My Girl

Within 10 minutes a smooth recovery took a sudden turn for the worse and we lost our little girl this afternoon. Zoe was my best friend and Bryan and I's first child. She was my number one partner for reading, tv watching, crafting and most recently, my favorite co-worker. I cannot imagine a home without her.

Zoe Sophia Sabbe you brought us so much joy over the past 5 years. We are going to miss you terribly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



PSA To All the Kitty Mamas

First of all, I do plan on writing about design again very soon. I apologize for the mixed bag of posts I've been doing. These days I feel like I'm either doing interior design or teaching about interior design 95% of my waking hours, so writing about interior design has not been at the top of my list.

But back to my public service announcement. If you craft, keep all things string related far away from your cat. I have told you before that Zoe likes to chew on sewing thread. She's like a crack addict for it. I never let her do it (like my vet implied) but she seeks it out. This week the addict got into it while we were asleep. I woke up and found that she had knocked a spool off the shelf of my office. That morning she seemed fine. Last night she got sick and this morning worse. After visiting the vet and having x-rays taken ($$) they decided there must be string wrapped around her intestine. Zoe is currently having surgery ($$$$), full anesthesia, the whole nine yards, to get the string out of her belly. It's 100% my fault, her previous string binges have never made her sick, so I was not as vigilant about putting my crafts away as I should have been. But say a little prayer for my girl. She and her mama would appreciate it greatly. She's a very spiritual kitty.

In other news, this sailor rang in the last year of her 20's today.

I want to do a 30 before 30 list. Any good suggestions?

Mr. Sabbe Turns 30 + Walden Pond

This past Saturday my sweet husband turned a whopping 30 years old! We had a wonderful day that started with pancakes, presents, and lots and lots of cards. Then we packed our lunch and headed to Walden Pond. It was an unseasonable warm day and Mr. Sabbe had big plans of swimming in the pond along with the other New Englanders. Unfortunately growing up in the South has made us very intolerant to 60 degree swimming water, so we opted to wade instead. We wrapped up the day with dinner at Ginger Park and a surprise party at Burton's Grill. Thanks to everyone who came out! We'll get him to work on his surprised face a little more before he hits the big 4-0.

 

Thoreau had it right, I think I could hide away for a while at Walden Pond.

Freak Out

This chair now lives in my living room. I got it for $0 on my favorite online store. 

When I'm finished with it, it will be the bomb. Promise.

Zoe cat likes it just the way it is. Did you know the Humane Society found my sweet girl in the trash before I adopted her. Look at this little pound purry...

She's my best fixer uper yet.

Zoe Needs a ModKat

As most of you are well aware, we are cat people. This is Zoe. We refer to her as our daughter.

The only thing we hate about having this little four legged child is her litter box and the fact that the litter never managers to stay inside the box. This week at the ICFF I was introduced to the ModKat.

It is a litter box for the modern cat lover, who also likes to keep their floors pebble free. I'm in love.

They come in many colors and they are environmentally friendly with this reusable liner.

If you are not convinced, watch this video. This cat seems to like it.

Our little lady will be getting one of these for her birthday (budget pending) which is July 1st in case you were wondering. They even give a trade discount. Get excited!

Update: I just found this if you do not have $$$ for a kitty box. It's not as pretty, but seems to do the same thing.

Tutorial: Contact Paper Chevron Wall

Like many city dwellers, we live in an apartment where we are not allowed to paint. At first, I was a little thrown off about what I could do to make the apartment unique and fun without painting. During that same time I had been searching high and low (unsuccessfully) for a navy blue chevron fabric to use for pillows on my sofa. This past fall I was on a big chevron kick. Then the idea came to me... I'll do a chevron on the wall with contact paper! The entire process was very easy, 1 hour start to finish.

Materials:

1 roll of contact paper

ruler

measuring tape

scissors

pencil

painters tape

exacto blade

optional: architectural triangle

Steps:

1. Measure the width of your wall.

2. Roll out contact paper to that length, add 2 inches.

3. Contact paper is gridded on the back, so if even if you do not have a triangle, you can figure it out. The triangle made it VERY easy. I aligned it with the bottom of the paper and drew one triangle. Then I took my quilting ruler (you could use a regular ruler) and drew a parallel triangle.

 

4. Cut out your first chevron and tape, centered, on your wall. Leave the extra inch in the crack of the wall on each side.

 

 5. To apply to the wall, peel one triangle at a time, ripping the paper off of the backside and smoothing to wall. This is the part that takes a little patience. Once you get it smooth, take your exacto blade, score both ends in the corner, and peel off excess contact paper.

6. Once you get your first one on the wall, measure from the bottom points to where you would like your next row to start. Measure every point and mark with a pencil. This is how you will align your next row.

7. Do the same for the rest of the wall.

 

 Two people would have made this project easier.

This four legged person was very unhelpful.

 

Don't they look super excited to be sitting next to their new chevron wall. The deer is excited. Good Luck! Happy Chevroning

UPDATE: I should have mentioned that in both houses I have tried this in (I did birds in my last house), the walls are lath and plaster, not drywall. Some people have commented that this does not do so well on drywall, so please proceed with caution!! The birds were up for two years and peeled off no problem when we sold the house.

Also, BIG thanks to Design*Sponge for featuring this tutorial! That made my day.

Twas the Week After Christmas

This was our first Christmas with just the two of us. Mr. Sabbe had to work Christmas night and despite how much I miss my family and friends at home, I couldn't imagine leaving the poor man alone on Christmas morning. But, in many ways, the south came to us.

Unintentionally, Mr. Sabbe ended up in a Harry Potter costume on Christmas morning.

 Thank goodness my brother-in-law is not in the gift wrapping business. Although he does make a fine card.

And I had the camera in hand just in time to see Miss Zoe make her first attempt at green beans.  As funny as it was, we intended not to let her actually touch anything... we failed. Those little paws are faster than they look.

I hope you and your family had a very Merry Christmas! Can you believe it is almost 2010?!