Mama got a brand new couch

I am very proud to say that after 10 years of futon sittin', we have swapped out the old with a brand spanking new sectional couch of my dreams. All I can do is look at it. I haven't even sat/lounged/lazed on it yet. But I will! Yes I will.

Now, of course, I look at the picture and dream about the following changes:
- Replace the striped rectangular rug with a neutral circular one.
- Swap the side table & ottoman out for something coordinating and, I don't know, more modern? More retro? More wood? Leather? Leopard print? Yes, that's it.
- Along the back wall, where the desk is, create a library by adding four matching bookcases (similar in scale to the one that's there) and place the desk in the middle, so there would be two bookcases, a desk, and two more bookcases).

All in good time, but sooner than 10 years' time, k?

A new living room

On Friday we were unexpectedly gifted a new-to-us entertainment center (thank you Kat & Josh!!!), which prompted a lite living room make-over and a substantial reorganizing and purging effort. Now, at the end of the weekend, I am happy to report I have a reinvented living room, a clean apartment, dinner in the oven, and a glass of wine keeping me company. Life is good.

Living Room before

Living Room after

Saturday night entertainment

Meech hiding from the vacuum,
which after all these years is still terrifying

Winter blues

With the holidays and a certain birthday behind us, we have been dropped in the middle of a cold and dark (albeit currently mild here in the NW) January. Is there no end in sight!? Just kidding. When all else fails, lean towards the dramatic. But hey, it is the middle of winter. The Christmas decorations have been (or will be soon, ahem) taken down, the food fest is over, and now we're charged with making those inspired New Years resolutions stick. Ick.

I was recently browsing through the comments left on Wise Craft's Winter Mode post, where a bunch of friendly folks shared thoughts on how they cheer themselves and their homes up during the January-February marathon stretch, and figured they bear some elaboration and repeating. This is good stuff. So if you, like me, are feeling abandoned by the holidays and are feeling a little idle with no-end-in-sight-before-spring, this is for you:

Create light: Brighten up the house with candles, leave up a string of twinkly white lights, pull back the curtains and let the sun pour in

Cook or bake something delicious and nutritious: Make a pot of stew or chili, put a pot roast in the crock pot, bake some bread or corn bread, and make a sweet treat

Take your drinks hot: Tea, hot chocolate, apple cider...

Get out there and be active: If you can't change it, embrace it and occupy it fully. Run, walk, sled, ski, snow shoe, swim if you're in Arizona or the Nordic regions.

Freshen up the house: Crack windows, purge the clutter, put some fresh flowers in a vase or plants in colorful pots

Pamper: Take hot baths, moisturize, paint your finger nails, snuggle up with a good book, sleep more, carve out time to be creative

Write: Journal, mail your thank you letters, or send good old fashioned and friendly letters to the unsuspecting. My brother-in-law is very good at this. When we're least expecting it he will wrap up a seasonally apropos CD mix with a beautiful and witty card and send it our way.

Plan a getaway! Enough said. Let your imagination go wild. (I want to go here next)

How do you beat the winter blues?

Scenes from home

I am off to Yosemite for the week. It will be cold but beautiful, I am sure. Ryan will hold the fort.

These are some recent scenes from home:

This one is for Ryan

That's it. Where's Meech?

Remember the last time she was in the pink chair?

Subaru vs. Chevy

So yesterday I traded in our Subaru Forrester for a used but lovely Subaru Outback. Yes, these are the things I do when my trusting husband goes out of town for a month.

[I can hear the conversation now:
Ryan: Babe, where's our car?
Me: Oh. We have a new one now. I traded it.
Ryan: You what!? Why? When? How could you do this to me!?]

Anyway, I drove her home and then sat in the car admiring her while I put CDs and a flashlight, maps and floor mats in place. Our 6-year old neighbor CJ, who recently lost four of his front teeth, came out and started talking to me about cars.

"You think this is a pretty car?" he asked me in a seriously doubtful tone. "Of course!" I replied, "Go ahead & see for yourself." He slowly walked around the vehicle, inspecting it inside & out. When he was finished with his once-over he goes, "Wait 'till you see my red Chevy Impala. You might change your mind!" Then he broke into a huge toothless grin. Well, ten years from now when he's eligible to drive a red Chevy Impala, maybe I will!

June 10

Ryan's message with this portrait is that it is the middle of June and it is still cold in Portland, Oregon. Winter continues with a ferocity and endurance that grates on the heartiest of souls. So we bundle up.

