breaking the blogging fast... and summer goal #1

i have no excuses for the sabbatical, although i think the increase of tweets and status updates has a definite indirect relationship with the decrease in blogging...
i debated the best way to break the fast... should i write one massive blogging binge with all of the thoughts, stories, projects, and ideas that have passed since my last entry?  who would even venture to read such a thing??  so instead, i will just start right back up as if no time had passed, beginning with my #1 goal/project for the summer... tackling the dreaded closets.

i have been putting off the extensive purging of the closet for some time now.  as my fellow perfectionists well know, it's impossible to take on a task under the following conditions:

• the desired end result is yet unknown
• there is not sufficient time or energy to do the job "right"
• there is not sufficient time or energy to do the job all in one sitting

as a result, my closet looks like this:

 there are several problems:

• space:  the closet is spacious, but very deep, with two parallel clothing bars; i tend to use the one in the front and forget entirely about the bar in the back. 
• organization:  there is NO organization system.  and i doubt there is an organization system that exists that actually fits my space, which means a custom-made or hand-made system will be needed... one requires money and the other my husband's time :)
• doors.  ug.  ly.  and inconvenient.  sliding doors.  i just want to see the whole closet at once!

my #1 goal with this project is to SIMPLIFY... i would like to have LESS, less stuff, less clutter, less unused stuff, less, less, less.  i want everything in my closet to be something i will use and for it to be more easily accessible so that i will remember that it exists and actually USE it.

so, step one (must get done THIS week before vacation to CO!):
cleaning the darn thing out!  must get rid of all the clothes that are old, worn out, or inappropriate sizes!  this is a tough task.  i hate the old rule "if you haven't worn it in a year get rid of it."  it's hard to part with some things, you know?  i hold on to some things out of sheer stubbornness, because i paid money for it and feel obligated to get more use out of it.  and then there is the challenge of trying to simplify when there are so many different clothes with different purposes:  the dressy clothes for weddings/funerals, the somewhat dressy work clothes, the casual work clothes, the clothes for staying at home, clothes for housework, clothes for hiking/biking/running/swimming/fill-in-the-blank-activity, clothes for sleeping, clothes for sporting events, winter clothes, summer clothes, etc.  arg!!!  it can get rather overwhelming!

step two, which will be a future post, is to determine an organization system.  with my other summer goals, it is yet to be determined whether i will finish the closet project or not this summer.  but, setting my perfectionistic need to wait to start a task until i can accomplish the ideal aside, i will tackle this task in smaller bite-size chunks.  stay tuned for updates on this and other summer goal projects!

bathroom reno

really i just like to talk about renovating the bathroom but avoid actually doing any work. but, someday i will get around to the bathroom reno and then it will be beautiful. i'm going to share the plan with you all, plus some pictures that are the inspiration for my future bathroom, and maybe you can help me make some decisions.

here's my inspiration:

i like black and white complimented with BRIGHT colors (fiery orangey-reds, or limey/lemony yellow). i want black walls, but will probably do white bead-board or subway tiles 3/4 up the wall so it won't be super dark. we'll definitely paint the clawfoot tub black around the outside. love that. i like white towels but let's be realistic, they'll stay white for about 3 minutes. so, i'll probably find bright towels, maybe even some pattern. i'll know it when i see it. here are 3 inspiration bathrooms, all pretty similar. the medicine cabinet we have is identical to the ones in the first two pics and the train rack i want to get is similar to that in the 3rd photo.

so here's the plan:

*gut the whole bathroom and put in new drywall, lighting, electrical, and rearrange the plumbing.

*install new window.

*paint door/frame white.

*put in craigslist clawfoot tub, pedestal sink, and metal cabinet for storage. reuse existing toilet. purchased old fashioned looking medicine cabinet from restoration hardware. use gift certificate from RH to purchase a "train rack" for towel storage.

*still need:

1. lighting. probably will do recessed lights plus one or two sconces either above or on either side of the medicine cabinet.

