Accio Sparkly Tulle

Sorry the posts have been a little light. This is my insane time of year at work, there have been some family things going on, and we scaled back our adventures a bit to conserve resources for our upcoming vacation.

For the past several years I've tried to attend The British Chip Shop in Haddonfield’s Harry Potter night, but every year my attempts have been thwarted in some way. This year, I was determined to go.

Harry Potter night is of course appropriately held on July 31^st. For all of you muggles who may not know, July 31st is Harry’s and J.K. Rowling’s birthday. 

I called The British Chip Shop at exactly 11am on July 1^st (the first day they were accepting reservations) and succeeded in securing a table for me and three of my fellow geeky girls. 

I followed Wil Wheaton's advice to "get excited and make cool stuff." For this occasion cool stuff equaled a fun outfit.

I was inspired a while ago by an image I saw online of a girl wearing a Golden Snitch outfit. I liked the idea of being a thing rather than a specific character. With characters you usually have to work harder to get the details right (my glasses always get in the way of being a character). I felt going as a snitch would give me more room for creativity and interpretation. It was also an excuse to be sparkly.

 I have had the desire to make a no sew tutu for about a year and the snitch outfit seemed like the perfect excuse to give it a whirl. The directions seemed easy enough so I bought some sparkly gold tulle, a spool of sparkly gold ribbon, and went to work.

 For the length, I simply used the length that the tulle came in which was about 28 inches. I cut the tulle into 12 inch wide strips, 

then folded each strip in half, and used a slip knot to tie it around the ribbon (you can find plenty of YouTube videos that show exactly how to do this).  

I am not the most crafty person and I found making the tutu incredibly easy.  Maybe my knots weren't exactly the same size or the neatest, but I thought it turned out just fine.

The most challenging part of the process was my cat who  loved the sparkles and kept attacking the tulle and ribbon. A few times I had to pull her off of the tutu carefully detaching her nails from the tulle.  The tutu making elicited a lot of exasperated cries of,

“No kitty, please stop!”

In the books, the snitch is gold with silver wings, so I made my overall color scheme silver/grey and gold.  I wore grey yoga pants under my tutu and sparkly silver tennis sneakers on my feet.

In the picture that inspired me, the girl has a gold helmet.  I went to a few stores and tried on helmets. I did not love how they looked, but I do love slouchy hats, so I decided to get a gold knit hat and silver-grey feathers. (Note-If you like knitted woollies like I do, the summer is a great time to shop for them on Etsy as many of the sellers have them on sale)

For my top I got a snitch t-shirt from Redbubble. Since the screen print for the shirt was yellow-gold I got the shirt in Gryffindor red because 1) the print looked the best against the red, and 2) the t-shirt will look great on its own when we go to Universal next month.

Finally I had all sorts of small details, most of which I bought cheaply at Five Below.  I bought sparkly gold and sparkly silver nail polish. I had sparkly eye shadow, eye liner and mascara.  In the photo of the other snitch girl, I liked the jewels on her face.  I tried a test run of it earlier in the week, but as my glasses are fairly pronounced, the jewels got completely lost on my face. I still wanted to use the jewels so I decided to use them to bling out my glasses instead.

The outfit was a complete success and I got lots of complements throughout the night. 

I’m excited that I have a new acquired skill, tutu making, but I’m going to try hard not to over use this skill.  I would like however,at some point later in the year, to attempt a mash-up and dress as a Weeping Angel Fairy.

The Wall of Toasty

On Thursday I came home to find our heater dead, kaput, finished. I’m not sure what happened, perhaps it finally realized that the air conditioning unit departed from us during the summer and the heater didn't think he could live without her?  No matter the reason, it was bad, because the weather hasn't been in the mood to be kind to those of us without heat.  My immediate fear was for our cat.  She couldn't stay in a freezing house and relocating her would probably freak her out (my husband pointed out that I appeared to be fine with us freezing to death as long as the cat was safe). After much frustration and wringing of hands my husband remembered that there were two un-renovated rooms in our house, meaning that we hadn't pulled out the old electric base board heaters that remained even though the house was converted to gas heat well before we bought the home.  

Un-renovated

  We were saved, even if it meant having to live on the second floor until the issue gets resolved. Surprisingly it hasn’t been terrible. The downstairs is quite chilly.  There is a distinct difference when you step onto the upstairs landing. I have dubbed it the wall of toasty because as soon as you step on the landing you are hit with a wall of warm toasty air. 

Where the wall of toasty begins

On Saturday, I had to get bundled up to put my groceries away.

There is still no word on when we will get our new heater.  We have a home warranty which means that we will save a lot of money, but in exchange they aren't in any rush to help us out.

One good thing about the whole situation is that I found a new favorite writing spot. I was able to get a lot of writing done since I had a snow day today.

