TV Stand Turmoil

When we moved into the house and bought a new flat screen TV to replace the 300 pound behemouth that we had before we didn't have a TV stand.  What we did have was an antique chest of drawers that we had at my house when I was growing up.  I don't even know where it came from.  It is a strange piece of furniture that is a bit taller than a coffee table but much shorter than a dresser that you would use for clothing.  This odd height makes it the perfect height for a TV!  The wood has a bleached look to it and it has a funky, rustic look to it which I like to pair with the more modern furnishings in the house.  I like a mixture of furniture and decor...pre-matched things seem too easy! 

It was meant to be a temporary solution until we found something we liked more.  Then, Justin was going to move it to his rustic, outdoors themed basement living room, where it would also fit right in. 

This weekend we went to some local furniture stores to look for a replacement, and it was frustrating to me.  Everything seemed generic and not my style at all.  My style has been influenced by years of wistfully paging through Pottery Barn catalogues and design magazines, which don't feature anything that you could buy at Slumberland.  Eeeh, why am I drawn to expensive things?  It doesn't even have to be expensive...I just would like things that don't look like the same thing everyone else has from Target or Conlins...so I guess I will keep looking and the TV will just stay where it is!  I don't really want to deal with the piles of crap in the drawers anyway! So take that Slumberland!

Here are some examples of what I might like...the first four are from Pottery Barn.  I am so devoted to Pottery Barn, although I believe that real high end designers might think of it with distain the way I think of other furniture stores...but for regular people I can't imagine who wouldn't like it!

Ok, so this is way too long for our living room but LOOK at it!  Look at all the room for books!

Once again, this whole set is way too big but that middle piece would work...I love the file cabinet details on those middle drawers. 

This is just cute...

These next two are from Restoration Hardware and would cost around $2,000 with tax and shipping....sigh...

It looks like shutters!

I love this thing...it is a "Printmaker's cabinet", which is a fixture in old architecture offices and artists studios...lovely.  I will keep dreaming on!

Weekend Adventures

There is a much neglected room in our house...the office.  The office is located in the smallest of the four bedrooms.  It is a basement room and it was the only room in our house that had the universally despised fake wood panelling that is an indication of an old and outdated house.  Notice that I use the past tense when I describe what we had...

 Justin decided to paint and redecorate the room.  It was his office for the most part, with his decor hanging on the walls and his paperwork in the file cabinet.  After finishing school I felt like I was done with having an office for awhile!  I spent too many hourse sitting at that desk studying!  My file cabinet is in the other basement bedroom with my sewing supplies and books.

 Oooh that room looks like a claustrophobic little hovel!

Check it out!  That is the same room!  I haven't seen it in person yet but it looks like he filled in the grooves in the panelling, added new trim around the base, and did some ceiling improvements!  The panelling is still there under the paint.  This is a cell phone picture so I will add some more pictures when I see it in person.  This is some very impressive work.  Pardon the clutter in the picture...the room is still a work in progress. 

While Justin was working on that project, I spent Saturday and Sunday visiting my aunt and uncle and cousins at their lake home on Pelican Lake.  I woke to thunder storms on Saturday morning which was very dissapointing but I was patient and they dissipated my noon and I headed to the lakes!  After the storm moved out the weather was perfect. 

My timing was also perfect because right after I got there my uncle went to pick up a new pontoon that had a feature that I was unfamiliar with before...Sea Legs.  These are hydraulic lifts that can lift the pontoon out of the water and eliminate the need for a cumbersome boat lift or an anchor if you are stopped in shallow water such as on a sand bar.  It was like a robot boat!

This is not their boat...it is one that I found a picture of on Google images.  Pretty fancy legs, huh?  I almost expect it to start walking!

I wish it wasn't already August.  Summer is way too short!  There are not enough weekends to spend in a swimming suit drinking slushy drinks in a year!  Mmmmm slushy drinks...

Lemons!