2. fixtures for shower (see right), hand towel hook or ring, toilet paper holder, and a door knob. probably will buy new except for the door knob (want a cool vintage glass knob, i think).

3. flooring (maybe tiny hexagonal tiles, white with a few black added in as was customary in most bathrooms from 1930's bungalow homes or hardwood painted a glossy white).

4. decide whether we want to do white subway tiles partway up the wall or nothing but paint. what do you guys think? see inspiration pics above.

we also need to decide on a layout. it's a tiny bathroom, so not a lot of options.

here's how the layout is currently but more awful because the ugly counter top stretches the whole length of the wall where the sink is:

here's another option:

and here's my favorite option so far:

i feel like this 3rd option hides the ugly toilet but also gives us the most space around the sink. my tall light blue metal cabinet will sit across from the toilet for storage and the train rack will likely hang right above the toilet.

thoughts? suggestions?

nerdy school teacher art

last month, i spent a fun weekend in KC and, among the many various activities, we visited the flea markets in the old west bottoms. i was obsessed with all of the vintage fans, dressers, and globes, of course, as i seem to have a compulsive magnetism towards them. but, i managed to control myself and came away with this incredibly colorful old pull down map of kansas. isn't it great? much cheaper than any piece of artwork of the same size! and it seems to fit with my nerdy teachery self!

i wasn't sure of the best way to hang it and finally decided on a pair of antique wooden clothing hangers. here's the inspiration for that lovely idea (courtesy of design*sponge blog).

comfort

this past weekend kirk and i gave ourselves the gift of a clean house. remember my new year's resolution to clean for 20 minutes a day in order to keep my house a happy clean house? well, that lasted about 2 months. and i'm pretty sure i haven't cleaned my house since. i do plan to re-instate the resolution as soon as summer (aka free time) begins. anyway, i really enjoy my house, especially clean. it's very comforting. i opened up the windows and let the breeze circle through the house while i planted myself in my bed and read books for most of the weekend... other than the bit when i was cleaning. i decided to take a picture of my clean room to show you so that you can understand why that was just about the perfect weekend for me...

...isn't it so comfy looking??? natural light, breezy, dark walls making it small and cozy, fluffy pillows, wrinkly-looking duvet, piles of antique quilts from my grandmothers and great-aunt stacked in the armoire, clothes and clutter put away, the smell of lemon-y furniture polish, the sound of my wind chime drifting in through the open window, and plenty of books waiting to be read... perfect.

then, i realized that i probably never showed you my new bed.

you'll remember that i ordered it back in november. unfortunately it was delivered minus a few key parts so we ended up having to return the ENTIRE bed so they could send us a new bed (exactly the same bed, mind you) but with all the appropriate bits and bobs so that we could actually put it together and use it for sleeping! this delivery-return-redelivery process took many months and resulted in a $100 gift card and free delivery after i very nicely told restoration hardware that i was less than satisfied with the experience. but, in the end, i received the bed and i'm very happy with it and my room looks like an adult bedroom and not a college dorm.

i also never showed you the great dresser i found on craigslist! you know i have a problem with dressers. can't seem to get enough.

ok, back to my original topic: i find it rather strange that i equally (but for entirely DIFFERENT reasons) enjoy being at school with loads of noisy, energetic students, and all of my exceptional co-workers, AND being at home alone in my room with a stack of books, napping cats, and a pleasant-y breeze. seems a little bipolar, yes? anyway, this got me thinking: what is the most comfortable room in your house and what makes it so comfortable?

kitchen dilemma

ok, i'm going to need your help on this one...

for a while now i have been wanting to buy an old stove. not for decoration. to use. as my stove. in my house. when we bought our house, we were ok with the stove in the kitchen for now...

...but we knew that we would eventually want to replace it. initially we were thinking of buying all new, stainless steel, blah blah blah, and we did buy a new stainless fridge that i love. but the more i think about my design style and how i want to live (simply, trying not to acquire so many possessions, and trying to buy used/vintage/salvaged as much as possible) i started to think that an old stove is what i should do instead of buying new. there are always lots of old stoves on craigslist, like this one...

