Why I needed to paint the hallway

I don't think our place had been painted for at least 10 years before we moved in, and it seriously showed. Not to mention that our landlord's idea of a 'nice colour' was high-gloss pinkish-offwhite. And along the way, there have definitely been tenants who smoke inside.


this photo demonstrates the difference between the 'white' of the ceiling and the new white. It's no particular colour, just pure white ceiling paint.

The hallway, ready to get started. Note the shiny walls and bad carpet.

I painted today, will post photos and an updated list tomorrow. For now, I need to go shower.

To Do.

I have been feeling very boring lately. Funny, how as soon as I start a blog, I run out of things to say.

Most every day, I make a to-do list. usually, on the kitchen whiteboard. Having a list helps my abysmal memory and ridiculously short attention span, and crossing things off feels good.

In Lieu of something insightful or beautiful, here is my to-do list this week:

1. order transcripts for anthropology elective and have them sent to the university so that they don't kick me out of nursing school.
   
2. Buy dog food.
3. Clean out storage closet, put up a craigslist ad or two. (fake Christmas tree, anyone?)
   
4. 'Mow' the 'lawn'*, buy and pot a plant or two, stick solar lights in ground.
5. Do something about the caterpillar tents in the apple tree. I forsee some mighty delicious pies this year, if I could only find an apple sans worm holes.
   
6. Paint the hallway (green, like the living room). Bedroom, too, if I get on a roll (white, for simplicity and to take advantage of all the pretty light in there).
7. While I'm at it, organize the bedroom bookshelf. maybe make Kraft paper sleeves for all the books.
8. Snip some blossoms from the (plum?) tree that's only sort-of in the yard to swoon over indoors.
9. Consider applying for a job so that I can feed myself for the next twelve months.

*the grass can only loosely be defined as a lawn. it's very teensy weensy, quite patchy, completely uneven, and interrupted by an apple tree trunk. That said, the grass there is getting out of control. I think the best way to 'mow' it will be with a weed whacker.

Clean Sweep

go canucks go!

Unfuckingbeleivable.

Someone is dumping garbage at our house!
The other night I awoke at 4:30 am to the sound of someone walking up the driveway. This isn't uncommon, because we live in a 4-plex and the neighbors beside us use the back door as their main entrance, just like we do.

But then, they stopped, and an almighty racket ensued. It scared the living daylights out of me. Chain link fences rattled, bangning and dragging of cans, and at one point, I honestly thought that someone was trying to climb on top of the garbage shed to try and break into my window.

They didn't, of course, but I had the phone in my hand ready to call 911 if they did.

What I should have done, of course, is made a beeline for our roommate Drew's room so he could go kick some intruder ass. But it was 4:30 in the morning, and I was scared out of my mind and not thinking clearly. So I didn't.

The noise lasted a time, and then stopped. I managed to convince myself it was raccoons, and went back to sleep.

Lying awake in bed the next morning, I hear our neighbor from downstairs opening the garbage shed, then proceeding to fuss over how all the cans were full and something about "those effing kids upstairs".

And then it all clicked. AND I AM HOPPING MAD.

I always thought it was "those effing junkies" downstairs who were tossing out an unreasonable amount of stuff. last week, someone threw out an entire green garbage bag full of paperback books. Um, hello? those are recyclable?

But, apparently, it isn't them. those shoes and styrofoam blocks and plastic organizing tubs sitting beside the garbage cans? and all the garbage bags filling them? SOMEONE IS DUMPING THAT STUFF IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!

I think a stakeout is in order, don't you?

p.s. - for the record, Kyle was not here that night or HE would have been the one going to kick some intruder ass.

p.p.s. - he comes home tonight! yay!

I could do that!

and today, I did.

Fashioned after ban.do's no.10, which I have been lusting over for ages.

I do feel a tad guilty for so blatantly stealing a design concept, but my $15 version certainly fits my budget (am I really going to mention being a poor student in every post? very well, then,) much better than their $130 one. And it's not as if I'm selling them, so I hope that makes it okay.

carpet...

