#for some reason all the drawings feel a lot cooler when assembled like this
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#it's been a year!#my art#for some reason all the drawings feel a lot cooler when assembled like this#fanart#summersofsalt
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Hi! I think I remember you posting about "making" your own computer? I'm sorry to bother you with something like this, but was it difficult? Would you say you have to know a lot about how computers work to do it? Thanks!
Heck yeah!!! Oh man!! Gosh guys can I talk to you about building computers and how EVERYONE willing to do some basic googling is almost certainly capable of this I promise?
Welcome to:
Okay okay okay so let me spin you a li’l yarn: I was in optometry school in 2010-2011ish and I had been living up to now on prebuilts, mostly laptops, but DA2 was recently out and gosh darn it I wanted something I could play a proper game on. A friend of mine had a 10yo daughter who wanted to build a computer herself, and he told me if I’d buy the parts, he’d walk both of us through how to do it (what really happened was the 10yo built my first computer and I watched and brought drinks, so–no, I wouldn’t say you have to know a lot about how computers work to do it!).
The physical requirements are some basic manual dexterity & arm strength (you gotta be able to manipulate some tiny things and put some pressure on some connections) and you will most likely need to lift up to 15 pounds, although you can limit that if you go for smaller components. The ability to bend forward and twist and reach will also probably be necessary, although some careful planning can also likely mitigate that.
I think I have pictures of the actual build process somewhere, but regardless, it resulted in this bad boy that served me well for about nine years. I was shocked to see how easy it was to put together, honestly; if you can follow a Lego assembly book, you can put a computer together. With tools like PCPartPicker that have built-in compatibility checks to make sure all your pieces fit, it’s a piece of cake to put together a parts list that you can feel really good about. You just pick whether you want your motherboard to come with fancy lights or not (hint: rgb is unironically cool & i’ll fight anyone who says otherwise).
In the end, you’ll need a set of basic components. You’ll need:
A case to put all the pieces in
A motherboard, the circuit board of the computer that connects everything, basically the heart of the computer
A CPU, the brain of the computer that determines processing power, or basically how fast it can do math and direct traffic
a CPU cooling system, which can be either mechanical fans or liquid cooling, gotta keep that baby chill; may or may not come packaged with the CPU depending on what you get
A graphics card (aka GPU), the thing that makes video games look pretty (and what will probably be the single most expensive item in the build depending on how good you go)
RAM, a short-term memory processing component that comes in different amounts (4gb, 8gb, 16gb, 32gb, 64gb if you’re a madman) depending on how fast you need your short-term memory to work. Good RAM allows you to do things like open a bunch of Chrome tabs at once, run Photoshop at the same time you’re listening to youtube videos, or process the demand of loading up a host of enemies in Mass Effect. Most everyone these days can get by just fine with 16gb of RAM, which is what I have.
a hard drive (or the new, faster, more expensive version, a solid state drive) which functions as your long-term storage bins. This is where you save documents, images, and install your programs. These come in tons of sizes–the larger your files are, the more storage space you’ll want. I always put at least a terabyte of storage in my builds.
a power supply unit or PSU, which gives the electrical juice for everything to run
a monitor (the more hertz, the smoother the video will be - you’ll want either 60hz or 144hz depending on how much your number of frames-per-second matter to you)
a keyboard and mouse
speakers or headphones or both!
Optional addons:
RGB lighting for everything :O
an optical drive (aka something to put DVDs, Blurays, or other physical CD disks into)
fancy liquid cooling pipes
additional case fans; most cases come with adequate fans, but if you are using the computer in a room with poor ventilation or you find that certain components are running hot, you can install additional fans
coincidentally you can also get fans with RGB lighting too
cable extenders when you are going for a specific color scheme
So it can definitely all look overwhelming at first, but when you start to look at how everything is laid out, you’ll notice some trends. Look at these motherboards, for example.
These are just four random motherboards I pulled off Newegg, a commonly used computer parts purchasing site. Sure, the colors are a bit different, but the layout between them…is all basically the same! Here, I’ll draw it out.
In just about every modern motherboard you buy, this will be the rough layout. Everything else is window dressing–what kind of GPU you get, what kind of CPU you get, whether your RAM lights up cool colors or not. Your motherboard will ALWAYS include a map that has extensive descriptions of what each connection does.
Much, much, much more under the jump!
Most of these you won’t even need!
There are always some compatibility things to consider–as I mentioned, PCPartPicker can help you figure out a lot of these–but the biggest one to care about is the CPU. There are two major companies that make CPUs, AMD and Intel. They both have pros and cons on the chips they make, but right now, AMD makes a family of CPUs called Ryzen that both outperform and are cheaper than Intel’s current leading brands, the i7 and i9 lines. Intel was king of the hill for a long time, though, and their CPUs are still really good quality, so some people still go with them over the cheaper alternatives for now. (There are some reports of black screens with the new Ryzen lines, but as I’ve never owned one, I can’t personally speak to how common that is.)
Regardless, once you pick which family of CPUs you want to go with, AMD or Intel, you just have to pick an Intel-friendly or AMD-friendly motherboard. This is always specified in the description of the motherboard. I own the Asus z370 motherboard, so here’s what it says in the description for CPU:
Anyway, once you’ve picked all your parts and had everything shipped to you, it’s literally just a plug-n-play, step by step until everything’s plugged in. Your motherboard manual will also include recommended order of installations, too, and often how to install them.
It helps to remember that the manufacturers of all these parts understand that they are expensive, and they really DON’T want to make them hard to install! Broken or difficult pieces during installation means that the customer is upset, and upset customers ask for refunds and lose brand loyalty.
It also helps to understand that a lot of these connections are based on certain standards–I didn’t realize until I was rebuilding my current machine that these holes set for screws really do work with just about everything you get, as long as it’s the same generation, because motherboard manufactures WANT you to have the flexibility to go any attachment brand you like and still be able to use their board to mount them.
So, you pick your case and open it up, and you put the motherboard down on top of all the little screw holes until they match, and then you screw all the screws down firmly.
Old rig, partially disassembled:
New, in approximately same state:
(One of the reasons I went with this larger white case than a smaller, slim case like my old one, is because this nicer case has what’s called “cable management;” that means there’s a built-in back area behind the motherboard where all my cables can be jammed without messing up the “aesthetic” of the glass window. My first build obviously did not have that, as seen in that first picture at the top of this post, so I had to just jam my cables wherever I could fit them so that the sides would close, haha.)
Anyway, you can see that the motherboard is just screwed in where it should be, and my CPU is already installed where it should be. I haven’t mounted the cooler for it yet because I needed to clean off the old thermal paste and install new thermal paste before doing so. My two sticks of RAM are also mounted in the top right in the motherboard’s recommended configuration & locations for two sticks (vs. one, vs. four).
Then, with the cooler in place, it looked like this:
So the cooler I have is liquid cooling in a closed system (the thick black tubes running right to left) which is attached to a fan that mounts in place of the white fan on the left from the previous picture. It was as simple as unscrewing the old fan and putting the new one in its place. I think I even used the same screws. The fan is powered by that thin cable running along the top of the case that plugs into a little socket on the motherboard labeled “CPU Fan.” It was as simple as just finding the right plug; it doesn’t even have directionality, just a three-pin socket, so it doesn’t even matter which way you plug.
Already it’s looking like a proper computer! And because this case has cable management, I took a picture of what it currently looked like from the backside.
This case is cool because it has a neat set of connectors mounted on the back of this little hideaway to connect the case fans. I could have run the white fan cables through to the front of the motherboard for them to get power/marching orders, but it was cleaner aesthetically to attach them here in the back. Nothing wrong with connecting them on the front, though–that’s what I did in my original build!
You also might have noticed I’ve mounted the PSU in that white case by now as well. It’s the large black and red box in the bottom corner, seen best from behind. The white case comes with what’s called a PSU shroud, which just means there’s a fancy white cover over it to keep the ~aesthetic~ when viewed from the front side.
The next step is to mount the graphics card!
There’s instructions in your manual as to exactly how these mount, but it really and truly is just removing the dust cover brackets where you need to, and then a delicate plug & play, pushing that big guy in until you hear the click! (Click good, snap bad. Haha. I’ve changed out these cards several dozen times and never broken one, though!)
You can also see the ugly red-tipped cables plugged into the GPU and the motherboard, both on the right side. These come from the Power Supply Unit (they are all permanently connected in most brands, and look basically like a squid’s tentacles–once you have your items mounted onto the motherboard, you just look for the connector from the PSU with the right number of pins and plug it in!)
This guy is the worst. He is fat and hard to maneuver and always requires SO MUCH FORCE to click into this delicate bendy board and your heart will ALWAYS be in your throat as your fingers shake from how hard you’re having to push to sink it, and it will ALWAYS eventually go in but you’ll hate every second of the doing. I hate you, 24-pin EATX. I hate you so much.)
The next thing I did was mount my optical drive (because yes, I still own one), my hard drive, and my solid state drive.
The hard drive and SSD both serve the same purpose (long-term data storage), but the SSD is much faster and uses newer technology. It’s also more expensive for the amount of storage you get, so I have a 256gb SSD that holds my operating system, my heavily-used programs like Firefox and Photoshop & Premiere, and one or two video games I play the most that I would like to load as fast as possible. This is the drive that can allow me to restart my whole system in less than five seconds.
The hard drive is 1.75 terabytes and holds everything else: fics, pictures, videos, music, other games, etc.They mount onto the racks with pre-drilled screws. The optical drive just slides into the socket snugly until it hits the back of the rack.
All of these use a standard connector called a SATA cable which runs between the back of the drive to a SATA socket on the motherboard. Most motherboards come with at LEAST six or seven of these connector slots, and some come with more. They look like this:
and are pretty universal. Any kind of extra storage or drive you want to add to your computer will probably connect with a SATA cable. I think my motherboard, my SSD & HD, and my case purchases all came with a pack of loose SATA cables of different lengths to be used for whatever I wanted.
The rack each drive is mounted to came installed with the case and pre-drilled with screw holes (and provided screws) for attaching either the HD or SSD in every slot. Because this case is all about aesthetic, it also comes with two vertical SSD mounts on the back of the case if you wanted to remove the right-side rack altogether, but as I mentioned, I have the optical drive, so I couldn’t go with that option.
So now we have all the major pieces mounted! The last set of connections are a collection of small fiddly pieces that all plug in roughly the same area and do things like light up the case’s LED, provide that startup beep, connect the USB sockets on the case’s front to power, etc. This is by far the section that takes me the longest because I guarantee I will ALWAYS plug at least two into the wrong socket and not have a beep, or my audio won’t work or something until I go back and reconnect them.
The next thing was to plug in my monitors and…see what happened when we hit the power button! (Monitor connections just plug directly into your graphics card in the back of the case.) And here’s what happened!
youtube
So it turned out when I was connecting my SSD (which has my OS on it), I was pushing on the little connector while sitting on the back side of the case. I thought I had the thing in the socket, but what I’d actually done was jam the connector just under the lip of the motherboard (that is, not connected to anything at all, just hanging in open space). Once I realized, though, it was an easy fix!
The last thing I wanted to do to complete the clean white look I wanted was to replace those UGHLY red PSU cables with what are called “cable extenders.” I bought some white ones on Amazon; because most PSUs’ cables are permanently attached at the box, you plug your cable extenders into the other end and then feed them through the case, so that’s the only portion visible. The ugly PSU cables are still there at the other end of the white cables, just hidden in the cable management area behind the motherboard.
I spent some time fixing up the cables to curve exactly how I wanted them to, then picked my LED RGB colors and closed up the open side with the glass wall. All that was left was to plug in my mouse/keyboard/speakers/headphones/mic/webcam, etc., and we were done!
Ta-daaaa!
The first build I did, the one in the blue & black case, took us about two days due to some unexpected problems. First, we were trying to salvage an old CPU from my HP prebuilt to save a little money. Unfortunately, they used basically no thermal paste to connect it to its fan, and when we were trying to get the fan off, it actually tore the CPU out of its socket and bent a bunch of its pins. I ended up going to Best Buy or something and getting a replacement off the shelf.
The other issue I had was that I foolishly didn’t back up my files, and lost a bunch of them in the rebuild (including my Hawke’s original run through the DA2 game :( :( :( ) Always back up your files before ever going in and messing with your case!
Over the years I replaced a bunch of components in it, which is why it lasted me so long, but the transfer into the new case only took me about three hours, and that was with a bunch of breaks throughout. I probably could have done it faster if I hadn’t wanted to savor it, haha. The cable management for the backless desk took a lot longer, though! (…and a LOT of zip ties.)
I do set my new build on a small glass stand (again, from Amazon) because Hamlet’s pretty sheddy and I wanted to keep airflow as good as possible. I’m limited on how many case fans I can install since I have the optical drive rack taking up a lot of space on the right, but I could install new fans on top if I wanted. My temperatures are great, though (I monitor with CoreTemp & GPUTemp, as well as my motherboard’s built-in temp monitoring software), so I don’t need to unless I decide I need more RGB.
Anything I might want to add, I run through PCPartPicker to make sure it’ll fit what I already have. For example, my parts list looks like this (full view and complete parts list available at this link):
ANYWAY.
If you are patient, if you can fit small Lego-like pieces in labeled sockets, and you are a decent googler, you can build your own PC. It’s really, really hard to do serious damage to components nowadays, even if you plug something in wrong. There’s a bunch of resources, though, and I’d recommend the following places to start:
newegg.com - parts for sale, getcher parts here
pcpartpicker.com - put your list of components together, and it’ll flag any compatibility issues or known problems
https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/ - great starting point for new builders, tons of advice and how-to’s for every step of the process, and a decently responsive community to help troubleshoot any issues you might have
And I obviously love doing this kind of thing, so if there’s anything I can help with, I’m more than happy to try! Just let me know, and I hope this was helpful!
#anonymous#quark replies#quark's pc tag#long post for ts#very long post for ts#lots o videos and pictures for ts#a quest for fps
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Photo Credit: Stephen Gandy (CameraQuest)
The 35mm focal length is the most versatile focal length for any camera system and I’ve talked about this in depth in one of my reviews. It’s a great middle ground for general, street, travel photography and anything in-between due to its balanced field of view. It has a “wide” (but not too wide) field of view to capture your context with just enough distance and pull, while maintaining its composure relatively well when it comes to distortion. This “middle of the road” focal length make it an ideal choice for most people as the only focal length they really need, which explains why the 35mm had become ubiquitous as the “do it all” lens.
This new-ish lens by Voigtlander hits all the spots mentioned earlier, but it enters murky waters. This particular segment is challenging for most manufacturers as they have one major obstacle to overcome, which is the benchmark for all 35mm lenses: the Leica Summicron.
In this review, we will go over what might be Voigtlander’s most promising proposition and see if it has what it takes to take on the great lens of power.
Introduction
When the Voigtlander Ultron 35mm f/2 ASPH was released in 2019, there was a lot hype surrounding this lens as people saw this as the second coming of an affordable 35mm f/2 lens since the Zeiss Biogon. A lens, they hoped, to compete against the Leica Summicron 35mm. Things were looking good as the lens had a more affordable starting price tag of $799.99 USD, therefore it wasn’t surprising that it quickly gained traction and popularity within the Leica community. This price point allowed Voigtlander to position itself comfortably cheaper than the Carl-Zeiss Biogon 35mm f/2, and thousands cheaper than a new Summicron. This was more than enough of a reason for people to get excited and when initial reviews were released, people were shocked how well the lens punched above its weight.
People took notice and money was thrown at computer screens.
Competition is always good right?
Classical yet sharp with amazing transitions. The bokeh is a little busy though.
@cosmotographer
@cosmotographer
“…they’ve also managed to create the smallest 35mm f/2 lens currently in production.”
Voigtlander Ultron 35mm f/2 ASPH
Competing in this sacred segment may seem like an uphill challenge for the Voigtlander, but fortunately for them, its competitors had left a wide berth for improvement where the little Ultron could stand on its own. By choosing to position their new lens as the cheaper alternative without compromising image quality, they were able to squeeze in as a viable alternative to its other German (and Chinese) counterparts.
The 35mm f/2 Segment
The cheapest option: 7Artisans 35mm f/2
Image Quality: Excellent
Render Type: Modern
Build Quality: Good – need manual adjustments
Ergonomics: Good
Price: $289.00 USD
Made in China
The budget option: Voigtlander Ultron 35mm f/2 ASPH
Image Quality: Excellent
Render Type: Classical tones and modern sharpness
Build Quality: Excellent
Ergonomics: Good
Price: [eafl id=”5285″ name=”Voigtlander Ultron 35 f/2 Vintage” text=”$799.99″] USD
Made in Japan
The premium option: Carl-Zeiss Biogon 35mm f/2
Image Quality: Excellent but soft corners wide open at f/2
Render Type: Modern tones and cooler colors.
Build Quality: Excellent
Ergonomics: Ok
Price: [eafl id=”5495″ name=”Zeiss Biogon 35mm f/2 ZM” text=”$1141.99″] USD
Made in Japan
The top shelf option: Leica Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH
Image Quality: Excellent
Render Type: Classical tones and modern sharpness.
Build Quality: Excellent
Ergonomics: Excellent
Price: [eafl id=”5272″ name=”Leica Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH (11879)” text=”$1999.99″] USD+ (Used)
Made in Germany
From the list of lenses above, Voigtlander’s only real rival would be its sister lens, the Zeiss Biogon 35mm f/2, which is also manufactured by the same company that assembles the Voigtlanders: Cosina. Despite their manufacturing similarities, build quality and the strange 43mm filter size, their differences lie in their characters as the Zeiss had quirks of its own.
For example, while the more expensive Zeiss 35mm is a sharp lens, its corners were known to be muddy wide open and surprisingly not up to par with its slower (albeit excellent) brother, the C-Biogon 35mm f/2.8 ASPH. There is also the controversial “issue” that Zeiss lenses tend to render cool and clinical compared to the Voigtlander and even Leica, but this is a subjective matter as there are people that like the way the Zeiss draws images.
Very sharp | f/4.8 / 1/4000 / ISO 200
Sunset | f/3.4 / 1/4000 / ISO 200
Photo Credit: Stephen Gandy (CameraQuest)
“…keeping some of the quirks that hipsters like to call, ‘character’.”
Build & Design
During its original development, Voigtlander’s goal of the Ultron 35mm f/2 was to create a vintage looking lens that nods back to the 1950s when lenses were tiny and lightweight. They definitely achieved that and then some when they also added a modern aspherical element to bring the optical quality to 21st century standards, but maintaining some of the quirks that hipsters call, “character”. The aesthetics of the lens body may not be for everyone, and the chrome parts give off a retro Cadillac vibe, especially for those that prefer a more stealth look like the Summicron. Personally, I’m not be a fan of the design.
I am, however, impressed with its overall size and weight when I first held it in my hands.
This is truly a tiny and featherlight lens.
While the body is lightweight and compact at a mere 6 ounces, its packed tightly with an aspherical element as part of its 8 elements and 5 groups, which gives the lens more of a modern look with improved sharpness. Not only is this lens Summicron level sharp, but they’ve also retained the image quality that Voigtlander lenses are known for: classical rendering with a bit of softness added to it. It’s as if the lens designers went into Lightroom and just turned down the clarity level just a little bit. Not only do they squeeze out every optical performance in such a tiny lens, but they’ve also managed to create the smallest 35mm f/2 lens currently in production.
Photo Credit: Stephen Gandy (CameraQuest)
Welterweight Champ
Don’t let the size fool you as the lens is solidly built with an all aluminum construction, packed with glass, will surprise people with its $800 price tag ($700 new during Voigtlander’s sales). This is a very solid and durable lens. What most people don’t know is that the front filter ring and the focusing helicoid is made entirely from brass, similar to the Summicron. Another cool reason why the front filter ring is brass is that if you want to install a UV filter onto the lens, the brass mount prevents a softer metal like aluminum (common for cheap UV filters) from getting stuck. A Cosina* trademark that is consistent with all Voigtlander and Zeiss lenses. I personally recommend B+W Nano MRC 007 filters as they’re made of brass as well.
Nothing on this lens feels flimsy or cheap and if I had to compare the lens build quality to a Leica lens, it would be the slower, but lightweight Summarit-M 35mm and the [eafl id=”5494″ name=”Zeiss C-Biogon 35mm f/2.8 ZM” text=”Zeiss C-Biogon 35mm f/2.8″]. Both extremely well built and solid lenses.
Weight: 6 ounces
Minimum Focus Distance (MFD): 0.58m
Build: Aluminum
Flare resistant and fantastic micro-contrast
@cosmotographer
@cosmotographer
“…the Ultron as the lens itself is as modern as they come with a hint of classical rendering.”
Mechanically, it’s not as refined as the Summicron, or even the cheaper Summarit lenses, but they’re on par with the rest of the Zeiss lenses as they’re both assembled in the same factory, built to the same standards.
