: manual labor (we finally got the rest of the bamboo floor put down) - see the before pic here.
: alfresco meals (in between Indy & Nascar)
: coffee drinking and magazine reading (and a few small gardening projects)
: and taking time to remember why we observe Memorial Day
Everyone has those annoying cabinets over the refrigerator. Mine was getting to me. It was empty. And there was a bunch of junk on top of the refrigerator in front of the annoying cabinet. So I cleared off the refrigerator, took the doors off of the cabinet and put my cook books up there. The only things that went back on the refrigerator are two glass canister and our snack basket. The books are organized by color of course. ;)
Tell me your uses for the your cabinet over the refrigerator!
And IMHO, everyone should have a copy of this cookbook in their kitchen.
I finally bought a couch for our living room. I have had this couch on my list for awhile and just needed time to think about it and also wait for our budget and the department store sale to converge. We haven't received it yet as it is on backorder. Waiting doesn't bother me that much. It just gives us more time to figure out what to do with the frat-house-futon that the new couch is taking the place of.
Yea, it's musical furniture in our house. The boy doesn't like to throw things or give things away too much. It is a constant struggle between us. I have been accused of taking some items to Goodwill that I was not given permission to. I admit, it is a possibility. When I get to bagging things up, some things just get swept up in the frenzy. In all fairness though, I have brought some random pieces of furniture into our home over the years. Sometimes they stay and sometimes they don't.
We have a mish-mash of furniture: a dining room table and chairs that was my great grandmother's, a living room set from Strawbridges (now Macy's), bertoia chairs from ebay, heywood wakefield and lane tables also from ebay, a little roll-top desk that belonged to someone in my dad's family, a $10 chair from a strip-mall antique store in Rehoboth, DE and of course some Ikea pieces.
Some things we will always have and others served a purpose at some point but I am looking forward to upgrading, getting something more useful or just making a better choice this time around and getting something that I love that will be a classic to me. I am slowly becoming more thoughtful about what I spend my money on, although I do have my moments of what I call Target-induced unconscious spending. Fortunately they are becoming rarer (and I also live further away from big box stores than I used to). Two other things have happened to me (us) over this past year. First, we moved into what we consider our long-term house. Second, I think it has just been over the past couple of years that I have really developed a sense of what my own style is and more importantly come to an understanding of my lifestyle as a wife, an architect, a house-keeper and all the other roles that I play in making a home.
All of the things above are just now coming together and it is causing me to pause everytime I think "Oh, I want that piece of furniture". And if I buy said piece of furniture does something else need to leave? We are lucky to have ebay and craigslist which enable us to in essence recycle our unwanted things. At least they are not going into a landfill. But do I necessarily want my house to become a revolving door of tables and chairs? There is always a bit of rotation and editing in decorating. But with the major pieces I want some permanence.
I think I have rambled on long enough and will end there. All this came about because I wanted to buy this today, but did not. I still haven't decided on whether or not to get it. I'll let you know. ;)
Never thought you'd see those words all together. I inherited a Docksta table from my very cool brother and it needed a bit of cleaning up. I picked up a couple of Mr. Clean Magic Erasers and wholla! the table is like new again. This may not be a light bulb moment to the rest of you, but I thought I would share. I cannot say what a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser actually is or whether someone will find out in 10 years that they cause cancer (I am pretty sure they are considered non-toxic), but man does it work.
Yea, those are the curtains that I have been meaning to sew for like weeks. No months. :P
PS. I have a new category called 'scrubby sponge'. That is what the boy sometimes calls me since I love to clean (Not!). So the 'scrubby sponge' category will pertain to all aspects of keeping our houses clean.
I can't remember when I first saw Billy Buttons. It may have been on a family trip to Arizona. In addition to Tulips and Ranunculus, Billy Buttons are another of my all-time favorite flowers, dried and fresh. Sometimes called Billy Balls or Woollyheads and by their proper name Craspedia, their appeal to me is obviously in their color (yellow is my favorite) but also in their simplicity. They are popping up all over the place, which only confirms their universal appeal. Now that we are in our 'long-term' house I am even more motivated to make a point to try to grow all of my favorite plants and flowers so I bought some Billy Button seeds yesterday. Fingers crossed!
1. Billy Balls2, 2. craspedia billy button, 3. [Asteraceae] Craspedia maxgrayi Everett et Joy Thomps. 04.08.2004, 4. Craspedia pleiocephala, 5. Craspedia, 6. The faucet and backsplash, 7. Craspedia-Billy-button, 8. yellow buds, 9. Yellow Ball Flowers
You would never know by the picture that my home office in under attack by carpenter ants. We had our trusty exterminator come out to the house today to assess the situation. Our neighbors have had a couple of trees cut down very close to our property so it could have disturbed the colony(ies), but more likely it is a result of a fairly mild winter that we have had this season on the east coast (mid-atlantic). We have already spotted ticks and mosquitos which is really early for both of those creatures around here.
Regardless of why they have chosen to take residence up in my office (luckily there are none in the bedroom on the other side of the house), it is always a terrible thing to have ones home invaded by unwanted multi-legged pests. It is a nuisance but it is also a bit scary. I spent a lot of my day on Saturday on the internet doing research first to determine what kind of ants they are and second to find a way to make them leave. I don't have a problem with paying our exterminator to do his work, but do have concerns about using poisonous chemicals around the house. We don't have children or pets, but the environment and mini eco-system in our backyard is always a concern to me. Unfortunately, carpenter ants are really hard to get rid of and we had friends over on Friday who confirmed that for us since they have had them in vast numbers at their house. So I called the E-man this morning. You gotta do what you gotta do.
