Ryan and I both absolutely love our current rental home.  It’s so clean, warm, modern, and full of happy vibes.  But I’m not going to lie, the monthly rent takes a pretty big chunk of change – normal for the DC suburbs, but scary when you think about it too much.

Technically, the house is in our budget, and we’re both able to set aside a good bit of our paychecks for savings.  However, Ryan and I were discussing the fact that sometime after we get married we’ll want to have kids.   And I’ll stay home with them for a while.  I.e. – we’ll be a one income family.  We’re not ready to move, not by a long shot.  But because I’m a nut, I looked at rental homes on Craigslist “just for fun.”

I spied a few decent houses that cost significantly less than we pay now,  so I contacted them just to find out more.  I really don’t want to move.  But for the difference in price, it seemed foolish not to consider the option.

One house in particular caught our attention.  A funky Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired modern home, near a lake and only 2 miles from where we live now.  Ryan and I actually got really excited about it, because the only thing cooler than staying where we are now would be living in a funky mid-mod house with serious quirks and character.  What a fun adventure!

After work Ryan and I checked it out on Zillow, because we were eager to know more about it.  After we looked at all the photos and fell head over heels for the place, we we got confused.    Zillow said the place was $2800 a month, not $1500.   We figured it was a typo.

Then I heard back from another property that we’d inquired about. The grammar was poor, like English was their second language, but the note was personal and seemed legit to both of us.  We followed up, requesting a tour of the place.  The response?

Hello Dear,

Sorry for the late response!!!!I can see you are interested in the ad I have posted, I am currently in Nigeria with my family where we work as a volunteer with the Missionary. We spent less time in the States so we could not get a hold on any Realtor to handle this rent issue, although it was when we knew how long we are going to stay in Nigeria that we decided to rent out the house. However, the initial plan was to sell out the house. which we tried, but sometimes the agents inflates the price and it takes longer to sell we are telling you this in case you find the house on another website, that is the old advert.  So we need a tenant to take care of it but since we are out of the state now, we have received some proposals regarding the rent because it is located in a very good area, but we still have to make sure it is rented out to someone who can take good care of it.The keys to the House are right here with me and i could send it to you after all necessary agreement has be accepted by my family,We also want you to let us have trust in you as we always stand on our word.So if you know you are capable of the task,It is available for a long lease.The monthly rental fee is $1300 per month including the utilities and the security deposit is $900 which is refundable back to you at the end of your stay if nothing is damaged from my properties . . .

The email continued and had a rental application asking for personal info, but I won’t waste any more space on the blog with their bullshit.  Obviously Ryan and I realized it was a scam.   Note what I highlighted in bold:  sure enough, the house is for sale, by a legit real estate agent.

I turned to Google and learned the Nigerian email scam thing has now expanded its scope to include rental homes on Craigslist and Zillow.  They grab info and photos from the MLS or other realty sites.   In one horrifying scam instance, the potential tenants fell for the scam, got the locks changed, and were moved in when the real homeowner arrived.  That’s awful!

But back to that funky modern house we’d fallen for:  Sure enough, we received another email from Nigeria, similar to the one above.   They said not to worry about the fact that it may appear to cost more other places, and to ignore the real estate agent.

As of this morning, all of the houses that we inquired about, all of which seemed reasonably but not cheaply priced ($1500 – $1800 a month) turned out to be scam postings. 

I’ve reported them all, and I think we’ll just stay put in our wonderful home that we love.  This has reminded us just how scarce affordable single family home rentals are in the DC area.

Please, don’t ever agree to send or accept money for overseas.  NEVER. If it seems too good to be true, it is.  I promise you.

I wish I had some personal photos to share with you, but I do not.  For when I travel alone to a new city, I’m reluctant to snap many photos for risk of standing out as a “tourist.”  It’s a little safety concern I have. But on to the topic at hand:

I find that whenever I travel, even for business, I am inspired and my creativity is re-invigorated.  Does this happen to you?

It doesn’t take much but a change of scenery, a new town or new terrain, to get my creative juices flowing.  And usually within hours of hitting the ground in a new town, the ideas are flowing almost faster than I can jot them down.

It happened today when I landed in Austin.  I’m here for work, but I had a few hours before my business dinner this evening.  I stopped at a little cafe with a lovely outdoor patio, and just grabbed a snack so that I could sit outside and enjoy the lovely 80-degree weather before heading to the hotel.   By the time I left the cafe, my notebook was chock-full of new ideas for my shop that I not only thought of, but was really able to plan in detail, during that brief time.

