Well played, Stewie

Image found at intovintage.co.uk

Stewie has a new game.  It's called "Set every one of a dozen alarms throughout the house and... wait."  My husband sets his alarm to shitty classic rock.  I just about fell into my coffee cup just now when Rush came blaring across the house, completely randomly.  I effing hate Rush.  HATE. 

Well played, Stewie.  Well played.

Pinterest Synergy: eat! don't eat!

I love Pinterest, I do, but more and more it's a love/hate kind of relationship. I swear that a solid 25% of anything I ever see is some sort of weight loss spam. Fuck you, weight loss plan spammers. Seriously. You suck. And you gotta love how often Pinterest ends up bookending those useless pieces of crap with food. Not just any food, either. We're not talking a light soup, or some variation of delicious salad. Nope. Usually something whose main ingredient is Reese's. I love food, guys, but if Reese's is in the title of the recipe, there's a good chance it could kill you. That's just common sense. My screen cap from today features: pizza dough, BACON, then weight loss. No conflict there. Obviously.

Geek out: Loki crashes SDCC??

Yeah, so this is kind of terrific. I'm not a big Loki fan, but I am becoming a HUGE Tom Hiddleston AS Loki fan! This dude is just terrific! He crashed SDCC IN CHARACTER. I had a idiotic grin plastered on my face by halfway through. Best part? Right around 2:00.

Inspiration: adding architectural interest

You know, everyone's all about the open floor plan, but sometimes a little separation, some definition is just what a space needs to actually feel bigger.  We've got a good sized kitchen/livingroom/diningroom but low ceilings and an awkward L-shaped floor plan tend to make it feel smaller than it is.  Ideally I'd like to find a way to split it into a kitchen/dining and livingroom layout, two large spaces instead of one mid-sized one.  Unfortunately ours is a 1983 home with basically NO architectural insterest, no mouldings, no casings, nada, so we'll have to add our own as time and cash allow.  I'm thinking that building this beam casing would be a PERFECT solution that could be built quickly and for relatively little cash, and SOON.  I'm thinking we'd need a ten foot beam and one 14 footer, and then it would just be a matter of anchoring them to the wall.  Some white, slightly transparent stain (to let some of the wood grain show through) and we should be in business!  Splitting off the livingroom from the diningroom, without adding extra furniture or visual clutter: perfect.  Great inspiration pic from Houzz.com below.

Eclectic Living Room by Austin General Contractors Greenbelt Homes

organization: pantry

The three big girls are at the park and Stewie is *napping so I ripped through my pantry and figured I'd post the results.  Basically this all stemmed from still stewing about my lack of a broom closet and EPIPHANY!  I have a good sized pantry, but honestly, probably half of it is just dead space.  So a bunch of shuffling and some shelf removal and tada!  I've got myself a more functional pantry AND a broom closet IN MY KITCHEN (you know, where it's actually useful!)  As a general rule I try to group items either by type (cans, boxes, etc.) or by how they're used (breakfast, sidedishes, etc.)  I find grouping them by use works very well since you can see at a glance if you've got everything you need for a particular meal, instead of searching from shelf to shelf.  For example, pastas and sauces are directly above each other.  I've used the Martha Stewart Chalkboard labels again for each shelf in a desperate attempt to help my **family understand where everything belongs.  Let's break it down, shall we:

Product Review: NYX Brow Pencil

I take eyebrows VERY seriously.  And really, I always have.  The problem I've run into is that back in the day my eyebrow ideal was Drew Barrymore circa Mad Love.  Did you know that if you pluck your eyebrows enough, there's a chance they won't grow back?  Yeah, I sure didn't know that at the time, and now I'm stuck with next to nothing, despite doing my best to leave them alone for almost ten years now.  So I do my best to scout for new eyebrow help whenever I can, but surprisingly, the pickins are pretty slim!  Just for the hell of it, I grabbed this NYX Pushup Bra for Eyebrow the last time I was through Target for about $12. Ideally I prefer to use a pencil for precision's sake, but it's hard to find one that isn't too waxy, orangy, too heavy, or not heavy enough.  Unfortunately, this one falls into the last category: not heavy enough, and trying to add more product only results in it caking on the hairs I DO have.  Bummer.  It does work reasonably well as a base for the powder I normally use, so I guess there's that.

