Spending tales from a home owner

I'll admit it, I'm a consumer whore. I wasn't always. Growing up, money was tight. Any money we had was reinvested into the family businesses. In college, all of my summer internship monies were hoarded to pay for tuition, rent, and food for the following 9 months. I graduated with a M.S. debt free and with $300 to my name. 

Then Massachusetts has changed me; as does having a full time well paying job. Rent is higher, the cost of food is higher (I used to pay $0.94 for a loaf of bread in college), etc. At some point I realized that it was OK to treat myself. Bills were paid and I had a little in the bank, so why not? It's a great theory, but over the years, that's kind of snowballed. I splurged and lived in Fenway for 2 years. I knew it was just beyond my means, but if I figured that if I moved 3,000 miles away from home, I should live it up and try urban living for year. Instead of buying a nice sofa, I bought myself a really expensive designer coat that I love, but only wear a few times a year. Slowly, big ticket items turned into constant smaller purchases. What's $20 here and there? Well, that shit adds up if you aren't careful. 

I didn't think we'd be making as many purchases as we have with the new house. I mean, I was selling items prior to moving. But as we've settled in, there are nooks and crannies that don't need to be filled, but look so much better when they are. I tried to be good, especially when it was announced that I'd be losing my job in a year. I worried about the future and about spending money, acquiring things and then having to move them (or sell them). But Jake assured me that I shouldn't worry and that we should make our house a home. Within reason of course. Still trying to be good and focus on functional purchases, I'm thinking I need to slow down. Let's take a look at 2014:

Ikea Besta cabinets:

Besta shelf unit and Besta Vassabo doors trimmed with gold washi tape.
Without this cabinet, our living room would not be balanced; there's a tv on the other side of the fireplace.

Besta shelf unit and Besta height extension unit.
The desk and drawers were old purchases.

I could have saved our old bookshelves and used them, but then it wouldn't be so pretty. Is it functional? Yes, the cabinet in the living room holds most of Jake's board games. And as you can see from the picture above, the one in my craft room is bursting with fabric. 

Oversized mirror:

Hovet mirror via Ikea

This mirror is GIANT, but comes with a small price tag. It totally makes our place look deceivingly bigger. One of our friends almost walked into the mirror thinking that there was another room to explore. 

Our first Elfa investment - Laundry closet:

Home Improvement: Laundry closet

I'm still loving our shelves, but I'm going to be honest, they're still mostly bare. I've got more pressing things to work on then upacking boxes. Clearly, if it's still in a box at this point, it can stay there just a little bit longer. I will say that the closet rod gets a lot of use.

Front hallway bench:

Dylan Bench via CB2

Was it necessary? Nope, especially since we don't use the front door. Is it functional? Yes, if someone does come visit through the front door, they have a place to sit and remove their shoes. (We have a no shoes in the house policy.) Do I love it? Absolutely. The warm wood, mixed with the raw steel legs, giving it that modern-industrial feel without being over the top. Oh and it fits so perfectly in our entry, it's like it was custom measured.

Kitchen stool:

Rustic counter stool via West Elm

Lordy, I could write a novel about the saga involved in finding the perfect counter stools for our kitchen, but I'll save it for another day. Jake and I have polar opposite schedules. When I come home from work, I've developed a routine of eating my dinner over the kitchen island while I watch tv. Before we found this, I would either stand or use a dining chair. As you can imagine, neither are the correct height. The seat height on this stool couldn't be more perfect, at least for me. Our super tall friend might disagree. Now we just need to get a second one before they discontinue it. We could probably just get away with a single stool, but have you ever seen a stand alone kitchen stool? I swear they come in 2's, 3's, or 4's, never just 1. 

Elfa #2 - Mudroom:

I even surprised myself with this second Elfa purchase. I thought for sure that we would go a whole year after the first one. But I lucked out since the Elfa sale was extended. We took full advantage of it and Jake helped pick out the finishes for shelves that I will try to install in the mudroom myself when the weather warms up. Our mudroom is not heated, and with 2 concrete walls, it's effing cold. Pictures to come!

