Transformation
March 12, 2009
We used to have a study. The study had a huge desk along one wall, 16 feet long. The rest of the room was basically a long hallway to access the master bedroom. After much demolition, a little paint, a little more paint because the new paint made the other walls look old, some new furniture, we now have a den.
The only additions to the room - besides the paint - are a futon sofa ($300 at Futon Planet, including the futon and frame), an IKEA dining table ($279) which we are using as a desk, a shaggy rug ($70) from Walmart (because every other rug - shag and otherwise - was completely unaffordable), an ottoman built out of scrap wood, and a few new pillow covers.
And somehow we now have a room which is the hub of the house. Right now I am here typing this on my laptop, David is across from me on his laptop, and Finn is at the round table on her laptop. Our dog is usually lying on the sofa (had to cover it with a towel); not sure where she is right now, but she seems to have abandoned her chew toy there.
When everything came together, not only did the room miraculously become the center of our lives, but it also took on an inexplicable 70s vibe, like the cool pad I’d have had in the 70s if I would have been a hip adult instead of a pre-teen. Maybe it’s the shag or the orange or the futon. Maybe next we need to add a conversation pit…
Chopsticks
March 8, 2009
Benk and Ginny and I took a trip to Albuquerque, and all agreed that we needed to visit Ta Lin Market. This is where you can stock up on Irish tea (and even Lucozade), achiote paste from Central America, pad thai noodles, Japanese ponzu sauce… While we were there, Benk and I went to the tiny-random-dishes section and found these “rookie chopsticks” for $1.95; we each bought a pair for our kids, but I mostly bought them because, wow - what a cool shape! If you don’t have a version of Ta Lin, you can get them here
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Art You Can Afford
November 24, 2008
I am not the biggest 20×200 junkie, but I definitely have a habit. Because here’s the thing: we can afford things like toilet paper, nice jam for crostata, even splurge on some yarn (because it gets turned into something useful like a scarf or a sweater). But there is definitely not any money for art. Most people wouldn’t think that was a problem, but I think art is a necessity, like toilet paper or nice jam for crostata.
I was at my friend Anna’s office, and she was really happy because she’s purchased some monoprints for the walls. And so cheap, too! How cheap? Six hundred dollars!? That’s not cheap!
Art with a $20 price tag is more in line with our budget. I’m serious; for $20 you get a one of a limited edition of 200 prints. You can also buy a larger print (limited edition of 20) for $200 or even larger (limited edition of 2) for $2000. The image above is Far and Wide, by Ann Tarantino, and it’s still available. Check it out at http://www.20×200.com/.
Yarn
October 19, 2008
I like to support my local knitting store, but knitting can be an expensive habit. There are some beautiful yarns out there (although my preference is to see the pattern rather than the yarn) and I can’t afford any of them. I just bought 5 skeins of Brown Sheep’s Cotton Fleece on Little Knits at 40% off. Here’s the thing about Brown Sheep’s Cotton Fleece: it is the perfect yarn! It feels nice to knit with, it doesn’t pill, and as the woman in my local yarn store says, it has good stitch definition. And you can wash it. And it comes in lots of colors.
New Knitting Projects
October 5, 2008
Today it finally got cold (autumn! I love autumn!) so I made a list of my future knitting projects, but since I only have the yarn for two of these projects, those are the only ones I’ll describe here. In case I don’t actually get to the other projects, and plus it’s good to save something for a future blog.
The first is a cardigan for Finn, who needs a cardigan that she can wear to school. Which means it has to be washable.
And the other project is a scarf that was supposed to be for David, and the color of the yarn is so David, and it would be so wonderful to knit something for him… but I realized that there’s no way he can wear a wool scarf. So now it’ll be a scarf for me, and we’ll get some nice smushy cotton acrylic for David and then I can knit him a scarf out of that instead.
Just so you know, the yarn was $10 a skein, but I figured max. 3 skeins for Finn’s cardigan. So that’s not too bad. Still affordable. But I spent $2 a button! Ack! I had a credit at one of the local knitting stores. And, seriously, how cool are those buttons?
Thermostats
September 27, 2008
This past weekend I replaced all of our old-school thermostats with brand-new programmable thermostats. This is Something-You-Can-Do-Yourself. (But first turn off the power to the furnace or boiler). There were several surprising things that I learned about thermostats:
- There was a humongous blob of mercury in the Old Thermostats that really scared me (I tend to drop things)
- The new thermostats, even if I never end up programming them, and even with their constant digital readout, are a lot better looking than the old thermostats; I would’ve thought it’d be the opposite, considering how I like that retro look
Actually that’s only two surprising things.
So, step two is to wait for a cold day, and then (with the thermostats set at a constant 68 degrees) chart hourly temperatures at each thermostat all day long. If you know me you just shrugged when you read that. The thrill is in the charting and tracking, and the puzzle! The puzzle is: how do you program a programmable thermostat if you have both radiant heat and some solar heating.
