MY tea shelf

I thought I'd posted my tea shelf mock up but I guess I didn't. Here it is with two options:

option A: blogs & tea print & tea set

option b: with yellow tea clock and tea accoutrement

Which do we like better?

le downstairs bain

The downstairs bathroom, aka the half bath since it has no shower, has been the cause of much thought because it will probably be the most seen and used.

I've given it my all and here's the inspiration page:

Elements:

Pedestal sink (TBD)

Black & White Octagon tile (Empire Tile)

Black mirror with built in shelf (also available in white which I don't mind either)

OR beveled mirror with glass shelf (not pictured)

Sconces

Apothecary bath accessories on shelf

Dyptique bath candle (already owned)

Dwell for Target hand towel

Towel Ring (from anywhere)

Target green glass soap pump (to be in possession shortly)

Tissue paper holder (from anywhere)

Toilet Paper Glass Canister (from Target I think)

Overhead Lighting Pendant

Some Artwork (preferably something b&w)

Fresh Flowers

dwell rug

I saw this bath rug at Target:

And this towel:

I don't want to put them together. No. That would be crazy. I want the rug for the guest bath upstairs and the towel for the half bath downstairs. Since that room down there is so small, I wanna keep it bare and add a few little attention grabber details like that towel. 

They're both from the dwell collection that I LOVE. What don't I love at Target?

lebowski

One of the best things to come when we move is Matt and I will become parents for the third time with another furry creature. 

I really feel like an expectant parent. Wondering what it will look like, will it be a boy or girl, will it look like its mom or dad, will I be up to the challenge, can we handle the responsibility, will I be a disciplinarian, will he be well behaved, will he keep us up at night, will we let him sleep in the bed, when we move we'll begin buying cute little things for him, we'll make a big announcement, our family will be excited to meet him, there will be a time for adjustment.

Of course, I've been seeing potential dogs all over the place. Is this Lebowski?

Could she be a Lebowski?  

And when Jill asked what Lebowski's nickname would be I turned with panicked eyes toward Matt "What's his nickname going to be?!" and like the calm father to be that he was, he calmly replied "The Dude." 

Of course. 

home owning story

Who wants to read a cute story? The kids at that blog I love are celebrating their three year home owning anniversary and posted the story of their whirlwind find and eventual ownership of their now home:

http://www.thisyounghouse.com/2009/05/three-years-ago-a-house-hunting-history/

The story of Dan & Jill and this condo has been whirlwind at first and now slow. When they found the place, they were "just looking" with a realtor friend of the family. It was the last house they saw before they came to dinner with us. At dinner they talked about this great condo and when the realtor dropped by with financial paperwork Jill asked if we (the fredrichs, the planks, janis, uncle roger who was in town, and matt & me) could all go see it. So we did. Dan & Jill called us the next day to discuss how we would handle them owning, us renting, etc and were we interested? Uh, YES. A few days later Dan called and said, "We've decided to put an offer on the condo" and on the other end of the phone I am going, YES YES. 

March 19 we sign offer paperwork on the house. A few days later, we find that four offers went in at the same time around ours and all very similar. Then, the bank singled us out and gave us the amount they wanted and Dan said yes so on we went to sign MORE paperwork. And now here we are just waiting to close escrow. The story will continue. 

BTW I uploaded some good links on my links column here to the right of the condo as it is and the mock ups I've made for it so far.

yikes stripes

I guess I love stripes...

Rug for the dining area: 

Curtains for the kitchen window: 

Chaise for the living room: 

There's also a striped pillow I want for the office that I have to find a cheap knock off of. All in due time.

bids

This weekend we spent a really long time in the condo as we waited for potential workers to check the place out and give us bids on what their services would cost and how long it would take to make it all happen. The in-laws were there: Dan & Jill, mom gave the painter a ride so she came and so did my sister and her boyfriend so it was like we were already having a housewarming party even though we had no furniture or anything. Because of all that work involved, Matt and I have decided to stay in our apartment an additional two weeks while the condo is scraped, re-wired, painted, and carpet cleaned. And though it seems like I'm doing a lot of work on the place already, it's really nothing compared to the amount of phone calls and trips to the place that my father in-law has been dealing with so hats off to Dan & Jill who are the real homeowners, I'm just the decorator. 

in your face mom

Hmm... what do we have here? Why, it's a white kitchen with grey painted walls and stainless steel details. why no, as a matter of fact, it DOESN'T look too dark, in fact, it looks nice and bright and stuff... and what's that? Some lemons on display and JR Watkins products too?

