Cool Thing: Ikea Food Storage
I love these little green-lidded food containers. They are super cheap at Ikea and come in a variety pack but the small square and rectangle ones are my favorite.
I use them to break up a big back of pretzels or goldfish into individual lunch portions. It’s so much cheaper than buying anything individually packaged and the ikea containers are so cheap that I have several sets, enough to split a whole bag of pretzels.
Sarah
Our Love Story
Since it is Valentines Day, I thought I’d share a brief version of my love story.
Stefan and I have been married for just over 2 years. In fact, our parents met each other before we did, at Olin College, the school we both attended. As part of the admissions process there is a weekend of interviews called Candidates Weekend. We were prospies (Prospective Students) at CW in February 2006. I don’t think I actually met Stefan at CW though our parents remember each other fondly. They both say some version of “They were the only ones not interested in comparing SAT scores.” Stefan and I met probably the first day at freshmen orientation though I’m not actually sure. Meeting so many people so quickly it’s hard to remember that first day at all.
We were friends and I always liked Stefan, i remember reading those so in love quotes and thinking on him. We worked on some projects together and were in the same study session freshmen year, struggling through a very difficult version of freshmen engineering. The curriculum at Olin changes so rapidly that the courses change in name and degree of difficulty from year to year. We were in ECS and it was hard…really hard. Hence the study sessions, also called NINJA sessions…don’t ask.
We started dating late our Sophomore year. Just in time for Stefan to go to Germany for 3 months and me to go to Austin Tx for the summer. We corresponded via email, the 8 hour time difference making things difficult but forcing us to put things in writing made our relationship stronger if anything.
During our senior year, we both kind of had the inclination to stay in the Boston area. We got jobs and apartments nearby. By in May of 2011, a year after our graduation, Stefan asked me to marry him after much subtle and not so subtle hinting on my part. On December 11, 2011 we were married north of Boston in Topsfield MA. Just a week later, we purchased a house in Arlington MA and the following spring we got a kitten, named Vector.
We are now a happy family, two Oliners and a cat with a suitably nerdy physics name.
Re-Upholstered Eastlake Chairs
We bought a pair of Eastlake chairs on super sale in New Bedford MA a while ago. They were $12.50 for the PAIR! They were in decent shape but the fabric was worn and faded, nothing that couldn’t be fixed. The springs were in good shape and didnt’ need to be re-pulled so I just recovered the cushions as-is.
Here is the before:
And here is the after:
I still need to get some trim to cover up the staples but that will go on quite easily with hot-glue and the chair will be ready to go. I chose this nice stripe since I found 3 yards of it on sale at a local discount fabric store. I knew it would be perfect for these chairs and the stripe is just what we needed to bring them up-to-date while still lending a traditional feel.
They are beautiful chairs and I’m looking for another pair as well as a settee in the Eastlake style for the Piano room.
The original fabric had a nail-head trim but I think I’m going to stick with just a simple gimp trim like this one:
I’m keeping my eyes peeled for something green or gold that will match the fabric well. Until I find it, the chairs are functional and at the very least, cleaner looking than they were before!
Sarah
Cool Thing: Grooved Cutting Board
I love this cutting board. It’s just a cheap wood one. I think I got it at TJMaxx or Marshalls. The groove is soooo handy. It’s great for anything juicy like tomatoes and anything with lots of scraps like herbs that need to be de-stemmed etc. I also love it for bread since the crumbs just stay in the moat instead of spreading all over the counter.
Next time you need a cutting board, I recommend a groove!
Sarah
