The Interior DIYer

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Happy 2012 :)

Welcome to the future! I hope you had a wonderful new years, and I also hope none of you are nursing particularly nasty hangovers today, and have recovered as gracefully as possible.

Last night I got the idea for a quirky post while looking through our cork collection – it’s a bit nerdy, but what we do is keep the cork from wine or champagne from special occasions or particularly unusual moments over the years. I keep them all in a large jar in our kitchen. Here are some of my fav {not in date order}: 

The first is as a thank you  present from   Qwerky for my first interview, next is from a wine tasting excursion on Mount Etna in Sicily in 2008, then our engagement champagne from April 2011, then our celebratory wine from moving into our first apartment in 2008, followed by our second anniversary trip to Paris later that week. 

Next is a bottle of champagne we uh, borrowed from an Interior Design grand opening at the RDS in 2009, then fiance’s scheming Valentine’s evening where he bought me these incredibly convincing faux hydrangea’s, then dining in Vienna in 2009, Valentine’s Day 2010, fiance’s 21st birthday champagne in 2008 {I later whisked him off on a holiday to Switzerland}, and lastly some more corkage from our trip to Sicily in 2008.
Those are our most special ones. I have more, but they have stories that are long winded. One particular story is when fiance accidentally opened the bottle of champagne meant for his niece’s 21st birthday – we opened it 18 years early. Sorry, Katie. Fingers crossed you appreciate the sentimental nincompoopery of me keeping the cork. 
Do any of you have odd things you keep or collect for sentimental reasons? I like to think I’m not the only one 🙂
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Mini makeover – coffee table tray

I heart mini makeovers: taking something you already have, and giving it a face lift. I figure, why buy something new when you can revamp something you already have?
I found the previous state of wood x2 on our coffee table was a little too much. In stead of getting a new serving tray, a bit of paint was all I needed. This is a severely minor project, but it’s one of those things I’ve been meaning to do for months. Our living room is quite dark, so it also managed to brightened it up a little. I do enjoy a good revamp.
I wonder how long it will take fiance to notice it’s been painted. My guess is three days.
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Release your inner geek

For Christmas I made this old-school IT Crowd inspired cross stitch for fiance. He’s in the middle of his final year studying Computing Science {aka, IT}. He’s one of those guys you can tell is an IT guy – curly hair, cute glasses, pale skin – just how I like them. So in an act of hindsight for his impending career, I created this little cross stitch for him for Christmas. For anyone who may not be familiar with the phrase “have you tried turning it off and on again”, please see below –

Unfortunately, anyone looking for the old computer picture frame I used won’t have much luck. I bought this frame from Urban Outfitters some time ago. Sorry. I had it stashed away for just the right moment.
For this picture frame, I measured the size of the frame window at 13.5 x 11cm, or 72 x 57 stitches. From that, and through the magic of excel, I was able to draw a basic layout. And this is when I realized the typical cross stitch ‘x’ formation was not going to cut it for the text.  

Below is my scribble process with how I came about the text format. Sometimes pen and paper just works better. I managed to find a text style much more in keeping with my old-school computer stitch. 

Only taking an hour to stitch, my present was complete! Fiance loves his newest nerdy addition to our living room. Below, his new geek cross stitch in action. Look at it go.
Additional note: a good piece of advice was read out at my graduation from the CEO of Microsoft Ireland – “Always be nice to nerds because chances are, one day you’ll work for one”. And in some cases, marry one 🙂