Bird House Painting

Yay! Day off today!

My favorite thing to do on my days off is sit on my balcony and paint things.

Even when it's a blazing 90 degree day. I like it when it's really hot, though...it reminds me of the tropics. Sort of. And when I sweat, it makes me feel like whatever I'm doing is worth my time. Haha.

Anyway, do you remember this bird house?:
Well, today it's getting a paint job.

The cool thing about painting when it's so hot out is that the paint dries super quick.
Anyway, I'm on a mega grey kick lately.

And blue.......I don't know WHAT is going on with that, I have always sworn that blue would never be my color and it never has been. And then something happened. I don't know what, but it has to be related to something. Although I usually have a new favorite color about every 3-4 months or so, and maybe I was just tiring of the rotation that I had going over the past 5 or 6 years.

So now I like blue. Mostly slate and aqua colors. Not primary blue, though. I should mention that the bird house was blue until about 5 months ago, when I started this project, and before my blue liking. I need to finish it today because I have about 13 projects going on and I'm trying to get them all done before things get packed up (when we move.) And Joe will be happy to see that I actually FINISHED something, since I get bored with things and move onto new ideas rather frequently.

Anyway, what's new with you? Not a lot here. It's 10:33 AM and I feel like I haven't gotten anything done. I'm going to the nursery to get food for my garden and then I'm getting vinegar and lemons so I can clean Joe's bathroom. Remember, he's the organizer and I'm the cleaner. Which is kind of good but kind of bad because I sort of get the short end of the stick...cleaning takes WAY longer than organizing.

6 Random things:
+I love spicy food.
+I can't wait to have a dog.
+I have never been able to touch my toes.
+I make up songs every morning and sing them to Joe.
+I hate playing softball and basketball but I love playing hockey and soccer.
+I'm listening to Disco Radio on Pandora. I like Disco because it's easy to dance to.

Okay, your turn.

If I Had a Nice Sunny Room...

Having a sun room or even a 3-season room is a dream I've had as long as I can remember. There's something about sunny spaces that don't have a television in them...somewhere that I can lounge and relax and sip on a seasonal beverage while reading a magazine. I'm not big on novels, so I resort to reading magazine articles and blogs. But if I did like to read long books, I would most definitely want to do so in a warm and sunny room.

So, if I had this house, I'd want to decorate the front entry with these items:

Sources:
IKEA
+KARLSTAD Chaise. White: $349
+DRACAENA MARGINATA Plant: $4
+HAVTORN VASE: $13 each
WORLD MARKET
+Purple Terra Cotta Plaques. Set of 4: $40
URBAN OUTFITTERS
+Weathered Wood Jewelry Cabinet: $36
CB2
+Overnight Table Lamp: $30
+Chirp Pillow: $25
WEST ELM
+Channel-Rib Pillow Cover: $24 each
POTTERY BARN
+Moorish Rug, 5x8, sold out at PB but available on eBay: $290
ETSY
+Circles Table by Michael Arras: $499

TOTAL: About $1400 after shipping charges.

Links to come.

Well it's about time to get ready for work. Our phones have been down for 5 days now and it's a real drag. It's slowing down business and screwing things up left and right- one guy said that he thought Rutabaga closed up shop. Fingers crossed that it all gets fixed today.

2:00. Thursday.

So I'm sitting on my couch, reading the news, and suddenly there is a ladder being propped up against my balcony. Um, okay...I didn't get any sort of notice from the apartment management, so I wasn't really sure what was going on. Before I know it, there are 3 men on my balcony. Okay, for one, I was in the middle of a project (on my balcony) and was about to go back out to work on it some more. And two, what the heck is going on? They were up here for about 40 minutes, installing a new vent cover. But what the heck...aren't they supposed to give me some sort of notice? I don't know, I just didn't think it was very cool. What if I was laying on the couch naked or something? Maybe I just have a thing with boundaries.
Anyway, I'll add it to my list of reasons why I can't wait till we no longer rent.

+++++++++++++

I found this house the other day on a realty site. It's in Mazomanie, though. And Mazomanie is far far away from Monona, which is where I work. I wouldn't mind the drive as much as the maintenance on a car being driven 60 miles (roundtrip) each day.

Originally I thought Mazomanie would be okay, because it's only about 14 miles away from the place I work during the non-Rutabaga season. But then when I went to said place the other day for a rehire event, things didn't go quite as I'd hoped, and I can't say that I'm too happy about it. I can't go into detail for various reasons, but I'm a little peeved.

