tame frivolous fantasies

I love stationery. No, you don't understand. I LOVE stationery. And now that I have an actual you know, DESK, now this happens...

Notecards and letterhead:
Notebooks & letters from Dr Cook tied with a red ribbon (RIP old friend).
In my wildest fantasies I imagined sitting at a writing desk with pretty cards nearby to write with.

This morning I wrote in my journal while looking out the window and petting the kitties. Sigh... Happy...

-- mobile blog. spelling irrelevant.

the closet

I dunno why but I have been putting off organizing my closet. I have gotten a lot done but I think the clothes will have to wait.

I did however prepare the guest bath in anticipation for the guests coming tomorrow. Yay!
-- mobile blog. spelling irrelevant.

change of life

Before waxing on about how great it is to be in the new home, let's talk about "Friends". Remember the last episode when Monica & Chandler move from their apartment and they turn in their key and it turns out everyone in the group had a key to the place? And the last shot is the keys on the counter? And remember how every time you watch that scene, you get a little sad?

I am happy to be in our new home but I got a little sad when we said goodbye to The Springs. It was our first home as a family after all.

But ....we are finally home, very tired, and very thankful for Dad, Ab, Gaudy, Mari, Eddie, Toni, JB, Jared, & Kenny. Our heroes in moving.

goin goin back back to la county

Did you know that for the past year and some change I have been an OC girl? Our apartment was right at the other side of the county line. Up until then I had been a lifelong LA county girl so let's pretend that OC thing never happened and we can go back to getting regular AAA Westways.


Yesterday my work day was the longest most frustrating day. It was our last shoot day and it was supposed to have been a break from the first shoot day where we had a million things happening and we kept moving locations. Well yesterday was supposed to be boring an uneventful but of course there was a giant pickle thrown on the crap sandwich that was my day: the internet and phone service were patchy at best and non-existant at worst. It instantly complicated things. Simple questions answered by two second phone calls became ordeals. Everytime a call was dropped I aged a year or got another grey hair. I just wanted it to be Saturday at 6am... They really made me work to finally get to today: MOVING DAY.

Oh and also because we've been getting up early lately my body wakes me up at 4 & 5:30 and can't go back to sleep. And also probably cause I am very very excited. The cats, they just want to snuggle.

-- mobile blog. spelling irrelevant.

After..

a little bit of paint...


-- mobile blog. spelling irrelevant.

Tomorrow!!

We are moving tomorrow! Cleaners are cleaning RIGHT NOW. I can't wait!


-- mobile blog. spelling irrelevant.

the painter called

He thinks the dark grey island looks really nice and wants to come back and take pictures when the place is furnished for his book I'm assuming. Oh shucks...

Oh and we can't put things in our kitchen cabinet 'til Monday when cabinet fully dries. Ok...
-- mobile blog. spelling irrelevant.

*claps hands like excited little girl*

Matt told me to drop by #18 to make sure I was happy with the progress of the paint 'cause the last paint day is tomorrow and there will be no more chances for feedback. So I went..... LOVED ALL THE COLORS! They were better than I expected and I can't wait to see them in daylight. Two more weekdays...






-- mobile blog. spelling irrelevant

Four

Four more days 'til we move. In order to get there I will have to survive a pre-pro meeting, a fitting, and two shoot days. Yahoooooooo!


-- mobile blog. spelling irrelevant.

woke up

Woke up this morning with an idea. Seriously, I didn't know people could just have a good idea as soon as they wake up. I have this square bowl that I love and bought and never found a use for. I think I have one now. I want to use it for mail on top of this little dresser under the stairs. That frame above it, right now it's a yellow mirror but I think I can make it a black corkboard easily and then hang a key ring under it for our keys and we'll have a little station where we can put up stuff on a cork board, drop our keys, our mail, the drawers, who knows what could go in there! Wallets! Sunglasses! Letters! Souvenirs! Junk!

