Bathroom Update.

You may remember my personal success story bathroom redo post a while back. And you may remember the lack of door on our vanity at the time. What you didn't notice? You're blind.

I did finally find the door I bought at the Habitat for Humanity Restore, but discovered it's too big. And I'm not a carpenter, so I don't have the skillz to trim it to fit. Until the perfect door shows up on our front porch magically, I decided to go buy fabric. It only took me over a month to temporarily solve this problem. Don't judge.

The Problem: Gaping hole in vanity, exposed trash can and pipes, ugliness.

Solution: Anything but a hole.

I ran to Wally and bought a yard of $1 fabric. Because I'm cheap. Busted out my staple gun (uh, yea!) and scissors.

I don't love rules or measuring, so I did this all by eye balling it. Later I realized I should have measured, but whatev.

I cut off a section of the fabric that looked right and started stapling the top to the backside of the vanity. No real science, but I did "gather" the fabric so it had a flowing affect instead of straight across.

When I got to the other side, I cut it off (again, just eye balled it).

My ever-so-calculated estimates left me with too much fabric hanging, so I [notice a theme here?] eye balled the bottom as to where it needed cut. This is where I faltered. 

My left side ended up a little shorter than the right, but it worked out. I needed to leave part of it open so we can remove the trash can (duh!) so I only stapled to high hell secured the bottom right section of fabric.

And that's it. I can no longer see my trash or pipes or room spray when I walk in the bathroom. What do you think? Totally hillbilly?

I sort of think so, too. 

Fall Wreath.

When I have a lot on my mind, I need to make myself busy. I've had about 10 crafts in the works either literally (unfinished) or in my head still as an idea. Last night was one of those nights I needed to DO SOMETHING to keep my mind occupied, and a good time to complete a wreath I've been thinking about since, well, last Fall.

Until now, I've had the same Fall wreath for about 10 years. I bought it at Pier 1 and it was one of the first things I purchased when I got a job there in college. It was adorable and had a little scarecrow sitting on a bunch of twigs wrapped in a circle. He's been through a handful of moves and every year I bust him out of the bin to discover he's missing another piece. One year, he lost a patch on his pants, the next his nose was gone, then one year I couldn't find the button that was his eye. Yes, he's a scarecrow and missing pieces is "charming" but after a while, a faceless, patch-less scarecrow is just a male doll sitting on a wreath. Creepy.

So this year I combined my need for a new wreath with my stress and frustration, plus some cheap craft supplies and about 20 minutes of free time.

 And I like it.

All I used was:
• A Fall floral bundle from Michael's
• Wired edge ribbon
• A foam insulator tube thing (probably not what it's really called)
• Duct tape.
(Please ignore my stained ironing board. ugh.)

I first duct taped the foam insulator tube thing's ends together to form a circle.

It's way cheaper (50 cents for the foam insulator tube thing plus duct tape) to do this instead of buying the foam rings at a craft store for $10+ so the choice was obvious.

Next I wrapped the tube with the wire ribbon. I used no glue or pins for this because the wire ribbon has wires on the edges. I poked them into the foam insulator tube thing to secure, then covered it up and kept wrapping.

Then I made a simple tie to finish it off. Again the wiring is nice and helps it stay in place. 

I started clipping stems from the fall floral bundle and tucking them into the wraps of the ribbon.

Again, no glue, because the ribbon was tightly wrapped so it made for a snug fit.

I kept tucking stems until I liked what I saw. And I like what I see now. This took barely any time, and it'll do until I get a better scarecrow wreath next year.

Happy Fall!

Swim with friends.

I think we can all agree: Cancer sucks. 

It's more than devastating for an adult who is told they have cancer, but consider the weight of that news when placed on a child. 

Did you know that approximately 12,000 cases 

of pediatric cancer will be diagnosed this year?

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and Aflac is geared up to fight pediatric cancer with the "Swim With Friends" initiative....and you, my fine readers, can help!

In an effort to maintain the theme of this blog of trying new things. I'd like to challenge you to try this. Try imagining what it would be like to tell your child he/she has cancer. 