During law school, I spent two years living in a campus apartment, which would have been known as "married student housing" in my parents' college days.  They now let unmarried students who are in grad school or have been in undergrad for several years live there.  They also let lone individuals have two bedrooms without roommates since a few new residence halls have opened up and taken the strain off the housing supply.  We weren't married when I first moved into my tiny bedroom apartment at the height of harvest season before my 2nd year began.  My dad and brother had to help me move and they were WAY too busy for such nonsense because of the farm so they made a few trips from my storage unit that I was sharing with a few classmates and piled everything very haphazardly near the entrance of the apartment and took off leaving me to deal with furniture to position and boxes to move.  I think they must have helped me assemble the bed frame at least!  They also accidentally grabbed a large painting that belonged to one of my friends from the storage unit that I had to return to the unit later.  (I am not trying to sound unappreciative...I just think the whole afternoon was funny.  It must be so annoying to be a man and always have to help people move heavy items...)  I had no idea what to expect from my new campus apartment.  What I did know was that it cost about $300 less a month than the off-campus one bedroom that I had rented my first year.  The campus apartments had cable TV, internet was very cheap, and, since UND generates its own electricity, the monthly electric bill averaged about $4.00 per month.  Seriously.  The building was quite dated, with panelled walls and a porcelain sink protruding from the bathroom wall without a counter or any sort of cabinets.  However, it was spotlessly clean and the outdated faucets and showers dumped water in wonderful way that new, water conserving fixtures can never compare to.    

After one semester in the one-bedroom I upgraded to a still cheap two bedroom and was assigned to a unit in a neigboring building of the complex.  This place seemed cavernous compared to the one-bedroom, mostly because it had white walls instead of panelling.  Both of these units were quite sufficient for student living and I lived there until graduation.  The two-bedroom was our first home after getting married and I was always relieved to get back to that cozy little place after sub-zero walks from the bus stop. They lacked one major thing however...curtains...yikes.  Upon discovering this I pinned some blankets over the windows that August day that I moved in until I could get to Target to buy some cheap curtains.  The two bedroom had FOUR whole windows instead of just two like the one bedroom so I decided to make some curtains myself!  The kitchen had a window and I had my heart set on curtains with a corn on the cob pattern like the curtains in the Simpsons' kitchen!

I couldn't find any fabric with a corn print on it so instead I ended up choosing a sunny, yellow fabric with a lemon pattern!  I didn't care if it would look over the top because I couldn't do much else to modify the appearance of the apartment. 

Later that year I was in Kohls and came across this cheap lemon slice rug.  I bought it and it was the start of a lemon theme.  I am not crazy about themes in houses because they can get ridiculous fast so i will call it a casual lemon theme...it is not in your face as soon as you walk in the door...you notice it gradually... 

I found these towel and also a cutting board with lemons on it (I forgot to get it out for the photo) and also some dish sponges (long thrown away) in the dollar aisle at Target when they had a brief line of fruit oriented kitchen items in there. 

I found these fake lemon figurine things at TJ Maxx within the last year. 

I ordered this poster that hangs above the stove when we lived in the campus two bedroom.  It is a vintage Sunkist advertisement.

Oh...then there is this wall hanging...I bought that at TJ Maxx as well.  It is metal and the lemons are raised off the background.  I bought it to hang in our apartment when we moved here.  Justin hates it and didn't want it in our new kitchen when we moved to this house.  It looks kind of wacky in this picutre and the wall color looks all wrong compared to how it is in person but I actually think it goes nicely in the kitchen.  It is a small, 1950's kitchen so anything overly ornate or farmhouse-y would look wrong.  I should mention that the whole kitchen is not full of lemons...there are other aspects of the decor.  If you want to see you can click on the "kitchen" link on the right side of the page. 

The lemon slice rug has been with us since it was new back in 2007.  I wash it regularly the grippy material on the back is inevitably wearing out and it has started slipping around and causing problems.  It bunches up and I keep tripping over it.  This afternoon I shopped for a new rug to replace it.  It didn't have to be lemons...it just had to match the kitchen and preferably have a color or colors to match the Fiestaware dishes from which I drew the colors that dominate the kitchen (yellow, turquoise, green). 

