Better After!

So honored to be featured on one of the DIY sites that has become one that I check daily for new ideas. 

My clock and chair on Better After

If you found me from there, stay tuned!  Projects and decorating are wrapping up and I hope to blitz a lot of pictures soon.  (My camera is vacationing in Boston with my housemate and iPhonecamera isn't that impressive.)

Here's a before of a coffee table I found outside for FREE in Fells Point (a historic area of Baltimore) while buying a futon off craigslist a couple doors down.  Score!   

Stayed tuned!

Now off to have a productive "incidental" day off of work.  Doctor, check.  Talk to contractors working on house next door about future too-big-to-do-myself projects, check.  Call police/ambulance for intoxicated vagrants leaning on my house (not on today's schedule), check.  Clean bedroom, check.  To Do: HomeDepot for a new mailbox, Dentist, MVA for an MD license (I have only been living here for about 6.5 years.  I think it's time to become a real MD resident.), and hopefully time to bake something tasty before the Masquerade party/benefit in my 'hood before getting cute and heading over.  Whew!  Better get busy!

DIY first aid

I suck at life sometimes.  During an after-work happy hour, I managed to dislodge and swallow my temporary dental work...which was on my front tooth.  Now my chipped-since-I-was-12 filed-down (my custom veneer is being made and coming in 2 weeks) is exposed, and sensitive to cold (and feels weird on my tongue). On top of that, while I was cahtting on the phone about going out, and reaching for a cupcake under my fancy cake plate, I dropped the heavy glass cake plate lid, taking most of the cupcakes with it, shattering it on the floor, and appartently gashing my leg in the process.  (like my dad, someone has to call out that I'm bleeding before I realize I'm hurt).  Friday night: glass, blood and cupcakes on the floor!  Yes!

Needless to say I stayed in last night and made a morning trip to Rite Aid to get Butterfly Closures and Waterproof bandages to fix up my leg (per the recommendation of a doctor/Public Health student who happened to stop in for breakfast).  Most awkward part?  The gash is behind my knee, so I had to do some yoga moves to get the band-aids on.  Seems to be a sucess so far. (Will it hold up through dancing in Fells?  Or should I sit today out?)

Not a success?  Trying to temporarily repair my tooth with some DIY filling paste.  I got it on and made it look halfway decent, only for it to fall off 30 minutes later, even before I tried to eat or do anything strenuous.  Oh well.

Post-vacation musing

Though I spent most of my waking life in South Florida, this little vacation solidified my decision to put down roots in Baltimore, in a city setting.

Sure, my parents house (which they've owned since I was 2) is a good medium between urban living, and way-out in-the-'burbs, and is accesible to the highways and big cities (Miami and Ft. Lauderdale).  It has a nice yard, and a place to put your car (my poor Prius is sometimes blocks away from home!), but you still have to get in that car to actually do anything.  Until a recent batch of break-ins in the neighborhood, it also didn't seem like the adults interact too much (since the days of the kids playing together is long over). 

In contrast, the friends I stayed with in South Beach had a lovely condo that was stumbling distance from the beach and a mall of shops, bars and restaurants.  I love this idea, but I still have to put SoBe (yes, I said it) in a nice-to-visit-but-wouldn't-live-there category.  I guess it's partially that I hate apartments/condos, with having to pay building fees, and hoping the company that manages the building keeps everything up as they are supposed to.  (Bad experiences with apartments in Baltimore) Maybe I feel that people have less of a community feel in buildings?  I guess I also got a bad vibe from the people of SoBe, an appearances and designers and money are super important vibe, that's not really me.  But hey, bikini season year-round!

One thing that really made me buy in this neighborhood after renting a room 5 blocks away was the sense of community.  Sure, its not the safest place in the world (some kind of drug dealing post outside the old house and 2 break-ins as soon as I moved in), but the really special thing was how everyone really came to my side when the shit went down.  Lots of kind notes of support from the neighborhood mailing list (neighbors near and farther away), and direct neighbors who swapped cell numbers with me to be able t warn me if they saw anything else suspicious.  (Along with "You need to get a gun!  And a pit-bull!", advice I took with a smile and a mental "HELL NO")  I like that I'm a short walk to a couple great neighborhood bar/restaurants, and a short drive to work and everything else in the city. 

Baltimore, specifically Patterson Park, has charmed me, and I'm here for now, even if I will soon have to start wearing a coat.