IN YOUR FACE MOM!

And this is what I did at work because it was our last shoot day and I had the time. I made a little handy chart for our painter so we can all see the plan for the paint. It's going to be helpful for him to see it all laid out and that way the colors are narrowed down and we can just pick our favorite when we see it on the wall and well, it's helpful to me.

I grouped the colors by color family and the rooms I'd like to see in said colors, then added images of the paint in a room so we could see what it actually looks like and not just the swatches because swatches are ridiculously deceptive. 

It also helps me feel not so discombobulated when it comes to color 'cause I was feeling like the colors were all over the place but seeing it narrowed down to four pages with an actual plan makes me feel a lot more secure in the paint choices. 
And since I know there are little projects I'm going to do myself, it's helpful to have a reminder of the TO DO list. 

My boss at work couldn't believe I had done this, she said with all the work involved I should have gotten paid for it. But I figure my taking the time to do this now will save our painter time later. And feel free to steal my paint idea, I know lots of us are visual learners.

only suckers

pay full price. 

I bought this thing for $12. 

Here's what others are charging: $395

feelin the yellow

There's a little stand I own I want to paint yellow. These two pieces of furniture are helping me feel more confident about my decision. 

I have also decided that I probably shouldn't get that ghost chair I've been wanting forever because it won't work as an office chair because it's probably flimsy and I tilt my chairs a lot so I thought, ooh, this chair would be great and I love how yellow looks with blue and white and its on sale BUT it's leather. No can do leather. Still though, pretty cute.... 

And of course as soon as I'd posted this entry, I found this image below that has a yellow office chair with blue surroundings and a white desk and EVEN a white couch. All the stuff I'm planning for the office. Once again confirmation that I'm not crazy. 

those beautiful red tags

As I headed to Target to pick up my prescription for my pills that prevent babies, I went to the aisle where I knew that mirror was. Rounded the corner and saw some people in front of it looking at its neighbor, a beautiful capiz mirror (do we like capiz? i'm a fan) that had a red tag on it. I love those target red tags and as predicted by a clever girl (moi) the mirror went down from $50.00 to $34.95. 

I have hung it on the wall over the fireplace to see what Matt thinks of it when he gets home. I know its too high but its only temporary. 

The last time I saw it was on Mother's Day last week and now its on sale. I think that in order to figure out this whole how long does an item at Target take to go on sale, we'd have to find out what day exactly the item was placed on the shelf and then slowly stalk it until it went down. I'm glad I'm onto their tricks and don't pay full price for Target things. 

tea shelf

Ever since I went to the Crown & Crumpet in San Francisco I've been thinking I wanted to do something in the kitchen I would call a Tea Shelf.

.

I began collecting inspirational images relating to tea, like vintageish sets...Tea and their accoutrement ...

And imagined a little shelf with accessories and some hanging cups... 

And using tea canisters decoratively...And designsponge made this shelf below: a guide to making your own little tea shelf. Well holy crap, I guess my ideas aren't that bad. I even have a cute little honey jar with that little wood honey dipper! AND my favorite tea is Twinnings Earl Grey. I need to get loose leaf tea though, it really does make the best tea. 

Matt even got me a book to add to my shelf by tea makers Harney & Sons. I love when he contributes. He makes the house home after all. I love him. And tea. And blogs. And love this print which I already own and will probably end up on that shelf too. Man, that shelf is getting crowded already...

evy no home

Sigh. The escrow company called and our closing date has been extended by a week. This means that though we hoped to be able to have a few weeks at the end of the month to scrape the popcorn ceiling, clean the place, paint the walls, and clean the carpets, BEFORE we moved our furniture in. Now it looks like we'd just be getting the keys by the end of the month.