...but being the worrier that i am i think about how i will know if it's useable or not, how will it fit it into my TINY kitchen, etc.

here's some examples of the same stove in other kitchens and i think it LOOKS great (both pictures are from sneak peeks on design sponge).

now, look at that very first picture of my kitchen and try to imagine how we might make it work. i think we would have to take out one section of the lower cabinets to the right or left of the stove to fit the slightly larger older stove and then build a narrow section of cabinets to fill in the remaining space. we are most likely going to replace the counter tops someday anyway, because we HATE them, but we were planning on doing these types of projects gradually instead of all at once to spread out the cost over time. so, if we decide to buy the stove from above from craigslist this kind of bumps up all of these projects to the more immediate future. this ultimately brings up bigger home project dilemmas for me. those of you who do DIY or reno projects understand: how far should we go with this reno? how much money should we invest in changing what we have? should i take some risks to go with what i love or just stick with what i have? are we going to stay in this house for a long enough time to make it worth it?

so my questions to you are: what would you do? what do you think of using an old stove instead of using modern appliances? do you have creative solutions for fitting it into my tiny space? should i go for it or play it safe?

short term memory...a snow day post!

i'm in the midst of enjoying yet another snow day...got to sleep in until 8:15!! that's 2.5 extra hours of sleep people! so far this "blizzard" has more bark than bite, but it is still early i suppose (update: in the time it has taken me to write this post, the little wisps of snow have truly become a blizzard indeed!). i will say that weather.com has pretty much got it wrong all along, i recommend accuweather.com instead. according to weather.com, the snow was supposed to start yesterday morning...oops.

anyway, enough about that. i realized that two

posts ago i promised to do a post showing off some new old found things. that promised post then promptly slipped my mind. i have a short term memory problem. i really do. i need to start doing puzzles or something.

ok, on to the new old found things:

*mom and i dug around in her basement a little over christmas and pulled out a bunch of her grandmother's china. since she doesn't use it (mom notoriously has about 40 different sets of dishes!), i brought it home with me... the pieces i'm not using are carefully stored away in china storage bags. there's a whole set of the floral china like the teacup, plus this great fireking bowl (the pink bowl), and a couple of mismatched dessert plates. i've always wanted a little collection of mismatched teacups, but even better than buying a bunch of mismatched cups is getting my great-grandma's teacups for FREE!

*so, ever since we moved, i have been trying to remember where in the BLAST i put our silver set that was a gift to kirk from his mother... i know, i know, i'm the most HORRIBLE person to not remember where i stashed the gifted silver!

short term memory, what can i say. i could remember where i stored it when we were living in the old house, but for the life of me could not find where i'd put it in the new house (i've torn the house apart searching and it's not a large house!). so, i went back to check the old house several times and still could not find it!!! my worst nightmare was that i had accidentally put it in a pile destined for goodwill! kirk insisted that even i am not THAT evil, which only made me feel worse for not being able to find it! this has literally kept me up at night, wracking my brain, think, THINK! where is it?!?!?! so, finally mom and i decided to look one more time in the drawer under the stairs at the old house. little did i know that there was about a foot and a half extra drawer all the way at the back under piles of mom's serving platters and place mats which was secretly hiding my precious lost silver! so, i've brought it home, washed it, and put it out for display and use! i decided that i did not want to keep it hidden away in the box now that the

prodigal silver has returned.

recent etsy finds:

*i love colorful vintage enamelware and have been looking for just the right piece. i like reds and turquoises in my kitchen and i wanted to get a piece that i will actually use because i just DO NOT have room in my tiny kitchen for things i won't use. i'm not really a collect-and-display type of person. things need to have a purpose. well, i do not have a stock pot so i found this dansk enamelware pot for a great price on etsy and the enamel on the inside of the pot was in great shape so i bought it! and i've already used it to make lentil soup!