Moral of this story, owning a house is spendy. We've got one more large purchase to make this year and then I think I'll put a myself on a spending diet. In the mean time, I should really curb all the personal spending. But that new pair of shoes and new clothes might come in handy for my next job, right? At least one can dream =)

My First Garment: Janey Jumper Dress

I finally finished my first patterned garment! I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Janey Jumper Dress by The Cottage Mama:

Fabrics: Ashbury Floral in Purple by Doohikey Designs and Riley Blake Designs Basic Shades in Sundrop.

Front.

Back. I had finished this dress as per the pattern with a button closure, but decided that I
didn't like it and replaced it with ties. The ties allow the dress to be completely reversible. 

Double seam finish to keep the hem from rolling (at least I hope).

While I followed a pattern, I learned so much more during the class with Lindsay at Fabric Fest. Lindsay is super sweet, cute, and is an excellent teacher. I highly recommend this pattern for a beginner. There are some curves to cut and sew around, but really, it's just straight lines of stitching. Just go slow and you'll be fine. 

Custom Chevron Quilt

My friend V, contacted me about a custom quilt for her daughter. We combined forces and created a one of kind masterpiece. Her meticulous tastes and my handy work is a match made in heaven. V picked out the pattern (both top and bottom) and hand selected all the fabrics. I'm not going to lie, it took a lot of work, but the finished product is jaw-dropping-gorgeous. I'm in love with it. If it was just a little longer, I'd have a harder time parting with it.

What I love even more than the finished product, is being able to bring V's vision to life. Her joy and excitement totally made my week. I'm sure going to miss our fabric shopping sessions complete with donut breaks. OK, there was just one donut break and it was delicious.

Custom Chevron Toddler Quilt

45" x 53.5"(pre-wash size)

Made with a mix of cotton, cotton twill, and cotton voile designer fabrics (listed below) purchased from Gather Here and Hawthorn Threads.

Filled with 100% cotton batting.

Machine sewn with 100% cotton thread (Aurifil and vintage Coats and Clark mercerized).

Machine washable (delicate cold wash, air dry preferred).

These photos do not do the quilt justice. But it'll give you a pretty good idea. (Sorry for the muddy images, the lighting in my house was funky.)

Front: Modified Zig Zag Frenzy pattern; 2 rows and 2 columns were added to make the quilt bigger.
Top (background): Tomotake for Kokka, Daisy Chain in Ash.

Back: My interpretation of this quilt. 
The diagonal lines were sewn on top of the background due to the difference in material type (cotton voile vs cotton). 
Backing (main):  Free Spirit, Voile Solid in Sky. If only you could feel this fabric. It's silky smooth, like buttah.
Backing (stripes): Moda, Half Moon Modern Big Dots in Aqua. 

Check out the sparkly flowers in this print. I didn't even see it until after I had started cutting the fabric!
Nani Iro, Little Letter in Soft Grey.

Meow. Kokka, Double Gauze Little Black Kitties.

Amy Butler, Alchemy Voile Fairy Tale in Vanilla.

Patty Sloniger for Michael Miller, Bitty Buds in Aqua.

BAMBI!! Lecien Old New 30's, Little Deer (name is questionable).

Aneela Hoey for Moda, Ditsy in Geranium.

Diagonal stripes: Moda, Half Moon Modern Big Dots in Aqua.

Check out that perfectly mitered corner! I hand sewed them shut to avoid any potential points of snagging. 
Binding: Amy Butler, Soul Blossoms Voile Buttercup in Spearmint. Just like the backing fabric, this stuff feels like buttah.

Pretty proud of this machined on binding. I may or may not have ripped out the seams a few times.

Gah, love that binding!

New skills I learned from this project:
 - Applique.
 - Hand sewig mitered corners shut.
 - Quilting chevron lines and how I only have the attention span to do 1-2 lines per sitting. 

Home Improvement: Laundry Closet

Our laundry closet, without shelving: 

It's your standard second floor laundry closet, with the exception of it being 8 feet wide! The 18" on either side of our appliances is wasted floor space. But on the flip side, it makes for 36" of additional shelving space along the wall.

