| neighbor noise follow-up |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|09:34 am] |
http://community.livejournal.com/hip_domestics/6403361.html
Some of you might recall my post quite a while ago about our noisy neighbors. I meant to post a follow-up sooner, but in the period of time this happened I participated in my sister's wedding, and I also got married so most of the time I would just scan livejournal and not post very often.
So...my husband and I decided one day to move our bedroom to the secondary room. I believe someone gave this idea, and I immediately rejected it. But we started measuring everything, and we made a few compromises.
Everything actually fit, and it's very cozy in there. I have been sleeping soundly, and there haven't been any issues. We haven't heard any noises during sleep hours from the downstairs until just the other night. (They play their t.v. at full blast through the day which we can tolerate.)
Their t.v. was on full blast, and we could actually hear the t.v. in our secondary room (now our master). It was 10:30 p.m.
My husband went downstairs and this was the exchange:
Husband: Hi. Your t.v. is really loud. My wife goes to sleep around 10 for work. Could you please turn it down?
Neighbor: When we turned our t.v. on that was what the volume was on.
Husband: O.k. so can you please turn it down?
Neighbor: O.k.
He went back to our apartment, and they maybe turned it down a notch. Thankfully, it was just enough that I couldn't hear it, but I thought it was kind of strange for her to say what she did.
Other than this strange conversation the noise problem is mostly fixed! We are saving to buy our own home so *hopefully* someday we can move. |
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| East Meets West strap & bottom |
[Dec. 24th, 2009|04:49 pm] |
The first part of the East Meets West bag is finished. The strap and bottom are worked as one piece in the round with a short row section that widens the bottom of the bag. The front & back are worked as one piece in the round and are steeked later. That's what's on my needles now.
( Photos )
KnitFlix |
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| How to store piave cheese? How do you cook raw Italian sausages? |
[Dec. 24th, 2009|06:17 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  dirty | ] |
My fiance bought some piave cheese at the italian market on tuesday(22nd) as part of a christmas gift to my father. My family canceled christmas due to snow and we are going to celebrate it on sunday(27th). Will the cheese last till then? or should I buy new cheese? I have to go back to buy the raw italian sausage(I should re buy that one right?) anyway. Its a aged crumbly cheese and it is in a paper tray wrapped in paper, and it is on the shelf of our fridge. I'm afraid it will dry out or taste like refrigerator if we don't get a new one. I also don't know if the market will have the same cheese when I go back.
Also what is a good way to cook raw Italian sausages? A chef friend who visited yesteday and said they could be cooked in the oven but I didn't get the specifics. My father should know this already, but since my family decided to cancel christmas we are eating the presents and rebuying them later. |
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| Last minute Christmas crafting! |
[Dec. 24th, 2009|05:55 pm] |
My stepmom is impossible to get Christmas presents for. She has just about everything, and I never know what she wants. All I really know is that she loves the color pink, martinis, and Corvettes. Last Christmas I etched the Corvette logo in martini glasses, so I kind of used up all of my options for this year and just decided to go with a pink theme.
( what's inside ) |
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| Paper Snowflakes and Holiday Card Display |
[Dec. 24th, 2009|12:33 pm] |
Construction paper snowflakes festoon our large upstairs window! No patterns, just a stack of ordinary construction paper and lots of love.
And for ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) scdsam who asked what to do with leftover holiday ribbons, I present our display of incoming holiday cards. This was inspired by a picture from a magazine (possibly Family Circle?) circa 2000, and this is the first year I've gotten around to making it happen. The display is 3 yards of red pom-pom ribbon. The individual cards are tied on with coordinating red and orange patterned ribbon (dots, stripes, and checks) and cheapo key chains. The materials will be reusable for following years. (Holiday card display cross-posted to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) organize.)
( SHOW ME THE PICS ALREADY! )
Happy Holidays!
Traceroo |
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| diaper genie refills that ship to Czech republic |
[Dec. 24th, 2009|10:10 am] |
So my cousin from the Czech republic is asking my mom to buy refills for a Diaper genie that she bought online
she can't find refills that ship to the CR so she is asking my mom to buy 20 refill packs and ship them over (mom doesn't want to do this as she thinks she is a spoiled brat and it is hella expensive to do this)
so any ideas websites that might be useful?
thanks all! |
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| Addressing a fruit salad |
[Dec. 24th, 2009|08:18 am] |
My sister-in-law is a vegetarian so I've decided to throw together a fruit salad for her to increase the range of offerings in the house while they're visiting. I'm using fruit on hand: pineapple, cuties, apples, pears and walnuts. I'd like a suggestion for a glaze, possibly one that's honey based.