*found this great little creamer to add to my white collection... it's not really a collection, i just have white dishes. the stripe-y pitcher is a gift from my friend, hannah, from france... apparently they use pitchers such as this to serve wine!

free finds:

*i snatched this old, outdated, extremely dirty globe from the school library (with the librarian's permission, of course!) for FREE! it was

caked with dust and has some damage on the

metal because of the layers of dust...but i cleaned it up and i love it! you all know how i feel about globes.

so, what have we learned today?

*check accuweather.com for accurate weather forecasts (hence, the name).

*always, ALWAYS look in the very back of the

drawer under the stairs...you never know what treasures you may find.

*free stuff is always better than not-free stuff.

*when starting a collection, check with your mom who has thousands of dish sets first to see if there are heirloom pieces that she's not using.

*only buy vintage pieces that you a) love and b) envision using. unless you like vintage globes. it's ok to buy vintage globes, or get them for free, even if they do not serve a very practical purpose. because they look awesome. and they are cheaper than traveling to exciting places. although traveling to exciting places really is an adventure that cannot be replaced by globes. that's all.

p.s. i am having a great deal of difficulty posting pictures today so apologies for the confusing pictures in the wrong places and wonky typing!

new year's resolutions (a week late...i know, i know) and decorating dilemmas

as you know from my post last week, i am torn in my opinion of the importance (or irrelevance) of making resolutions. however, kirk and i did have a good chat last week about how to be more productive with our time AND simultaneously creating time to rest. we talked about what it looks like for us to rest/be productive on a daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal basis. anyway, we came up with a few ideas, such as kirk taking a few vacation days a year to go for a good long bike ride (that's rest to him...crazy), or spending 10 minutes a day cleaning/tidying so that the house doesn't become overwhelmingly cluttered. so, then i found a handy little list on apartment therapy for cleaning house 20 minutes/day in 30 days. i like this plan because it doesn't seem too daunting; it breaks up the chores so that it keeps cleaning from becoming a huge, all-day project. here's my altered version:

Tips for cleaning the house in 20 minutes/day:

1. Deal with what comes through the door (mail, keys, coats, shoes, etc)...still working on that one. don't really have a great system.

2. Deal with dishes, recycling, composting everyday after dinner so it doesn't start to pile up.

3. Set the timer for 20 minutes!

Daily Tasks over a 30-day period:

1. Surface clean living room and kitchen (pick up stray items, dust)

2. Clean bathroom (toilet, shower, sink/counter, mirror)

3. Surface clean bedroom (put away clothes, dust)

4. Surface clean extra rooms (office, basement, laundry room, dining room, etc)

5. Surface clean living room and kitchen

6. Clean bathroom

7. Clean all interior windows

8. Sweep and vacuum all floors

9. Surface clean bedrooms

10. Deep clean living room (dust baseboards, artwork, windows)

11. Clean bathroom

12. Clean out closets (hang up clothes, etc)

13. Surface clean extra rooms

14. Deep clean bedrooms (organize, tidy closet, dust)

15. Surface clean living room and kitchen

16. Deep clean bathroom (clean out drawers, mop)

17. Clean all doorknobs, remotes, switch plates, banisters, etc (this one is weird to me, i'm not really one of those germ-people...maybe i'll just take this day off!)