My message is that these two, these two... Well, I just don't know anymore. First this, then this. What can I say? I tried to find an appropriate Sue Sylvester quote to sum up my feelings, but she fell slightly off the mark.

Side note: We just lost two hours of our lives to the movie 2012 - hours that we'll never get back. Do yourself a favor and don't bother with this film. Go watch Leap Year instead, or maybe Departures. You'll thank me for it.

Now thats love

Further illustration that Misha is willing to go to depths that cause even me to give pause:

These two again

Here you have a typical moment between my two family members, Ryan and Misha (aka Meech, Mama Girl, Nancy Nanny). Have I mentioned before that these two are the best of friends? They have created an inner circle that I am not allowed in, under any circumstances. Meech stands guard.

While I have permission to gingerly pet Misha (all the while alert for any signs that she might hiss or scratch me), Ryan is able to wrestle with her like she's a pup, hang her upside down by her tail (practically), and - heaven forbid - scratch the inside of her ear (she loves it, but I wouldn't dare). All he has to do is walk into the room and she starts purring, and when she's not curled up on his lap with her face wedged into his armpit (another thing she loves), she is sitting by his feet gazing up at him. Really.

Anyway, here they are in all there inner-circle glory. It must be nice. Sigh.

I amaze myself

So, last night I up & made soap (no, not soup, SOAP). It's been on my to-do list for a while now and yesterday afternoon I realized I had all the ingredients on hand, plus time, so why not?


Several things worked against me, including vague directions (the kind you don't realize have holes until you're in the middle of the process with unanswered questions), doubt on my end that the soap would actually harden into respectable bars, and super cute molds Martha & I picked out in Maine that turned out to be aluminum, which reacts in some sort of negative way with the soap (fortunately, I realized this before hand and managed to pull together Tupperware "molds" that seem to have work just fine).


Now, 24 hours later, I have 10 (not 24 like the recipe indicated) bars of fairly firm soap. Half have oatmeal flour - for exfoliation - settled on the bottom of the bars, and all smell sort-of like olive oil, sweet orange, and lemon.


Sadly, I have to wait 3-4 weeks for them to properly dry, or some such nonsense, before I can give one a test run. I'll try to remember to report back on how that goes.

GOOP

Get in the holiday spirit and get your Gweneth fix all at the same place!

Ms. Paltrow has launched a new site to "nourish the inner aspect." Find all sorts of pertinent categories to dive into, including MAKE, as in make tasty treats for Thanksgiving. This week's newsletter presents all sorts of goodies for turkey day.

Sign up here to receive the GOOP goodness!

Cloth napkins revisited

As a follow up to my previous post about transitioning over to cloth napkins, I must admit an embarrassing fact.

Before I went & sewed up a storm, I decided to check my linen cupboard to see just how many napkins we already have. Yes, I did come across the salmon pink ones we received for our wedding. They're actually known as coral and are quite nice. But I found a few more, in addition.

Here's our stock:
- (10) coral cloth napkins (and 10 silver napkin rings - forgot about those!)
- (8) batik ones my mom made for us, along with a beautiful matching autumnal quilted table runner that is so perfect for the season
- (4) natural-colored napkins my Oma sent to us a while back with corresponding place mats; we could use those for the day-to-day

That's 22 napkins we've had in the household and could have been using this whole time. What was I thinking? I guess my point here is that I won't be making any napkins using that neat pattern any time soon, unless I get inspired for Christmas ones.

But with all this talk about not using disposable napkins or paper towels any more, I am also wondering if we could forgo kleenex in exchange for handkerchiefs. Has anyone out there made that leap? The laundering aspect of that makes me a bit leery.

Something fun to ponder.

The day we bought our last paper napkins

A while back, my pal Abby mentioned that she & her *new* hubby were planning on switching to cloth napkins. Great way to cut down on all that paper waste, I thought. Then I went & forgot about the idea. (Abby has a ton of great ideas she's always sharing - I need to start writing them down!)

Fast forward to today. I ran out to Target to pick up a closet organizer for all my fabric (see image above) and remembered we were out of paper napkins and paper towels. So I added them to the cart. When I got home I was putting away my paper purchases and wondering how the two of us end up going through so many paper products every month, when I remembered Abby's goal.

Then I looked at all my fabric I had just color coordinated. Hey, wait a minute, I said. We can have our very own cloth napkins, too! I did a quick internet search and came up with a great tutorial by one of my favorite blogs on how to quickly whip up some cloth napkin action. They even sell "spectrum bundles" of fabric in three different color groupings (citrus, ocean, and warm)! Love that.

