Bridges: Juan de Fuca trail, B.C.

Split tree:

 Suspension bridge:

Fallen tree:

And then this amazing and long, fallen tree w/ carved steps:

Oh glorious rain forest, my happy place spilleth over

Juan de Fuca trail and he is off!


A 2km  hike in (that seemed more like 5km as it took an hour) to Mystic Beach and Pacific Ocean.

February 2011, Vancouver Island

The Wish List

Anthro, Urban and Free People. I love this family. Browsing online, through the magazine or when I get the opportunity, walking through their stores. I always find inspiring stuff. Heck, the space itself is inspiring.  Walking through Anthro is as good as going to a museum.  Shortly after giving birth to my son and spending months and months - it was probably over a year - trying on and returning pants and getting discouraged, I walk in to downtown Philly Anthro, grab 6 pair of pants and to my disbelief they all fit. Perfectly. I bought three of them. Anthro was there when I needed them most.

A few months ago the ribbon was cut and Urban Outfitters opened in my city. Previous to that I was only able to admire their stuff online and in their magazines.  Nothing better then a bubble bath and a few magazines w/ Anthropologie's magazine on the top of the pile. And now I get my fill in real, whenever I need the aura of this family.

When I travel I most certainly google all locations of the stores and make sure I hit one of them.  Free People, they have the best lacy bra. I had a few of these pre-Lucy. Several years ago.   Early in my pregnancy, I carefully wrapped them up and set them at the back of my drawer. Until NOW. They still fit, they are in great condition and I get to feel all girly again.  And I can buy another colour as I happily discovered they are still sold online.

The Wish List. Love this online store option. When I see an item I love, over to the wishlist it goes. And it stays there forever, even long after the item has sold out. I get a polite notice, asking me to remove from wishlist and sometimes I oblige. But the items I never lose interest in, the ones that make me smile when I see them, I keep there. Sometime I even buy an item. These stores never disappoint.

A lot of the items end up selling out while I gaze at them; the ones I really want, I linger over for awhile before making a decision and if I'm lucky they go on sale and then I scoop it up, like the leather butterfly chair - actually that was a Snow Day - free shipping offer. And I jumped on it.   And a few items, like the beautiful Ludhiana Woven Bench, I kick myself for not clicking sooner. This bench has already sold out twice, very quickly. I also missed out on a long bench, but I never had a place to put it, until now (a few years later). C'est la vie.

Coco Cabana Chair

Right now I am drooling over the Coco Cabana Chair - I would like two for my new kitchen, but the kitchen is not even gutted yet and it will be a few months before I make those kind of buying decisions. Gotta flow my money to the reno first. But maybe if I can decide between the red versus the silver metal and maybe there will be some other kind of incentive ....













Some other beauties on my wish list, (that have recently all sold out - darnit!), but still worth presenting...sometimes they restock!

 

Industrial Rolling Side table

This rolling table has been sitting in my wishlist for awhile, but I sure could use it next week, in my newly gutted kitchen. I'll need a work space!

And below, the woven bench. Argh. My roommate was supposed to buy this for me, as part of his "rent". His foreign credit card wouldn't work online so he asked me to get it and he would give me cash. I never got around to it. I saw a bench, very similar to this design, for a thousand dollars. That sold me. Its come back once, and sold out in a day. Hoping for a re-appearance.

Ludhiana Woven Bench

And a few other sweet furnishings:

Midcenturies table

Faux Fur butterfly chair

Mid-century chair

Check out this older article, May 07, about the family Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Free People and their move to a shipyard office.

My favourite sofa - 2/16/11

It has been a long, snowy and sometimes darn cold winter. I am chilled. This is what I want to go home to right now. Curl up under a crocheted blanket. A book to hold and nod off too. And a fire burning in the hearth.

Belgian Shelter Arm Restoration Hardware

May as well add a slow cooking curry stew in the kitchen; warm spicy smells wafting by my nose.

Half bath - before, actually make that current

The half-bath that will be included in the kitchen gutting project this weekend.  The toilet will be removed, floor torn out and then toilet temporarily replaced on sub-floor. Renovating to take place some time later.

The inspiration / plan for renovated bathroom is here.

Very old, ugly and dysfunctional cabinet. Sliding doors do not slide. Mirror is broken. Light does not work, but it has been a useful shelf.

 

And the view out the window...I like the icicles.

Electrical tape and the flu

I feel the need to update on my weekend project. I want to claim that I did not specify WHAT weekend.

Ego aside, I did play with the fuse box and discover there is not a switch specifically for the dining room. Main breaker switch it is ... I guess that is the safest way to go. But I needed the electricity for the time being. My assistant claims one needs more voltage then 140 to cause serious injury / death.

