J & L Adventure 5: OSU Is Rad pt 2

Lindsey and I went back to OSU to explore more nooks and crannies of our awesome campus!

First we stopped in a few buildings that we'd never been in before.

I thought that this sign in one of the science buildings tells a very clear and amusing story.

We went up to the top story of Kelley Engineering Center. Both of us felt a little dizzy from the height.

I noticed that there were several paper airplanes that were stuck on the many window ledges. I imagined students laughing as they tried to out-throw one another from where we were standing.

Neither of us had been in the Linus Pauling building (so named for the two-time Nobel laureate who attended OSU) so we decided to see how high we could go. The view from the top-floor outdoor patio was beautiful. The whole west side of campus was visible, as was Bald Hill and puffy clouds that went on forever.

We were starting to feel a little squeamish from all of the heights, so we returned to ground and explored the OSU Student Family Housing Community Garden.

One of the coolest parts of the garden was the fence that surrounded it. Lindsey explained that the fence was most likely made out of the trees that had been cleared from the area. I thought it was really cool to make the tree scraps useful.

I also enjoyed the fairy tale effect that it gave the space. I'd really love a fence like this at my future home!

I know I've written about this before, but it never ceases to amaze me how HUGE sunflowers are. This one was a good foot taller than me and its face stretched bigger than my head. All of the flowers were starting to droop because they were too heavy to be supported by the thick stems.

I'll admit that I've never seen eggplants being grown in person! I am not sure I've ever even eaten an eggplant, but boy, were these beautiful!

These tomatoes, all in various stages of ripeness, also looked so pretty. It makes me want to grow vegetables instead of having decorative bushes in my front yard one day. In my opinion, they're just as pretty but you can make a salad with them too!

Thanks for another fun adventure, Lindsey!

G.Pinks Finds: Harrison Crossing

G.Pinks and I decided to take a nice morning stroll to find Harrison Crossing, a nano cache about a half mile away from my apartment.

She felt very fashionable as she wore the tiny log as a scarf!

Do you like treasure hunts and adventuring? Try Geocaching!

The Great Late Summer Adventure

Last week was filled with epic adventure and happy times. I was able to take a trip to Post Falls to visit my parents. I took loads of pictures along the way, so brace yourselves: this is gonna be an image-heavy post.

The first day, I arrived pretty late. I got to enjoy dinner with my folks, and then mom and I got to take a walk in a nearby pretty neighborhood as the day turned to evening. We got to see this lovely sunset as we went.

The next day, Mom and I had a BIG adventure. Mom had purchased a tennis racket on my last visit, but we weren't able to play - so she wanted to take it out for a (literal) swing this time. We laughed our behinds off as we tried to volley three times across the net. I had trouble keeping the ball out of the sprinkler puddles.

We brought our Geo Pals with us on our trip because there was a Geocache just across the street from the tennis court. The cache was a pretty easy find near the Centennial Trail.

Also nearby was the Post Falls Community Garden. Mom hadn't visited yet, so we decided to take a look.

The gentleman who oversaw the project, a neat guy named Art, happened to be walking his dogs as we were peering over the fence. He offered to give us a tour of the garden. So many gorgeous and yummy vegetables were ripening.

His wife was in charge of the flower plots. Tons of gorgeous varieties were in bloom.

I think her favorite color might have been purple, because that was mostly what I saw in the flower patches!

Mom then humored me with a project I'd been wanting to try. Cemeteries (and the idea of mortality in general) kind of shakes me up, so I want to get more comfortable with it. Why hold on to fears, right?

So we went to the store and picked up a bundle of carnations, headed to a nearby cemeteries, and placed flowers on the graves of people who died long ago. We figured that there would be nobody left to remember them, but they led lives just as well as anyone else, and therefore deserved recognition.

We found a father who outlived his two daughters and wife by 25 years, a baby who passed after one day of living, and Post Falls' founder, Frederick Post. It raised a lot of emotions and questions and thoughts, but eventually we moved on.

After that, we ventured into Coeur d'Alene for some lunch and more Geocaching. There were a bunch of caches on a bike trail, so we headed there. This one was near an old gate...

...another at a lonely tree...

...and a third hidden near some electrical city thing (?).

Mom has been growing tomatoes on the back deck, and her grape tomatoes are just ripening. They're DELICIOUS! There is more "meat" on them and less juice, and they're just more flavorful. I really want to grow some tomatoes next year ... maybe I can grow a couple of plants in a big tote box?

Midway into the trip I took a car ride down to the Moscow/Pullman area, just a couple hours south of Post Falls. I met my close friend Ethan at The Daily Grind in Pullman. I had the best time catching up and sipping a mocha! Later on he took me to Brused Books, his favorite used bookstore in Pullman. This is the kind of bookstore where you worry about toppling a bookcase if you move one book the wrong way. Everything is kind of piled everywhere, and it's fun to see what kind of treasure you can find in the chaos.

Then I headed across the border to Moscow where I met with Julie. We had a yummy lunch together at Mikey's Greek Gyros and then adventured around Moscow. We saw the Saturday farmer's market, Tie Dye Everything, the co-op, a coffee shop, and a couple of Julie's friends. It was really pleasant to get a peek into my sister's life!

The next day, my folks invited Kenny over and we shared a picnic lunch! Dad makes the most awesome BBQ hot dogs.

Last time I was up, Kenny, Dad, and I had each won a game of croquet. We decided it was time to have a grudge match and see who could break the tie. Kenny ended up schooling us both! He became poison before either of us, knocked Dad out quickly, and after a few rounds of cat-and-mouse, he pulled off an incredible long shot that hit me and won the game. It was a VERY well-deserved win!

