We're basically famous now.

I guess I forgot to tell you that Sophie's nursery was on Apartment Therapy.  Half a year later, it still looks like the pictures in that post, only messier.

I would take a picture of the messy nursery and post it here, but... I can't find the camera.  That's how we operate now.  One hundred percent mess.  It's basically a miracle that we're all still fully clothed (with matching shoes, I might add).  

Where'd You Get That? Card Catalog Edition

One of the most commented-on items in our home is our card catalog, which currently serves as our baby's dresser.  Visitors often ask where we got it.  We were lucky to find it at SWAP (if you haven't been to SWAP, you must go; do yourself a favor and borrow a friend's truck because you're sure to find several items you never knew you needed).  

When we bought it, it was kind of in rough shape…  

It had been sandwiched between two other card catalogs for all its life, so the sides were unfinished.  

And the panel at the bottom of the catalog was totally gross.  

 Enter Rosewood & Brass Restorations.  Jenn came in with all kinds of tools, tape measures, stain, and reclaimed lumber, and in the blink of an eye she had the sides finished-- they're gorgeous-- and the bottom panel looking fabulous.  She created a custom stain (which I didn't even know was possible), and it matches perfectly.  Check out the photos of the finished product on her blog!

One extra bonus of having Jenn work on the catalog was giving everyone in our neighborhood the chance to see a woman- and a young, adorable woman at that- pull up in her minivan, unload all manner of power tools, and go to work.  

The labels on the drawers look like they're typed, but I'm really not that ambitious… I just created text boxes and used a typewriter-ish font in Word, then printed everything on cream-colored paper.  

The drawers are the perfect size for baby clothes.  Later on, I can only imagine what they'll hold… one friend suggested that the catalog could become a Barbie mausoleum.  Can't wait to type the text boxes for those drawers!  

Nursery in Progress!

It's a miracle... we were able to somehow clear out our guest room/office/craft room/catch-all room!  We're quickly filling it up again, though... here's a little sneak peek at the nursery as it's coming together:

Book truck changing table!  

Don't worry, the card catalog isn't missing a drawer.  One drawer is with our friend Jenn, who is helping us refinish the sides and bottom of the catalog.

My mom made this beautiful alphabet flower embroidery!  

Karl did an awesome job building a closet system from scratch for the baby's closet; the paint is still drying and we have a few things to add, but let me just say that it is totally perfect and a huge improvement over the two bowed plywood shelves that were in there before.  

Soon we'll have a little person to plunk into this room!  We'd better enjoy the peace and quiet now... 

New Member of the Household

I'd like to introduce our new bedside table, purchased at an antiques store last weekend.  The moment I saw it, I just knew it was meant to be.  And that notion was confirmed when I opened the top drawer and found a big zip-loc bag of antique wooden spools that came with the table.  ♥  We've been looking for a new bedside table for a long time, and we really don't need a lot of storage space.  Which is why this secret special feature is perfect for us:

It holds spools of thread!  Or finger puppets, if you're me.  Or cooked strands of spaghetti noodles, woven in between the pegs, if you're Karl.  Just kidding, I'm never letting him do that.  Also I'm never letting him stick one cooked elbow macaroni noodle onto each peg.  Kind of a shame, though, because they are the exact perfect size for elbows.  Or penne. 

Before and After

We have five windows in our living room.  Three are right next to each other, in a "we wish we were a picture window" formation at the front of the house.  Two are more independent.  They always have been, ever since day one.  They're willing to do their own thing, and they're not about to apologize for it.  This weekend, though, I got those two windows to team up.  Here's what we did:

We said good-bye to these boring, dusty, and did I say boring blinds... 

And we welcomed these cheery new cloth shades!  They're not perfect, but they're an unbelievable improvement.  No offense to the person who selected our old shades 39 years ago, of course.  I used this no-sew tutorial, and it was truly pretty easy. 

Do you want to know the strangest part?  Karl and I have been wanting to add some color to our living room for the longest time, and we were waiting for these chairs at Target to go on sale:

Can you believe I found the exact same fabric, on clearance?  It was a total accident!  I didn't even realize it until after I made the curtains.  Don't worry, we're not going to get the chairs now.  That would be red floral overload.  I cannot wait to take down the big set of blinds on the panel of three windows!  We've got regular cream-colored curtains to put up.  Not exactly original, but I think they'll be a breath of fresh air. 

Garden Tour

 Remember the terrace garden we planted back in March?  Things are growing in it!!!  Things that will one day be edible!  We have watermelon, butternut squash, green beans, lettuce and tomatoes all coming up.  I love it! 

 Be bought a few tomato plants, but the one on the far right of this photo is one that we grew from a seed.  It might be a good idea to move the tomato cage, huh?

In our backyard, we have the raised beds that Karl built last year.  One is full of lettuce...

(it's supposed to be 90 degrees here this weekend, so I'm afraid we'll have to pick all of our lettuce before it withers away)

The other box is exploding with kale:

I can't wait till we can start harvesting some homegrown goodness! 

Terrace Garden

Two years ago, we had the wiry juniper bushes between our house and the neighbor's house pulled up, leaving a bare sloped area along the length of the driveway with nothing but a row of really lovely cinder blocks in the ground to reinforce it. I will not show you pictures because it's embarrassing. Apologies to our next door neighbors, who have been trying to sell their house... I'm sure our lack of landscaping hasn't helped!

