou and I have started traveling, we've always manage to pick up different coffees from wherever we go.  About a year ago, I framed the collection of bags in picture frames that I got from Ikea.  You know, those ones that you get 3 for like a dollar and they're name is Jguurgnsflarvun. I sanded and stained them, inserted the trimmed bags and hung them up on the wall underneath the shelf Lou made.  It looked OK, but the stain was way lighter than the shelf.  It just bothered me.  Flash forward to Saturday!

I gave the frames a facelift by gluing the extra mosaic tiles from the back splash onto them.  It took awhile (since my mind was drifting here and there, and I frequently got uncomfortable and took more Tylenol Severe Cold and Flu), but by the time I was finished, we had a brand new set of frames!  Cost: NOTHING!  That's the best part!

Yes, there's a Starbucks in there. I traveled down the street to get it.

the kitchen.

I'm glad I took a break from writing in between last night and today.  I was a little out of it, and I promptly fell asleep on the couch watching a show on Russia.  I'm afraid my writing didn't reach it's usual witty potential.  I plan to make up for that with my kitchen post.

hell no.

First, let me start out with a picture of what the kitchen looked like before Lou moved in.  Oh... hell no.  When I see that much wood and wallpaper, I think Cracker Barrel.  Not that there is anything wrong with that.  Those little games they have are awesome, and don't get me started on how tasty the menu is. After Lou and his bro moved in, they replaced the counter tops, dishwasher and refrigerator.  They took down the wood craziness above and under the cabinets, de-wooded the wall next to the fridge, and painted.

NO!

Flash forward to 2011.  The kitchen still needed a little help.  The tiled back splash was... well...  not installed properly.  All of the seems (next to the counter and the cabinets) were grouted.  A big no-no.  You caulk those seems to allow for expansion/contraction.  Since the person grouted them, the tiles began to crack and break.  Which showed that they tiled over wallpaper.  WHO DOES THAT?!  The tile had to go.  I told Lou that I'd give him a proposition and a budget showing that I could re-tile the backsplash into something special.  Skeptical at first maybe, but once he saw my research, drawings and spreadsheet... he caved agreed.

love notes on the backerboard. 

I was perusing Ebay and Googling Mexican Talavera Tiles when Lou suggested that we look into pricing glass tiles.  Nothing against glass tiles, but most tiles I saw were plain and uninspired. So, I decided to Google "colorful glass tile backsplash" and most of the images came from a company called Susan Jablon Mosaics, located up in Binghampton, NY.  Ah... the colors, the colors!!!  After choosing several 1/4 sheet samples, we locked into ordering our favorite: Aurora Blend.  We started demoing the kitchen in September, and after months of work (on and off and on and off and...)  we FINALLY finished, at 12:15am on the morning on Friday, December 2nd.**  We still have a little more to paint, but there's no rush on that.  After we finished the tile work, we vowed not to do anything else until after the holidays.  We're going to install under cabinet lighting, some extra storage drawers in the bottom cabinets, and finish painting in the coming months.  I'm just waiting for a snowy weekend to do it.

**WHY would I stay up that late to work on the kitchen?  Because on December 2nd, we were hosting Lou's 40th birthday party.  Our last weeks of working on the kitchen were that of a marathon pace.  After ripping out the stove and range hood, we finished up all the hardibacker, installed the range hood, cleaned profusely, repaired the walls, primed the bare drywall, taped the seams and started tiling.  Tiling took FOREVER.  We had to do a couple repairs for tiles that didn't adhere correctly. We had to wait 24-48 hours after tiling to grout.  Then another day before the caulk.  Finally, the oven went in.  You don't realize how much you miss an oven until you don't have one to cook on for three weeks.  You are correct in assuming that I didn't do s*** the rest of that weekend.

Whoops, there goes a month!

Ack, it's been too long since I've posted!  So much has happened in the past month, so I decided that I'm going to break it on down into a couple posts over the week, so I don't get carpel tunnel updating what's going on. First, let's chat about the quilt.  The last time I wrote, I mentioned that I had finished sewing all 224 squares... still an accomplishment that I'm proud of!

I brought the squares with me to my family's Thanksgiving dinner.  I asked everyone that was there to sign the back of a square, so that when I sewed it together, I'd have all of my family with me.
(Pause for loving moment).

Here are all the signed squares!  There are 15 total that will be inserted into the 14 columns of the quilt.  Last weekend, I started said columns and so far it's going quite well!  I have 6 columns of 16 squares completed so far (96 total!).  I'm hoping that I can actually finish sewing the top of the quilt this weekend, which would be awesome!  Once that is done, I'll have to choose a backer fabric for the quilt.  That means a trip to the fabric store for me, huzzaaaah!

Here's a picture showing how thrilled I am at my progress. The quilt is starting to look real!!! I can't believe that all of these pieces of fabric I cut so long ago are forming an actual quilt.  Also, it shows how many lemon squares I ate over the past month.  Good thing I went to the Y today.