Anyway, I think I'm going to whip me up some handmade napkins tonight! And, confession, I believe I scored some salmon pink napkins at my wedding shower (now what were we thinking when we registered for those?!) that I will have to add to the collection. Because a cloth napkin is a cloth napkin, regardless of color, right?

Delicate balance

Folks, 24 hours ago we brought a new member into the family and in so doing have created a potentially hostile situation.

Meet Greyson. Eight weeks old, tiny, soft, and happy-go-lucky: our new kitten (you can't even imagine how squeaky sweet his little meow is).

Now slowly pan over to Misha, our beloved but troubled five-year-old formerly feral cat. Meech is, how do I say, not too happy with our new arrangement

On the one hand, I am loving, loving, his curious, gentle, unguarded nature. I can rub his belly without fearing a scratch or hiss. Our girl, on the other hand, is tormented right now and she's looking at us like we've betrayed her. It hurts.

But as I type, Ryan is saying everything is going to be just fine. He even suspects she might be coming around and liking this little guy as much as I already do. I'm inclined to take his word for it.

Weekend overview

Hello & happy Monday! How was your weekend?

For us, this weekend was one of cleaning, purging, organizing, and shifting furniture around.

We managed to barrel through almost everything on our ambitious to-do list, including finding two perfectly-sized bookshelves to accommodate our constantly expanding mini-library. I am so thrilled to have books off the floor and magazines corralled and in order (for the most part).

We're still working on the final bookshelf touches (some of us are closer than others), but already I'm appreciating how the shelves improve the space, anchoring the bed and tying in with the cedar chest. We're a far cry from my original vision, but I think there's a lot of potential here. Now we just need a comfy chase or rocker by the window and we (read: I) are set!

And oh yes, how could I forget? Today is the first day back to school. Ryan is in the middle of it all, taking classes, teaching, and barreling through his ever-ambitious thesis. May this year be one of the last at PSU!

Much to do

Good morning Saturday! That's how Meech & I greet most days, standing at the window, looking out over the green lawn & tall, eye-level trees (well, she's scoping out the bird & squirrel scene), hoping for a clue as to how the day will go.

Well, today is a doozy. I have a growing to-do list that promises to keep all in the house quite busy. Here are our goals for the day (I learned I am a goal-oriented person here - quite spot-on):

- clean, baby clean (I'm talkin' dust, scrub, disinfect, mop every surface in the house)

- laundry (including, but not limited to, table cloth, curtains, furniture & duvet covers, and the like)

- re-organize our book and magazine scene - we have stacks and piles of books everywhere and the organizer in me wants them categorized (cooking, crafting, traveling, architecture, science, and novels & such) and shelved, like, now

- tackle my craft station and provide order for my growing list of projects

- move our new armoire, gifted to us recently, into the dining area and fill'er up with serving platters, table linens, and such so that our kitchen cupboards can breath

Can we do all this and more before the BBQ we're attending at 2? Unfortunately, probably not. But I'm going to give it a running start.

Guests in da’ house

Sound the trumpets! Ring the bells! Our company has arrived safe & sound despite weather delays and missing suitcases. Welcome to our make-shift living room turned guest room.

I have made it through a particularly intense week and even managed to leave work an hour early today. It’s been a little hectic around here and Miss Misha Pepper (witness her undeniable cuteness here) wants to know what in the name of Sam Hill is going on and why wasn’t she consulted. I have no answers for her.

Ryan has homemade mac & cheese and a fresh summer salad planned for dinner tonight. Yum. The man can cook, folks.

The windows are open. The curtains are billowing softly with the wind. The air is fresh (as fresh as it’s going to get, ok?). It’s quiet & calm around here. Love my home.

Vacation is right around the corner. I have my sewing machine packed and plenty o’ fabric ready to keep my hands busy for at least a few days of coastal lounging. I hear it may be cool & stormy, which is all the more reason to make a fire, heat up some cider, and sew up a quilt, no?

For all these things I am full and grateful. Leave the lights on for me, I’ll be back in about a week with reports from the Pacific Ocean, a fresh new baby quilt for a fresh new little one, and a most-excellent brunch menu. Random? Maybe. Good stuff? Mos’ def.

It's Love

I love this bed. So very very pretty. Don't mind the room much either.

I find inspiration in this place - it's some combination of the furniture silhouettes, the wide-ranging color palette, and the idea of the pieces being suitable for a Maine cottage by the shore. Magical.

I want a Maine cottage by the shore.

IKEA has a similar bed for much less.