What is it about traveling that makes my creative brain feel like someone opened the flood gates?  In Texas I know I’m digging the scenery, the smell of the semi-desert air, and the different terrain.  It feels very southern and arid, from the dry soil to the scrubby little trees the likes of which you’d never see back home on the East coast.

Then there’s the fact that Austin is unlike any other city I’ve found in the US.  It’s bizarre.  There are food trucks everywhere, selling any and every type of food you can imagine.  There are also Tex-Mex restaurants and cantinas everywhere. The town seems a little rough around the edges, and the nicer parts seem to lack that glitz and glam that the East coast cities have.  That’s a-ok with me!  Oh, and I’m pretty sure many of the young people here don’t realize it’s not 1995 anymore.  :)

But this inspiration isn’t happening just because Austin is weird. It happens wherever I go. . . and when I’m alone I find that I relish the opportunity to be away from my sewing machine and house full of projects.  Maybe that’s the key.

Does this happen to you?  If not, when do you find you get the most inspiration?

There were so many beautiful save the date designs on Etsy, from modern graphic photo cards to catchy and unique boarding-pass packages that cost a pretty (but deserving) penny. I had a heck of a time deciding.

Finally, though, I found a design in the shop of PalmettoMama that totally fit the bill:  A tropical palm tree design, customizable in colors that suited our wedding, and with the option of buying either the printed cards, or just the digital printable file.

Dawn, the woman behind the Etsy shop, was wonderful to work with.  She was great at communicating, totally understood my requests, and was quick to respond.  Even though I was “only” buying the download file, I felt that she treated me just as well as she would a customer who was buying printed invitations.

Dawn tweaked the file so that I could print 4 of the save-the-dates on one standard sheet of paper.  We printed the sheets on a friend’s color printer, and then I cu them apart and glued the paper invites to pieces of coordinating card stock.  This not only added a bright, colorful border, it also beefed up the strength of the paper cards.

On each save the date that went out, I wrote a short personal note to the people it was being addressed to.  It took a little bit of extra time, but I liked adding that personal touch, which I know we won’t have time to do when the real invites roll around.

Thanks to Ryan, we were able to kick things up one more notch when it came time to address the envelopes.  Here’s how it happened:

Me:  We need to go to the craft store after our dinner date. 

Ryan: Ok.

. . . we get to the craft store, where I inform Ryan that we need to pick out “fun” paper cardstock to back the printed save-the-dates. Ryan looks bored and wanders off.

Me:  I thought you’d be excited about this! We’re doing our save-the-dates tonight!

Ryan:  How did you think that I’d be excited to go to the craft store?

Me: Um. . . now that you mention it, I have no idea why.  I could have done this alone. *giggle*

Anyway, after we determined that I was either drunk or crazy when I thought a trip to pick out “fun paper” would be a good part of date night, Ryan wandered off.  Again.  But then he suggested I get an awesome palm tree stamp, and his manly indifference towards colored cardstock was forgiven.

I stamped a green palm tree on the front of each envelope, and wrote the addresses in orange ink.  I created return address labels in our wedding colors too (Caribbean green, orange, pink) and voila – a totally coordinated, “fun” (if you’re a girl) save-the-date.

But wait, it gets better.  After seeing the save-the-dates, I asked Dawn if I could purchase a modified version of the design as a website header for our wedding website.  She was totally able to accommodate me.  The website is primarily going to be for our guests to get information, RSVP for things, etc.  But I love that it looks awesome in the process!

 And speaking of wedding websites, that’s the next project I need to tackle.

We designed the table to blend with our existing mid-century style furnishings, as well as to fit the space just so.  The bottom area needed to be open to allow maximum air flow, since the heating comes out of the vent in the wall.  Also, we wanted it to be scaled large enough to help anchor the wall.  Scale is super important, as I learned with previous, low-budget attempts at decorating that wall.

Let’s take a look back in time:

The first attempt, which consisted of a home-built book shelf, was unsuccessful because I didn’t tape it out on the wall and build it to proper scale.  Also, the blocky bookshelf design just didn’t mesh with the rest of the space.

My second attempt was an improvement over the first – and it was free, because I used things I had on hand. It didn’t make a lot of sense for the space because it held my scrapbooking supplies.  It also blocked the heating vent.  No bueno!

So sometime last summer I started looking for a tall and wide sofa table that I could buy.  I found some great ones, but they were all so freakin’ espensive.  And that’s when the little rusty gears in my head started turning. :)

I designed the table in the fall, I think. . . and then procrastinated on actually buying the wood and building it.  I was worried it would be difficult.  This is a common theme in my DIY projects, actually – and one I hope to kick to the curb this year.  Finally I got the supplies at Christmas.  And it was so easy to build that I found myself wondering – Why didn’t I tackle this sooner?!

