murder

If I get murdered today and my body shows up somewhere despicable, it was the gutter cleaner.... I somehow always fall prey to those poor souls who are so desperate as to walk door to door looking for handywork jobs. Somehow they always seem to put an ad on my mailbox or door just when I am really ready to give up and pay someone, anyone, to do it for me. And both times I have actually called these people (before was a painter), they seem bitter and defensive and actually act like they are being put out by my requests for simple things. I smartly didn't choose that painter from back in July... but today I fell for the gutter cleaner's ploy. I should have known when I called the cell given on the slip of paper, and when he answered all pissy and asked 'who was calling' in a very pissy way... I should have known when he asked if, instead of a check, he could follow me to an ATM afterwards so he could get cash...(I declined, I'm no fool.) He told me that part of the job was that he'd blow off all the gradu from the walkways/deck etc. when he was done. However, as you can see....off he goes without so much as a puff on my poor back deck that I spent all Saturday sweeping! So I see him drive off. Crazy demanding me actually gives him a couple of minutes to see if maybe he just needed to get gas or something. I finally call and he is totally caught off guard that I would want it blown off, and acts like he will do me some big favor by coming back to finish his job. That I paid him $88 for! yuk. No wonder he is laid off from his 'software job' he had before... [I don't want to spread hate, but seriously if something happens to me his business card is taped up inside our cabinet door, tell the popo.]

Ewwww!!

About two weeks after moving in we started to get price quotes for a painter. One of the painters initially looked at the hallway paint job and was flabbergasted at how bad it was, especially on the ceiling. We kindof forgot about it - and didn't think about it again until the painter actually was going to start. We looked up, and what do you know but the 'bad paint job' was now obviously black MOLD growing on the paint! Yuk! I swiped my finger on it, and what do you know, it came off! Multiple opinions later from air conditioner people and handymen, and we found the culprit: the attic/ceiling fan! While very retro and theoretically an awesome way to cool the house if our windows weren't painted shut, this bad boy was contributing to much moisture in the hall and the resultant mold!! Jimmy got all handyman on me and got some insulation for up in the attic. Crisis averted. And now as you see - no MOLD!!! woohoo. We also got some special mold-prevention paint for this room.

Painting done!!!

so sad little skirdykat Piper!

Finally! After two weeks of living with CJ and Marco, books strewn everywhere (notice the old dining room color), and the terrorization of Piper, we have a complete house! Here are some of the pics of the new colors, though the majority of the house is the same spectrum so looks the same!

Sewing Sally

Trying to take my last week of radiology VERY seriously, I am trying to make the most of my creative drive because it is about to END!

so sad. Don't worry because I've pre-done some posts that I can put up even when I'm busy! I'm such a nerd. Anyway.

Mom lent me her old sewing machine that her grandmother gave her back in the 70's or 60's... The Singer Featherweight (model 221) - which has quite the cult following!!

http://singerfeatherweight221.blogspot.com/

http://www.april1930s.com/html/how_to_thread_a_singer_feather.html

Thank goodness it does. Because this old beaut was a bit dusty and very complicated to thread! The belt had melted onto the power cord and subsequently cracked and fell apart!

Also thanks to the SINGER repair shop being 2 blocks from Trinity Hospital, (where I've been working this month), I got it all polished up and started to sew!

Front

Back (hard to see the envelope and also I'm way too lazy to take a picture

now that it is filled with a pillow-filling!)

I've done two pillowcases so far (the other one with Walmart fabric that I only spent $2 on), and I love it! Tomorrow I am going to get the material to make my version of a $500 pillow from ThreeSheets & AtHome that I'm in love with! yay! I'll start taking custom orders to supplement my meager resident income in a few weeks!

Shower Curtain part deux

I've grabbed this curtain on approval from At Home... Very good point (and an obvious one that I obviously didn't make!) from Holland that silk may not make the best shower curtain! hehe, that's exactly why I need this blog! This is a bit darker than the silk but I might just stick with it because it is in the same family and I'm pooped of figuring all this out!