DIY Christmas Decorations

I'm not particularly creative, but when I saw this idea on Pinterest, I thought, heck, I can do that! I love it so much, that I figured I'd blog it in case anyone else wants to do it. Also, and more likely, so that I can remind myself how easy it was for Christmases in the future!

First, you need to gather your supplies: 

Literally, just ribbon (mine is from Sam's club, and is wired and covered in Glitter), scissors, and tape.  Here's an interesting note here: if you don't mind glitter all over your kitchen, glitter ribbon is great. If you're a clean freak: steer clear of the glitter. My counters, stovetop, and floor are covered in glitter!

Next, use the ribbon to determine how long you need it. I just had enough to wrap maybe 2 inches along the back of the cabinet at the top and bottom. 

Cut to size, then tape, yes, tape, the ribbon to the cabinet. That's it. Another note here: I'm one of the least OCD people you'll meet, and I also have a terrible time deciding if things are straight or centered. If you are a little more OCD, the project may take a longer time, or you may want to just not do it. 

Another note, please be more intelligent than I am. In the process of cutting my first ribbon, I also cut the skin between my thumb and first finger (you know, that really skinny part?). I had to rush to the bathroom to stop the bleeding and grab a band-aid. I'm a klutz, so I'm sure that won't happen to you. 

Next step: gather your cards and something to attach them. Right now, I have all of 3 Christmas cards. So I picked them up and used paper clips. The pin I found had super cute clothespins, which is great also, but I had paperclips, so that's what I used. 

Attach the cards and you're done!! Here's my final project;

I love it! The husband: "mmmhmmm. Lovely." Drenched in sarcasm of course, as he is a grinch in regards to decorations. He's also a bit on the OCD side, so we'll see how many times I am asked to adjust the ribbon!

Happy decorating! 

Wild Friday Nights

D & I are definitely not of the partytilthebreakofdawn type. Both of us prefer calm, small gatherings, and being in bed before the next day starts. (Many days this week, I've fallen asleep on the couch before 10:00, and on Wednesday I said I was going to go to bed in a few minutes, but was persuaded not to because it wasn't yet 8:30.)

Tonight has really not been an exception to that rule (hence me blogging away while he showers at 8:30). However, it has been crazy exciting. Let me tell you why:

Our basement is freezing cold in the winter, but we only have gas logs that cost us an absolute fortune to run. D's Nama has a wood stove she's looking to get rid of, and is willing to give it to us for the small fee of getting the monster price of iron out of her home. Being the newlyweds with a home and me still 2 weeks shy of my first full time paycheck since 7/2012, we LOVE free things that will save us money. 

Unfortunately, a previous owner has sealed up the chimney. They used to have a wood stove, and got rid of it for the gas logs we can't afford to use. Tonight, largely due to the fact that the leaves are changing in freaking August and it was cool enough for me to wear pants and long sleeves to work in the flower bed this afternoon, D decide to do the initial measuring for and locating of the chimney pipe. He enlisted my assistance, and it was my job to hold the beginning of the measuring tap at a particular spot. 

I did a great job on the exterior of the house. 

On the interior is when things got interesting. 

The point of reference for me to hold my end of the measuring tape up to was the corner of the basement window. When I reached up and moved aside the curtain, a bat came flying out. 

A.  Freaking. Bat

In. My. Basement. 

I squealed. I ducked. My hubby may have let out an expletive or two. All the while the bat was flying circles around the basement. I ran, ducking, to the door, left it open, and hid behind the storm door, holding it open and praying that the stupid nasty thing would fly out. D was attempting to hit it with his hat, and missing. 

D went out of sight, and then shouted, "I got it!" Sure enough, it was lying on the carpet and immobile. He had knocked it out of the air with a level. I was thoroughly  impressed. 

Then we had to decide what to do with the thing. My suggestion: beat it to sure death with the shovel. D felt like bat blood would be gross on the carpet. I felt like a room full of new carpet because we killed the bat was a valid monetary sacrifice. I also suggested that bat blood on the carpet was preferable to a round of rabies vaccinations (in case you don't know, they're gross, painful, and include giant needles).  We decided to scoop it up with the snow shovel. It started crawling. We then decided to cover it with the snow shovel and scoop it up with the regular shovel. It started flying. Again. (I'd like to note here that the reason we had these tools close at hand is because I kept picking up things to protect myself with; and that by we deciding, I stood cowering while he acted out our decisions.)

After another series of squeals from me because the stupid thing was at large again, D made a masterful swing with the shovel, knocked the bat into the wall, and it fell into D's open tote box of Legos.

He then drug the box outside, picked up the Lego mat the bat was on, and dumped it out on the other side of our fence, in the woods. 

Thank freaking goodness. 

We got back to our project, only after D made a thorough check of the window for more bats. He proceeded to cut a couple of fairly large holes in the Sheetrock & insulation, exposing the concrete and no chimney pipe. But at least we don't have a bat inside anymore!

Like I said, we don't do big party nights. That doesn't mean we have boring ones!

Oh, and here's a picture of one of our dogwood trees. Its leaves are changing colors already. I'm highly upset about it. I dislike fall because it means it will be cold soon, and I hate the cold. It's a pretty picture though!

Dishwasher Disaster

If you had talked to me early Friday morning, I was gearing up for a lazy weekend with my husband, with a few errands and work related tasks sprinkled through.

If you had talked to me Friday afternoon, I was gearing up for a full Saturday of husband-less errands and chores and a completely lazy Sunday enjoying having him home from his 16-hr shift on Saturday.

If you talk to me today?  Neither was the case.