This poses a problem since my husband and I have turned in our last month's rent and signed an intent to leave form for our current apartment. What we're hoping is that we can ask our manager if we can stay an extra week or two and pay whatever that would equate to (as in, not a full month's rent) that way our new home could be worked on without the interference of furniture and two cats.

Bummer. But with this job I'm on now where I'll be working until the end of May those fabulously long production hours (fabulously being SARCASTIC) maybe now I'll have more time to pack since I have just lost all time with this job. And yes, I am blogging at work because I'm waiting for answers.

Patiently. Cause there's no other way to do this thing.

And since the above post was so depressing, here's an image that's sure to lift some spirits. Lifted mine for sure. Mmm... Beautiful... I could do that...

starry mirror

I am a big fan of those starburst mirrors that everyone puts over their mantle. I saw this one at Target and I WANTS it. Mainly because its less about the mirror and more about the shiny. If I know Target, this sucker will go on sale and I'll snatch it then. Just you wait Mr. Mirror. BTW, maybe its time to research the estimated time it takes for a Target item to go on sale. Two weeks maybe?

Here's a mock up:

this time...

Last time I moved I was planning a wedding and moving in with a boy for the first time. It didn't seem stressful then and it doesn't seem stressful now because both times it's been exciting and an upgrade.This time it just seems like I'm more determined to keep things organized than before. This is my finished pile. You can see an open box that I'm working on where the patio stuff is going.
I'm reliving our wedding gifts as I bring up the boxes from our carport. Yes, I did keep boxes that our wedding gift appliances came in as well as boxes that are particular for breakables. If you have the room for it, I highly suggest it. The rough part about it is that you have to keep some of them as they are because they have the foam padding to protect the appliance in there and that gets bulky. But its going to help us SO much now.
Here is a little kitty in heaven. Yes, that's what kitty heaven would be like. Tons of boxes you can jump into of various sizes. I'm glad LJ is enjoying the process.
Gadget could care less.

hit the floor (plan)

I've been messing around on floorplanner.com and made a rough floor plan and furniture layout. The scale is completely off but it will help you get to know what the place looks like and where I'm thinking of placing the furniture. This is the first floor complete with stairs, bathroom, dining room, kitchen, laundry room, coat closet, living room, built-in bookcase, and fireplace. This is the second floor. You can gather which is the master bedroom right? The one that has the bathroom connected to it. Yes, it also has two closets so I won't have to share with Matt but he will have to share some space with me because well, I have a LOT more clothes than he does. The upper right hand room is the office. The sofa in there will be a sleeper in case we have more than a pair of guests which we hope will happen often and we're hoping will happen this summer! The three rooms share a bath but I'm sure we won't mind letting them use our shower when the middle one gets crowded and we're all on our way to Disneyland. Then the traditional guest room next to it. And no, you're not seeing things, that really is a drum kit we will have permanently set up in our home. Everyone seems to think Matt will be playing the drums more often than I think he will be. I probably believe this because he has three video game systems which will take up more time than the drumming will. It has been SO helpful in helping me explain everything to Matt. I know that the layout has been in my brain for ages and I know perfectly well where it's all going but Matt couldn't see it.

He gets it now. And he likes it.

well paint me gray!

I figured I'd just be painting the kitchen cabinets white. Can't go wrong there right? No other color ever crossed my mind except now, I definately want to do this with the, as Daniel so accurately described it, "peninsula" of the kitchen. Dark grey island. Yowser! I love it. I even like those little stools there and I like that even though it is a pretty dark color, it doesn't look like its robbing any light from the place, possibly because of the giant windows and light colored cabinets but it gives me hope.
Here's what our future kitchen looks like now. I think it just might work. I think the key will be painting it dark gray instead of black and keeping that countertop white.
I'm working on a little mock up of what the kitchen will look like that I'll try to put up here later.

embarassing

I began labeling a box destined for the office and was about to write "wedding pictures" when I realized that its really just the albums, the insides are completely devoid of wedding pictures. We've been married for a year and eight months, I really gotta get on the ball with that whole printing wedding pictures business.