Just a peek...

We are making progress on the moving front. The key is figuring out what you are good at and then divvying up the work. Dustin is good at taking Ikea furniture apart and then putting it back together again. He carries a drill around and takes things out of walls and then puts them back into new walls. He will wake up at 7 am and then work steadily until midnight, without complaint.

{wall hook}

I am good at taking things out of boxes and organizing them neatly in their new homes. I work furiously for awhile and then I have a tendency to sneak into other rooms and fall asleep for a few hours. I don't even need a bed - give me a blanket and a relatively clear corner and I can nap. I call this "pacing myself" which sounds much nicer than "being lazy."

{pots and pans}

We are both really good at eating pizza. I can't even tell you how much pizza we've eaten over the last few days, because frankly it's embarrassing. We eat it cold, out of the box.

{pizza, cold}

I can't wait to share pictures of the new place, once it isn't just a sea of boxes. In the meantime, I have nothing for you. No food is being produced, no clever projects are being made. It's all boxes, all the time. Give me a couple days.

Quick break!

The moving is going well, and we're loving our new place. But it turns out I was being overly optimistic to think I could blog through the move. There's just too much to do! It took everything we had yesterday just to make sure we'd have access to clothes this morning.

I'll pop in with some pictures of the work in progress soon. Pinky swear.

Friday flowers (moving edition)

We got the keys to our new apartment today (squee!), which means we've been systematically tearing apart our old apartment for the entire week, in preparation.

My flowers from last week are going strong, and I appropriated a few of them for a tiny arrangement. My mom found this beautiful milk glass bud vase in a thrift store and snatched it up for me (she knows me well) and I needed to get it into circulation ASAP, even though there isn't much point in putting flowers around the house when everything else is already in boxes.

{milk glass bud vase}

I've got my fingers crossed for a nice smooth move this weekend. I'm aiming for no more than 2 moving related freak outs. Because aiming for none would be unrealistic.

Favorite rainy day legwear...

Two layers of thick tights* topped with a dress and a long, warm cardigan. I love public transit, but it makes apparel tricky when we're in the midst of a rainstorm. Jeans inevitably get wet and then take hours to dry, so I avoid them.

{layers}

I wear my clumpy but warm Uggs (the only time I wear them out in public) while I wait for the bus. A woolly hat (brimmed to keep errant rain drops off my glasses) and a giant scarf help out as well. When I get to work, I shed the extra accessories and swap the boots for a pair of ballet flats. Reverse the process to get home, adding gloves if necessary. Easy-peasy.

*The opaque red tights are from Urban (I remain loyal to my Old Navy tights, but they have a limited color selection, so I'm forced to look elsewhere sometimes) and the lace overlay tights are from Forever 21. I can't find the exact pair online, but they have lots of other fun options and it's worth checking out the selection at your local store. As you would expect, the consistency of their sizing is a bit lacking (I have one pair that is a bit small and one pair that is a bit large), but they don't run easily and they're still nice and comfy.

I'm blushing...

Heart of Light has been nominated for a Poppy award in the handmade accessories category! I love the Poppytalk blog, and I'm thrilled to be in such good company.

Hop over and check out the other nominees (you can even vote for your favorite) and celebrate handmade!

Bathmat, take II

Remember my wonky bathmat?

Over the weekend I sewed a better version. The wonky one will now be our backup.

{new bathmat}

Improvements:

* (Almost) straight edges! I laid the towel and the sheet on top of each other on my largest cutting mat (right sides facing IN) and smoothed them out flat. Then I laid a smaller cutting mat on top and traced around it with washable fabric marker. Then I pinned it. I usually avoid pinning, but I learned my lesson last time. It is very difficult to get nice straight lines when sewing bulky fabric if you don't pin.

*More absorbent - I sandwiched an extra layer of towel in between the front and back for a plusher feel. I just cut it a smidge smaller than the outer layers and slipped it inside before sewing the quilting.

*Nicer quilting effect - I didn't freehand it this time. I used a ruler, drew some straight lines in random places and then sewed along the markings. Apparently I remain incapable of sewing a straight line without a visual aid.

{new bathmat}

The weekend, briefly

Why is it that three days weekends never seem long enough? The rain has finally moved in so we spent most of our time inside, strategizing about the upcoming move (this is where living with an architect comes in handy - we have a scale plan of our new place and we can just move the furniture around to see where it fits).

We ate quesadillas with as much Tapatio as possible.

{quesadillas}

I played around with yarn (because it's been way too long since I've picked up my crochet hooks).

{bobble stitch}

We had friends over for homemade pasta.

{ravioli filling}

And watched the rain come down and down and down.

{mandarin-quat in the rain}