Forgive my hastily put together mock up, I am supposed to be doing a million other work things but I had an idea and it needed to get out there. The bowl in the picture looks nothing like the one I have, I just needed a square bowl to demonstrate.

yockers

That's what I'm calling all those posers who keep thinking they're the most brilliant for thinking of adding yellow to their house. In 2007, almost two years ago, as I planned my wedding, I said to myself, "SLEF, we need some yellow to go with this black and white business" and then I translated that to my home.

Now everyone's doing it:

You might say that it's not them but me that's copying but it's my blog so I can make wild accusations if I want. I want to do a little where's waldo of attempting to put something yellow in every room of my home because I love it so much. We'll see how that turns out, right now it's been mainly with chairs:

thirty seven

That's how many items we purchased at Ikea yesterday. It ended up being a fun trip since my brother and his lady came with. I am SO glad they did. Not only was it good for Matt to have another male to roll his eyes at and me to have another girl to toss ideas at, but two extra bodies make a world of difference. If you plan on purchasing large amounts of items at Ikea, bring at least four people that way you can rotate watching the carts while someone does the shopping and talking to employees. Here's our cute helpers:

The list came in extra handy. I'd also taken with me another list with pictures of the items and they came in handy when asking employees "Where is this (point to picture)?"

We used two carts, one for the furniture:

One for the accessories: lamps, rugs, curtains, curtain rods, picture frames, art cards, and stuff that I wanted and was going to wait for but since they were half off I bought them:

And that's what a truck full of a couch, a sideboard, a table, some stools, rugs, wall shelves, and .50 set pieces for my brother's studio looks like:

It was like playing tetris trying to squeeze all that stuff into the giant truck. The unloading into the car hole at #18 with four people took approximately 5 minutes. It was a good idea to get this shopping trip out of the way because the major hassle is getting to Ikea, checking out, and getting the stuff back, now it's just putting the puzzle pieces of assembly together. And tell you what? I love assembling furniture, just ask Ambre.

sneak peek: kitchen

My pops (happy early father's day!) and I went to the place to take measurements and saw what the kitchen looks like with one coat of surf.
And the kitchen cabinets with the primer coat...
Happy Birthday Alison.

I get presents today though. Can't wait to see the finished product. The paint color was all I thought it would be and more.

-- mobile blog. spelling irrelevant.

Time Warner & Ikea & $2.99

Time Warner, our internet provider, has disconnected our internets in preparation for the install at #18 on Wednesday. Also because I forgot to change the date of the disconnect, doh!

Because of that I sprug for this new iPhone app that pets me blog from my phone so I can keep you cats updated. I have NEVER paid money for an app but there really wasn't any app like this one for cheaper. So here we are, mobile blogging.

Today, Matt & I are going to Ikea to buy lots of stuff. In preparation for this journey, I made a shopping list on Pages that has a little checkmark column, price column, intended room column, and is sorted by priorities. I also made two columns and left blank so I can fill in the item's location in the marketplace. Yes, I am a planner, a nerdy nerdy nerdy planner. But I am doing it for Matt's sake. And ... A little, 'cause it's fun.


-- mobile blog. spelling irrelevant.

trunk trunk what what

Can you believe that this:

Fit into this:

Tonight after work, with thirty minutes before the loading dock closed, I went to West Elm to buy THE DESK I've been lusting after for many moons:

There were some good signs along the way. Most miraculously of all was that in Santa Monica, on 4th St, I found a metered parking lot RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE STORE. And it had 23 minutes left on the meter. Of course the fact that even when one of the employees said "It's not gonna fit" and it did, that pretty much points to it being from God. The other good sign was that I found these beautiful puppies marked down:

I'm filling it with pens and something else and it's going to go on my beautiful new desk. Oh and the other good sign was that while driving home, the radio played Bohemian Rhapsody.

Scaramouche,scaramouche will you do the fandango?

turqu-i

I LOVE this image:

It's from Real Simple Magazine.