So I already decided how I would decorate this house if it was mine. But chances are we wont even look at it since it's so far from work. It's too bad that the houses in Madison don't meet enough of my requirements. Mainly because of our price range (we're being pretty frugal with it, I suppose) but also because a lot of the houses don't have a big enough yard. If I can throw a baseball across the length of the yard with my left arm, then it's too small.

PS, I'm right handed.

Well I have to go get a new tire from Firestone now. I've been putting that off for most of the day. I went earlier and there were a ton of people there so I left.

OH and guess who's back? 2 of the 3 guys. No joke. Off I go before I break some skulls.

Hello everyone!

I have the day off today. Usually on my days off I get up with Joe (I'm sure I've said that a million times on here. but I don't read my own blog and don't remember the things I've told you! I'm sure that's obvious by now...I probably repeat myself a lot.) Anyway, yeah- I usually slide out of bed at 6:30, day off or not, which I think is a great time to get up. I like to make coffee while Joe is in the shower and then I make my oatmeal, too. Then he leaves, I go online for longer than I care to admit, and then I finally decide that the day needs to start. Well I have been dragging a bit (still trying to catch up from a camping trip) for the past week and I decided to stay in bed this morning when Joe woke me up. So when I woke up the second time, I looked at my phone (which is the only clock in my room) and it was 10:30. WHAT?! So I knew I was tired, but not that tired. Normally I'd feel like it was a waste of a day if that had happened, but I must have needed the sleep.

Anyway, onto better things. I found a millipede on my camping trip, right before we were about to leave. Don't mind the obnoxious plastic bag in the background. We were camping with other people. Enough said....

So that was the first video I've ever made. I'm sure you could tell by my mad video taking and editing skillz. Just what I needed...another thing to stall the start of my day. Video making.

This post went in a completely different direction than I had anticipated, so more later. Maybe tomorrow? For now I need to do some stuff.

So the bird problem continues. I'm about to slingshot that damn thing. Not really...but if I didn't have a heart I would. My garden was getting nice and tall and now it's shrinking. I put CDs out there but they aren't afraid of shiny things like I thought they might be. Any recommendations?

I saw this house on a real estate site and thought it was cool...the windows! OH man those windows are perfect. So hopefully the Realtor calls me sometime today. Then I realized that we are leaving town on Monday, so we either have to go look at the place today or in 2 weeks when I can get off work. I vote today. We'll see. I'm not a kitchen island type of person, but this one is pretty sweet.
Okay well off to work I go. See you later!

We Can Do This For Real Now

Joe just called to tell me that we were approved for a loan for a house!

So we knew we'd be approved, but we just didn't know how much we'd be approved for.

I was happy to hear that the amount was much higher than we were hoping for, so we'll be in a super safe range when we finally purchase.

We're meeting with a Realtor soon and then we'll go from there.

Yay!

Now onto something that made me really mad last night...I came home and Joe kind of looked at me like he had something to tell me but didn't want to tell me. Then he finally said "look what the birds did to your garden."

And so I looked.

This shot was taken about a week before the bird problem started...
And then the bird thing happened...
AAAH the damn thing ripped my pepper plants to shreds! Luckily I had brought in my other plants the night before because it got really windy and a couple of the plants aren't stable enough for the wind yet.

So now I have CDs all over my balcony, in hopes that shiny things will scare them away for good.

I'm peeved.

Requirements for a House

Hi there!

Today is my day off, and the only one I will be able to enjoy from home for quite some time. The last time I had a day off I was traveling and the next stint of days we will be traveling again. So nothing will get done around the apartment, but I'm okay with that.

I planned on building some homes for the hideous 5 gallon buckets that currently adorn my balcony, but I forgot to charge the battery for the saw. So I moved onto a different project, but now I'm waiting for paint to dry...so I decided that maybe I should blog.

I haven't taken any photos lately, so I'm pulling some from my ever-growing inspiration folder.

Joe and I can't wait to live in a house. It feels like it's been so long that we've been wishing this. We're in our 4th year of apartment living and have spent almost $40,000 on rent. We are so ready to be done with it! It will happen, soon, but still feels so far away. Our goal is to be in house by September/October. But since I'm picky, we'll probably end up looking at lots of houses before finding the right one.

My top 10 wants for a house, in no order:

1. A big yard. With some privacy. That thins out our options quite a bit.
2. A garage...I can't wait to have a garage! I already have a color theme picked out and have been collecting tools, boxes, etc in those colors so I can get to work right when we move in. And I don't want the garage connected to the house, if possible, for various reasons.
3. A dressing room...wishful thinking, I suppose.
4. A kitchen AND dining room. I have a huge "table in kitchen" pet peeve.
5. A sunroom...more wishful thinking.
6. A window in the bathroom.
7. Wood floors.
8. Somewhere that I won't hear the damn highway all the time.
9. Two bathrooms, because I've gotten used to having my own. Semi-wishful thinking.
10. Lots of windows.

