Picturama!

Ok, here we go! Lots of photos to post, and leave it to me to dump them all at once onto the blog. Sorry if this takes a while to load!

First, a couple of pictures of the library in the house. Isn't it lovely? (Please take into consideration that the table & chairs in the foreground have now been painted black except for the table top and the seat cushions - much swankier).

The green chair & ottoman was another goodwill find. $20! Can you believe it? Also, please note Loki's need to be in at least 1 picture per post. He is nothing if not an attention hog.

Next up is a shot of the living room. The cool lamp was a Christmas gift (thank you Rachel!), and the orange chair and teal cushion were both goodwill finds (chair $10, pillow $1). Bargain bonanza!

Now for a few project photos from the reupholstery project that was undertaken this weekend. First the chair as purchased, with aged icky pastel fabric:

Ok, so it's not too bad, right? Oh but wait. Let me pull up the seat cushion and show you the multitude of single-cell organisms residing in this particular piece of furniture:


One word, ladies and gentlemen: EEEEEEWWWWW. Sersely. You can also see how faded the fabric is. So really, there was no choice but to don some gloves (soaked in Lysol) and tear that puppy apart.

Here is what a chair looks like when it's naked! We got it down to the foam, the un-moldy batting (some of it had to be removed. again, eeeeeww), and the springs and wooden frame. Neat, huh? There are a bunch more pictures (read: about 65) but I figured you wouldn't be thrilled to look at 37 different views of the way the arm upholstery was attached. So. You get this one. You can thank me later.

And what happened to the sci-fi moldy horror that was removed? It was labeled, set aside, and used for patterns on the new fabric.

Can't you just smell the dank?

Oh, and just in case you thought that mold was the only thing hiding in that chair, you would be terribly mistaken! This is the chair that keeps on giving!!! Folded within the confines of the innard fabric (that's the industry term, for those of you not in the know), we found a whopping $0.40. Wow.

Oh yeah, and a really old, crusty morsel of bacon. Vintage as of yet undetermined. HOW, I ask you, HOW do you LOSE BACON in your CHAIR? And this wasn't just sitting under the seat. Oh no, it was tucked so far into the upholstery that I didn't find it for at least an hour of tearing the chair apart. This was some seriously reclusive bacon. Hermit Pig.

And to get your mind off of the question of "how much food do I have lurking within my furniture?" and "does my couch smell like old hot dog?," I'm including a photo of undeniable cuteness. Behold these adorable furry, purring little poop factories. I mean kittens. (but if you had to clean out the box, you'd think they were working on some kind of quota or something. Really).


Everyone all together now: AAAAaaawwwwwww. How cute. :)

Already Tuesday!

Hello everyone!

I do have photos to put on the blog - hopefully tonight. Because I was very busy this weekend (along with Noel) completely deconstructing the wingback chair down to the bare bones and some batting. It was really fun - very educational to take the thing apart and learn how it was put together. It also had some nastiness going on, which was documented properly. Photos forthcoming.

Today is a very misty, foggy day here. I wish I could've stayed in bed (I did oversleep) with the kittens, who have discovered that the best place to nap is right in the middle of the bed. They look so cute - 2 little black furballs on the big quilt. :) (Photo of this also forthcoming).

So I'm already listed on the online program for the AAOHN conference where I'm speaking in April:

http://www.aaohn.org/education/symposium-expo/Advance_Program/Tuesday.cfm

Guess I need to get my presentations written, huh? :) I'm looking forward to this conference (even though it's only in Orlando - I was hoping for someplace slightly more exotic and further from Savannah, but whatever). I love doing these kinds of presentations, and my two topics (Giving Presentations and Plain Language) should be a lot of fun to do. Plus I get paid to do it. And they pay for my travel & hotel. Sweet. This is a good gig! Hey, if I get laid off, I could just try to do more of these types of things and travel all over the place (have Xanax, will fly!).

Alright, it's about time to get something productive done. More later (including photos!).

The Kittens Are So Stoic!