I turn off the light switch. Unscrew the old chandelier to investigate the wiring and hole and metal plate. All looks copasetic and doable. My assistant holds the fairly heavy lighting fixture, that would otherwise dangle from the wires. Its fairly heavy, anything is when you hold it with your hand raised above your head. I do a little more poking around.

Decide the new light fixture instructions need a more thorough reading. Try to screw light back on to metal plate. Can't get screw back in ... its very awkward up there near the ceiling, with a fixture blocking the view of the screw hole. Get my assistant to find and pass me the hemp rope. I loop the rope around the metal plate and the light. Tie it. Do it again, for added security. Make a mental note to check hemp rope, daily.

Light sort of back in place, I decide that was enough for Saturday.

On Sunday, renewed, I took some time to thoroughly read the new light fixture instructions. Google subject a bit and prepare to finish the task.

There was one minor snag, two wires coming out of ceiling. Three wires on new light fixture. There is no ground wire. But it's standard, I learn, to wire this around a green screw (which was provided). No biggie.

Feeling confident after reading the instructions and seeing the insides of the old fixture. And the wiring. And the encouraging google links. All is coming together nicely.

Except for two things.

Electrical Tape. That was showstopper. I do not have this, and I do not think substituting duct tape or wrapping tape would do.

So I add it to a list. A list that will not get further then pencil and paper. I also add voltage tester. That tool ought to be useful.

We are all sick right now. Stuffy and runny nose. Really sore throat. Puffy eyes and low energy. I wasn't running any errands. Instead I revisited the pleasure of watching a movie in the middle of the day. On my bed. With everyone.

Before posting here, I wrote an email to my Contract-Her. She is coming this weekend to gut my kitchen. And we are leaving on a jet plane to visit a friend on the west coast. I wanted to discuss some finer points of the gutting project. And as the final point I have asked her how much she charges for this kind of electrical work. I know a few Canadians who would happily do this for a case of beer. Maybe she would like a bottle of Baileys?

But I couldn't hit send. Ego back intact.

Spring melt?!

Nope.

Yesterday was balmy, maybe 36°F+.

Today, 46°F.

Tomorrow's forecast .... 20°F and a blizzard.

We are in the middle of February ... I suppose I do not need to declare that after all, there is a lot of ♥love♥ going around.

♥  Happy Valentine's Day.  ♥

If I had a hammer...

it would be a sledge hammer.

In preparation for the demo, I imagined Extreme House Makeover. The first season, that is, before the show got all acty and too focused on the people they were helping (a little insensitive of me, non). Less focused on demo'ing. My son and I loved watching the demo part. Both of us quietly imagining sledging a wall down. I am sure my kitchen demo will not be as free trashing or thrashing BUT I decided I should have a sledge hammer in my tool kit.

Tool kit has gotten over crowded the past year ... couldn't toss, but didn't know where else to put the vintage faucets that were laying around the house when I moved in. Took kit seemed like a natural home. A few too many Allen keys, thank you IKEA.  A silver tin filled with drywall type plastic holders and screws but now that I FINALLY successfully used a couple last week, I should keep those. A fabric stapler used once but MAY use again, sometime in my life. A pair of goggles that I rarely use, but as soon as I re-home them, I'll find myself in dire need of eye protection....so things will remain put for the time being.

With that in mind there are a few intentional and worthy tools that I do need to get...

Sledge hammer. Everyone needs a sledge hammer, if not to use, at least to be able to say SLEDGE. Best word ever.

Sander. The small hand held sander. I keep looking and some of my wooden varnished dressers. Or cat scratches that may be easily fixed with the passing of a motorized hand held sander. I could do a lot with that tool.

Pry bar. There is a lot of prying that can be done around here. Who knows what lays under layers of old kitchen floor. Pry off a window frame. You name it, pop it off.

Axe. The cord of wood I bought in the fall....yeah, half sized chunks of wood that need splitting ... ah but a pry bar and sledge hammer may do the job!

Those are the tools I need. My most loved and versatile tool I have is my wallpaper scraper. That is what I bought it for when I lived in my first purchased home. Scrapped off the bathroom wallpaper, which was actually quite pretty but old and falling off. And then I kept on using the scraper. Held in corners and edges in awkward tight spots while I was painting and cutting. De-caulking the bathtub. Its my go to tool.


What is your go to tool?

tidbit. One of my memorable campfire songs...If I had a hammer, I'd tell you what I'd do...I'd hammer in the morning ... all over this land. And when I was a camper, I could bellow those high notes like no other.