I bet our built in bookcase would look amazing with that wallpaper since our walls are already that light blue color.

I bet that turquoise would look fantastic in the living room with all the black and white and yellow I'm adding in there.

That rug is really nice too.

I wonder if Matt would be weirded out by empty frames.

condo: YAY!

We own it. The house is ours. We have keys.

***Insert joy here****

good medicine

Can't wait to have a medicine cabinet so I can do things like this:

I miss you Domino! I need a moment...

gift basket

The policy around the Fredrich household as far as gifting newlyweds is simple: cashmoney. We will no longer go to a registry and buy things the couple is registered for. Instead we write checks or stick some dough in an envelope of a card we already own that can work as a wedding card. Sounds heartless? Meh. It's what they most need. They already have love.

BUT. Showers are a different story. The whole point is to open and show what you got, so in honor of one of Matt's cousins getting married I got the bride to be a basket full of stuff she'd registered for and decided to post a few helpful tips on gifting baskets for you all to enjoy.

1) Ross/Marshalls has excellent and cheap baskets. I got a three pack of baskets and put the bride's present in one and kept the other two. Selfish you say? Sneaky? Underhanded? You bet.

2) I like to point out where the gift receipt is in the present. Sometimes I put it in a colored envelope. This time I made a makeshift slot in a card so she can return things if necessary.

3) Dry Liner (aka wite out) is awesome for removing the price on items. Bed, Bath, & Beyond prints the prices right on the pricetag and instead of cutting it out or crossing it out with a pen, the dry liner blends right in and can be scratched off to reveal the price if so inclined.

4) Custom printing a card makes a big difference. For Matt's mom's birthday one year, I made her a Trader Joe's gift basket with her favorite scent, citrus, and made a card where I printed a bunch of halves of oranges. She thought it was the cutest thing. And nothing is better than impressing your mother in-law on her birthday.

For this bride, since she had the foresight to register for a potato masher, seriously, you're gonna need it. I scanned a picture from my favorite recipe for mashed potatoes, from her majesty of course, and printed it on the outside and printed the recipe on the inside.

Personalized & thematic and we know I like me some themes. Happy Gifting.

update: #18 La Mirada

We get keys tomorrow. No, I can't believe it either. The filing paperwork was all approved and they're filing it with the county of Los Angeles as we speak and by tomorrow night, Matt will be grabbing the key.

I promise to give a more excited post when I actually have the keys in my hand.

downstairs bath accessories

Did I mention that the downstairs bath is almost fully accessorized?

Dan & I went to Lamps Plus just to browse 'cause obviously, there is NO WAY we could afford anything the have, right? Wrong! We got both sconces for $40. Even less than what we would have paid at Lowe's and it's purtier. It looks almost identical to this thing here:

Then I got the glass shelves from Lowe's:

I found that glass vase at Goodwill for $3.00 and the soap pump dispenser that I've been lusting after forever at Target. I like it so much we bought one for master bathroom too.

So all we need to do now is rip up the carpet, install a pedestal sink, install beadboard, install new tile, get a new toilet and we're done! Easy right?

new light

#18 needs a new light source for the staircase.

previously it was this, which was taken down and thrown in the trash.

Keep in mind: while most of the ceilings in the house are 8' high, the staircase is about 15-20' high so we're talking a big ole space.

Options:

From Ikea

Traditional: Molnig- $34.99

Traditional: Ledral- $49.99

Daring & Minimal: Glonsa $29.99

Also available in white

Ultra mod for funzies: Knappa- $24.99

From West Elm

Straight: Metal & Wood Chandelier- $143

Geometric & Fun: Faceted Glass Lamp $109 x 2 (two would be better right?)

Classic & Cool: Hanging Capiz $109

Classic & Bold: Long Hanging Capiz $220 (the long length would work good in the area)

I have a favorite. Try to guess which one it is and tell me which is yours or if you have a better idea, I'd love to see it.