Ohhhh my....there are so many ugly area rugs out there!  I went first to TJ Maxx, because it is a good place to find cheap crap that is a bit different from the usual things you see everywhere from Target or Kohls.  I couldn't find anything good.  There were some cute things but they were meant more for a living room or someplace that wouldn't require the rug to be washed regularly.  I was looking for something with a grip on the back.  Next I went to Kohls because that is where the original lemon slice came from.  They still had that half-circle shaped line that I had in mind but were so ugly!  Ugh!  There was one with fruit on it on clearance that I almost bought just to be silly but it was so bad I had to put it back.  Next I went to the mall and started at Herbergers and then went to JC Penney.  It was all the same...garish colors with pictures of coffee cups or wine bottles or vegetables and words like "espresso" or "vino" all over the place.  Maybe that would be OK if I liked coffee and I do like wine but that "tuscan" wine motif would be weird in our kitchen. The alternative choice was something in dull, muted taupe or sage green that would look all wrong.

I finally tried Target (the Target here is still attached to the mall like they were in the old days before SuperTarget took over!  It is convenient but I miss SuperTarget).  That is where I found this!

Hahaha...I still think it is kind of ugly but oh well...at least it doesn't get bunched up cause problems. 

Back to Big Sky...

Yeah...I wish!  I now have a reminder of Big Sky that I can see all the time!  It is like a souvenir except more tasteful and timeless!  When I was there this spring I bought a vintage poster (well, it is a vintage looking poster!  Big Sky opened in 1973 and Moonlight Basin opened within the last ten years so there are no true vintage posters advertising them...).  I had it framed and it was worth it!


I love the colors in the poster and the mattes I chose look perfect.  The expanse of wall behind that chair was one of our last undecorated areas and I am glad I waited until I had the perfect item to hang there. 

 Speaking of Big Sky, I never mentioned before that we had a professional photo taken!  There are photographers on certain runs at certain times every day and you can ski by as they take action shots or stop and take a group photo.  In all the years we have been there we have only ordered photos once and that was when I was 14.  Every year my aunt wants to do it and we never do because it is hard to assemble everyone.  This year we got it done!  Finally!  The pictures are excellent but WAY overpriced.  Since our last order in the 90's the system has become modern and you can order the pictures on a cd to share (for a high price!).  It was nice to be able to print and share as we wished. 

 I dread outdoor photos like this because my eyes cannot take bright sunlight and I can barely keep my eyes open with out protection.  It was rather overcast but with all the snow it was still way too bright for my liking.  My dad and my brother have this issue also and you can see that most people in the photo are all struggling to look normal without frying their corneas and going blind. The photographer had to count to three so we could force our eyes open right when he snapped the photo.  Pete decided that keeping his goggles on was a better option and I should have done the same. 

Awww see you next year Big Sky!

Wreath on the Way!

Last night I was in the basement playing with Allan and I heard the doorbell ring.  I was confused because this is not a typical occurence and it had already been rang once that day by on of the city engineers working on our street construction.  I could see a man standing out on the sidewalk leading to the house.  Kind of weird.  I understood when I went to the door, however.  The main door was open and through the screen I could see a brown uniform shirt and a skinny little arm.  It was a boy scout!  The man on the sidewalk was his dad.  He was so shy!  He said something along the lines of HImynameisstuart...mumblemumble...troop123mumblemuble...then he held up a sheet with various Christmas wreaths and garlands.  It is time for the traditional boy scout wreath sale!  I haven't been asked since I have had my own residence, apartments or house.  Kids in my hometown used to sell wreaths but I had kind of forgotten about it.  The dad said they lived one block over from our street and Stuart said he went to the middle school nearbye (middle school?  I would have guessed 5th grade! Poor little guy!)  I caved right away and bought one (of course it's not here yet...it will be delivered in November).  I caved because I love Christmas decorations.  Also, I know that Justin was a boy scout member as a child and would probably like to give back.  I wanted to reward Stuart (yes, his name was Stuart!  He was skinny and had red hair!) for stepping outside of his shell and selling something to a stranger.  I have been through many school and organization fundraisers and I was even nervous asking people I knew to buy my goods (although we never sold anything as appealing as wreaths...the worst was when my basketball team sold overpriced bath products and lotions and when they arrived the bottles were so small I was embarassed to deliver them!  The best was the "Band Candy" aka World's Finest Chocolate that we sold as students in the music program.  People actually wanted that stuff.  I wish I had some Mint Meltaways right now!) so I was impressed that he would sell to someone he didn't know.  I also liked that the dad stood back and let Stuart sell all on his own while supervising from a safe distance instead of making it easy for him and just taking the order form to work with him and doing the work himself.  He even let Stuart come into my house on his own so I could write a check and fill out the form (I understand that parents are overprotective these days and many might now allow this).  I chose a 22 inch wreath for $21.00 and when I filled out the form I saw that he had been to my neigbor's house and he had bought an 18 incher!  I knew he was working in the garage so after the salesman left I went over and teased him about how our wreath was going to be bigger! 