Meanwhile, we've really wanted to plant a garden. Unfortunately, we have some big walnut trees, making our backyard garden-unfriendly. We built some raised beds last year and had some success, but we wanted a real garden. A plot of land we can dig in and pluck salads from. Karl had a great idea to plant a little garden in the empty sloped space where the juniper bushes had been. When he suggested a terrace garden, I was basically in heaven. A terrace garden. Sounds romantic, doesn't it? And vaguely Italian? Ya, well, we put the terrace garden in over the weekend and it's not romantic or Italian. It's kind of an eyesore, to be honest. Imagine chicken wire and stakes, and there you have it. I will also not show you any pictures of our terrace garden. I have high hopes that we will harvest at least one edible item from this disaster (Karl encouraged me to plant watermelon after pointing out how much money we'd save if we succeeded... we go through a lot of watermelon in the summer). I will, however, show you a genius idea that needs to happen at our house next year. It's from here.

Why didn't we think of this? There would be a lot less chicken wire in our yard if we had.

Nerdville, Population 2

This is normal, right? All garages are full of card catalogs, aren't they?



But seriously. They're so adorable.

All those drawers... all those labels... it's true love.

But what I'm really excited about is this little beauty. Check out those label holders just waiting to be filled.

Future home of all of my knitting supplies!

Just My Type

Here's my newest score from the University of Wisconsin surplus store... tell me it's not the cutest thing you've ever seen.



Right now, it's living on the kitchen table until we find a good spot for it. But I'm beginning to think that the kitchen table may be as good a spot as any. Perfect for an ongoing grocery list, or little surprise notes to one another.
On the same shopping expedition, I snagged a card catalog. It's waiting to be picked up, but I'll share some photos once we've got it home!

Thirty Days of Thankfulness: Day 14

I'm thankful for screen-free days (like yesterday!), when I don't look at a computer at all. So refreshing.

Last night I was talking with some friends about curtains. At our house, we still have the boring blinds that came with the house. Snooze. But I've been searching and searching for the perfect curtains-- or at least ones that I like. Nothing too sophisticated. Nothing too drapey. Just something fun and colorful. A few months back, I met the curtains of my dreams at a coffee shop. They were darling: floral but not too floral, colorful but not overwhelming. The barista told me the curtains were from Urban Outfitters, so of course I immediately tried to order them... only to find out that they were discontinued (why a company would discontinue the most darling curtains ever is beyond me). After our curtain chat yesterday, I decided to check out the Urban Outfitters site just to see what else they've come up with. And guess what? THEY'RE BACK! The perfect curtains are now available... backordered, but whatever. I just have to do some measuring at home and then order them. I cannot wait. And let me just say that the photos on the website don't do these curtains justice. They're way cuter than they look online. All that to say that I'm thankful for potential home improvements!

Craigslist Score-a-Thon

Ever since we got married (three years ago!), we've had this plain-Jane, falling-apart, hand-me-down IKEA table. It has been great for art projects, because we don't care what happens to the top.

It has also been great for storing our cloth napkins and such, because the top lifts off. IKEA is so genius. By the way, the set started with six chairs but two of them are beyond repair, with two more heading that direction.

So for a long time, I've been trolling Craigslist for a new table. It had to be small, and we needed chairs. Last week, we snagged this adorable vintage set:
Cute, huh? I love the painted details.

The day after we bought our new table, we posted the old one on Craigslist. Within an hour, it was out the door. I thought we'd have trouble selling it because we were very up front about the falling-apartness of the chairs, but it's the time of year when a lot of students are moving in to new apartments, and I guess the price was right. Here's the best part: The price of the new set minus the amount we got for the old set equals $100. One hundred dollars! For a super cute table and four chairs. I think we lucked out.

Hutch and Such

Karl and I have been looking for a hutch ever since we moved into our house in 2009. We had to be picky with dimensions because our house is small. Turns out there are a lot of humongous hutches out there. After scouring antiques stores, Craigslist, thrift stores, flea markets and rummage sales, we finally found our hutch. It's super simple, from the 1940's, and it fits perfectly in our space. The price was right, too... thank you, Craigslist!

Next up: new curtains. Can't wait to say goodbye to those blinds!

SnowRamaLamaDingDong

We had a huge blizzard on Tuesday night. Karl and I sat in front of the fire and watched the trees outside blowing like crazy late into the night. It was all very cozy... until the next morning, when we had to deal with all of the snow. On Wednesday, the library was closed and Karl's classes were cancelled, so we had all day. Thankfully.





My husband really, truly is the best ever. I went on a nice long cross-country ski around town (he insisted!), and he did a lot of this:


The best was the way the woodland critters in our neighborhood dealt with the weather. Here you can see the hole (at the very bottom of the picture) where one industrious little creature dug its way through the snow. I wonder if it ever reached the tree...

Sneak Peeks

On my needles... a subtly-cabled hat with a fun loop at the top

In our driveway...

In our trash can... Sad, isn't it? I'm organizing all of my photos (huge job; definitely not a one-day project as I had imagined!), and this is the cover of my old college photo album from freshman year. It was full of dark, blurry, backs-of-heads photos. I was able to throw a lot of them away and just keep the best ones. Sadly, the album has seen its day. Happily, though, most of the girls under the contact paper on the front cover are still some of my best friends, so I'm confident that we'll have many more photo opportunities in the future!

Scenes from a Snow Day

On Sunday morning, we woke up to this on the front lawn:



and this in the back yard:



I grabbed my skis and took a spin around the neighborhood before the plows got here.



Then I cleaned up my latest vintage find... a set of six matching little Santa mugs. I love them. And they were 25 cents apiece. Love.



We fired up the Kitchen-Aid and made four different kinds of cookies... which are now on their way to Karl's grandmothers' houses.



Between batches, we napped and read and watched Christmas movies.

It was so nice to just have time at home to be cozy. I loved every second of it. In the evening, we wrapped presents and thought about getting started on Christmas cards... but that didn't happen. Maybe next weekend.