Baby on Board at Work

I brought Max to work with me a little while ago. He had a Dr.’s appointment to check his ears and to show me how to clean them since normal methods weren’t working so well (he produces a lot of ear wax, like champion amounts of ear wax if there was a competition). After his appointment he came to work for the afternoon.

First things first, a nap.

Once he was nice and rested we went down the hall to say hi to everyone. They just love babies, and he just loves attention.

Then it was time to explore the office.

And help mama with the filing.

Then he took off down the hall to find A, who he was just fascinated by. He loves grammies with white hair almost as much as he loves bananas. I was pretty impressed that he remembered the way and found her office with no wrong turns. Our building is like a rabbit warren and people often get turned around, but not my little boy. He was on a mission!

We had a lot of fun, and I am encouraged to try bringing him in again. Previous attempts ended in screaming (his, not mine). This time he was happy to play and was just charming. Phew!

Sewing Kids Clothes Week



image source



http://www.elsiemarley.com/kids-clothes-week-spring-2011.html

ElsieMarley is challenging people to sew an hour a day all week (including weekends!) for kids. Seven hours of sewing in a week, eek! I’m going to attempt to do this. Probably not an hour every day since I like to eat and sleep too – but I’m going to try and do some sewing for Max. He has no shorts for this summer, and his jammies are quickly becoming too small.

I got a head start last week, making a pair of pants and two button down shirts (all out of hubby's old button-downs). I'll put up photos and such next week.

Can I do it? I can, theoretically. Will I? We’ll find out!

Colorful Garden Accessory!

I was at the farm and garden supply store last weekend and a rainbow caught my eye. Can you guess what it is?

Any ideas? A hint - it goes in the garden, not the farm. 

Colorful tomato cages! What a fantastic idea!

I know, I know, if you have giant tomato plants like I do then you won't be able to see them after a month - but still awesome!

You could totally do this at home with some plain cages and spray paint (and patience). If you give it a try, let me know!

Love love love!

Work Hacks: Writing During Breaks

image source

As you’ve probably figured out, I like to utilize my breaks for more than just hanging out and relaxing. Though sometimes I do relax and read, and I enjoy surfing the internet during lunch as much as the next person, I prefer being productive.

You may wonder how I’m able to manage a blog while having a full-time job, an infant, a husband, a mid-reno home, and the plethora of projects I work on. Here it is - I do some of my blog writing during my breaks. This helps me write posts ahead of time and schedule them to post at 12:30 every day. That’s a very strategic move on my part, as I wouldn’t be able to put something together every single morning or evening.

My method is this:

When I get an idea for a post, I make a mental note, jot down a few key words on a piece of paper, or make a note on my cell phone.

Then I mentally draft the post while I do fun things like data management, filing, or one of the other mindless but necessary tasks that make up a sizable chunk of my job. (Oh, the thrills.)

Once I have a good idea of what I want to say and how I want to say it, I start to write it out during a break (generally lunch). If I finish the post in one sitting then I’m pretty impressed with myself. Normally I have two or three ideas that I partially write (this is one such post, the other one I started drafting was about exercising during breaks), getting enough down that I can go back later and finish writing and proofing the post in 5-10 minutes.

Once or twice a week I’ll use part of my lunch hour to proof and schedule the finished posts, adding photos, etc.

I schedule all of my posts to go live at 12:30pm so that if I need to make a last minute change, or if I plan on writing a fresh post for that day, I have time at the beginning of my lunch hour to do so.

This works really well for me and my situation. I’m able to be productive during leisure time – just today (and by today, I mean the day the majority of this post was written) for my lunch hour I exercised for 20 minutes, wrote for 20 minutes, and checked my personal email for 5 minutes. Now, I have 15 minutes left of my hour, so I’m going to wolf down that sandwich and do a little light reading. Time well spent!

Posts Worth Reading: Leisure Time Not Idle Time

layers 3, 4 & 5 of kitchen flooring

Leisure Time Not Idle Time, Written by Trent at The Simple Dollar.

I’m not going to bother re-write what someone has already done such a great job of doing: explaining the difference between leisure time and idle time.

I spend almost all of my spare time as leisure time – as in I’m doing something, generally something productive. It’s this great big gray area between work and play. Idle time drives me nuts, unless I’m too sick or tired to care. In which case, as Trent points out, there’s always the option to take a nap which is productive because you are taking care of a problem (being tired).

