The Owl.

Saying goodbye to my babies

I've recently listed my baby Split- leaf philodendrons on craigslist. These guys came off my 36" tall "Philo Monster" Which I'm attempting to sell to my co worker who's trying to redecorate her home and add some greenery to it. I'm getting rid of these guys because they're all listed as "toxic to dogs and cats." And I'd rather have no worries that my doghter is going to eat my greenery.

Along with that, I've begun to dig up the crab grass in my back yard by hand. I shovel about 12-15" down and pull and sift through the soil to pull out all of the crab grass roots. I average about 8s/f hr. My major obsticles have been the fact I've ran into TWO cemented-in 2 foot by 1 foot metal fence posts that someone cut down and buried in 25 years of dust, erosion, crab grass, and litter. Through my excavations I've discovered a dental cast of someones teeth, 2 marbles, a child's barrett, two potato bugs, a fork, eighteen rusty nails, enough broken glass to start a recycling program, seven earthworms and five salamanders. I also unearthed a walkway that was buried under all this filth that has a horse shoe embedded in it with the year 1941 drawn into it. Now that's awesome. I'm keeping the walkway, as it provides a pathway to the brick patio that my husband has already done most of the work on.

Out with one hairy thing... in with the new hairy thing.

So last year I scored this amazing "Cable" rug by WEST ELM via Craigslist. It set off my ebony hardwood floors like you wouldn't believe. It is plush, white, foofy, and the hubby liked it on his feet. There was this major drawback that ended up finally getting the better of me this winter. The rug sheds. Not like tee hee, look some fuzzies here and there No this is straight up WAR with huge fuzzy wool lint bunny invasion from HELL. It shed more than having two big frumpy foofy dogs living full time on my black floors. Not even an hour after vacuuming and preening this gorgeous rug would emerge more fuzz. So I gave up my battle with the damn thing. I vacuumed it one last time before stashing it in my closet to think about what to do with it. Well, I figured it out. I'm selling it. So tomorrow I will vacuum, preen, and search out imperfections I can fix before a gentleman comes over and pays to take it away. I'm waiting to win a different rug on ebay that is larger, and fully AWESOME zebra print made from Oelfin (haha f-u you fuzzy rug gnomes!) As much as I love the shaggy wool carpets with giant nubs resembling marshmallows, I will not fuss over a rug like that ever again.

That said the hubby and I have decided to quit pining over every dog we see and actually go through the best dog rescue outfit we could find to adopt a dog. So we found one we have in our sights at Badrap.org. I will be devoting much of my social time to get to know, take classes with, and prepare my home for having a happy Pit Bull Terrier. Which brings me back to the rug. I mentioned the rug I'm ordering is made of Olefin is the most stain resistant and easiest to clean of all. (Yes!)
CAUTION! CUTENESS ALERT! Meet our soon-to-be Doghter...

There's Really No One Like You...

Since the video for "There's No One Like You" by Department of Eagles has made a stir in the blog world, I decided to make a mix that goes with it. Enjoy.

My Ikea HACK

before slipcover
So, years ago we managed to buy this useful sectional couch from a craigslister for $300 lightly used, and well, completely UGLY. The MÅNSTAD couch has a useful pull-out bed, and storage under the chaise. The color they call "Gobo Dark Grey" is what looks like a faded Navy Blue. So I went searching for a swanky velvety slipcover for it. My search was fruitless, and after consulting with my friend who makes slip-covers for a living, I decided to make one for it! (She'd told me to order one custom made, would be $1000 or more!)
I found on Ebay two matching purple slipcovers ($130 after shipping) which I cut apart after measuring the pieces I needed for the couch. I sewed, stitched, and sewed, cursed, seam ripped, cursed some more, and sewed again. After fitting it completely to the couch, in two main pieces (one for the main part of the couch, another for the chaise) I discovered it would never stay in place unless I tacked it down somehow. VELCRO! In between the seats along the backs of the cushions I glued velcro strips to the cushion, and sewed the velcro to the slipcover in the appropriate spots. I used shoe goo ($5.00) for the glue since nothing compares to shoe goo. I also used upholstery nails ($6.00) to keep the back side of the slipcover in place. I then made by using the leftover pieces of matching slipcover and some leopard velvet($20) cushion covers; optional zippers (which I used) so they can be washed. All in all it took about 12 hours worth of work. It works out great since I can just pull it off... RIP! and throw it into the wash, and not have to tolerate thee UGLY navy blue couch.