However, not everything is perfect and if I had to nitpick about a few things…
The focus tab is a small tiny pin, which is easy to miss due to its minuscule size. One of the few compromises to fit that “vintage” aesthetic that Voigtlander was going for. More form than function.
The silver finish on the aperture and focus rings showed some moderate wear pretty quickly and I don’t believe it’s coated with anything to protect the paint.
The [eafl id=”5567″ name=”Voigtlander LH-12 Lens Hood” text=”LH-12″] Lens Hood is very expensive and adds to the length of the lens significantly. I don’t recommend picking one up unless you’re very particular about it.
43mm Filter Size – not a big deal if you already own a few Zeiss lenses as they use the same filter size, but this is an awkward filter size.
Fantastic rendering | f/4 / 1/125 / ISO 200
“…modern as they come with a hint of classical rendering.”
Image Quality
Regardless of the high build quality mentioned earlier, the most important factor of a lens is its image quality and rest assured, this lens exceeds all expectations for this price point.
Beautiful rendering and micro-contrast | f/2 / 1/4000 / ISO 200
“It’s as if the lens designers went into Lightroom and just turned down the clarity level just a little bit.”
The images have a certain look to them and the way the images are rendered with this lens is typical Voigtlander: sharp, neutral colors, subtle micro-contrast and classical bokeh.
What was most surprising to me was how the images kind of remind me of the Leica Summicron 35mm ASPH that I reviewed here. The sharpness is on par but you will hear people on the internet saying that it’s sharper than the Summicron. It’s a possibility and the performance of this lens does show its merits, but side by side, any differences are immaterial in practical uses.
Stop pixel peeping. It’s a $700 lens.
The micro-contrast is also very good, but falls a little short to the Summicron, but overall renders very similarly to the Leica. To be completely frank, I can honestly say that the Ultron is optically equal to the Summicron for the most part and for any shortfalls, it’s so small that it doesn’t matter.
What can be said, is that based on image quality alone, this lens beats out the Zeiss Biogon 35mm f/2.
RAW | Another flare shot | f/5.6 / 1/4000 / ISO 200
User Experience
The handling of this lens is close to perfect, but the focusing knob is something that people have to get used to, especially if you’re used to the crescent shaped tabs like on the Summicron or the Nokton 35mm f/1.4. This is the only handling issue I have with this lens as the focusing knob is easy to miss when you’re about to take a photo. There is a good chance that you’ll forget where you left the focus if you had to take your hands off the camera. Otherwise, the focus throws are extremely smooth and fast, but accuracy can suffer due to the focusing knob. I’m definitely not a fan of this.
The aperture controls are set by two subtle, yet protruding metal tabs with machined serrations, where the user can easily manipulate the aperture just solely on feel thanks to its positive detents. I actually prefer the stiffer clicks on both Voigtlander and Zeiss aperture rings over Leica’s offering.
That being said, I wouldn’t consider this lens a handling demon like the Summicron or the Summarit for those quick focus hits.
In Summary
I would be lying to you if I said that I didn’t have my own prejudices towards this lens when it was first announced for the Leica M mount. This was not because I didn’t like Voigtlander (on the contrary), but because I didn’t believe there was a sub-$1000 lens that could match the Summicron’s superlative glass and user experience. This bias from my previous experiences with Voigtlander lenses set a low standard for me, because while Voigtlander made great lenses, they also came with a lot of compromises. What Voigtlander had accomplished this time, was that they were able to build one of the best 35mm f/2 lens you can buy and it demands your attention.
*Cosina is the parent company of Voigtlander and manufactures Zeiss ZM line of lenses for the Leica M mount in their factory in Japan.
If you’ve enjoyed this review and plan on making a purchase, please help out the site by using the affiliate links below as that helps the site to maintain its good relationship with its WordPress overlords and buy the writer a cup of coffee.
[eafl id=”5285″ name=”Voigtlander Ultron 35 f/2 Vintage” text=”Voigtlander Ultron 35mm f/2 ASPH”]
Overpriced Lens Hood: [eafl id=”5567″ name=”Voigtlander LH-12 Lens Hood” text=”LH-12″]
[eafl id=”5272″ name=”Leica Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH (11879)” text=”Leica Summicron-M 35mm f/2 ASPH”]
[eafl id=”5495″ name=”Zeiss Biogon 35mm f/2 ZM” text=”Carl-Zeiss Biogon 35mm f/2″]
Featured Image by Stephen Gandy at CameraQuest
Voigtlander Ultron 35mm f/2 ASPH – Summicron on a Budget Photo Credit: Stephen Gandy (CameraQuest) The 35mm focal length is the most versatile focal length for any camera system and I've talked about this in depth in one of my reviews.
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How To Build a Golf Simulator On a Budget
In case you're similar to me, the long winter months and absence of chances to get out and swing the sticks make me distraught. Indeed, it's pleasant to have a white Christmas and all that however there is just so much solace nourishment and I can eat, so much more distant family I can deal with thus time on the sofa I can spend. For a long time I look out my front room window and consider playing golf. Obviously, I scratch the tingle on my indoor putting mat, hit flop shots off the rug when my better half isn't looking and swing my weighted club in the carport. Be that as it may, toward the day's end there's not a viable alternative for the genuine article.
As I kept on stewing throughout the entire winter, I harkened back to my school days when we made our very own variant of a golf test system. It was entirely brilliant. At any rate we suspected as much. It was a canvas suspended from the roof and moored to the floor with cushions stuffed behind it. What's more, obviously we never needed to hold up until the go to get brew, the cooler by our hitting mat was in every case well-supplied.
Since its absolutely impossible I could pull off such an arrangement now, I began doing some exploration on indoor golf test systems. What I found is that there are a wide range of cool choices out there and… they cost a large portion of my outstanding home loan. In any case, with somewhat more burrowing, I found that it's possible to construct your very own test system for a small amount of the expense of having one introduced expertly.
Instructions:Buil your own golf simulator
You may feel that you need a wide range of extravagant gear and PCs to manufacture your very own test system yet such isn't the situation. All you truly need is sufficient space, a hitting mat, a projector, a screen or net and programming that enables you to play the world's best courses in 3-D.
Space
There's no way to avoid the way that golf test systems occupy room. At any rate you're going to require a space 10 feet wide by 15 feet long by 10 feet high. Except if you're blessed enough to have vaulted roofs, the in all likelihood space to put a test system is in your carport. On the off chance that you need to get particularly detailed, you should consider building a wood casing secured with work mesh to house your whole arrangement. In the event that you extravagant working with a pneumatic nailer and table saw, you can even form a work area for your PC and a rack for your clubs. In case you're searching for something less complex, buying programming like OptiShot enables you to hit balls into a net and watch the ball trip on your TV progressively.
Hitting Mat
You've presumably hit off modest mats at your neighborhood driving reach. These mats fill a need however you're going to need something somewhat more pleasant for your indoor golf test system. On the off chance that you plan on hitting drivers or fairway woods, you're going to require a tangle that you can get a tee in to. On the off chance that you need to recreate various untruths like fairway and harsh, finding a tangle with various statures is an alternative too.
Our preferred indoor mats are the:
PGM3660
Callaway FT Launch Zone
Rukket Tri-Turf
Truedays
Sklz Launch Pad
These mats are moderately reasonable and give you better input at that point mats you find on an open air driving extent.
Projector
Despite the fact that you can utilize your TV or PC for your golf test system, having bigger display makes for an increasingly practical encounter. For this you're going to require a projector. While the best ones available can cost a great many dollars, something somewhere in the range of $300 and $500 ought to carry out the responsibility.
In case you're considering getting a dir-modest projector, we exceptionally dishearten doing as such. Despite the fact that there are a lot of alternatives out there for under $100, practically every one of them do not have the splendor expected to see your shots and the course clearly.
Our best proposals that won't use up every last cent are the:
Epson VS230
BenQ MS 524
ViewSonic PJD5533W.
Before you swipe your Visa for a projector however, ensure that is has inputs that are perfect with your PC. More often than not a HDMI port is all you need.
Screen
The screens utilized for top-rack test systems can be exorbitant. Fortunately there are a few different ways to set aside cash without gambling flying golf balls breaking something in your home.
Numerous individuals settle on a straightforward net like the one you may have in your back yard. Brands like Rukket, Callaway, Jef World of Golf, Galileo, GoSports and Club Champ all make golf hitting nets that dependably assimilate the effect of full-speed golf shots and give a cost-productive alternative to progressively costly screens.
On the off chance that feel aren't that essential to you, utilizing a rock solid light-hued covering or canvas is another choice. Before you completely introduce it, you'll need to test the nature of your projector's picture against the snare to ensure it is clear enough so you can sufficiently observe course includes and the trip of your ball.
In the event that neither of the alternatives above work for you, you can make the shoddy speculation of froth golf balls. These balls are made explicitly to be hit inside and except if you hit your mother's china with a shot, you shouldn't need to stress over breaking anything.
Programming
In the event that you've hit balls in a test system in a business space, there's a reason you pay upwards of $50 every hour. Those machines, however truly cool, cost as much as $50,000 a piece. The best programming for your home test system is OptiShot which expenses under $500. While this program won't give you crush factor, dispatch edge and turn rate numbers, you will get precise input on details like club head speed, separation, shot shape and swing way.
The OptiShot likewise enables you to play an assortment of world-well known courses, modify climate conditions and play various configurations against your companions.
So What Is Total Cost?
On the off chance that you need to manufacture a straightforward no frills test system that gives you the impression that you're playing a genuine round of golf, your cost breakdown should look something like the accompanying.
Programming: $500
Projector: $300
Hitting Mat: $60
Hitting Net: $40
Complete: $1,000
Additional Features
In the event that you have somewhat more space in your financial limit, you can buy a portion of the things recorded above with some additional highlights or you can select some cool additional items to upgrade your experience.
One choice is purchasing an Ipad and introducing swing examination programming like V-1, SwingTIP or SwingSmart. These kinds of projects enable you to utilize a camcorder to take a video of your swing and after that moderate it down, draw lines and see one next to the other pictures of your swing and the swings of the Pros from various edges. A few projects even accompany pre-stacked instructional tips or enable you to pay for a membership for tweaked proficient guidance.
Another choice is to construct a fenced in area for your test system that keeps surrounding light out and light from your projector in. This includes the expense of materials like wood and some kind of covering. Covers can be anything from work mesh to shower window ornaments, essentially, anything to shield errant shots from flying out of the fenced in area and causing harm.
The choices to alter your test system are boundless. Don't hesitate to get as innovative as you need and as your spending limit permits.
Practice
Presently that you're fully operational it's an ideal opportunity to put your golf test system to utilize. The principal thing that most likely rings a bell is working on during when the climate keeps you from heading outside. Regardless of whether you're taking a shot at swing mechanics or dialing in separations with your short irons, having the option to see your ball flight and numbers inside is the thing that you assembled this test system for you know.
Play Where the Pros Play
Possibly you simply need to play the absolute most renowned courses on the planet that you likely won't get the opportunity to play, all things considered. For me that was Augusta National, the most select club on the planet where ex-presidents are even denied access. In the wake of dumping one in the water left of the green on Hole 11 and making intruder, I birdied the notorious standard 3 twelfth over Ray's Creek and parred the standard 5 thirteenth. I played Amen Corner in even standard! How cool is that? Your golf test system programming comes pre-stacked with notorious courses and at a little cost you have the choice to download others and keep them forever.
Practice With a Buddy
Possibly you and an amigo have a mutual objective for your golf games. Regardless of whether it's breaking 90 just because or figuring out how to hit a draw rather than a cut, golf test systems accompany a training mode where you can simply beat balls on a driving reach. You'll get criticism on each shot and have the option to gauge each other's advancement the whole time.
It's imperative to practice like you play as well. An incredible method to do this is by keeping your training focused with basic games. You have the opportunity to get as innovative with this as you need. One of my preferred games is KP's. The principles to this game are really straight forward. You and your accomplice concur on an objective and each hit 10 shots estimating who is nearest on each shot and the most player with the most KP's after every one of the shots are hit is the victor.
Fellow or Gal Time
Each person or lady longs for having their very own variant of a definitive man or lady cavern and for enthusiastic golfers, having a test system and a major level screen is at the highest priority on the rundown. For me, school football Saturdays resemble religion. Most Saturdays during the season will discover me tossing a spread for a couple of my companions where we have all the significant games on and crush in 36 openings while giving each other trouble. Whatever the event might be, having a golf test system just improves the experience for everybody.
Begin a League
One of the best time things you can do with your golf test system is begin an association that gets together all the time to contend. You can structure the group anyway you pick however guaranteeing that groups are equitably coordinated is vital to ensuring everybody has a decent time. In my group, we have four-man groups all comprising of an A, B, C and D player. We play an alternate configuration consistently and groups are granted focuses for where they wrap up. Be that as it may, once more, you're allowed to set this up anyway you need. Ultimately, ensure there is something to play for toward the finish of the period. It doesn't need to anything incredible, however having a prize for the triumphant group propels everybody to appear and remain intrigued throughout the entire season.
End
The chilly dull a long time of winter are hopeless for genuine golfers. The huge names aren't playing on TV and your odds to get out to play yourself are constrained, best case scenario. For a moderately little venture be that as it may, you can construct your own golf test system and have a great deal of fun with your companions all while taking a shot at your game. The best part is the point at which the golf season at last comes around, you'll be miles in front of your pals that haven't contact a club in months.
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Graveyard magick: A Witch's guide
by Michelle Gruben
Just about every Witch loves to poke around in old cemeteries and graveyards. And yet, actually doing magick in graveyards is a guarded subject, even among people who practice their craft without shame.
Is it discomfort with death? Fear of not being taken seriously? The overwhelming influence of the white-light crowd? Who knows. Graveyards are often associated with curses and hexes, with secrecy, with people who take angsty selfies and write vampire poems—but it doesn’t have to be that way.
Here’s a handy Witch’s guide to finding, exploring and working within graveyards—no black nail polish required.
Why Graveyards?
Graveyards are amazing places for magickal work for several reasons:
Cemeteries are a shared spiritual space that doesn’t belong to any one religion or group. After all, death is the thing that we all have in common. No matter what words are said over the casket, we all return to Gaia in the end. For Witches and Pagans, graveyards can function as a neutral religious space, or even a temple when none is available.
Burial places are also one of the few types of land that has been mostly immune to commercial re-development. Even our materialistic society draws the line at digging up great-grandma to build more mid-rise condos. In mature cities, cemeteries are often among the last public green spaces available. If you want to be close to nature (but not run over by joggers and bikers) you could do worse than to cozy up to some tombstones.
Finally, there are the metaphysical traits. Graveyards are set apart from the hustle and bustle of everyday life—they remain quiet and sad while the world grows up around them. There is a stillness and a timelessness in graveyards. They often hold strong emotional energy, which can be attractive to visiting entities. They are a symbolic boundary between the world of the living and the Underworld.
Finding Old Cemeteries
You can often find quaint little cemeteries just by driving around, especially in older communities. Old churches and funeral homes usually have burial plots attached. Some large city cemeteries are historic landmarks in their own right, with splendid monuments to the city’s heroes, villains, and well-off boring chaps.
In witchy cities like New Orleans and Salem, graveyards can be a huge tourist draw. A tour company or visitor’s bureau can give you a list of cemeteries to visit. As ghost hunting and witchcraft have become more mainstream, many cemeteries offer special occult-themed tours. (Take the tour to scope out points of interest, then come back later without the crowds.) When traveling in rural areas, watch the side of the road for cemetery markers—the graveyard itself will usually be off the main road and up a hill. (To keep dead bodies out of the drinking water. Hooray!)
Another cemetery scouting tip: Photographers love graveyards almost as much as Witches do. Follow your local photography club, as they will do a lot of the legwork of sniffing out old and picturesque graves.
For cemetery visits that are off the beaten path, check in with the local historical society or civic clubs. Retirees and veterans often do the work of maintaining gravesites year-round. Historical groups can clue you in to little-known or neglected burial sites. Slave cemeteries, Jewish cemeteries, and pioneer cemeteries all have incredible stories to tell, and energies that are very different from what you will find at large memorial parks.
Some traditional graveyard spells call for a certain type of gravesite. (A murdered person for a revenge spell, rich man for money spells, child’s grave to conceive a baby, etc.) This is another case where it’s helpful to have history buffs for friends.
Like all other cultural artifacts, burial sites change over time. Headstones from the colonial period and earlier often gave a lot of biographical details, but later ones tend to have simple inscriptions. The stories of the deceased are in danger of being lost to time. Sometimes, however, the opposite is true. The graves of regular people can sometimes become local legends, pilgrimage sites for wish-making and little rituals.
As colorful as old cemeteries are, don’t neglect modern ones for you magickal needs. (In fact, some Witches prefer fresh gravesites for gathering graveyard dirt and certain other tasks.) If your home is near a cemetery (old or new) I highly recommend spending some time there. The practice will help connect you with the history of the land and people who helped build your local community. Your magick will be better for the experience.
Know the Rules
There are mundane rules and occult rules for working in cemeteries. First, the mundane rules. These will usually be posted at the entrance, especially in newer and commercially maintained burial grounds.
The mundane rules should also be obvious to anyone with a trace of manners and common sense. Don’t litter (duh), don’t plant or bury anything, don’t vandalize graves, don’t disturb mourners or memorial services. Open flames and glass may also be prohibited for safety reasons. Very old and historic cemeteries sometimes restrict grave rubbings in the interest of conservation. But normally it’s not against the rules to take paper rubbing of an interesting stone or marker.
Observing visiting hours is a very important consideration for graveyard Witches. These are not always posted. In many places, cemetery hours are covered by state laws or local ordinances. The laws are on the books and you’re just supposed to know to leave at sundown.
I know, I know—but we’re Witches! We do our best work at night. Unfortunately, it is usually illegal (and bad luck, some say) to be hanging around in a cemetery after dark. Some Witches and ghost hunters rely on their stealth powers to get around this rule…but I don’t recommend it.
There’s still a lot of ignorance about the Craft. Caretakers may not be able to tell the difference between the itinerant Witch and the ordinary vandal (or may not care). Cemetery owners and neighbors will call the police if they catch you there at night. Nothing kills a magickal buzz like a criminal trespassing charge, I promise.
At night, you also run a greater risk of encountering living people who are up to no good: Drug deals, furtive sex, and goth kids drinking wine coolers. They might even try to read you some vampire poetry. Not cool.
The mundane rules are easy enough, but what about the magickal ones? Ah, that’s where it gets complicated. As human beings, we don’t know very much about death—and we’ve had thousands and thousands of years to make crap up. There are about a billion superstitions involving graveyard visits. Here’s a sampling:
Don’t point at graves or photograph them. (This rule probably gets broken the most.)
Say “sorry” when stepping over a gravesite. (Observed 100% of the time in Irish cemeteries, I’ve noticed.)
It is bad luck to wear anything new to a cemetery, especially shoes.
Don’t whistle in a graveyard, or you tempt Death.
Leaving coins on a grave is a token of respect.
Don’t yawn near a grave, or ghosts could get inside your body.
Smelling roses when there are none around is a sign that a benevolent spirit is nearby.
The person who takes something from a graveyard will return more than he took.
As silly as some of these adages sound, there is a grain of occult wisdom in most of them. However, don’t assume that they apply in all cases. Every cemetery is different. Different Earth energy, different spirits, and different customs mean different rules for the magick worker.
Well…that’s not very helpful. How do you learn the rules? As much as I would like to be able to generalize about cemetery work, there are few absolutes.
The only constant rule is respect. Respect for the dead is paramount while working in graveyards. If you behave like an ass with your actions or your intentions, you might or might not suffer some unpleasant consequences. Most likely, you will just find that the gates of magick are closed to you there while you are there.
Listen Harder
I can share one helpful tip for embarking on a cemetery working: Every graveyard has a guardian. In my experience, this has been true without exception. The guardian is a presiding spirit who watches over the boundaries and entrance of the site. The guardian is like the bouncer at a nightclub, basically. You won’t get very far without checking in with Him/Her/It, so follow the dress code and try not to get 86’d.
Tradition has it that the guardian is the spirit of the first person buried in the cemetery, who is bound to stay behind and watch over it. In the past, communities would sometimes try to cheat the curse by burying an animal or a vagrant in the first plot.
I don’t think this idea of guardianship is correct. However, I can’t definitively say who or what guardians are. They may be senior human spirits, Gods or emissaries of Death, psychopomp Fae, genii loci, random thoughtforms assembled from the social norms of visitors, all of the above or something else. (Insert your magickal worldview here, basically.) But guardians are real (enough) and powerful.
