Picture of the Day: Westminster Abbey Archway

London, United Kingdom
11.2003 

Picture of the Day: Diving in Okinawa

Okinawa, Japan
2.2009 

Picture of the Day: Lioness Relaxing in Kruger National Park

Kruger National Park, South Africa
7.28.2004

DIY Felt Accented Pillow Cover

I love throw pillows. I have what seems like a million of them and it is fun to have different covers to swap out and change the look of my rooms.

When I saw this pillow cover on Joss and Main I thought it looked really cute and I liked the dimension of the folded material. It reminded me of the first fold in making a cootie catcher when I was a kid. The fuschia color was not my style, but I liked the concept of the pillow so I pinned it to refer to later.

I decided to use the Pinterest Challenge hosted by Sherry, Katie, Michelle and Megan as an excuse to break out my sewing machine and make a throw pillow inspired by this pin.

To start I cut a bunch of 4" squares from various shades of blue and teal felt using my rotary cutter.

I then folded all of the points into the center and pinned them.

I arranged the little felt shapes on the front of a piece of pale tan linen and pinned them in place.

I sewed through the shapes across the centers and then removed the pins. I sewed the sides together (it's just a simple envelope cover), turned the pillow right side out and put a form inside.

I think the pillow turned out really cute and I loved how it looks on my couch. I especially like the fun dimension that the felt accents add. Sweet and simple!

If you are interested, check out my past Pinterest Challenge Projects: Shutter Organizer for My Craft Room & DIY Crown Molding Shoe Organizer for Heels

Picture of the Day: Boats in Halong Bay

Halong Bay, Vietnam
8.13.2011 

Ceiling Gutting Fun

Once I have a plan in place I tend to have a hard time sitting still. Working on the front bedroom was no exception. As soon as it was decided that we might as well finish up the front bedroom properly before Frank moves in I was itching to get started.

So I did what any girl who is bored on a Sunday afternoon would do, I started gutting the ceiling myself. I have plenty of experience with these ceiling tiles since they were everywhere on the first floor of my house. The tiles are interlocking and were stapled into furring strips. I started at a spot where the tiles were sagging and started pulling them down.

It was actually pretty quick work since the installation had been shoddy and I could sometimes pull down several tiles at once.

The surprise (there always is one with my house) was that there was another drop ceiling above the first one. Here's where things stood after the first ceiling was down.

Of course I had to keep going so I busted out my pry bar and pulled down all of the furring strips. At this point it looked like I hadn't made any progress since the second ceiling looked remarkably like what I had just taken down. 

I kept going and pulled down the second layer of tiles revealing the original lath and plaster ceiling beneath it.

At this point I decided to stop. The plaster of the ceiling was in bad shape so I didn't want to remove the second set of furring strips right now since they are helping stabilizing the crumbling plaster.

I've thought about it for a little while and I am going to leave the lath and plaster up, remove the furring strips and sheath the ceiling with 1/2" plywood. The plywood will keep my plaster stabilized and act as a substrate for the nail up tin ceiling.

I'm doing this for two reasons. First, if you have ever removed lath and plaster you know that it is a hot mess. It is super messy and super time consuming. My idea of purgatory is pulling out lath nails from studs and ceiling joists. I had to gut other rooms in the house down to the studs in order to add electrical, add ductwork, add insulation and evict the racoons who had taken up residence in my walls, but if I have a choice (and I do here) I'd rather not have to deal with it.

Second, I called the Ann Arbor building department and confirmed that if I leave the plaster ceiling in place then I do not need to pull a permit since I didn't open up the ceiling. I'm already getting 2" of headspace from removing the two drop ceilings so the additional inch that would come from removing the lath and plaster really doesn't seem worth it.

Anyway, with a few hours of work and 7 contractor bags full of debris my ceiling went from this...

...to this.

It doesn't look like progress, but things always look worse before they get better. Now that I've started I am excited to get the plywood up and start on the tin ceiling. I've got some samples of tin tiles coming in the mail this week and I can't wait!

Operation: Update the Front Bedroom

When I moved into my house in 2007 the very first thing that I worked on was getting the side wing in decent shape so I could live there while the rest of the house was under construction. The side wing used to be a neighborhood grocery and sometime after the grocery closed in the 1960s it was converted into three bedrooms, a laundry room and a long hall. Those rooms were by no means in good condition, but they were the best in the house. 

I've shared a bit about the guest room and the back bedroom before, but I've never shared about the third front bedroom in the side wing which is the largest of the three. Here is what it looked like in 2007.

Like the rest of the house it was filthy. After getting rid of the faux wood paneling the raw drywall underneath needed to be finished and then I primed and painted the walls. Since I was in a hurry to get it habitable, I left the drop ceiling in place and just gave a coat of paint. The carpet was disgusting and I had the carpet replaced. The trim was made from cutting down pieces of of the real wood paneling that had lived in my stairway. It was a fast and cheap update that made the room livable while the main part of the house was gutted. Unfortunately, I've never gotten around to actually finishing up the room the way I want and the room has existed like this for several years.

