Why didn't I think of that?

For our mystery kitchen sink leak:

"DIY Tip!  When your faucet is leaking you can make it stop by burning the house down."

DIY Fail: Cute and Evil

The brand new gold shoes were considered "too girlie".  True they were pretty flashy, but I can fix that, right? 

One of the top 10 (if not number 1 rule) of DIY: Test on an inconspicuous place. 

Of course, I didn't, and now I must introduce you to: Evil bunny and cute bunny.

To create this look:
1. Practice drawing a bunny face on paper
2. Using a brown marker (which should complement the gold), draw the face on the shoe
3. Discover the brown actually looks pink/red
4. Try washing the shoe, but marker does not come off or change to another colour
5. Scribble over the the whole thing (making a big pink/red patch)
6. Draw a face with a black marker
7. Take a deep breath
8. Name that attempt "Evil Bunny" or "Angry Bunny"
9. On the other shoe, draw the face with black marker
10. Give up before it gets worse.*

At least it was a good laugh in the morning.

* It's so tempting to do just one more thing (such as glue an applique over the pink/red face)... but, no.  STEP AWAY! 

Flying and Water Feature

James can fly!  Wee!!



































The redneck solution isn't quite working as planned*.  But it's actually a bit more decorative now, non?

(*This is what happens when you / one doesn't clean the gutters...)

Rain Today

"Like a rice farmer in an upside-down paddy, you stand amidst the self-harvesting stalks of the rain.  Thin as chopsticks and chopstick-straight, greenish-gray as the strings of the ocean's zither, the stalks hang from the clouds by their roots and shake free their bursting grains.  The rice bowl of your collar is soon overflowing.  When you hunch your shoulders, they make rain sushi." 

~ Tom Robbins, Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas

The downspout is broken. 

Lady MacGyver strikes to save the day!

Now I have a lovely water feature / concrete fountain*!  And hopefully, no internal water damage to the house.  Fingers crossed, the rain is still coming down...

Things learned today before 9 a.m.:

1. Wet skinny jeans are really hard to get out of
2. The red jacket is wind-proof - not water-proof
3. Need to clean the eaves!
4. It's good to have concrete blocks lying around
5. A shower curtain could have made it all easier
6. I could use more rain buckets

* I just might be too lazy to take it apart... maybe I should leave it as a base for my rock (concrete) garden (add that to the list!).

Couch is Fixed!

And people said those textbooks wouldn't be useful anymore.

 

P.S. I did try fortifying the broken wood.  But that only lasted a few days
 

Hip Dim?

"You guys are so hipster."

Celina was talking about our move.  When I asked her what she meant she said, "You always have to do things different." 

So, doing it with the help from our friends rather than hiring a moving company is different?*

But that doesn't necessarily mean hipster, right?  It just means I'm we're cheap. 

Anyway, I thought of this when I realised I wanted we needed a rug: It is more "different" to buy one or make one? 

Regardless, I like making things and it might be the cheaper option since all those t-shirts I've collected haven't made it to my super-awesome wardrobe (yet) and can be used for this. 

Are there lots of internet instructions for making rugs out of random cloth and rags?  Yes! 

A circular no-sew version... A rectangular no-sew based on weaving which seemed easy...  Another based on braiding which seemed difficult.

There are many more and they all look pretty great.  (And I know my friends have made some before too...)  I just need now to make a decision, set some time out, and then, do it! 

Without, of course, getting distracted along the path by all the other DIY projects out there.  Or more properly, as I noticed from this collection that caught my eye, D.I.M. (Do It Myself) projects. 

Must make sure DIM isn't the dim option.  Hm...

* Actually, with all the friend-based moving I've done and seen, I would have thought hiring a moving company would have been the one "different".

My Kind of Couture

"Cash-strapped women are painting their shoe soles red to get the Louboutin look for less

Sales of red gloss paint have 'rocketed' 40 per cent at Homebase as women find the cheapest way to get the Louboutin look is to do it yourself."

They say "cash-strapped" -- I say "sensible".  If I liked the look (and if I wore high heels aside from dance shoes), I would totally do this.