Here's a nice garage. I like the floor and potting bench! Joe and I have different opinions on what the garage should be used for. I vote tools, etc. He votes car housing. I suppose we could do BOTH but only if the garage is big enough. So I guess we'll need a 2 car garage.


And here is my ideal dressing room. Except I'd have 5 hooks.

When I work at American Girl in the fall and winter, I have to wear nice clothes. It would save me a heap of time in the morning if I was able to hang things and make them look pretty in advance. I have this idea that every Sunday I would get my clothes all ready and ironed and hung, waiting for the week to come. And then when I got home, I could rehang my stuff right away. This would be a lot better than my current situation, which is: run around frantically trying to find things to layer. Putting on and taking off about 6 different ensembles, mismatching here and there, until I finally shuffle my way into something that matches and layers well. Only to realize that it's wrinkled (since I never hang my clothes after work, but put them in the "clean, don't wash, don't touch (Joe)" pile instead) and maybe a quick fluff in the dryer might help. And then forgetting where I put the necklace I want to wear and the shoes that I swore were sitting by the door last night. I somehow manage to make it to work on time, but if I had 5 pretty hooks and a floor length mirror, I would be so much better off. So that's why I need a dressing room.

(as always, i don't know where those images are from. i'm one of those people who is highly unorganized even though i go through great lengths to get things just so...aaah!)

UGH this damn bird keeps coming on my balcony and yanking the leaves off my tomato plant! I have watched her do it 3 times today...no wonder that one doesn't seem to be growing! Is that normal? And there's bird shit ALL OVER my balcony. I hope it rains so it washes off, because my downstairs neighbor probably doesn't want water all over their stuff for no reason (although I have never seen them outside before...so maybe I don't even HAVE a downstairs neighbor.)

Okay well Joe gets home in 20 minutes, so it's time to speed clean the apartment.

Busy Day

Last Friday was a busy day for us. We both took the day off work and filled our day with lots of fun activities.

It started off with breakfast at the Pancake Cafe in Fitchburg.
They have REALLY great coffee (Hawaiian Kona blend) and the menu had lots of options.
I'm a banana + pecan person, so of course I had to try the pancakes.
They were okay...
The cool thing is that the Pancake Cafe serves maple syrup rather than that nasty melted plasticy goop stuff that most restaurants serve.
(I'm a syrup snob...I wont eat it unless it's real!)

After breakfast, we headed over to my work and took out a canoe.
[photo filtered by sunglasses]

Joe was pretty excited to make his first catch of the year.
[so excited that his hat was pretty wonky for the picture.]
Then we came home and planted the rest of our salsa garden.
[pretend there is a garden photo here...not ready yet]

And after a brief nap, we went to a get together at Zor Shrine.
[there was a really cool band called the Cajun Strangers that played.]
And then we came home and went to bed.
I worked the next morning so I had to be sure to rest up.

And now my backspace button doesn't work so I'm going to stop typing before I get too angry at the stupid thing.

Sunday

Today I rearranged part of my bedroom.
See details of the items in the photo here.

Tomorrow I might post about what we did on Friday, but for now I'm going to drink coffee.

I hope you had a good weekend!

Tuesday.

Pretty neat project.
I still have to choose my 3 places. Although I won't be able to contribute $50 to each one, I'm going to aim for $20.
++++++++++++++

Today I start work at 11:30 and work till 8:00. So that gives me some time to clean up my studio/office/dump-everything-on-the-floor room.

I want the room to be a place I can hang out in and not have to listen to the television. I, for some reason, am super sensitive to the loudness of the tv and I know it drives Joe nuts. It's gotten to the point that all I have to do is glance over at the tv and then look back at what I'm doing and he knows that it's too loud. Pretty lame, I know. But whatever.

So now that the huge obnoxious computer desk is FINALLY gone and not taking up half my closet in there, I can start getting my screen printing area ready.

You know what's going to happen, though...we're going to move right when I get everything just so (because I'm quite a just-so person) and then I'm not going to touch the stuff for a year. Again. Just like last time.

Remember this? That was 2 years ago. Geez.

So anyway, we'll see what I end up doing in that room. I have about an hour of free time before work, so off I go.

I'm home. It's Friday. I work in 2 hours.