Also, any idea on how much lemon juice I need to add to keep the apples from turning brown? Will it work to preserve pears also?
TIA |
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| Recycled silk + Hemp Twine |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|11:08 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  hopeful | ] |
Got a question for you fine folks here...(feel free to skip my verbosity to the last paragraph!)
I've been wanting to make a bag for a while out of recycled silk- not a small purse, but maybe a messenger-type bag, something if decent size that can hold a bit of weight. I know that the silk wouldn't be good for this on its own, I'd need to line the bag (and somehow reinforce the shoulder strap) or ply it with something. I was thinking about making the bag from hemp and then stitching on the silk pieces so that they're more of an outer later than an actual weight-bearing part of the bag, but that seems like a massive pain.
I don't have a sewing machine to stitch a fabric lining, nor do I have enough confidence in my hand-sewing skills to hand-stitch one (if it was just a purse or something, sure, but like I said, I want it to carry some weight- not a bag of rocks, but a couple of books, that sort of thing.
I was just playing around a bit, and I realize that I like the way the silk looks when plied with the twine. I've tried a bit of googling and not really found much on the strength, so I was hoping someone here might have a clue as to whether this would fly or not.
So...in short- will plying recycled silk with hemp twine give me the strength I need to hold up to a couple of books worth of weight? (And I'm talking notebooks/large paperback/maybe the occasional hardback and little things like keys, cell phone, typical stuff that everyone carries around- not massive coffee table books or textbooks.)
For what it's worth, I'll probably be doing this on 11 gauge needles in stockinette. |
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| I'm going to knit a shrug and need help deciding the neck shape. |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|04:27 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  curious | ] |
I decided that to help keep warm I am going to knit myself a shrug. I have two ideas for the neck shaping, but I like them both and can't choose. I am going to put a cheap-paint pic of my ideas at the bottom and would like your input.
They both button where the two sides meet. The shrug is going to end just below my chest area, the sleeves will also be longer, but I got lazy on the pic ^.~
Voting is nice, but I would also like to hear why you voted that way (or if my pics don't make any sense)
( silly paint pic )
Update:
(A) seems to be the fav ^.^ now comes the hard part...picking a color XD
I was thinking of going with a light grey so I can wear it with a ton of stuff and so it will be light enough to show the details I want to add to the sleeves. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|02:22 pm] |
I'm bringing my very first important dish to Christmas, and now of course I'm freaking out that I'm going to ruin it. Mashed potatoes. Oh, mashed potatoes, how you've brought drama to my family before. (An aunt normally makes them--not all that well, by the way--but didn't say so in advance one year. Someone else prepared them and there were *two bowls of mashed potatoes*. The horror of it! Aforementioned aunt had a total melt down, and ever since mashed potatoes have been a sensitive topic. Ha! Oh, family.)
Anyway, 10 lbs of potatoes aside, how can I keep the big glass bowl that they will reside in warm? A quick reheat in the microwave is doable, but they'll be prepared in the afternoon and eaten in the evening, so I'd like to keep them warm versus refrigerating them and then having to bring them all the way back to hot from cold. Could I make them and transfer them into my crock pot and keep it on the warm setting? If I'm doing that I could just transport/serve them in the removable inner which would work well too.
Also, I was just going to go with some milk, butter, and salt added. When I make them for myself I just add milk, but this is going on suggestions to make them tastier. Any tried and true potato to milk to butter ratios?
ETA: How long does sour cream last once opened? I've got a tub with a sell-by date of 12/14, and it's likely been open since then. |
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| Non Stick Pots and Pans |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|01:20 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | enquiring minds want to know! | ] |
Hello Hipsters!
I'm a newly minted single guy and I just bought some new, fairly good (for me anyway) non-stick pots and pans.
I know the non-stick surfaces can be a little more fragile than cast iron *grins*. I'm wondering how do y'all store 'em? As I live in an apartment I don't really think hanging a rack is optimal. Cabinet space is minimal too.
