Thursday, September 30, 2010

Cleared for take off

We've finally set a date for the closing of our refinance! I know, I know, I vowed to never talk about un-glam things like refinancing on the 'ol blog. But the process has been so long & exhausting that it's exactly the good news we've been hoping for this week. It's a tad bit exciting, if I do say so myself!

So while I'm on the subject of all things exciting, here are some other noteworthy items of mention:

1. I've updated my sidebar! Entitled "Daily Reads" you'll find a list of my go-to reads each and every day. The list will be growing--this is just a small selection of blogs & websites I peruse while sipping my morning tea. I'll be adding more links as I come across sites that are definitely read-worthy...

2. This assortment of frames from Etsy seller Dignified Rubbish:

I'm thinking to do something similar in our large entryway staircase at some point (possibly black frames against grey walls?). This image will definitely be kept around for future inspiration!

3. The new fall issue of Fresh Home Magazine and finding their equally delightful blog (with a section devoted to blogs they love...score!) to go along with my newstand copy. I'll be nose to the paper tonight...


4. Designer Sarah Richardson of HGTV's Sarah's House. I'm absolutely swooning over her work! File her designs under Ah-MAZING:





photos by Sarah Richardson Design

Hope you're having an equally exciting week!

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

When the husband nixes an area rug purchase, ask for clothes instead.

I recently asked the husband if it was okay to purchase a new area rug for the living room. I had been wanting to replace ours for some time now. It's 4-ish years old, showing it's wear, and its size is more appropriate for my small one-bedroom apartment I was living in at the time I purchased it. I mean, did you see how insignificant it looks in our current abode?

I know, I know. All three of you are sitting on the edge of your seats wondering what the husband's response was. It was no. Geesh. He's such a mood killer!

In the event he signs off on a new area rug purchase, I've decided to add a few additional items to my list for good measure. While these items are decidedly non-house related, a girl has to look good in her city dwellin' abode, no? So without further ado, I give you my wish list courtesy of Modcloth:











Ooops! Gotta run. The husband just caught me checking out boots & he didn't seem too amused. I guess this means a future area rug purchase is out of the question?

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Tuesday Tour: The Scrapbook Room

We've been a little down and out with colds & are currently dealing with some last minute refinance stuff (oh, don't you love banks?!), but I won't allow a little cough to let down my three faithful readers! It's time for Tuesday tours! This week's edition of Tuesday Tours brings us to the room directly off the living room, the scrapbook room. Otherwise known as the "used to be scrapbooking, now just sits idle & cute" room.



At one point I was an avid scrapbooker & one of my requirements in our new home was office space or a spare bedroom that would accomodate my hobby. Well, somewhere between purchasing our home, getting married, house projects & just being plain 'ol busy, my hobby got lost in the shuffle. But let's not waste time crying over unused rooms. Let's get to the tour!



One of the first changes we made to the room was removing the entryway door (accessed from the living room). It was awkward, took up too much room & oddly enough was required to be removed--along with the door's molding--to accomodate the arrival of our oversized couch (through the pocket door you see here). Yep, our couch had to be hoisted  to the upstairs porch, after failing to make it's way up TWO different stairwells & into our living room. While Americans continue to get bigger, why so does our furniture! But that little incident is another story for another day. Moving along...



The next order of business was painting. The room was previously a delightful shade of burgandy. Which was in fact, delightful, but much too dark for the room. One coat of primer & several coats of Behr's Asparagus later, we had ourselves a more cheerful office/scrap space. The bookshelf holds baskets of stamps & stamp pads, while the bottom shelf holds more practical items like statements, bills, car titles and phone books. Blech! How did that nonsense get in here?



The best part of the room is the closet space. The shelves hold all my paper, embellishments, paint, ribbons and scrapbooks, as well as wrapping & tissue paper, thank you notes and gift bags. Which come in uber handy for that impromtu housewarming party, birthday or random gift-giving occassion.



The main area in the room is devoted to workspace. The table is an old dining table from my last apartment (which coincidentally served as my scrapbooking workspace at the time). The baskets hold random items like scissors, tapes, punches, pens & pencils. Above the workspace is an overpriced cork board from Pottery Barn. The only thing missing from the board is actual cork (it's a few centimeters thick...for.real.), which makes it laughably unusable. Not only was it expensive & barely usable, it also caused the husband to curse multiple times while hanging it. But isn't that the case with most Pottery Barn stuff? It's expensive, looks pretty and makes people curse (probably because of the price tag, right?).




And that concludes today's tour! I'm off to curl up on my couch with a cup of tea, Dayquil and an episode of Dr. Phil's Housewives Get Real Tuesdays. And who said Tuesday was the most boring day of the week?!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Tuesday tours

I'm a huge fan of the blog House Tweaking which I discovered through the equally fabulous blog, Young House Love. I may or may not have a small obsession with both of these blogs. And I may or may not spend an absurd amount of time perusing the delightful photos and ideas from each of them. Just saying. At any rate, Dana (the gal behind House Tweaking) features a post each Friday dedicated to a tour in one room of her house--appropriately named "Feature Friday." Oh, the anticipation of seeing each of her fabulous rooms, one week at a time!

And that's where my genius idea of "Tuesday Tours" came from. A sneak peek into some rooms in our city dwellin' abode, each and every Tuesday. But not every Tuesday. Because, you see, there are only so many Tuesdays in my lifetime & so many rooms in our home. The fun will have to end at some point. But for the time being this will help keep me accountable. I'll be keeping up the rooms in our home & perhaps making some decor changes along the way!