This is my basic routine every day and it is fast as hell and just goes to show how bad it sucks to have blond eyebrows/eyelashes.  Seriously, the difference just those two things make is CRAZY.  Also you are WELCOME because that picture of my bedhead is LEGENDARY.  Leah Elzinga, single-handedly making the case for flat irons since 1981.  Makeup is four products and about as many minutes, hair probably takes about 15.  Needless to say I usually **don't bother with the hair part.

Brace yourselves.

Colour Inspiration: wood & white

I snagged this little guy for the kingly sum of $9.99 but it's been languishing in my office, since I couldn't figure out how to make it work.  See, ALL of the rest of our furniture is white and I thought it would stand out like a sore thumb.  Finally though I just went for it and it really worked out!  In a moment of serendipity it actually reads as a continuation of the flooring, and splitting up the white pieces did the trick! 

$9.99 of midcentury loveliness!

 Here's some of the inspiration I found helpful (all sources can be found through my pin boards).

Geek Out: Agents of SHIELD

I am geeking out SO HARD for this show!  It's comics plus Whedon on tv. Excelllllent (rubs hands together evilly).

Marvel's 'Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D.' First Look: Fitz And Simmons

Practically Feminist: being realistic in the face of hometown MRAs

Over the last several months I have read a lot of articles, blog posts, and assorted commentary on rapeculture, SlutWalk, consent, “new” feminism, MRAs… you name it.  I’ve read commentary from the left, right, and center, male and female.  But so far most of the commentary I’ve read has been kept at an arm’s length.  Recently though, award-winning rape-prevention posters (the “Don’t Be That Guy” campaign) have been “parodied” and posted locally, bringing the conversation roaring home to E-town.  Some of the slogans on the posters posted by the Edmonton MRA include:

• “Just because you regret a one night stand, doesn’t mean it wasn’t consensual.”
• “Just because she’s easy doesn’t mean she shouldn’t fear false criminal accusations.”
• “Just because you regret it doesn’t mean it was rape.”

image found at: Leaderpost.com

The MRA ascertains that they do want rapists convicted, but they also want those who reported false crimes punished as well.  They want to take it away from being a “gender issue”.

OK, let’s start there.  The estimated number of rapes (per the CDC) are 300K- 1.3 million… a YEAR.  Estimated percentage of victims that are male: 3%.  Number of reported rapes that college students assume are fake: 50%.  Percentage of claims that are actually false: somewhere between 2-8%.  This last statistic does not take into account the fact that police expect that 50% of rapes will never be reported.

The fact is that the men in this MRA, and the people that think like them (because many women are willing to side with them as well) are annoyed.  They get annoyed by words like feminist, and consent, and rape, and slut walk.  They are tired of being “the bad guy”.  And so, tired and annoyed, they want to do something about it.  But what they are NOT is empathetic.  They don’t have the compassion necessary to process that a person’s RAPE outweighs their discomfort on the subject.  That their squeamishness pales in comparison to the staggering statistics regarding sexual abuse.  That it’s the sad truth that for the most part, 97% in fact, the victims of rape are women.  This IS a gender issue.  It’s not a competition that women are happy to be winning!  In regards to the idea of false accusations: Karen Smith, the executive director of the Sexual Assault Centre of Edmonton told the CBC “It just doesn’t happen. Nobody would report sexual assault needlessly because it is a gruelling process to go through.”

Housekeeping Kitsch: Boiling Water.

I miss you, old friend!!!

Ha!  You totally thought you already KNEW how to boil water, didn't you?!  So did I!  And yet, at a spry old 32 I just figured out how to do it in under a minute (and without the induction stove on my "as if" list!)  While I don't MIND my new glass top stove (especially with it's new cherry knobs!) it's no 5-burner-gas-powered beauty like I was spoiled with at the old house.

