Friday, September 30, 2011

Happy News

We closed on our house today! We've been living here for almost two months, have fully moved in and cozied up in it, but it wasn't truly ours until now. And we are excited!



Also exciting? We're going to Europe in May! Woohoo!! Keith's school sends a group of students on a religion studies trip of some sort every year. Usually it's Israel/Egypt or Greece/Turkey, all of which would be cool. But this year it's a "Protestant Reformation Tour" through Germany and Switzerland. Just the kind of workout my passport has been training for.


Monday, September 26, 2011

Our New Home Virtual Tour - Bedroom Edition

I'm kicking off the "virtual tour" of our new home in North Carolina with the room that was finished last. Last night, as a matter of fact. Our bedroom is small-ish, and we have previously always tried to crammed a lot of stuff into it. For once, we managed to scale back, and I have to say, I like the results.


Making things work in a smaller space requires a little creativity. And a lot of prioritizing. We asked ourselves what items were most important to have in our bedroom and came up with: a bed (obviously), two nightstands, a dressing table, and a bookcase. That's pretty much it. And really, that's pretty much all the space would allow.

I have been obsessing over this soft, pale sort of blue-green color for a while. It seems perfect for a bedroom. It's pretty and soothing but also fun. I've been bookmarking versions of the color for months. Our new bedroom just happened to already be painted the color of my dreams. So that was a nice surprise.


There are a lot of colors in this room, which I love. My mom and grandmom were a little unsure it would all work together, and I guess technically it doesn't all match. There are pinks, greens, teals, browns, and even oranges in the bedding. The dressing table and one nightstand are an antiqued yellow. The other nightstand is green. I'll admit it's a mishmash, but I kind of love it. I think the browns in the sheets, wood floor, window shades, and wood furniture really help anchor it and  allow the colors to work together.


This dressing table belonged to my great-grandmother. My mom used it for a while in the 60's and 70's, which is when it got it's coat of yellow paint (plus black and white daisy patterned drawer liners). To give it a different look we used an electric sander to distress the edges and added new knobs. It's the perfect spot for getting ready in the morning. Makeup and jewelry are organized neatly in the drawers, and hair tools are all easily accessible in an old teal-painted toolbox on the floor.


One thing that wouldn't fit in our new space was our old bed. It was a very pretty, very large sleigh bed that would have completely overwhelmed the room. We decided to use a simple frame bed instead, and fashioned a headboard out of a old door Keith found at the Habitat for Humanity Restore in Waco. Wonder of wonders, it was already painted just the right shade of blue-green, so all it needed was a little sandpaper, a little beeswax, and a few really long screws to hold it into the wall.


We switched out the original brass doorknob and replaced it with a pretty glass one. We finished it off by hanging one of my favorite prints directly over it. Again, you'll notice the mismatched end tables. The yellow one was my grandmother's painted yellow at the same time as the dressing table and distressed in the same way. The green one was something my mom pulled out of a dumpster years ago, and we just keep finding new uses for it.


In fact, that tends to be our philosophy about everything. Looking around our house the other day, I realized we only own one piece of furniture that we actually purchased: an old cedar trunk that we used as a coffee table in Waco. Everything else has been handed down, re-purposed and reused in many different way over the years. All we had to buy for our bedroom set-up was a little sand-paper, those really long screws we used to secure the door, and the door itself - which was a score at only $65.

Monday, September 19, 2011

An Explanation for My Silence of Late

There's a reason I've been so absent from ye olde blogge lately.

Her name is Sherri Cherry. She's my Mommie. And she was here from one crazy, busy, glorious week. That's right. Here. In North Carolina. In our new house. Which has been revolutionized by her decorative and organizational prowess. She cleaned, she swept, she sanded furniture. She re-organized cabinets and drawers and closets. She scoured, and hammered, and nailed, and hung. She absolutely charmed everyone in the town. Every single person. In the whole town.



That's her, sitting on the front porch with me, next to the pumpkins she picked up for us at the hardware store. Yes, pumpkins at the hardware store. And mums at the auto parts store. This town is insanely amazing!

In other news, thanks to Mom's help, the house is feeling much, much homier and very near to completion. Will posts photos, both inside and out, very soon.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Kiss the Cook

Reason #5,877 why I love this man...


He cooks with me on his lunch break.

Confession: He's not nearly as amused by this photo as I am. 
But he was a great sport about it anyway.

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Don't Hate Me Because I'm Gloating

Want to hear a few good things?

It's a cool 65 degree morning here in Murfreesboro, NC.
       Tonight is the first football game of the season.

So I will don my Chowan Hawks blue,
       some boots,
              and a light sweater
                     (I'm also contemplating a cowboy hat)
And Keith and I will join the festivities.
       Incidentally, the festivities include free food.

After the game, I will bake up a delicious batch of German Chocolate cupcakes.
       Because Keith's birthday was on Tuesday.
              And we're still celebrating.
                     Much to his chagrin.
       I'm sticking with cupcakes because, when it comes to baking, I have priors.
              And smaller things seem easier to manage.

After the cupcakes are baked up and iced we will take them out onto the back patio.
       And engage in some more 65 degree basking.
              Sweater recommended.

Then we will climb into a fluffy, comfy bed.
       And sleep well.
              After watching one or two more episodes of Doctor Who.