Back to the Old

02/15/2010

Last week I dug out my old backpack – the one I used from middle school through my second year of college when I discovered tote bags. As a commuter, totes where the best way to not have to carry 8 books around all day. I had my morning tote bag, my lunch bag and my afternoon tote bag (and occasionally some gigantic portfolio and art toolbox). They all resided in the car until called upon.

Back to the present. I carry my laptop to and from work in a neoprene sleeve in a tote back. This is the one I’ve been using recently:

The thing is, I’ve pulled or strained or twisted some muscles in my back or side 3x in the past couple of months. I think it’s from slinging in and lugging out the heavy tote from behind my driver’s seat.

Time for a change. So here I am with my new [old] backpack, ready for work and feeling like it’s the first day of school all over again.

What do you think – cute or nerdy? You can be honest. It won’t affect my decision to wear it (as evidenced by the pom-pom hat).

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Phone Photo Friday

02/05/2010

Setting this idea aside for Miss Future Offspring.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Happy Groundhog Day!

02/02/2010

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It’s Groundhog Day and we have snow on the ground. Not a good sign for an early spring. Being from Pennsylvania, February 2 was always a fun little holiday and a worthy cause for a party in elementary school. Will Phil see his shadow? Will we have 6 more weeks of winter?!

Random fact: my granny was from Punxatawny, PA.

Buy that cute little groundhog and/or read a brief history of the holiday here.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Skype, Pandora and Online TV

02/01/2010

I’m listening to a radio station that customized to my favorite artists and genres. No stereo invloved. Free.

I just had a 15 minute face-to-face conversation with my husband. He’s at home. I’m at work. No phone involved. Free.

Last night we watched the latest 2 episodes of 24 on our TV. No cable or antenna involved. Free.

We’ve been watching episodes from the old TV series Quantem Leap every weekend. No DVDs or DVD player involved. Free.

All these things through our laptops. All online. All free. This is so not mid-century. But, it’s an aspect of my modern life that I love! It’s amazing what technology can do and how available and affordable everything is.

I’m listening to Pandora radio but every local radio station I know of also has free online streaming. Jason and I just set up Skype accounts. Now we can talk to our friend while he’s touring the world this month, our friends in Brazil and our 1-year-old nephew in Pennsylvania with video, audio and chat options. All completely free. Pretty much all prime time TV shows are available to watch online. We also use Hulu for older series.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Phone Photo Friday

01/29/2010

Rather than let you draw your own conclusions here, I’ll explain this photo. While visiting our friends, Lucy brushed up against a wall of wet paint and ended up with a blue hip, tail and even some white trim paint on one paw. She kept sitting when I tried to take a picture so I’m holding her up. Lucy’s friends Maggie and Abby apparently saw that as a golden opportunity to sniff her butt.

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Concrete Shower Pan Goes Down Smooth

01/26/2010

Last weekend we tackled the most intimidating part of the bathroom renovation (in my mind, at least): pouring the concrete shower base. I’ll just show what we did through pictures. And of course I use “we” very loosely here.

Shower all cleared out and ready to go.

Mixing up the concrete mix and water in our pitiful, rusty old wheel barrel. (See the broken wood handle?) I was going to do this part but it turns out my arms are too weak. Each bag of mix was 60 lbs dry.

I prefer to watch this guy in action anyway. I’m excellent moral support.

First bucket full of concrete gets placed. That float is named the Task Force.

Second bucket down. Creating a slight slope toward the drain was very tedious. And important. Jason and his task force can handle it.

The consistency is like wet sand. Not as liquidy as I had imagined.

Four bags/bucketfuls down. 240 lbs. More of the very meticulous smoothing and creating a slight grade toward the drain.

Some days I am very grateful to be married to a perfectionist. Another half a bag to finish it off and get that slope just right. (4.5 bags of sand mix, 270 lbs, 4’x5′ base at 1-1.5″ thick in case you want details.)

All done. Just needs 24 hours to dry. Phew! The whole process only took 3 hours but was very labor-intensive. I’m so glad it’s done. Thank God it all went smoothly. Now on to finishing the rest of the tiling … another update coming soon. I HOPE!

Keeping up with our progress?

Bathroom Renovation Stage 1

Bathroom Renovation Stage 2

Bathroom Renovation Stage 3

Bathroom Renovation Stage 4

Bathroom Renovation: Tiling!