Good news on the kitten front:

They're free of tapeworms (eew), their respiratory & eye infections are cleared up, and they've started receiving their vaccinations. They were such champs last night! They sat in their carrier without whining (which is a small miracle in and of itself) and didn't claw or pitch a fit. I was so proud!

Also, Loki has gained half a pound. In a week. Which seemed like a lot, until they weighed Poe, who gained almost a full pound. They're growing like little furry clawing weeds!

Other than that, I am SO glad it's Friday. This weekend will be the Start On Reupholstering The Goodwill Furniture Extravaganza, starting tonight with 3 hours of making piping for the wingback chair that's scheduled to go from old-Floridian-retiree-pastel-upholstery to pimpy-burgundy-crushed-velvet-upholstery. Sweet. The piping is a gold stripe with blue & red in it. Should look fantastic. I'm making the piping myself though, which generally takes a few hours to get the yardage I need (15 yards for this chair, I believe). I did it for the other chair I did, and it turned out nicely. I only slipcovered that chair though, I didn't upholster it, even though upholstery would've been easier probably!

Just to remind you, here are some pictures of the old chair before and after the slipcovering:

The new chair is a wingback chair with wooden legs - even the legs need to be sanded and refinished! But it was only $10 at the goodwill. You can't pass that up! And yes, I promise I will take photos of the upholstery projects as they move along. I take photos if for no other reason than to remind me of what it looks like so I can put it back together!

I'm excited about learning upholstery techniques - I know a little, but don't really feel like I know enough to tackle just about anything yet. It's one of my new year's resolutions to learn upholstery (as well as lose back down to 140 lbs, even though I sit here eating a Snickers - sigh).

Time to finish up a few things here and then head out for the weekend!

Perhaps a little birthday splurge is in order.

So...my birthday is coming up in a few weeks and I've been feeling horribly unfashionable lately. There's a fantastic Goodwill about 20 minutes from Savannah, and I found some great clothes there. I love me some vintage weirdness. Anyway! I've spent a whopping $15 on clothes for myself from various thrift shops, and have been enjoying my new wardrobe additions.

However.

I have some boots that I LOOOOVE that I've had for going on 10 years at best guess. These are some of my favorite boots - knee-high motorcycle boots with a few buckles thrown on for good measure. They were cheap - maybe $30? from a catalog, and I've worn them literally OUT. They're falling apart - the sole is detaching, the pleather they're made from is all cracked and in some spots just...gone, leaving the fabric stuff behind to try to hold it all together. I've retouched them with polish, I've doctored them with Sharpies, but the time has come to send them to that great boot closet in the sky. It is, in my opinion, an unnecessary stress to wear shoes that make you wonder if they're actually going to hold together the whole time you're wearing them.

And we all know how I can trip on things. So it's critically important for the safety of my nose to wear shoes that will NOT fall apart on me, or crack open revealing my frozen little piggies to the unrelenting elements (sidebar: it's COLD here).

So! In the spirit of "I make enough money to splurge sometimes" and "it's practically my birthday already" and "the kittens don't eat THAT much," I bought some new boots online yesterday. Check these out:

http://www.onlineshoes.com/productpage.asp?gen=w&pcid=117260

I have never in my life owned a pair of Doc Martens, but they're apparently super-comfortable and extremely long-lasting. Also? I COVET these boots. I've wanted a pair of pirate boots with buckles for so long, and when I saw these I couldn't stop thinking about them. Desire, my friends. Unmitigated desire. I had to have them. So I ordered them yesterday and will fastidiously track them to my doorstep, at which point I will probably leave work and go home and put them on and prance around my house and then come back to work and everyone here will say "you don't even have a bike, Kelli" and I'll say "Arrrr!" with my best pirate voice and requisite finger-hook. And then they'll leave me alone because they'll think I'm borderline insane. But with really stylin boots.

So this evening we get to take another trip to the vet's office! Exciting. At least the vet is in PetSmart, so there's stuff to look at there (did you know that cats can apparently be walked on leashes? Because they sell them. Also, cats apparently love bedazzled sweaters). I'm not really looking forward to the trip, since my responsibilities will probably be (1) holding down kittens a la some wild animal wrangler while they get their vaccinations, and (2) serving as a scratching post when said kittens freak the hell out and start their Houdini routine. Should be fun stuff!

