cutting, ripping and idying curtains

Posted on January 21, 2012 | 16 Comments

living roomliving room

I have a curtain problem: I want nice curtains but I can’t justify spending more than $10 a panel for a piece of fabric. This is why I painted the curtains in the kitchen and why I went to town on upcycling (I’m so tired of that word but I can’t think of another one: redoing? changing? manipulating?) three tab-topped pairs from IKEA. I’ve spent more time on these curtains than they were worth if I translated that time to an hourly rate and I’m still not sure that I like them. See for yourself.

Our living room, as of a few weeks ago. Notice the tension rods holding up some sad white Wilma curtains, $12.99 for a pair. I hated walking the dog past our apartment and looking at the tabs from outside. They were just messy. So I tried to sew down the tabs. That was a disaster. I studied them closely after my failed attempt and noticed a little pocket attaching the tabs to the body of the curtains: it was the perfect size for some thin rods I had also picked up at IKEA.

I used a seam ripper to pull off the stitches holding the pocket together. My neck hurt from looking down afterwards but it was worth it. No more tabs!

This should be fun #idye

Still not satisfied, I picked up a couple of packages of iDye while in LA and dyed the curtains in our apartment building’s washing machine. It couldn’t have been easier, minus the staining my hand received when I reached into the washer to agitate the fabric. Don’t make that mistake or you will have tinted cuticles for days. The color, to me, is much more blue than gray and this is probably due to the short washing cycle of our crappy shared machine. If I had a machine that allowed a longer wash/soak cycle I believe the color would have been richer.

living room

I don’t love them. I don’t hate them. They will do until the perfect set of affordable curtains come my way.

living room

Here are some questions for you.

1. Should they be hemmed?
2. Aren’t they more blue than gray?
3. Should I have mounted the rods on the inside of the window well to show off the woodwork?
4. Isn’t our coffee table too big for this living room?
5. What do you think of our new Kattrup rug?

xxoo

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Posted in diy, my NEW apartment

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the mister & his camera

Posted on January 10, 2012 | 2 Comments

The Mister has granted me permission to post some of his great shots from our STT trip.

Did I mention that it will be a whopping 50 degrees in Chicago today? Who needs sun and sand?

#caribbean #islands #ocean #sea #airplane #travel #flightTouchdown in #stt ....#vacation #airplane #flight #travel #islands #caribbean#stt #vacation #islands #caribbean #reflection #balcony @urbancasita#caribbean #islands #vacation #stt #ocean #viewEl #presidente por mi gente.... #caribbean #islands #stt #virginislands #vacation #ocean #beerBeautiful #islands girl, @urbancasita ....#beach #caribbean #stt #virginislands #vacation #wifeWhite sand #beach, #turquoise #sea #ocean #islands #caribbean #stt #virginislands #vacationOld #fort #architecture #virginislands #stt #caribbean #virginislandsLittle #red #boat in a little #lagoon...#lush walkway #lagoon #vegetation #islands #virginislands #caribbean #sttMy first deep #sea #fishing trip... #boat #ocean #sunMs Kate is beach-ready...#rooster #beach #vegetation#islands #flowers #vegetation #caribbean #virginislands #stt #lush #vividChoose a flavor.. Assorted #colors #jeep #wranglerPurdy ladies, beautiful #wife...#friends #vacation #blue #dress#island #streetart #art #caribbean #virginislands #sttColorful #van by the waterfront.... #hills #caribbean #virginislands #sttOdabo (goodbye) #stt #virginislands #caribbean #plane #island #aerial #water #ocean

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oh, california

Posted on January 9, 2012 | 5 Comments

#hostel #venicebeach

Over the Christmas holiday we visited California to spend some time with family. It was my first time setting foot in the state since we lived there. We rode out in late 2007 after a two-year bid yelling expletives out of the car window, flipping off the strip malls and subdivisions. Getting back to Chicago could not have come quickly enough.

I was bitter when we left. Angry at the boorish, snotty people we encountered, frustrated with trying to maintain a status quo that wasn’t in my DNA, sick and tired of defending my choice of work when I was “just so bright!” And the driving? Oh, the driving!