On Friday evening, D & I enjoyed a mediocre dinner at a local restaurant of fame.  Not sure what had been going on in the kitchen, but D's Bostonzone had 2, count em TWO pieces of chicken in it.  My small pepperoni & cheese calzone turned out to be an ENORMOUS pepperoni, ham, & mozzarella-with-a-giant-glob-of-ricotta-in-the-middle calzone.  Throughout dinner our topic of conversation was whether or not he should go out of town to work on Saturday.  Pro:  16 hrs of overtime.  Con: 16 hrs of work on a Saturday.  We reached the verdict that he would go, because who are we to turn down that kind of cash?

(Sidenote: the money he would have earned on Saturday was more than I made all week...in the most hours in a week I'd worked all year)

When we returned home, I was unloading my dishwasher, which had done a terrible job washing the dishes.  Half the load was being placed back in the sink to be washed again.  As I unloaded the last pieces, I noticed, to my horror, that the bottom of the washer was full of dingy water.  GROSS.

So we had plans to fix the washer.  D checked the hose and found nothing.  He ran his hands down along the bottom checking for clogs.  Nothing.  He called his dad.  Advice: put some Drano in it and run the rinse cycle again.

Here's the key point here:  Drano + dishwasher = disaster.  After about 5 minutes of rinse cycle, we had bubbles pouring out of our dishwasher.  Top, sides, bottom of the door.  Bubbles.  Laughing, we cleaned the chlorine reeking mess.  D's Mr. Fix-it advice to me, "Don't open the door.  Dad & I will fix it on Sunday.  It's a good thing I'm working tomorrow; we might need a new dishwasher."

Cool.

So we go to bed, and at 11:30 (yes, 11:30 PM, after a glorious 1.5 hrs of sleep), D's out of town boss calls and decides he does not indeed need to work Saturday.  Pro: D is home all day.  Con: we still need that cash I'd already mentally spent.

So here comes Saturday.  I had already planned a mega trip to Sam's Club.  I asked if D wanted to come along.  He said sure, and why didn't we just go look at dishwashers, too.  Several hours later, we made it to Lowe's, Sears, Home Depot, another Lowe's, and Sam's Club.  We also had made the decision to just buy a dishwasher rather than fix the one we had.  Besides, I had broken the soap dispenser months ago and it wasn't apparently, even really cleaning our dishes.  It rinsing them with the soap and then washing them with just water.  Gross.  Again.

So, by the end of Saturday, we had bought a dishwasher (this one, on sale), loaded it, ran it, went out to dinner with D's parents, and returned home to a washer full of clean, shiny dishes.

What kind of adventures did you have over the weekend?

Oh, and a public service announcement: Per the Lowe's guy - never put Drano in your dishwasher, it eats your seals.  So even if we had fixed it, we may have had water running out of it the next time we ran it anyway.  So don't do that, unless you want your husband to buy a new dishwasher.

Another public service announcement: When your husband is using his shop vac to get the Drano out of the dishwasher, it'll spew the bubbles out all over your refrigerator.  He'll laugh at you as you clean that up.

Fall Crafting

Do y'all know it's fall? I don't think Mother Nature does. Today it was 79 degrees. Mondays forecast is a high of 39 with a chance of snow. What the heck?

All the leaves here sure are changing though, which gave me a kick in the butt to finally make my fall wreath. I didn't take pictures of the process (I usually never take pictures), but I so have a final product pic!

1. Travel to your local craft store looking for a wreath form. Decide the styrofoam one isn't big enough and buy the much bigger straw one. While there, pick up VT inspired maroon yarn, white polka dot ribbon, and orange polka dot ribbon.

2. Have your husband choose a show you care nothing about. (For me, I believe it was Gold Rush and whatever that show is about the people who live in Alaska as homesteaders.)

3. Start wrapping your wreath with ribbon. If you are OCD, this will take days. For me, it took about 2 hrs.

4. Figure out how to use the ribbon to make a loop for hanging. This involves a lot of knots and glue, especially if you don't want to cut more yarn. (What can I say, I am a lazy crafter.)

5. Wrap the thin ribbon around the wreath in a circle, glue to the back of the wreath. Then use the thicker wire ribbon to wrap around and make a bow.

6. Display proudly, supporting your fave college football team, also serving as a daily reminder that you are a grad student behind on class.

Have fun in the fall!

Pinterest Let Down :(

Today, I was let down by Pinterest. TWICE. I am so shocked.

My first Pinterest attempt was a pumpkin carved to look like a minion from Despicable Me. It looked super cute, and the caption said that when the candle was lit, it would glow like the lovable little evil lair factory workers. This happens to be one of our favorite movies, so I thought it was perfect!

This. Is. Not. Perfect.

In fact, the pumpkin is so thick that the only light you see is in the tiny mouth. I attached a picture of it, notably not glowing. In fact, I used the flash so you would see more than the little sliver of a mouth.

D thinks that if I shave off some more of the inside, making the wall thinner, and hopefully making it glow.

We'll see.

So on to disappointment number 2. I discovered a quick and easy kielbasa and potatoes recipe, which somehow I had all the ingredients for.

SCORE. Not.

While the food was wonderful, and we will be keeping this one for cold weather days (It was 80 degrees today, y'all. It's Late October!)

So, where does the let down come from? I ruined a pan. Like, as soon as I took it out of the oven, I knew the pan was a goner. Somehow, I feel like whoever originally pinned it should have said, "Hey, make sure you line the pan, or you will lose it." I will be editing my comment for that one!

Oh well, live and learn, right?

What Pinterest ideas have you implemented that have disappointed you?