Cemetery guardians have a lot of jobs. They are largely responsible for setting the energetic tone of the site. They help control what entities can enter the ground, or stick around. They work with the caretakers and visitors to maintain the place physically, also. Sometimes cemetery guardians will set up a collaboration with a local sorcerer or priest/ess who works there often. If a graveyard you visit has been “claimed” in this way, you’d be wise to tread lightly and keep your magick compatible with theirs.
Open-feeling, peaceful cemeteries have guardians that welcome visitors. Haunted, forlorn, and forbidding burial places have guardians that don’t care for human company. The guardian(s) will ensure that you know which is which. They will also give you hints and nudges about the types of magick their domain supports. They may send you somewhere else if it’s not a good match. Remember that you are in their space. Respect it.
Developing a relationship with the guardian(s) is one of the best things you can do for your graveyard magick. It’s much better than just tromping through the gates with your candles and sticks and bones and expecting all the energies to fall into place for you.
So introduce yourself! The first time you visit a graveyard, pause at the entrance and share your energy and intentions with the guardian(s). Take in some of the energy of the place in exchange. See if you like the vibes—collaboration is a two-way street, after all. It’s not a bad idea to ask permission to enter or bring an offering to show you’re not a threat.
Once inside, open your super-special magickal antennae senses and see if there’s anything they’d like done around the place. Picking up trash is almost always a welcome contribution. Perhaps there’s a neglected area that needs visiting. Sometimes there’s a spirit with something to say, or a bit of energetic cleanup to be done somewhere. It only takes a few minutes, and then you can get on with your Voodoo, Hoodoo, or whatever it is you do.
What kinds of magick can be worked in graveyards? Just about all of them. Witches go to cemeteries to cast spells for love, money, healing, and success, as well as the darker workings like binding and revenge spells. Cemeteries are a good place to charge amulets, tools, and talismans. Since they are left alone most of the time, they are energetically “cleaner” than areas frequented by lots of people.
Plenty of graveyard magick involves the spirits of the deceased. Practitioners of many forms of magick believe that spirits of the dead can empower spellwork by the living. Prayers and offerings are made to spirits to earn their sympathy and support.
Graveyards are kind of temple for Pagans who connect with gods of Death or the Underworld (such as Hades, Morrighan, and Hecate). Witches and Pagans go there to contemplate mortality, to connect with ancestors, or just be in the company of the dead.
Burial places are a traditional spot to practice mediumship and spirit communication, and for a good reason: Cemeteries are where spirits go to be heard because they’re where the living go to listen.
As I mentioned before, a major part of effective graveyard magick is listening. If you’re not sure what to do, listen harder. Your instincts will guide you toward the right time and place to perform your working.
When in cemeteries, pay attention to particular areas that pull you in. You may see movement or light. Something may draw you to a certain gravesite—a visiting bird or pretty flower, a significant name or date. Cemeteries are an ideal place to receive oracles from the other worlds. Sit down and listen when invited to. The speaker is not necessarily the occupant of the grave. Keep an open mind.
On offerings: Flowers, liquor, coins, tobacco, and food are traditional offerings to a spirit who has helped you. Some offerings will be more appropriate than others. You wouldn’t want to offer whiskey to a non-drinker, for instance. On the other hand, anything offered in love and trust is unlikely to offend. Consider the ecology of the place—take trash home with you. Offer energy and prayers if you’re not sure what’s okay.
Some Witches trek into cemeteries for ritual ingredients: graveyard dirt, stones, tree branches. Specific magickal rules govern the removal of these items (though they vary by tradition). In short, don’t take anything that isn’t freely given, or fairly bought and paid for.
When choosing a gravesite for a ritual activity, check in with any guardians or spirits in the area. Necromancy—magick involving the dead—has come a long way in the last 500 years. Once upon a time, a magician would wave a magick wand and command earthbound spirits to do his bidding. But there has been a major paradigm shift in Western magick. These days, most Witches think of discarnate beings as collaborators, sentient folks with independent wills that should be respected. You will occasionally meet a Witch who claims to bind or boss around spirits as part of their magick, but this is quite rare.
Some people might argue that the right to give consent ends with death…but that’s a rabbit hole for another day. If you get a strong feeling that your intrusion is not welcome, move on to another spot. You’ll get better results from willing spirits, anyway.
Be Safe
Let me get this out there first: Graveyards are not unsafe places for magick. They’re not inherently dark or evil or unlucky to work in. That's superstition. What they are is portal places. As such, they carry certain magickal power and certain risks. It is possible to encounter negative or chaotic energies that you don’t want to bring home with you. At times, even the psychic impressions from ordinary human emotions can be overwhelming.
If you have a protective amulet or protection ritual, now is a great time to dust it off. Ground and center yourself before beginning your working. Ask your guides/angels/higher self to surround you with protection. Scan your body for attachments when you leave.
Scrying, channeling, and trance work should only be practiced in cemeteries if you’re confident in your ability to screen out unwanted garbage. This is yet another reason why building a relationship with the site’s spirit guardians is a good idea. They know the psychic geography of the place and can spot trouble before you can. They can be your allies and will act as gatekeepers if they support your work.
Remember that spirits don’t know everything just because they’re body-less. Don’t obey orders from a spirit that you wouldn’t obey from a person, and take anything they tell you with a grain of salt.
With just a few simple precautions and courtesies, graveyards can be a wonderful place to work your magick. Happy exploring!
https://www.groveandgrotto.com/blogs/articles/graveyard-magick-a-witchs-guide
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10 Reasons Your Child Should Attend Preschool
"However, my kid is so little!" Yes, they're actually small children, yet a Play Group in Mira Road is intended to set up youthful researchers for future scholastic, passionate, and social achievement.
Preschool gives an establishment to learning both socially and scholastically that will assist your kid with succeeding grade school.
1) Preschool Is A Chance For Development
For some kids, preschool is their first involvement with an organized setting with instructors and gatherings of youngsters. It's a chance to figure out how to share, adhere to directions, and start the establishment for discovering what will happen in Nursery School in Mira Road.
2)Preschool Gets Ready Kids For Kindergarten
As kindergarten turns out to be more scholastic, numerous guardians look to preschool to dispatch their youngster on the way to achievement in school. Simultaneously, guardians may stress that the latest thing to zero in on pre-math and pre-education abilities in preschool cuts into significant play time and pushes a youngster to grow up excessively quick. It's a mistaking issue,especially for loved ones offering various conclusions and exhortations.
Luckily, in choosing a preschool, guardians aren't compelled to pick between securing an easy breezy time and preparing sure she's for kindergarten. A great youth schooling project will offer youngsters both.
However, how do excellent preschools advantage youngsters' learning and improvement? Furthermore, what highlights should guardians search for in a preschool program? One response to these inquiries is that the staff at excellent preschools and youngster care programs comprehend the specific ways that small kids create and learn. What's more, they arrange space, time and exercises to be in a state of harmony with kids' social, enthusiastic, intellectual, and actual capacities.
3) Preschool Advances Social And Passionate Turn Of Events
To learn, a little youngster needs to feel really focused on and secure with an instructor or guardian. A 3-year-old kid can invest energy away from guardians and construct confiding with grown-ups outside the family. Great preschool programs support warm connections among youngsters, educators and guardians. What's more, instructors construct a nearby close to home association with every youngster in their consideration.
Kids flourish when there is consistency in care among home and school. In top notch preschools, educators esteem guardians as the specialists on their youngsters. Guardians day by day provides details regarding their kid's exercises and standard gatherings are booked for additional inside and out meetings with staff. Instructors endeavor to comprehend and regard guardians' youngsters raising objectives and qualities.
Small kids master social abilities and enthusiastic restraint "progressively." Three-and 4-year-olds learn through their encounters and great instructors set aside a few minutes for those "workable minutes" when they can assist kids with learning to oversee dissatisfactions or outrage. They don't consequently step in to determine kids' contentions for them; they have a very much sharpened feeling of when to allow youngsters to work out their own issues and when to intercede. Without disgracing a youngster, they urge her to see the effect of her forceful or harmful conduct on another kid.
4) The Preschool Climate Is Organized, Despite The Fact That It May Not Give The Idea That Way
An exceptionally organized climate encourages small kids to figure out how to make companions and play well with others. This doesn't mean there are loads of decisions or that grown-ups continually direct kids' exercises. Unexpectedly, the construction of a great preschool homeroom is generally imperceptible to kids. Homeroom space is coordinated to empower social communication, and limit clog and clashes.
5) Kids will settle on decisions
Kids have a few options of exercises; a kid who is meandering randomly is urged to pick one that intrigues him. Educators are aware of a kid who can't sort out some way to enter other youngsters' play and may offer him ideas on approaches to join the gathering.
6) Children figure out how to deal with themselves as well as other people
Youngsters' feelings of fitness and self-esteem develop as they figure out how to deal with themselves and help other people. Instructors appeal to a small kid's longing to participate in "genuine work" by offering him opportunities to assist in the study hall, for instance, by preparing the table at nibble time or taking care of the homeroom hamster. Kids are required to wash their hands before nibble time, keep individual things in their "cubby," and set aside toys prior to moving to another movement.
Instructors likewise urge a youngster to see herself as an asset for different kids. For instance, an educator may ask a kid who's more equipped at pouring water to help a youngster who is learning. Or then again she may ask a "veteran" preschooler to show a newbie where the sand toys are kept.
All through their school years, a lot of kids' learning will occur in the organization of their companions. In an excellent preschool program, youngsters are acquainted with the practices needed to work effectively in a kindergarten homeroom. For instance, during bunch exercises, for example, "circle time," kids figure out how to zero in consideration on the educator, tune in while others are talking, and stand by to talk.
7)Preschool Advances Language And Intellectual Abilities
Preschool-age youngsters' language abilities are supported in a "language-rich" climate. Between the ages of 3 and 5, a youngster's jargon develops from 900 to 2,500 words, and her sentences become longer and more mind boggling. In a conversational way, and without ruling the conversation, educators help kids stretch their language abilities by posing interesting inquiries and presenting new jargon during science, craftsmanship, nibble time, and different exercises. Kids have numerous chances to sing, talk about most loved read-resoundingly books, and carry on stories.
A little youngster's psychological abilities are reinforced by participating in a wide scope of active exercises that challenge her to notice intently, pose inquiries, test her thoughts or tackle an issue. In any case, educators comprehend that preschool youngsters are not consistent in the grown-up feeling of the word; their clarifications of what causes a plant to develop or why individuals go downhill, may not include circumstances and logical results. For instance, "individuals get old since they have birthday celebrations." They may depend on their faculties and "otherworldly speculation" instead of on motivation to clarify why wood skims in water and shakes sink – "The stone likes to be on the base since it's cooler."
8) Preschool educators sustain a kid's interest
Educators notice, pose inquiries and tune in to kids' thoughts during these exercises — "right" answers are not the objective. To sustain their interest and inspiration to learn, educators utilize kids' inclinations and thoughts to make exercises. And surprisingly a straightforward, chance occasion – like a kid's revelation of a snail in the outside play territory — can be transformed into an energizing chance to learn.
Preschool-age kids have dynamic minds and learn through pretend play. Instructors realize that the line among the real world and dream is regularly not satisfactory to a little youngster. At times this results in feelings of trepidation of beasts under the bed. Be that as it may, the creative mind additionally energizes learning. For instance, when a gathering of youngsters makes a pretend pet store, they will rehearse numerous social and intellectual abilities as they allocate jobs to every kid, sort out classes of pet supplies and how to put together them, make signs to name items; help their "clients" select the correct cleanser or feline toy; and take "cash" for merchandize.
The fanciful play territory in a great preschool is all around loaded with outfits, "props," and kid size family things like ovens, sinks and pantries. It's regularly in this action region that preschool-age kids progress consistently from lone play, to one-on-one play, to convoluted gathering play.
9) Preschool Exercises Help Pre-Math and Proficiency Abilities
Little youngsters show developing interest in pre-math and pre-proficiency abilities. They are interested and perceptive, and they need to be able in the abilities that their families and society esteem — like perusing the directions for gathering a toy, or choosing the right bills or coins to pay for a buy. To plan youngsters for the scholastic requests of kindergarten, educators offer a wide assortment of games and exercises that assist kids with gaining the pre-math and proficiency abilities.
Singing a letters in order melody while tracking within an image book constructs a kid's consciousness of the associations between letter set letters and word sounds. Learning rhymes and serenades causes them to see the unmistakable sounds inside words. Drawing in youngsters in a conversation about an energizing read-resoundingly story supports their tuning in, cognizance, and expressive language abilities. Playing with attractive letters in order letters may move a kid to request that an instructor assist her with composing the primary letter of her name.
Coordinating with games, arranging games, checking games, and tabletop games construct kids' comprehension of number, classifications and grouping, which upholds later mathematical learning. Assembling puzzles urges kids to see themes, prepare and issue tackle.
To support kids' fervor and inspiration for learning, excellent preschool and kid care programs present early education and math abilities not as disconnected activities, but rather with regards to exercises that are intriguing and significant to kids.
10) Preschool Creates fine Motor Skills
Actual coordination improves, permitting the kid to investigate her current circumstance — and to challenge herself-recently. Little youngsters are moving for a decent piece of the day. Play School in Mira Road gives a few chances day by day to kids to run, climb, and play dynamic games. Exercises are offered to assist youngsters with creating engine abilities, for example, stringing dots or cutting with scissors. Also, kids are tested through an assortment of exercises to construct their dexterity and equilibrium.
At the point when you pick a top notch program that suits your youngster and family, you can feel guaranteed that your kid is all around focused on, is getting a charge out of exercises and making companions — and is building the information, abilities, and certainty to do well in kindergarten.for further assistance visit Best Play School in Mira Road.
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Pompeii 27
@thefreckledone Days later and Sakura was still reeling from the generosity of her friends. Gifts were one thing, but it was hard to shake the feeling that there was something more to her first birthday in Pompeii based on how they blessed her. There were flowers for her almost daily when she came down for work. Every other day someone came in during her lunch break to bring her food and sit and eat with her. Days before she had felt a lacking in the town as more and more people went ‘off’ on business she didn’t understand, but suspected to be tied to Orochimaru’s recent activity. She had mentioned it once and now it seemed all her friends in Pompeii were attempting to compensate for the few weeks she wasn’t bathed in affection.
Sakura loved her friends, and loved the validation from their gifts and visits…but…
“It’s too much.”
Shizune nodded in agreement. “Well, the Senju dropped off flowers yesterday. It’s no surprise the Uchiha would want to outshine their good neighbors.”
Sakura grimaced at the gaudy floral display left on her desk. It was even more lush with flora than the one yesterday, left by sweet Kawarama Senju on behalf of him and his brothers. Sakura had forgotten the blackbirds who saw and heard everything when she took the flowers from the youngest Senju, and gushed to him about how happy she was and how much she loved them.
“The smell is overpowering,” Shizune admitted with a shy shrug. “But it’s still lovely.”
“Yeah, it’s gorgeous,” Sakura agreed, looking over the swelling display of a dozen different flowers artfully arranged. “It’s just too much. Even for a birthday present, I’ve never been so…spoiled. Is this normal? I mean, it’s been over a week already.”
“Yes, but it’s your first birthday here. Sometimes special celebrations can continue on for weeks. Weddings typically last a whole month when they happen here. It all depends on how important or valued that person is to the community. You have a lot of people in Pompeii who see you as a member who is treasured.” Shizune nodded, eyes rolling towards the window. “Plus, people would much rather celebrate you than the spring equinox celebration that’s coming.”
“What? Why is that not a good thing? I thought the spring celebration was for like…rebirth and new life.”
“Oh it is, but this is just the quadrennial spring celebration. Every four years the spring celebration is a little different and people just don’t like the traditions as much as the others.”
“Is there a reason for that?” Sakura asked.
“It’s important to preserve our history and remember the mistakes we and our ancestors made in the past. So, instead of every year we decided that every four years we would add an additional ritual of appeasement into our spring celebration. It’s no terrible thing and we enjoy ourselves well enough because it is a celebration, but it’s not as fun compared to celebrating the life of a person important to you. We would much rather just celebrate you, Sakura.”
“What’s the ritual of appeasement for?” Sakura asked, noticing how the crows outside her windows were gone and the room felt much larger than it should. The windows were far away and the doors even farther. If someone had been listening in on them there would be nothing for them to hear. This was Shizune’s doing.
“It’s better you not know that much,” Shizune whispered sweetly, something sad in her eyes. She reached out and pat Sakura’s cheek fondly. “There’s no need for you to share in our penance. Forget I said all that I did.”
Sakura wanted to ask what the penance was for and what she would do if she didn’t have to share in it, but another part of her wanted to ask about the woods and if what happened to her last autumn was tied to the spring celebrations. She had been back to the woods only once since that last incident, but there had been no more stairs to nowhere or evil fires stalking her through the night.
But that had been before…
“Shizune, we don’t have anyone else for the next hour, I want to check on something in my room real quick. Holler for me if we get a walk in?” Sakura asked.
“Of course.”
With a grateful wave Sakura skipped back and doubled up the stairs to her room on the second floor. Inside, the book had been left on her bed and that’s where she found it once more.
“Heeeey, old friend,” Sakura chuckled, picking it up nervously. Sometimes it didn’t want to talk to her and sometimes it did. She hoped she could get something out of it today.
“What is it now?” the book groused, sounding tired.
“It’s not about Orochimaru this time, I have a different sort of question for you. Do you know what happened to me last fall in the woods? Do you know what that was?”
The book warmed in her hands, she knew it was awake, but it didn’t reply. Sakura held her breath and waited, knowing it could be temperamental with her if it wanted to be. She could feel it still awake, it hadn’t gone to sleep on her, she could tell that much by now. Finally, it shifted in her hands.
“I know what it was.” The book then went silent.
“What was it?” Sakura asked.
The next silence was even longer and Sakura grew afraid that was all she would get out of the book before it shifted and turned open it’s pages. Sakura saw one bleed with a sloppy hand of ink. The ink ran into words and Sakura mutely read.
‘The truth is in the forest. The trees know!’
“The trees know what?” Sakura asked, feeling the book grow cooler under her fingers.
“You’ll have to ask them that yourself, won't you?” the book chirped before turning on itself and falling out of her hands onto her bed, closed once more.
When Sakura reached for it she could feel how cold it was and knew it was sleeping. There would be nothing more to glean from it after this. This time the book hadn’t answered her on its own, but showed her the answer someone else had discovered.
“I have to go back into the woods again to find the answer,” Sakura said out loud. “Why does that sound like a bad idea?”
It was too convenient that the next morning was her day off and the weather was impossibly perfect for an early hike. She had wanted an excuse to stay back, but there were only reasons to go out, so she donned her hiking boots, knapsack, and packed plenty of water.
“I really don’t have a death wish, really,” Sakura said to her empty room before locking it behind her.
But before she could regret it, Sakura was already out and at the edge of the woods, inhaling the sharp smells of Douglas fir trees and evergreen needles. It was wonderful and fresh and clean and it made her heart hurt in longing. It was so nice to be outdoors. There were a scattering of pine cones on the floor that crunched underfoot and the sound made tingles at the base of her brain stem.
She remembered why she loved the outdoors so much. She was spoiled with all this compared to the dirty life in the city she had left behind.
It was a perfect day with warm sunlight and brilliant clear skies dotted with just enough clouds to make things shady when they needed to be. Everything was picturesque. It almost made her want to sing.
Sakura hummed softly to herself, content with the world around her. She felt the bark, rough under her fingertips, as she dragged her hands over the tree’s exteriors. Everything felt perfect. How had she ever been afraid of this wonderful place?
“Who is that?”
Sakura stopped humming at the voice and turned, looking around. She couldn’t see anyone between the trees and spun once more, startling when suddenly there was a person standing right in front of her that hadn’t been there mere moments before. She made a noise high pitched and quick before stumbling backwards and grabbing her heart.
“Oh my-Sasori, what are you doing there? You just showed up and freaked me out.” Sakura let out a shaky breath and then gulped when she saw the ax at his side. “What…are you doing here?”
Sasori glared down at her but heaved the ax back up onto his shoulder and Sakura saw that it had a leather cap over the end of the blade to keep it from cutting anything accidentally. When he spoke his voice was dry and baleful.
“What do you think a woodworker would be doing up in the woods with an ax?”
“I mean…specifically, is there something you are doing out here. Do you have a project you’re working on?” Sakura easily recovered, smiling up at the red head before skipping to draw up parallel with him.
Today he was wearing a shirt, but it was loose with shirt sleeves that showed off the ball joints at his elbows and wrists. She could see the joints under his chin and at his neck too, now that she looked for them. They were hard to see if you didn’t know they were there.
“Meh, wood for the spring celebration. Any more details aren’t meant for you to hear,” he groused, mood sullen as he turned his back to her and began to walk away.
“Are you leaving?” Sakura asked, keeping pace with him.
“Are you following me?” he countered.
