holiday checklist

The perfect tree's been found and trimmed.


The gifts have been wrapped.



It's almost time to go home.



Merry Christmas, everyone.

how could it be nearly 2010?

Have you been to Etsy yet? It is your portal to a marketplace packed full of homemade goodness. Now that you know, you will never need a generic bookstore calendar again.

I've narrowed my 2010 choices down to two contenders:

Simple and colorful letterpress from a long time favorite, Linda and Harriet could be fun and I just love those snowshoes. The images are meant to be cut off at the end of the month and used as a postcard.


I hang my calendar from the side of the fridge. Maybe some wholesome veggie sketches from Claudia Pearson could inspire a year's worth of weeknight dinners:



Last year I went with a clean and colorful kitchen theme from Smack of Jellyfish:


A little better than Twilight pin-ups, don't you think?

right now

Looking at this:


And dreaming of this:


Maybe some hiking

mystic lake

woodbine falls

A dip into a cold, refreshing mountain spring

half moon, in the crazy mountains

Maybe a little fishing

bighorn river

A float with a view:

yellowstone river

We had a busy summer, but I think we managed to enjoy it.

portland.

Oh, Portland. I was so charmed by you.



Accomodations by the Ace Hotel. Whether I found it tragically hip or just a cool slice of the Portland scene, well I never quite decided. But I know for sure that mural was nice.


We continued to eat ourselves across the Pacific Northwest. Mmm donuts.

Travel by train came highly recommended. So much more enjoyable than flying, and the luxury of sitting back of enjoying the scenery gets missed when your fighting traffic on the interstate.


I was enchanted by the mix of sleek and grunge in this town.


New and old. Staid and seedy.
Perfect weather made everything shimmer, belying the city's more notorious weather patterns.

Lemongrass tofu from a food cart? When can I move here? Thanks for taking me along, Jo.

seattle.

So, my sister Jo and I decided to go on a trip. Or, rather, I kept egging on Jo to take a trip with me. And then she called my bluff. Boy am I glad she did.


We walked something close to a thousand miles (a day.) We ate. A lot. It's not a bad day when your most difficult decision is what - and how much - to eat.



Did I mention we ate a lot? All of my pictures seem to be of food.



We revisited familiar landmarks, explored some new ones, and caught up with old friends.


It was Jo's first trip to Seattle. She loved the bay, the piers, the gulls. It's from growing up in Michigan. We all love water.

My favorite part of Seattle is the lush green landscaping.


Oh, and the coffee.

stillwater

You might be wondering where we've been.



Well, we've been busy.


Really, really busy.



(hello, summer.)

before and afters, nightstand

I had a tiny budget to finish out our bedroom. Luckily I found these little guys at the thrift store. They met all of my requirements: they had to have drawers, a small footprint, simple mid-century lines, and mostly be dirt cheap. I thought the walnut veneer was pretty, put there was too much damage so we had to paint. After settling on a pale, pale blue, I prepped and sanded and then Josh sprayed them at the shop. I even got all Martha on us and lined them with some silver faux-boix wrapping paper (by Ms. Stewart, of course.)


Also, a sneak peek on our closet-in-progress:

another kind of stimulus plan

"Miss B" ,who writes at Blah,Blah,Blahg, noticed the collective blues we all seem to be sharing due to the unending stream of bad news lately, and decided to try and do something about it.

She created the Bright Side Project,a daily giveaway showcasing etsy and other handmade goodness. The prizes follow a loose theme, last month it was all artwork and this month it is all accessories. A winner is chosen based on their answer to questions meant to be thought-provoking and uplifting.
Part of the fun is throwing your hat in the ring to win a great prize, and part is to read all of the other participants answers. Play along here and see if it doesn't put a smile on your face.

Bedroom!

Well, here it is. I haven't had a bedroom in over two years. I define a bedroom as having four walls, a ceiling, a floor, a door and one working light fixture. I've learned you have to be specific in these things. Libby got a new bed too, which you can see at the foot of ours.


I haven't bought a bedskirt yet because I don't know if we are going to get a new bed frame right away or not. The pillows and throw are all christmas presents, except for the hot pink one which is vintage. The lights are from IKEA and the rug I bought a couple of years ago deeply clearanced. The nightstands are temporary stand-ins. I'll show before-and-afters of some vintage nightsands I bought once we have refinished them.


A vintage record player table we got from my brother-in-law Curtis which will store linens for the upstairs. On top is a Julia Rothman print Josh gave me for Chrismas last year.

Plus a little vase we bought from a ceramics studio in Red Lodge on our anniversary. All of my decorations, art, pictures, etc. are in storage so I jumped at the chance to dig out a few for display here.

We are reusing all the old doors upstairs, and putting them in shiny new frames. They're all in Easter egg colors and I am tempted to keep them all like this until the whole upstairs is done and then paint them all white at once. That way just for a little while we can have silly pink, mint, and aqua. This door is pink with an aqua blue door handle.

The closet still needs another coat of paint and the actual closet fixtures. I'm happy with our decision to have a large open closet / dressing room and a modestly sized bedroom. It lets the whole space feel more open because there is still light poring in from three differents sides of the house. And, hopefully, it means we can contain any clutter to the closet and keep the bedroom clean and sparse, the way I like it.

reality check

Let's just cut to the chase, shall we?
This is what I really would like my bedroom to look like:



Or maybe something like this:



If I get gutsy with color, nothing really beats this:


Unfortunately, my bedroom actually looks more like this:



top two photos from emmas designblogg via apartment therapy, third is from now defunct domino

the progression

I don't have a true before of our bedroom, this picture is taken standing at the bedroom doorway and pointing in the opposite direction, but it pretty much says it all. Unfinished, easter egg colors.

Then we had a demolition party and knocked all the walls down (thanks Larry and Terry).


Pulled up and salvaged the old flooring which will be refinished and used downstairs. All new electrical, mechanical, and insulation, new walls, new ceiling, new flooring, new doors, new trim.




We are getting close.

new year, new bedroom (almost)

Images from the new bedroom - old lights, new floor. After searching the internet high and low, I realized the vintage gold-stardust lights originally in our living room are better than anything I could buy. We bought new $5 fixtures (the part that actually connects to the electrical in the ceiling), attached the old shades and called it good.

Josh the electrician / plumber / drywaller / taper / painter. What can I say? He's extraordinary and he's all mine. Without him, this remodel would have been impossible. Hmmm, I'm not so sure thats a compliment.


A few months back, this was a completely unfinished space - no heat, no insulation, no electricity, no walls. When you're putting down finished floor that means you're getting close, right?

I was really, really hoping to have a bedroom for christmas. Now I'm hoping for a bedroom by February. At some point you'd think I would catch on to this remodel stuff - everything takes more time and more money than you estimate. Still need to sand and finish floors, trim out the space, hang a door, and figure out what we're going to do with the exterior door. Oh, and buy a bed and design / install a closet system, all those things that make a space livable.

Hope everyone had a restful holiday. Hoping for good things to come from 2009!