the loft

Welcome to our new home! It's taken me months to put it together just the way we like it, so sorry for the delay! 

Enjoy...

Entryway, the stairs, and Danny's bike.

To the left of the front door.

Downstairs bathroom/laundry room.

Upstairs, our bedroom. 

Hallway, closet, attic. 

(we call the space covered by the grey curtain the attic, it's a small angular room that's full of stuff like suitcases, boxes, stuff.)

Upstairs bathroom.

I love the simple modern look, but there is nowhere to put anything! It drives me nuts! 

Another view of the hallway.

Looking down on the entryway.

Aw, Tilda noodle bug. That's one of her favorite spots. While I was taking these photos, she was following me, yelling at me, like "what in the world are you doing and why is the house so clean?!?"

Under the skylight. When it rains hard- which isn't often at all, it totally rains in the house. It's awesome. No really, it is! I miss the Utah thunderstorms. If it's raining in the house, I have an excuse to stand underneath and get pelted with rain.

We love the open floor plan.

And I love my little reading nook under the stairs.

Tilda loves sitting on the table and looking out the skylight.

This is where we spend most of our time...in front of the tv! In fact, I'm sitting in that tan comfy chair right now! Watching tv!

We love the huge windows.

I didn't think we'd mind the non-view, in fact walking around in whatever with the windows/curtains open knowing nobody can see in is nice. 

But we can't see the sky. (because the building behind us is taller than our building) I never knew how isolating not being able to see the sky could be. So sometimes I stick my head out to get some clarity.

Our kitchen. It's a lot smaller than our last one, but it's perfect. I have enough counter space to work with, but not quite enough cupboards. We added that Ikea shelf thing to put food in. It doesn't hold much, but that's what the attic is for. I never realized what a food hoarder I was until I tried to unpack  all of our food when we got here. I guess that's what lots of Costco shopping does, right?

I was never a fan of yellow, and I thought I'd hate these yellow walls, and we'd have to re-paint. But I actually quite like them!

The double doors lead into my studio/Danny's office.

We weren't sure if we'd like the loft/no real walls situation, but it turns out it's perfect for our lifestyle. No matter where we are in the house, we can talk to each other without yelling. And I'm always having Danny drop down/throw stuff up to me. Once I had him chuck a can of Dr Pepper up to me...that was a diaster, it almost exploded. (because I didn't catch it, and it came crashing down on the floor. Boy was I relieved that it didn't explode!)

Danny's desk.

Door from hallway to the studio.

I installed lights above my desk and where I iron, so it's super bright in here. You kinda need bright light for sewing, and since my eyes are getting old it helps. Danny's always like "Holy crap it's bright in here!!" 

My desk...

A lot is crammed in one tiny spot, but everything fits perfectly and is easily accessible. It's like this room was built for me and my shelves/desk/stuff.

I love having all of my rag-a-muffin stuff to look at while I sew, as well as my beloved miniature shelf right above my desk. 

Shelves packed with fabric, notions, paper, supplies...

The closet has no doors, so I put up a curtain.

Danny's desk is never this clean...

And my closet is never this neat!

The last photo is an embarrassing one. 

I hate cardboard boxes. The feel, the smell. Ohhhh, the smell. 

We had to buy a ridiculous amount of boxes to move here, and I haven't quite figured out what to do with them. They were in the attic, but they take up SO much space! I wanted to be able to actually use that space for all our crap, make it easy to find stuff and get in and out without tripping on all these boxes. 

So I re-located them...

To the tub in the downstairs bathroom.

What?

I'm not the only person in San Fran to use her tub as a place to store things. My friend Jane uses hers as a closet. 

So there you go- a little tour of our wonderful apartment in sunny San Francisco!

cozy cozy

Just in time for cozy fall weather, I got this gorgeous throw finished.

The fabric is Prospect Park, it's designed by Kitty Yoshida, and made by Benartex. Every time Kitty comes out with a new line- I die. I LOVE her style, color palettes, designs. I can't ever pick just a few fabrics for a project- I want the whole line. So making a quilt is the best way to satisfy that craving.

Except that I don't need any more quilts. So for this easy throw I picked this fabric, it kinda looks like a panel. You know- "cheater" quilting. Squares of all the colors without the work or expense of piecing. 

When I bought this fabric last spring, I planned on having it machine quilted. Then we moved to California. So I decided to tie it with perle cotton, and instead of binding it, I make a teeny ruffle. Oh how I love that teeny ruffle!