On a recent, somewhat warm day I had the whole house to myself. I considered flopping on the couch and eating pie while I watched TV. Instead, I cleaned the bathroom (including scrubbing the floor on my hands and knees), put dry cleaner on the carpet in the back room (again, scrubbing on my hands and knees), picked up and thoroughly vacuumed the computer/craft/side entry room, moved the yard sale items from the side room to the garage, went in the basement/glorified crawl space to put out mouse poison (I gave them a fair chance with live traps, but now they're P-ing me off), sprayed insect repellent around the base of the house, refilled the cat food bin, refilled the litterboxes, sprayed the cat pee smelling areas, and then settled down in the kitchen to work on ripping up some more old flooring for an hour. Now that's some leisure time! haha

I don’t just use my leisure time at home, I use it at work. Hence all of my Work Hack posts I’ve been writing lately where I make note of what I do on my breaks. Even while driving I’ll listen to audio books, given the chance.

This whole blog was inspired because I use my leisure time in a way that, through documentation, others might find a glimmer of inspiration by what I do, as I find inspiration in what they do.

Now go get your leisure on.

Couch Cover: A Semi-Tutorial

(BTW - I have another couch covering tutorial HERE where I cover the whole couch, not just cushions)

I love my couch. More specifically, I love the comfyness and how when you take the pillows off it’s big enough to stretch out on for a nap. Or to use for overnight guests (aka Max’s uncle D’ng).

What I’ve never liked about my couch was the color. It’s khaki green. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a nice color, especially for pants (like the ones I’m wearing now), or for decor in earth-toned homes like my mother’s. However, it does not go with my décor scheme, which is white, turquoise/aqua, lime/grass green, and chocolate brown.

See? Hideous. Ghastly. Um, gauche. (Ha, I amuse myself, gauche)

I love white couches. And I love my baby and my husband. And I love to eat in the living room. These things do not combine well and usually spells disaster for white couches. I decided on making a slip cover out of unbleached denim since it washes and wears well. I’ve already spot cleaned it several times (with whatever I grabbed from under the sink) and it’s held up really well – no stains!

The couch cover is done in three stages – the main couch cover, the seat cushions, and the back pillows. Well, technically four stages as the side pillows are covered as well (in the blue). I only have photos for the back pillows since the rest was done last fall/winter during a pregnancy nesting frenzy. Then I lost steam and didn’t do the back pillows until a month ago.

For the main couch cover pattern I used a previous cover I had made years ago, just cutting it apart to use for pattern pieces. For the seat cushions I measured, made an elongated cube, and put in a zipper for ease of removal for washing (which has come in handy once already).

They didn’t have enough unbleached denim at the store for the back pillows, so I bought some unbleached waffle-weave fabric in the same tone. I love how the textures look against each other. I’m so glad that there wasn’t quite enough of the denim and that I had to come up with this alternative.

The back pillows are angled on one end, so to make the covers I made a sack to fit the longest part. First I hemmed the edge that would go along the angled end.

Then I sewed two sides (the third side is the fabric fold) and left the hemmed edge open to make a sack.

I zigzag stitched along the seams to reinforce.

I knew that I wanted the covers to be removable, but zippers were going to be too difficult to put in and keep hidden. I decided to just whip-stitch the opening closed along the angled end - easy to rip out, wash, and re-do.

Done with one!

Doesn’t it look all pretty? (Ignore the ugly wall) I just love how it came out!

Linking up to:

The DIY Showoff

Metamorphosis Monday

Handmade Tuesdays

Shabby Nest

White Wednesday at Faded Charm
Twice Owned Tuesday
Tuesday's Treasures
Beach Cottage Good Life

It’s Spring!

double rainbow!

It was such a wonderful weekend – the rain stopped for two glorious days, which just happened to be Saturday and Sunday, meaning we could enjoy them!

We went for three walks, one of which was on a nature trail that we hadn’t explored yet.

Max and I visited a local farm and checked out their automated milking machines (this is the same type as the farm we visited), and negotiated for some composted manure for the community garden. I got an excellent price by the way, and hopefully we will continue working together in the future. (I think my offer of fresh tomatoes this fall helped in the negotiations) Max loved the milking machines. I’ll post more on that later…

I mowed the lawn (and ran out of gas halfway through which prompted the third walk of the weekend since we had to go get gas).

I cut branches from the scrubby mess bordering my lawn to make tomato “cages” and pea and cucumber trellises. I also clipped a ready supply of some sort of vine (possibly Virginia creeper) that I’ll use to string it all together. (That scrubby mess will be cut back this summer so that the lilacs and real trees can have a fighting chance)

So we don’t complain when the rain starts up again, remember that it’s not this:

somewhere in there is patio furniture

this is around 3 1/2 feet deep

outside the front door

can you see the car buried to the right? no? look for the windshield wipers.

Sometimes there are pretty parts to winter, like the occasional double rainbow:

But overall, I'm so glad winter's gone and that spring is here!