The red oak boards that I splurged on turned out beautifully.  I will most likely never build with cheap pine again, unless I’m painting the end result.  Also, I didn’t use any screws, so I didn’t have to fill any holes at the end. So exciting.  I can’t wait to tell you all about the trick for that later.

I’ll be back later this week with a detailed tutorial so that you, too can build something like this if you want to.  Trust me, it really was easy.

It couldn’t have happened at a worse time, I thought, as Saturday afternoon was the very first DC-area blogger meetup that I’d organized with my blog buddy Christina.  I’m not sure I let on to anyone just how much I was looking forward to this, but I really was.  While last year I was focused and introverted as I launched my business, this year I really want to focus on building community both online and here in my area.   Going out on a limb to schedule a gathering like this was the first step towards that goal.

Because I’d gone out on that limb, I was really nervous!  What if people didn’t like each other? (or didn’t like me?)  What if everyone thought it was lame?  What if – heaven forbid – no one showed up??  Yes, I know, I worry too much.  Add on the stress of work, and the fear that work may not be concluded in time to attend my very own gathering – and I was just a mess.

But Saturday afternoon I did manage to tie things up with work long enough to escape to Caffe Amouri for meetup.  I’m so glad it worked out, because it injected a much-needed dose of happiness, laughter, energy, and inspiration into my otherwise dreary and stressful weekend.  I returned home super, super happy and excited.

*Edit: Toya is not pictured. She's a party pooper and left early. (Just kidding, she had a prior commitment.)

I often see happy posts from multiple bloggers, all rambling on about how awesome their latest blogger get-together was.  And while it was exciting, I have a broader message for all of you who didn’t live close enough to attend.  I’d like to challenge and encourage you to initiate a meetup of your own in your town.

If you do plan a meetup:

*Partner with another blog or twitter buddy, or even a non-blogging friend.  That way, in the worst case event that no one else shows, you’ve got each other to hang out with. :)

*Pick a neutral, safe place for the first meetup.  You don’t want to invite strangers into your home.

*Finally, I’d encourage you to do what we did – open it up to bloggers, twitter followers, and facebook fans.  In my opinion, at least, blog readers are just as important a part of your blogging community as blog writers are.

There’s something awesome that happens when you get a group of blogging ladies together.  I’m not really sure how it works, because we don’t all blog in the same niche, but you put us around a table and the conversation and laughter flows. It’s something I hope to enjoy again, and something that I truly wish all of you could join me for.

But in the mean time, as we wait for teleportation to become a reality, I encourage you:  go forth and create your own blogging community!

Finally, here’s a list of all the awesome ladies who gathered, and where you can find them.  I really encourage you to check them all out!

Michelle has just started a blog as she prepares to own her own home (show her some love, guys!) at Two Streets Over, and she tweets.

Christina blogs at The Scrappy Housewife (and she & her husband just launched a cooking blog as well), and she tweets.

Kimberly (who is the first twitter friend I’ve ever made, awesome!) blogs when she’s not busy wrangling her two little boys, and tweets like a fiend!

Rachel sells her art in an awesome Etsy shop, blogs at Funnelcloud, and tweets.

Steffanie sells awesomely eco-friendly laundry soap on Etsy,  blogs, and tweets.

Lauren (who recently got engaged!) blogs at Laurenchanting, and tweets.

Sarah (who was the first local blogger I ever met) blogs at Sunny Side Up, and tweets.

Toya (who makes ah-MAZING healthy snacks) blogs and runs New Family Naturals, and is being encouraged to tweet more.

Tempaper is a temporary, removable wallpaper that is made in the USA – yeehaw!  It’s potentially a great temporary wallcover option for renters, or people who just don’t want to go to the effort of stenciling a wall (or two) for dramatic effect.

When I opened the roll, I was pleased by the rich color and sheen of the design. 

However, either I received a defective roll, or the Tempaper material scratches easily, because shortly after rolling the first part out flat to cut, I noticed this long white scratch on it.  That was disappointing, because it damaged about 3 feet of the paper.

As for installing or applying the wallpaper all by myself – I found the process to be much easier than I expected – and the paper peeled back off the wall when I needed it to.   The only tricky part was getting each strip installed in a perfectly straight vertical line, but that would have been made easier if I had a helper. It’s not Tempaper’s fault.

One month after installation, the wallpaper is still willing to peel easily and cleanly off the wall.  I

If you want to create an accent wall but can only spring for one roll,  choose your pattern carefully.   I loved the Marrakesh pattern below, but the bold geometric design meant that I’d have to line my seams up perfectly – meaning I’d waste a few inches here and there in the process of lining each piece up with the last.

