Man, oh man! Have things been suuuuuper busy around here. I know it doesn't seem like it based on the blog but trust me, behind the scenes it's a flurry of activity. Mmmmm flurries... - it's also incredibly, incredibly hot here in the Midwest and it's starting to take its toll on my brain.
Meep, moop, brain melting. <-- See what I mean?
Well, something is better than nothing so I thought I would give you a very speedy catch-up on what's been going on around these parts the past week or so.
First off, our third anniversary was a huge success!
Conan made me the most beautiful card. Stand back folks, because I'm about to gush.
He is just so darn talented and sweet and thoughtful and I could go on but in the interest of time, I won't.
It was our "leather" anniversary and bless his little heart, he had been stalking Craigslist for weeks trying to find me a Chesterfield (my dream couch - I know, I have a couch problem). He couldn't find one so he drew one instead. It's for the best, we don't need anymore couches.
He also got me my very favorite flower in the world, a hydrangea. Can you believe that color? Gorgeous!
We went to this nice Italian place we'd been meaning to try and had some gelato afterwards. It was basically perfect.
And a nice little surprise? The Folio Society saw that it was our anniversary on the tweeter and sent us a really awesome copy of Shakespeare's Sonnets. I was tickled when I came home and found the box waiting for me. It will always be a special reminder of this anniversary and it looks right at home on our shelves.
Alright, now on to house stuff.
Many moons ago, Conan got this table for free from a Barnes and Noble and while he got his art degree, it sat in his studio. Ever since then? It's been in his dad's shed. Well, we finally decided it was time to go and get it. This picture really doesn't do the length justice (it's about eight feet). Our old table was part of a set my mom got a garage sale a few years ago and even though it wasn't a bad table, it wasn't as sturdy as I would have liked and it couldn't fit all of our families around it on holidays. Needless to say, that won't be a problem with this one. Now I just need to figure out if I want to stain it or paint it and what to do with this mish mash chair situation. Thoughts?
My dad came up earlier this week, walked in the door and said, "We're painting your fence today." So, there was that. I kid. It was very nice of him to come and *ahem* force me to do something I had been putting off for oh, two years now. But seriously, it looks ONE MILLION times better and brighter with a fresh coat on it.
Lastly, as part of my "We're going to have a grown up bedroom, dang it!" initiative I upholstered a headboard. Well, I should say, I upholstered it poorly and then my mom helped me take it all apart and do it over again much, much better. That's right. I did such a bad job that we had to take it apart and do it AGAIN. Whatever, it looks nice and that's all that matters. I took lots of pictures of the process and I'll do a separate post just about the bedroom at a later date.
Oh, a couple more things.
Thing one:
We've been invited to be in This Old House again.
They're sending a photographer and stylist out sometime in the next week to snap a few pics and such. I'm trying to pretend that this is NBD so my head doesn't shoot off into space as a result of trying to prepare for them to get here. Eeks.
We're very excited to see what they come up with and to soak up some free styling tips from a pro.
Thing two:
The best thing.
The coolest thing.
I can't say.
Sorry!
It's awesome.
Soon.
Promise.
Soon.
Wow, lots of things are happening! Huzzah! But.. I'm going to need more pictures of that table before you do anything to it, because it looks just perfect from where I'm sitting :)
ReplyDeleteHa! I'll definitely take more pictures before I do anything and ask for opinions. It looks perfect after I adjusted the colors a little in photoshop but I'm afraid it's too similar to the color of the floor. I don't know. Table drama!!! Like I said, post vacation. Definitely post vacation : D
DeleteAnother TOH shoot? Wonderful! I love the picture of the dining room.
ReplyDeleteYup! We can't believe it either! And thanks about the picture! The rooms do all of the work, I just hold the camera steady ; )
DeleteOoooh, did you tell them about how Richard needs to come check out your awesome-weird sink?
ReplyDeleteYou know, the sink did come up during our phone interview and I was all, "I tried contacting Ask This Old House many, many times *hint* *hint*." Now all we can do is just hope that Tom and Richard show up at my house tomorrow Publisher's Clearing House-style (balloons and everything) I.would.lose.it.
DeleteLove your blog! Just found it from Houzz. I am looking forward to reading the rest of it to see the transformation!
ReplyDeleteMy idea for your table (easy for me to say since I won't be doing any of the work!) is to stain the top a dark brown and then paint the rest white. Right now I LOVE that look and hope to do that soon on some of my bedroom furniture.
What struck me was the incredible difference painting all the trim white in the rooms. We purchased our house new in 2009 and my husband does not want me to paint anything, especially the wood which is not as real as he thinks! Thankfully our daughter has been working on nicking all the paint so we will need to paint sooner than he ever thought!
Thanks for stopping by and thanks for the table idea! I like that a lot since I wouldn't have to stain the legs (I'm really not looking forward to stripping them). And yeah, we've gotten some criticism about painting the woodwork but it really wasn't in good shape at all and frankly, we just prefer it that way. So, if you ask me, paint away!
DeleteEverything looks fantatsic! I can't wait to hear what the secret is! BTW did you two ever look into installing a saftey system on the old stove? If you did how did it go. I'd like to put one on mine but would like some more information.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Unfortunately, we did not. We would like to in the future but it wasn't in our budget and we were really itchin' to get cookin' on the stove so we postponed it for now. It works fine the way that we use it - no gas is leaking out or anything but yeah, an automatic shut off would be a real nice way to avoid getting blown off the face of the earth. A little researching leads me to believe that you were the one who originally gave me a link to that? Is that right or am I losing it (could be the gas, jk!)?
Delete