I understand that scouts, both girls and boys, are deviating from the door to door tradition because of unsafe neigborhoods and overprotective parents.  This is why the girl scouts are always selling cookies from tables in front of grocery stores.  I'm glad I live in a neigborhood where people still feel safe letting thier kids ring doorbells and talk to people with the intent of spreading Christmas cheer through fundraising efforts!

Finally! A Place of Honor!

This dignified and attractive mirror has been in Justin's office where few people see it since we moved here. Before that, it was out of place in our apartment. Now, it finally has a home hanging on the wall of the landing at the bottom of the stairs!




Very nice!

Also, I have been meaning to post this for awhile. This is probably something only women will relate to. This is the cover of the Self magazine that I subscribe to.




I have decided that I have good taste in clothing because I have almost the same outfit and I have worn it to fun occasions several times this summer!

That was taken at the street dance I went to over the 4th of July weekend. (I was posing with some high school friends and I cropped them out because I didn't know if they would like thier pictures on the Internet or not!) I actually have another striped shirt like that in turquoise like the actress on the cover is wearing! Funny. I guess I'm a follower of trends.

Also worth mentioning, on this Friday the 13th, is that it is several people's birthday! Specifically, my uncle Tim and aunt Jenny, my mom's siblings and the two youngest in her family, both share today as a birthday! They are 48 and 46. Even stranger, Jenny's husband also has today as a birthday! So do several of our friends. Happy birthday to all of you!

Wall Decor. . .1 year later. . .

We closed on this place in the middle of August last year and I can't believe that at this time last year we were getting ready to move! The whole process happened really fast!

We filled in holes and repainted all of the walls upstairs. Doing all that work made me alot more hesitant about pounding in more nails and making more holes in the pristine walls. Of course, some decor was displayed but there were still some open spaces on the walls. One major one was the expanse of wall above the couch in the living room. I wanted something better than the old college posters (my roommate will remember the Simpsons poster and the Johnny Cash one as well). For some reason, they didn't seem like the right choice! Neither did the assortment of cheap picture frames I had hung in a grouping in the past, mostly because an assortment of frames would mean an assortment of nails! I wanted to find something that was pretty large in size but was also unique. I didn't want the same things everyone else bought at Target but I wanted it to be affordable like Target! I found alot of fun paintings on websites where little known artists sell their art and there are alot of prints I like, but framing large items is pretty expensive.

When I was studying in Norway I was exposed to some artists that I would have never known about otherwise. Our school was about two blocks from the National Gallery so I visited it a few times and purchased souvenier notecards to send to people at home. I love the art because it depicts nature but not in the cliched "Terry Redlin" way. (No offense, Mr. Reldin, you are a good artist as well).

A sampling:

Harald Sohlberg "Country Road" When we went on a rafting trip 6 hours North of Oslo the farm we stayed at looked like this, with that style of fence.

Harald Sohlberg "Winter Night in Rondane"

Terje Grostad "Enroute"

I love this and sadly I can't remember the artist! I tried to look on google and couldn't remember where I found this! It looks kind of like the work of the artist above? I hope they don't find this and get mad!

