thankful

So much to be thankful for. Thankful for our home. And for Urban Outfitters being walking distance.


Where one may obtain Mr. Hanky Christmas ornaments.

Saturday is the big deck the halls day. Wooooooooo!

- mobile blog post. spelling irrelevant.

guest bath little snippets

We're ready for people to come poop in our toilets.

The little wooden toothbrushes say "guest" on them. I really wanna buy one of those wall mounted toothbrush holders so I can put the toothbrushes and tumbler on them. I think it would look cute.

Today's last day of work for the week. Tomorrow we hang with the family giving them a tour of LA then Thursday & Friday we do the Thanksgiving thing in La Mirada.

Over the weekend: I GET TO PUT UP CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS. I am not excited for that at all. And in answer to your quandaries, I will be putting up all three trees. One in the guest room, one in my office, and one in the living room.

woz-kend

It's a Woz weekend.

I'm gonna kick my feet up and do nothing but sleep and chill. 

Woz understands me.

guest room bedding update

Ah that magical chilly time of year when the bedding gets switched out. As I mentioned, Matt & I got a California King sized mattress so we had all the queen bedding stuff to get rid of so the guest room was the beneficiary. We also have a spare mattress that's going to Arizona for my sister Liz.

I also got a new bedskirt that's a gingham pattern. Dear me how I love grey and white.

Our former striped duvet cover also got the boot so I mixed up the pillow shams with the plain duvet cover and the snowflake flannel sheets AND the gingham bed skirt.

I'm trying to be adventurous with the pattern mixing on bedding. Yeah so wild.

Hey content is content, let's not be picky.

yesterday

I met grumpy cat. The most famous of internet cats.


That's been the highlight of the week. Nothing much going on but work and preparing for the holidays.

- mobile blog post. spelling irrelevant.

the "hannger"

Remember how we have a little garage that was converted into a guest house? Since the Hanns have moved into it we've been referring to it as a "Hannger". It's a teeny thing. The square footage is 342 and while it seemed enormous as a guest house, having a married couple move in with their lives made it feel a lot smaller. Personally, I love the challenges of decorating a small space and lately I've been madly reading the makeover of a lovely blogger named Sara that bought a wee little cabin on Lake Michigan and has spent a lot of time fixing it up and boy howdy is it adorable. Having spent a few summer days in Chicago right near Lake Michigan I completely understood its appeal and have I ever mentioned my secret wish to someday have a little cabin by a lake? It's true. Something appealing about   being away from it all but with the conveniences of a little home that just has the bare necessities…

Here's the floor plan and what she's done with the place in images that pretty much speak for themselves.

The little kitchen is particularly inspiring. Especially those gorgeous open shelves with the perfectly styled everything. Not to mention the adorable 24" range that would be perfect for the Hannger.

Where's the fridge you ask? It's that shiny two drawer thing to the right of the oven. Even the fact that it has a tiny little fridge I love. You'd only buy the absolute essentials. Milk. Butter. Eggs. Ice Cream.

And then she has an outdoor deck/patio with a big ole dining table for a big group.

Can't beat that view though. DANG.

It really makes me wanna fix up the guest house but I suppose there's other priorities in our house (not to mention the back yard) that are taking precedence. 

the front yard with new green grass

First off I made a deal about Matt being my hero but the other two heroes are my dad and Matt's dad Dan who is an incredible landscaper in his own right, having been the man who transformed his home in Yucaipa from a dirt lot into a beautiful oasis. I wish I had a photo of it. Anyway… it's amazing.

The first morning back I went outside and hastily snapped some photos of the front yard. Boy is that grass green! And look at that, the oranges are turning orange. I think a few more days and I'll be enjoying fresh squeezed OJ from my own front yard. Woooooooo.

There are longer term plans for the front porch but for now we'll just add some plants around where the dirt is to give it some interest. Maybe that could be the "herb garden portion" of the garden.

I think we have to wait a few weeks before we can set foot on the grass so for now we just have to make sure to water it a lot so it sets into the dirt. It's so green it looks fake.

There's a perimeter of dirt around the grass where we'll be growing lots of plants and veggies and fruits and herbs. The rosemary bush was severely trimmed and it's still plenty and looks very good.

Know what's missing from this? That ugly palm tree. Thanks dad.

The part outside of the property I'd like to plant big ole bushes that don't require much maintenance and I can just let grow wild like lavender or plants that are drought resistant and hopefully attract bees since they're gonna be the key to food growing.

It's just such a nice change from the embarrassment  we've been over the past few months.

I love arriving home now. I mean, I've always loved arriving home but it's extra special now.

the farm

Our head of production sometimes asks me how things are at the farm, knowing we have a house with four pets. The whole farm concept got cuter when I thought how fun it would be to make some sort of vintage label with the pets on it. Like so:


Since the front lawn is no longer an embarrassment, I have shifted thoughts to what to plant there, what should we grow. We want to grow food very much and there's already an orange tree, a rosemary bush and a peach tree. Maybe our house really could be a mini farm. The Fredrich Farm.

- iPad Post

i am home

I'm back on PDT. It was incredibly thrilling to arrive at my house and have a place where I hang my hat and a room that's just a room for guests and a room that's just a room for me to work and hang and an extra bathroom and a bedroom with a new big bed and my own bathroom where all my products are ready to go. Then I got to drive to work and took too much pleasure out of going 60 miles an hour.

Sure I love New York but home is home and I am glad to be back!

new york shops: muji

Muji is actually a Japanese store and unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), the closest store to me is in San Jose or San Francisco. Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you look at it), there's a store about two blocks from our New York office. 

I cannot tell you how happy that store makes me. How to explain it? Good design. Simple. Japanese. Travel Essentials. Beautiful Office Supplies. JAPANESE. It's… heaven.  

I spent a little bit o' money this time on Christmas gifts for some family members.

Oh and I bought black cotton swabs, because duh.