All of California fell under my wrath after our move back to the Midwest. My eyes flared when speaking about our time there. I told anyone who would listen that the state should fall into the ocean (saving my mother-in-law and dear friends who still lived there). I spoke about the Bay as if the metro area itself had personally stolen my dog and sold him to canine-eating miscreants.

Most of our issues were centered on where we lived: a small, very rich city on The Peninsula. Bet it won’t take you long to figure out which one. While we both had great jobs and lived in a beautiful apartment, we had difficulty making friends (minus Javiera mi amorcita linda, I know you’re reading this) and the emotional expense of being away from our Chicago family and folks wore on us. Combine that with the loutish people who inhabited our little town and the dollars the California lifestyle requires and it was a recipe for Get-Megan-Outta-Dodge-The-Bay-Area by the end of our first month living there. OK, maybe that’s extreme. The fifth week. Summer in December was nice, after all.

LA for Christmas is fantastic.

When I touched down at LAX the day before Christmas Eve I looked around at my surroundings and sent a quick text to a girlfriend: “I remember why we left.” I don’t even know what prompted me to send that text. I mean, airport people are airport people, let’s face it: no gate in any terminal in any airport in any city in the good old U S of A highlights our best and brightest, least of all Chicago’s own O’Hare. Why was I being so snotty? Because I just am?

By day two in SoCal I was sending a very different text to the same friend: “I love it here! Why did I leave again? Its seventy-fiiiiiiiiive degreeesssss!!!!!”

$40 per round cocktails at a rooftop lounge in Venice had undone my disdain in minutes.

I remembered that I liked LA. I spent six weeks there for work in 07 and didn’t want to go back north: a total shocker for a lefty-somewhat-granola-boho-ish-type-girl who had been force fed the idea that the Bay was the epicenter of the liberal universe and LA a hotbed of plasticity. I found the inhabitants of SoCal kind and smiley, people who actually speak when you pass them on a sidewalk. I fell in love with the weather. The thrifting goodness didn’t hurt either. Had The Mister’s job not required him to stay up north, I would have lobbied for us to move down to Los Angeles immediately.

It was, like, twenty degrees in Chicago. I didn’t hate California, I just really, really, really disliked that small Northern town. It wasn’t really fair for me to direct my aggression at the whole state. I was drinking a beer on a rooftop in DECEMBER. How can anyone be mad at that?

Shadows of @okjey @kidcadaver @lawanticious

Walks in the mountains, a day trip to San Diego to visit one of our favorite couples, lunch in Beverly Hills, a tour of the gorgeous grounds of the college my mother-in-law teaches at… it was a really good few days. I won’t be so long in going back this time. As long as I’m not made to go up north.

Until we meet again. Oh, California.

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Posted in my life (personally speaking), travel

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hello, 2012

Posted on January 8, 2012 | 1 Comment

Me & @okjeyNo musclesCome on fishies!!!Megan and Kate miss @earthseed & @mariel_victoria & @thisiskatinthehatKate and EvanI will be wave running out there in a bitNative Son ExpressPaddle ball!

If you are my pal on Instagram you have probably already seen these photos but in case you are not, this is how we rang in 2012; same as the last few, with a quick jaunt to St. Thomas. This time we had friends in tow and it was made all the more memorable with their presence.

I’m hoping to get my life together enough to start posting regularly again. Lots going on in the new apartment… off to dye some curtains. Happy New Year!

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Posted in friends and family, my life (personally speaking), photography, travel

paint stamped curtains

Posted on December 1, 2011 | 3 Comments

When we lived in Palo Alto I took an art class with this amazing abstract painter. I had to have been the only one who left each period with yellow and purple hair, paint embedded into my fingernails, paint streaking my jeans. I have no problem making a big old mess of myself.

I do, however, have a problem with plain white tab-topped curtains. And mini-blinds. The problem was that I had both: blinds in the kitchen and boring curtains in the Room Where Things Go To Die. I woke up on Sunday feeling exceptionally aggressive after a disastrous post-Thanksgiving dinner with my immediate family and needed to channel my energy into something. Anything! The curtains were screaming for attention, the mini-blinds were assaulting my otherwise coming-together kitchen and I had some blue paint and a red Solo cup.

