Fun with thumbtacks

Here's a table I made pretty a few months ago:

Took one cheap Ikea table, already existing in my apartment, and used aluminum flashing and hundreds of thumbtacks. Add in lots of patience, and voila! Project idea from a craft book I had bought. Right after, I had some ideas for other uses for the aluminum flashing, but have not gotten around to them yet.

And because she's so cute, here's a pic of my bench and Munchie chilling underneath it. She does this every morning!

My First Estate Sale!

Fed my current upcycle/DIY home obsession and went to my first ever estate sale yesterday! It was kind of overwhelming, but saw some cool stuff, and scored this cool mirror:

It's hanging at the little landing in front of my apartment door. I like it! Still debating if I should paint it a less darker gold or if I should just leave it. But I'm hooked! Hope I find even cooler stuff at my next estate sale. 

Just glanced through my old blog posts. This blog is 7 years old! And wow, was I obsessed with knitting! It's hilarious to read the stuff I used to write about. And how I wrote it too. I guess I HAVE grown up...just a tad. =)

What I Did On My Staycation

My first furniture redo projects!! I LOVE how they came out.

I loved how wide this chair was (good for big butts), and the little details on the legs and the back. Best of all, it was only $10. The cushion was in desperate need of a redo..it was saggy and the fabric was old and nasty. When I took it apart, the webbing was falling off the cushion frame, and the cushion was made out of straw (?). Put in new strong webbing, a thick foam pad, and upholstered with beautiful new fabric. Love it! And the blue color is so cheerful!

I was inspired by the tons of bloggers who took an old coffee table and turned it into a bench. And I was in need of a bench by my front door. Got this table for $35. Created the cushion by getting a piece of plywood and upholstering it. I had the wood cut to size at Home Depot, but either my measurement was off or they cut it slightly off. So the wood was just very slightly too big. It was a BIG pain in the ass to chisel it smaller. I pondered getting a circular saw for a few minutes, but decided I didn't need another new gadget. I do love my new palm sander though - it's awesome! I like how this came out, although the white paint with the dark glaze probably came out a little darker than I'd have liked...so makes it seem slightly dirty. 

Overall, the chair and the bench both came out really good for my first attempts, so I'm happy!

Back to Crafting/DIY

Well, hello! Long time no see again, as usual. Haven't made anything substantial in a looooong time, but I am currently on a staycation.... so, finally been gettin my hands dirty again! I have missed making things with my 2 hands and have missed being creative. So the newest thing I'm trying is furniture revamping. I have always wanted to try taking an old piece of junk furniture and making it new and pretty again. Of course, when I finally decided to try it, I have not seen any garage sales or junk on the street. But, I did score 2 relatively cheap pieces off of Craigslist to start off with. No pictures yet, but they should be done tomorrow! Lets just say Home Depot is my new favorite store. Probably been there around 5 times in the past 3 weeks. I have been taking things apart, chiselling, sanding, cutting, stapling, priming, painting, glazing, sealing. The issue with this new DIY hobby is I'm going to run out of space for my new finished projects! Guess I'll have to give things away if I continue!

One thing to show is a headboard I made a few weeks ago. Yay for DIY home blogs! Used the tutorial from Young House Love. 

In a contemplative mood..

No man is worth your tears, and when you find the man who is, he'll never make you cry.
- author unknown

The worst part of life is waiting. The best part of life is having someone worth waiting for.
- Jessica Brumley

Fun with PMC

Reviving my previous interest in PMC. I think I had made one really really ugly ring about 5 years ago, and then lost interest. This should be much more successful this time around, now that I have been making jewelry for a few years and have skills I didn't have before. 

Not bad for first attempts, eh?

Finished leaf necklace

=)

My new job is going well. What a relief! No more hating my life and cursing my job...woohoo!

And here is a FO..my Poof:

I'm Free!

I look at the last post I wrote 16 months ago, and I am amazed. Yesterday was my last day at said Family Practice job. While I learned a lot in my 16 months there, and grew both as a person and as a practitioner, to say that I am so relieved and thrilled to leave the position would be an understatement. I never knew I could hate a job so much. 

Among the things I will miss about the job: the few wonderful coworkers, the free lunches, and the easy commute.

Among the many things I will NOT miss one bit about the job: the disorganization of the office due to a huge patient load and no office manager; the pager, including associated annoying pages at 2 in the morning, pages from patients with non-emergencies such as requesting a medication refill or asking for a damn appointment or asking for an antibiotic without being seen and because they know they need it or asking for advice on what they should do on a Sunday afternoon after they have cut themselves deeply with a knife and the bleeding might or might not have stopped; not having a true weekend, since my days off were Wednesdays and Sundays; doing pharmacy requests and prior authorizations for the entire office; the rude entitled patients; being yelled at by said patients; being yelled at by 1 rude pharmacist at the CVS on Bell and Northern for a mistake THEY made; patients consistently coming in 0.5-3 hours late for their appointment and not being able to turn them down or have them be penalized in any way; not having a scheduled lunch break; gaining weight due to scarfing down food in as little time as possible due to lack of said lunch break, because if you didn't make time to scarf it down, it was likely that you would not eat and would continue working straight through like a friggin robot; looking for old charts for 15 minutes or more and failing to find them, as they are often misplaced or not filed anymore; being behind on my schedule because there are 5 rooms and 3 practitioners, and occasionally only 4 rooms due to the boss doctor lending out rooms to colleagues; being behind on my schedule because the boss doctor doesn't finish up seeing his patients and often has 3 or more of the rooms and is upstairs doing some other stuff instead(1 time, I was without a room for ONE whole hour);  being given any random and annoying task by the doctor as if I have nothing better to do; doing work at home for 2+ hours consistently and not getting paid overtime; crazy patients requesting crazy things; crazy patients requesting annoying things and expecting them to be done as soon as they request it, and then subsequently calling every 2 hours to see if you have done it; always getting the short end of the stick since I didn't have seniority; being underappreciated while being overworked.


Needless to say, good riddance, and good luck. I am taking the whole month of December off to relax and recover, see family, craft to my heart's content, and then I start a dermatology position in the new year. Here's hoping that I have better luck with this new job!!