And it cost me more than I'd like to admit, but the swirly minky for the back was a must-have. Since I was tying it, I doubled up the batting so it's super lofty and soooo cozy and soft. Little noodle bug can't wait to sink her paws in it!

(and since I doubled up the batting, I rounded to corners off so they would look nice and not bulky.)

It'll have to wait a bit to snuggle up in it though- even though October started out cooler, this week is back in the high 70's and it may just reach into the low 80's. 

I love California!

noodle bit my finger

I was being goofy last night, Tilda was sitting on my lap with her paws on my desk, so I thought I'd take some photos. 

I pushed the button and then she bit my finger! 

In her defense- I had a treat in my hand. For bribery in holding still. I think she won this round...

Hope you had a fantastic weekend, we sure did! And since Danny also has today off, we're going gallivanting in the city.

P.S. I know most of you have seen this video, but it's what I thought of when she bit me.

dinner on the hill

For the last 2 sundays Danny and I have walked up to 18th to check out the little bunch of restaurants there and have dinner. It's quite the uphill walk, but it's been such great weather (who am I kidding? It's always nice weather here! Yet I continue to be surprised every time I walk out the door) that the walk is really nice. 

At 18th, there is this house that must be worth millions of dollars cause it's huge (compared to every other house here) and it's not built an inch away from the neighboring houses (like all the others) and it has a backyard, front yard and side yards. Highly unusual for SF. (as far as what we've seen anyway) And it has a friendly dog. 

Danny and I joke that if we ever bought a house here, it would have to be like this one, because what's the point of owning a house when you share walls (well, almost share walls) with your neighbors? But, if we had millions of dollars to buy a house- we would rather buy an estate in Hawaii. So that our entire families could come and visit. Or live. 

Last week we tried Sunflower. (vietnamese) 

OMG the chicken fried rice! (and I usually hate chicken) The fried tofu! Garlic noodles! I miss good vietnamese food- I used to eat it all the time when I was vegan. It was hot that day and after that long walk uphill I was sweaty and thirsty. I decided to order a thai iced tea. I quickly learned that I do not like thai iced tea. I wish they delivered!

There are so many colorful homes along the way...Danny says "stop taking pictures of other people's houses!"

And I love seeing succulents growing all over the place, dangling over cement walls...

  

And this week we tried Papitos  (french owned mexican). That green salsa on the bottom? I could eat it all day.

I'm not one for tacos- but this fried chicken taco was delicious! I totally want one right now...

Next time I'm not sharing and order with Danny- I'm getting my own!

My dad called me when we were walking back home and I was telling him about our fabulous dinner, and he said "I'd imagine you don't eat any bad food in SF do you?" 

No we don't! And there are like 10 more restaurants on that street...just waiting for us to try!

I love this little routine we have gotten into. Since moving here, we have really put effort into not working on the weekends and spending quality time together. It makes it easier for me to get my "work" (sewing) done during the week so that we can relax and play on the weekend. I grew up with always, always having family dinner on sunday, so it feels nice to have some continuity in our lives, since the rest of it has changed so much. 

lollygagging, impatience, and glasses

(my little bug, napping)

My self worth is not the greatest. I'm pretty sure that believing in ones self isn't easy for anyone, ever.

I have a complicated project that I've be putting off for the last few days- trying to find answers from other people, the internet, books. I got so frustrated today- I yelled KNUCKLESANDWICH at my computer screen and decided it was time for me to go on a walk.

When I got home, I took a long shower. While getting dressed something that I read recently (I'd credit it but I can't remember where I read it) hit me. You know the phrase "put your big girl panties on"? Well the thing that I read was "what if I can't find them?"

They aren't an answer from outside. It's just a decision. To step up. I decided that if I asked for help, then this project suddenly became clear, do-able, rewarding. Relief, oh sweet relief! I can do this, I really can!

When I stopped trying to find the "easy" way out via someone else telling me, showing me what to do, and deciding to let someone else take the part of the project that's just too hard for me, I could finally, clearly see in my mind's eye how to do it. How it will work perfectly.

Math to my brain is like sugar in the gas tank. So Danny will do the math, make the drawings. I will cut the fabric, sew the seams, etc...

Onto to the glasses. A few weeks ago I re-vamped my Rag-a-muffin blog. It took 3 days of staring at the computer screen, cursing, Dr Pepper, more cursing, and more cans of DP. It looks a million times better, functions more like a website, and damnit, I did it all by myself.