After the picnic, Mom and I tried to find another Geocache that had been on Mom's to-find list for a LONG time. It was a puzzle that led to a spot on the edge of the cemetery. After a lot of poking around the fence line, we FINALLY found the very well-camouflaged cache! 

After that BIG find, we decided to keep our streak going and find another cache at the Arboretum in town. We searched for a long time before we finally found the micro hidden right in plain sight!

The next morning was my last in town, but we wanted to sneak one last cache in before I had to take off. Mom took me to find one at the park just down the street. It was a nano that I, with all my 5 feet and 3 inches, could barely see hidden up high! The log was so little that G.Pinks could wear it as a scarf.

I had to leave shortly after that. It's always difficult to leave after a great visit with my parents.

Thank you to Mom and Dad for letting me spend such a wonderful week with you!

Fit Fund

Today I was in the mood for another Pinterest cleanup.

This time I decided to merge two ideas that I really adore!

  

(click the images for the DIY instructions!)

I really liked the idea of a workout tip jar. I have several fitness goals to attain, and I like the idea of being able to fit into a smaller pair of jeans and already having some money put aside for them! And, those colorful glass jars are just too cool.

This is what I made:

Recognize that snazzy font? Same one I used for my recycling and compost bins! I love continuity ;)

Plus, I was able to reuse a cool-looking glass spaghetti sauce jar. Awesome!

And, as you can see, I've already made good use of it! Ah, I can hear those new jeans calling already.

Living room cleanup meets Pinterest cleanup!

My partner and I love our video games, so it's not uncommon for our coffee table to look like this:

So when I was looking for something to keep my hands busy, I remembered this really cool newspaper basket that has been haunting my "Arts & Crafts" Pinboard for quite some time and thought it would be a great solution!

I was really excited to use some of the newspaper that I had leftover from making my compost bin. I also like that it doesn't take many materials to complete this project!

I cut the paper at the fold and kept folding the paper long-ways and slicing until I had many strips of newspaper.

The tutorial said that it would be easy to complete this part using a rotary cutter & mat. I don't do the kind of projects that necessitate these tools (yet), but I agree that it would have made this part easier!

The initial weaving part was made easier by dotting glue where the strips of paper met.

When it came time to build up the sides, I had to extend my weaving area by gluing more strips on outward.

Ta-da! Perhaps a little more wobbly-looking than the original, but I think that it's really cool!

And, it definitely gets the job done! Much better.

Under-the-Sink Transformation!

The other day, I made my very own apartment-sized worm compost bin! This is something I've been putting off for a long time, so I was very proud to finally get it done.

I put it under my sink and stepped back to admire my achievement...

...and I was kind of underwhelmed.

I saw two problems with this scenario:

1. The interior of my cabinets is blaaaaaah, but I'm a renter so I can't paint anything.

2. The labels that I'd made for my recycle bins were quite unimpressive.

So I decided that that must be changed!

I didn't want to spend much money on this project. So to change the cabinet interior I broke out some cardboard, spray paint, and acrylic paint to make a liner.

The recycle bin situation was trickier. The original plan was make stencils and use some of that same acrylic paint to paint labels on the bins. So I made stencils using a free font that I liked called Fontleroy Brown.

But after a good hour of painting, letting dry, painting more, letting dry ... I found that the paint didn't stick onto the plastic bins at all! :( Not one to give up, I scraped off the dry paint mess and re-stenciled with Sharpie markers.

Et voila!

Yay - this one little space looks so much happier now!

Crafting FAIL ... Purchase WIN!

Andie and I saw these beautiful DIY lanterns on Pinterest and we really wanted to try to make them.

            

(click on each photo to see their DIY instructions!)

So we get all of our supplies together ... we apply string and doilies to balloons ... we let them dry ... we pop them, AND-

Sad trombone.

But we decided not to sacrifice our lantern dreams. So we went to one of our favorite downtown stores, Mod Pod, where we had seen some paper lanterns before, and...

The takeaway: You win some, you lose some.

And I think we ended up winning anyway. :)

Rag Rug!!

Ever since I saw this tutorial on Pinterest, I have really been wanting to make a rag rug!

So over spring break, Mom and I gathered materials to make rugs together. Her rug was completed soon after I went back to Corvallis. I, however, took my sweet time ... but four months later I finally summoned the gusto to do it!

So here's my little tutorial.

What you need:

-A huge crochet hook. I got my size Q one from Michaels for about $2

-Pleeeenty of fabric. You could use shirts, but when you cut the fabric like that it takes ages so I suggest using old sheets. I bought fabric/sheets from various thrift stores (and I raided Mom's stash!) which totaled about $6.

-Scissors (for cutting off ends)

-Time. Mine took 10-12 hours total for a 3 1/2 - 4 foot rug.

Let's begin!

1. Gather your fabric. I used a variety of textures, but I really REALLY  recommend sticking to woven fabric like sheets. Then, instead of having to cut your fabric (labor intensive!!!) you can snip and rip.

 2. Cut or tear your fabric and roll it into balls. I made my fabric into about 1" strips. I would snip into my fabric, tear until I almost reached the other edge, then flipped, snipped, and ripped again. This way I was able to make one long strip from a big rectangle of fabric.

For me, this part took about 5 hours by itself. I imagine I could have reduced my time by at least an hour if I had used all woven fabrics that I could rip, rather than some knit that I had to cut all the way.

3. Start crocheting in the round! I single crocheted so that the holes wouldn't be too big. Here is a good tutorial for crocheting in the round.

 4. At this point you're going to want to turn on a TV show and watch it as you work. This takes hours and hours, but it's a fabulous project if it's a hot day and you don't feel like moving much!

 5. Fasten off - you're done!

Mine turned out big enough that I can sit on it with plenty of room. It currently hangs out in my living room, but it is a fantastic size for if I want to move it into my kitchen, hall, or bedroom!