Now, try putting yourself in his/her shoes and imagine how confusing it would be to hear this. 

I encourage you to do something today. Something that can make a difference. Something that goes beyond ourselves and helps cure a disease that we are all affected by at some point in our lives. 

This initiative is rather fun. And it's super simple to join. Here is how to get involved:

1. DONATE: When you make a donation of $12, you’ll receive a rubber duck and entry into the Swim with Friends virtual race. Each donor has a chance to win a family-friendly vacation for four to Orlando! Also, your $12 donation is matched by Aflac and all proceeds go directly to pediatric cancer research.

2. RACE: A Swim with Friends virtual duck race will be held on Facebook on October 9th at http://www.facebook.com/aflacduck. The owner of the winning rubber duck (which will be chosen at random) will win the family vacation for four! Swim with Friends and donate to get your rubber duck today at www.aflac.com/friends.

3. TWEET: If you're a tweeter or twitter or twit-master (obvi I'm not) you can also help by sharing tweets with the hashtag #AflackKids - each tweet will generate a $2 donation from Aflac directly to pediatric cancer research. Go go tweet to your heart's content!

For more information about Aflac’s support to fight pediatric cancer click here. Click on the "Dive In" link below to get started. 

Website: www.aflac.com/friends
Hashtag: #AflacKids
Twitter: @AflacDuck
Facebook: facebook.com/AflacDuck

Please be a part of this great cause and help us fight childhood cancer. 

Disclosure:  This is a sponsored post for Aflac/SheSpeaks. Any opinions expressed are my own.

Football dip.

My husband and I (by association) are huge Bears and Purdue fans. If that makes you stop reading right now, I didn't like you in the first place. (I kid, I kid)

[and we all know, in every joke is a bit of truth....]

Regardless of your favorite team, I have a fun dip/piece of true artwork for you to make on game day. I made this for Super Bowl this past year, but completely forgot to post about it. Now is the perfect time, though. Football season is here. Yay!

All you need:
• Guacamole - which I make myself with 2 avocados and a mix packet
• Salsa - this I buy in a jar, though you could so totally make your own
• Cheese dip - ditto to the above
• Sour Cream - good luck making your own of that
• Cherry tomatoes

It's really very simple.

1. Fill the middle "half" with guacamole

2. Fill one side with cheese.

3. Fill other side with salsa.

4. This is where it might get a LITTLE tricky if you're new to "piping" with a sandwich bag. Place the sour cream in a sandwich bag, twist extra bag at top to close. Clip just the bottom corner off and push sour cream through. You're essentially creating a piping bag out of the sandwich bag. (this technique can be used on cakes, cupcakes, anything really) Proceed to piping end zones and yard lines. 

Don't be too worried if you don't have exactly 100 yards or, in my case, your yellow end zone is crooked. Nobody will notice after they start munching :) 

5. Place tomatoes on the field (this are supposed to look like footballs). I realize that in a typical game of football, there is only one football on the field at one time, but this is food. Not football. Relax.

6. Place on a larger platter, surround with chips and enjoy!

At our house, we love all things that chips are dipped into. So this was a hit! 

BOILER UP! BEAR DOWN!!

Website design.

This sure has been a Summer of trying all sorts of new things. I'm not about to stop anytime soon. I've really enjoyed documenting all my new adventures here, and I hope you've enjoyed reading along with me as I learn. Maybe I've even taught you a few things :)

For those of you who don't know, I am a graphic designer. I consider myself mildly creative and my style is very clean and fresh. I feel like I have a lot to offer potential customers of mine when it comes to logo design and promotional material creations.

But... I don't do websites.

Until now.....

I'd really love to expand my freelance business, and in the current market, digital marketing really is the most effective way of reaching customers. SO - I hate am forcing myself to love website design.

I've thought for a long time how I can venture into this world of website design. After talking to some fellow graphic designers and friends, I've decided to jump into it with both feet. I will now be offering my customers basic website design. Until I get more comfortable with it all, I can't make huge promises to anyone. However, I have no doubt that I'll pick up the knowledge quickly and be a pro in no time!

