More linen, wool, and velvet pillows

In a previous post, I explained how I made a collaged pillow with different pieces of wool and linen. Here are some more pillows that I made the same way for my own living room.

In some cases, I deconstructed pillows that came with my furniture and added on collage designs. These were especially fun because I got to skip inserting the zipper, which is one of the more tedious steps.

First, I used a seam ripper to remove the stitches from three sides, leaving the zipper in place.

Then, I used a pattern to cut 20″ squares. This just required that I cut a bit off of each side. Since I wanted to use different pillow inserts, this step was necessary for me. I could have just used the same inserts, in which case I wouldn’t have had to cut these pieces at all.

Next, I layered two bands of wool-felt on top of one of the squares and pinned the pieces in place.

I sewed the felt to the fabric with wide, tight zig-zag stitches. Then, I sewed the three open sides back together with a simple straight stitch on the sewing machine. I made two pillows this way, using different colors of felt for each.

Happy Thanksgiving!

My friend Steph took this photo last year when we hosted Thanksgiving at our place.

Going home for lunch

I work full-time, so I’m at work most of the hours of the day. Usually, I eat a packed lunch at my desk and then find a quiet spot to read a few chapters of whatever novel I’m working my way through. Ever since we moved into our condo, however, I’ve been able to go home for lunch now and then. We live close enough to make it quick and easy.

I like to do this once or twice a week for several reasons. For one, it means I don’t have to pack lunch in the morning, so I can take my time. I have plenty of time to make and eat my lunch during my break.

Another benefit is that I can get a chore or two done around the house. Generally this would just be unloading and loading the dishwasher, or throwing a load of laundry in. I’ll often just pick up a bit, too, and maybe deal with some mail piling up by the front door.

It really is such a simple thing, but spending 20-30 minutes on these chores mid-day makes the evening feel much more free of responsibility. This guy also seems to appreciate it when I stop by at lunch:

Last week I went home for lunch and then dropped him off at the groomer on my way back to work. He was ready to be picked up at 5, so it worked out perfectly.

Yesterday when I went home I just made the bed and called that enough.

Do you go home for lunch or have other ways of sneaking in a few chores?

Hanging and hemming curtains

I love the look of curtains, especially paired with blinds for flexibility. I always hung curtains in the apartments we rented, knowing I could just take them with us when we left. Curtains always made plain rental walls and windows feel more polished and cozy. They have the added benefit of keeping out cold drafts in winter, and keeping out hot sun rays in summer.

And you don’t have to spend a lot of money. I’ve actually gotten all my favorite curtains on sale at JCPenny. They often have two for one sales, or 50% off sales. You may be able to find curtains secondhand, or even make your own if you are an experienced sewer.

I recently hung curtains in our second bedroom. Fortunately, I already had a pair of medium brown curtains that complement the lighter neutral wall color. I also had the hardware to hang the curtains left over from my last apartment. The curtains were way too long, so I did have to hem them. Here are the steps I followed:

1. Gather your materials. You’ll need your curtains, the rod and hardware, a drill, pencil, measuring tape, iron, sewing supplies, and something secure to stand on.

2. Determine where you will hang your hardware. This is, perhaps, the most important step. My rule of thumb is to hang the rod about three inches from the ceiling or crown molding and at least ten inches out from either side of the window. This allows the curtains to fall from floor to ceiling and creates a polished, custom feel. Hanging the rod out ten inches on either side allows the full window to be exposed when the curtains are open. This does mean you need to order more curtain, both in length and width.

I placed the rod on the floor, determined the center of the pole based on ten inches on either side of the window and marked the center of the rod with tape. Then I carefully measured the placement of the hardware on the wall and marked the screw placement with pencil.

3. Iron your curtains, hang them on the rod, and measure the hem. Don’t skip ironing! If you don’t iron, the fabric won’t lay or drape properly and your final hem could end up crooked. Measure the amount of excess fabric and subtract an inch. This is the amount you will remove when you hem. In my case, I had a whooping 14 inches of extra fabric. This meant I needed to hem 13 inches from the edge. Giving yourself the extra inch allows for imperfect measuring and creates a nice little pool of fabric (but not too much!) on the floor.

