Ikea Groland kitchen island as pressing table.

Because it's a kitchen island, it has a bar for hanging towels and pans off of hooks....but it's perfect place to hang your patterns after ironing them!

Thanks for all your comments about my three Renfrews!!  I've been wearing the second and third versions quite a lot!

So in between the second and third versions, I "made" something else....I put together the Ikea Groland kitchen island for use as my pressing table. I needed a sturdy table for the Elna Press and wasn't thrilled with the press stand options which all looked rather flimsy.

I assembled it about a month ago, so any bad memories must have already been repressed, but I don't think it was too bad.  I bought it online and paid for the home delivery.  I do remember it took me 3 hours and 5 minutes to put together, over the course of two days (I was timing it--my original guesstimate was under an hour.)  I remember my hands hurting from trying to screw the screws in with a regular screwdriver, as the pre-drilled holes didn't seem wide/deep enough. So then I got out the drill and cordless screwdriver and charged them overnight.  I finished it up the next morning and it was SO MUCH EASIER.  Having the right tools for the job and all that.



And here were all the pieces:

So here's what it looked like after I put it together.  I put away my big ironing board and put the miniature one on the table top.     My sewing room feels like it has SO MUCH SPACE now that the big ironing board has been put away.


I put all my pressing tools and my two irons on the second shelf.  By the way, the polka dotted Stitch Nerd ham, seam roll and ham stand are pretty fab.  I've been using them over a year now, and I don't know how I lived without them.  The ham is a must for darts.  I use the Angela Wolf clapper frequently too.  The point presser I've only used for one project since buying it, but I haven't been making anything that needs that tool lately.

All the stuff on the right side was corded mayhem:  my wireless router and cable modem.  Yesterday I traded out my old modem and router for a new modem/router combo unit which is 1) neater looking and 2) much faster on 2 of my 4 wireless devices, yay!



So this looks neater, now doesn't it?  There is still some more cord control to be had, but it is much better.


And here's what was replaced:

I really love having the stable table.  It weighs 70 pounds so it feels quite sturdy, even when using my Elna Press.  It's 36" high so there's no issues with bending.   It's almost as long as my cutting table but it's not nearly as wide so I can't recommend it as a cutting table.  Definitely great for pressing.  (Oh, and I was able to flip it over myself.  I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do it because of my back, but I did flipped it in two stages and was fine).

So I highly recommend a table like this.  Having the right tools for the job and all that.

Oh, and what animal (or two?) left these prints on my front sidewalk?


I have a two more projects to show you.  I might finish a third tonight.  I was going to make chicken pot pie but it's hard to make that when you forgot to buy the chicken at the grocery store earlier on!

Be well!

Ikea Cutting Table Ahoy!

I'm in TCB* mode. Today was a TCB kind of day. After lunch I started and finished my fed and state taxes and am getting refunds for both! Yeah home ownership! (Fear not, I still remember year after year of owing til I had my W4 adjusted, and then I bought a house and that was that...deductions galore!)

Then it was off to Bed, Bath and Beyond, where I was hoping to buy the Scooba with a 20% off coupon, but was foiled since no Scoobas were to be found, even though they are sold on their web site. I also want to do things like buy new shower curtain but I'm committed to only buying things that I love. Also the curtain will be the backdrop for all my SPR and sewing pix, so I'm still thinking if I want turquoise or a cream color....

Then it was on to Ikea, which was its usual weekend madhouse mix of too many people and too many screaming kids. (or as Pete's friend once said, "There's no oxygen in Ikea on the weekends.") Antoinette from CleverGirl recommended Ikea, and Lisa from As I Said specifically recommended her own Ikea table as a good one for a cutting table. I then looked at the Ikea website, but the finish for the table that I preferred is not available for order on their site, though other finishes I didn't like were available. I was also uncertain about how to get the tabletop home if I bought it in the store, and their store is far away.

Today I decided to forge ahead without a plan!

Say hello to Vika Amon in Birch Effect finish! Here I've torn the box so you can see the finish it all its glory!


Wow, my thumb looks really old & wrinkly there.

Yes, glorious Birch Effect finish, come to momma!

Say hello to Vika Kaj adjustable to 36 inch legs!


My fun socks say hello...

I also bought an Ikea pillow. I have huge issues with pillows because I like them as FLAT as possible and the ones in stores that are labelled flat are still too puffy for me. Sometimes when I stay in hotels, I sleep without a pillow at all because the pillows are too fluffy. So I'm going to try this odd little Ikea one and see what happens.

I also bought a cutting board to lift up my tv set without looking too weird. This will help me see the tv without straining while lying in bed.


So how did I handle this all by myself and with a bad back?

I bought the pillow and cutting board and brought it out to the car.

I bought the legs and brought them out to the car.

I then moved the car as close to the building as I could. I was lucky and got a spot pretty close to their U-shaped loading area.

