delight in life

november goals revisited

At the beginning of the month I set some goals for myself to fight the couch potato in me that threatens to take over the evenings. The result: a smashing success! 

My four goals were:

1. Convert an old storage trunk into a padded storage bench for our bedroom.
2. Complete this year's Christmas cards.
3. Bake a loaf of bread from scratch.
4. Keep the laundry pile under control 

I already posted about the storage bench. I'm still completely thrilled with how that came out. The Christmas cards were finished last week. The loaf of bread is actually a batch of soft pretzels and they'll be finished tonight, just under the wire. Aaand the laundry, easily the most boring thing on the list? Accomplished.  I bought a fancy hamper with three baskets so you sort as you go. When one of the baskets is full we just toss it in the washer. Doesn't sound like that big a deal, but the sort-as-you-go approach has changed how I feel about laundry! Awesome. 

As a bonus, I've finished all of our Christmas shopping already. All I have left to do is a handful of handmade gifts. I am feeling pretty on top of it right now.

I'm thinking about my plans for December; will post soon!

 

thanksgiving week 2010: thursday

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! I have so much to be thankful for; my heart overflows. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend with your loved ones.

thanksgiving week 2010: wednesday

Soooo thankful for piles of delicious Mexican food and fresh, fresh, fresh guacamole. YUM.

thanksgiving week 2010: tuesday

Today I am grateful to have a job that pays well and allows me to travel around to collect decorations for my cubicle.

thanksgiving week 2010: monday

Today I am grateful for 6 months of marriage to my favorite person, Starbucks dates, and certain doctors of music finishing the corrections on their dissertation.

apple cider.

It's been chilly here lately, and this delicious apple cider is the perfect thing to warm my hands at night. Yum.

Pour 6 cups of apple cider and 1/4 cup of real maple syrup into a saucepan. On a square of cheeesecloth, lay 2 cinnamon sticks, 6 whole cloves, 6 allspice berries, 1 orange peel in strips, and 1 lemon peel in strips. Tie up the corners and drop the bundle into the saucepan. Warm on the stove until very hot but not boiling. Ladle into a mug and garnish with a cinnamon stick. Enjoy! 

the storage bench project.

One of my 4 November goals was to convert an old trunk into a padded bench. Mission accomplished!

I used this tutorial from design*sponge to create a little slipcover for a trunk I've had since college.
I've wanted a padded storage bench for our bedroom for ages, but the ones I find are either too ugly or too expensive! I ordered a 4" piece of foam to pad it and give it a little more height, and just slipped the fabric cover right over the whole thing.

We'll have to remove the whole cover in order to open the trunk, but we won't need to access the items inside very often. The whole project cost about $60, and that includes some exorbitant shipping on the foam and about a yard and half of extra fabric. (I'm a big believer in buying more fabric than you think you need!)

I think some piping around the edges would make it look a little more professional, but that's beyond my current skill set and I decided to just keep it simple.

Pretty, easy DIY. The best kind. I love having somewhere to sit while I put on my shoes and the bright pop of color it adds to our room!

monday monday

We had a really great weekend at my grandparents' house celebrating Grannie's 80th birthday. My mom's goal was to sing Happy Birthday to her 80 times throughout the day, and we had people all over the country calling in to help us out. Oregon, Virginia, Georgia, and Texas called, and right in our very own house, we had a guitar/kazoo/harmonica/voice quartet. It was something special. Love you Grannie!

Today I woke up pretty under the weather, so I'm taking it easy on the couch with cats, Jane Austen, and Harry Potter.

Goals for the week: get healthy, clean the bedroom so I can take pictures of (and post about) my trunk-to-bench conversion project, try not to die of excitement for the Harry Potter movie.

sparkly stars

Who doesn't need a little more glitter in their life?

I made this garland thinking of Christmas decorations, but I went ahead and put it out.

While Cara read me Harry Potter over iChat, I was cutting out glitter stars. I cut out a few different star stencils out of cardstock and I used a roll of silver glitter wrapping paper to make the stars.

I glued two sheets back to back so they'd be double-sided, and cut around my stencil.
I tried a few different hanging methods, but I settled on using glue dots to attach the stars to some thin silver ribbon.

Strung it up on my mantle and presto! A little sparkly magic for the living room.

I will probably make a longer one to drape around the tree when we put it up. It will be so pretty with the tree lights!

nyc for a day

My mom sings in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Chorus, which I honestly think is one of the coolest things ever. The last weekend in October, they went to NYC to do a concert in Carnegie Hall. Chris and I were so excited to be able to go see the concert.

In April 2008, they also did a concert in Carnegie Hall, and on a crazy whim, I went to that one too. I was in college and did not have very much money, but I splurged on a box seat and had a blast. And now I have seen my mom sing in Carnegie Hall twice. SO COOL. (She's actually been with the chorus about five times.) (And the mini book I made of that trip is still one of my favorites I've ever made.)

The trip was quick (and cheap!): we flew up Saturday morning, spent Saturday night in the airport and flew out 6 am Sunday. But we splurged on box seats again.

We were lucky to be able to spend a lot of time with Mom before and after the concert. We didn't have much of an agenda and mostly just wandered the streets and sat at restaurants. I loved it.
So good.