4. Remove the curtains and iron the fold where the new bottom edge will be. In my case I measured 13 inches from the bottom. Make sure you get a nice, crisp, even fold.

5. Cut away the excess fabric and roll the hem into place. I leave three inches of fabric from the fold. If the curtains are lined, be sure to cut away a bit extra of the liner to insure a clean hem. To roll the hem, fold the corner in at a 45 degree angle and roll, iron, and pin the length of the hem. Fold the other corner in at an angle when you reach the end.

6. Sew the hem using a simple straight stitch. Once the length of your hem is pinned and ironed, thread your sewing machine (or needle if you are hand-sewing the hem) with thread that closely matches the curtain color. Sew a simple straight stitch along the inside edge of the hem.

7. Trim the excess threads and give the curtains a final once-over with the iron. Voila! A beautiful, custom length curtain.

Here is the final result. I think the height of the curtains makes the room seem taller. The  full window is exposed when the curtains hang to either side. The entire process took about three hours and was totally worth the investment. The curtains bring such a finished, cozy yet modern feel to the space.

Tips and tricks review

• If you are purchasing new curtains, measure from the floor to ceiling and order at least that length. Remember, you want the curtains to hit the floor to avoid the cut-off look. It’s better to order too long and hem then have to hang the curtains too low.
• For width, double the width of the window to ensure a full drape. You may have to order more than two panels per window if your windows are wide.
• If your curtains are machine washable, wash and dry them before you hang and hem to allow for shrinkage.
• For a modern look, choose a color that matches or closely matches the wall color. For a more traditional look, choose a darker color in a tone that complements your other furnishings. Light tones, whites, creams, and linens are light and airy but may not provide enough coverage if you don’t have blinds behind them.
• Remember that when the curtains are closed, they take up a huge section of the wall so make sure you really like the color or pattern.

Slaving over a hot stove… or not

On Friday night, I decided to put together a meal of leftovers. We went out to a party after dinner, so I needed something quick and effortless. In the past, we would have just gone out somewhere. But not anymore.

After digging through my refrigerator, this is what I came up with:

The spread included a spinach and blue cheese salad, two mugs of homemade tomato soup, two small servings of rice pilaf, mozzarella, sliced turkey, olive and artichoke tapenade, and crackers.

Oh, and two of these:

And the salad had a little help from this guy:

What I bought: Needs, kinda needs, and wants

My husband and I went to Target today. We try to limit our Target shopping to only once a month because it is very easy to spend a lot of money there on stuff we convince ourselves  we need as soon as we see it. Today, we did pretty good. I wanted to stock up on a few household items and pick out some Christmas wrapping paper before the stores get completely nuts. We spent a total of $126.65.

Note: I have to give a shout-out to the Frugal Girl for inspiring me to post a picture of my purchase. She does this weekly with her groceries and I love the idea.

You may be wondering why I needed three bags of 250 count jumbo cotton balls. Here’s why:

That’s right, $0.54. I have no idea why these three bags were on clearance and the rest of the cotton balls were marked $2.19 each. The bag was an ever-so-slightly different shape. That’s it! In any event, I now have 750 cotton balls, so I think I’m stocked up for more than a while.

At one time in my life, I would have easily convinced myself that all of these purchases represent “needs.” Of course, I realize now this is not the case. I was curious how much of these purchases were needs vs. wants, so I’ve broken the items down into categories below.