I've DEFINITELY noticed that my new stove takes FOREVER to boil a pot of water, which is inconvenient, to say the least.  And THEN!  I FIGURED IT OUT.  Now I'm sure you're all rolling your eyes at me, but I'm serious: I never thought of this before!  I filled the pot with the hottest water from the tap.  Mostly I was just too lazy to turn the water down.  And really, how much of a difference could those extra degrees really make??  Um, apparently a HUGE difference!  My 5qt Le Creuset cast iron pot is wonderful, but it's quite large and normally takes FOREVER to boil.  Filling it with hot water from the tap first? Just over a minute!!!  I mean, holy cow!  Who'd of thunk it?!  Geez, what the heck else am I missing!  Again, it's not that it made a difference, it's how MUCH of a difference.  It was kind of shocking, honestly!

 boil, baby, boil!!!

Unglamorous and Indispensable: the toilet auger, or My Daughter is Stewie Griffin Incarnate

 

On today's installment of "Unglamorous and Indispensable", I'd like to introduce you to my new best friend: the toilet auger.  Totally the kind of quality home-decorating advice you were looking for, right?  But trust me, get out your $19.98 and go buy one RIGHT now (assuming you're a noob like me and don't already own one).  This charming specimen from Home Despot is now a proud member of our household and THANK GOODNESS.  Unlike your standard plumbing snake, this sucker's designed specifically to deal with that obnoxious bend in toilets where a snake usually can't get around.  To use: pull the coil straight up so the bent rubber piece can fit in the toilet drain.  Get that bloody thing right in there.  Once it's in and somewhat "around the bend", you can start feeding the spring bit into the plumbing.  Hit a snag?  Spin the lever at the top nice and slow.  Keep going until the clog releases.  Et voila!  Saved yourself a pile of money and frustration and you didn't have to scratch up your toilet with a snake that probably wouldn't have worked. 

So WHY am I now on such friendly terms with the miraculous if unglamorous toilet auger?  Because my daughter, my lovely, pigtailed, charming little two year old, is Stewie Griffin incarnate.

Image found at: retinaimg.com

organization: bathroom

Last October we moved from our "starter home" to the current Casa Elzinga.  It's been an... adjustment.  The BIGGEST change (pun completely intended) is the sheer amount of SPACE we now have.  It's not just the square footage, either, but how it's used.  The main living spaces aren't that much bigger, actually, but the bedrooms and bathrooms are downright luxurious compared to what we were used to.  To give you some perspective, our current bathroom is 8'x 16'.  Our entire master BEDROOM in the old house was 9' x 13'!  

But as I've observed with friends and family, more square footage doesn't always equate with more SPACE.  Too often people fill every corner, buy too large or too much furniture, and generally have too. much. stuff.  So my goal with this house is to try, as best I can, to carry over the small-space lessons I learned before, into our not-so-little new home. 

Case in point: the main bathroom.  The main bath, as I mentioned before, is a pretty decent size (though still considered a "small space" by internet standards... hysterical!)  We've recently put in a LOT of blood sweat and tears overhauling the LOVELY *sarcasm/* dusty rose, grey, cedar, particle board, and linoleum wonder, into something that better suits our idea of what our home should be (though we're still a ways off from "done").  One of the "big questions" was what to do about storage.  There is a looong wall (about ten feet) where the sinks would go, plus the possibility of mounting extra cabinetry above the toilet.  What I opted to do was to install two vanities, and leave out the cabinet above the loo.  Why?  Because I used to live with ONE tiny cabinet, and I value SPACE over cabinetry.  Adding extra storage isn't ALWAYS the answer.  Sometimes maximizing the available storage is.  With that in mind, I picked out these two vanities.  They've got HUGE sliding drawers, a decent sized cabinet, PLUS open storage below.  A mix of storage options is always a good idea in that it gives you more options as your lifestyle changes.  Here, you can take a peek inside!