“For now.” Sakura shrugged when he glared over at her. “Is that such a bad thing?”
“I’m sure there are plenty of other people in the woods for you to entertain, but I have work to do.”
He started to walk away and Sakura stopped, letting him create distance between them. He wasn’t far when she called out to him next.
“I loved the box.”
He stopped and looked back at her, partially over his shoulder.
“I keep it on my dresser and it holds many of my treasures. The detail and skill you put into the decorations is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. I…sometimes I’ll look at it and notice something new I hadn’t seen before, even days later. Thank you, I know that could have come from only you, even if there was no tag.”
Sasori stared back at her, but there was no glare in his look anymore. He was a creature assembled, put together and made like a doll with joints and add ons. It was hard to see some of his expressions sometimes, but she could see he wasn’t glaring at her anymore. There was something else on his face now.
Sakura went on. “Also, I could tell it took a lot of time and effort to craft, but it was perfect for me. The Sakura blossoms were a nice touch.”
“M-mn…” he hummed, dipping his head a fraction. “It was meant as a-an…anniversary present for your first year in Pompeii.” His words came out slow and his eyes didn’t meet hers. “It wasn’t finished as neatly as I would have liked, but I am glad you appreciate it.”
He rested his ax against a tree and reached down to untie the arms of his black and red flannel and pull it on. Sakura watched him button up the front and then grab his ax again. Now his elbow joints were hidden and the ones around his neck were harder to see. The ones on his fingers were masked with magic, so it seemed as if Sasori was as human or normal as one could be.
“How long did you work on it?” Sakura asked, walking up next to him, hands behind her back.
“Long enough.” He looked away and then hiked his shoulders before glancing back at her. “Not long,” he finally amended.
“How long is not long for someone like you?” Sakura asked, suspecting that all the details he had put into her box must have been more than a few days labor. Some of the details were so tiny they must have been etched out with a pin she though. There were people happy under the Sakura trees and sometimes she thought she recognized them as people from Pompeii, like Ino, Gaara, and Naruto.
Sasori shrugged. “I couldn’t put a number on it. I worked…on and off…I had other things to do in between and thought I would have more time to finish it. I didn’t know it was your birthday so close to the spring equinox.”
“I didn’t know it was going to be such a big deal. I thought birthdays were like just another thing. Some people I’ve met are hundred of years old and don’t even remember the actual number. I think it would get mundane after a while.”
“You’re different,” Sasori said easily, and Sakura felt a pang of panic for a split second. She didn’t want to be different, she didn’t want to be ‘outside’ or apart from the others in Pompeii, even though she knew she was still something of an outside that couldn’t share in their penance and history.
Sensing her tension Sasori quickly corrected himself. “Special. You’re special. To Pompeii and everyone here. A doctor is special anyways, but you’re one of the far kinder and more treasured ones to come through. Plus, you’re still young, aren’t you? The kids cling to you so easily.”
“Kids? You mean Naruto and Ino and Gaara?” Sakura remembered the carvings on her box and realized that most of them were of the younger generation that Ino hung out with. There were a few older people like Shizune on the box, but almost exclusively the collection of Sakura observers carved into the wood were of the youngest in Pompeii.
Sakura felt her face flush. “Is that what I seem like to you?” she whined, cheeks burning. “I have a degree and a job!”
Sasori looked almost as if he were panicking when he heard her tone and saw her flush. She saw his mouth hang open on a gap then quickly shut. “No-not like that. You’re an adult, you’re old enough to be an adult, you’re not a kid, but you’re less than a century, right?”
“Does that make me a child?” Sakura whined, feeling even more embarrassed. No one else had told her this. Was a century the turning point out of adolescence?
“Obviously not. I don’t see you as a child, Sakura,” Sasori spoke quickly. “You’re a wom-wo-woman.” His voice caught towards the end and if he could Sakura was sure he would have blushed with how pained his eyes seemed as he looked down at her. His mouth was open and gaping again.
Sakura reached up and rubbed her face with her hands, stretching out the skin under her eyes. “It’s okay, I get it. I’m not the oldest one here and I guess I’m just sensitive because I’m used to being dismissed and treated differently in my work profession. I-I graduated early from NYU and was one of the youngest in my field with a degree. I had people doubting me constantly because of my age and my sex. I’m more sensitive to it than I admit, but I’m fine now, really.”
“You didn’t deserve that,” Sasori said. “You do an amazing job, better than anyone that came before you.”
Sakura forced herself to laugh. “Thank you, Sasori. I’m…I’m also sorry for making you uncomfortable. I hadn’t meant to put you in such an awkward situation.”
“You didn’t.”
Sakura looked up at him and smiled slyly until he stuttered again.
“N-not really. Don’t apologize for it.”
“All the same, I bet I was more annoying than you expected. I even kept you from finishing your work. It was important work too, wasn’t it?”
He was watching her, hardly half a head taller than her, he stared down at her from his spot alongside her. “It’s nothing that couldn’t have waited another hour or day.”
“Oh good, because I didn’t want to say it before, but I’m really glad I ran into you. I was a little afraid to come out here on my own.” She smiled so easily as they began to start walking off in a new direction together.
“Why?”
“Oh, you know, um last autumn I had a few missteps in the forests and ended up going weird places for hours even though it felt like minutes. It freaked me out and the Senju couldn’t even tell me what it was that was happening. I haven’t been back here since, but I thought if I wanted to better understand what happened I should…put in a little more effort. Does that make sense?”
“You came here on you own?” She nodded. “Knowing that the last time you did so resulted in unpleasant events?”
“Oh well, they were actually a little worse than unpleasant, but you know it was so long ago.”
“You didn’t ask anyone to come with you?” he asked again, still walking.
“I didn’t want to bother anyone, and it was sort of last minute. Plus, a lot of people have been busy. I don’t know what it is, but like, when I went to visit Pein at his diner he wasn’t there and the Uchiha leave gifts with their birds, but they’re also out and about with the Senju more than usual. Everyone is working hard in their own way. It would have been selfish of me to bother them.”
“Are you an idiot?” he asked, voice dry. “That’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever said.”
Sakura missed a step and staggered. “Excuse me?”
“You think you would be selfish to ‘bother’ them by asking them to go on a hike with you. The matter of your safety aside, who do you think wouldn’t want to go on a hike with you if you asked them.”
“Everyone here is really nice and I knew most would say yes if I asked, but I didn’t…want to be a bother.” Sakura paused to make a face up at the redhead. “You make it sound like I’m being the conceited one here, but I don’t think I was stupid.”
“Maybe, but it’s fine to be stupid from time to time. Regardless, it worked out with me.”
“Oh yes, thank you for that, my knight in shining armor,” Sakura gushed in exaggeration. “Where ever would I have been without you to cross my path?”
“Humming to yourself like a loon in the middle of the woods,” he breathed out with an almost smile on his face.
“Excuse you,” Sakura gasped. “Rude!”
Sasori looked at her face and there was something like ice breaking in her heart as she saw his expression shift. His lips stretched and the smile was matched in his eyes as he laughed down at her. It was a full, honest, sort of laugh he hadn’t thought about or meant to let slip. Sakura felt her heart catch and pinch painfully for a split second before it warmed and she laughed along with him, unable to fight it. Sasori was laughing and it made her want to laugh too.
The pair of them went on walking a little further. Eventually Sasori explained to her that he was looking for the Genesis tree, a tree that sometimes springs up during the ritual performed on Founder’s Day. When Sakura and the other boys from the Mizu gang went into that trance things had happened on the outside and one of those things was a tree springing up in the middle of Pompeii somewhere.
“How will you be able to tell which one it is?” Sakura asked, momentarily marveled by the vast amount of trees she had already seen.
“It’s one that wasn’t there before. Only the experts of the wood even attempt to go out looking for it. Aside from that, there is some residual magic in it that others can track. It’s…every four years a tree has to be cut and presented as tribute during the Spring Celebration, and if there is a genesis tree it has to be that one.”
“What happens if you can’t find that tree in time?” Sakura asked.
Sasori shrugged. “That’s not happened before, but I guess it would be bad. Maybe. It’s a break in tradition, but there’s not any real danger.”
Sakura hummed along, following him down the path. “Do you get the tree for the ceremony every four years?”
“Yeah, usually. I mean, it depends on who finds it and sometimes that’s one of the Senju brats because they’re all over this forest, but I’ve found it several times in recent years. Regardless, I always go out looking.”
“Is it the same type of special tree, or is it sometimes different?”
“You ask a lot of questions.”
“I’m curious! That’s how people learn. Besides, I feel like no one talks to me that much about Pompeii’s history apart from Shizune, but even she has things she won’t tell me.”
Sasori nodded, pushing away a tree branch and walking around it. “There are some things about Pompeii you are better off not knowing about.”
Sakura watched him for an expression as they walked. “Like Orochimaru?”
Sasori didn’t miss a step, but she saw his lips thin. “Among others, yes. Learning about them might draw their gaze to you, so it is best if you knew less.”
“I’m pretty sure I’ve already pissed that guy off when I helped Haku out a curse. Chiyo helped with that, so you might have heard.” When he nodded grimly Sakura went on. “So, it doesn’t matter much more than this. I’m better off knowing.”
“There are things far more dangerous than Orochimaru to worry about,” Sasori sighed, stopping and squinting into the tree line ahead of them.
He picked up his ax off his shoulder and popped the button around the leather head covering, letting it fall to the floor as the blade’s edge gleamed in the early morning light. “Sakura, get behind me.”
Sakura recognized the tone and rushed to do as she said, situating herself behind him. Above them the sky had turned gray and was thicker with clouds than before. A moment later one cracked and a strike of lightning hit the ground close to where Sakura had just been standing. It cleared in a burst of smoke and there, standing at the stroke point, was a nonchalant looking Pein.
“Oh, you.” Sasori’s tone and expression were bland as he straightened, but didn’t put down the ax. He still held onto it and kept his arms wide enough to shield Sakura.
“Me,” Pein said, brushing smoke off his shoulders. “But it’s not you I was here to see.”
Sakura touched Sasori’s arm and peeked out from behind him. “Pein? You’re back.”
The nonchalant edges and disinterested expression were wiped off Pein’s person as he straightened at the sound of her voice. His eyes went to her instantly and everything about him was different.
“Sakura,” he breathed, voice as soft as his eyes as he looked down at her. “You weren’t at work and someone mentioned you went into the woods. I was worried. Are you well?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. I just went on a walk. Wait, when did you get back? You’ve been gone.”
There was a real sort of hurt in his eyes as he nodded to her. “I’m sorry. Yes, I was gone but I heard you came looking for me? I can’t apologize enough. I even missed your birthday.”
Sakura waved it off. “There will be others. It’s not a big deal.”
Pein swallowed, looking from her to the redhead who stood immediately next to her, ax still raised. “What are you wearing, Sasori?” he asked, a single brow raised in scrutiny. Are you trying to hide your imperfections?”
Sasori didn’t react, but lowered his ax and reached for the leather head covering, avoiding eye contact. Wordlessly he started to cover up the blade with the leather.
“There are none.”
Both males looked over at Sakura as she spoke. Sakura blinked at the attention but didn’t hesitate.
“Sasori doesn’t have any imperfections.”
Sasori’s head turned away and he looked down, buttoning the clasp to his ax head covering while Pein readjusted himself and then coughed into his hand.
“Of course. Nothing ill meant in it. I’ll apologize for the slip of the tongue just now. Regardless, Sakura…” he waved a hand and there was a ripple of magic around them. He reached for her and offered her his hand. “I have something I wanted to show you. To make up for my absence please let me take you to your birthday present.”
Sakura looked back over at Sasori who hadn’t turned back to face her. Something about the lines in his back made it hard to approach him.
“Sasori,” she called out to him but he didn’t turn around or react. “Thank you for spending time with me and staying with me. I enjoyed our time out. Let’s do it again sometime soon. I’ll help you look for your tree.”
She took Pein’s hand and with a snap the pair were gone.
Without Sakura there Sasori could feel the wave of Pompeii’s magic clustered not far off. He swallowed, trying to move past the feeling he still wrestled with from Sakura’s words. Where his heart should have been hurt. He’d have to look at that later and check to make sure there was nothing wrong.
He followed a less tread path deeper until he came upon it. Wide and stretching with a solid trunk wide enough to be buried in, the buds were starting to come in varying shades of pale pink. Any day now the Sakura buds would bloom and fall.
Sasori dropped his ax to his side and sighed, lacking the motivation to move. Just this once he wanted to pretend he never found the genesis tree. Maybe this could be the year they broke with tradition.
Meanwhile, with Pein and Sakura
“No,” Sakura whispered, eyes wide.
“Happy birthday.”
“Pein…”
“Yes, dearest?” he purred, head close to hers.
“That’s a car.”
“Mmmhum,” he hummed into the side of her head, nuzzling her hair before pulling back. “ It’s a 1957 chevy convertible. I thought you might like it.”
#Pompeii#Weird Wednesdays#Sasori#Sakura#Pein#my favs#I'll lie and say I don't have favs#but I do#and I was weak this week#I just really wanted to write about Sasori
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320 State Street- 7 (July 4)
AO3 | FF.net (I forgot to post 6 on here, but it’s on the two sites)
Sorry for posting late. Finals. And there’s a lot of drama in my personal life.
—
“Do you even know what you’re doing?”
Astrid read the numbers on the screen, the total price of the purchase, but it never left her lips. She knew the number, but the words just weren’t there. “It’s um…uh…” She blinked a couple times, drawing a blank.
“Look, I want to talk to someone who’s not retarded. Where’s that other kid?”
It felt like the whole world slowed down. Her cheeks glowed with a quiet rage. “Excuse me?”
“Are you disabled? Is that why you can’t pay attention? Let me talk to your manager!”
Alvin entered the store, and the customer began conspiring with him. She could hear the phrases “worst employee,” “unbelievably stupid,” and “belongs in an institution.”
It was then that she realized that who she was looking at. The customer that was slowly ruining her life, the woman with the bleached bangs and black undercut. There was some reason this woman was trying to ruin her life.
“Hofferson, you’re fired.” Alvin’s voice was like a gun shot.
Hiccup stood in the background, shaking his head. “You’re such a disappointment. You couldn’t even do this simple job. What are you going to do as a nurse?”
Gobber came out from the back room. “No point in going to see your father, you’ve dishonored him. He doesn’t deserve you as a daughter. You’re just like your mother.”
The floorboards started to shift and open up beneath her.
The last thing she saw before falling was Hiccup’s disappointed scowl.
Astrid jolted out of bed with a yelp. Her dream had been all to vivid and real. She laid back on the pillow with a sigh and tried to relax.
Today was her day off, and she sorely needed it. The stress of work and daily life was really getting to her. But today, it was relaxing and kicking back with friends and family.
The thought alone brought a smile to her face.
She turned and looked at the clock.
11 am.
It would take a little to get her dad situated, if he even felt up to the party, so she supposed she’d leave early.
Hopefully, everyone would understand.
—
It was a wonderfully perfect day. A perfect, slightly breezy 72. No clouds in the sky to hide fireworks at night. The deck was filling up. It was a strange crowd, a couple of police officers, a couple of wealthy business owners, and a healthy dose of blue collar workers, all gathered around a grill drinking beer and laughing without abandon. Not an overwhelming number, just a group of unlikely friends.
“So the reason I threw up in front of Jimmy Johns was…well, I do drink a lot. Not while I drive, and I’m over 21!” Tuff sat on a cooler and loudly told an anecdote. Everyone was listening, whether they wanted to or not. “What was different about this time—and there was something different—cause I threw up on myself this weekend, but this time…this time I was walking and right when I started to feel like I had to vomit, you know you do that thing like, HRGH HRGH HRGH, like it’s in the back of your throat? Right when that happened, I turned and made eye contact with a lady sitting outside a Starbucks. And then proceeded to keep eye contact with her as I vomited.
“So there she was, drinking her mocha-frappalatte, or whatever they have there. And suddenly she sees the guy across the street just look at her and he just AGGHHHHHHH!!” He fake vomited on the deck, the assembled crowd laughing or ‘ewing’ respectfully. “Can you just imagine what she was thinking? Like, ‘oh my god Becky, I was so ugly today, I made a man vomit.”
While everyone laughed and pushed Tuff around, the doorbell rang.
Hiccup was the only one who heard it and hurried to the door.
Whatever he was expecting, this wasn’t it. Sure, Astrid was there, and her father was in a wheelchair. But he wasn’t prepared for Mr. Hofferson to be a shrunken man, sitting blankly in his chair. His neatly trimmed blonde hair and beard had white streaks in it. His eyelids drooped slightly and hid his striking blue eyes.
“Dad, this is my good friend Hiccup. I work with him. He’s also taking care of Stormfly until I can get a bigger house.”
“Hello sir,” Hiccup smiled, “It’s nice to meet you.”
The man’s eyes slid over to make eye contact with him, and his mouth moved, but nothing but a soft mutter came out. He did hold out a jittery hand, though.
“He doesn’t talk,” Astrid whispered. “Not anymore. But I’m sure he’s pleased to meet you.”
Hiccup smiled nonetheless and shook his limp hand. Then helped them into his home.
“I’m glad you could both make it.” He grinned.
“Yeah, dad was having a pretty good day, according to the nurses.”
A squawk came from the rafters before Stormfly landed on Axel’s shoulder. “Hello, Handsome.”
Astrid smiled, “honestly, as long as he can get out of hospice and be around people for a while, he’ll be happy as a clam.”
“I didn’t realize clams were happy.”
On the deck, everyone stopped to look at them when they entered. “Uh, hi!” Astrid greeted, nervously. “I’m Astrid, and this is my dad.”
Almost immediately, there was a delighted call, “Axel! Why you son of a gun! You made it!” Followed by several others, “Axel! Why you dirty old bastard!”
“Why, would you look at that!”
“If it ain’t ole Hoffmaster!”
Again, Mr. Hofferson said nothing, but something behind his eyes lit up and Gobber came over and clapped his shoulder. “What, has it been over five years now?”
“Wait, you guys know each other?”
Stoick laughed from over by the grill. “Anyone who doesn’t know Axel Hofferson must live under a rock! Best electrician in the tri-city area!”
“Wait…” She narrowed her eyes, “Then did you know who I was when you hired me?”
Gobber chuckled. “Of course lass, I recognized you from the photos your dad carried around with him…though I couldn’t remember your name…”
It wasn’t long until Axel was absorbed into the crowd and everyone began filling him on all sorts of gossip and what changed in their little world.
It was like he wasn’t even sick.
“Hey Astrid, this might be kind of rude…” Hiccup began, coming up to her side. “But uh…”
“Parkinson’s,” She answered shortly. “Usually you get it when you’re old, but my dad got it early. Some doctors think it’s genetic, others think it’s from insulation in walls and ceilings.”
“Is that the one where you have seizures?”
“Sort of…it’s not like epilepsy, but you lose control of your muscles. My dad sometimes has tremors.”
“Oh…so, was your dad always have this?”
She sighed, “As long as I remember, he had to have my mom button his shirts for him. He was fine for a really long time, but had to retire when I was in eighth grade and then had to go into assisted living a year after I went away to school.”
“That’s why you came back.”
“And why I went into nursing.” She crossed her arms and spoke softly. “My mom and I never got along, but my dad always treated me like a princess. So I want to do my best to take care of him.”
Hiccup looked to her, and then to her father, who was surrounded by his friends and had just a hint of smile on his face. “I think you’re doing fine.”
“Well soil my britches!” A familiar friendly voice called over from the door. “When Hiccup said he was working with Astrid Hofferson, I thought he was just trying to impress me.” A bulky young man, tattoos on his arms and dark hair in a ponytail, approached the group with a smile.
“Eret!” She greeted, “It’s been a long time.”
“What happened to you? I distinctly remembered you telling me you were going to kick the dust of this crummy town behind you. New York, baby! That’s where it’s at!”
“Well, life sometimes throws you curve balls. What about you? I thought you were going to the NFL. You were at U of M, right?”
“Like you said, curveballs.” He pulled the collar of his shirt down and showed a long scar on his chest. “Open heart surgery. One minute, I’m heading to the end zone and no one can touch me, the next I’m waking up in a hospital a week later. Apparently I had a heart aneurysm right in the middle of the game. I’m not allowed to play anymore.”
Astrid grimaced. “That sounds awful.”
“Not entirely. I had to change my career path though. I’m going into Wildlife and Fisheries.”
“Speaking of wildlife, where’s Toothless?”
Hiccup chuckled, “look up.”
A long black tail trailed over the edge of the roof, flicking pleasantly.
“Oh. Of course. Why does that not surprise me?”
Fishlegs and another girl approached the group. “What’s going on over here?”
“Just a class reunion,” Eret answered.
“Oh, Astrid, this is Heather, my cousin…sort of.”
“Sort of?”
The dark haired girl gave a short eye roll. “I’m married to his cousin.”