So I tested a few stamps on some crappy stained white fabric. I liked it. Then I took my tab-topped curtains, ironed down the hems, and stitched a small seam so they wouldn’t be visible on a rod.

Next came newspapering my kitchen floor and laying my freshly ironed curtain down. And stamping. Stamping and stamping. I didn’t have much of a pattern in mind and thought I would do the whole thing until my wrist got tired and I realized how little paint I had.

I finished one and snapped a photo of it so I could check the pattern while stamping the second. Then I stared at it. Where in the hell was this thing going to sit to dry while I worked on the second piece? I left to buy– the horror– some tension rods and prayed it would be dry when I got back (Chicagoans, that K-Mart on Ashland and Milwaukee? Instant depression, stay away). It wasn’t. Where was it gonna go?

Onto the stove. I know this was probably dangerous, right? I couldn’t believe The Mister walked in without chastising me.

After three hours of drying, the first curtain was finally ready to be hung. It was too long. I half-heartedly measured before I started and I guess I got it way wrong.

So, I cut and hemmed. And wanted to cry a little.

Not many circles made it to the bottom. One of these days I’ll take them down to re-stamp. Why did I make it so short? My plants need sun, folks!

This is what they looked like around 5:30 in the morning on Tuesday. Don’t ask.

And there they are at night. Why the one on the left is leaning forward all weird is beyond me, I need to go adjust it. Also, flatware people: they’re up!

Overall, I’m satisfied. Not in love, but glad to not have to look at the mini-blinds. The tension rods pose the biggest problem but I don’t quite feel like drilling hardware into these walls just yet. We’ll see if I can stand them for a bit.

Sorry for the iPhone photos. My SLR isn’t behaving these days and I really just felt like blogging without waiting for some time to shoot the curtains in the daylight.

PS I took the cabinet doors off! The kitchen is my favorite room in the house these days.

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i ♥ humboldt park

Posted on November 16, 2011 | Leave a comment

Wants to swimGood morningMiddle of the city #chicago

Chicago, I love you.

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saturday, done: new bedroom in the new apartment

Posted on November 13, 2011 | 6 Comments

Hello, Sunday. You delicious day of rest, you.

I spent all day yesterday working on the apartment. Our previous unit, as you know, required a crazy amount of TLC and all we have to do here is pop stuff on walls and arrange tschotskes. It almost seems unfair and will surely give me less to blog about.

The landlord painted in our color of choice before we moved in–if you’re looking for a true gray paint, Gray Owl by Benjamin Moore is absolutely perfect– and since painting and repainting and spackling and stripping was one of the things that took up huge chunks of time in the old place, not having to do anything with the walls here is awesome.

The big project yesterday was hemming a pair of IKEA curtains I initially bought to replace our ugly kitchen blinds. I found them too dark for the only room in the house that gets really great light and decided to use them in the bedroom instead. Hesitant to use the IKEA iron-on hemming thingie, I’d put the project off for a month but finally decided to tackle it. They turned out perfect and even though I’m comfortable enough with my sewing machine to sew a hem, this was much easier and didn’t require me actually finding my sewing machine pedal in one of the boxes we’ve yet to unpack.

As with most old-school Chicago apartments, our bedroom is crazy small. This is the left side of the room, a print of The Mister’s from Nigeria above the bed in lieu of a proper headboard. I’m on the hunt for something that will work in such a small space but not holding my breath. The lamp is from my mother-in-law and I wish the photograph showed it in all it’s glory. The top is paper and the bottom wood. Speaking of wood, I love all of the woodwork in this unit; it’s rare to find it not painted over these days.

And here we have the opposite side of the room. The dresser extends all the way to the wall on the right side and next to that is a closet without a door. Tiny, huh? Since moving back to Chicago from California I almost prefer small bedrooms. They feel cave-like and cozy.

The only thing I’m not keen on in this room is the side table. I contemplated spray painting it the way I did the dresser but thought it would look a little too fun house-y. Add side table to my hunting list. Happily, everything in the room, save for the bed and bedding and curtains, was thrifted or Craigslisted. I’m sure I’ll happen upon a table in the same way.

So what do you think of the bedroom so far? Side table suggestions? A shape I should be on the lookout for that would compliment the dresser?