My first website customer is a new gym coming to Goshen. The owners are friends of mine and they've agreed to be my test-the-waters-and-build-a-website guinea pigs. Their address is www.iconfitnessclub.com. Keep in mind the site is under construction (and, well, built by a newb... ME!) so don't judge too harshly.

While designing this site, I've made decisions about fonts and concept and layout, etc. It reminded me of a graphic I saw a while ago on Freshlime Digital Marketing's website.

Image Source

I don't plan to include flashing graphics or highlighted text or slow loading images, so I think I'm safe with this first site. It still has lots of tweaking to be done, but for my first site, I'd say it's not bad.

Visit www.angeladeak.com if you're interested in checking out my personal website that includes some of my graphic design work.

Happy Monday!

Sushi.

This entry won't be long. It's very quick and to the point. I tried something VERY new to me. 

I had sushi for the first time ever. 

Two of my girlfriends, Dina and Marah, and I had a date at Cerulean in Winona Lake. (Dina had never had sushi before either. Marah is a young pro.)

The experience in a nutshell was awesome. I felt very overwhelmed initially because most of the ingredients on the menu looked like foreign language, my senses were on overload and, to be honest, I was sooo intimidated by this new experience. I need to learn to relax.

For the appetizer, I ordered their tempura ebi sushi, which is shrimp, cucumber, spicy sauce and scallions. The waitress said it was a good "starter" for a sushi newb like myself because it is made with cooked shrimp, rather than raw fish. And it was good!

For dinner, I ordered the Arctic Char, which (according to the waitress and later confirmed by Wikipedia) is a cold water fish in the salmon family. It tastes just like salmon, too. It was served with fettuccine, house whey, olive oil, pistachios, roasted carrots and garden herbs. And it was fabulous. 

For dessert, all three of us ordered the Whoopie Pie gelato. (no photo, I dug right in without considering it) It was chocolate gelato with a layer of marshmallow cream between. YUM. YUM. YUM. If you know me, you know how much I love whoopie pies - like more than mac & cheese. And that's a LOT. I mean, how many other couples do you know who had pyramids of whoopie pies at their wedding reception in lieu of a giant wedding cake? Yea, I think only Mike and me. 

If you've never tried sushi, do it. My belly and my spirit left extremely happy and I plan to return very soon! 

Bathroom redo.

I'd like to begin by saying anyone who installs carpet in a bathroom should get his/her head checked. I don't care if that "anyone" is YOU reading this. Get your head checked.

A bathroom is a very moist place. Yes, I said moist. Carpet does not belong there.

________

Moving on.....

The carpet in our bathroom has bugged me for (how long have I known Mike?) 4 years! I think mostly because I imagine miniature sized creatures living under the foam and eventually taking over our house. It would be them or the spirit of the dead Amish boy in our basement that eventually does us in.

Just kidding, future buyer of our terrific home.
There is no spirit.
I speak nonsense. . .

Recently, I got an itch about this bathroom of ours and hastily decided to redo it. Carpet, cabinets, whatever needed done. This bathroom needed a facelift!

Our house is still for sale (details here), so any remodeling/revamping/reanything had to be done on a small budget and still look great. I had been mindlessly surfing Pinterest for 5 hours an hour or so one day last week, and I found a great tutorial on how to stain your cabinets to look more modern. I figured if she can do it, so can I. So the plan was to replace the carpet and snazzy-up the cabinets. Got it.

I made a trip to Lowe's to get all the supplies I would need for this bathroom overhaul.

I only spent $50 and I purchased stain, poly/topcoat, floor tiles, foam brushes, floor prep goo, painter's triangles and mailbox letters. No, the letters weren't part of the project, but we did need them. So I got them. Side note: If you've never heard of painter's triangles, hear it here first. They're amazing.

I drove home. Took one last sad look at our ugly outdated bathroom, and got to work.

That is when I turned into an animal.

I began ripping up and slicing the carpet, yanking out nails and tack boards and staples, hammering down staples that I couldn't get out of the dang floor, chucking pieces of foam and carpet out the window into our driveway. I was a hurricane. And I was sweaty. If you want a workout, redo your bathroom, I'm tellin' ya!

