A Whirl Wind Weekend

We never thought we would be this happy to start the work week.

Dan and I both had a hell of a weekend thanks to separate, but equally stressful and extensive emergency situations at work. The short story is Dan didn't go 20 minutes from Friday night to Sunday night without answering or making a phone call- and more often than not to field one disaster after another. (He had the "emergency phone" for work for the first time and experienced the worst case scenario apparently.) My company had this listed as a 3 day weekend, but I worked Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. We both felt quite robbed and definitely drained. So I'm keeping it short and sweet once again- focusing on the awesome things that happened this weekend.


#1 - The Cushion Cover Miracle
I cut the material the weekend before, knowing that we would have a photographer in our midst. That was the best move ever. I feel sewing is equal parts cutting and stitching. When all the pieces are cut, I feel halfway there. Friday night I got home and, with the deadline of 12pm the next day lighting a fire under my arse like nothing else, I started churning out the good stuff. I started by making the pillows and gauging my energy after that. The work week had been stressful, long days, and go go go from punch in to punch out. 

Well, let's just say the cushions were like fuel injections. I saw that first, $4 thrift store pillow come out looking like something brand new and on main display at the {insert specialty Home Decor store}. I was like, "Oh heck yes! I'm going till I drop now!"

I ran out of juice at about 1030pm. I had managed to complete both pillows, hem the overlap panels for each cushion, and stitch together the 4 side panels for each cushion.  That left pinning and stitching together the top and bottom panels to the side panels. 

I woke up at 630 Saturday morning and immediately got to work. I only stopped briefly to take a few photos with something handy- sorry it ended up being the cell phone- I was in turbo sewing mode. Forget my pictures! A pro was coming soon enough! I finished the covers just one hour before, Nat Rea, the photographer for RI Monthly Magazine, arrived. WHEEW.

I stood back and marveled at what I had just managed to accomplish. I hammered out about 9 solid hours of sewing work over the course of 19 hours. At my normal rate of sewing projects, it would have taken till Summer! Some of the cushions could use a little more stuffing and fluffing, but I'll get there and for now it still looks pretty dang fabulous. The colors look great, the patterns are so eye popping, and it completely transformed that wall of the house. Instead of a frumpy bland eye sore, we now have a captivating centerpiece for an entire wall! 

I would also like to add that my math was pretty dang close for this project. By the time I was done cutting what I needed, I could clutch inside my hands what was left over. I even had to make a last minute improvisation. I ran out of the coral/red material, but still needed the short side panels. I happened to "by out" the remaining material on the roll for the pillow material and decided to use that to make the ends. I feel like it gives a whole new layer of interest to the eye- and completely unplanned! 

TAA DAAAAAAA!

Awesome Thing #2 - Photo Shoot.
We had a great time meeting and working with Nat. He brought a lot of equipment which I drooled over and probably took way too many pictures of--is that weird? taking pictures of camera equipment?
Ha! Oh well. Nat brought a great lense that no one else has used so far. He showed us a few of the shots and we were amazed at how wide an angle was caught and held in view.  Needless to say, we cannot wait to see the finished images and the spot in the March issue of RI Monthly Magazine! 

Awesome Thing #3 - Interview 
On Sunday, we had our interview with Jamie. It was a good thing that Nat came Saturday, as Sunday proved to be over cast and dreary. We both had a great conversation with Jamie and thought it was interesting to speak on the topics and the perspective she was going for with this piece. We spoke about space, money, and earth saving habits that everyone can apply to their lives- you don't have to live in a tiny house to make a difference! 

Awesome Thing #4 - I have skates once again!
I grew up on a lake, and some of my fondest memories of the winter are skating and listening to music until well after dark. The flicker of the porch light was my signal to come in for the night. More than once this past week, I've looked out at the frozen pond, right in front of The Pod, and wished I could get in some time on blades. I know it would do wonders to unwind me. We had a warm couple days, so I've got to wait for the surface to harden up again, but I'll be out there soon! Yahoo!

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Turning To The Itty Bitty Details

We finally mounted the eco-heater
in a new location.

We had a great new years! And then January slapped me in the face.

I've been in and out of feeling under the weather the last few weeks, and to top it all off, things at work have all but exploded. I've come home with a headache and thoughts swimming almost every night. When work sucks up all my energy and initiative, things quickly slack in other areas. Two weeks without a post! 

Well you haven't missed much. As I mentioned, we had fun on New Years. We celebrated with some friends at a house one of them recently purchased. Conveniently for us, it's about 15 minutes away! It seems like we always end up driving at least 35 minutes to do something social- so it's nice to have friends in our neck of the woods!

There she be! We have heating sources
at both ends of the house now.
We will rarely need it though. And look at
cabinet doors..."before". 

The best part about New Years was when we headed home- and to my surprise- we stayed up and continued dancing to music  for hours and having a grand ol' time, just the two of us in The Pod. :) 

Aside from that, progress has come in a series of minute detail projects. What put foot to ass, you say? Well, a call from Rhode Island Monthly magazine! We are going to be interviewed for their March issue this upcoming weekend. 

We added some pieces of trim. Yes, we were the only
ones who noticed it, but hey! Feels great that
it's not bugging us anymore!

This being the second round of pro photos taken of our place, I wanted to make sure there were improvements. We listed out all the little detail things that have bugged us, but not enough to become a priority, and over the last two weekends (okay more so this past weekend) we set out to complete as much as we could. One of my major pet peeves are black items. Mostly because I love color. My uncle described me as a walking rainbow one day. There is something about the color black that seems to act like an anchor and suck everything into it's darkness. I'm all for being sucked in if it's my mid-section and we are talking about a little black dress...but I do NOT like furniture and the like to be black, giving the perception that an already small space is even smaller.  

And some trim behind the Berkey...

I'm running on fumes at this point, so here come lots of pictures with few words! Enjoy the photos and prepare for splashes of COLOR! 

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We cleaned up the hack job we did on our very first outlet. 
Annnd one of our rookie mistakes was to assume we would find shiplap that was 1/2 inch thick. Nope. So we didn't set the outlets out enough. The outlet plate was barely hanging  on by two of four needed screws, but two simply weren't long enough. Well- we remedied both this weekend!







Dan took apart our kitchen cabinet doors and gave them a face lift! Now they are bright and colorful and easy to clean!

Meanwhile, I was slicing and dicing the fabric for our new couch and cushion covers. The love seat will probably be the most dramatic!

It was an agonizing few hours as I roamed through
Joanne's and finally made a decision. It's going to rock!

And then there was the painting of the black things. We painted our folding table, and a little office unit we got at the thrift store. This is now our lovely cutting board holder! And, my favorite so far, we painted our fridge door. RED FRIDGE. It really pops and we love it!

Yay colors!

Look at that fridge!