Tuesday, April 26, 2011

You better not pout

Yikes.

So it's been awhile. The husband has been traveling for work & last week he checked in on the 'ol blog to see what's been happening. Which would be a whole lotta nothing. I can't decide if there aren't enough hours in the day or whether I just suck at time managment. I'm guessing a little of both.

So let's get back to it! Last weekend we finally got around to hanging some shelves we purchased during the great Canadian Ikea trip of 2011 (and by we I mean, the husband). These are the same shelves that someone may or may not have pouted over after a disagreement about where to hang said shelves, whether any of Ikea's light fixtures were suitable for the kitchen, and the cost of curtain panels. Can you tell we'd reached our limit?! 

After taking measurements & creating a detailed plan as to how the shelves would be hung (this is why the husband is in charge...apparently, my method of "eyeballing" isn't nearly as effective), "we" got to work!

(Warning...really bad photo montage ahead. It's been raining NON-STOP around here. This month is going down in history as the most ridiculous month ever.)


The gratuitous cat shot. It's funny how cats are typically sleeping in the other room...that is until a large scale project breaks out & they have to be in the middle of it all.


Here's the husband very carefully measuring, hanging & doing all the work. All the while I'm snapping photos & not being helpful.




About an hour after we started, we had new shelves! But let's take a look at what the space looked like before...boring, bland & totally lacking something. I never realized just how bare our wall was! And why we didn't do something about it sooner!?




And the after...








Right now the shelves are holding a montage of wedding photos--just in time for our anniversary next month! It's the wall I'm affectionately refering to as the "wall of us". Has a nice ring to it, huh? The husband asked how long the "wall of us" will exist. And frankly, it will exist as long as it takes for me to get my ass in gear and replace the darn photos (not happening anytime soon), or whenever we add another member to our family (also not happening anytime soon). Whew, looks like I have some time.

Happy Tuesday!

Monday, April 18, 2011

Take it outside

With warmer weather right around the corner (well, we hope...it was snowing here today), our thoughts will soon be shifted to outdoor work. Which always gives me a little anxiety this time each year. Our house is large (at least by our standards), and along with it's age--over 100 years--it requires lots of upkeep & maintenance. And of course, money to make that happen!




Last summer was a pivitol year for us. We finally rid ourselves of the giant weed garden we'd been so impressively cultivating for the last 3 years since owning the house. God bless my mom...she worked tirelessly to get our garden to the point where our neighbors were talking about it (and not in a bad way....imagine what they'd been thinking before?!). The only stipulation was that we were responsible for the upkeep. I'm happy to report the husband & I held up our end of the bargain.

But here we are again. Another year, another round of spring weeding & clean-up, mulching, mowing, maintaining....you get the picture. Additionally, we've got some BIG (quite literally) work coming up that I'll be sure to share soon! In the meantime, let's kick up our feet & do some outdoor dreaming, shall we?

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Here's hoping for that warm weather soon...let the summer work begin!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Somewhat of a hiatus...

Yep, that's apparently where I've been lately. I took a little hiatus from the 'ol blog. I could go on & on about how busy I am (chairing a fundraiser taking place in 2 weeks, training for a half marathon next month, and...oh yeah, that thing I call a full time job). Honestly, when we have kids, I really hope I'll be laughing at my current "busy-ness". It's ridiculous, but not that ridiculous.

At any rate, I thought it would be much cooler to say that I'm occupying my time over at Pinterest. I know I'm late to the party. Which I can't quite believe, given this visual goodness over there...



all photos via Pinterest
 Lovely & inspiring, huh? And here I thought I spent too much time over at Etsy...

Monday, April 11, 2011

DIY planters

Happy post-weekend to all! So I know I promised photos of a little DIY project I gifted the husband for his birthday last week. And then that thing called life got in the way. Don't you hate when that happens?! So instead of rambling about how busy I am (and my need for a good glass of wine right about now!), let's get to the details!

I started out with some simple planters from Lowes...


A little chalkboard paint for "labels"...



Rocks for drainage...


And the finished product!



Okay, so the husband may have had an inkling he was getting the gift of herbs for his birthday. Especially after a lively discussion of sorts the weekend before (one of us may have been pouting & the other one may have raised their voice to get their point across...just saying). But I bet he never imagined there would be chalkboard paint involved! And no, your eyes don't deceive you...I have yet to officially "label" our herbs. Apparently, when you throw away props--including the chalk--from your wedding photobooth, there will in fact, be a shortage of the stuff when you really need it the most. In the meantime, we'll play the "Which Herb Is This?" game until I take the time to actually label the darn things.

And yes, the husband loved his DIY herb planter gift. The same gift I used that very night to make dinner, in fact! Which, for those of you wondering, went surprisingly well. Even if dinner itself was just so-so. I guess you can't expect too much out of a recipe that calls for low sodium marinara, right?  

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Happy Birthday Husband





To the husband...my faithful reader, who loves that I have a passion for design & this crazy blog, and who may not always agree with my decorating decisions, but always lets me have my way (okay, so he lets me have my way 98% of the time)...to you I say, happy birthday my love.

Today our roles are very much reversed. I'll be assuming the role of chef and will be cooking dinner for my foodie husband tonight. And in typical fashion I'll be flustered, sweating & telling the husband to "go away", when he comes into the kitchen to stare at me or ask, "why are you doing it that way?" at least eighteen times. This is the reason you don't find me in the kitchen very often. So here's hoping I make it out alive and that dinner is edible.

And stay tuned tomorrow...I'll be sharing the DIY birthday present I gifted the husband! 

Monday, April 4, 2011

Shoe storage

We're short on closet space in this abode, so my shoe storage is definitely not anything to write home about...


Clearly I'm not winning any awards for the most stylish display of shoes here. Which is probably why I was so envious when I discovered this fabulous set-up in last month's O Magazine...

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Shoes on display? I love. Now if only I had the space for something this unique & creative!

And, of course, enough money for this...


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 And yep, I'm loving this as well (I'll take the shoes too, thank you very much)...

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Mmmm, hmmm...I could deal with this. It's pretty lovely.

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And last but not least, when you are Christina Aguilera, you require a ladder to get to your shoe collection.

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Why naturally.

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