Category: Filing Cabinet

Boosting Our Wi-Fi Signal

This post is sponsored by Samsung.

A typical day for us might have one of us streaming music or a podcast in the kitchen, the kids watching a show or using a tablet, and someone on their phone or the computer — all at the same time. Our house is just over 3000 square feet, but the modem is at the back of the house in the snug. Meanwhile, I work on the top floor, completely on the other side of the house, and we have plaster walls that can interfere with the Wi-Fi. We’ve always had to rely on devices to boost the signal, but the system we had wasn’t terribly reliable, depending on where you were in the house.

I’ve just added the Samsung Connect Home to our house. It’s a new Wi-Fi router and SmartThings hub all in one, and you guys. It’s solving problems.

I was a little nervous about setting it up because if I don’t have an internet connection, I can’t work. But it was easy! I used the Samsung Connect App to set it all up; it walks you through the process and the whole thing took about 10 minutes. The router has a range of about 1500 square feet, but the system is expandable for mesh network coverage. We have three devices connected and the app verifies that they’re spaced closely enough to communicate with each other. Our internet connection is awesome now! I can walk around with my phone and not lose the signal! Hooray!

The main hub, the one connected to the modem, is in the snug. Our old one was in the same spot, but it was not nearly as inconspicuous. (I had hidden it before when taking photos — that one was triple the size and so ugly with its trio of chunky antennas.)

The second is in the den, where we watch movies and play games. It’s kind of in the middle of the house, so the first one covers the back and bottom of the house (including the yard), and this one covers the center and links to the third one all the way upstairs.

We just bought a new 55″ TV to upgrade from our old one that clocked in at 32″. It feels HUGE. Nice though! The TV is by Samsung too (MU8000) and it connects beautifully to the Wi-Fi and the Samsung Connect App. I can even use my phone as a remote if I wanted to.

And here’s the third hub, up on the third floor of the house in my office. I’m proud to say I haven’t had a signal drop yet (which was a constant problem before)!

I like to hide away technology a lot — it’s the kind of quirk Brandon just loves about me — but routers work better when they’re out. Thankfully these are small and nicely designed (a welcome change from the old eye-sores).

We had gotten used to the unreliable internet connection, as frustrating as it could be, and now we have Wi-Fi that just works! The Samsung Connect App made the whole process easy, and even works with all of our existing smart devices so I can control them all through just one app instead of multiple. And with the Samsung Connect Home I didn’t have to compromise on aesthetics. Nice.

What about you? What kind of Wi-Fi struggles could Connect Home help you solve?

December 12, 2017
2017 Video Game Gift Guide
Your friendly nerdy blogger here offering up a guide to this year’s games for gifting!

The age distinctions are fluid, so when I say “& up” I mean it. We enjoy a lot of the “kids” titles but you probably don’t want to buy one of the violent games for littles or something that’s going to be too difficult, so that’s how Brandon and I approached the categories.

Kids & Up
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo Switch — released Apr. ’17)
  The game has a ‘smart steering’ option so that you don’t have to worry about falling off the track, making it easier for players of different ages and abilities to play together.
- Lego Super Heroes 2 (Nintendo Switch, XBox One, Playstation 4 — released Nov. ’17)
  My 6-year-old loves this, but even my 3-year-old likes to be Spider-Man and run around, so they can play together (split-screen).
- Super Mario Odyssey (Nintendo Switch — released Oct. ’17)
  Wahoo! Fun for all with some clever throwback gameplay in there.
- Animal Crossing Pocket Camp (iOS, Android — released Nov. ’17)
  Free! Not really a present you can put under the tree, but do put this on your phone or your kid’s tablet. I’ve been enjoying the heck out of it.
Teens & Up
- Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo Switch — released March ’17)
  You can never go wrong with a new Zelda title.
- The Sims 4 (XBox One, Playstation 4, Mac, PC — released Nov. ’17 for consoles, 2014 for Mac/PC)
  I don’t know why I never picked this up for our computer, but the console version has just been released. I introduced my 8-year-old to the game and we’re both super into it, but she’s a little young to play and needs some help. Meanwhile my in-game house is goood.
- Stardew Valley (Nintendo Switch, XBox One, Playstation 4, PC — released 2017 for consoles, 2016 for PC)
  Resource management, whee! (We debated putting this in the kids/teens category. Our oldest plays, and she’s 8.)
Adults
- Assasin’s Creed Origins (XBox One, Playstation 4, PC — released Oct. ’17)
  A fun addition to the series, this time set in ancient Egypt. Supposedly there will be a mode coming without fighting where you can just tour the location.
- Wolfenstein II (XBox One, Playstation 4, PC — released Nov. ’17)
  Very violent, but if you’re good with killing video game Nazis, there you go. Surprisingly moving at times.
- Horizon Zero Dawn (Playstation 4 — released Feb. ’17)
  An amazing game with a female protagonist set in a beautiful post-apocalyptic world.
- Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (Playstation 4 — released Aug. ’17)
  Hey, more ladies! This is a spinoff from the Uncharted series, taking two ancillary characters and exploring their story.
- Golf Story (Nintendo Switch — released Sep. ’17)
  The 16-bit mechanics of golf with throwback 8-bit style and a fun story.
p.s. Here’s the cute “Letters to Santa” mailbox, and a smaller ornament version.