Now that Frank and I are engaged, we've been planning for him to move in. The large front bedroom seemed like an ideal spot for him to have an office/man cave so I have been working on cleaning it out since it had become a catch all room for me. After cleaning the room up we discussed giving the room a fresh coat of paint, but then the conversation started veering into actually properly finishing the room since it was empty. Here are a few pictures of the room as it stands now. (As a side note, those little couches were my couches in my living room in Japan and the biggest I could find at the time)

First, I want to rip down the ceiling tiles and replace the ceiling. We are thinking that maybe adding a tin ceiling would be cool. Next, the cheap carpet has to go and we want to add hardwood. I also want to replace the trim in the room to match the rest of the house and the outlets need replacing as well.

The hollow core door needs to go and I need to do some hunting around for an old five panel door to replace it with. The closet also needs some work to replace the hollow bi-fold doors and change out the interior to make it more usable.

It will be a good chunk of work, but I am excited to finally start working on finishing the side wing properly.

Picture of the Day: People Climbing Sydney Harbour Bridge

Sydney, Australia
1.05.2010

Picture of the Day: Elephant at a Watering Hole in Letaba

Kruger National Park
South Africa
7.30.2004 

Misadventures of Lisa and Trisha: Snow Monkeys

While we were living in Japan Trisha and I would often go on road trips on the weekends. We would enlist some of our other expat friends, fill up the FunCargo (my little Japanese car) and head off.

On one of those trips, Trisha and our friends, Martin, Kuan and V-ken, headed up north to Nagano Prefecture. We stopped to see a variety of things on that trip but the main reason was for us to visit Jigokudani Monkey Park. 

I had read about the monkeys and was so excited to see them in person that I could barely contain myself. Trisha took this picture of me to the left waving my hands in excitement as we walked up the hill to the park.

The entrance building was pretty unassuming and after walking through a small exhibit about the monkeys we exited back outdoors into the park. 

The park itself was completely not what I expected. I thought there would be a path with a fence dividing the people from the monkeys, but instead you can freely walk along the valley with the monkeys running right up beside you.

The monkeys at Jigokudani are Japanese macaques, otherwise known as snow monkeys because they live in habitats with snow. Unfortunately, there was almost no snow on the ground while we were visiting because we were there a little too early in the winter, but it was still an awesome experience.

Near the entrance before descending to the river many of the monkeys were occupied with digging around in the dirt for insects to eat.

We also saw a number of the monkeys grooming each other. It was really charming to watch.

The monkeys had such expressive faces and I loved how the adults' pink faces contrasted with their brown fur.

The little babies were my favorite with their large eyes dwarfing the rest of their faces. They constantly scampered around their mothers and I was lucky to catch a picture of this little guy sitting still for a second. 

The monkeys were running around everywhere and were so used to people that they would run right next to you or just continue on doing what they were doing as you walked by. 

At this point we hadn't walked very far into the park and as we looked down into the valley we saw that the whole riverside was swarming with monkeys. They are a little hard to spot because their fur blends in with the rocks, but there are fourteen monkeys in the picture below.

We headed down to the river to get a closer look and saw the hot springs pools nearby where the monkeys were bathing. The name Jigokudani, which means "Hell Valley" in Japanese stems from the hot springs because people thought that the hot steam and water bubbling to the surface looked like Hell. In winter months the monkeys come to the valley to warm up in the hot water.  

In Japanese culture, relaxing in natural hot springs (onsen) is a very popular activity so it seemed very Japanese of the monkeys that they also would enjoy bathing in the hot springs.

Even in the water, the monkeys continued to groom each other. It was so neat to see and I really could have watched them doing this all day. 

I like how the monkey getting groomed in the photo below is giving the stink eye to the other monkey. 

The monkeys looked so peaceful and serene in the water compared to the way they were scampering around on land.  Watching the monkeys warming up in the hot springs with their reflections in the still water was quite surreal and beautiful to see.

We all were pretty camera happy and had so much fun watching the monkeys go about their business as if we didn't exist. Here's a photo of Martin taking a picture of one of the monkeys.

Of course, we had to catch a few pictures of ourselves next to the bathing monkeys.

Even though we were enamored with the monkeys, they really could have cared less about us being there and would get out of the water right next to us if they so felt like it. Luckily, I scooted out of the way before this little guy splashed me.

Trisha was not so lucky, however. I grabbed this cute picture of Miss Trish (it was Christmas time, hence the antlers and Santa hat) but then one of the monkeys decided he was done with his bath and popped out of the water right next to Trisha.

I caught her reaction right after she got soaked. Priceless photo, I'd say!

Before we knew it, dusk had settled on the valley and in a matter of minutes all of the monkeys slipped into the safety of the forest along the mountainside for the night. What had been a hive of activity moments before was suddenly empty. Our time in the valley was brief, but it was so amazing to see the monkeys up close that it ranks among my favorite experiences in Japan.

To get to Jigokudani Monkey Park, we drove and parked there which was very convenient. If you are taking public transit, you can take the Shinkansen to Nagano followed by a local train to Yudanaka. From Yudanaka station you can then take a bus or taxi up to the Monkey Park. Keep in mind that no matter how you get to the Monkey Park, vehicles cannot get all the way to the top and you will have a 15-30 minute steep walk before you reach the entrance. 

Of course, double check the details before you go, but at the time of this writing Summer hours (April - October) are 8:30am - 5:00pm and Winter hours (November - March) are 9:00am - 4:00pm. In the summer months the monkeys will go off into other areas of the park to forage for food, so it is not a guarantee that you will see monkeys if you visit then. Cost for entrance is ¥500 for adults and ¥250 for children and in my opinion is completely worth it!