Uncategorized

m-a-s-o-n

March 27, 2012

I gave my sister an incomplete baby shower gift over 2 years ago and finally finished it this weekend! She was going to get custom metal letters for Mason’s room. I got some air duct metal from a metal shop in town and cut out the letters using a waterjet cutter at University of Michigan’s architecture school’s fabrication lab (Brandon was a student at the time). If it’s any consolation, I actually had that done before Mason was born. The, ahem, hang up for completing the project was figuring out just how to hang up these letters.

I went through so many strategies from drilling holes to welding screws on the back. But by the time I could actually drill holes in the letters, Brandon had since graduated so there was no way to remake a letter if I messed one up! Ahh the pressure! I couldn’t handle it. Drilling holes was out the question.

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago, after 25,372 more thoughts and ideas about mounting these letters, and I get a picture text from my mom saying, “hey, wouldn’t these be great for hanging up Mason’s letters?” and she had snapped a picture of these:

command strips

well duh! How easy is that?! Just stick them on! No holes, no worries about hitting studs, no mess to clean up should they move. So, this past weekend, the letters were installed.

metal nursery letters

a tip: We mounted the “s” first to ensure that the letters would be centered in the space.

another tip: The Command strips say to not mount to anything below 50 degrees, so I first warmed up the metal with a hair dryer because they had been sitting in the car all weekend and we put them on an interior wall because those exterior walls can get pretty cold in the winter!

and a note: the tops and bottoms of the letters aren’t parallel, that’s the font, not my wobbly hand.

Now, at 2 years old, Mason finally got his “baby shower” gift.

baby name in nursery

I think he likes it.

Uncategorized

another loop pillow

March 25, 2012

via Sunderland Stitch & Salvage

During a routine Etsy perusal I came across this pillow that is very similar to the oh-so-tedious felted loops pillow I did a couple months ago. This version looks a little more friendly; rather than knitting a super long rope, the loops were made by pulling out yarn from the stitches and using a super soft and bulky yarn. No matter how it was made, I like it! Check out the other cool things in her shop!

see stuff

Guinness recipe wrap up

March 23, 2012

I finally used up all 4 cans of Guinness Beer this past week! In case you missed any of the recipes, we can look back on where all that beer went.

1. Guinness Stout Stew Recipe. Ahh, the beginning of my Guinness explorations. A tasty stew made in the slow cooker so you can set it up early and forget about it until dinner time!

guinness stout stew

2. Kitchen Fail. Can numero dos had a sorry fate of exploding all over my oven. However, I did learn valuable lessons about the importance of reading recipe reviews and the potential irrelevance of cardamom. 

guinness kitchen fail

3. Guinness Stout Ginger Cake. Take 2 was much more successful and resulted in a very tasty, but not too sweet, Guinness Cake!

Guinness Stout Ginger Cake

4. 3 Ingredient Guinness Bread. Just in time for St. Patrick’s Day! A tasty 3 ingredient bread.

Guinness Bread

 So there you have it, 3 tasty recipes and one kitchen disaster! A good showing for that 4 pack of Guinness. Which recipes have you tried? Any other favorite Guinness recipes to share?

monday musings

My new ride!

March 21, 2012

felt zw95

Last June, after graduating from grad school, some of my presents were: a bike bell, a zipper pouch to attach the seat, a helmet, a water bottle holder….

So yeah, I was planning on getting a bike in the near future….last June…

I finally filled in the missing piece and got a bike this past weekend and I’m totally in love with it! I rode it to work today for the first time which was crazy riding on the road downtown during rush hour. I’m still working on finding the perfect route that is efficient yet has the fewest heavy traffic streets as possible. There’s a balance of aggressiveness and defensiveness that I still need to acquire. I’ve mastered those arm turn signals I learned at Safety Town when I was 5 and could never remember–sharing a road with full-sized cars (as opposed to Big Wheels) finally made that information stick in my brain.

I got a Felt ZW95, which is considered and entry level road bike, but wayyy nicer than any bike I’ve ever been on. One cool thing about the Felt brand is that it is a small company in California and the bikes are 100% made in the U.S.A. Plus, the graphics on felt bikes are way cooler than any other brand. (that’s right, color was one of the top decision makers for me). I got the bike at Roll, which is a local Columbus bike shop and I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for a bike. Everyone who works there knows what they’re talking about, and the customer service is top notch.

Since I made the big purchase, Brandon and I have already gone out on 3 rides. He has a Felt bike, too, and we have the same helmet just in different colors…we’re a bike couple now with our matching bikes and gear 🙂 I hope this early spring sticks around so I can keep riding my bike!