The pots with lids I can deal with: Reverse the lids on the largest pot and stack the next one on top of it. Repeat as needed.
But what about grill and fry pans and such?
Thanks a bunch! |
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| Uses for leftover holiday ribbons? |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|01:21 pm] |
As the presents pile up, I'm noticing a lot of really gorgeous holiday ribbons (the lovely fabric and fabric/wire kind) tied around the packages.
Anybody have any ideas as how to reuse these (other than wrapping for next year)? They're probably no longer than 1-2 ft each, varying widths, and none really matching except that they're holiday-ish in theme.
Asking in advance because I probably won't keep them if I can't think of a way to use them again. THANKS! |
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| Smelly lunch box/bag |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|12:26 pm] |
I have until Monday night to figure out how to get my boyfriend's lunch box un-smellified. It's one of the large Thermos ones, with the lower rectangular compartment and the upper rounded compartment (meant to hold a Thermos with liquid inside).
When I pack his lunch in the morning, I put leftovers in Gladware containers and at least two (sometimes as many as four) sandwiches in the bottom compartment, and I use the upper compartment for fruit, granola bars, baking, and plastic cutlery. Yes he eats that much and he's in a desk job; I worry about what would happen if he were in a physically demanding job again.
Sometimes he doesn't eat everything, which is fine by me, except for when he leaves an orange in the upper compartment for days on end. The box goes into the fridge every night, but I guess it doesn't get refrigerated at work, and the last orange I sent didn't get eaten for over a week - I actually finally just tossed it because it was inedible (not rotten, just gross).
So now his lunch box smells like old, gross orange, and airing it out overnight hasn't helped at all. I've actually been emptying the thing into the fridge every night and leaving it out, wide open, on top of the cupboards. No luck.
So... what's my best bet here? The Thermos web site says to wipe it down with mild soap, but that seriously is NOT going to get rid of this smell. |
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| Lots of cream cheese on hand |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|10:02 am] |
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So I have 4 blocks of cream cheese due to expire a few days after Christmas. Any ideas on what to make with them? I have the usual baking essentials but would prefer nothing too complicated (like a pumpkin roll) as I have a toddler and newborn to take care of. Side dishes would be great too. Thanks! |
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| Another Christmas FO - Dropped Stitch Scarf |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|12:02 pm] |
A few months back, I found myself with some time on my hands and no active knitting project in progress and no real idea of what I wanted to work on next. While wandering my LYS, I found these skeins of Yoga ribbon that were just gorgeous.
I have worked with Yoga before. My very first knitting project was a garter stitch scarf in the blue-green Yoga. I would kill to pick up more of that but the yarn has been discontinued and is hard to find. The skeins that were at the store were in the golden - brown colors and I decided to do a dropped stitch scarf since I thought it would show off the gorgeous ribbon very well. I made one with all the dropped stitch rows the same length. It wasn't originally intended for a Christmas gift but when it was done, I just knew that it would perfect for my Aunt Sharon. I decided to make another one for myself. This time, I decided to experiment with the pattern and I alternated between short dropped stitch rows and longer dropped stitch rows which I think added some interest. My aunt's scarf is already packed up for Christmas but I finally got around to taking some shots of mine. Hope you like it.
( photos ) |
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| Crayon Tinting and Embroidery |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|08:40 am] |
I just finished my first attempt at crayon tinting with embroidery. I've been doing embroidery for a long time but just found out about crayon tinting. I really like it. Obviously I'm going to need to practice with it a little bit but it's a great way to add color. I used this tutorial, it's pretty easy: http://www.urbanthreads.com/pages?id=448
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| FO: Nakniswemodo09 # 11 |
[Dec. 23rd, 2009|09:32 am] |
My #11 is something I call a Scruffel. It can worn as a shrug or a scarf. Made with 1.5 skeins of Caron Simply Soft. This is an original design but may write up a pattern if people are interested.
This one is actually for a friend and is a little big for me. The one I made for myself (years ago) is much more snug around the shoulders when worn as a shrug.
( What's a Scruffel??? )
Pattern - Scruffel (my own design)
Yarn - Caron Simply Soft
Ravelry Project Page - Here
x-posted to personal livejournal |
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