18. Clean out the fridge (take out food, wipe down, organize, make grocery list to restock)

19. Clean entryway, sweep porch, clean out car

20. Surface clean living room and kitchen

21. Surface clean bathroom

22. Surface clean bedroom

23. Sweep and vacuum all floors

24. Clean/tidy linen closet (organize towels/sheets)

25. Surface clean living room and kitchen

26. Deepclean kitchen (scrub appliances, wash out trash can, dust baseboards, wipe and reorganize cabinets

27. Surface cleanbathroom

28. Surface clean bedroom

29. Clean one area that you've been meaning to get to but have neglected (yardwork, hello!)

30. Sweep and vacuum all floors

so far, the daily task has taken longer than 20 minutes/day (about 45-60ish) but i'm thinking that if i keep up with the list, it will get more and more efficient each time. if i am sweeping all the floors 3 times a month, for example, instead of once every 2 months (embarrassing!) then, it will not be such a big job each time.

in keeping with this theme of getting my life organized, i reorganized my "office closet" on saturday (i'm a party animal). this, mind you, was not on the cleaning list for saturday, but i will share with you what lead to this:

our c-mas tree was sitting on a dresser i found on craigslist (for $35 or $40, i think!) that i bought with the intention of painting a bright color to act as a tv stand in our living room. here's the dresser in it's "before" state:

problem is, now the look of it is kind of growing on me, so i'm debating whether or not to actually paint it. i wanted to paint it a glossy lemony-mustardy-yellow like this, because you may notice a theme in our living room: A LOT OF BROWN (big brown bookcase, big brown piano, brown hardwood floors, brown couch, brown, brown, brown). i need something different, something exciting. so, dilemma #1 is to paint or not to paint. what do you guys think??

ok, but let me get back to how this led to my organized closet. so, we switched out the new found dresser after taking down c-mas decor for the old dresser-acting-as-tv-stand, which lead to kirk having to finally clean out his junk drawers from the old dresser. hideous. i tried to set up a little drawer for keys, phone books, etc and kirk soon absconded the drawer for papers, batteries, loose change, cords, cables, and all sorts of things that i have no idea what to do with. so we spent HOURS zip-tying all of the cables, sorting everything into categories, and i got to make labels for all the plastic bins accordingly. i love labels.

so now, dilemma #2: as you see from my living room pics above we have a lot of woodwork in the house (door frames, window frames, baseboards, etc) and we are debating whether or not to paint them white. our main objection: a lot of work. we're kind of lazy, ultimately. but really, we both prefer white painted woodwork unless the woodwork is HIGH quality, which ours is NOT (which you could see from closer up...most of the varnish is sticky, wood is cheap, and in a few rooms the window sills have so much sun damage that we really need to refinish them anyway, but to take on the whole house...whew!). almost every home in design blogs or magazines that i love has white painted woodwork. we really have to decide before we start our bathroom project because we are going to gut the bathroom and whatever we put in there for baseboards and windows i will want to match the rest of the house, so...what do you guys think??

lastly, and not really a dilemma, i had an idea of what to do with our previous dresser-as-a-tv-stand (pictured on the left below). i think i may paint it with blackboard paint and put it upstairs in our future attic-guest-room-playroom-media-room. i have wanted to use blackboard paint for something, but really don't enjoy using chalk at all (hate the chalk-under-the-finger-nails thing). so, i thought i could turn the dresser into a "toy bin" of sorts, filling the drawers with sidewalk chalk, crayons, markers, craft supplies, toys, and kids books for when we have the nieces and nephews over. my worry: by the time i make this attic-playroom-etc a reality all of our nieces and nephews will have grown! kirk says that by then it will be our nieces and nephews' children playing in our attic-playroom!

random found things

happy new year everyone! i'm not really one for making resolutions (i feel pretty strongly that if something is really important, i ought to do it immediately regardless of the day of the year... although i also think that at times milestone markers are important for setting goals... so i guess i can see both sides), however one of my goals is to tackle a few of the unfinished projects around the house (hello, kitchen cabinets!) and to take more pictures. although i don't always like to finish projects, i'm never wanting for ideas and my etsy cart is certainly swelling with little bits and bobs that i want to add to my home decor. here's a few more finds from the past year that did not make previous posts for lack of photos. ahhhh, but i'm finding it much easier to take interesting photos with my new camera! later this week, i'll post more photos from my new camera. but for now, here's a few shots of my second-hand treasures!

vintage emerson fan found on craigslist; just needed a little cleaning and still works!