I got home from the canoe trip yesterday around 2:30. Although I was exhausted and a bit on edge by the end, it was a great time and I gathered a lot of useful information. I suppose I picked a bad time to cut my caffeine intake and quickly pressed 3 cups of damn strong coffee when I got home...

The group consisted of myself and 10 coworkers (that word looks funny to me).

We paddled a short stint of the Wisconsin River between Mazomanie and Lone Rock, stopping to set up camp both nights.

We also stopped at various areas to eat and hang out for a bit.

The overcast sky was nice, but this sandbar would have made for an even better picnic if it had been sunny and less windy! It looks like an island but there is actually water between those trees and the sand even though you can't tell from the photo.

The area on the way to Tower Hill State Park was pretty neat, despite the fact that everything we wanted to do there ended up being closed. That was okay though, it was nice to get out and take a quick hike to the top.

So yeah, I had a pretty good time. When Joe got home from work he wanted to hear all about it so I showed him the few photos that I took and told him a few stories (and vented a bit) and now he's pretty stoked about doing something similar.

When I had my interview at Rutabaga and was later offered the job, Joe and I decided that we were going to get a canoe or 2 kayaks (and everything that goes along with that sort of thing) this summer, since it would be an opportune time to do so. But about 2 months ago when we heard about the tax credit for first time home buyers, that thought pretty much flew out the window since we are in "must. buy. house." mode. I'm hoping that we will be able to pinch a bit of cash out of that fund because I know that we would have a great time for years to come and I feel like it would be stupid not to buy a boat right now (which is kind of like the house thing...) All I have to do is convince Joe that it's the right thing to do, which is the only roadblock in this situation. Damn houses and their downpayments! Oh well. One day we will have both luxuries and I can't wait for that.

What are you up to this weekend? I'm not sure what we're going to do on Sunday but I have the day off and I want to be sure to do something fun. You'll probably hear all about it if we do.

Monday Morning

These are probably 2 of the grossest photos I've ever taken, but whatever.

Yesterday we made fish tacos for dinner.
If you have ever been to a restaurant with me, you know how much I love fish tacos.
I order them every chance I get, trying to find the best in town.

Most of the time fish tacos don't come with cheese, but since I have a hardcore addiction to it, I always add it on.

Joe (along with about 80% of the population) always says YUCK to fish tacos.
I have to admit that the first time I had heard the term I was thoroughly disgusted as well.
My manager made them one day when I used to work at Chili's, even though they weren't on the menu. He told me that I had to try one. After I folded my face in a funny direction a few times, I finally ate one. And it was awesome. To be honest, it was the best fish tacos I've had to date.

So last night, after about 2 years of talking about how great these things were, I told Joe that we were having them for dinner. That was after he said "no way" to tuna pitas (one of my favorite quick-foods), so I really didn't think he was going to go for it since he always looks at me in dismay when I say "fish" and "taco" in the same sentence.

But he was on board and even wanted to help me make them.
The thing about Joe is that has one of the weakest taste bud systems I know of, so he only had fish and cheese in his tortilla...and to me that's not a fish taco, because it's the sauce that makes it what it is. But he liked it and I wont catch any slack at restaurants anymore now that he knows these things have a particular awesomeness to them.
This is the recipe I used. I didn't add mayo to the sauce in hopes that Joe would try it...but he didn't. I also went to the grocery store for a lime and forgot to buy a lime, so I had to improvise. I made quite a stretch and reached for pineapple rum. Initially I was just going to skip that part, but after I tasted the sauce I knew I wasn't going to get away with that. I used lettuce rather than cabbage because I couldn't find cabbage at the grocery store the other day. And I added pico, because it's one of the best foods ever.
(okay, so i like all kinds of food...)

Then I took the garbage out and noticed that the air was perfect for a walk.
So I ran upstairs and got my raincoat and took a walk.
And then I got home and finished this piece:
And took a photo of it when it was dark outside, which I never do, but since this piece isn't for sale it's okay.
I miss making things and I want to start again. I hope that can happen soon, but I'm doubtful. I haven't been able to cross much off my list.
I can say that I've been working on #4, #14 and #19, but that's as far as I've gotten and I wrote that list 3 months ago to the day.

Well tomorrow I will cross #12 off because I'm going on a canoe trip with these people, plus a few others.

Well it's time to go. I hope you had a good weekend! Do you like fish tacos? I've heard they are big in California and I think that the main reason they are popular here in Wisconsin is because fish tacos have fried fish, and if you've ever been here, you know how much we (stereotypically speaking) like our fish fry.