“Oh, I get it.” She chuckled, “I’m Astrid, we work together.”
Heather smiled, like she knew a great secret. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“So…” Fishlegs rubbed his hands together. “What are you guys doing the 16th?”
“What day is that?”
“It’s a Sunday.”
“Probably sleeping.” Astrid answered, to which everyone agreed.
“Well, I finally finished my campaign, and I’m just itching to try it out.”
“Sure.” Said Hiccup.
“I’m in.”
“Sounds fun.”
Astrid, on the other hand, was confused. “Campaign?”
“Dungeons and Dragons.” Heather clarified.
“Well,” Hiccup added, “we call it Dungeons and Dragons, but it’s like a watered down version.”
“It’s really fun.”
Astrid scoffed. “I thought only nerdy kids who live in their parents basement play that.”
Fishlegs looked embarrassed, “I do live in my parent’s basement.”
Stoick called over the crowd. “First round of hot dogs and hamburgers are ready!”
—
After dinner, the assembled group sat in camping chairs, enjoying the sunshine and the company. Toothless had finally humbled himself to come down from the roof and laid at Hiccup’s feet.
“Hiccup, every time I see that cat, I’m amazed.” A man said. “Even knowing the full story, I just think it’s so weird you have a pet panther. Weird in a good way, though. Don’t get me wrong.”
“Aye, you’re telling me.” Expounded Stoick. “The full first year we had him in the house, I carried a baseball bat with me everywhere. Never had to use it, or even felt like I would, but I confess I was a little terrified by him.”
“So was the mailman.” Hiccup added. “In Tanzania, he’d always fetch stuff for us, so it was natural that he’d see the UPS driver come by and go and greet him.” He chuckled. “We lost over a dozen packages like that.”
“What did you end up doing? Does he still do that?” Asked Astrid.
“No, a woman took over the route, and she loves Toothless.”
The conversation changed to politics, then to cars, then to a comfortable silence.
“Well,” began Gobber. “My burger finally finished digesting. I think it’s about that time.”
“Yeah?” Answered Stoick, standing up. “I think you’re right.”
“What’s happening?” Astrid whispered.
Hiccup smirked, “Do you drink?”
“I…yeah?”
“We’ve got some beer from Founders, apple ale, and cherry cider.”
“Uh, I’ll take the cherry…what’s going on?”
“We’re going to do the drinking song.” He said cryptically as he also stood.
Stoick returned to the deck with a fiddle in hand. Eret was getting out a guitar.
“You going to join us this year, boy-o?”
“I’ve been practicing, but I’m just going to play softly until I figure it out.”
Hiccup returned with two cherry ciders in one hand and a weird instrument in the other. It was small and had flat metal bars coming off of it.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a Mbira, a hand piano.”
“Oh.” That didn’t really answer her question.
It looked like everyone else gathered was grabbing something to drink.
Stoick played a few notes on the fiddle. “Hiccup, you’re doing the last verse this year. Okay?”
“Alright.” He leaned in closer to Astrid, “let it be know that this song is super racist. You have to be drunk to enjoy it.”
She smiled uneasily. “Okay…”
Stoick struck the first note and immediately the deck thundered with clapping and stomping.
“One and two and three and four,
and one and two and three and four.
And one and two and three and four,
and one and two and three and four.”
Everyone sang together at first, swinging there arms and slapping their legs. Then Stoick sang with a rich baritone.
“Love makes one blind until the fiddle breaks.
Old notes are played by a new hand,
It's a tough blow for any fiddler,
He’s trying his best, but is both scrawny and bland.
On the hunt for a beard and a mustache,
Should have brought a map for this quest.
Zero discoveries are made,
He’s trying his best, but he’s as bare as his chest.
He tries to propose, he’s finally brave,
His tongue is wet, but his money is dry.
He immediately gets the feeling,
That this something he shouldn’t try.”
Hiccup and Gobber joined in.
“She started to flirt with more handsome men.
So I traded away that cow
and got the fiddle back again.”
Then everyone, including the women, joined.
“So now there will be no shortage of women and money.
because he traded away that cow,
and got the fiddle back again.”
Astrid found her self starting to clap along. The song was terrible, but very catchy.
“One and two and three and four,
and one and two and three and four.
And one and two and three and four,
and one and two and three and four.”
Gobber had the next verse.
“A bachelor like him has to keep his head,
he wants to win her over by singing her a song,
But nothing is going to happen,
is being poor so wrong?
So she slips away to the bathroom with a braver man.
One who walks around with his gold in plain sight.
Our fiddler was not interesting enough for her,
So he farts in her direction just out of spite.”
Hiccup and Stoick joined again.
“Because life is like a violin
with the need of a violinist
So I traded away that cow and got the fiddle back again.”
Astrid joined in on the chorus this time.
“So now there will be no shortage
of women and money.
because he traded away that cow,
and got the fiddle back again.”
Hiccup’s turn had come.
“Now he's both rich and handsome,
but even that doesn't seem to aid.
The fiddle has gotten a different sound,
a hardened heart is the price he paid.
This girl is different, of this he’s sure,
So he introduces her to his friend.
They go to speak for a moment,
Five minutes quickly turned to ten.
He sought them out with question,
But what met him behind the door,
made him want to cry out his eyes.
They were laying together on the floor.”
The group sang together.
“I saw her together with my best friend.
So I traded away that cow,
and got the fiddle back again.”
Everyone was singing loudly together.
“So now there will be no shortage
of women and money.
because he traded away that cow,
and got the fiddle back again.
One and two and three and four,
and one and two and three and four.
And one and two and three and four,
and one and two and three and four.
So now there will be no shortage
of women and money.
because he traded away that cow,
and got the fiddle back again.”
Astrid laughed after it was over. Really, it was a terrible song but the sheer volume of drunken rhapsody filled her with joy. “Do you guys do this every year?”
“Every year!” Hiccup laughed back.
Astrid looked over to her father who was clapping. Her heart clenched at the sight of him moving fluidly. Even if it was a little. She vowed to bring him to more events if possible.
—
Sunset came, and Axel and the adults stayed behind as the kids and Toothless walked down the road to the lake. There, they boarded Eret’s boat and jetted out on the lake. Not without lighting a post on the dock first.
There’s something about the lake that just soothed the soul. When you’re speeding through the waves, you can’t hear anything but the deafening wind thundering against your ears. The air around you feels like water parting around you. Each wave the boat cut through, sends a jolt through your body and a pounding in your head.
Then finally, they stopped about a half mile out from the beach. The light house was just a sliver in the distance.
“Are we going to be able to see the fireworks from this far away?”
“Yeah, totally. They’re huge.”
Toothless hopped up on the back of the boat and stretched out lazily.
“Watching the fireworks has become way more enjoyable since I joined you guys out here.” Heather commented from the front. “Scott and I used to go down to Silver Beach and watch there. I mean, it was incredible. But we would get home at like, 3am because they closed traffic down town and you had to detour around the whole city.”
“Your husband’s name is Scott?”
“Yeah, Scott Jorgenson.”
“Oh, my boyfriend’s name is Scott too. Scott Loud.”
“Oh too funny!”
Everyone fell into a peaceful silence as they watched the sunset on the lake. Everything blossoming into purples and reds.
“My dad and I would go down to the pier on the north side. There’s little cement wave breakers cut into the pier that you can climb into. We’d sit in the one directly across from the symphony pavilion. Right in the middle of the 1812 Overture, they’d start shooting off the fireworks. Then after, they play the Star Wars theme. We’d eat cherries and spit the pits at ducks. And we’d wave to all the boats going out to the lake.” Then she ‘hmph’ed. “It did take forever to get out though, since everyone and their mother tried to leave that way.”
“If it makes you guys feel any better,” Hiccup began, laying down next to Toothless. “I didn’t see my first firework until I was 5. I was on the back deck of my house and I thought the lighthouse had blown up. It was very scary.”
“Aw, I love baby Hiccup stories.” Heather smiled.
“So…where’s your husband, Heather?” Astrid asked, politely.
Hiccup answered. “He and I don’t get along, but Heather and I have been friends for a while.”
“He had to work,” Heather added. “But even if he didn’t, I doubt he would have come.”
“Well, his loss.” Fishlegs commented.
The sun had disappeared over the horizon. But it’s light remained.
“In truth, it’s been a while since I got to see the fireworks. I always worked downtown, and Fourth of July is one of the busiest times down there. So, I’m kind of excited.”
“Come sit up here with me!” Hiccup beckoned.
Astrid laid down on the back, separated from him by Toothless.
“Thanks for inviting us, Hiccup. Today was…really great.”
“Yeah? Thanks for coming.”
“It’s been a while since I saw my dad so active. It was nice. I had a lot of fun.”
“Well, you’re welcome here anytime.”
“Thanks.”
And with that, the first firework launched.
#320 state street#hiccup horrendous haddock iii#Astrid Hofferson#how to train your dragon#toothless#fanfiction#fanfic
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Treat Your Home Right With These Home Improvement Tips
Home improvement projects are a wonderful way to spruce up your home. Here is some valuable information and smart advice you can use when you start your next project. The more knowledge you have, the better the choices you will make.
An over-the-range microwave is a great way to save space in an already cramped kitchen. These microwave ovens are installed where the range hood normally goes. They offer various features, including convection cooking, and prices range widely. These models use a recirculating filter, making them ideal for use at home or in settings outside professional kitchens.
Do not allow your contractor to start unless a contract is signed. You should consider having a friend or a lawyer look over your contract if possible. You want to ensure that all terms are clearly defined in the contact, such as warranty facts, specifics of the work expected, cost and project dates.
Texturing walls using drywall mud can add visual interest and cover up many blemishes. Adding texture to your walls can be so simple. Trowel drywall mud and then use a sponge, stiff-bristled brush, or just a wadded up trash bag to add texture.
http://wallstickersart.com/mirror-wall-stickers If you do find leaks beneath the sink or the faucet, avoid fixing it yourself. Simply place a large container under the leak and contact a plumber.
There are two ways to replace or change a lock: replacing the assembly itself, or only the cylinder. http://wallstickersart.com/mirror-wall-stickers/ The locking action is performed by the cylinder. This is also the part that is replaced for security reasons, such as when you lose a key. On the other hand, you will need to change out the entire unit in order to change the look.
When hiring a contractor, you have to keep track of everything that you do with that professional. Do not assume that the contractor will take care of this for you. Save any contracts and invoices related to your project. This will help you as well as help the contractor stay focused on your current task.
Plan your next home improvement project. It is impossible to be cost and time efficient on home improvement projects without adequate planning, and disaster will probably be the result. If you plan out what you are going to do, you will not run into as many issues.
Use padding around the edges of sharp furniture to keep it a kid-friendly zone and prevent any possible accidents. Many stores offer specialized corner protectors for such an occasion. If you cannot locate them, a simple layer of foam and tape will suffice temporarily. One of the things that you need to do when taking on a home improvement project is to fasten down loose wiring when working, to make sure your children are safe from a potential strangling hazard.
try this site Cut off the extra length on your blinds' cords. It is easy for a child or pet to get caught and strangled in these cords. Leave an adequate amount of cord so that it is still functional and nothing more. Give it a snip or tie it off to avoid accidents.
If you want your home improvement project done fast, get ready to pay a little extra. Most contractors will be pleased to produce swifter work on the project. They're happy because they they think they expect, and feel that they deserve, more pay. They should get greater pay for a rushed job.
Installing a fence around ones entire backyard or a portion of ones yard can serve multiple home improvement purposes. It keeps everyone from pets to children safe from outside wildlife. A fence can also keep a dog from leaving the yard. Do not hesitate to design an original fence yourself.
You can boost your home's value and improve its curb appeal simply by adding another coat of high gloss paint to its shutters and front door. Light-red brick or vinyl looks great with blue or bright red paint. Darker exteriors look lovely with deeper, cooler colors like jade green or eggplant.
When the real estate market isn't doing very well, it's typically a good time to get professional help with home improvement projects. During this time, professional contractors may have difficulty finding consistent work. As a result, many are willing to offer competitive pricing and discounts. There is no set timeframe for making home improvements. When you renovate your home during a slump, you save money and your home's worth will grow in the future.
Make sure you include everything in your budget. It can be costly when you have expenses that you did not think of beforehand. A terrific way to avoid this is to consider everything and anything that might go wrong and allow extra funds to cover those potential problems. This will equip you well for any necessary changes, additions or problems.
Do not neglect safety in all your home improvement projects. If you neglect this, your home could be damaged or you could be hurt. Ensure you know how to use any tools before you start. Manuals or YouTube are great resources.
Install some ceiling fans for better air circulation. Depending on the season, they can draw air up or push it down which make your heating and cooling systems more effective. Depending on what you are looking for, fans can switch the direction the air blows, either upwards or downwards.
Change the accessories in your room for a fresh look. It may surprise you to see how a few new items can really improve the look of a room. Try adding a wall hanging or some new drapes for a fresh new look that appears like a professional designed your room.
If you have a hole in your home that you think mice are using as an access point, put steel wool inside. This will prevent the mice from coming in because they cannot chew through steel wool like they can chew through other materials.
Your home is a reflection of your style and personality. A lot of people are doing home improvement projects in making their houses look better, as opposed to selling and purchasing a better house. Using the information above will give you a head start in planning your next project successfully.
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Who Puts An 100-Year-Old Bed In A Little Girl’s Room? Um, We Do.
We have SO MANY posts that we want to write for you guys (we’re currently working on a full living room update post – and one about all the appliances and window blinds we got for the beach house). But ever since we shared a picture of the kids bedding we picked up at HomeGoods for our daughter’s room in the podcast show notes for Episode #69, we’ve been meaning to share a room update.
Because dang it, kids grow up. And sometimes they don’t want their 7-year-old room to look like their “little kid” room anymore (please can’t 7 still be little?!). So here’s how our daughter’s room has grown up a bit – but not too much. Thank goodness there aren’t New Kids On The Block posters (or their 2017 equivalent) quite yet. I know they’re coming! You might remember that it used to look like this right after she upgraded from a crib to a daybed back in the day (I think this was taken when she was 3, sniff!).
And we later got her a larger bed and made a few other changes at her request (we shared this post over a year ago, but mentioned we still wanted to tackle a few things, like adding a headboard, etc).
Well, a few months later she told us she didn’t want the canopy anymore. So down it came. And with the canopy gone (which you can also see around the 3-minute mark of this video house tour we did last year) the raindrops were looking pretty weird. Some were even half-painted along the line where the canopy once sat. We considered just touching them up, but they were dubbed “too babyish” by our girl, so over the last several months we’ve been making some little tweaks here and there – including a new paint color on the walls to cover up those drops. We sanded them slightly, then primed, and then just used two coats of White Heron by Sherwin Williams. It totally covered them and the entire wall feels flat to the touch. Whew.
Also, because I’m neurotic, it should be noted that our tiny client has now decided that she likes the purple side of her comforter better, so these room photos all look slightly odd to me because I’ve already become used to the purple side being up, and I have to tell you: SHE’S A BETTER DECORATOR THAN I AM, because it looks so much better that way. I have no idea why, but the cooler purple pattern just works with the rug so nicely. Still might change out the curtains someday – but on the whole it’s looking a lot more finished lately.
Certainly a far cry from the room we started with:
But back to that headboard that we mentioned we were searching for, oh, over a year. We eventually found this treasure on craigslist for $90 (yes, I’m 35 and I call old wooden things treasures now). It’s a complete bed with side rails and a footboard (the seller said it’s 100 years old and it actually has holes in the frame to wind rope around to support an old straw mattress!). There are newer comparable beds that are $1000+ (like this one from Wayfair), so yes yes yes to this craigslist find! For anyone looking for a similar secondhand one, there are some good ones on Etsy and Chairish.
When we propped up the footboard it was feeling kind of dark and imposing in the room (both visually and literally – we all kept bumping into it), but the footboard is so cool on its own that we’re planning to use it as a headboard in our son’s room eventually. It’s not exactly the same, so it’ll be cool to see what looks like this headboard’s sibling in his room.
Since we weren’t using the fully assembled bed, and just wanted to attach the headboard to the wall, we used some scrap wood to create a cleat on the back of the headboard so it could hang independently of the rest of the bed (here’s where we showed you how to make a headboard cleat). I love that it brings something old to the room, but the spools still keep it feeling fun. When I tuck her in I probably talk way too much about how cool it is to have a bed that’s 100 years old. Moms are so lame.
I’m also obsessed with how the little pom-pom trim that lines the comforter sort of mimics the shape of the spools in the headboard. It’s like it was meant to be together (again, we found that gem at HomeGoods – and the llama sheets are from Target because, llamas!).
The white nightstands are from Target. I loved the campaign hardware detail, the nice functional drawer, and the fact that they’re white (we had old wood side tables that looked super heavy with the wood headboard – so my tip would be to try mixing in white night tables if you’re battling that issue yourself). She still has her trusty pink touch lamps that we got her over a year ago (I don’t have to tell any parent this, but kids love tapping things on and off – it’s one step away from my childhood favorite: The Clapper). Also, I love that she uses the drawers for practical things like storing doll clothes and housing a tiny toy mouse.
The abstract art above the bed is from Target and the pink quote art is just a page I tore out of a magazine called Flow. It reads “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. -Haruki Murakami” And it has a cat on it for good measure. When I asked her if she wanted me to hang that up there in the frame she said “Yes because NOBODY else likes to read BabyMouse comics AND Goosebumps at the same time!” This kid.
Back to the walls for a sec – we went with White Heron paint after really liking how it looked throughout the beach house.
It plays well all of the other existing paint colors: the bright white trim (Benjamin Moore’s Simply White), the soft pink ceiling (Benjamin Moore’s Pink Cadillac) and the bold closet door (Benjamin Moore’s Cinco de Mayo). White Heron is a very soft warm grey-tan color, so we joke that her room’s kind of like a muted Neopolitan ice cream bar now, thanks to that strawberry ceiling and vanilla trim.
While we kept the DIY toy/book storage as is (we made that a few years ago and covered the process in our second book), we did refresh some of the art around it. It was fun to see what things got to stay and what got switched out, and our daughter insisted on the little silver antlers (they were downstairs in a pile of things that I was going to use at the beach house) because it was the perfect spot to hang her dreamcatcher keychain. Clearly she’s into form and function – ha!
This photo cracks me up because you can get a sense of how the bookcase has kind of become a playhouse of sorts too. Part of the “de-babying” of the room was also heeding her request to remove the homemade dollhouse in the closet (more on that in a moment while I sob quietly behind my laptop). We craigslisted it to a grandmother who was very excited to have it for her grandkids, so we were happy it was going somewhere that would get more use, but I do find it oddly reassuring when I walk in and the bookshelves have been turned into tiny rooms for her toys.
I also had some fun bringing in some gold, just because I love those gold Target frames and have probably purchased my body weight in them, but also because I like that there’s some silver layered in with them as well (in the antlers, the oval mirror I painted years ago for her, and even that little silver spotted dog sitting on the frame). That dog actually used to be a drawer knob but it cracked and fell off, but he has lived on as a little picture-sitter of sorts.
The wall opposite the bed still features her old changing-table-turned-dresser (it’s almost 8 years old and still going strong!) with that pretty inlay mirror above it that we all love. I think the only update here is that I spray painted the yard sale moose lamp gold because he used to be white and I thought he’d pop more, but he’s looking kind of weird in this picture. In person he’s less bold looking (more of a soft hammered gold) but here he looks… I don’t know… like a golden chicken nugget.
That laundry basket is an estate sale find and the curtains are Ikea panels I dyed light pink years ago. They’re probably the next thing we’ll upgrade in here, because they’re so lightweight that it’s hard to keep them looking like they haven’t been whipped by a daily tornado.
The paint color change has been good for lots of reason. As much as we liked the white, her room always felt a little disconnected from the rest of the upstairs because everything else had a warm tan-gray color on the wall (this room had been a super crisp white color). Plus, her room gets the best light of any room in the house, so it can definitely handle something less stark. We also like how it’s helping the white elements – like the crown molding or the lampshade below – pop off the walls a little better. Once again: chicken nugget moose, everyone.
As I mentioned earlier, the closet got a little update too. With the dollhouse not getting used anymore (*SOB!*), we basically just asked our daughter what she’d rather use that spot for, and she requested a place to draw and write. I had always thought a vanity might make sense in there when she’s older, so I love that this works as a drawing/writing nook and could also be a getting-ready space for her someday (since I’m sure someday she’ll need a larger and more legit desk, which I imagine might take the place of her bookcase down the line).
We grabbed the vanity at Ikea since it’s small enough to easily fit into that nook (remember when we “wallpapered” that back wall with fabric years ago). Then we just brought in one of our spare dining room chairs for a place to sit. It had been in the attic since we got upholstered end chairs for the dining room, so it’s nice to make use of it.