Needs
dishwasher detergent 4.84
underwear 24.00
flour 2.00
hand soap refill 3.79
razors 9.99
toothpaste 4.19 (I like the fancy kind…)
cotton balls 1.62 (majorly marked down… 0.54 for 250)
cotton swabs 1.94
shampoo for the Mr. 4.74
foil 1.75 (on sale and had coupon)
Total needs: $58.86

Kinda Needs
We could definitely live without these items, but they are still fairly utilitarian so I’m putting them in this in- between category. In a real financial pinch, these are the types of purchases we would minimize or eliminate.
dryer sheets 2.98 (had a coupon)
mouthwash 5.99
ziploc bags 4.92 (2 packs of 40, 1 gallon bags, sale and coupon)
dog bones 5.98
tape 3.98
Total kinda needs: $23.85

Wants
Nothing necessary about anything here, but I looooove Christmas wrap and making presents beautiful and I have fun picking out a couple rolls each year. And my husband looks so good in this new shirt, and I know he’ll wear it frequently…in fact, he’s already got it on.
Flannel shirt for the Mr. 19.99
Magazine 3.99
Christmas cards 8.99
Christmas wrap 7.98
ribbon 2.99
Total wants: $43.94

So, do I have any buyer’s remorse? Not particularly. If I had it to do over again, I would buy generic tape. I just grabbed two rolls of Scotch tape because they were sitting in a bin next to the Christmas wrap and it was somewhat impulsive. I spent $1.99 a roll, which seems like a lot for tape.

We could have also skipped the Head and Shoulders shampoo for the Mr. I wish I would have waited until it was on sale or I had a coupon.

And buying razors always makes me a bit annoyed. The refills I like are waaaaaaay too expensive, I will only buy them on sale. And I’ve also noticed that women’s razors are much more expensive than men’s. And companies try to hide this fact by making them the same (or nearly the same) price, but packaging one or two fewer in the women’s pack. So, I guess I feel kinda silly for spending $9.99 on disposable razors, but I’m not sure what a more economical alternative would be.

In addition to the items we actually bought, there is also this other category of stuff:

Stuff we didn’t buy (but seriously considered and even had in the cart for awhile)
pop-up dog kennel 24.99
dress 39.99
2 packs LED Christmas lights 23.98
package of Christmas ornaments 6.99
second box of Christmas cards 8.99
Money NOT spent: $104.94

Whew! Close call. That would have really blown our monthly budget. There was a time in my life, not too long ago, that I would have thoughtlessly bought all that stuff too. But we’ve been pretty disciplined lately and it wasn’t too difficult to skip this stuff. Except for the pop-up dog kennel… it’s really cool and would be perfect for camping and travel. We’re going to think about it for awhile and we may buy it another time.

I’m glad I did this exercise because it helped me identify necessary spending over the “extras.” I don’t mind buying extras from time to time, within reason. If I had to really tighten our budget, I would probably set a $50/month spending cap on stuff from Target. I know that amount would be enough for true needs.

Do you look at your spending on a needs vs. wants basis? How do you know if something is a need or a want? And do you have any ideas on how I can stop wasting money on disposable razors and refills?!

Moving towards one income by reducing expenses

Over the past ten months, my husband and I have made big changes to our spending habits. I know we’re not alone. The changing economy has inspired many people to spend less and simultaneously ratchet up savings.

Initially we changed our spending in order to save enough to cover a small down payment on a home. Because we have a decent household income, we were able to save up quite a chunk in five months by reducing our spending. This gave us enough to put 3.5% down on a beautiful condo.

Our goal now is to work towards living on one income.

We want to learn to live on one income and we’ve been setting up our life accordingly for two main reasons. First, it makes sense for us in terms of having financial security. If one of us lost our job, it would not be a terrible tragedy because our life is arranged to accommodate such a change. We would not lose our home or default on debt.

Second, we want to start a family and would like to have the option of going down to one income for a period of time. We’re not necessarily certain one of us will stay home, but we’d like to have a choice in the matter. We don’t want our options to be severely limited because we are overly dependent on two full-time incomes.

Half of successfully moving towards one income is reducing expenses, or eliminating them altogether.

Steps we’ve taken to reduce expenses and move towards a lifestyle sustainable by one income.

