Fact- Anyone who has known me for the better part of a week knows its the good kind of crazy.
Fact- Even the people who love me best sometimes wonder if the above fact is true.
Fact- It is true.
Cam and I were walking in Pike Market in Seattle, looking at all the awesome home grown crafts and goods and produce and fresh fish, when I stopped to have a look at a very beautiful dressing gown. After taking a gander at the outrageous price tag, I tilted my head to the side in consideration, took a picture on my camera, and walked away.
Cam: You're going to make that aren't you.
Me: Well I'm not paying $120 bucks for it when I could make it myself in under 40.
Cam: That's what I love about you Leigh. If you like it but don't want to pay for it, you always find a way to make it yourself.
Which had bearing on a conversation a few months later. I had just picked up an old fashioned wooden window, from which the glass panes had been removed, and it was in pretty rough shape- it desperately needs sanding and re-painting and maybe some carpenters glue for good measure.
Cam: What the hell is this piece of crap?
Me: Well, its going to be a picture frame.
Cam: That's going to take a lot of work.
Me: Yep, and then it will be awesome.
Cam: How many projects do you have going at any one time?
Me: Depends. Do you mean ongoing, complete-able, or conceptual?
Cam: Um...complete-able?
Me: Probably about 15.
Cam: I know that you will eventually make something neat out of that piece of crap, but until such time, you will have to endure my cynical skepticism and mockery. Which will be replaced with genuine praise when you complete your turning-this-junk-into-stuff.
Me: Acceptable.
Why am I telling you all of this?
Because many of those projects are complete, and now I'm going to show them off.
Project 1- Bedroom with canopy
Materials-
Paint, $50
gorgeous fabric that I found on sale, $20
Two pieces of wood- free
Staples- $1
Paint- leftover from painting the room, so technically free.
Time- In total, probably 2 hours.
Project 2- Office
Paint- $20
Time- One afternoon. And it'll probably take me an hour or so to clean it up again.
Before
After
Project 4- Sewing Desk
Materials- Desk $10 (also, an antique belonging to a feminist newspaper columnist living on the island in the 1960's.)
Leftover paint
Shellac $8
Time- two days
Sadly, no before picture, just afters. Its not actually this yellow- that's because of the lighting. Its a night light butter colour.
Project 5- Workbench
cost- $25 at a garage sale
time- an hour with my dad. =)
I was convinced when I bought this that it would fit in the sewing room all in one piece. Michael and Cam loudly assured me it would not. ....they were right. So Dad and I cut it down to size!
Project 5- Sewing Room
Materials-
Paint and supplies, $50
Desk- $10
Lamps, electrical, rugs- Birthday gift from my parents and sister
Furniture- Birthday gift from Sarah and Michael
Time- a few weeks, in total probably about 4 days worth of work if you did it in one stretch.
Sarah and Michael surprised me with the wonderful recliners and hide-a-bed, with which the former owners included sheets, blanket, quilt, and feather pillow.
While Sarah and I are sitting on the comfy chairs and comfy couch, enjoying the newly completed Hobbit Hole, Cam opens the downstairs door and hollers down to me.
" I apologize for my former skepticism, and the moral of the story is you should always get free furniture when you can."
....?
Turns out that when Michael and Sarah went to pick up the furniture, the people who used to own it asked them who they were and what they wanted the furniture for. When Michael told them about us and Noisy Mime, they lit up and said "We were just talking about you!" Why? Because one of them is the VP of Island Musical Theatre ( I think that's the name, I wasn't there so I will correct it if I'm wrong) and own and operate a music studio/school in Mill Bay. They have offered us rehearsal space, access to their wardrobe, have contacted their students on behalf of our upcoming auditions, and can accredit me as a voice teacher. Ah, universal synergy. God does not play with dice.
"Whew!" You must think. All that and work and turning 26? Yes. I am busy.
We had a lovely BBQ for my birthday, with new friends from the Dice Bag and Starbucks. Cam got me the latest book in the Dark Tower series, which means I need to hurry up and finish reading said series so I can read the book he got me, so excited!! I kept telling myself that I needed to take pictures of the bbq, and then of course promptly forgot, but it was a birthday party like any other.
What else is new?
This.
How do we deal with this level of cute?
Its hard.
Emma has discovered that while the dog is mostly an irritant, it can be lots of fun to antagonize it by walking right past it, enticing it to chase her, and then smacking it in the face from the safety of a windowsill. Our attempts to deter this behavior on both sides has failed substantively, and our days are a whirlwind of trying to wear out the pup and appease the cat, and keep them from constant sibling antagonism. Puppy is up at all hours of the day and night because she is either going full speed ahead, or sleeping soundly on top of an air vent where she can get the most benefit of the air conditioning through her thick coat. She is adorable, she is trouble, she is frustrating, she is entirely affectionate, and she has a very large problem with biting at the moment that we are working on training out of her. Its not her fault really- teething in human babies can be awful, teething in a puppy must be equally painful, and they can't have baby aspirin. Still, it is exhausting.
Did I say I wanted kids? We'll see.
Much else new? No. We've set up auditions for the theatre company for Sept 1, 2, and 7, and are getting more and more e-mails every day. We've also set up something called Chip-In, which is basically the Canadian version of Kickstarter to get our first show up and running. I've included the widget on the blog and the link is here;
Video of Loki soon. =)
I don't see the widget anywhere on the blog & the link isn't clickable
ReplyDeleteAdded the link, not sure whats up with the widget. =(
ReplyDelete