My new spot provides me with a view of a snoozing kitty,

And a view of the bird feeder. 

The only slight issue is that someone else discovered the great view of  the bird feeder making writing at times problematic.  

Hopefully we won't have to wait too long before our whole house has heat again, and once the weather clears, and getting out and about is less of a challenge, I should be back to writing about more interesting and fun things like concerts, plays and places to eat. 

3 Things that don't suck...

...even if the weather does.

  Like most people, the weather this winter has not been my favorite.  I get chilly and need a sweater when it's 70 degrees so I have felt that most of my energy the past few months has been devoted to the soul task of keeping warm.  I have been working hard to not let the grumpies get the best of me keep and to save myself from going insane, I focus on the things that I actually like this time of year.  Hopefully with some positive thinking, I can make it through the next few months without my laptop suddenly reading...

All work and no play makes Sarah a dull girl

1) Soup
   

 I love a good hot bowl of soup.  That is why soup usually shows up on our at home menu at least once per week, October through March.  One of my must make soups is Tuscan Sausage Soup. I tried a new soup last week, Creamy White Bean and Bacon Soup, that turned out to be quite yummy.  You could omit the bacon if you don't eat pork or meat and I think it would be just as good.
For a completely meatless soup the Zucchini Basil soup from The Farmstead Chef cookbook has become a favorite in our house this winter, especially when made with the Farmers' Market zucchini that I froze during the summer.

2) Starbucks' Caramel Flan Latte

     I am usually a Caramel Macchiato girl, but Starbucks' Caramel Flan Latte has stolen my heart.  There is nothing like the first warm- cozy- delicious- shudder worthy- first sip of a yummy coffee beverage.  I allow myself one latte per week, and only if I am a good girl and I don't run anyone over at the store with my grocery cart.

3) An Extra Snuggly Kitty

   Overall our kitty is pretty affectionate, but during the warmer months she spends a lot more time zooming around the house doing kitty stuff. In the winter however, she leaves no lap, no stretched out legs, and no warm back unsnuggled.

3 Extra bonus happy things- Fires in the fire place (especially when paired with a glass of wine). The book Watersmeet  by Ellen Jensen Abbott (Got it in December and finally finished it. It was a fantastic read), and watching 15 year old Yulia Lipnitskaya skate (I love artistic beauty and it got a little dusty as I watched her skate this weekend).

The Demise and Rebirth of Bathroom #1

There were two things that sold us on our townhouse.  1) The wood burning fireplace and 2) Two and a half bathrooms.  We knew when we moved in that the bathrooms would need A LOT of work.  We started with bathroom #1. This is the cat's bathroom as well as the bathroom that I use to get ready in the morning so in some respects it is also my bathroom. I wanted it to be a happy- friendly place to remind me of the adventures that my day could hold.

The original bathroom had an odd combination of mauve and brown. The fan was wonky and never worked properly so the moisture and humidity caused the wallpaper and border to peel.

The humidity also caused the paint to chip.

The bathroom had terrible fluorescent lighting.

Since the house was built prior to moisture and mold resistant drywall, we decided that the best thing to do was to strip the bathroom to the studs and start over.

The inspiration for the bathroom all started with a shower curtain.  I walked by it in Target one day and loved it.  In case you are wondering, yes I did buy two just in case something unfortunate should happen to the first.  

Emma approved of our new shower/tub. Sometimes we still find her napping in the tub.

Goodbye fluorescent lighting, scalloped sink, and gigantic impractical medicine cabinet! Thanks to Paulette and Scott for giving me the perfect nightlight.

We went with shadow boxes instead of regular shelves and of course there is the awesome topography.

I'm not a fan of traditional  towel racks, and to prove that Pinterest is useful and not the waste of time many people believe it to be, I implemented an idea I saw on the site in place of a normal towel rack.

I'm very excited about how bathroom #1 turned out.  It was exactly what I wanted it to be. It's the perfect place to take a bath and to get ready for my day.

Now onward to bathroom #2.

Thanks to:

Our contractor Phil for doing such a great job

Saber and Sons where we purchased our shower, vanity, sink and medicine cabinet

LUCIUS ART where I purchased the typography

Vinyl Wall Décor and Mor for our vinyl tree

The rest of the bathroom was a combination of Loews, Home Depot, Amazon and Target

Blurred

August has been passing by in a blur.

First there is work.  This is my craziest time of year.  To summarize what I do, the government gives my agency money then once a year they come and sift through all of our paper work to find mistakes so that they can say,

     "You know that money we gave you, well you made a mistake here, here and here so we'd like X amount of that money back, thanks." 