So without further ado, today's feature is the most frequented room in our home, the living room! This is where you'll find us the majority of the time--watching t.v., reading, using the computer, eating (Wait, did I just say eating? Because what I meant was we take the time to do all of our eating at the dining room table, like all respectable adults. Why yes we do.)


And some details...





One of the major changes we made to the room, was having the floors refinished. In fact, we had the floors refinished in the entire house before we turned the key and uttered the words "home sweet home". The next major change was updating the paint from a dingy beige/green to it's new hue, Soho by Ralph Lauren. The rest, as they say, is all in the details! I've incorporated lots of white elements--vases, frames, and accessories, as well as a small desk ("gifted" to us--i.e. left behind--by the previous owners) that I sanded, repainted white and added new hardware from Lowes, and paired it with a chair that was a flea market find my mom scored for $4! The goal of the desk was to act as a "home base" for our computer, but so far that remains to be seen (as I type this, the husband is currently eating dinner from the desk...I kid you not). So for now, the desk is a cute little nook that houses some photos and a silver "K" (from JoAnn's) that stands for Katie. Um, I mean, Keefe...

And that concludes today's Tuesday tour! I'm off to watch one our FIVE shows being recorded this evening. Wow, Tuesday is a big day now, huh?! Until next time...

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Garage sale-ing!


Armed with caffeine, a car load of goods, and still sporting the previous evening's eye liner (hey look everyone, it's Adam Lambert!) it was off to do some garage sale-ing! It's a strange thing to be on the road at 7:30 a.m. on a Saturday. Why are there so many people up so early?! And why are all these said folks riding my tail? Oh, that's right. They're off to a garage sale! 

This past spring my grandmother moved into a nursing home, and her house has finally sold! While it's sad to be moving on, it was time to do something with all of her stuff. Our family organized a garage/estate sale this past weekend (the first day raised over $900!), and I decided to piggy-back by selling some items we've accumulated since Tom & I began co-habitating over 2 years ago. Afterall, who needs 3 irons anyway (why, oh why did we have THREE irons?!). For the record, not one iron was sold at today's sale.

Garage sales are a funny thing. There's certainly no rhyme or reason to why people buy the things they do (or feel the need to bargain when something is a godforsaken $4). My earliest memories of garage sales were ones we had growing up. My sister & I reaped the benefit of those few sales by selling some of our most sought after stuffed animals & chotchkies that littered our bedrooms. Boy, were those some lucky folks!

Our few items didn't exactly rake in the dough today--I raised roughly $70 in 3 hours--but that's $70 more than we had before 7:30 a.m.! And that's one less fish poacher, wicker side table, and random lamp shade that came back to our city dwellin' abode. And what are we doing with that $70 we currently have in our hot little hands? Why putting it towards our upcoming beachy honeymoon of course!

Did someone say margaritas?!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

bye, bye blog

Seriously. You take some time away from a new blog, and the husband immediately thinks it's over. I've given up, the blog is going to blog heaven. Well fear not, oh faithful reading husband! I'm back!

Honestly, I haven't had anything interesting to talk about lately (and by interesting I mean, white ceramic birds). We've been living our normal, city dwellin' lives, relaxing & recovering from the summer, and gearing up for fall (my favorite season!). If you consider it interesting to know that we're weeks away from refinancing our mortgage...well, then...you're reading the wrong blog. There's nothing glamorous about refinancing, electrical conversions, or roof estimates now is there?

A few weekends ago we went to my in-law's cabin. While in town, I stopped by my favorite place, the Angelica Country Store. Oh, the treasures you will find! While I didn't walk away with anything this visit (truth be told, there was a little white bird calling my name, but I resisted...much to Tom's relief), I instead meandered to the antique store next door to check out their inventory. I almost walked away empty handed until I discovered this delightful find!


Tom's concern was function ("can I actually weigh things with it?"). My thoughts were as follows: "It was $10!", "It's antique-y!", and "It will look GREAT in the new kitchen, no?"

There's something to be said about an accsesory with character. Something that tells a story. A home that incorporates unique elements, and doesn't look like the inside of a furniture showroom. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a fabulous find from a big box like Target, HomeGoods, or Pier 1. But bringing an element of whimsy & antique into a predominently modern meets comfortable home (think Crate & Barrel and West Elm) is my cup of tea. These sorts of elements are fitting for our 101 year-old abode. Maybe that's why I have a slight love affair with things such as Etsy, Country Living Magazine, and previously-loved furniture (just waiting to be painted white) at the side of the road or a garage sale. Sigh...so many good finds, so little room!

And with that bit of wisdom, it's time for me to take out our trash bins for tomorrow's garbage day. Hey, is that an old coffee table I see sitting at the neighbor's curb?!

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Oh, the irony...

Talking about my new found love for the color turquoise--after posting about the ridiculousness that is our bathroom--is about as ironic as saying that our cat is bff's with the neighbor's cats (for the record, they are not, for anyone who may not have gotten that...I mean, they could be, but they're not).

I'm not sure where my recent fascination with the color turquoise came from (it certainly wasn't from the bathroom), but I've recently incorporated a few elements in our home. For instance, this stunner:



(purchased at the delightful West End Garage)


I know...awesome, right?! That's exactly what the husband said when he saw it, he was SO excited (if you're not sensing the irony here, I'm afraid I may have lost you at this point).

So imagine my surprise when I discovered the fabulous website, House of Turquoise! It's a delightful assortment of all things turquoise. How's this for visual stimulation? YUM!


(courtesy of At Home In Arkansas)

While these blue walls might not be in our immediate future, I have some things sitting around that might soon have a meeting with my paint brush & $2.99 sample paint from Lowes.

Don't worry, Tom. It's not another bird.

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