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November 30, 2017
One Room Challenge: Week 6 (So Close!)

Normally we’d be at the end of the One Room Challenge, but we have all been granted a one-week extension for the first time in ORC history. Unforeseen circumstances derailed many participants but we’re all moving along toward final reveals next week, and I have to say, the extra time has been nice!

I spent yesterday putting up the wallpaper. Had the deadline been here I would have started sooner, pulling a few late nights and not seeing my family until I came up for air. Instead, I could work at a normal pace and stop at 5:00. Novel concept! I don’t want to pull the camera back too much and give it away (next week, next week!), but it’s all looking so good together.

Pink trim won out over green (or plum, charcoal, or black). I didn’t tally exact votes, but I pretty sure green won as far as numbers go. I was indecisive at first, but I feel strongly now that it wasn’t the right call for this space. The trim is not nice or special. The window is, and the new wallpaper is. The trim just needed to complement it, and the color my Nix sensor pulled from the background (Brandy Cream, Benjamin Moore) was perfect.

I had never worked with paste-the-wall type of wallpaper before. I watched Milton & King’s Installation Video before starting, and then just dove in. I started with the hardest wall first, the peaked window wall, because that’s the one you see from the doorway and I wanted the pattern centered on it.

It was easier to work with dry wallpaper in some ways, but not all. Traditional wallpaper needs to be booked, which means you apply paste and then gently fold the paper in on itself so the glue doesn’t dry while the moisture causes the paper to expand slightly. After about 10 minutes, you would hang that strip. A seasoned installer is able to speed up the process by booking one sheet while hanging another, so there’s no waiting time in between. I am not seasoned. When I do it, I do it a strip at a time and I move slowly.

Working with paste-the-wall wallpaper meant that I could skip that 10-minute waiting time for each strip, so it was definitely faster. It was less messy too, as I didn’t have to have a big wallpapering table (which gets covered with glue overage). The process of matching up patterns and trimming is the same, so there’s no winner one way or the other there. The only thing I found more difficult was in working with the dry paper, it wanted to roll up as I was applying it to the wall — especially as I got further into the roll. I also found that I had to be careful not to crease it. Traditional wallpaper softens up as the glue absorbs in the booking process, so it’s more floppy and pliable. Dry wallpaper isn’t, obviously.

I love the pattern, and it looks as wonderful as I’d hoped it would. The rainbow room is halfway done, and I should be able to finish in one more day. I also have to swap out two light fixtures and hang art in the office before I can call this ORC done. The furniture is all in place, save for the bookshelves (because they’re going in front of the wallpaper).

Oh, and I might move the sconces down a bit too. They’re hung at a perfectly normal height, but they look too high to me because of the room’s angles. Six inches lower or so ought to do the trick. It would be easy enough to make that change since they’re plug-ins.

But then all that’s left is tidying and styling. The fun stuff! And photographing, of course. And writing about it. Whew, OK, maybe I need to get more of a move on than I thought. One more week!

Follow along with the One Room Challenge participants!

• Boxwood Avenue • Coco & Jack • Design Manifest • Dwell with Dignity • The House That Lars Built • Little Green Notebook • The Makerista • Making it Lovely • Old Brand New • Old Home Love • The Painted House • Megan Pflug Designs • Pink Pagoda • Erica Reitman • Sacramento Street • Simply Grove • Jill Sorensen • Sugar & Cloth • Vintage Rug Shop • Waiting on Martha • Media Partner House Beautiful • TM by ORC

My One Room Challenge Posts

Follow along from the beginning!
• Week 1: Hello, Office • Week 2: Design and Layout • Week 3: It’s Curtains • Week 4: Putting it Together• Week 5: What Trim Color?

And check out my previous One Room Challenges!
• Spring ’16: Our Bedroom and Den • Fall ’16: Front and Back Entry, Stairs, and Hallways

November 8, 2017
My ‘Gothic White’ Dîner en Blanc Table
My sister invited me as her date to Chicago’s Dîner en Blanc this year. Quelle excitation! She rented a room for the night, so we checked in and brought all of our stuff up. It wasn’t until we were in a car on our way to the meeting point that we realized our flowers were sitting in an ice bucket in her hotel bathroom.

We had the essentials — food, plates, that sort of thing — but without the fluffy cute flowers, our table was going to be all pillar candles and skeletons. Really emphasizing the whole goth part of my ‘gothic white’ idea. I did what I assume any weirdo/resourceful person would do. I scavenged weeds from a nearby parking lot.

