My Home

Happy Weekend! (& Corners of Home)

September 21, 2012

Hello my sweets! It’s the weekend, hooray! Life around here is feeling very full these days. I have a lot of exciting ideas percolating, and new projects taking shape (writing, decorating, and more), a trip to California in the planning stages, a trip to Ikea today for Bixby’s big boy bed (!), plus my Mom is visiting and we have lots of fun things planned while she is here. Full, sometimes bursting-at-the-seams, but also satisfying and exciting. I waffled back and forth about whether to post the photos for today, they are far from perfect. But…

I did want to share just a peek into a little corner of my home with you, since it’s been a while. Above you can see a view of my mantle, which is in progress…I’ve been gathering up favorite little items to play with, seashells, artwork, a little lantern, pretty stones…but I haven’t pulled it all together yet. Then there is my pitcher on the dining room table how it looks today, with a few blooms snipped from our garden. Not expertly styled or perfectly lit, but these are the little things making me smile today. :) I hope you have a delightful weekend, friends! xoxo Laura

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Feng Shui Friday: Enhance Your Prosperity Corner

September 1, 2012

in Feng Shui, My Home

Hello lovelies! I am back with another edition of Feng Shui Friday (albeit a day late). In this series I will be trying out small, easy tweaks to my home each week based on the principles of Feng Shui. This week I tackled a small project in the “Prosperity” corner of my home (see the first post to determine where the prosperity area of your home is), which happens to be located in my kitchen. As a stay-at-home Mama/freelance writer, goodness knows money is not spilling out of my ears! Of course, the prosperity area not only governs material wealth, but also feelings of prosperity and abundance – which are so important, because we all know it takes more than money in the bank to feel that you are living an abundant life. At first, when I took a look around this corner of my home, all looked well. But remember, Feng Shui looks not just at the objects themselves, but also at their symbolic meaning. For instance, knives stored under the bed would be seen to be “cutting” a relationship apart.

Hubba-wha!?? Knives, you say? Remembering this tidbit from my Feng Shui books sent alarm bells ringing in my head. I rushed back into the kitchen and opened the drawer beneath my counter (which is in the furthermost corner of my prosperity corner) and lo and behold, there was our entire collection of kitchen knives! And jumbled in a dangerous-looking pile of sharp points and blades, to boot! They have been sitting in this state since I lost our knife block during a move. I decided this must be terrible Feng Shui – it’s been cutting my finances to pieces, right?? Well, who knows. But I figured now that I put these little bits of information together, I could no longer ignore the symbolism. It would make me feel better to take action.

I removed every last knife from that drawer and placed them neatly in another spot (I still need to get a new knife block!). For good measure, I gave the corner a thorough cleaning and moved a small potted plant and a special heart that was a gift onto a little cake stand. Green plants are always helpful in Feng Shui, and their green color and growth is especially beneficial for enhancing wealth and feelings of prosperity. I did this just a few days before leaving for vacation. And guess what? In the past two weeks I have received two new exciting requests for work! Of course I am by no means trying to downplay the hard work it takes to pave the way for good things to come, and even if all this did was make me more open to bringing prosperity into my life, that is enough for me.

If you want to try enhancing your own prosperity area, first use the bagua map to find the corresponding zone in your house (or in a specific room if you wish). Check the area closely for anything that could be subconsciously effecting your relationship with money and feelings of abundance: sharp knives, dead plants, and anything broken, dirty, or in disrepair that is stored in this area should be fixed or moved. Next, bring in a few Feng Shui “cures” – a fresh green plant, mirror, beautiful artwork, or a crystal are all great choices. And that’s it!

If you try enhancing your own prosperity corner, I would love to hear about it! xo Laura

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The Really Yucky (But Helpful!) Toilet Repair Post

June 28, 2012

in My Home

So, have I mentioned that Bixby flushed a train track down the toilet? Oh yes, he did. I was brushing my teeth, and in he runs and – BAM! – in goes the train track. I slammed the lid down, but before I could stop him, he flushed. I thought for sure it was too big to get flushed down. But oh, how wrong I was. We called Roto-Rooter, but even Mr. Plumber Dude couldn’t get the thing out. Even with the crazy looking contraption that made Bixby exclaim, “HE HAS A ROCKET!” when he came into the house. They wanted to charge over $400 bucks to remove the toilet, and even then the guy didn’t sound very confident that he would be able to remove the piece. I’m pretty sure “I’ll have to break the toilet” were his exact words. Ben wanted to try a DIY repair instead, so the following weekend we went for it. In case any of you have something similar happen, I decided it would be helpful to run through what ended up working for us, and perhaps you can spare yourselves a few hours of pain (and a useless plumber’s bill). Here is the blow-by-blow…

12 Steps to Remove a (REALLY) Stuck Toy from Your Toilet:

Gather lots of old towels, a wrench, flashlight, toilet auger (we used this one), paint scraper, and a new wax ring.
Turn off water to toilet!! There should be a knob near the base of your toilet to do this.
Plunge out as much water from the bowl as you can.
Remove the two bolts at the base of toilet.
Pull the toilet straight up. It will be really, really heavy, and it may stick to the floor because it is attached at the bottom with a wax ring. Just pull really hard.
Turn toilet upside down.
Scrape all of the yucky old wax off the floor and the bottom of toilet with paint scraper.
Look inside (use your flashlight) and see if you can spot the offending toy/whatever.
Use your toilet auger to PUSH the object back the way it came; repeat until you get the blasted thing out.
Heat up the new wax ring. Get a friend to help guide the toilet as you lower it onto the wax ring, lining up the bolts with the holes in the base of the toilet. DO NOT attempt this part alone!
Press and wiggle toilet onto wax ring to set it.
Tighten up bolts.