If I had a hammer
I'd hammer in the morning
I'd hammer in the evening
All over this land
I'd hammer out danger
I'd hammer out a warning
I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land

If I had a bell
I'd ring it in the morning
I'd ring it in the evening
All over this land
I'd ring out danger
I'd ring out a warning
I'd ring out love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land

If I had a song
I'd sing it in the morning
I'd sing it in the evening
All over this land
I'd sing out danger
I'd sing out a warning
I'd sing out love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land

Well I've got a hammer
And I've got a bell
And I've got a song to sing
All over this land
It's the hammer of justice
It's the bell of freedom
It's the song about love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land

©1958, 1962 (renewed), 1986 (renewed)
TRO-Ludlow Music, Inc. (BMI)

http://www.arlo.net/resources/lyrics/hammer-song.shtml

Weekend project - lighting - cool industrial dangling sockets replace chandelier

Electricity. That is a big deal. When we were kids, playing tag on my grandmas roof, many times I almost ran into the electrical wires that crossed over the roof.  Stopped short of them. Thank goodness for my limbo expertise.  Yeah, forget that we were playing tag on her roof. There were no boundaries back then, well maybe there were but they were far away.  There were 15plus cousins. We needed to outsmart each other.

Good at limbo, not so good at fully understanding the dangers of wires. Or the not so dangerous wires. I tune out, even though there may be an easy explanation. Live vs dead or inactive. Birds sit on wires. Bird on a wire. Squirrels run across them, safely to the other side, leaping on to a twig on a limb on a branch on a tree in the ground and the green grass grows all around.

BUT in all the cartoons that we watched, cartoon birds and cats (think sylvester and the obnoxious tweety ... are there any others?) exploded. SO TUNE OUT all reasoning and just be leery of wires. live or dead.

Now I want to try this little electrical project. Google it, seems easy enough. Turn off fuse box. Unscrew chandelier, unravel wires. Twist new wires on. Screw on new cover. Let hang, light and admire.

Old

New West Elm

I know things are colour coded so rewiring should be ok. I am deft with my screw driver so I should be able to easily unscrew the cover and put the new one on. I have a helping hand to take the chandelier from my hold and pass me the new one.

The only concern I have is the one about screwing on the extra support bracket. I don't want to mess with that.  I did hire a handyman to replace a light with a fan-light. That went over well. In my old house, I wanted to change the exterior door lights with something more me. But the whole wire thing attached to the light turned me off. BUT if I can do this, then I have a whole lotta new-light-replacement jobs to do!

If not, if caution sets in, I have a back up plan. Invite handyman over. Install light. AND offer him an assistant job to my Contract-Her. And if that fails, maybe Contract-her can squeeze it in between prying off the floor.

Floating shelves; a bit about me and my handy skills

I am not a handy person. I am not surrounded by handy people now, nor did I grow up with Handy People. To be fair, my mom was a talented decorator, painter and, well, maybe the closest person I knew to being handy. She did complain that she wished her engineer husband was blessed with some handyman skills. My sister married a perfectly great handy man, diy'er, all round good guy. He is a kitchen installer by trade, but he often converts overstocked cabinets into T.V. consoles, decorative mirrors and other creative things. Hmmm and my brother also has a super handy girlfriend who can maneuver huge machinery, the kind of machinery that is plastered with cautionary signs, back up beeping sounds, back tires thicker then Giant Redwood tree trunks and taller then me. Helmets required. She also threw together stone steps and a path skillfully and superbly. Even being considerate of the standard step size so one doesn't get sued by postman/town. But they all live 4 hours away and although I get easily inspired and am full of ideas, the drive home kills it. And my lack of skills. And my lack of project-stamina.


I do like doing things. I like using my hands and creating. I like admiring a completed project. I do have a lot of ideas. And I am not completely useless around tools. Maybe afraid, afraid to use them to their potential. Sometimes it takes me awhile to get started on a project, even if it is entirely simple, as simple as hanging a shelf. Sometimes I just do not know where or how to start.

But a lot of times I do start, with lots of gusto - I can knowledgeably motor around Home Depot, Lowes, Ace and other hardware stores. I actually might look like a skillful & experienced diy'er.  I can buy the stuff. And lug it home. And even get started. Sometimes I even take the time to prepare, things that I find boring like dusting the walls and laying down a torn sheet to catch the drips. Using the proper tools such as a level to guarantee a horizontal shelf.



But then something happens. Discouragement (I suck a cutting), time restraints (baby, boy, dinner) or merely stuck, tired, need a bath. Actually, the biggest culprit and projectdelayer is my lack of patience and focus.



Occasionally I finish a project ... a few months later during my next gust of an idea, energy and desire. And the enjoyment and pride of completing even the smallest and simplest task (hanging a picture on drywall!) is rewarding, rewarding enough that I continue to realize my ideas.


I have learned a few things:

~DO not paint in December. If you must, do not paint the room that the tree and all other festive gatherings will occur in.