The desk/vanity flips up on one side, so it’s great for stashing pencils and stuff, while the other half has a normal drawer for tucking away papers. I’m not sure I agree with Ikea’s inexplicable decision to make the inside of the vanity blood-red, but it actually works in here.
It may seem like overkill to have three kids drawing/writing surfaces in the house (if you include their desks in our office and the bonus room) but they all get used, and this one is nice because it’s just hers and she can work in here quietly in the morning before her brother wakes up.
For anyone looking for all of our sources in one place, here’s a little get-the-look mood board for ya. We hunted down similar items for the things that are thrifted or discontinued:
1. Walls (SW White Heron) / 2. Trim (BM Simply White) / 3. Ceiling (BM Pink Cadillac) / 4. Door (BM Cinco de Mayo) / 5. Touch Lamp / 6. Bedside Table / 7. Faux Plant / 8. Woven Pot / 9. Windsor Chair / 10. Vanity / 11. White Pouf / 12. Faux Antlers / 13. Abstract Print / 14. Toy Storage / 15. Colorful Print / 16. Antique Wooden Spool Bed / 17. Inlay Mirror / 18. Midcentury Dresser / 19. Throw Pillow / 20. Llama Sheets / 21. Rug / 22. Bedding Set
I’m sure it’s not the last evolution this room will see. At some point, she’ll probably need a dresser with deeper drawers (what once held onesies and diapers perfectly is sometimes feeling maxed out with sweatshirts and skinny jeans). And I really can see that bookcase getting swapped out for a full-sized desk in a few years if she wants more space to spread out. And who knows when and if those curtains will change. Will it be before or after the Nick Jonas posters (or whoever’s the current heartthrob at the time) go up? Everyone says it, but they really do grow up too fast (*sniffle*).
Psst- Wanna see other kids updates and projects? Here are dozens of tutorials from our archives.
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Who Puts An 100-Year-Old Bed In A Little Girl’s Room? Um, We Do.
We have SO MANY posts that we want to write for you guys (we’re currently working on a full living room update post – and one about all the appliances and window blinds we got for the beach house). But ever since we shared a picture of the kids bedding we picked up at HomeGoods for our daughter’s room in the podcast show notes for Episode #69, we’ve been meaning to share a room update.
Because dang it, kids grow up. And sometimes they don’t want their 7-year-old room to look like their “little kid” room anymore (please can’t 7 still be little?!). So here’s how our daughter’s room has grown up a bit – but not too much. Thank goodness there aren’t New Kids On The Block posters (or their 2017 equivalent) quite yet. I know they’re coming! You might remember that it used to look like this right after she upgraded from a crib to a daybed back in the day (I think this was taken when she was 3, sniff!).
And we later got her a larger bed and made a few other changes at her request (we shared this post over a year ago, but mentioned we still wanted to tackle a few things, like adding a headboard, etc).
Well, a few months later she told us she didn’t want the canopy anymore. So down it came. And with the canopy gone (which you can also see around the 3-minute mark of this video house tour we did last year) the raindrops were looking pretty weird. Some were even half-painted along the line where the canopy once sat. We considered just touching them up, but they were dubbed “too babyish” by our girl, so over the last several months we’ve been making some little tweaks here and there – including a new paint color on the walls to cover up those drops. We sanded them slightly, then primed, and then just used two coats of White Heron by Sherwin Williams. It totally covered them and the entire wall feels flat to the touch. Whew.
Also, because I’m neurotic, it should be noted that our tiny client has now decided that she likes the purple side of her comforter better, so these room photos all look slightly odd to me because I’ve already become used to the purple side being up, and I have to tell you: SHE’S A BETTER DECORATOR THAN I AM, because it looks so much better that way. I have no idea why, but the cooler purple pattern just works with the rug so nicely. Still might change out the curtains someday – but on the whole it’s looking a lot more finished lately.
Certainly a far cry from the room we started with:
But back to that headboard that we mentioned we were searching for, oh, over a year. We eventually found this treasure on craigslist for $90 (yes, I’m 35 and I call old wooden things treasures now). It’s a complete bed with side rails and a footboard (the seller said it’s 100 years old and it actually has holes in the frame to wind rope around to support an old straw mattress!). There are newer comparable beds that are $1000+ (like this one from Wayfair), so yes yes yes to this craigslist find! For anyone looking for a similar secondhand one, there are some good ones on Etsy and Chairish.
When we propped up the footboard it was feeling kind of dark and imposing in the room (both visually and literally – we all kept bumping into it), but the footboard is so cool on its own that we’re planning to use it as a headboard in our son’s room eventually. It’s not exactly the same, so it’ll be cool to see what looks like this headboard’s sibling in his room.
Since we weren’t using the fully assembled bed, and just wanted to attach the headboard to the wall, we used some scrap wood to create a cleat on the back of the headboard so it could hang independently of the rest of the bed (here’s where we showed you how to make a headboard cleat). I love that it brings something old to the room, but the spools still keep it feeling fun. When I tuck her in I probably talk way too much about how cool it is to have a bed that’s 100 years old. Moms are so lame.
I’m also obsessed with how the little pom-pom trim that lines the comforter sort of mimics the shape of the spools in the headboard. It’s like it was meant to be together (again, we found that gem at HomeGoods – and the llama sheets are from Target because, llamas!).
The white nightstands are from Target. I loved the campaign hardware detail, the nice functional drawer, and the fact that they’re white (we had old wood side tables that looked super heavy with the wood headboard – so my tip would be to try mixing in white night tables if you’re battling that issue yourself). She still has her trusty pink touch lamps that we got her over a year ago (I don’t have to tell any parent this, but kids love tapping things on and off – it’s one step away from my childhood favorite: The Clapper). Also, I love that she uses the drawers for practical things like storing doll clothes and housing a tiny toy mouse.
The abstract art above the bed is from Target and the pink quote art is just a page I tore out of a magazine called Flow. It reads “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. -Haruki Murakami” And it has a cat on it for good measure. When I asked her if she wanted me to hang that up there in the frame she said “Yes because NOBODY else likes to read BabyMouse comics AND Goosebumps at the same time!” This kid.
Back to the walls for a sec – we went with White Heron paint after really liking how it looked throughout the beach house.
It plays well all of the other existing paint colors: the bright white trim (Benjamin Moore’s Simply White), the soft pink ceiling (Benjamin Moore’s Pink Cadillac) and the bold closet door (Benjamin Moore’s Cinco de Mayo). White Heron is a very soft warm grey-tan color, so we joke that her room’s kind of like a muted Neopolitan ice cream bar now, thanks to that strawberry ceiling and vanilla trim.
While we kept the DIY toy/book storage as is (we made that a few years ago and covered the process in our second book), we did refresh some of the art around it. It was fun to see what things got to stay and what got switched out, and our daughter insisted on the little silver antlers (they were downstairs in a pile of things that I was going to use at the beach house) because it was the perfect spot to hang her dreamcatcher keychain. Clearly she’s into form and function – ha!
This photo cracks me up because you can get a sense of how the bookcase has kind of become a playhouse of sorts too. Part of the “de-babying” of the room was also heeding her request to remove the homemade dollhouse in the closet (more on that in a moment while I sob quietly behind my laptop). We craigslisted it to a grandmother who was very excited to have it for her grandkids, so we were happy it was going somewhere that would get more use, but I do find it oddly reassuring when I walk in and the bookshelves have been turned into tiny rooms for her toys.
I also had some fun bringing in some gold, just because I love those gold Target frames and have probably purchased my body weight in them, but also because I like that there’s some silver layered in with them as well (in the antlers, the oval mirror I painted years ago for her, and even that little silver spotted dog sitting on the frame). That dog actually used to be a drawer knob but it cracked and fell off, but he has lived on as a little picture-sitter of sorts.
The wall opposite the bed still features her old changing-table-turned-dresser (it’s almost 8 years old and still going strong!) with that pretty inlay mirror above it that we all love. I think the only update here is that I spray painted the yard sale moose lamp gold because he used to be white and I thought he’d pop more, but he’s looking kind of weird in this picture. In person he’s less bold looking (more of a soft hammered gold) but here he looks… I don’t know… like a golden chicken nugget.
That laundry basket is an estate sale find and the curtains are Ikea panels I dyed light pink years ago. They’re probably the next thing we’ll upgrade in here, because they’re so lightweight that it’s hard to keep them looking like they haven’t been whipped by a daily tornado.
The paint color change has been good for lots of reason. As much as we liked the white, her room always felt a little disconnected from the rest of the upstairs because everything else had a warm tan-gray color on the wall (this room had been a super crisp white color). Plus, her room gets the best light of any room in the house, so it can definitely handle something less stark. We also like how it’s helping the white elements – like the crown molding or the lampshade below – pop off the walls a little better. Once again: chicken nugget moose, everyone.
As I mentioned earlier, the closet got a little update too. With the dollhouse not getting used anymore (*SOB!*), we basically just asked our daughter what she’d rather use that spot for, and she requested a place to draw and write. I had always thought a vanity might make sense in there when she’s older, so I love that this works as a drawing/writing nook and could also be a getting-ready space for her someday (since I’m sure someday she’ll need a larger and more legit desk, which I imagine might take the place of her bookcase down the line).
We grabbed the vanity at Ikea since it’s small enough to easily fit into that nook (remember when we “wallpapered” that back wall with fabric years ago). Then we just brought in one of our spare dining room chairs for a place to sit. It had been in the attic since we got upholstered end chairs for the dining room, so it’s nice to make use of it.
The desk/vanity flips up on one side, so it’s great for stashing pencils and stuff, while the other half has a normal drawer for tucking away papers. I’m not sure I agree with Ikea’s inexplicable decision to make the inside of the vanity blood-red, but it actually works in here.
It may seem like overkill to have three kids drawing/writing surfaces in the house (if you include their desks in our office and the bonus room) but they all get used, and this one is nice because it’s just hers and she can work in here quietly in the morning before her brother wakes up.
For anyone looking for all of our sources in one place, here’s a little get-the-look mood board for ya. We hunted down similar items for the things that are thrifted or discontinued:
1. Walls (SW White Heron) / 2. Trim (BM Simply White) / 3. Ceiling (BM Pink Cadillac) / 4. Door (BM Cinco de Mayo) / 5. Touch Lamp / 6. Bedside Table / 7. Faux Plant / 8. Woven Pot / 9. Windsor Chair / 10. Vanity / 11. White Pouf / 12. Faux Antlers / 13. Abstract Print / 14. Toy Storage / 15. Colorful Print / 16. Antique Wooden Spool Bed / 17. Inlay Mirror / 18. Midcentury Dresser / 19. Throw Pillow / 20. Llama Sheets / 21. Rug / 22. Bedding Set
I’m sure it’s not the last evolution this room will see. At some point, she’ll probably need a dresser with deeper drawers (what once held onesies and diapers perfectly is sometimes feeling maxed out with sweatshirts and skinny jeans). And I really can see that bookcase getting swapped out for a full-sized desk in a few years if she wants more space to spread out. And who knows when and if those curtains will change. Will it be before or after the Nick Jonas posters (or whoever’s the current heartthrob at the time) go up? Everyone says it, but they really do grow up too fast (*sniffle*).
Psst- Wanna see other kids updates and projects? Here are dozens of tutorials from our archives.
*This post contains affiliate links*
The post Who Puts An 100-Year-Old Bed In A Little Girl’s Room? Um, We Do. appeared first on Young House Love.
Who Puts An 100-Year-Old Bed In A Little Girl’s Room? Um, We Do. published first on http://ift.tt/2r6hzQy
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Who Puts An 100-Year-Old Bed In A Little Girl’s Room? Um, We Do.
We have SO MANY posts that we want to write for you guys (we’re currently working on a full living room update post – and one about all the appliances and window blinds we got for the beach house). But ever since we shared a picture of the kids bedding we picked up at HomeGoods for our daughter’s room in the podcast show notes for Episode #69, we’ve been meaning to share a room update.
Because dang it, kids grow up. And sometimes they don’t want their 7-year-old room to look like their “little kid” room anymore (please can’t 7 still be little?!). So here’s how our daughter’s room has grown up a bit – but not too much. Thank goodness there aren’t New Kids On The Block posters (or their 2017 equivalent) quite yet. I know they’re coming! You might remember that it used to look like this right after she upgraded from a crib to a daybed back in the day (I think this was taken when she was 3, sniff!).
And we later got her a larger bed and made a few other changes at her request (we shared this post over a year ago, but mentioned we still wanted to tackle a few things, like adding a headboard, etc).
Well, a few months later she told us she didn’t want the canopy anymore. So down it came. And with the canopy gone (which you can also see around the 3-minute mark of this video house tour we did last year) the raindrops were looking pretty weird. Some were even half-painted along the line where the canopy once sat. We considered just touching them up, but they were dubbed “too babyish” by our girl, so over the last several months we’ve been making some little tweaks here and there – including a new paint color on the walls to cover up those drops. We sanded them slightly, then primed, and then just used two coats of White Heron by Sherwin Williams. It totally covered them and the entire wall feels flat to the touch. Whew.
Also, because I’m neurotic, it should be noted that our tiny client has now decided that she likes the purple side of her comforter better, so these room photos all look slightly odd to me because I’ve already become used to the purple side being up, and I have to tell you: SHE’S A BETTER DECORATOR THAN I AM, because it looks so much better that way. I have no idea why, but the cooler purple pattern just works with the rug so nicely. Still might change out the curtains someday – but on the whole it’s looking a lot more finished lately.
Certainly a far cry from the room we started with:
But back to that headboard that we mentioned we were searching for, oh, over a year. We eventually found this treasure on craigslist for $90 (yes, I’m 35 and I call old wooden things treasures now). It’s a complete bed with side rails and a footboard (the seller said it’s 100 years old and it actually has holes in the frame to wind rope around to support an old straw mattress!). There are newer comparable beds that are $1000+ (like this one from Wayfair), so yes yes yes to this craigslist find! For anyone looking for a similar secondhand one, there are some good ones on Etsy and Chairish.
When we propped up the footboard it was feeling kind of dark and imposing in the room (both visually and literally – we all kept bumping into it), but the footboard is so cool on its own that we’re planning to use it as a headboard in our son’s room eventually. It’s not exactly the same, so it’ll be cool to see what looks like this headboard’s sibling in his room.
Since we weren’t using the fully assembled bed, and just wanted to attach the headboard to the wall, we used some scrap wood to create a cleat on the back of the headboard so it could hang independently of the rest of the bed (here’s where we showed you how to make a headboard cleat). I love that it brings something old to the room, but the spools still keep it feeling fun. When I tuck her in I probably talk way too much about how cool it is to have a bed that’s 100 years old. Moms are so lame.
I’m also obsessed with how the little pom-pom trim that lines the comforter sort of mimics the shape of the spools in the headboard. It’s like it was meant to be together (again, we found that gem at HomeGoods – and the llama sheets are from Target because, llamas!).
The white nightstands are from Target. I loved the campaign hardware detail, the nice functional drawer, and the fact that they’re white (we had old wood side tables that looked super heavy with the wood headboard – so my tip would be to try mixing in white night tables if you’re battling that issue yourself). She still has her trusty pink touch lamps that we got her over a year ago (I don’t have to tell any parent this, but kids love tapping things on and off – it’s one step away from my childhood favorite: The Clapper). Also, I love that she uses the drawers for practical things like storing doll clothes and housing a tiny toy mouse.
The abstract art above the bed is from Target and the pink quote art is just a page I tore out of a magazine called Flow. It reads “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. -Haruki Murakami” And it has a cat on it for good measure. When I asked her if she wanted me to hang that up there in the frame she said “Yes because NOBODY else likes to read BabyMouse comics AND Goosebumps at the same time!” This kid.
Back to the walls for a sec – we went with White Heron paint after really liking how it looked throughout the beach house.
It plays well all of the other existing paint colors: the bright white trim (Benjamin Moore’s Simply White), the soft pink ceiling (Benjamin Moore’s Pink Cadillac) and the bold closet door (Benjamin Moore’s Cinco de Mayo). White Heron is a very soft warm grey-tan color, so we joke that her room’s kind of like a muted Neopolitan ice cream bar now, thanks to that strawberry ceiling and vanilla trim.
While we kept the DIY toy/book storage as is (we made that a few years ago and covered the process in our second book), we did refresh some of the art around it. It was fun to see what things got to stay and what got switched out, and our daughter insisted on the little silver antlers (they were downstairs in a pile of things that I was going to use at the beach house) because it was the perfect spot to hang her dreamcatcher keychain. Clearly she’s into form and function – ha!
This photo cracks me up because you can get a sense of how the bookcase has kind of become a playhouse of sorts too. Part of the “de-babying” of the room was also heeding her request to remove the homemade dollhouse in the closet (more on that in a moment while I sob quietly behind my laptop). We craigslisted it to a grandmother who was very excited to have it for her grandkids, so we were happy it was going somewhere that would get more use, but I do find it oddly reassuring when I walk in and the bookshelves have been turned into tiny rooms for her toys.
I also had some fun bringing in some gold, just because I love those gold Target frames and have probably purchased my body weight in them, but also because I like that there’s some silver layered in with them as well (in the antlers, the oval mirror I painted years ago for her, and even that little silver spotted dog sitting on the frame). That dog actually used to be a drawer knob but it cracked and fell off, but he has lived on as a little picture-sitter of sorts.
The wall opposite the bed still features her old changing-table-turned-dresser (it’s almost 8 years old and still going strong!) with that pretty inlay mirror above it that we all love. I think the only update here is that I spray painted the yard sale moose lamp gold because he used to be white and I thought he’d pop more, but he’s looking kind of weird in this picture. In person he’s less bold looking (more of a soft hammered gold) but here he looks… I don’t know… like a golden chicken nugget.
That laundry basket is an estate sale find and the curtains are Ikea panels I dyed light pink years ago. They’re probably the next thing we’ll upgrade in here, because they’re so lightweight that it’s hard to keep them looking like they haven’t been whipped by a daily tornado.
The paint color change has been good for lots of reason. As much as we liked the white, her room always felt a little disconnected from the rest of the upstairs because everything else had a warm tan-gray color on the wall (this room had been a super crisp white color). Plus, her room gets the best light of any room in the house, so it can definitely handle something less stark. We also like how it’s helping the white elements – like the crown molding or the lampshade below – pop off the walls a little better. Once again: chicken nugget moose, everyone.
As I mentioned earlier, the closet got a little update too. With the dollhouse not getting used anymore (*SOB!*), we basically just asked our daughter what she’d rather use that spot for, and she requested a place to draw and write. I had always thought a vanity might make sense in there when she’s older, so I love that this works as a drawing/writing nook and could also be a getting-ready space for her someday (since I’m sure someday she’ll need a larger and more legit desk, which I imagine might take the place of her bookcase down the line).
We grabbed the vanity at Ikea since it’s small enough to easily fit into that nook (remember when we “wallpapered” that back wall with fabric years ago). Then we just brought in one of our spare dining room chairs for a place to sit. It had been in the attic since we got upholstered end chairs for the dining room, so it’s nice to make use of it.
The desk/vanity flips up on one side, so it’s great for stashing pencils and stuff, while the other half has a normal drawer for tucking away papers. I’m not sure I agree with Ikea’s inexplicable decision to make the inside of the vanity blood-red, but it actually works in here.
It may seem like overkill to have three kids drawing/writing surfaces in the house (if you include their desks in our office and the bonus room) but they all get used, and this one is nice because it’s just hers and she can work in here quietly in the morning before her brother wakes up.
For anyone looking for all of our sources in one place, here’s a little get-the-look mood board for ya. We hunted down similar items for the things that are thrifted or discontinued:
1. Walls (SW White Heron) / 2. Trim (BM Simply White) / 3. Ceiling (BM Pink Cadillac) / 4. Door (BM Cinco de Mayo) / 5. Touch Lamp / 6. Bedside Table / 7. Faux Plant / 8. Woven Pot / 9. Windsor Chair / 10. Vanity / 11. White Pouf / 12. Faux Antlers / 13. Abstract Print / 14. Toy Storage / 15. Colorful Print / 16. Antique Wooden Spool Bed / 17. Inlay Mirror / 18. Midcentury Dresser / 19. Throw Pillow / 20. Llama Sheets / 21. Rug / 22. Bedding Set
I’m sure it’s not the last evolution this room will see. At some point, she’ll probably need a dresser with deeper drawers (what once held onesies and diapers perfectly is sometimes feeling maxed out with sweatshirts and skinny jeans). And I really can see that bookcase getting swapped out for a full-sized desk in a few years if she wants more space to spread out. And who knows when and if those curtains will change. Will it be before or after the Nick Jonas posters (or whoever’s the current heartthrob at the time) go up? Everyone says it, but they really do grow up too fast (*sniffle*).