I'm not sure if our builder never planned to put shelving in this space or if he got my note to skip the builder grade shelving (aka crap wire shit). Either way, I'm glad we got to work with a blank slate. I had very specific requirements, namely a closet rod for hanging my laundry (I like to air fluff and then hang dry the delicate pieces of my wardrobe). 

Now check it out:

BOOM, Elfa shelving! If you are eyeing anything Elfa, RUN to The Container Store, like NOW! The annual Elfa sale is currently underway. Um, hello 30% off!! I was a little hesitant about the shelving at first. I didn't like the idea of being able to see the vertical hanging bars. But know that it's in my home, I freaken LOVE it. Just seeing the completed laundry closet as I come up the stairs makes me giddy. Seriously, I clap and giggle every time, granted we've only had it for less than 48 hours. 

We chose to hire installers. It was installed in like 45 minutes. I'm sure I could have done it, but it would have taken me WAAAAAAAAAY longer. And I would have had to purchase/borrow a drill, get a taller ladder, and needed an extra set of hands. Our installer looked like Nicholas Cage; he was a really nice guy. It was interesting to see that he cut a couple of pieces on site. If you install yourself, they will cut pieces in the store for you.

Our setup:

36" easy hang standards (vertical pieces)
16" x 93" vented shelving (top shelf), 2 pieces - 48" and custom cut 45"

45" closet rod, custom cut

16" x 48" vented shelving, 2 pieces - 24" each

16" x 50" solid melamine shelving, 2 pieces - 25" each

24" mesh drawer 

Not sure if we really need the drawer or the solid shelves, but they could be useful. We'll give it a go for a few weeks and see what happens. We are excited to upgrade the bedroom closets, but we will probably wait until next year. You know, spread out the hit to the bank account.

What time is it?

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I wore a Winnie the Pooh watch for years. Pretty much all of high school, possibly before and maybe even Freshman year of college. It had a leather band with embossed bees on it. And I vaguely remember that the second hand had a bee on it as well. This thing was resilient. I lost count of the number of times it went through the wash and a full cycle in the wash. It finally kicked the bucket after one too many runs through the dryer. I'm sure all my friend were thanking God at the time. Man, I sure loved that thing. 

I was pretty sad to see it go, but I needed to grow up. I also needed a new watch. I'm one of those people that is lost without a watch (my cell phone has since replaced that dependency). Luckily, I had received one for high school graduation from my God parents. I wore it daily for the rest of my college career and until it's death in 2008. Technically, it could still work, but I didn't want to glue a cracked and scratched [plastic] cover back on it. Plus it gave me a good excuse to upgrade to fancier watch. 

Sorry for the crappy photo! Guess Watch from 1999?

The first watch I ever bought myself was a Citizen Eco-Drive watch. Eco-drive so that I would NEVER have to deal with replacing batteries for the rest of my life. It never crossed my mind that a) it wouldn't last forever or b) that I would tire of it. Turns out that having a real job and a disposable income can change a person. 

EW8140-54E
(Source)

Fast forward to 2012. I became bored with my watch, not to mention I hated the holes left behind by stones that had fallen out, and casually began looking for a replacement. Jake secretly purchased a watch that I had pinned on Pinterest for my birthday. Good job husband!

Georgia Three Hand Leather in Smoke and Rose
Fossil

3 months later, I just couldn't pass up a great deal on Ideeli and picked up a La Mer wrap-around watch just as the style was trending. 

Mine looks very similar but has fewer chains and a single strand of turquoise crystals.
(La Mer)

It was only 2 months later that I broke down and purchased my beloved Michael Kors watch. I had tried my damnedest to not be sucked into the big-name-oversized-face-ceramic trend. But the force was too strong (especially when you don't have to pay full retail). You can just call me a lemming.