~Returning to project a few months later is OK./Not finishing in a weekend is ok. Unless its a painting job and you have used painters tape. That stuff has to be pulled off within a 36 hour period of painting.

~Some things are not as daunting as they initially seem

~Have a talented and reliable handy-person on speed dial. Make her dinner and mulled wine.

~Discuss BIG projects with her and ask if your vision is bigger then the realization (gutting kitchen first then saving to do the rest HAHA)

~Try some things. Google it. Shall I attempt to replace chandelier or not. It seems like a simple task.

~Know your fuse box.


My recent project, floating shelves, started, discouraged, delayed, re-inspired and competed!


Here is a skill I admire. Knowing where the wooden supports are hidden behind the drywall. Handyman skill, thereby I completely lack. How is it when I NEED a 2x4 hidden board to hammer in a nail for a picture I cannot find one, BUT when I do not need one, such as pushing in a plastic drywall screw holder, I find not only ONE, but TWO. Yeah there are horizontal boards behind the drywall too. (Maybe its plaster, in my house)


Before Christmas, besides trying to paint a wall, not just one colour, but stripes. Yep, I am ambitious (and that project has been delayed).  I tried a simpler thing, hanging a picture on the staircase landing. That folded quickly too. Wall too soft. Nail went straight in. Forget that. Move on.


I had another idea waiting to get started. I had bought some floating shelves for the nursery. Simple, inexpensive and not only makes the bare walls more appealing, it allows for much needed shoe storage. I even got my tool bag, a pencil, AND a level. All of it.  The first shelf went up without too much problem. But it was semi-dangling off the screws.  The perfectionist in me new it should/could be better. I wondered if it was the non-flat wall, or that I didn't get the plastic portion of the screw flat against the wall...whatever, says the lazy person in me. I was able to put a few things up and then wait it out until a knowledgeable person came by.


A few months later, wobbly shelf intact. I was ready to try the second shelf. That ended very quickly as I plunged the plastic screw holder into the wall and came up against a hard surface. Checked out the tip of the plastic thing and figured this one must not be as angular and sharp as the first shelf hardware. Discouraged. Project set aside. Wait it out until a knowledgeable person visits.


Two opportunities did arise; my very handy and skillful brother in law (whoa! that was back in November). He was the one that informed me I must have hit a ??? 2x4 board (I need to look up the proper name....he used it, but it escapes me). So I did learn some thing from him.  And my contract-her has been by a few times (re: getting ready for kitchen demo, paint job, window replacement job). But I didn't bother to ask her.


Recently, last week in fact, I tried again. Got my handy level and pencil and screw driver. Actually, these tools had remained upstairs by the changing table in an empty diaper box. I knew where to find them if I had another project to work on. But I didn't start another project. I was determined to finish this type of thing. I needed the confidence and experience to move on to other shelf hanging projects.

So I moved my screw location a few inches to the left and baboom. Located another board. Ugh. "OK Sara", I encourage myself, "Don't give up. Try again." I persevere and move the shelf up a bit and try again.   And that is all it took. The plastic screw holder eased in, as I remember happening with the first shelf.  The screws went in easy enough, but this time I screwed them in a nano cm more then the first shelf screws.  And that is all it took to resolve the wobbly type shelf. The 2nd one is much sturdier and snug against the wall and will surely hold the vignettes.  I returned to the first shelf, made some adjustments and now I have my floating shelves.

So yes, there are two holes in my wall and yeah, I couldn't even hide them behind the floating shelf, but its done. They are sturdy and flat against the wall and properly vignetted up.  And when I see the holes, I think, sure dry wall fill or wood fill will fix that. Ill fill 'em in sometime. Red paint. I can touch that up, eventually. If I wore nail polish, I could do the touch up right away.I have the wood fill, I don't have the colour. SO for now, when I am changing baby L. I glance up, admire the handy work and then look at the holes and laugh at myself and smile with contentment. Yay for persevering!


So that is a little intro about me and my lack of handyman skills, yet desire and determination to fix up my home. Simple things for some people, even simple for me, without the delays.   Another tidbit about me, often I forget words, simple words for some, but words that get lost in brain and take a while to make it to the forefront again. So here is a little legend, thanks to google, I can easily learn the right terminology, but unless I use it over and over again, the words get lost.

 

Legend:

plastic screw holder things: wall anchors, plastic screw anchors (EYES WIDE OPEN, I wasn't too far off for this hardware)

2x4 invisible boards behind drywall, which is probably plaster in my case: STUD. (I almost gave up on that one. I was searching for something to put drywall on and got a lot of videos, which due to my lack of patience, I wasn't going to watch but BET the word would have eventually surfaced. Then I realized I need to search for something else to find that. Stud. So simple.