Let me tell you, this was not easy. Ben worked on that toilet all. day. long. We made several missteps. At first, we tried to snag the train track from the front of the toilet, but ended up pushing it in further (actually, I think the plumber got it really stuck trying to get it out the wrong way). Then we tried pulling it out from the bottom, but even when Ben snagged it, it wouldn’t budge. Next time (please, oh please let there not be a next time!!) I would skip right to pushing it out from the bottom.

I sincerely hope none of you ever need to take this advice, but there you go! :O And hey, we have a toilet that is un-stuck, doesn’t leak, and we only spent about ten bucks on supplies, so I think that’s not too shabby. And I’m super proud of Ben!

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Weekend Projects: The Coop Is Done!

May 29, 2012

in My Home, Urban Farming

Can I just say how amazing it feels to have the coop finally done? Amazing! For those of you who don’t know, we got three chicks a few months ago, and they have been living in a brooder inside the house until now. With limited time and resources, we weren’t sure which coop option was going to work out for us – we were just getting ready to buy supplies to make a coop from scratch (using these plans) when Ben found the same coop on Craigslist! He has the Craigslist magic touch, I tell you. We ran right out and brought the thing home on the roof of our car. And yes, we were laughing our heads off as we drove (very slowly, so said coop wouldn’t fall off) through downtown Providence with a chicken coop on the roof, leaving a trail of straw behind us. Here it is today:

Of course, it didn’t look exactly like that when we bought it. It had been used by a bunch of hens for a year, not finished, not cleaned, and the run portion at the bottom was covered with sagging green plastic netting. We had some work to do. First, we removed the netting (not shown) and a few crooked boards, and I gave the whole thing a really thorough scrubbing.

Next, we gave the wood inside a protective finish:

I was thinking of painting it a fresh spring green, but we ended up going bold, with “Canadian Flag Red”. We also cut new hardware cloth to fit the run portion around the bottom of the coop and installed hook-and-eye latches to make it predator-proof.

Then, we built a frame the same size as the footprint of the coop, lined it with more hardware cloth…

…and dug it into a hole underneath the coop in case any wily animals try to dig their way in. Nobody is getting our chickens, man!

The ladies seem very happy in their new digs. We carried them outside on Friday, and it’s been highly entertaining watching them in the coop all weekend. Eventually, we will be letting them free range in the backyard during the day, but I want to wait until they are big enough to make the neighborhood cats think twice.

Aside from the chicken coop, my pea patch is growing like crazy, and we planted beans, zucchini, herbs, and tomatoes this weekend, too. Phew! Let’s look at the finished coop one more time, shall we?

Ah. I love that this is my view out the kitchen window now! We still need to put a few more handles on, and figure out how to straighten one last crooked board, but otherwise it is done, and I am so, so pleased. Happy new week, friends! xo Laura.

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Throw Out Fifty Things, Week 2: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

April 23, 2012

in My Home

I have a mixed bag to report for my Throw Out Fifty Things project this week, covering the living room, dining room, and basement. On the plus side, I’ve cleared much of the visual clutter from our living/dining area, and sorted through our book collection, which was no small feat. Here is a picture of the living area I snapped on Saturday:

Looking pretty good, right? ;) It’s true that the surfaces are much cleaner than they were last week, and our bookshelves are feeling lighter as well. But now let’s open one of those drawers right there…

Oh dear. Looks like I still have my work cut out for me. Each drawer is loaded with stuff, from wedding photos to computer software to junk mail, stray paperclips, cat toys, and who-knows-what-all. I may not have had a junk drawer in the kitchen, but we have three giant, crammed-full drawers of junk right here. And with all of us having bad colds last week, and then with an old friend visiting over the weekend, I just couldn’t bring myself to tackle these. Sigh. Onto next week’s agenda they go.

Back on the bright side, our entryway is finally looking clear and clean, with all of the winter gear gone – some sent out for cleaning to be stored for next year, and some in the yard sale pile. Plus, I did begin on the basement, sorting through a giant box of clothes and old toys, as well as culling tons of books from our shelves down there.

I want to take a moment to share my process for editing my book collection, because books are my weakness and it was not easy – so in case they are your weakness too, perhaps you can gain some perspective from what I’ve gone through. Basically, I found that I’ve been holding onto books for one of these reasons:

I haven’t read it yet (and may never want to read it), but feel guilty about giving it away.
I read and loved the book (usually a novel), so I’ve been holding onto it even though I know I’ll never pick it up again.
I read it and didn’t enjoy it, but haven’t gotten around to donating/selling it.
I read and loved the book (usually nonfiction) and sometimes enjoy leafing through it for inspiration or reference.
The book is special to me for sentimental reasons ( a gift, a signed copy from a beloved author).
I haven’t read it, but want to soon!

So, with a deep breath I cleared out all of the books that fit reasons #1-3. I also reorganized my books so that less frequently accessed books are in the basement, and those I enjoy leafing through are upstairs. As I packed up each box, I realized I began feeling lighter and less burdened somehow – I highly recommend trying this at home!

Here is my scorecard from Week 2 (remember, each kind of item only counts as 1 thing, and I already threw out a bunch last week):

In the living room/dining room, I am letting go of 30 books and 10 old magazines. Total: 2 items.
In the basement, I am getting rid of 50 books, 1 skirt, 1 dress, 3 tops, 2 pairs tights with runs. Total: 2 items.

Since I got rid of 16 things last week, that brings my grand total to 20 items. Only 30 more to go! :) If you are working on your own decluttering project, I would love to hear how you are doing, so please share in the comments section.

p.s., read about the project here and see my notes from week 1 here. xo Laura