Furniture Post - Dresser

One of the biggest pains of living in the dorms, then moving cross-country and starting real life is that I started with almost no furniture. Luckily, my parents are going through their post-children reimagining of their home, so they were happy to give me few pieces of furniture. But one thing I was left without is a dresser.

So after 7 1/2 months of keeping my clothes in wire baskets on the floor (thanks to my sister for lending me the baskets!), I finally buckled down and bought myself a dresser! Well, parts of a dresser. 

I bought this one from Ikea:

Hemnes, in blue

Here is the space I had for it:

I wish I had taken a picture of my haphazard organizational system that this dresser is replacing, but here's an idea of how much stuff was hanging around:

A work in progress...

Aaand voila!

Finally, I feel like I live in my bedroom! I took the opportunity to finally unpack a couple of lingering boxes, and it's amazing how therapeutic it can be to just move things around. It's like I had a little bit of spring cleaning in preparation for the fall. Have you done any fall cleaning? 

Baby Blankets!

A few years ago, one of my close high school friends had her first baby. I was kind of at a loss as to what to get her. I was 18 for pity's sake - I knew nothing of the intricate world of baby paraphernalia! Luckily, my mom stepped in and taught me how to make the simplest, most gift-able baby blankets EVER.

Since then, I've had three more opportunities to make these blankets - twice since I started working at my company! Now, I'm very hesitant to share the secret because I've been enjoying the raving gratefulness I've received from new parents about these blankets, but I suppose I should share. Generosity and stuff, right?

To make one blanket, you'll need a yard each of flannel in coordinating colors - I like a pattern for the front and a solid for the back (for these, I got a sports theme and an animal theme for the front and a stripe for the back). I tend to make these blankets in pairs, just so that the gift feels more substantial, so I get two patterns and two solids.

First, wash and dry the fabric. Because it's for a baby, you should use detergent with no dyes or scents. Then, trim any loose threads. Take a blurry picture, if possible.

I'm a terrible person and take shortcuts, so at this point, I place the two pieces right side together and sew all the way around, leaving a 4-5 inch opening in the middle of one side. If you want to be more precise, I would suggest trimming the pieces to be the same size before sewing.

Here's where I trim the sides to make them the same size. If you're more meticulous, you've already done this.

Then, turn right side out, poke out the corners (I use closed scissors), and stitch the opening closed.

Finally, topstitch about an inch away from the edge with a zigzag or other decorative stitch. This ensures the blankets keep their shape.

And there you have it! Throw them in a gift bag, grab a cute card, and you're all ready to make a newborn all kinds of cozy!

Oops.... July Goals

Well, I certainly failed at August! After being relatively dedicated to blogging twice per week throughout July, I just kind of dropped off the face of the planet. I don't really have an excuse - I just.... stopped. But no more! Back to twice per week for me!

Let's do a quick review of July's goals. I decided that I would score myself out of 12 (1 point per goal per week) with a total possible score of 15 (with my bonus items). Here's how I did:

• Get in the groove of posting on your blog
• Four weeks in a month, three weeks worth of posts, so I'll give myself 3 points here. Oh, and I definitely accomplished the bonus (travel posts for Boston and California), so I get a total of 4 here.
• Get back on board with Couch-to-5k
• I wanted to get to week 5, but I only got halfway through week 4. And then stopped entirely. I'll give myself 3 points here, and I didn't register for a formal event, so no bonus.
• Budget budget budget!
• Ha. Hahahahaha. This really failed. I feel like budgeting is the real-life version of college studying. Each person has to figure out their individual techniques, and there's no way to figure it out than trial and error. July was an error, BUT I think I discovered a method to gradually reduce my dependence on my credit card. So I get a measly 1 point here, with some major hope for the future.
• Summary
• All told: 8/12. 67%. Technically a failing grade, but I'm going to look at it as getting 2/3 of my goals accomplished, which isn't too bad. Hopefully September goes better!

September goals:

(After struggling to recreate my July image, I've given up. Maybe perseverance should be a September goal?)

• Crafts
• The whole purpose of this blog was to burn through my halfway done crafts. Let's get three of those lingering crafts out of the way. That means I get one freebie week to make something new and fun!
• Success looks like finishing the big three lingerers (I know what they are, but no spoilers for yo : D ). Failure looks like having two or more left to do at the end of the month.
• BONUS: Finish the fourth lingerer.
• Games
• I'm starting a new project that involves playing A LOT of video games. This may seem like a bit of a waste of time to a lot of people, but it's a personal goal I would like to accomplish. Anyway, I'd like to get going on these.
• Success looks like playing through three games over the course of the month. Failure looks like not finishing at least two.
• BONUS: Get some pre/post filming done.
• Friends
• I moved to Seattle almost 8 months ago, and I haven't been good about making new friends or even keeping up with the friends I already have here. I'd like to work on that this month.
• Success looks like hanging out at least twice with new friends and at least once per week with existing friends. Failure looks like not connecting with new friends and not making an effort to see existing friends.
• BONUS: Get them all together. Cocktail party, maybe?

So, those are my goals. Do you have any goals for this month?