• I established a monthly budget (I wrote about this process here) and we’ve been working hard to follow it. This means I tracked our expenses for several months and we evaluated where we could (and couldn’t) make adjustments. For example, we were spending way too much eating out. And that was on top of a grocery bill laden with fancy, organic foods and convenience items. Clearly we cut that budget item down to less than half.
• After establishing our budget, I looked at our total income and discovered that (even after our retirement contributions) we bring in a substantial amount more than we “need.” We’re now putting this “extra” income towards credit card debt and savings.
• Once the credit card is paid off, 100% of the extra will go into savings to build up a nice nest egg.
• Any increase in income we get from pay increases or promotion also goes directly to debt reduction or savings.
• We’re cooking at home more, packing lunches, and making coffee rather than buying lattes every day.
• We were approved for an astronomical mortgage. We bought a place for half of what we were told we could “afford.” This keeps our monthly housing payment (including PMI and taxes) to less than 25% of our net monthly income. (I wrote about our condo purchase here.)
• We own our small, economical car that we bought new six years ago. Yes, we’d love a new ride but instead we’re keeping up with maintenance and enjoying that our money is going towards other goals.
• Speaking of cars, we only have one. My husband rides his bike or, rarely, takes public transportation to work every day.
• We started camping. This is turning out to be a very relaxing, enjoyable, and low-cost getaway option for us.
• We have friends over and go to their homes more than we go out and meet people. It’s more fun, costs way less, and helps us get to know people better too.
• We look for items used from second hand stores and Craigslist before resorting to new. For example, I bought a gorgeous mid-century sideboard for our dining room for $150 (talked down from $185) instead of the $700 new one I had my eye on.
• I’m using the library, rather than the bookstore, for books. This has the added benefit of reducing clutter in our home because I don’t have to figure out where to keep piles of new books every couple months.
• I’m simply not buying certain things. I would love to wallpaper our dining room, buy brand new towels for the bathroom, and replace all the knobs on our kitchen cabinets but I’m somehow resisting the urge.

Notice this post title indicates we’re moving towards living on one income. We’re not all the way there yet. And it will be some time before we are. The idea is that we are drastically reducing our dependence on a second income over time. Even if we were to subtract the “extra” income we’re putting towards savings and debt, we still rely on roughly 75% of our current take-home pay. The goal is to get that down to 50%.

Obviously the other half of this equation is looking for ways to increase our take-home pay. I’ll blog about this step soon.

Have you successfully moved from a two-income to a one-income household? I’d love some advice on how you made it work.

Chili Production Night

Last Sunday, my husband cooked up a huge pot of turkey chili. During the fall and winter, we do this about once a month or so because it makes so much food and is so yummy.

After a dinner of generous portions and seconds, I froze about four servings. I also set aside two servings for lunches this week. And, we still had enough left over for another dinner or two. We usually make some potatoes or other accompaniments when we heat up leftovers to avoid getting bored.

This is an easy recipe in that making chili is not complicated and, once everything is mixed, it sits and simmers on the stove for two hours. On the other hand, this recipe is somewhat complex because of the amount of prep work, and the number of ingredients. There are certainly easier chili recipes out there!

In short, Chili Night is a bit of a production. I think my husband started around 3:30 in the afternoon, and we ate at 7.

I’ve listed ingredients below, but here are the steps:

First, chop all the vegetables and mix them together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, mix the sauce ingredients making sure the bullion dissolves. In a third bowl, mix the dry spices together. (This time, my husband substituted fresh basil for the dry basil and added it to the “sauce” bowl.)

Next, brown the turkey in a bit of oil in the bottom of a large pot. My husband under-cooks the turkey slightly because he knows the turkey cooks fully during the two hours of simmering. I would probably cook it all the way before adding the other ingredients but then… it always turns out better when he makes it.

Then, open all the cans of tomatoes, but don’t drain the liquid. Open, drain, and rinse all the beans (except, of course, don’t rinse the spicy beans).

Add the tomatoes to the meat, followed by everything else. Mix thoroughly. Bring up to temperature, just before boil. Drop it down to low and let it simmer for at least two hours.