freebie snare drum we received as a white elephant gift (no one with children wanted to "steal" it from us... i wonder why). not sure what to do with it, but for now it occupies the corner next to my bookshelf.

freebie vintage illustrated children's nursery rhymes book from the 1950's; one of many books i salvaged from my school's library give-away last year... could not pass it up with these awesome illustrations. not sure what to do with it, how to display... the front cover is drab and dreary... maybe i'll just leave it open on the coffee table???

photo book and biography of dorothea lange, one of my favorite photographers of all time (dust bowl era, migrant workers, etc). found at 1/2 price books and purchased for $6!

post script:

i am in mourning for the inevitable end of my winter break... i feel i've accomplished quite a lot while not actually having to change out of my pajamas on most days for the past two weeks. my accomplishments: took lots of photos, learned (-ing) a new camera, drove to dodge city (to spend time with grandma, cousins, uncle, parents), drove to burlington (to spend time with kirk's fam), had lunch with erika, read 3 or 4 books, rode my bike, did yoga once (yes, exactly one time), made homemade pizzas (with kirk's mom's side of the fam), went to kc to hang out with friends, watched LOADS of football and some basketball, played settlers of catan with the davidson's, ate icing and graham cracker sandwiches with the sandefurs and rex, watched ksu vs. unlv live at the sprint center, and SLEPT (shamefully, that was probably my most frequent activity)! i'd say that's quite a lot to squeeze into two weeks! well, Sleep, it was nice to know you. i will visit you again in march for spring break for tomorrow it is back to school!

when the dog bites...

it was a dog-biting kind of day yesterday at school. a beat down. so, i'm taking this moment to simply remember my favorite things in an attempt to drown out the angry mendy. atop the list of best things of late:

1. best cure for bad day of work: weekend

2. best book in a long, long while: The Help by Katheryn Stockett - one of the most important books i've read since I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings or Kaffir Boy and destined to land on my all-time favorites list. you should read it. today.

3. best food indulgence: homemade chicken pot pie with sweet potatoes, curry, and whatever other veggies i need to clear out of the fridge before they spoil...definitely a comfort food. mmmmm.

4. best way to get arrested: dressed as a bagel. true story: my activist sis recently got herself jailed for the day for participating in protests of Bloomberg's AIDS Awareness Bagel Breakfasts. the reason for protest: it's all a lot of pomp and circumstance. smoke and mirrors. bells and whistles. much ado about nothing. a lot of talk and no action. while breakfasting with important muckety-mucks, Bloomberg continues to raise the rent on properties where NYC's housing works (my sister's employer) tries to provide housing to low-income AIDS patients and cut funding to programs that benefit AIDS patients. so, they protested the ill-spent time and money for bagel breakfasts dressed as bagels. well done, sis.

5. best lighting to hide the extra holiday squidge around one's middle (resulting from "best" #3 chicken pot pie): my vintage globe purchase from etsy. as you can see, it is still quite dark even with this delightful little orb all aglow, thus it is this season's best tummy-trimmer. they say black is slimming...darkness is more slimming!

don't worry, friends, i'm not actually that worried about holiday squidge, i just wanted to use the nonsense-word squidge! and now i've said it 3 times!

6. best way to drown out the noise of an angry mendy (or best thing since Boys II Men, take your pick): The Sing Off (see previous 2 posts) or blasting Christmas music (did Boys II Men ever do a Christmas album??? if so, that would be the ultimate best way to drown out noisy angry mendy! kirk has informed me that yes, not only does Boys II Men indeed have a Christmas album, but we also own it. how this escaped my notice, i cannot say. short term memory perhaps?).

7. best way to cope with clutter and cleverly disguise dust bunnies without actually cleaning: Christmas decorations!

(please do not think to mock our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree...it is the only tree that our cats will not attempt to climb! i have no desire to come home from work to find my mercury glass ornaments shattered on the floor because cecil and percy were playing jungle cats in my living room.)