PS Wonky internet. The story of this apartment’s life and what I am blaming, at least partially, my lack of blogging on lately. For some reason the wireless signal doesn’t hold up well on the back porch and that is where I like to sit and type, especially on November nights like tonight, over sixty degrees with gusts of tropical-feeling Windy City winds. But I can barely get my email to load out here. We’ll work on a fix for that this week ’cause I miss my little corner of the internet. How I only have two bars less than twenty feet from my Airport is beyond me.

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Posted in my NEW apartment, thrifted vintage love

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hello there, part 2

Posted on October 22, 2011 | 2 Comments

Hung these hooks today. Took way longer than it should have.

New hooks! They’re hung! There’s two sharp screw bottoms peeking out of our bathroom door! They are a hazard! Don’t come to my house and trip and fall into them and bust your eye. Seriously, why did I not think about my long screws and my thin door? Ah. I will just hang art with them. Cause I am definitely not re-hanging these bad boys.

Waiting on @okjey. Coffee time on the porch.

Can you tell I have been drinking lots and lots and lots of coffee lately? I have. Because life is busy! It’s so busy! Between work being insane, new house nonsense, yoga once a week, being knee-deep in baby shower planning, plus dressing and feeding and clothing myself and the occasional night out with friends, I am just at a loss. Is fall always this crazy? I think it is. I think you come off the calm and lushness and loveliness and humidness and hot-time-summer-in-the-cityness of August into this psychotic season of apples and pumpkins and everyone moving fast and wanting things from you and the dog needs to be walked even though it is cold and dark outside and you have to go from a freezing bus stop onto a hot and crowded bus and your head hurts and your new boots don’t feel right and that stupid sweater that looked so cute in the dressing room is all itchy now and you come home and all you want to do is read a book under the covers and hibernate until May.

Waiting not so patiently for his dinner

Needs. This guy has needs. Like dinner. And bathroom time. Why does everyone need something from me?

Because it is fall now, not summer. And let me tell you: it is going to get worse because by the looks of my local thrift store, Christmas is right around the damn corner and that means I will be breaking out the sewing machine for it’s annual month week of use so I can be looked at adoringly by my friends and family after presenting them with something all cute and homemade that they will never use. Needs. Those gifts they will never even remove from the trunk they stowed them in before the drive home from the Christmas party are needs.

Little red Wisconsin barn #midwestisbest

Oh, calm down already. There is a barn for you to gaze upon. In Wisconsin. Where people move slower and drive old trucks down quiet lanes.

PS I got a really neat houseplant today, it is huge.

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Posted in my life (personally speaking), my NEW apartment

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hello there

Posted on October 11, 2011 | 9 Comments

This is a stream-of-consciousness post due to exhaustion.

I took pictures of friends over the weekend. Baby bump couple pictures. It was incredibly fun. Then I felt my friend’s baby move. Beautiful and powerful and scary and insane; it made me feel female in a very raw and aggressive way. Like: Warrior Female, look what her body can do! I hope to share some of the pics with you soon.

I want to make ikat curtains. Here is how I want to do it. Navy blue.

Trash pick-up day cannot come soon enough. I’m sitting on the back porch facing our alley wondering where that box of Nag Champa I haven’t used in years is hiding.

While I am impressed with the amount of people who do do this, I always wonder why everyone doesn’t offer their seats to pregnant women and the elderly on public transit? I’m going to start calling people out. Hope I don’t end up on World Star.

I am loving Boardwalk Empire this season. And Project Free TV for allowing me to see it. We got rid of our TVs in the move. Well, they’re in the Room Where Things Go To Die until further notice. I enjoy being without it but have a problem when in places that have a television. Shit is like a drug. My eyes glaze over and I am transported into another realm. Even when what is on the television is football. A sport I don’t get. At all.

From my sister’s Facebook wall: Today is National Coming Out Day. I never had to do it. My family already knew. And accepted me for me. You cant change who we are. To all my Homos out there stay strong and proud. #soHomo I cried a little when I read it.

The Mister has joined Instagram. That’s the new living room.

Has anyone else thought Modern Love has been sucking the last month or so? You should submit something.