Psst- Wanna see other kids updates and projects? Here are dozens of tutorials from our archives.
*This post contains affiliate links*
The post Who Puts An 100-Year-Old Bed In A Little Girl’s Room? Um, We Do. appeared first on Young House Love.
Who Puts An 100-Year-Old Bed In A Little Girl’s Room? Um, We Do. published first on http://ift.tt/2uiWrIt
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Who Puts An 100-Year-Old Bed In A Little Girl’s Room? Um, We Do. http://ift.tt/2z0S8J1
We have SO MANY posts that we want to write for you guys (we’re currently working on a full living room update post – and one about all the appliances and window blinds we got for the beach house). But ever since we shared a picture of the kids bedding we picked up at HomeGoods for our daughter’s room in the podcast show notes for Episode #69, we’ve been meaning to share a room update.
Because dang it, kids grow up. And sometimes they don’t want their 7-year-old room to look like their “little kid” room anymore (please can’t 7 still be little?!). So here’s how our daughter’s room has grown up a bit – but not too much. Thank goodness there aren’t New Kids On The Block posters (or their 2017 equivalent) quite yet. I know they’re coming! You might remember that it used to look like this right after she upgraded from a crib to a daybed back in the day (I think this was taken when she was 3, sniff!).
And we later got her a larger bed and made a few other changes at her request (we shared this post over a year ago, but mentioned we still wanted to tackle a few things, like adding a headboard, etc).
Well, a few months later she told us she didn’t want the canopy anymore. So down it came. And with the canopy gone (which you can also see around the 3-minute mark of this video house tour we did last year) the raindrops were looking pretty weird. Some were even half-painted along the line where the canopy once sat. We considered just touching them up, but they were dubbed “too babyish” by our girl, so over the last several months we’ve been making some little tweaks here and there – including a new paint color on the walls to cover up those drops. We sanded them slightly, then primed, and then just used two coats of White Heron by Sherwin Williams. It totally covered them and the entire wall feels flat to the touch. Whew.
Also, because I’m neurotic, it should be noted that our tiny client has now decided that she likes the purple side of her comforter better, so these room photos all look slightly odd to me because I’ve already become used to the purple side being up, and I have to tell you: SHE’S A BETTER DECORATOR THAN I AM, because it looks so much better that way. I have no idea why, but the cooler purple pattern just works with the rug so nicely. Still might change out the curtains someday – but on the whole it’s looking a lot more finished lately.
Certainly a far cry from the room we started with:
But back to that headboard that we mentioned we were searching for, oh, over a year. We eventually found this treasure on craigslist for $90 (yes, I’m 35 and I call old wooden things treasures now). It’s a complete bed with side rails and a footboard (the seller said it’s 100 years old and it actually has holes in the frame to wind rope around to support an old straw mattress!). There are newer comparable beds that are $1000+ (like this one from Wayfair), so yes yes yes to this craigslist find! For anyone looking for a similar secondhand one, there are some good ones on Etsy and Chairish.
When we propped up the footboard it was feeling kind of dark and imposing in the room (both visually and literally – we all kept bumping into it), but the footboard is so cool on its own that we’re planning to use it as a headboard in our son’s room eventually. It’s not exactly the same, so it’ll be cool to see what looks like this headboard’s sibling in his room.
Since we weren’t using the fully assembled bed, and just wanted to attach the headboard to the wall, we used some scrap wood to create a cleat on the back of the headboard so it could hang independently of the rest of the bed (here’s where we showed you how to make a headboard cleat). I love that it brings something old to the room, but the spools still keep it feeling fun. When I tuck her in I probably talk way too much about how cool it is to have a bed that’s 100 years old. Moms are so lame.
I’m also obsessed with how the little pom-pom trim that lines the comforter sort of mimics the shape of the spools in the headboard. It’s like it was meant to be together (again, we found that gem at HomeGoods – and the llama sheets are from Target because, llamas!).
The white nightstands are from Target. I loved the campaign hardware detail, the nice functional drawer, and the fact that they’re white (we had old wood side tables that looked super heavy with the wood headboard – so my tip would be to try mixing in white night tables if you’re battling that issue yourself). She still has her trusty pink touch lamps that we got her over a year ago (I don’t have to tell any parent this, but kids love tapping things on and off – it’s one step away from my childhood favorite: The Clapper). Also, I love that she uses the drawers for practical things like storing doll clothes and housing a tiny toy mouse.
The abstract art above the bed is from Target and the pink quote art is just a page I tore out of a magazine called Flow. It reads “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. -Haruki Murakami” And it has a cat on it for good measure. When I asked her if she wanted me to hang that up there in the frame she said “Yes because NOBODY else likes to read BabyMouse comics AND Goosebumps at the same time!” This kid.
Back to the walls for a sec – we went with White Heron paint after really liking how it looked throughout the beach house.
It plays well all of the other existing paint colors: the bright white trim (Benjamin Moore’s Simply White), the soft pink ceiling (Benjamin Moore’s Pink Cadillac) and the bold closet door (Benjamin Moore’s Cinco de Mayo). White Heron is a very soft warm grey-tan color, so we joke that her room’s kind of like a muted Neopolitan ice cream bar now, thanks to that strawberry ceiling and vanilla trim.
While we kept the DIY toy/book storage as is (we made that a few years ago and covered the process in our second book), we did refresh some of the art around it. It was fun to see what things got to stay and what got switched out, and our daughter insisted on the little silver antlers (they were downstairs in a pile of things that I was going to use at the beach house) because it was the perfect spot to hang her dreamcatcher keychain. Clearly she’s into form and function – ha!
This photo cracks me up because you can get a sense of how the bookcase has kind of become a playhouse of sorts too. Part of the “de-babying” of the room was also heeding her request to remove the homemade dollhouse in the closet (more on that in a moment while I sob quietly behind my laptop). We craigslisted it to a grandmother who was very excited to have it for her grandkids, so we were happy it was going somewhere that would get more use, but I do find it oddly reassuring when I walk in and the bookshelves have been turned into tiny rooms for her toys.
I also had some fun bringing in some gold, just because I love those gold Target frames and have probably purchased my body weight in them, but also because I like that there’s some silver layered in with them as well (in the antlers, the oval mirror I painted years ago for her, and even that little silver spotted dog sitting on the frame). That dog actually used to be a drawer knob but it cracked and fell off, but he has lived on as a little picture-sitter of sorts.
The wall opposite the bed still features her old changing-table-turned-dresser (it’s almost 8 years old and still going strong!) with that pretty inlay mirror above it that we all love. I think the only update here is that I spray painted the yard sale moose lamp gold because he used to be white and I thought he’d pop more, but he’s looking kind of weird in this picture. In person he’s less bold looking (more of a soft hammered gold) but here he looks… I don’t know… like a golden chicken nugget.
That laundry basket is an estate sale find and the curtains are Ikea panels I dyed light pink years ago. They’re probably the next thing we’ll upgrade in here, because they’re so lightweight that it’s hard to keep them looking like they haven’t been whipped by a daily tornado.
The paint color change has been good for lots of reason. As much as we liked the white, her room always felt a little disconnected from the rest of the upstairs because everything else had a warm tan-gray color on the wall (this room had been a super crisp white color). Plus, her room gets the best light of any room in the house, so it can definitely handle something less stark. We also like how it’s helping the white elements – like the crown molding or the lampshade below – pop off the walls a little better. Once again: chicken nugget moose, everyone.
As I mentioned earlier, the closet got a little update too. With the dollhouse not getting used anymore (*SOB!*), we basically just asked our daughter what she’d rather use that spot for, and she requested a place to draw and write. I had always thought a vanity might make sense in there when she’s older, so I love that this works as a drawing/writing nook and could also be a getting-ready space for her someday (since I’m sure someday she’ll need a larger and more legit desk, which I imagine might take the place of her bookcase down the line).
We grabbed the vanity at Ikea since it’s small enough to easily fit into that nook (remember when we “wallpapered” that back wall with fabric years ago). Then we just brought in one of our spare dining room chairs for a place to sit. It had been in the attic since we got upholstered end chairs for the dining room, so it’s nice to make use of it.
The desk/vanity flips up on one side, so it’s great for stashing pencils and stuff, while the other half has a normal drawer for tucking away papers. I’m not sure I agree with Ikea’s inexplicable decision to make the inside of the vanity blood-red, but it actually works in here.
It may seem like overkill to have three kids drawing/writing surfaces in the house (if you include their desks in our office and the bonus room) but they all get used, and this one is nice because it’s just hers and she can work in here quietly in the morning before her brother wakes up.
For anyone looking for all of our sources in one place, here’s a little get-the-look mood board for ya. We hunted down similar items for the things that are thrifted or discontinued:
1. Walls (SW White Heron) / 2. Trim (BM Simply White) / 3. Ceiling (BM Pink Cadillac) / 4. Door (BM Cinco de Mayo) / 5. Touch Lamp / 6. Bedside Table / 7. Faux Plant / 8. Woven Pot / 9. Windsor Chair / 10. Vanity / 11. White Pouf / 12. Faux Antlers / 13. Abstract Print / 14. Toy Storage / 15. Colorful Print / 16. Antique Wooden Spool Bed / 17. Inlay Mirror / 18. Midcentury Dresser / 19. Throw Pillow / 20. Llama Sheets / 21. Rug / 22. Bedding Set
I’m sure it’s not the last evolution this room will see. At some point, she’ll probably need a dresser with deeper drawers (what once held onesies and diapers perfectly is sometimes feeling maxed out with sweatshirts and skinny jeans). And I really can see that bookcase getting swapped out for a full-sized desk in a few years if she wants more space to spread out. And who knows when and if those curtains will change. Will it be before or after the Nick Jonas posters (or whoever’s the current heartthrob at the time) go up? Everyone says it, but they really do grow up too fast (*sniffle*).
Psst- Wanna see other kids updates and projects? Here are dozens of tutorials from our archives.
*This post contains affiliate links*
The post Who Puts An 100-Year-Old Bed In A Little Girl’s Room? Um, We Do. appeared first on Young House Love.
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Who Puts An 100-Year-Old Bed In A Little Girl’s Room? Um, We Do.
We have SO MANY posts that we want to write for you guys (we’re currently working on a full living room update post – and one about all the appliances and window blinds we got for the beach house). But ever since we shared a picture of the kids bedding we picked up at HomeGoods for our daughter’s room in the podcast show notes for Episode #69, we’ve been meaning to share a room update.
Because dang it, kids grow up. And sometimes they don’t want their 7-year-old room to look like their “little kid” room anymore (please can’t 7 still be little?!). So here’s how our daughter’s room has grown up a bit – but not too much. Thank goodness there aren’t New Kids On The Block posters (or their 2017 equivalent) quite yet. I know they’re coming! You might remember that it used to look like this right after she upgraded from a crib to a daybed back in the day (I think this was taken when she was 3, sniff!).
And we later got her a larger bed and made a few other changes at her request (we shared this post over a year ago, but mentioned we still wanted to tackle a few things, like adding a headboard, etc).
Well, a few months later she told us she didn’t want the canopy anymore. So down it came. And with the canopy gone (which you can also see around the 3-minute mark of this video house tour we did last year) the raindrops were looking pretty weird. Some were even half-painted along the line where the canopy once sat. We considered just touching them up, but they were dubbed “too babyish” by our girl, so over the last several months we’ve been making some little tweaks here and there – including a new paint color on the walls to cover up those drops. We sanded them slightly, then primed, and then just used two coats of White Heron by Sherwin Williams. It totally covered them and the entire wall feels flat to the touch. Whew.
Also, because I’m neurotic, it should be noted that our tiny client has now decided that she likes the purple side of her comforter better, so these room photos all look slightly odd to me because I’ve already become used to the purple side being up, and I have to tell you: SHE’S A BETTER DECORATOR THAN I AM, because it looks so much better that way. I have no idea why, but the cooler purple pattern just works with the rug so nicely. Still might change out the curtains someday – but on the whole it’s looking a lot more finished lately.
Certainly a far cry from the room we started with:
But back to that headboard that we mentioned we were searching for, oh, over a year. We eventually found this treasure on craigslist for $90 (yes, I’m 35 and I call old wooden things treasures now). It’s a complete bed with side rails and a footboard (the seller said it’s 100 years old and it actually has holes in the frame to wind rope around to support an old straw mattress!). There are newer comparable beds that are $1000+ (like this one from Wayfair), so yes yes yes to this craigslist find! For anyone looking for a similar secondhand one, there are some good ones on Etsy and Chairish.
When we propped up the footboard it was feeling kind of dark and imposing in the room (both visually and literally – we all kept bumping into it), but the footboard is so cool on its own that we’re planning to use it as a headboard in our son’s room eventually. It’s not exactly the same, so it’ll be cool to see what looks like this headboard’s sibling in his room.
Since we weren’t using the fully assembled bed, and just wanted to attach the headboard to the wall, we used some scrap wood to create a cleat on the back of the headboard so it could hang independently of the rest of the bed (here’s where we showed you how to make a headboard cleat). I love that it brings something old to the room, but the spools still keep it feeling fun. When I tuck her in I probably talk way too much about how cool it is to have a bed that’s 100 years old. Moms are so lame.
I’m also obsessed with how the little pom-pom trim that lines the comforter sort of mimics the shape of the spools in the headboard. It’s like it was meant to be together (again, we found that gem at HomeGoods – and the llama sheets are from Target because, llamas!).
The white nightstands are from Target. I loved the campaign hardware detail, the nice functional drawer, and the fact that they’re white (we had old wood side tables that looked super heavy with the wood headboard – so my tip would be to try mixing in white night tables if you’re battling that issue yourself). She still has her trusty pink touch lamps that we got her over a year ago (I don’t have to tell any parent this, but kids love tapping things on and off – it’s one step away from my childhood favorite: The Clapper). Also, I love that she uses the drawers for practical things like storing doll clothes and housing a tiny toy mouse.
The abstract art above the bed is from Target and the pink quote art is just a page I tore out of a magazine called Flow. It reads “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. -Haruki Murakani” And it has a cat on it for good measure. When I asked her if she wanted me to hang that up there in the frame she said “Yes because NOBODY else likes to read BabyMouse comics AND Goosebumps at the same time!” This kid.
Back to the walls for a sec – we went with White Heron paint after really liking how it looked throughout the beach house.
It plays well all of the other existing paint colors: the bright white trim (Benjamin Moore’s Simply White), the soft pink ceiling (Benjamin Moore’s Pink Cadillac) and the bold closet door (Benjamin Moore’s Cinco de Mayo). White Heron is a very soft warm grey-tan color, so we joke that her room’s kind of like a muted Neopolitan ice cream bar now, thanks to that strawberry ceiling and vanilla trim.
While we kept the DIY toy/book storage as is (we made that a few years ago and covered the process in our second book), we did refresh some of the art around it. It was fun to see what things got to stay and what got switched out, and our daughter insisted on the little silver antlers (they were downstairs in a pile of things that I was going to use at the beach house) because it was the perfect spot to hang her dreamcatcher keychain. Clearly she’s into form and function – ha!
This photo cracks me up because you can get a sense of how the bookcase has kind of become a playhouse of sorts too. Part of the “de-babying” of the room was also heeding her request to remove the homemade dollhouse in the closet (more on that in a moment while I sob quietly behind my laptop). We craigslisted it to a grandmother who was very excited to have it for her grandkids, so we were happy it was going somewhere that would get more use, but I do find it oddly reassuring when I walk in and the bookshelves have been turned into tiny rooms for her toys.
I also had some fun bringing in some gold, just because I love those gold Target frames and have probably purchased my body weight in them, but also because I like that there’s some silver layered in with them as well (in the antlers, the oval mirror I painted years ago for her, and even that little silver spotted dog sitting on the frame). That dog actually used to be a drawer knob but it cracked and fell off, but he has lived on as a little picture-sitter of sorts.
The wall opposite the bed still features her old changing-table-turned-dresser (it’s almost 8 years old and still going strong!) with that pretty inlay mirror above it that we all love. I think the only update here is that I spray painted the yard sale moose lamp gold because he used to be white and I thought he’d pop more, but he’s looking kind of weird in this picture. In person he’s less bold looking (more of a soft hammered gold) but here he looks… I don’t know… like a golden chicken nugget.
That laundry basket is an estate sale find and the curtains are Ikea panels I dyed light pink years ago. They’re probably the next thing we’ll upgrade in here, because they’re so lightweight that it’s hard to keep them looking like they haven’t been whipped by a daily tornado.
The paint color change has been good for lots of reason. As much as we liked the white, her room always felt a little disconnected from the rest of the upstairs because everything else had a warm tan-gray color on the wall (this room had been a super crisp white color). Plus, her room gets the best light of any room in the house, so it can definitely handle something less stark. We also like how it’s helping the white elements – like the crown molding or the lampshade below – pop off the walls a little better. Once again: chicken nugget moose, everyone.
As I mentioned earlier, the closet got a little update too. With the dollhouse not getting used anymore (*SOB!*), we basically just asked our daughter what she’d rather use that spot for, and she requested a place to draw and write. I had always thought a vanity might make sense in there when she’s older, so I love that this works as a drawing/writing nook and could also be a getting-ready space for her someday (since I’m sure someday she’ll need a larger and more legit desk, which I imagine might take the place of her bookcase down the line).
We grabbed the vanity at Ikea since it’s small enough to easily fit into that nook (remember when we “wallpapered” that back wall with fabric years ago). Then we just brought in one of our spare dining room chairs for a place to sit. It had been in the attic since we got upholstered end chairs for the dining room, so it’s nice to make use of it.
The desk/vanity flips up on one side, so it’s great for stashing pencils and stuff, while the other half has a normal drawer for tucking away papers. I’m not sure I agree with Ikea’s inexplicable decision to make the inside of the vanity blood-red, but it actually works in here.
It may seem like overkill to have three kids drawing/writing surfaces in the house (if you include their desks in our office and the bonus room) but they all get used, and this one is nice because it’s just hers and she can work in here quietly in the morning before her brother wakes up.
For anyone looking for all of our sources in one place, here’s a little get-the-look mood board for ya. We hunted down similar items for the things that are thrifted or discontinued:
1. Walls (SW White Heron) / 2. Trim (BM Simply White) / 3. Ceiling (BM Pink Cadillac) / 4. Door (BM Cinco de Mayo) / 5. Touch Lamp / 6. Bedside Table / 7. Faux Plant / 8. Woven Pot / 9. Windsor Chair / 10. Vanity / 11. White Pouf / 12. Faux Antlers / 13. Abstract Print / 14. Toy Storage / 15. Colorful Print / 16. Antique Wooden Spool Bed / 17. Inlay Mirror / 18. Midcentury Dresser / 19. Throw Pillow / 20. Llama Sheets / 21. Rug / 22. Bedding Set
I’m sure it’s not the last evolution this room will see. At some point, she’ll probably need a dresser with deeper drawers (what once held onesies and diapers perfectly is sometimes feeling maxed out with sweatshirts and skinny jeans). And I really can see that bookcase getting swapped out for a full-sized desk in a few years if she wants more space to spread out. And who knows when and if those curtains will change. Will it be before or after the Nick Jonas posters (or whoever’s the current heartthrob at the time) go up? Everyone says it, but they really do grow up too fast (*sniffle*).
Psst- Wanna see other kids updates and projects? Here are dozens of tutorials from our archives.
*This post contains affiliate links*
The post Who Puts An 100-Year-Old Bed In A Little Girl’s Room? Um, We Do. appeared first on Young House Love.
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Graveyard magick: A Witch's guide
Posted by Michelle Gruben on Feb 28, 2018
Just about every Witch loves to poke around in old cemeteries and graveyards. And yet, actually doing magick in graveyards is a guarded subject, even among people who practice their craft without shame.
Is it discomfort with death? Fear of not being taken seriously? The overwhelming influence of the white-light crowd? Who knows. Graveyards are often associated with curses and hexes, with secrecy, with people who take angsty selfies and write vampire poems—but it doesn’t have to be that way.
Here’s a handy Witch’s guide to finding, exploring and working within graveyards—no black nail polish required.
Why Graveyards?
Graveyards are amazing places for magickal work for several reasons:
Cemeteries are a shared spiritual space that doesn’t belong to any one religion or group. After all, death is the thing that we all have in common. No matter what words are said over the casket, we all return to Gaia in the end. For Witches and Pagans, graveyards can function as a neutral religious space, or even a temple when none is available.
Burial places are also one of the few types of land that has been mostly immune to commercial re-development. Even our materialistic society draws the line at digging up great-grandma to build more mid-rise condos. In mature cities, cemeteries are often among the last public green spaces available. If you want to be close to nature (but not run over by joggers and bikers) you could do worse than to cosy up to some tombstones.