“It will work out,” my sister assured me as I came back with a handful of Queen Anne’s Lace. “After all, what grows on graves?”

It worked out! Clearly the skeletons are the best part of this table — you should pick them up while you can because I suspect they’ll sell out well before Halloween. We borrowed a folding table and tons of people (us included) had these inexpensive and light folding chairs. Everything else was standard-issue tabletop stuff that I had on hand, with flameless candles in anticipation of wind. Everything is linked below (and I found super similar items for some of the stuff I’ve had for years).

This is also pretty much what my dining table is going to look like all October.
It’s a lot of schlepping, but it was worth it. Everyone and everything looks beautiful, and the mystery of the location (it was at the Theater on the Lake this year) adds to the fun. Plus dancing! If you ever get the change to attend a Dîner en Blanc in your city, say yes!

p.s. Here’s a little background on how the event usually works. The first Dîner en Blanc I’d been to was at Alt Summit. Much smaller and no schlepping, but equally magical and fun.
August 28, 2017
Rug Design Challenge Winners

Thank you so much to everyone for voting in the Annie Selke Rug Design Challenge. They decided to bring twelve rugs (rather than just the top 10) into production — which includes my quilt-inspired design!

The winning rugs are going on to become part of a capsule collection for Annie Selke’s Dash & Albert, and the goal is to introduce them at High Point Market next spring. I understand creating finished products for printed goods from my experience in running the stationery line, but I’m curious about how it plays out for rugs. Textile materials and finishing techniques are details that I pay attention to when buying, and now I get to learn about that from the production side (and share everything with you along the way)!

You can see the clear quilting inspiration. Those triangles are a classic element (popping up again lately in cement tiles, too). I created each of the elements in Illustrator, starting with the floral border based on a block unit, and then using that block to determine widths for the rest. I worked on adjusting border sizes and proportions, and then finished by filling the center field with the quilt pattern. There are actually three colors here, the cream and then both brown and black, giving it a subtle depth. It would still work well in just two colors though, and if it were flatwoven that would make it reversible, so this is all of the stuff I’m excited to learn about as we move forward!

I know a lot of you were excited about the bug designs. I was too, but I knew they were a risk going into this. The people that liked them really liked them. I really liked them! They did well in the voting process, but unfortunately not quite well enough to make the cut.

The exercise of drawing and turning that into a workable pattern was so enjoyable though! I’ve always returned to art and design again and again, and this challenge reawakened that in me, so I’m super thankful for that. (And I have a million more ideas I want to make real now!)

I’m also excited to know that people will be able to decorate their homes with a rug that I designed. That’s an honor, and I didn’t realize how much it would mean to me until I started working on these. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your support. I’m over the moon today!

July 21, 2017
Designing Rugs
I’ve designed three rugs for the Annie Selke Rug Design Challenge! I’ll need your help (in the form of votes) to bring them to production.

There are several other designers and bloggers participating.

I’ve been so curious about everybody’s take on this challenge, and they were all posted to the Annie Selke Instagram account today. They’re all so good! 10 designs will be chosen to go into their lineup, and I would love for at least one of those to be mine. I hadn’t designed products since closing my stationery business, and I’ve realized how much I missed the process.

(↑ Annie Selke)

Our family went up to the North Woods of Wisconsin again a couple of weeks ago, and I brought my markers and sketchbook with me. I drew various repeating patterns, lots of scallops with art deco influences, but ultimately I didn’t go with those. The bugs though! They inspired me.

There are cute ladybugs and butterflies on plenty of products already. Bees and dragonflies can also be found pretty readily, and I did draw all of the above. Weevils though, I found to be so interesting! Rhino beetles and stag beetles, too, but it was the weevils that made it into two out of my three patterns (here and here).

I was also inspired by quilting patterns, which as of writing this post, is the most popular out of my three. And here, a bonus peek at my favorite design in a lighter pink colorway! (Where my girly entomologists at!?) This wasn’t an official submission, but I asked for opinions on Instagram and the dark won out.

Please vote!

I need your help to make these possible. If you want to see any of these available for sale, please vote for your favorites by liking them on Annie Selke’s Instagram account. The other designers did an amazing job too of course, so I know it’s going to be tough competition.
1. VOTE — like this on Instagram: Snug as a Bug in a Rug
2. VOTE — like this on Instagram: Going Buggy Rug (my favorite!)
3. VOTE — like this on Instagram: A Quilty Rug
These are the silly names I’ve been calling them — no doubt they are up for changing should they become official. Voting ends July 20, and Annie Selke is aiming for a capsule collection of 10 designs to be completed and unveiled at High Point Market next April. I would love to have one or more designs in that collection! I would get to write about the process too, taking you behind the scenes of producing a rug for market. I’m always fascinated by the business end of things, from design to materials to implementation. How cool to be a part of that, and to share it with you here!

Thank you already to so many of you that have voted and shown your support. If nothing else, I loved making patterns and designing products again.
July 6, 2017