Right now, our rug looks like this:

(this photo is a bit old, it was taken before I rearranged furniture)

the current rug is Egeby from Ikea, and it's great. We bought it less than a year ago, soon after we moved into the house, to cover up the hideous (seriously) eighties black/grey/beige/blue/mauve stripe wall-to-wall carpeting in our rental. this carpeting is a major downfall to an otherwise nice place, and a compromise we have to make in order to have a dog.

but the dog is the problem. Luna (whose bum can be seen in photo above) is a sweet, lazy, hilarious black and tan coonhound who has an affinity for eating garbage and a rather sensitive stomach.

you can see where this is going.

In the fall, Luna got into the trash can. Then, accidents were had. On the less than 2-months-old rug, which, being seagrass, was the closest thing to grass that she could find to 'go' on.

Sweet.
We cleaned up the spots as best we could. We moved on with our lives. I went out and bought a locking garbage can (this one from simplehuman). THE VERY NEXT DAY, I cleaned out the fridge, and forgot to lock the trash can.
There were mouldy rib bones in said trash can. The aftermath of this led to a $900 vet bill, a very worried Anna, a lot of tears, and poo-stains (which, let's be honest, were more blood than poo) (god, that was far too much information. sorry. someone stop me now.)

Now, I'm a student. A student who had just paid a $900 vet bill. So I cleaned and cleaned that rug, not wanting to have to buy a new one. The rug came out a little (a lot) worse for wear but with the stains almost gone. It doesn't quite lie flat anymore, because in case you didn't know, NATURAL FIBERS WARP AFTER GETTING THEM WET. Now you know. The photo above was taken after the cleaning, so you can see that I did a fairly good job with the stains, but it's definitely not lying flat.

Anyway, the other day, my dear sweet puppy again ate something which didn't agree with her, and in the night, had another accident on the carpet. Just one. Something a dog owner should be able to deal with from time to time.

I woke up the next morning and promptly lost my shit. Don't worry, no animals were harmed in the tantrum.

Anyway, the whole ordeal has caused me to lust after new rugs. ones which are not the texture of grass. ones which could stand up to spot cleaning. ones which might not hold onto stains like two crazed bridezillas fighting over a dress at a sample sale. Ones with enough pattern to distract from the hideous wall-to-wall carpeting. Or big enough to cover it altogether.

Ikea

Urban Outfitters

West Elm

The west elm rug is my absolute favourite... there's only the small issue of my being TOTALLY BROKE. Oh, and they don't ship to Canada.

Flor tiles would also be a great choice, but they are not reccommended for being placed over carpet because they buckle. Wonder if my landlord would let me pull up the fugly carpet and paint the old hardwoods white, like Anna did....
A girl can dream.

one night with a camera...

feeling bored and couldn't sleep the other night.

In which I am far too self-reflective for my first ever real blog post.

Talking to Kyle on the phone today, he asked me what I want to do when I finish nursing school. I guess this is something I should be thinking about, considering that finishing is coming sooner than later... 12 months from now, I will be an RN! They're going to loose me upon the world! And we are going to pack our bags, get out of our hometown (the only place Kyle has ever lived), and see the world!

Except, I'm not sure that I want to.

Both our families are here. Leaving them would fall in an uncomfortable place between bliss, guilt, and sadness.

And, over recent years, we have begun to realize that we are very, incredibly lucky to have so many friends we love, those pesky irreplacable sorts of people, all in once place.

Should we really leave that?
Bah. When will someone invent teleportation? then I can live in the Netherlands, work in the Arab Emirates, and still make it to wine nights or puppy play dates. Or puppy play dates at which there are wine.

whine.

Giant Balloons.

I can't get these giant balloons out of my head. So gorgeous. Must have these at the wedding. (from Amy Atlas)
More giant balloon photos I love:

photography by Max Wanger via A Cup of Jo

All of these images have thoroughly made the blog rounds, of course, and with good reason. yum.

Only Says Ficus

"I'm talking money."

"A talking monkey?"

"Yes, a talking monkey. Came back here from the future. Ugly sucker, only says ficus" (Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang)