New Home

I started a cottage blog to house all my remodel/decoration drama and lighten things up over here. Please visit if you are into it!

The Fruits of My Labor

I should be clear here, no labor was put forth by me. In fact, until a couple of weeks ago, I didn't even realize I had fruit growing on my trees. Then again, if I had put a little effort into it, there might be more than 5-ish pears. The plums are plentiful and delicious though.





This pink beauty looks to be about the last surprise of the year - but I could be wrong, there are still a couple of months left before it will have been a full year of watching this Magic Garden of mine.

The Tooth Fairy is Coming Tonight!

Decorator Pam

I found a swatch of this at the fabric store today and fell in love. Of course it says it's discontinued - which is bad and good. Bad because they don't have more of it, good because I got to buy the swatch for $1.99 and it's big enough to make a pillow with. Good too, because with the info on the tag, I was able to find it online and it turns out it's Susan Sargent. But bad in the end, because that means I'll have to pay full price instead of hitting a sale at the fabric store.


To get a better idea of it, it's this, only in blues and teals (this is also nice and would go with the walls in a less matching, more eclectic, brighter, more peppy way, which I found online for half the price of the first one, and would let me bring in some lime green and pink and cranberry, which would be fun too.):



I'm thinking for curtains. In my lavender blue living room. I showed it to Luke and he jumped up and down and said I'd found the perfect one. He was so excited about it. Do you think we are right? Or would it be better to get something more solid that blends into the walls? I really have no clue, I'm rambling... I'm NOT a decorator. Perhaps I should hire one? Luke after all would love for me to hang beaded or sequined or slivery mirrored curtains up - anything that sparkles or has lots of color. My eclectic decorating taste is turning Swedish on me... which is a little surprising. I wonder, is it because it's in my blood, or does the house have a Swedish soul under all these historic greens and golds it's been painted with? Do I sound like I've had too much coffee today???

News Flash!

This is BIG. I found a new coffee shop that I like BETTER than Starbucks. Seriously, not even just-as-good... but, BETTER! Caffe Ladro. Ten locations in the Seattle area and one right down the street from my house. They only serve 100% fair trade, organic, shade grown coffee - and it's delicious. Thanks to my friend Jenny for the heads up!

Life is Good, Exhausting, but Good.

What a long, long week last week was. We got the water in. Well, Frank got it in. I am so proud of him. It took him about 5 times longer than he expected, but it was done perfectly - no leaks or oooop's when he turned the water back on. It's clean, fresh, clear and drinkable now. So exciting, these little things!

And then the dishwasher arrived and not only is it super beautiful, it works amazingly well. Here is a photo - doesn't my kitchen look just like the one on the ASKO website I posted awhile ago? Ok, I know, not if you compare them side by side, but close enough. Notice the new faucet Frank installed. It wasn't our first choice, but then the first choice stuck way up higher than the windowsill and took up the whole kitchen. This one works and looks just fine, and fits my tiny kitchen perfectly.



I also got a huge web and print job done - it's the hardest I've "worked" in a very long time. I'm still fried from it, and there's a holiday catalog print job coming next week. Supposedly it's only half the size of the one I just did, so maybe it will only take me 3 days... or so. I hope. There was a reason I quit doing web work... this has been a reminder, and I don't plan on doing too much more of it.

Besides, there are other things I want to do - I've got so many plans now that Luke is in school. Which he loves loves loves, by the way. He adores his teacher, he has a girlfriend, he's memorized his personal pin number so he can have hot lunch, he's learning his letters, and for the first time, is showing a real interest in learning to read (til now he only wanted to do math and numbers). He bounces out of bed each morning excited to get the day started. This is the best thing for him. And me. I know I say it each time he reaches a new stage of growth and independence, but I'm really loving where he's at right now. Going-on-six-years-old is good.

So, back to my plans - which have been on hold for years and years, and if I wasn't so exhausted from the last week, I'd be jumping on right now, with a vengeance. I have house and art painting to do. I have glass to melt and jewelry to make and inventory to collect so I can apply to the artist's co-op down the street I'm interested in joining. I have shopping to do and curtains and pillows to make, and an exercise routine to establish. I've got three bathrooms to tile as soon as Frank gets the prep work done there and Luke's bathroom to paint. And! Get this! There is hardwood under the Luke's bathroom tiles and under his bedroom carpet! I might pull those up and refinish those floors even! So much to do, fun stuff too.

But right now, I've got to clean house and organize the piles of papers Luke's school is generating and go through the past week's mail. And vote - I think I saw that in the mail. And... get this - take a nap. I can do that now!!! Maybe that will be my first order of business now that Luke is in school - catch up on 6 + years of lost sleep. Or just the past week's losses. Oh, where to start... either another coffee or that nap, I guess, because that's all I'm good for right now. But things are looking up. It's all good.

When it rains, it....

Well, it's not really pouring. It is drizzling and I'm happy about that, but the fact of the matter is that it's pretty dry. Especially inside the house where all the running water is turned off and the switch-over to the new pipes is taking a bit more time than expected. It was supposed to take 4 hours. I expected 8 and so was not surprised when 12 hours later, Frank called it a day, saying he only had about 2 more hours of work left. It was a good place to leave it and get a night's sleep.

Except Luke woke us up at 3:40 AM crying "Mom.... Mom! Mom, I don't feeeeeeeeel good". And then proceeded to get sick. In the house with no running water. We've managed and made it ok so far, the worst of the sick part seems over and he's on the couch with his required ginger ale and saltines. He's so cute - first words out of his mouth were "I don't think I'm going to do school lunch for awhile" and then "I always get sick this time of year" and "I'm going to go lay on the couch and I need my throw-up bowl and some ginger ale and those crackers I like when I'm sick, Mom." "And can you put on a movie please?" He's got the routine down pat from that first year of preschool where he picked up every bug possible and was sick every week. A boy who knows what to do when he's sick. The only twist this time was no running water. It worked out surprisingly ok, especially since we had tons of back up water stored up in the tub for flushing and stuff. Good idea, Frank. (This is my life - isn't it crazy?)

So after a bit we all fell asleep again and I actually got to sleep in til 9:00 AM. A first in oh, at least 6.5 years. It's really been that long. Too bad it wasn't just sleeping in after a full night's sleep hu? And here it is 12:30 PM and still no water... Frank's running around to the hardware store looking for the last plumbing thingys he needs. It will be up by dinner time I think. If not, we might just check into a hotel for the night. But I don't think so, I still have faith it will all go smoothly here on out. If he ever gets back from Home Depot that is.

Luke is a Kindergartener!

We just dropped him off - he was a little nervous and a little excited - he's funny, he gets quietly wound tight when he's like this - holding it all in, staying in control, acting like he's 25 instead of 5. He'll be just fine, I know it. When we left, he was picking out some crayons to color with. Frank, on the other hand, was funny. "We did it! I can't believe it - our baby is in kindergarten. I still remember when he was a baby and he cried for the first time - remember?" and on and on he went. I guess he wasn't there for the past two first days of (pre)school, so this is a first for him. I'm glad he got to do it with us this time.

More Paint and Some Plumbing Too

I repainted the blue - it was too.... shiny. And too bright. I thought I was toning it down to a greyer blue but you probably will think I didn't paint over it at all. I did though, I promise. It *is* better. Benjamin Moore Lavender Blue #1438. Now I need drapes. And new furniture. And a ladder that will reach the ceiling so I can get rid of the rest of the taupe.





This is the weekend new water pipes are supposed to go in. Of course, as seems to happen every time, there is a hold up of some sort. This time around, it's a leaky sink in the only bathroom left working in the house. Frank has been working on it all night and has run to Home Debit twice now but it's still not done, and probably won't be tonight since the store is closed now and he needs to make yet another run. He feels really bad, but I told him it was no biggie, at least we have a kitchen sink, right? And the strangest thing? I really don't care. I'm beyond caring about having a stupid bathroom sink. Who needs such a thing? I've been living for months without a dishwasher. Without two of my three bathrooms, without ice or drinkable water... without hot water for my clothes washer... who needs a bathroom sink? Seriously, it's over rated. (I could just about cry, but I won't let Frank see it.)

I've been Painting

The house, not canvases. It was a huge mess... here's an idea of what was going on:

First the yellow that was so very wrong:



Then the crazy spots everywhere:



So then I settled on the blue.





And here it is - done. Or... almost done - still have those triangles up by the roof to paint... and I might colorwash/glaze over it.

Front Door

I painted it black and I'm so happy about it!

Went to the Zoo

But all the animals were in hiding it seemed. The best shot is of Luke, of course. And some butterflies.



Also got him swimming afterwards. I think he looks an awful lot like me in this picture - there's my mouth which we knew he has, but also my chin and nose. Who knew my kid looked like me after all.

The New Dishwasher

It's been a couple of months now of hand-washing dishes - did you realize this takes about an hour out of the day, sometimes more? Crazy waste of time. I finally snapped and took myself down to the appliance store and picked out a new one. I told Frank I wasn't going to be picky about this like I would be a new stove or something - I wasn't going to spend a thousand dollars on a dishwasher after all, as long as it got the job done and was pretty quiet about it. Well it turns out I did spend a thousand dollars - though we get some of it back in rebates and energy efficiency incentives and stuff. I couldn't help it - it was the model that will last 20 years, it was stainless inside and out. It has only three settings and a fan instead of heat coils or whatever they are. And it is made in Sweden! So. I guess it did matter and I guess I did get picky. Though, as the salesman said, after the rebates, it's really only $100 more than the cheap models. So I'll just consider it a bargain and money well spent. And look how pretty she is! (btw, this is the brochure photo, not my kitchen. Though, I think I'm going to go purchase a faucet like that one. I'd love the farm sink too, but have you seen how much *they* cost? Crazy.)



PS. The next thing I'm going to spend some money on? This, I think. Do you think it would look good with a black headboard and blue walls? I've got the new black fireplace insert in there and I'm trying to find a way to make it fit in with the room - I'm thinking a black bed would do it. Or I wonder, if I could paint the insert silver maybe? Hmn....

Progress

The "hole" has walls framed in. Go Frank! Also, I ordered a dishwasher today and it can't get here soon enough. New copper pipe for the house is arriving this week along with a whole-house water filter... installation begins next weekend. Things are looking up again - moving in the right direction.

bee

Hair

Statue of Liberty Look:



The Jimmy Neutron Look:

Edmonds Waterfront, Today

Cosmos

Also, a good article on HDR at NY Times.

Modish

I'm excited to say I just purchased advertising slots for October through December on Modish! Now... I need to put some thought into a holiday line of jewelry, eh? And an advertising banner... and new business cards...

Six New Necklaces

Six new necklaces for sale now on the site. This one is my favorite - I keep going back and forth about keeping it... if it's not there, you know what happened ;-)