However, at $85 bucks a roll, Tempaper doesn’t come cheap.  My initial impression was that it smelled, felt, and adhered just like the much cheaper shelf contact paper I got at Home Depot and used on the walls of my coat closet.   But most contact paper in the stores is neither modern nor attractive, unlike the many awesome geometrics and florals Tempaper comes in. Additionally, contact paper comes in rather skinny widths, meaning more seams when you apply it to a wall.

Curious to know just what makes Tempaper so pricey, I read that Tempaper printing process  “incorporates the traditional technique of gravure or intaglio copper plate engraving with state of the art materials to bring a classic look and feel.”  That could explain the difference in price between Tempaper and standard contact paper.

Even with the rather hefty price tag, if you’re a renter who is stuck in a dingy apartment with bad walls or ugly kitchen cabinets, I think this solution could be totally worth splurging on.

And now, a pros & cons lists for those of us who love lists:

Why Tempaper Rocks:

• Easy to apply, much easier and cleaner than traditional wallpaper.
• Easy to remove.
• Made in the USA
• Can be used in bathrooms
• Comes in a ton of modern, colorful designs
• Can be hung by one person

Tempaper’s potential areas of improvement:

• Cost, especially for more than one wall
• Colorful surface seems to scratch easily
• A little tricky to line up in a perfect vertical if you’re working solo
• If you want to line up the patterns perfectly you may have to “waste” parts of the paper

I don’t think I’ve left anything out, but if you have questions – please ask!

Exhibit A: a lovely table that I built from scratch.  I won’t tell you where it’s going just yet, but I’m too excited to not to give you a sneak peek at it!

This beautiful piece is simply waiting for a few coats of polyurethane sealant.  I’d hoped to do that yesterday after work, seeing as it was a gorgeous 67 degrees and slightly light outside when I arrived home from work. Alas, I went to the basement to grab my supplies, only to find a nearly empty can of Poly. This is why you check your supplies *ahead* of time, people!

Exhibit B, the twin bed frames for the guest room.

After I spent hours applying primer, with a brush, to all the nooks and crannies in the turned posts, I realized that spray paint was the way to go.  But spray paint = Jane working outside, and the weather has to cooperate for that.

And here’s a lesson learned:  If you apply two coats of Zinsser Oil-Based Primer to furniture that’s in your basement, your house will reek for days. . . and you’ll probably lose some brain cells in the process.  That’s a mistake I won’t make again.

Hopefully I can get these two projects wrapped up over the weekend.  I’m ready to put them in their places and move on to building our much-needed basement bookshelf!

Initially Ryan and I had asked my brother Jon to fill in as the DJ, since he and his father-in-law used to DJ on the side, and have the full suite of necessary equipment.  My brother did me an enormous favor by filling in as DJ for my best friend’s wedding last summer, and everyone loved him.  However, he and his wife will be attending our wedding with a 2-year-old and a 3-month-old in tow, so we realized that Jon will have his hands full enough without playing the role of wedding DJ.

Ryan and I found Crow Entertainment at a vendor event held by our wedding venue.  I don’t know how most people pick their DJ, but Ryan and I had a brief conversation with them, and then chose them based on gut instinct.  Somewhere in our conversation, I started to ramble – big surprise – and mentioned my focus on choosing small, locally-owned businesses as suppliers for our wedding.   It turns out that Brian (the owner) is also passionate about small business, serving on the board of the Bay Business Group, an alliance of small businesses in the Chesapeake Beach & North Beach communities.

Our initial planning meeting at Crow Entertainment was pretty straightforward.  We spoke with James about our general timeline for the day, and filled out a tentative timeline that noted the key events during the reception.  We discussed things like music preferences, colored lighting, ceremony music, etc.   I was amazed at how many aspects of the music / announcing we hadn’t thought of, and wouldn’t have thought of if it weren’t for James and his planning sheets.

I was pleased that they are able to provide the music for the walk down the aisle, and they know the venue well enough to set up out of view of the ceremony.  Because I’ve performed at one too many wedding ceremonies in my former life as a classical musician, I’m not interested in having a live string quartet playing as we walk down the aisle.  I’m hoping to find some appropriate, yet different, music that can be played for all of the key parts.

As far as the reception goes, our general plan is to have some tropical / calypso / reggae music during the cocktail hour, to stick with our tropical theme.  Then, during the dinner, we’ll have mostly oldies and some of my favorite country (bring on the Brad Paisley!, and the oldies will continue into the beginning of the dancing portion of the evening, so that the older crowd can enjoy dancing.