Again I say... carpet in the bathroom sucks. Seeing the underside of bathroom carpet that has been around for 20+  years (including around a toilet) is not for the weaker stomachs. Boys are gross. I'll let your imagination take that one away....

After the carpet was removed, I got to work on the cabinets. I won't go into great detail on the process of staining because Monica pretty much covers it, and I followed her steps. I didn't use the same brand of stain as she did, though. I found one by Rustoleum called "Kona" and it worked out lovely. I did, however, use one of Mike's old socks like she suggested for staining. That worked great! Thanks, Monica!

Here is the long and short of the staining adventure:

In between the staining steps, I got to work on the floor. We've used the peel & stick linoleum squares before in our foyer, so I was familiar with the installation process. It's pretty simple. 

1. Prepare floor with goo
2. Let goo dry
3. Measure tile
4. Cut tile
5. Measure again
6. Cut a little more
7. Measure again
8. Pray it fits
9. Press down

I repeated this process many many many many..... times. Luckily, heavy duty scissors do cut these tiles, so trimming and getting a piece to fit correctly is not complicated, only tedious. It involves some math... and geometry... 

The entire bathroom redo process start to finish took 5 days. We're very happy with the final product, and Mike is very proud of me for taking this on and seeing a great end result. He honestly wanted very little to do with this overhaul - not because it didn't need done, but because this isn't his sort of thing. But it is mine!! 

The before and after photos are the best, so I will share a few of those....

See how dirty that carpet was?????

We have a door to cover the trash can, but we can't find it. It broke a while back and we hid it before a showing, aaannnddd we're not sure where it is. Once we find it, I'll stain it and install it. Promise.

I am proud of our bathroom. And I'm almost SURE that the next buyer that comes to see our house is going to see this bathroom and be SOLD. (ha!)

We are still praying for the right buyer. 

Laptop on fire.

My laptop is hot stuff.

No, like it gets super hot when it's turned on.

Wait. This is sounding all wrong. Start over.

I'm afraid my laptop is going to overheat some day, melt my counter apart, start a fire, burn down our house and our cats will run away in the chaos never to be seen ever again.

How about that?

Seriously! It gets so warm sometimes it's too hot to touch the bottom portion to move it. I'm really cheap and don't want to go spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on a fancy schmancy cooling pad. [What, they're only $20 most places, you say? well...]

Until that big $20 purchase, I have been using my own solution. It's a cooling RACK.

And it works the same as when you bake cookies. Sort of.

It doesn't have any snazzy fans, but it does allow for air flow and keeps the underside of my laptop much cooler so I don't singe the top layer off our countertop.

My husband appreciates that. And our 2 cats appreciate a roof over their heads. At least, I'm assuming they do. They don't say much besides FEED ME.

Happy Friday!

Neosporin miracle cream.

Source Source

There are millions of home remedies out there from which to choose. Everywhere you look there is a new use for witch hazel or baking soda or toothpaste. Well folks, I have a handy tip of my own and it involves NEOSPORIN! I've been using Neosporin for years on cuts, burns, rashes, you name it. The second I have any type of skin irritation I reach for this awesome stuff!

About a year ago it occurred to me that this miracle cream that heals all wounds (except a broken heart) could be great to heal a zit. A pimple. A third eye. After all, once you've tortured your clogged pore by pushing and popping and scraping, isn't it just an open wound at that point? Wouldn't Neosporin do the trick on your ugly red bump the same as it would a paper cut?

The answers are yes and yes.

After I've done the aforementioned torture (any other pickers out there??) I put Neosporin on said blemish and within a day or two it's cleared up. Much quicker than if I used the zit cream that just dries it out. Our skin needs moisture and time to heal. Neosporin does that.

Seriously, try it!

As if my personal testimony isn't enough to convince you, I'll take it one step further. I recently shared this home remedy with my hairdresser. She apparently went right home and tried it. After talking to her the other day, she thanked me big time for suggesting it to her. She (a fellow picker) said it has helped her so much and she's convinced. It really works.  

Happy people make me happy.

[I was in no way compensated for these statements. I am simply paying it forward.]

Have a great day!