Finally, there are the metaphysical traits. Graveyards are set apart from the hustle and bustle of everyday life—they remain quiet and sad while the world grows up around them. There is a stillness and a timelessness in graveyards. They often hold strong emotional energy, which can be attractive to visiting entities. They are a symbolic boundary between the world of the living and the Underworld.
Finding Old Cemeteries
You can often find quaint little cemeteries just by driving around, especially in older communities. Old churches and funeral homes usually have burial plots attached. Some large city cemeteries are historic landmarks in their own right, with splendid monuments to the city’s heroes, villains, and well-off boring chaps.
In witchy cities like New Orleans and Salem, graveyards can be a huge tourist draw. A tour company or visitor’s bureau can give you a list of cemeteries to visit. As ghost hunting and witchcraft have become more mainstream, many cemeteries offer special occult-themed tours. (Take the tour to scope out points of interest, then come back later without the crowds.) When travelling in rural areas, watch the side of the road for cemetery markers—the graveyard itself will usually be off the main road and up a hill. (To keep dead bodies out of the drinking water. Hooray!)
Another cemetery scouting tip: Photographers love graveyards almost as much as Witches do. Follow your local photography club, as they will do a lot of the legwork of sniffing out old and picturesque graves.
For cemetery visits that are off the beaten path, check in with the local historical society or civic clubs. Retirees and veterans often do the work of maintaining gravesites year-round. Historical groups can clue you in to little-known or neglected burial sites. Slave cemeteries, Jewish cemeteries, and pioneer cemeteries all have incredible stories to tell, and energies that are very different from what you will find at large memorial parks.
Some traditional graveyard spells call for a certain type of gravesite. (A murdered person for a revenge spell, rich man for money spells, child’s grave to conceive a baby, etc.) This is another case where it’s helpful to have history buffs for friends.
Like all other cultural artefacts, burial sites change over time. Headstones from the colonial period and earlier often gave a lot of biographical details, but later ones tend to have simple inscriptions. The stories of the deceased are in danger of being lost to time. Sometimes, however, the opposite is true. The graves of regular people can sometimes become local legends, pilgrimage sites for wish-making and little rituals.
As colourful as old cemeteries are, don’t neglect modern ones for you magickal needs. (In fact, some Witches prefer fresh gravesites for gathering graveyard dirt and certain other tasks.) If your home is near a cemetery (old or new) I highly recommend spending some time there. The practice will help connect you with the history of the land and people who helped build your local community. Your magick will be better for the experience.
Know the Rules
There are mundane rules and occult rules for working in cemeteries. First, the mundane rules. These will usually be posted at the entrance, especially in newer and commercially maintained burial grounds.
The mundane rules should also be obvious to anyone with a trace of manners and common sense. Don’t litter (duh), don’t plant or bury anything, don’t vandalise graves, don’t disturb mourners or memorial services. Open flames and glass may also be prohibited for safety reasons. Very old and historic cemeteries sometimes restrict grave rubbings in the interest of conservation. But normally it’s not against the rules to take paper rubbing of an interesting stone or marker.
Observing visiting hours is a very important consideration for graveyard Witches. These are not always posted. In many places, cemetery hours are covered by state laws or local ordinances. The laws are on the books and you’re just supposed to know to leave at sundown.
I know, I know—but we’re Witches! We do our best work at night. Unfortunately, it is usually illegal (and bad luck, some say) to be hanging around in a cemetery after dark. Some Witches and ghost hunters rely on their stealth powers to get around this rule…but I don’t recommend it.
There’s still a lot of ignorance about the Craft. Caretakers may not be able to tell the difference between the itinerant Witch and the ordinary vandal (or may not care). Cemetery owners and neighbours will call the police if they catch you there at night. Nothing kills a magickal buzz like a criminal trespassing charge, I promise.
At night, you also run a greater risk of encountering living people who are up to no good: Drug deals, furtive sex, and goth kids drinking wine coolers. They might even try to read you some vampire poetry. Not cool.
The mundane rules are easy enough, but what about the magickal ones? Ah, that’s where it gets complicated. As human beings, we don’t know very much about death—and we’ve had thousands and thousands of years to make crap up. There are about a billion superstitions involving graveyard visits. Here’s a sampling:
Don’t point at graves or photograph them. (This rule probably gets broken the most.)
Say “sorry” when stepping over a gravesite. (Observed 100% of the time in Irish cemeteries, I’ve noticed.)
It is bad luck to wear anything new to a cemetery, especially shoes.
Don’t whistle in a graveyard, or you tempt Death.
Leaving coins on a grave is a token of respect.
Don’t yawn near a grave, or ghosts could get inside your body.
Smelling roses when there are none around is a sign that a benevolent spirit is nearby.
The person who takes something from a graveyard will return more than he took.
As silly as some of these adages sound, there is a grain of occult wisdom in most of them. However, don’t assume that they apply in all cases. Every cemetery is different. Different Earth energy, different spirits, and different customs mean different rules for the magick worker.
Well…that’s not very helpful. How do you learn the rules? As much as I would like to be able to generalise about cemetery work, there are few absolutes.
The only constant rule is respect. Respect for the dead is paramount while working in graveyards. If you behave like an ass with your actions or your intentions, you might or might not suffer some unpleasant consequences. Most likely, you will just find that the gates of magick are closed to you there while you are there.
Listen Harder
I can share one helpful tip for embarking on a cemetery working: Every graveyard has a guardian. In my experience, this has been true without exception. The guardian is a presiding spirit who watches over the boundaries and entrance of the site. The guardian is like the bouncer at a nightclub, basically. You won’t get very far without checking in with Him/Her/It, so follow the dress code and try not to get 86’d.
Tradition has it that the guardian is the spirit of the first person buried in the cemetery, who is bound to stay behind and watch over it. In the past, communities would sometimes try to cheat the curse by burying an animal or a vagrant in the first plot.
I don’t think this idea of guardianship is correct. However, I can’t definitively say who or what guardians are. They may be senior human spirits, Gods or emissaries of Death, psycho pomp Fae, genii loci, random thought forms assembled from the social norms of visitors, all of the above or something else. (Insert your magickal worldview here, basically.) But guardians are real (enough) and powerful.
Cemetery guardians have a lot of jobs. They are largely responsible for setting the energetic tone of the site. They help control what entities can enter the ground, or stick around. They work with the caretakers and visitors to maintain the place physically, also. Sometimes cemetery guardians will set up a collaboration with a local sorcerer or priest/ess who works there often. If a graveyard you visit has been “claimed” in this way, you’d be wise to tread lightly and keep your magick compatible with theirs.
Open-feeling, peaceful cemeteries have guardians that welcome visitors. Haunted, forlorn, and forbidding burial places have guardians that don’t care for human company. The guardian(s) will ensure that you know which is which. They will also give you hints and nudges about the types of magick their domain supports. They may send you somewhere else if it’s not a good match. Remember that you are in their space. Respect it.
Developing a relationship with the guardian(s) is one of the best things you can do for your graveyard magick. It’s much better than just tromping through the gates with your candles and sticks and bones and expecting all the energies to fall into place for you.
So introduce yourself! The first time you visit a graveyard, pause at the entrance and share your energy and intentions with the guardian(s). Take in some of the energy of the place in exchange. See if you like the vibes—collaboration is a two-way street, after all. It’s not a bad idea to ask permission to enter or bring an offering to show you’re not a threat.
Once inside, open your super-special magickal antennae senses and see if there’s anything they’d like done around the place. Picking up trash is almost always a welcome contribution. Perhaps there’s a neglected area that needs visiting. Sometimes there’s a spirit with something to say, or a bit of energetic cleanup to be done somewhere. It only takes a few minutes, and then you can get on with your Voodoo, Hoodoo, or whatever it is you do.
What kinds of magick can be worked in graveyards? Just about all of them. Witches go to cemeteries to cast spells for love, money, healing, and success, as well as the darker workings like binding and revenge spells. Cemeteries are a good place to charge amulets, tools, and talismans. Since they are left alone most of the time, they are energetically “cleaner” than areas frequented by lots of people.
Plenty of graveyard magick involves the spirits of the deceased. Practitioners of many forms of magick believe that spirits of the dead can empower spellwork by the living. Prayers and offerings are made to spirits to earn their sympathy and support.
Graveyards are kind of temple for Pagans who connect with gods of Death or the Underworld (such as Hades, Morrighan, and Hecate). Witches and Pagans go there to contemplate mortality, to connect with ancestors, or just be in the company of the dead.
Burial places are a traditional spot to practice medium-ship and spirit communication, and for a good reason: Cemeteries are where spirits go to be heard because they’re where the living go to listen.
As I mentioned before, a major part of effective graveyard magick is listening. If you’re not sure what to do, listen harder. Your instincts will guide you toward the right time and place to perform your working.
When in cemeteries, pay attention to particular areas that pull you in. You may see movement or light. Something may draw you to a certain gravesite—a visiting bird or pretty flower, a significant name or date. Cemeteries are an ideal place to receive oracles from the other worlds. Sit down and listen when invited to. The speaker is not necessarily the occupant of the grave. Keep an open mind.
On offerings: Flowers, liquor, coins, tobacco, and food are traditional offerings to a spirit who has helped you. Some offerings will be more appropriate than others. You wouldn’t want to offer whiskey to a non-drinker, for instance. On the other hand, anything offered in love and trust is unlikely to offend. Consider the ecology of the place—take trash home with you. Offer energy and prayers if you’re not sure what’s okay.
Some Witches trek into cemeteries for ritual ingredients: graveyard dirt, stones, tree branches. Specific magickal rules govern the removal of these items (though they vary by tradition). In short, don’t take anything that isn’t freely given, or fairly bought and paid for.
When choosing a gravesite for a ritual activity, check in with any guardians or spirits in the area. Necromancy—magick involving the dead—has come a long way in the last 500 years. Once upon a time, a magician would wave a magick wand and command earthbound spirits to do his bidding. But there has been a major paradigm shift in Western magick. These days, most Witches think of discarnate beings as collaborators, sentient folks with independent wills that should be respected. You will occasionally meet a Witch who claims to bind or boss around spirits as part of their magick, but this is quite rare.
Some people might argue that the right to give consent ends with death…but that’s a rabbit hole for another day. If you get a strong feeling that your intrusion is not welcome, move on to another spot. You’ll get better results from willing spirits, anyway.
Be Safe
Let me get this out there first: Graveyards are not unsafe places for magick. They’re not inherently dark or evil or unlucky to work in. That's superstition. What they are is portal places. As such, they carry certain magickal power and certain risks. It is possible to encounter negative or chaotic energies that you don’t want to bring home with you. At times, even the psychic impressions from ordinary human emotions can be overwhelming.
If you have a protective amulet or protection ritual, now is a great time to dust it off. Ground and centre yourself before beginning your working. Ask your guides/angels/higher self to surround you with protection. Scan your body for attachments when you leave.
Scrying, channelling, and trance work should only be practised in cemeteries if you’re confident in your ability to screen out unwanted garbage. This is yet another reason why building a relationship with the site’s spirit guardians is a good idea. They know the psychic geography of the place and can spot trouble before you can. They can be your allies and will act as gatekeepers if they support your work.
Remember that spirits don’t know everything just because they’re body-less. Don’t obey orders from a spirit that you wouldn’t obey from a person, and take anything they tell you with a grain of salt.
With just a few simple precautions and courtesies, graveyards can be a wonderful place to work your magick. Happy exploring!
https://www.groveandgrotto.com/blogs/articles/graveyard-magick-a-witchs-guide
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Who Puts An 100-Year-Old Bed In A Little Girl’s Room? Um, We Do.
We have SO MANY posts that we want to write for you guys (we’re currently working on a full living room update post – and one about all the appliances and window blinds we got for the beach house). But ever since we shared a picture of the kids bedding we picked up at HomeGoods for our daughter’s room in the podcast show notes for Episode #69, we’ve been meaning to share a room update.
Because dang it, kids grow up. And sometimes they don’t want their 7-year-old room to look like their “little kid” room anymore (please can’t 7 still be little?!). So here’s how our daughter’s room has grown up a bit – but not too much. Thank goodness there aren’t New Kids On The Block posters (or their 2017 equivalent) quite yet. I know they’re coming! You might remember that it used to look like this right after she upgraded from a crib to a daybed back in the day (I think this was taken when she was 3, sniff!).
And we later got her a larger bed and made a few other changes at her request (we shared this post over a year ago, but mentioned we still wanted to tackle a few things, like adding a headboard, etc).
Well, a few months later she told us she didn’t want the canopy anymore. So down it came. And with the canopy gone (which you can also see around the 3-minute mark of this video house tour we did last year) the raindrops were looking pretty weird. Some were even half-painted along the line where the canopy once sat. We considered just touching them up, but they were dubbed “too babyish” by our girl, so over the last several months we’ve been making some little tweaks here and there – including a new paint color on the walls to cover up those drops. We sanded them slightly, then primed, and then just used two coats of White Heron by Sherwin Williams. It totally covered them and the entire wall feels flat to the touch. Whew.
Also, because I’m neurotic, it should be noted that our tiny client has now decided that she likes the purple side of her comforter better, so these room photos all look slightly odd to me because I’ve already become used to the purple side being up, and I have to tell you: SHE’S A BETTER DECORATOR THAN I AM, because it looks so much better that way. I have no idea why, but the cooler purple pattern just works with the rug so nicely. Still might change out the curtains someday – but on the whole it’s looking a lot more finished lately.
Certainly a far cry from the room we started with:
But back to that headboard that we mentioned we were searching for, oh, over a year. We eventually found this treasure on craigslist for $90 (yes, I’m 35 and I call old wooden things treasures now). It’s a complete bed with side rails and a footboard (the seller said it’s 100 years old and it actually has holes in the frame to wind rope around to support an old straw mattress!). There are newer comparable beds that are $1000+ (like this one from Wayfair), so yes yes yes to this craigslist find! For anyone looking for a similar secondhand one, there are some good ones on Etsy and Chairish.
When we propped up the footboard it was feeling kind of dark and imposing in the room (both visually and literally – we all kept bumping into it), but the footboard is so cool on its own that we’re planning to use it as a headboard in our son’s room eventually. It’s not exactly the same, so it’ll be cool to see what looks like this headboard’s sibling in his room.
Since we weren’t using the fully assembled bed, and just wanted to attach the headboard to the wall, we used some scrap wood to create a cleat on the back of the headboard so it could hang independently of the rest of the bed (here’s where we showed you how to make a headboard cleat). I love that it brings something old to the room, but the spools still keep it feeling fun. When I tuck her in I probably talk way too much about how cool it is to have a bed that’s 100 years old. Moms are so lame.
I’m also obsessed with how the little pom-pom trim that lines the comforter sort of mimics the shape of the spools in the headboard. It’s like it was meant to be together (again, we found that gem at HomeGoods – and the llama sheets are from Target because, llamas!).
The white nightstands are from Target. I loved the campaign hardware detail, the nice functional drawer, and the fact that they’re white (we had old wood side tables that looked super heavy with the wood headboard – so my tip would be to try mixing in white night tables if you’re battling that issue yourself). She still has her trusty pink touch lamps that we got her over a year ago (I don’t have to tell any parent this, but kids love tapping things on and off – it’s one step away from my childhood favorite: The Clapper). Also, I love that she uses the drawers for practical things like storing doll clothes and housing a tiny toy mouse.
The abstract art above the bed is from Target and the pink quote art is just a page I tore out of a magazine called Flow. It reads “If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking. -Haruki Murakami” And it has a cat on it for good measure. When I asked her if she wanted me to hang that up there in the frame she said “Yes because NOBODY else likes to read BabyMouse comics AND Goosebumps at the same time!” This kid.
Back to the walls for a sec – we went with White Heron paint after really liking how it looked throughout the beach house.
It plays well all of the other existing paint colors: the bright white trim (Benjamin Moore’s Simply White), the soft pink ceiling (Benjamin Moore’s Pink Cadillac) and the bold closet door (Benjamin Moore’s Cinco de Mayo). White Heron is a very soft warm grey-tan color, so we joke that her room’s kind of like a muted Neopolitan ice cream bar now, thanks to that strawberry ceiling and vanilla trim.
While we kept the DIY toy/book storage as is (we made that a few years ago and covered the process in our second book), we did refresh some of the art around it. It was fun to see what things got to stay and what got switched out, and our daughter insisted on the little silver antlers (they were downstairs in a pile of things that I was going to use at the beach house) because it was the perfect spot to hang her dreamcatcher keychain. Clearly she’s into form and function – ha!
This photo cracks me up because you can get a sense of how the bookcase has kind of become a playhouse of sorts too. Part of the “de-babying” of the room was also heeding her request to remove the homemade dollhouse in the closet (more on that in a moment while I sob quietly behind my laptop). We craigslisted it to a grandmother who was very excited to have it for her grandkids, so we were happy it was going somewhere that would get more use, but I do find it oddly reassuring when I walk in and the bookshelves have been turned into tiny rooms for her toys.
I also had some fun bringing in some gold, just because I love those gold Target frames and have probably purchased my body weight in them, but also because I like that there’s some silver layered in with them as well (in the antlers, the oval mirror I painted years ago for her, and even that little silver spotted dog sitting on the frame). That dog actually used to be a drawer knob but it cracked and fell off, but he has lived on as a little picture-sitter of sorts.
The wall opposite the bed still features her old changing-table-turned-dresser (it’s almost 8 years old and still going strong!) with that pretty inlay mirror above it that we all love. I think the only update here is that I spray painted the yard sale moose lamp gold because he used to be white and I thought he’d pop more, but he’s looking kind of weird in this picture. In person he’s less bold looking (more of a soft hammered gold) but here he looks… I don’t know… like a golden chicken nugget.
That laundry basket is an estate sale find and the curtains are Ikea panels I dyed light pink years ago. They’re probably the next thing we’ll upgrade in here, because they’re so lightweight that it’s hard to keep them looking like they haven’t been whipped by a daily tornado.
The paint color change has been good for lots of reason. As much as we liked the white, her room always felt a little disconnected from the rest of the upstairs because everything else had a warm tan-gray color on the wall (this room had been a super crisp white color). Plus, her room gets the best light of any room in the house, so it can definitely handle something less stark. We also like how it’s helping the white elements – like the crown molding or the lampshade below – pop off the walls a little better. Once again: chicken nugget moose, everyone.
As I mentioned earlier, the closet got a little update too. With the dollhouse not getting used anymore (*SOB!*), we basically just asked our daughter what she’d rather use that spot for, and she requested a place to draw and write. I had always thought a vanity might make sense in there when she’s older, so I love that this works as a drawing/writing nook and could also be a getting-ready space for her someday (since I’m sure someday she’ll need a larger and more legit desk, which I imagine might take the place of her bookcase down the line).
We grabbed the vanity at Ikea since it’s small enough to easily fit into that nook (remember when we “wallpapered” that back wall with fabric years ago). Then we just brought in one of our spare dining room chairs for a place to sit. It had been in the attic since we got upholstered end chairs for the dining room, so it’s nice to make use of it.
The desk/vanity flips up on one side, so it’s great for stashing pencils and stuff, while the other half has a normal drawer for tucking away papers. I’m not sure I agree with Ikea’s inexplicable decision to make the inside of the vanity blood-red, but it actually works in here.
It may seem like overkill to have three kids drawing/writing surfaces in the house (if you include their desks in our office and the bonus room) but they all get used, and this one is nice because it’s just hers and she can work in here quietly in the morning before her brother wakes up.
For anyone looking for all of our sources in one place, here’s a little get-the-look mood board for ya. We hunted down similar items for the things that are thrifted or discontinued:
1. Walls (SW White Heron) / 2. Trim (BM Simply White) / 3. Ceiling (BM Pink Cadillac) / 4. Door (BM Cinco de Mayo) / 5. Touch Lamp / 6. Bedside Table / 7. Faux Plant / 8. Woven Pot / 9. Windsor Chair / 10. Vanity / 11. White Pouf / 12. Faux Antlers / 13. Abstract Print / 14. Toy Storage / 15. Colorful Print / 16. Antique Wooden Spool Bed / 17. Inlay Mirror / 18. Midcentury Dresser / 19. Throw Pillow / 20. Llama Sheets / 21. Rug / 22. Bedding Set
I’m sure it’s not the last evolution this room will see. At some point, she’ll probably need a dresser with deeper drawers (what once held onesies and diapers perfectly is sometimes feeling maxed out with sweatshirts and skinny jeans). And I really can see that bookcase getting swapped out for a full-sized desk in a few years if she wants more space to spread out. And who knows when and if those curtains will change. Will it be before or after the Nick Jonas posters (or whoever’s the current heartthrob at the time) go up? Everyone says it, but they really do grow up too fast (*sniffle*).
Psst- Wanna see other kids updates and projects? Here are dozens of tutorials from our archives.
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The post Who Puts An 100-Year-Old Bed In A Little Girl’s Room? Um, We Do. appeared first on Young House Love.
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