Adidas Adilette sandals are the most comfortable houseshoes ever. Everyone should have a pair in lieu of slippers. You can wear them with socks!

I ate foie gras today. I felt a little guilty afterwards, as I always do whenever its richness crosses my lips. I was a vegetarian for a long time. I now eat meat and work in a restaurant that serves foie from Hudson Valley Farms. It’s delicious. And maybe not much different from meat you buy in the grocery store– possibly even treated more humanely.

That’s my update for today. Have a good one, folks. xxoo.

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Posted in my life (personally speaking)

when i have a cold

Posted on October 1, 2011 | 7 Comments

My mom was terrified of sickness. Any kind. If we were tossing our cookies in the bathroom, she was as far away as she could get, probably covering her mouth and nose and ears to avoid the sounds and scents. Ew. If I had the flu or a cold and was sent home from school I could count on her to buy me a pink box of Kleenex and a coloring book or a new Barbie, depositing them to me in my room and leaving the throw-up clean up or medicine dispensation to my dad. Later, after my parents divorce, my body seemed to sense her fear and I almost only got sick on the at-Dad’s-house weeks. This is not to say my mom was not a caring woman, or that she didn’t take care of us when it was necessary; she shuttled me to doctor’s appointments and was there holding my hand when I got my first IV for dehydration and she took my temperature so many times throughout that night that it was impossible to sleep. But if being around a sick person could be avoided, she tried her best to.

I’m the same way. And I am sick. Minus allergy attacks, for the first time in three years.

At work I get made fun of for being a little bit… um, mean… when sickness is around. I don’t want sick people using my phone, touching my computer or the doorknob to my office or breathing too close to my face. I am not the friend that is going to come by and take care of you when you’re hacking up phlegm or hot with fever. I will drop off soup and make you stand ten feet away; I’m not coming in and making it for you. If you’re drunk I will surely hold your hair back in a bar bathroom but if you have a stomach bug I will not unless there are gloves and face masks involved. I am terrified of being sick, of not being able to work, of forced movie watching or book reading or plain old sitting around with myself and my thoughts. So I stay the hell away when people around me are inflicted. This time, however, it was The Mister whose cold I caught. As hard as I may try, there is no staying away from him. It’s not his suave-ness or fantastic personality that keeps me close– though I do appreciate those traits– it’s that we only have one bed and I can’t sleep in a SARS mask.

So here we are, sick and annoyed on a Saturday morning. The only consolation is that I got to skip my dental appointment scheduled for 10am. I can feel the yuckies leaving my body and hope to be better by tomorrow. Here’s what I do when I am sick, or on the verge. I usually can stop it before it starts but that didn’t work out so well this time.

1. I drink cayenne pepper. A tablespoon in three fingers of hot water, taken like a shot every three or four hours during the onset. This has helped me avoid colds countless times, even when I already feel that tell-tale tingling of the throat. In a day or so it usually goes away. Wasn’t so lucky this time.
2. Vitamin C like crazy. I know folks say that Vitamin C is a placebo and doesn’t work too well but I’ve found it to be very effective. I take 4,000 mgs when I start to feel bad and 2,000 every few hours after.
3. Echinacea. I usually start taking echinacea daily in the winter months or when people around me are sick. I half blame my getting sick on not being able to find the bottle I brought over when we moved.
4. Garlic. Whole fresh cloves, chewed and swallowed.
5. More cayenne.
6. Water. Really hot water. I read somewhere that water as hot as you can stand it chugged quickly and often kills bacteria or something in your throat. I have no idea if this is true but it feels really good going down.
7. Lime. Added to all water, hot or cold.
8. Honey.
9. Theraflu. The liquid kind, day and night versions. Nothing else seems to work as well and it tastes really freaking good.
10. More cayenne.
11. Kate B made me a hot toddy with Maker’s Mark for my bus ride home yesterday. I put it in my to go coffee cup and sipped it. She even had a stick of cinnamon and fancy lemon rinds in there! I’m lucky I have friends to take care of me even though I’m a sick a**hole who hasn’t done the same.

So there you have it. I’m already coughing up good stuff, which I think is an indicator that the germs are leaving my poor little body. What about you? It’s cold season. Have any tips for avoiding the sickies?

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Posted in my life (personally speaking)

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