Meat, beans, tomatoes:

2 lbs ground turkey
2 15oz cans kidney beans
1 15oz can tri-color beans
1 15oz can spicy chili beans
2 28oz cans plus 1 15oz can diced tomatoes
1 6oz can tomato paste

Veggies:

1 large yellow onion, chopped
6 stalks celery, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 green chilies, chopped
1 habenero chili, chopped
1 tbsp minced garlic

Sauce:

3 strips turkey bacon, cooked and chopped (we microwaved ours this time)
4 cubes veggie bullion
1/2 cup beer
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp hot sauce

Dry spices:

1/4 cup chili powder
1 tbsp oregano
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp basil
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp white sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Dressing a luxe and cozy bed

I recently splurged on some new makings for my bed. And by splurged, I mean I spent around $40 for a new throw and throw pillows. All the other updates utilized items that I already had.

For a long time, my bed has been dressed in a vintage-modern casual style. I used a very heavy textured cotton duvet cover, gray pleated bed skirt, white sheets, and a throw pillow made from an antique flour sack. Here’s a peek.

This was a great look for the warmer months, but as the weather grew colder (and my husband and I returned quite spoiled from a wedding at a nice hotel) I found myself wanting something a bit fancier and more luxurious for the winter months.

1. Here is my mostly naked bed.

I really want to get an upholstered headboard, but I don’t want to spend the money right now. I was craving something on the wall to anchor the bed, preferably floor to ceiling. I went down to the garage and looked through some of the furnishings from my old apartment that I haven’t utilized in the condo.

Lo and behold, I found this bamboo window blind. I dusted it off and removed the strings and hardware and was happy to find that it was the perfect length for hanging behind my bed. The blind is not as wide as I’d like, but it did add the texture and the anchor I was craving and, since it is completely re-purposed, it didn’t cost an extra dime!

The bed skirt is actually two curtains that were hanging in the condo when we moved in. Here they are in their former life.

I washed them and saved them, hoping I would be able to re-purpose them. Sure enough, they were coincidentally the perfect size and length for use as a brand new bed skirt. I didn’t have to sew them together or hem them. I just spread them over the box spring and overlapped the pieces in the middle.

2. Next, I added the fitted sheet and six pillows, three per side. Four of the pillow cases are white, and two are a window-pane pattern with brown that closely matches the new skirt.

3. Next up, the down comforter in a white duvet cover and two more linen throw pillows. So far, I’ve only used items that I already had so, up to this point, I spent $0.

4. Next up, the faux fur throw. I’ve seen similar throws in Pottery Barn and West Elm catalogs for $90 – $150. I couldn’t justify spending anywhere near that much on a throw, but I was thrilled to find this one for $19 at HomeGoods. It is exactly the texture and color that I wanted.

5. And finally, the two throw pillows. One is a blood orange silk and the other is a dark brown sequin. I think of the orange pillow like lipstick – it kicks up the whole look. And I think of the sequin pillow like jewelry – it adds a little luxurious sparkle.

Our bedroom feels much cozier and fancier now, which I’ll enjoy during the colder months. Do you change your bedding seasonally? Have you re-purposed items at home and given them new life?

Current sideboard

Just as I do with my coffee table (and all other available surfaces in my home!), I like to switch out my sideboard objects from time to time. Of course, I have to keep most of the surface empty for holding food and other necessities for entertaining.

This time, I took all of my vases and arranged them together. Collections have a way of really coming alive when grouped together, versus spread piecemeal throughout the home. I also enjoy the way the colors and shapes play off the oil painting above. I painted the oil painting in 2006. I made the two lidded jars in college, circa 2001. The rest of the vases were purchased and collected over many years; some were gifts. The sideboard itself is the only new piece of furniture I’ve purchased for the new condo. I bought it at a steal for $150 from a local vintage shop, talked down from $185.

Do you like to rearrange your belongings from time to time? How do you display collections of objects?