Bathroom Renovation Stage 5

Bathroom Renovation Stage 6

Bathroom Renovation Stage 7

Bathroom Renovation Stage 8

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Hypoglycemia and the Super Feeder

01/20/2010

Lucy, the official mid-century modern life mascot, has hypoglycemia. At least that’s what some of my doctor family members have suggested. Her symptoms:

• vomits when she’s hungry and will eat grass or dirt first if it’s available
• got very weak & disoriented after a long walk (first instance)
• trembling (later the night of the first instance)
• seizures – she’s had 3, each one after bouts of exercise before meal time

I found this great resource on dog epilepsy that has suggestions for naturally treating hypoglycemia. It suggests 5 feedings a day—2 dinners and 3 snacks—with snack suggestions like fruit, veggies, crackers, yogurt, hard-boiled eggs, and cottage cheese.

In order to feed Lucy five times a day I ordered her an automatic food dispenser from amazon.com that I call the Super Feeder. It doesn’t make as much noise as I was hoping but she’s getting used to listening for the motor. Lucy’s hypoglycemia prevention schedule is:

• 7:00 am – breakfast: 3/4 cup dog food
• 10:30 am – snack: unsalted cracker with peanut butter
• 2:30 pm – snack: 1/4 cup dog food + milk bone
• 5:30 pm – dinner: 1/2 cup dog food
• 9:30 pm – snack: unsalted cracker with peanut butter

(She’s a 20 lb. cocker spaniel for reference.)

We’re on day 4 and so far no seizures, no trembling or disorientation, and she’s only vomited once (used to be once every 1-2 days). No word on how many pounds she’s gained.

Read more about Lucy here.

Look for another bathroom renovation update tomorrow!

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Posted by mahlbrandt

Celebrating Everyday Events

01/06/2010

The holidays are fun, of course, but isn’t it fun to spontaneously celebrate when something special happens? Like the time we went out for cheese fries in honor of paying off our car. (Didn’t matter where, just had to be cheese fries!)


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I got some good news today—a job promotion of sorts; a monthly freelance project—and I need celebratory ideas. Other than going out to eat. Can you help?!

So far I’ve thought of dancing around the house with sparklers … but we don’t have any sparklers and we just did that on New Years Eve. Or chocolate fondue with strawberries and raspberries. Or taking a thermos of hot chocolate on a night time visit to the Parthenon.

(click • for the source)

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Posted by mahlbrandt

New Years MCM finds

01/05/2010

We had a wonderful New Years in Cincinnati with our dear friends and fellow MCM enthusiests. We ate some delicious food: lobster, pork ribs and sauerkraut, Cincinnati chili, Cheesecake Factory. Some new—from IKEA and H&M—and “new” mid-century purchases—from Red Polly, SA family store and Stu Nizny‘s house (oh the stories!)

I’m so excited to report that we finally found the perfect vintage MCM cabinet to use for our master bathroom vanity. Wow. After a year of searching it’s going to take a while to sink in! (Pun intended that time.) And it fit in our car!

While we were poking around at the thrift store I pointed out a table that looked mid-century. Out of nowhere an  eccentric silver-haired guy in a hot pink down puffer with a saucer-sized belt buckle and white silver-tipped cowboy boots was giving us his business cards, inviting us back to his house to check out his vintage collection, offering us wholesale prices, and listing off his résumé of famous clientele. We shopped around a little more than then took him up on his offer.

Stu’s house was a museum of mid-century and vintage furniture, housewares, glass art, Jeres, vintage t-shirts, suitcases, light fixtures, art … and he was right: he did have several mid-century modern cabinets that fit the very specific dimensions we needed. Thanks for the great deals, Stu! We’ll definitely be back.

I’ll share more about our other finds soon.

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Christmas 2009

01/04/2010

We had a lovely Christmas. I hope you did, too! Here are some highlights:

Watching home movies on the old reel-to-reel from ranging from 1977 – 1986

Dad’s the only one who knows how to use the projector.

My sister and I rolling the traditional Swedish meatballs on Christmas Eve

Jason said they’re the best he’s ever had (compared to the previous 9 years.)

Jason’s brother Dan and his wife Ginger.

Jason’s parents

Chloe and Jason staying warm by the fireplace

New jeans + funny face + Mom

(I think the look of confusion was because I had just said I left the camera in the car but by the time he was done unwrapping I was standing there with it, taking a picture.)

New hat (t0 match jacket) + new down puffer

Nashville Preds hockey game on Boxing Day. So nice to have Jessica (my favorite sister) and her husband Jeff visiting this year!

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