The Sweatshop of Love Blog

A Peek Around the Corner...

You know when you don’t feel comfortable in your own house? You know that feeling? Where everywhere you look is a problem. Everywhere you look needs work. There isn’t a single corner you can sit in where you feel productive and happy and content in knowing that part of your house is just the way you want it.

I’ve had that feeling for the past three months.

I moved into this apartment over four years ago with an ex boyfriend. We moved in because a friend of ours had to vacate pronto because she left her live in girlfriend for a boy while we were in Prague. I was calling it ‘The Relationship Killer’ for a while, but now I just think relationships that start before you’re 20 are doomed from the start.

And PT and I have been rockin’ it out since our summer hiatus, and his stuff has been sitting in boxes in every corner of the apartment for three months. We had been licking our chops just waiting for the chance to move into the room left vacant by our roommate, and after a paint job, we started spreading out.

Futon's New Home

We had a study/dining room/living room/storage room that was basically just a dumping ground we hardly spent any time in that was home to a futon and coffee table, now happily situated in the football room, complete with quilts and pillows my mom has made me over the years, and my first knitting project ever! That gigantic striped/weird purple shaped shawl.

Work Table?!

My worktable has been folded up against the fireplace in the bedroom for months and months. My sewing machine was completely covered by things I needed to sew as soon as I had the room to sew, perpetuating the problem.

(See my sign?! I’ve got to figure out a way to hang it up over my table!)

Yeah, there is a lot of stuff on there, but that is my slightly urgently needed sewn pile there on the right, and it is only taking up the tiniest section of my table, as opposed to all  being draped over my sewing machine. MANAGEABLE! What a concept.

Inventory Closet

And, maybe more than anything else, I now have a place to put my inventory and finished projects! Hello, wardrobe. I love you.

All this had been shoved in plastic containers used as tables in my pantry. Now it can breath and be remembered. I knit myself up some emergency I-must-have-lost-my-mittens-last-winter mittens this weekend with time I wanted to be using differently (little did I know that it was going to be 70 in Chicago this week!), and I found four pairs buried under onions and vinegar in my kitchen!

I’m sitting in my football room right now. It’s still kind of a mess, but a manageable mess that I’m going to start tackling as soon as I publish. I’m sitting on the futon, not my bed. I know where things that I need are. There aren’t boxes everywhere! The walls are blue.

It is kind of magical what a little paint did here, and for my sanity. Thanks, Dutch Maid!

Black Bean Pizza!

Every football Sunday PT and I make a pizza. We missed out on last week because we were dead tired from our trip to Minnesota, so we knew that this week’s football pizza had to be amazing.

Enter the black bean pizza! I’ve made this a few times in my pre-PT life but hadn’t pulled it out for him yet. It’s probably the easiest football pizza we’ve made this season – you let the crust rise for about half a game, roll it out and bake just the crust while you make the topping on the stove.

A couple chopped onions, some garlic, a can of Mexican stewed tomatoes and two cups of black beans. Boil off the water, dump on the crust, sprinkle with cheese and bake for a few more minutes.

Two Pieces, Please!

What is nice about this pizza is that it is so filling! All those beans make it nearly impossible to eat more than two pieces. So we ate two for lunch and two for dinner! (Unlike all other weeks when we just ate the entire pizza for lunch. Don’t judge.)

PT, Pre-Paint

We also tackled a project that has been on the back burner for a few weeks: painting our new room! Our roommate moved out on the first, opening up a room in our apartment for… watching football in. We have been lovingly referring to it as ‘the football room’, but I’ll be moving my work table in there and pulling out a ton of craft supplies I’ve needed to hide away while we had a roommate.

PT Working Hard

We picked out this paint color based on the name: Dutch Maid. I don’t know how people stand in front of those paint chips in the store and rationally pick out a color they think will be exactly what they are looking for. So we thought blue and thought ‘Dutch’ was a sign. I’m Dutch! The room is Dutch! (The paint was even on sale! How Dutch!)

Step One: Done!

It was dark by the time we finished painting, so we couldn’t see the true color in natural light. This morning, though, wow! I’m in love with it. It’s so bright and pretty and kinda looks like Honolulu Blue. Won’t PT be surprised when the Barry Sanders Fathead comes in the mail!