Between the ants and my aging laptop, blogging has been difficult. Tonight my home office will temporarily move to our kitchen so I should be on a more regular schedule since I won't have to worry about creatures around me. I just have to sort out my computer woes. I think that will be more expensive than the ants. Sorry for the lack of posts. I have another really cool renovation project to show you! Really. I promise.
We are getting ready for weekend house guests. We live in a 3 bedroom house but right now the boy and I have the two extra bedrooms taken over by office functions so we do not have a formal guest room. This works fine for us since, with the exception of my SIL, our family lives within driving distance as do most of our friends and the ones who live more than a hour away come to visit maybe twice a year if even that. We decided that we'll surrender our beloved sleep number bed for one night and camp out on the futon in the family room. My friend is prego and there is no way I would subject her to a night on that wafer. As you may recall I have been shopping for a futon replacement. We have gone back and forth about whether or not to get a sleeper sofa, but for our limited guest accomodation needs I can't see spending all the extra money for one and haven't been happy with the choices. I am picky enough. Jeez. Once the futon is gone (and I can't wait for the day) we will use an aero bed. I've slept on them enough times to know they are great for a weekend stay and very easy to set up, break down and store. I just picked one up a a great discount at smart bargains.
There are lots of web resources suggesting ways to prepare ones home for guests and ways to make guests feel more comfortable. My main concerns are always that house is clean, especially the bathrooms and the bed has clean sheets on it. I also like to make sure I have food staples on hand and some healthy snacks too. Luckily my friends and I are pretty down to earth so you won't find me making up spa baskets or tieing my guest towels with linen ribbon. I did like the idea pictured (idea and picture from Martha Stewart) above of a way to put out some drinking water if you don't have a carafe. Use two different sized drinking glasses like a DOF and a highball. Simple and thoughtful. When friends and family come to stay, it should be about the time spent together catching up and less about whether your guest accomodations rival the Four Seasons'. I think.
First, collect all your tools before you begin that way you don't have to run up and down two flights of stairs multiple times. Second, don't assume that the shade manufacturer has provided all the necessary hardware required to properly hang your shade.
I decided to hang the shades tight up to the ceiling. Our ceilings on the second floor are 7'-6" tall, which is fairly low and our bedroom is pretty big so I wanted to introduce some vertical-ness to the room it has seemed to help.
Now to get some color on those walls!
The house is decorated for the most part. I went with a more minimal approach this year instead of decking out the entire house. I love what I call our vintage tree. It's actually a tinsel tree I got at BJ's last year decorated with vintage glass ornaments my grandmother gave me and Pier 1 gift garland.
I splurged this year for two new stockings from Hable Construction and they are so worth it.
I made some soft trees from Stephanie Barnes' pattern. I haven't sewn in quite awhile, so it was a great little project to try out on my great aunt's sewing machine that I so luckily inherited. It is also a great project if you have never sewn and want to try.
And I tried two recipes by Shauna James Ahern (the Gluten-Free Girl). Both the Lemon Olive Oil Cookies and the Spicy Ginger Cookies are delicious. I want to try the Holiday Fruit and Nut Balls but my food processor conked out on me. I have asked Santa for this, but I think I am maxed out on my wishlist.
I can't believe eight days have gone by since I last posted. I have been pretty busy at work the last several weeks and believe it or not I do a lot of my blog thinking and composing during my lunch hour and have not had that time lately. And the last week or so I have been spending the evenings at home getting ready for Thanksgiving.
Every since we got back from Germany we have had 'events' every weekend so the house is coming along slowly, as it should be I guess. There's a part of me that wants instant gratification and would like to plunk down a piece of plastic at the local furniture store and have them deliver me a truck load of stuff in three days or less and be done with it. But the prevailing side of me knows that the satisfaction would not last. We are better off making slow progress, developing our own style over time. So I have been doing a lot of 'reading' (= looking at pretty pictures! and some real reading as well) instead of buying.
The paint swatches hang on the wall still. I think I've decided on a color. And after the holidays and our Utah trip, I see lots of painting in my future!
I am still reading and re-reading House Thinking and have been thinking a lot about this...
"When searching for ways to approach our experience of home, I often think of the theater. After all, our houses and apartments are the stages on which much of the drama of daily life is enacted. Beginning with the very important entry, the home's spaces are a series of sets that influence how we'll play our parts. It only makes sense to ensure that our rooms cue the kinds of thoughts and feelings that help us to be happy and productive." -Winifred Gallagher in House Thinking
Is that putting too much emphasis on home and how it affects us? I don't think so. Whether you own a five bedroom farmhouse or rent a studio apartment it is home. We all have our own set of circumstances that in some ways dictate where we can live whether it be money, family, work, physical limitations, etc. How do we exist within those circumstances and instead of thinking of them as limitations treating them as opportunities to be creative about how we turn our homes into places that help us to be happy and productive? Because unfortunately not all of us can afford a custom architect-designed home that addresses each of our needs. We need to find ways around and through some of things about our 'spaces' that we can't change.
Is there something in your home that you can't change for any reason and you have found a creative way to deal with it and make it work for you? For me right now, it is our kitchen. Time and money won't allow us to make any major changes to it right way, so I have been editing, organizing and rearranging to try to make it a better functioning kitchen for us and they way we live.
I hope you're all well!