After our meeting, Ryan and I felt totally confident that James will provide just what we’re looking for, including the smooth but gradual transition from the good old dance music (Frank Sinatra, etc) into more modern, upbeat music as the night progresses.   Also, we were glad to hear that he generally veers away from the usual cheesy stuff like the Macarena.

Ryan and I left the meeting knowing we’d made the right choice.  Not only will it make things easier on my brother and his family, I think it will make things easier for everyone if we have a outside professional running the event.

After living with them for a year, I realized that we had no need for large nightstands, and they were just another piece of furniture that we had to dust and keep clutter-free.  Oh, and having the open bottoms?  The pet hair that collected was ridiculous.   I don’t know what on earth most people use enormous nightstands for, unless they are living in a small apartment and need to maximize space. 

So out went the nightstands, and for the last 3 months we lived with an unfinished look in the bedroom.  We used my DIY  fabric-covered storage boxes as a stand-in, until I got around to implementing a small-scale bedside storage solution that I’d had in mind for ages:  a hanging wine crate nightstand.

I think that a hanging wine crate would make a great side table, bedside table, or storage solution for any small apartment.  Or if you’re me, and want to keep things simple, it also works in a larger place, like a house :)

Here’s how I did it:

 1. Select a crate & stabilize it

I had several wooden wine crates in our storage room, so I selected the one with a hinged lid on it.  I knew it would make a good “door”.

Some of the corner joints looked a little unstable to me, and I worried that it may not stay together well with use, so I glued the seams and clamped them tight for 24 hours.  When I removed the clamps, the box was definitely much more stable.  Wood glue is seriously strong stuff.

2.  Stain or paint

There are many ways you could treat the unfinished wood of the crate.  A clear poly sealant if you love the brand name and wood grain, or paint or stain of any type.  I chose to do a rustic painted finish on the crate that would tie into our bedroom colors.

First I gave it a once-over with my electric sander, then I grabbed a small sample can of brown paint left over from the first nightstand-building project.

To paint the wood but let the grain show through, I first brushed some paint onto a section, then used a cloth sponge to wipe it off.  This process, which I made up on the fly, seemed to work perfectly for getting some color into the wood but not glossing over the grain.

The end result was exactly what I was going for:

3.  Seal and protect

I gave the paint about 24 hours to dry, then applied two coats of Polyurethane sealant to seal and protect the wood.  This step is necessary no matter what, because I’ve found that unsealed wood is impossible to dust, but great at grabbing dust.

4.  Hang it up!

We used plastic anchors and standard screws to hang this on the wall, because we don’t intend to put a lot of weight on it.

The side of the crate that was going flush against the wall was formerly the crate bottom, and was made of very thin plywood.  I decided to strengthen and stabilize it for hanging by bracing a thin strip of wood flush against the back, and right below some interior brackets.  This way, the screws go through the stabilizer strip as well as the back of the crate.  And by doing this, the crate is not hanging on the strength of the back alone, it’s also hanging on the strength of the side brackets.  See photo below:

I am very happy with the finished product.  It’s just big enough for me to set a mug of tea on, and my books, chap stick, and journal are tucked neatly inside. Oh, and I hot-glued a little tin container to the side to hold my pen.

It’s simple, but it’s the perfect size for me.

Another benefit of the wall-hung nightstand:  It means there’s one less thing in the way come vacuuming time, and less surface area to cover with hair and dust.  And when you live in a house full of pets – these are very important factors.

Shoot, now I see that i really need to hide those lamp cords.  Guess I’ll add that to the list!

There’s only one problem – Ryan was strongly opposed to having a wine crate nightstand installed on his side.  So things are a bit asymmetrical, and I’m getting the feeling they won’t be changing anytime soon.

I miss the pretty and symmetrical look of the large nightstands, but I don’t miss trying to keep them dusted.

Have you ever made furniture with wine crates?

Shared at Tutorial Tuesday with Newlyweds on a Budget and Power of Paint with Domestically Speaking.

We’ve decided to kick things off with a cup of coffee or pot of tea at Caffe Amouri, where we can sit down and actually talk to each other in real life for the first time. :)  Then, if weather permits and we’re in the mood, we may stroll down historic Church Street, and peek into the shops along it. It’s pretty pathetic that, after 1.5 years here, I still haven’t visited the locally-owned shops in my own town.

We thought about doing a more structured activity, but since this is the first time we’re all meeting, it seemed like a laid-back conversation over coffee might be just the right way to get to know each other.

Please email me at borrowedabode@gmail.com if you’d like to join in!