Hege Liseth "Once Upon a Time"

Jan Harr "Blue Night". This is my favorite. I sent a card version of it to my mom because it reminded me of the farm. Apparently it isn't very popular though, because I could not find a picture of it online anywhere and this artist is one of more popular ones. I finally found it on this artist's Myspace page! He used it as a cd cover. At least someone agrees with me that it is a nice image.
Eva Harr "The Way Back". The lighting is strange in some of the pictures and I think it is because the lighting is strange in Norway! In the summer it is light all the time and in the middle of the night there is still a lightness in the sky. In the winter it is dark all the time, except, I imagine, a short period of lightness around noon. So maybe they look different for that reason.
Harald Sohlberg "The Blue Bench"
Anyway, this sort of thing is kind of out of my price range right now, because even if I got just a poster it would still have to be framed. I just had to share so others might enjoy Norwegian art!
Instead, we have this!
I actually really like this picture. It was recently given to me by my grandma Phyllis after I mentioned that I had always liked it. It has always been displayed in her house in various rooms throughout the years. If you can't tell, it is a cat. I learned that her sister Gloria brought it back as a souvenir for her from Japan when she lived there in the 60's. It has a date stamped on the back-October 23, 2962. I tried to research it but didn't come up with anything important.
I finally committed to something for the wall above the couch. So it's not a vibrant painting by Jan Harr. . .
I bought it at Gordmans, which is just a small step up from Target. It was the only one there though, so that's good. Hopefully I won't see it in anyone else's house. I really like it, actually. The background almost perfectly matches the paint on the wall, and the little circles are colors that coordinate with the room.

Also, before Michelle and Jason's visit last weekend, I finally hung an assembly of pictures that I have had here since we moved it. I painted the frames last fall and wnated to hang them in the living room but Justin didn't like them so they never got displayed at all and ended up in a closet. Last week I decided enough was enough and got a level and some nails and took care of it myself! They now hang in the guest room.

I'm so proud of how straight I got them! They look off in this picture, but it is from the shadow from the window.

Also, this weekend we bought some hanging brackets for our "trough" style planters and now they are up off the ground!

Very nice.

Favorite Paint Colors!

I love the magazine "House Beautiful". I subscribe to it with the reward points get from Coca-Cola products, along with several other magazines. A few days ago my monthly issue came, so imagine my suprise when I got the mail yesterday and found this!

It is a special edition devoted to paint colors and finding the right colors for the individual person! It is a higher quality than the monthly issues, with a thick glossy cover. It is almost like a book! Oooh. . .I had to discipline myself to do some productive things around the house before I allowed myself to open it. I gives me the urge to paint something. . .haha don't worry, all of you that helped me paint our house last fall, I think I will restrain myself!
In the first few pages, there was a quiz to help people find out what colors they gravitate toward and will probably love in their house. I thought it would be fun to share it here with my answers!
1. What is the first color you see in the morning? Green

2. What color are your eyes? Blue, gray, they kind of change. . .
3. What color do you wear the most? Different shades of blue and green
4. What color do you never wear? Red, followed closely by pink. I noticed something when I was looking at baby pictures of myself. . .I was a first born daughter, and who can resist cute, girly baby outfits that are almost always pink? Apparently, my fashion conscious mom knew from the start that pink wasn't the right color for me (good call, Mother!) By the way, I love most shades of pink and red. . .just not near my face!


5. What color do you wear when you want to feel sexy? A deep jewel tone, like purple or dark blue, and black of course.

6. What color gets you the most compliments? Dark or bright shades of green. I bought a purple t-shirt at GAP about a month ago and I get alot of compliments when I wear it, so I guess purple as well.

7. What color is your lipstick? I don't wear it. . .my lipstick is the flush of health!

8. What color was your living room growing up? Hmmm. . .well, it was white with 1970's olive green carpet (shag but not over the top shaggy) and brown couches. Not pretty. Fortunately, since 2003 it has been a light olive green-ish color with tan carpet. It was a big improvement.

9. What color was your bedroom when you were growing up? It was blinding, with three East and South facing "old house" style windows that were about as tall as me and yellow wallpaper. I can't think of a lighter room I've seen besides a sun room! And, no, I didn't sleep very late in the mornings!

10. What color are your sheets? Well, JUSTIN, they were white with a light blue pattern, until they were washed with a purple blanket and are now bright pink. The new ones are white with a green trellis pattern.

11. What color was your favorite crayon as a child? Oh, I liked them all. I usually had the biggest pack available and I remember really liking Cerulean and Forest Green. I was a child who loved colors and my parents and aunts laugh about how I knew more advanced color names at a young age. Before my brother was born we lived in a mobile home in Rock Springs, WY (because of a housing shortage due to Rock Springs being an oil boom town) and the trailer had rust colored carpet and a rust shower curtain in the bathroom (It was a two bathroom mobile home! Very nice!) I was three and would talk about the rust decor and I also claimed my favorite color was fuschia. My aunt Jenny still loves to laugh about when I told her I liked fuschia. Hahaha. I believe there was a fuschia crayon and I liked it but not as much as Cerulean.