I made sure I could pick up the table top myself. With no one in row 41, I slid the box out from the stack, uprighted it and picked it up. At 25 pounds, I actually could handle it. I put it on a cart and then pushed it to the end of the loading area, then I carried it to the car from there. I had already prepped the car by putting the seats down. It fit without any problems and plenty of space....and this table is 5 feet long! While I was waiting in line I thought it might be too long and was devising plans about what I would do if it didn't fit...but it fit!

I actually jumped up in the parking lot, hands in the air, and yelled out "it fit it fit it fit!" And my back doesn't seem to feel any different as compared to when I entered the door.

The fun part about Ikea is that it's right across from the Newark Airport, which is a route I know in my sleep. It's also fun to watch the planes land. Since I had already eaten an early dinner, I didn't partake in their $1 Swedish Meatball special, but it is fun to eat and watch the planes.

So tomorrow I'm going to do some further rearrangement and editing of stuff in my den. Then this week I will get rid of the loveseat, and then I can put the table together. Woo!

I'm also going to buy a dressform. Erica B and her followers did all the work for me as far as finding out the best dress form (hrm, her site won't let me grab the link for the exact post I want to link to). Now I have to decide if I want the dressform with legs or without. I kind of want to start making pants, so the legs are probably a good idea, no? But if I hate making pants, then the legs would be annoying, right?

So exciting!!!
Good night!

*TCB: you Elvis fans know what I'm talking about.

MRI is done!

Amy Butler pillow on my cheapy Ikea chair.
Doesn't it look great??


New cloud pix! Is this a cat??


Winky face?

Er, another profile?

A big thank you to everyone who provided their MRI stories--it really helped me in understanding what the process would be like!

I had the MRI this morning. The whole process was extremely easy--I was at the center for about an hour total, and in the machine for 20 minutes or so. I had heard that the machine would be loud, but it was louder than I thought it would be! When the new scan starts, it sounds a lot like the buzzer at the baggage carousel at the airport--if I actually put my head against the buzzer! They asked if I wanted to hear music, but I could only hear it between scans (Girls Just Want to Have Fun" was the initial song played). Pretty much the entire time, the machine is making this loud noise. They had put headphones on me, but they were on my cheeks instead of my ears, and I wish I had adjusted them to the proper position after she put them on me.

When I was first positioned in the tube, I kept my eyes closed--but eventually I opened them. While the tube was close to my face, it wasn't as close to my face as I thought it could be. Also, my head was propped in such a way as that I could see down my body to the "light at the end of the tunnel" and I could see the technician's booth, with the tech sitting behind smoky glass. Looks like I had a boring scan since she was yawning a lot and playing with her hair, poofing it, etc. The "tunnel" itself had this strip of lighting on each side, and I thought it looked rather Star Trekkian. While I don't consider myself to be claustrophobic, it was a lot easier being able to see the end of the tube. Also, I wasn't entirely in the tube--my knees downward were sticking out the end.

They checked in with me twice through the intercom thing (just like on Grey's Anatomy!), and they had given me a ball that I could squeeze in case I needed to talk with them.

Near the end my hands felt like they were getting kind of numb. I clenched the one hand not holding the ball-thing and that seemed to help.

I left with a CD of my images! And they said in 2-3 business days, a radiologist will send the report to the doctor's office. So I think I'll know pretty soon what the results are.

When I got to the center, there were maybe 10 people in the waiting room, including a set of parents with their little boy. The boy was crying and it kind of made me want to cry. His parents were saying "why are you scared?", "it's ok, they're just going to take pictures, it's only pictures", and "you were scared before that last test, and it wasn't so bad, was it?" They were called in while I did my paperwork, and before I was finished with the paperwork they were already leaving. He must have just had x-rays. His expression was a little shell-shocked; I thought he was going to look really happy afterwards. I was thinking if there was something I could have said that would have calmed him down--or distracted him. Like, it's the easiest test you'll ever have to take, or you don't have to study for this test. It's not going to hurt. (Things I had told myself, quite frankly). But I didn't know what his test was beforehand anyway. I guess I could have tried, "How old are you? What's your favorite color?" as a distraction?

When I was done with my test, the next MRI patient was waiting in the hot seat. I smiled at her and she smiled back. She watched me take my purse and glasses out of the locker and I looked back at her, all the while with my left hand on the side of the locker for stability since I had chose a locker near the floor because I had mistakenly thought the lockers at the top were taken. She said, "I was just looking at your nails--they are so long and mine are so brittle and peeling..."

I guess we all have something that someone else wants, without always knowing.

I've been feeling pretty good the last two days. I hate writing that, because usually that means the next day I feel really awful. I have the head cold, and I took Contact Cold & Flu medication this morning so that I wouldn't need to blow my nose while in the MRI machine (b/c you aren't allowed to move once you're in the MRI--maybe I took a chance with my clenched hand). But overall the gum infection is subsiding, I think I'm on the downward slope with my cold because the sore throat is mostly gone and I'm left with clogged ears and the runny nose, my knees are hurting only a little bit. And the back pain today has been at a 2-3. Of course, this afternoon I took a huge 2 hour nap, and I rested a lot outside on my lounge chair, as evidenced by my cloud pix!!!