MK5469
(Source)

Now that I have a pretty good collection going, I realize there is a gap. I don't have a [yellow] gold watch. I've looked high and low for something different. The standard Michael Kors watch is nice, but it would look just like the one I have. I fell in love with a unique band. Surprisingly, the GIANT face worked very well on my petite wrist. However, the face is very thick. The weight from the face was too much and I was constantly adjusting it, so back to the store it went =(

Chain Bracelet, Chronograph
(Nordstrom)

Fast forward to earlier this week. I came across this photo by Kelly over at Alterations Needed and became smitten. I've spent the week obsessed with trying to find it. And I did, but who wants to pay full price for something that was released 2 years ago? Then yesterday, I saw a coworker wearing the watch! She found it a Nordstrom Rack just recently.

Metro
(Kate Spade)

After work, I was on a mission. Sadly, I struck out at 2 of the local places. Instead of trekking out of my way, I called up the remaining three in the state. No dice. On a whim, I called Nordy's Rack by my parents (yeup, all the way in Oregon), the same one that I had purchased my lovely MK watch from. Well, wouldn't you know it. They had not one, but two of them. And the nice sales rep knew exactly what I was looking for when I described it to her. SCORE! The gold leather band looks funky to me, but I'm going to copy Kelly and just replace it. 

Now I just have to wait...patiently.

Just finish it already

The count downs to Christmas have started in my Instagram feed. But I'm not thinking about Christmas. Can you believe that it's mid-November already? Do you know what that means? Holy shit, 2013 is almost over! I have so many things on my to-do list that I wanted to finish this year. It's not looking very promising. Let's take a look shall we?

• 5 months ago, I started a quilt project for a very special little girl. It hasn't been touched in 3 months! I had hoped to finish it by the end of the month. Finishing it by the end of the year is going to be a stretch...

• 4 months ago, cut out all the pieces for my Anna Maria Horner Art Student Tote. I managed to sew the inside of the bag together before life got in the way. It has since been "hiding" under my sofa. Somehow it survived the move, now if only I can find some motivation to finish it.

• 2 months ago, I attended the Riley Blake FabricFest and learned how to make the Janey Jumper Dress by The Cottage Mama. I'm this close -->||<-- to finishing it up. All I need to do is top stitch and add a button. Miss M's bday is next week so it's on the list for this weekend.

That's just my sewing projects. My list of blogging, crafting, house decor/design, and other projects seems to be growing exponentially.

• Finish blogging about my European adventures. I still have one more post to do about Giverny and Paris, oops. 
• It's almost been a year since my trip to India, and I have yet to share my photos.
• We've been married for 2+ years and we still haven't picked photos for our photo albumb. Hopefully, our photographer will still let us.
• Fix the kitchen backsplash.
• Sew curtains.
• Purchase/install faux wooden blinds.
• Set up craft/guest room.
• Seal marble table tops (we purchased these but they come untreated).
• Shelving for basement.
• Organize basement.
• Find a full length mirror for the hallway.
• Make a trip to Ikea for picture ledges (and a whole ton of crap we don't need).
• Decorate the house.
• Look into custom closet solutions (aka California Closets or The Container Store's Elfa systems).
• Refinish/paint guest room night stand.

48 days. Wish me luck.

Source

October 1

October 1 and I have an interesting relationship. It seams that I do a lot of heavy traveling and/or have life changing experiences that begin on this date.

October 1, 2006 12:05am (or something really close)
My one way flight from Portland, OR landed at Boston Logan just after midnight. The flight attendant came over the intercom and announced our arrival, ending with "Welcome to Boston" and "Welcome Home!" I had to fight back the tears that were starting to well up in my eyes. With this one single cross country flight, I had left my life behind in Oregon to start a new on in Massachusetts. Happy anniversary to me!

October 1, 2010
Jake and I boarded a plan bound for Rochester, NY. We were on our way to a friend's fabulous wedding weekend.

October 1, 2012
After a crazy and slightly hectic experience, I made my flight and was headed off to London for a week with my BFF J.

October 3, 2013 
OK, so it's not October 1. But had things gone smoothly (apparently they never do), we would have closed on our house and been homeowners on 9/30-10/1. Instead, we will be signing the thick stack of papers this afternoon (I hope). Keep you fingers crossed for us. We are totally ready to be done with the home buying/building process and ready to move on to enjoying our home.