12. What color is your car? Right now it is black, but my two favorite vehicles ever were bright blue (a Ford Ranger and a Ford Fusion).

13. What color was your prom dress? Royal blue for jr. year, lavender for sr. year (I regret the lavender one.)

14. What's your favorite gemstone? Hmmm. . .my birthstone is a diamond but I always kind of envied the more colorful months. I like the saphhire and the aquamarine. (Oh, why couldn't I have been born in September or March? Haha, not really. I am fine with April. . .)

15. What is your favorite flower? Peonies, because they are so big, and hydrangeas because they look like big balls of flowers! And unique colored roses, like lavender, yellow and coral.

16. What color makes you happiest? The turquoise color of a swimming pool or the ocean!

17. What color depresses you? None, really. . .

18. What color calms you? Robin's egg blue.

19. What color makes you grind your teeth? Hmmm. . .maybe neon colors?

20. What color would you like to try, but are scared to? I'm not scared to try anything. I live with a man, though, so I have to compromise in some areas of decorating!

Well, I didn't need a magazine survey to tell me this, but I think I love blue and green! Big surprise!

Eggs and Baskets

I am at home in Bismarck this weekend and I have been doing alot of cleaning (Justin keeps everything tidy, but not necessarily clean. . .there were dust bunnies taking over the place!) These nasty bunnies reminded me that Easter (and my birthday!) are fast approaching and I decided to get out our Easter decorations. Last year they never saw the light of day because they were buried in a storage unit and we were too lazy to find them.
I am embarassed to admit that our outdoor Christmas decorations are still on display and they look really sad and dejected. The ornaments on the tree are so faded you can't tell what color they are and, as you can see, the lights have fallen out of their hooks and are dangling from the roof. Very sad. I don't feel too bad, however, because the people who live across the street have even more decorations still out. I almost took a picture of their yard but didn't want them calling the police to report me as a stalker.

I love Easter and when I was growing up we had alot of Easter decorations around our house. We would find a tree branch with ample twigs, shove it in pot with an already potted plant, and decorate it with miniature ornaments and eggs. When I was baby, someone, most likely my collectible-loving Grandma Dorothy, decided that I would collect bunny rabbit figurines. By the time elementary school was over I had many on display in my room. It got kind of out of control, but whatev. . .(Andrea was given cat and kitten figurines.) Hopefully I have a baby daughter one day so I can display the bunnies in her room. Or a baby son. . .at least until they can form their own opinions about what they want in their room! Otherwise they will remain at my parents house with all of my other crap from childhood

I realized that I should take some of the Easter decorations from home because our supply is very sad. We have this cheap and country looking door hanging item,


this cheap egg platter and matching candy dishes I got from Target's $ aisle,



And this basket Justin gave me during law school. That yellow blob is a stuffed Peep chick (like the marshmallow candy) that I bought on clearance a few years ago.

And thats it! We also had some plastic Easter eggs that I had completely forgotten about in the box. I'm having a flood of Easter memories right now, so maybe I'll save those for another day closer to Easter. . .

New Pillow Covers! Already??

Here are the pillow covers I made with the previously mentioned IKEA fabric. I love them! They are perfect for Fall and they look nice with the rug. It was a challenge to get any work done with a certain cat pestering me the whole time!

He better be careful for that needle!

Al discovered that the sitting in the sun in the window is a good way to spend the afternoon, and I think it's really cute! I took this picture from outside. . .I don't care if people think I'm crazy!

There is another project under way. . . Justin made me a "sewing table" in the basement out of a counter top and two file cabinets. I have been trying to file and it is one of my least favorite activities! I have several years of bank statements, etc. to deal with in addition to many unpacked boxes of books and picture frames. There is a really troubling box that was never unpacked when we moved from Grand Forks in August 2008.

Sorry this post was boring. . .I'm trying to watch Nip/Tuck at the same time! (Well, I'm sure they are all boring to most people, but this one was worse!)