Friday, September 14, 2012

Fall is coming!



Good morning, everyone!
I just needed to post about how excited I am for Fall, my favorite season. Here are some of the things I love about it:




What's your favorite thing about Fall?

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Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Redesigning the Laundry Room




     When you've first bought your new home, everything may seem perfect. All that space! All those rooms! You must get to decorating right away! You have to go to Lowes and buy everything right now!! Then reality sets in. Oh, wait...you have to unpack first. Ugh! And where are you going to store the vacuum? What about all those blankets and linens that don't quite fit in the hall closet? Ack!

     Our house came with a washer & dryer which was a major plus, especially since they're the newer HE models. Down side? The laundry room is pretty small. Along the left wall there is a small place for a trash can, then there's the washer & dryer with a window above them that looks out to our driveway, and last is a laundry sink (like!) that's right up against the wall. There is about 1.5-2 feet to walk, then the wall on the right side.

We currently hang clean clothes from the washer door. Nice, eh?

 

The tidy cats container is our compost bin

Cleaning supply storage

A consequence of no storage- stuff just gets piled up

     Not a lot of room is there?

     Pretty much as soon as we moved in we realized that something had to be done. Either we put up shelves (or something) or it's going to be a mess. Well...it's a mess. As you can see we haven't done anything to it yet. Hence, the mess.

     Here's my wishlist for the redesign:
          *Space for cleaning supplies
          *A place for clean laundry
          *Room to put dirty laundry waiting to be washed
          *Window treatments
          *Cute!
          *Inexpensive
          *Easy!

     Is that asking too much? :)

     Possible ideas? Short shelves above the washer & dryer? Maybe a table type thing over the machines to fold clothes? I like the idea of the long, wall length shelf, too. Maybe something to hang over the door to help organize things? Some kind of collapsable drying rack?

     More to come! Have you ever remodeled a room? What pushed you to do it?

 
P. S. Do you like the new look?

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Poetry Slam

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     Hey, guys! I've missed you!
    
     We've found something pretty cool that I have to share with you. It's a poetry slam. Travis performed an original poem during one of the open mic parts several weeks ago (He's pretty shy, especially around crowds; I'm so proud of him!) and asked if I wanted to start going. The past 2 Sunday nights we've gone to the poetry slam at Backspace in downtown Portland. I'm not sure if any of you have ever been to one, so I will describe it.
     The first night we went wasn't a normal night. First, they had an open mic, where anyone can sign up on a list (up to a certain number of people) and you have 3 minutes to read your poem or rap or whatever you want to perform, really. Then, there was a feature performer. She came all the way from New York. It was slightly akward because some of her poems were about gender identity (she was a lesbian) and politics. There was a very rude man in the audience standing in the back who kept shooting back obnoxious responses to her poems, like telling her she was going to rot in hell or randomly saying that the constitution should never be changed. In fact, I was really uncomfortable. I was sure he was going to pull out a gun or something. He left after getting stared at and after the staff tried to approach him to ask him to be quiet. Whether you agreed with the stance of any of the poets or not, it is really rude and inconsiderate to interrupt their performance with your comments. After the feature performer there was the "slam" portion. This just just a fun night, not for the competition, though there was still a winner. Poets were paired. They would do rock/paper/scissors to decide who would go first (the winner got to choose), then perform for 3 minutes. This night they performed song lyrics. One guy did Beyonce's "Put a Ring on It", a girl did The Talking Heads, "Once in a Lifetime". Some of the songs chosen were hilarious! After the two poets had performed, they were each called up onto the stage and the audience voted by standing up and clapping/hooting/hollering who they liked best. The winner would go to round 2. Round 2 was the same thing (different songs). The winner received a beautiful Pretty Pretty Princess tiara, a loaf of bread (banana muffin I think), and a CD. :) The winner was a guy, so it was great to see him in the tiara.
     The second night we went was more like a "typical" poetry slam night. They did the open mic first. Again, it was slightly akward because one of the guys read more of a political speech than a poem. But, whatever, it gave him a voice and it was appropriate. After the open mic part they had the feature performer, C. R. Avery, who is a beat-box poet from Canada. He was AWESOME! He has numerous albums out and is releasing one soon entitled Act One where he performed with the Prague Symphony Orchestra & La Pucelle d'Orleans Choir. He also uses the harmonica and guitar in his show. It was seriously different from anything we have ever heard. Then, they had the slam portion. Unlike the previous week, this week the poets had to perform works that they had written. The elimination was still the same (standing up and cheering to vote). In round 2 they had to read a work that they had never performed at Backspace before. This time there was a round 3 (I honestly can't remember if there was the first night). The winner got another tiara, a book of poetry, and a CD. This is where I'm not sure how it works. At some point (who knows when) that winner will compete with the other night's winners. This is a national thing, so then they compete with other poetry slam competition winners. I'll have to find out the rest.
     Anyway, we really like going and recommend it to other people. Being around creativity is always enlightening, even if the poem is about shop class :)

My own poet
This is the mirror...



Being around creativity can make you more creative!
     Have any of you ever been to a poetry slam? What was it like? Have you ever performed your poems for someone?
-E