April 22, 2010 by Rae

Study Window Coverings

The study has been in dire need of new window coverings since day one. It has pull down opaque roller shades. Great for a bedroom, not so great for a room where you want privacy and light. The shades were getting to be very brittle and the two on the side windows ripped, with the one on the passenger side being too far gone to salvage.

I really want blinds for this room, but they would have to be custom sized and would therefore be much too expensive for my current budget. I decided that I’d have to go with curtains for the time being. I thought of securing them to the bottom half of the window and having the top part attached with snaps or similar fasteners so I could fold it down. Not a bad idea, just needed to find fabric that would work with my design plans well enough for me to be able to live with the curtains as long as possible, but also be very cheap.

Which is how I found myself hauling home a load of really cheap stiff polyester sheets from Zellers today:

Not the nicest material in the universe, but the colours definitely work with my paint choices and the design is also suitably ‘cottagey.’

I brought home three double sheets and one twin sheet, all flat, all costing $4 each. I may exchange one package for a twin fitted to cover the ‘sofa.’ It’s not the best material for a sofa cover, but it would at least make things look unified enough until I get around to the decorating portion of the makeover.

I may even have enough blackout material to cover the bottom third of each curtain; I’ll need to dig it out and do some measuring.

This will probably end up being a summer project, but the fabric was too good a deal to pass up!

April 22, 2010 by Rae

Still Sorting It Out

Today, I’m working at making the study travel ready and decided that I might as well make one pass through all my storage boxes in the overhead cabinets. While they were all very neat and well labeled, I had a feeling that the contents wouldn’t be that useful. I was right. For example, I found lots of neat things in the box marked ‘hardware’ that I really don’t need in a motorhome like solder and incandescent 120V light bulbs!

I also found a box marked ‘decor’ that is filled with small pictures I aimed to frame and put up. I need to go find some frames! One particularly special picture was already framed and I wanted to give myself a huge kick for leaving it in a box so long:

This is my dad circa the mid to late 1950’s. I’ve put him up on the pop out wall in the study so he can look down on me while I work.

I also had a large basket filled with music cds that I inherited from him and which I have ‘been meaning to go through.’ It’s been three years (!), for pete’s sake, and I’ve already transferred over the stuff I know I like. So, the basket was added to my pile slated for donation. Done and dealt with, whee!

My friend was promised a grand tour tomorrow, so I’d better get back to work!

April 21, 2010 by Rae

Securing the Cloth Dresser

I’m not enamoured with the cloth dresser, but I do believe it is a good solution for the space. Today’s project was to finish securing it for travel.

The Gorilla Glue I used on the dresser frame did the trick so the next step was to secure the frame to the wall. Since I don’t expect the cloth dresser to have a very long lifespan, I wanted to make as little damage to Miranda as possible. I therefore used eye-bolts and tie-wraps to keep the dresser from tipping over:

I used one eye-bolt each for the the bottom and top part of the frame.

Once the bottom dresser was secured to the wall it was time to insert the body portion. How it works is that the top has stiff cardboard that theoretically keeps the body from slipping through the top of the frame. Once you add any weight to the drawers, however, the body slips through most annoyingly. So, I decided to secure the body to the frame using tie-wraps after strengthening the holes with grommets:

I used one grommet and one tie-wrap in each corner.

Once the bottom dresser was installed, I secured the top one in the same way:

I’m not worried about the drawers shooting out since they do not slide easily, so I’m considering this project done pending a travel test. I may cave and secure the bottom to the floor with a couple of eye-bolts, but I’m optimistic that this will do.

April 16, 2010 by Rae

Victoria to Campbell River

The drive home this evening was interminable. It was almost entirely stop and go from downtown Victoria to Parksville, north of Nanaimo, and then I caught every single red light between Nanaimo and home. It took four hours to get home (with a five minute stop in Nanaimo) and my clutch foot was actually swollen by the time I got here!

I made one photo-worthy stop on the way home, at the Malahat lookout, which offers great views of the San Juan Island and other American locales.

the long narrow cloud really looks like a leaf

close up of the leaf cloud; it had a middle rib and lines that looked like veins

This was definitely a drive that was more fun with a companion and several planned stops. 🙂

April 16, 2010 by Rae

The Pacific Undersea Gardens

Reviews of the Pacific Undersea Gardens are very negative and justified, but I still wanted to experience it for myself and am glad I did, having an experience that made my $10 entry fee worthwhile. The ‘gardens’ are actually an under sea aquarium. You board a ship and descend 15′ below the surface to view fish and other marine life in a relatively natural habitat. At first glance, the whole thing screams Tourist Trap. The windows are scratched, dirty, and covered in algae and the information plaques aren’t that informational. But if you take the time to stop and really look, like I did, you might make a memory that will stick with you.

I attempted to take photographs of a large crab located at the far end of a tank, when it started to move. At first, it seemed to move randomly, but I soon realised that it was coming straight at me! Even though I didn’t have a flash on the camera, it must have been projecting a bit of light. The crab came right up to the window and started to wave its claws at me. It then began to climb the inner frame of the window and continued to tap on the window, making quite a racket. I moved the camera from pane to pane and the crab followed my movements. I was not photographing by this point, so I wonder if it could actually see the camera itself, a flash of silver in the green. Whatever it was, I am now convinced that crabs are a lot more intelligent and aware than we give them credit for. This guy was without question interacting with me.

Once Bob (I had to give him a name!) lost interest with me, it was time for a nine minute show where a diver interacts with some of animals. He showed us a large starfish, a wolf eel, a crab, and an octopus.

There are surely better ways to spend $10 in Victoria, but I’m truly glad I visited the Undersea Gardens. It just goes to show that sometimes the most hyped and slickest attractions aren’t necessarily the most memorable.