 My job is essentially to comb through the paper work and find and hopefully get someone to correct the mistakes first before the big guns come out to find them.  Since the big guns are coming next month, the amount of work that I have to do sky rockets, but by October my little rocket will fall back to a more hospitable atmosphere. (Note: October Sky, which is a movie about rockets, is a pretty good movie. When you saw rocket and October you thought that too, right?)

The other thing that has been going on, is a flurry of household changes.

 First our dryer died.  We knew it was old and so was our washer, whose work ethic had been spotty at best.  We were planning on purchasing a new washer and dryer anyway next year so we just moved up the purchase a little.

I love my new washer and dryer.  When you turn the knobs to adjust the settings it makes the same sounds that the Super Mario game makes when you hit the coin boxes with Mario's head.  I also enjoy that the washer has a clear top so you can watch your clothes swish around.  It's hypnotic and relaxing, like watching the small waves in a bay.  You can also watch the clothes in the dryer spin around, and who doesn't enjoy that?  The last fun thing about my new washer and dryer is that instead of an annoying buzzer, when they have completed their cycles they play a happy little tune that sounds vaguely like something you would hear on a Baby Mozart video.

During the same week that our dryer died, we turned on our air conditioning one hot day and noticed that air was coming out of  the vent, but the air was not cold.  Our air conditioning unit had also decided to die and join our dryer in appliance heaven. 
     When we got the house inspected before we bought it the inspector (who we always remember because he could have been a Christopher Walken impersonator) told us he didn't think that the unit would last us through the first summer.  We have been fortunate that it has lasted us eight more years than we expected, but its time had come to an end and we replaced the old unit with a new one.

Our cat was not happy with the two air conditionless weeks we tolerated (thankfully it never got super hot) before someone could come out to change the unit and she couped by changing up her sleeping places so that she could air out.

And while all of that was going on, our contractor told us that he was finally ready to come and start working on our master bathroom.  Here are a few pictures of what the bathroom once looked like.

The avocado green toilet really makes the room, don't you think? The pictures don't do justice to expose the high amount of 70's green décor.

The new room is mostly done but not absolutely finished and of course there will be some finishing touches that we haven't purchased, but when it is finally completed I'll show pictures of the finished product. 

As you can see August has been a hectic month filled with new things that we are thankful for. It has been exciting and exhausting. I'm hoping that September arrives with its foot on the brake because I'm ready to slow things down for a bit and rest up before the super crazy month of November begins.

Tradition

I am intrigued by traditions.  I’m always interested in learning how they start, how they perpetuate, how they morph and how they die away or are replaced by new traditions.  Holidays are a particularly fun time to start new traditions or to cherish the old ones that have continued sometimes for generations.

Our first Christmas together as a married couple filled me with both excitement and a small degree of sadness.  My parents had sold the house I grew up in and I knew that year I would never again pull into my driveway to see the hand painted wooden manger scene on the front lawn or the tree glowing in the same window it had always stood throughout my entire life thus far.  The ceramic nativity my mom had hand painted years ago had crumbled into disuse and although I inherited my mom’s ceramic house display, there was nowhere in our small apartment to display them. That year I packed up a box of ornaments from my former home and brought them to my new home to be hung on my newlywed Christmas tree.

That first year my husband and I decided that we preferred a real tree to an artificial one.  We were living in Pitman at the time and there was a little tree lot not too far from our apartment complex.  It seemed as good a place as any to pick up a tree and since it was close by we wouldn’t have to spend too much time driving with a tree strapped to the roof of our tiny Toyota Corolla.  After the always difficult task of selecting the perfect tree we decided we needed some sustenance before completing the next task of setting said tree up in our living room.  There was a Chinese restaurant close to the tree lot so for convenience sake we stopped there, had dinner and then went home to enjoy our very first Christmas tree as a married couple.  The next year we did the same.

The first Christmas after we moved from our apartment into our house (not near Pitman) we stared at each other blankly trying to figure out where we were going to get our tree now. We finally decided that since we were so comfortable with that little tree lot near our now former apartment we would take the drive there, purchase our tree and stop for Chinese food and so a tradition was born. Although we don’t reside near that particular Christmas tree lot we return each year, pick out our tree and reward ourselves with some yummy dinner afterward.  It is something we both look forward to and Christmas wouldn’t seem the same now if we did anything else, though like all traditions I am sure this too has the potential to morph, die away and/or be replaced by something new in the future.

We arrive at the lot.

So many trees.  They always look smaller at the lot and bigger in the house.

We found it! Our 2012 tree.

The tree gets a trim.

The Element makes driving the tree around a piece of cake.

Time to eat!

I have pad thai.

2012 Christmas Tree is complete.

Not only does Emma insist on hanging out under the tree, she insists on hanging out under the tree skirt.

 

When you don't have kids...

...the kitty gets a Halloween costume.