After that I started getting headaches. I was in the process of cutting out said Dr Pepper, and wheat (failed experiment) so I just chalked it up to those 2 major diet changes. Then whenever I opened up my macbook, I'd get hit with a headache. "Oh yeah, I do have glasses that I should be wearing." So I started wearing them and they went away. But now, if I don't wear them all the time, I get headaches.

So now I wear glasses, full time. Good thing I got some new ones before we moved! They are comfortable and cute, and most of the time, smudgy. I hate cleaning them.

"Summer" was pretty short- the last few weeks of September had some days when the temp got into the  low 80's. No air conditioning here- so on hot days when it got to be too much for me, I would take a cold shower. It worked so well! We also invested in a fan- it's small but it was pricey (for a fan) and we put it downstairs so it blows upstairs, and since we live in a loft with hardly any walls, it works great!

The last 2 days have been rainy. Well, drizzly. When I was walking today I saw people in coats and scarves with umbrellas- I kinda laughed at them. It was the wimpiest "rain storm" I've ever been in. Guess I'm just used to the downpours that happen in Utah all the time.

Can I even tell you how excited I am to be living in California with fall and winter on the horizon? Every year I d-r-e-a-d the end of September- I love fall, but fall means the winter is coming meaning s-n-o-w is coming. And you know how I feel about snow. I freaking hate it. It's so weird to think that I won't be digging my car out, won't be freezing my ass off every time I leave the house. Even though "summer" was short, I'm excited for "cooler" weather. I love my flip-flops, but I love boots and tall socks and layering even more.

I keep having dreams that it snows here- just a little bit, and I get pissed! I'm all YOU GUYS LIED TO ME! IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO SNOW HERE! JERKS!

Okay I'll wrap up this long blather of a post by saying that I got my new sewing machine on Monday and it's awesome! It's got more power, and it sews like a dream. I'm so happy with it- you know I was dreading "learning" a new machine, but this one is so similar to my old one that it's no big deal.

And also, since the Appel & Frank Babes & Babies event was such a big hit, I have been invited to come to their Holiday event on December 7th. It's not a baby event, but more of a gifty one, so I hope to sell aprons and ornaments and of course, more dolls!

monday musings

I made these last night. OMG heavenly delicious chocolate gooey cookie madness. They are S'mores Bars. It's really really hard not to eat them for breakfast!

I cleaned my whole house last week with my new cleaners. That clay stuff? My shower doors? HELLO! I can finally see through them again! And it wasn't that hard to clean them either. And so far- they are still clean. Miracle, it's an absolute miracle. I also cleaned my granite counters, my stainless fridge, stainless kitchen sink, bathroom sinks...they shine, they sparkle!

If it were up to me (like if we weren't renting) I would not have shower doors or stainless anything. They are hard to clean, keep clean, etc. But with this cleaner? My fridge looks amazing. I have special stainless polish that makes it look like I cleaned it with crisco. And windex makes it streaky. I just used a damp microfiber cloth, dipped it in the clay, wiped it down, then wiped it again with a dry cloth.

I did all the laundry with the new stuff, and I didn't notice a difference at all. Meaning it works at least as well as what I was using. I love the dishwashing soap for hand washing, but using it in the dishwasher sucks. It just doesn't work. OH! And I used the clay stuff on the bottoms of my very nice pans that we got for our wedding that almost got ruined by the electric range we cooked on for 3 years. They are totally restored. I know I could have gotten the same result with other cleaners- and a whole lotta elbow grease (I've done it before) but with the clay stuff- just used the sponge thingy that came with it. No elbow grease required. It's fantastic!

If you can't tell, I'm a HUGE fan of the All in One Kit (the lame name for the clay cleaner). They also have a multi-purpose cleaner that's in a spray bottle that I'd like to get- it has eucalyptus in it and I hear that spiders don't like that. There are GIGANTIC spiderwebs growing in all the corners in our windows that we always leave open- I don't want them coming in anytime soon!

Now that you know that my house is clean, I'll move on to other stuff.

Poor sewing machine. I can't believe it lasted that long, I worked that thing to death. (obviously) I'm gonna miss it. I ordered a new one from Amazon because they have the best deals, and we have a Prime account so shipping was $3.99. Except that that idiot that was supposed to deliver it on Saturday said that he was unable to deliver it because our building does not exist. Seriously? I get crap delivered from Amazon a few times a week- nobody else has ever had a problem. It's supposed to get here today, so cross your fingers that a different driver has it.

I have a lot of sewing to get done this week!

And is it really October already???