Hopefully they can get all their vaccines though - they couldn't get them last time because they were sick. They've done well with their antibiotics and seem to be healthy now. So I hope to get them on the wellness plan that this hospital has, so that they can also get neutered (shhhh - don't tell them I said that).

On another note, the weather has been very cold lately. And this caused me to realize a funny truth this morning on the drive to work in my frost-covered car: I have knit TWELVE hats in the past month, and yet the only knitted hat I have is bulky sky-blue with big tassels hanging off of it. It's warm, but not exactly...professional. Unless you're a 12-year-old professional snowboarder. Why have I never knit myself a hat? I find this amusing. Also, it gives me a project to work on! Which is good, since I have no other projects going (that was sarcastic, for those of you who haven't seen my knitting basket/sewing room/writing desk).

Time to grab something to eat!

Additions, Subtractions, Multiplications, Divisions

Welcome to my new blog! I know it's been a while since I posted anything at all to the previous blog, but I have good reasons. I don't want to dwell on things past - after all, this blog (and my life right now) is about looking around at the present and enjoying it, not worrying about the past or fretting over the future.

That said, I figured that I'd create a new blog and start things off with a recap of the past few months so that you'd know where I'm coming from when I post about all the wonderful things happening to me now.

First (and biggest news): I'm separated and am getting a divorce. Not to drag out long unnecessary details, but I've learned a tremendous amount about this whole situation, about relationships, and about my own tendencies to put myself in second place to make others happy.

I moved out in October and am living in a lovely house (yes, I have pictures) with 2 darling little kittens (one of which is convinced he can help me type this). My job is still going well for now, despite difficulties with the current economy (help us, Obama!). I've met someone new, someone wonderful who understands me. More (much much more) on this later.

I am happy. I feel more myself. One of my new year's resolutions is to Embrace My Quirkiness - it's who I am. And that's fine - quirkiness, unbridled happiness for no good reason is a wonderful thing. It's a lovely way to go through life, smiling at a pretty blue sky or petting a random dog on the sidewalk just because I feel like it. Getting kittens despite the fact that they're expensive and will probably tear up my furniture, and aren't practical. They give me joy. And I'm starting to think that's the meaning of life: Seeking and finding joy. Why not?

But now (on a lighter note!), I want to show you some photos! This is a rather dark photo of the new house. Isn't it darling? It was built in 1940 and is 1600 sq. ft. Big! I have a huge sewing room that's still in the throes of being unpacked. Also I haven't taken any good interior photos yet since getting unpacked, but will do so soon.

This is Poe (as in Edgar Allen, because he likes to hide in dark places). He's about 6 months old and fairly reserved, calm and mellow (unless I pull out the catnip).

This is Loki (named after the Norse god of mischief - trust me, it fits). Loki is about 4-5 months old and a little ball of energy. Also he eats like a bird (as in, 3 times his body weight a day) and claws my necklace at any opportunity, usually under the premise of "oh, I'm so cute, I'm going to cuddle up under your chin." And then when you least suspect it, BAM! Claw right in the jugular. Poe tends to watch Loki with a look on his face that says "moron." But we love him.

I got these kittens from a friend of a friend, who has too many cats at her house. The poor things had respiratory infections, eye infections, tapeworms, and had no clue how to use a litterbox. After a harrowing visit to the vet last week and a lot of antibiotics squirted down unwilling throats (and a week of chucking them into the litterbox at the first signs of squatting), they're feeling much better, happy and playful, not sneezing, and (miracle of all miracles) pooping in the litterbox. Hurrah!

And yes, I will be knitting them cat toys.

I suppose that this is enough information for one post - it's a lot for some of you to absorb I guess. It's been a lot for me to absorb too, over the past 3.5 months, but I'm satisfied with my decisions.

And to leave you with a bit of cuteness, here is Loki helping me knit: