Weeds

Huh boy. You know, lots of people would like to have a little garden space to putter around in, spend their weekends pulling weeds and watch wave after wave of plants bloom and decorate their landscape. Not me. I do not have a green thumb. I do not have house plants. I had an air plant that died. From too much air? I do not know.

Here's a picture of it in healthier days. Fortunately West Elm has more of these for $4.00 each so I had a hasty funeral for this guy, bought a replacement and will keep buying more as needed.

So no surprise that I'm facing a huge dilemma in my yard. Both front (6' x 6'?) and back (20' x 40'ish). Honestly, even the parking strip feels overwhelming. If you have unsolicited advice about low maintenance gardens let me know.

Sketchy

Yep, it's been a while since my last post. Since last May I've unpacked, moved in, been slow and been busy. Lately work work is filling up my time but I've also been putting the finishing touches on my Sketchbook project. It's due Tuesday so I dropped it in the mail today. Thanks to my friend Leilani I was motivated to power through and actually finish it this year. The Sketchbook Project is kind of an art happening organized by the Art House Co-op in Brooklyn, NY. It's open to anyone who wants to participate and basically they send you a book and you fill it in anyway you want. I filled mine with a bunch of photographs that I shot and then messed around with in Photoshop.

If you live in NY, Chicago, LA, SF or a handful of other cities you can check out my book when the 2012 collection goes on tour. So far almost 20,000 people have signed up to participate. If you do go to see the 2012 tour definitely check out Leilani's book. It's really beautiful. Sketchbook tour dates are posted here.

Eastern Exposure

Sometimes you want to hide all your dishes away in a cabinet where no one will see them. And sometimes you have an architect who loves the idea of a modern, european feel in the kitchen. And because I trust my architect I have these great, chunky, open shelves that run the length of the kitchen wall from just north of the sink down south to the edge of the refrigerator. 

If you've looked at this blog before you might have already noticed them, empty and waiting to bear their heavy load.

And now they hold my collection of super colorful new and vintage dishes

and glasses and various coffee making appliances. 

The rest of the kitchen stuff is mostly under the island,

                          

and there's a nice sized food pantry next to the fridge. 

There are some cabinets under the sink side too, along with a couple appliances and a spot for the trash can (très glam). What do you think of the mix of stainless and wood cabinets? I like it. The drawer pulls work well on both the stainless and the wood and they both look really good with the countertop stone. That was another smart kitchen idea from my architect. He liked the idea of the island looking like its own piece of furniture that just happened to be in the kitchen - rather than matchy matchy cabinets. I think it looks great. Thanks Bill.

Oh poo

Come on in and see the cutest little washroom in the world. You may have already read about my curtains on the blogosphere. And by that I mean my last post. They're red and made out of material. Read all about them here (really? you need to be linked to that? just scroll down. use your finger.)

Interesting note about the picture above. It was taken at 4:14.

I have two bats. One for me and one for you. Come on over.  

     I'm still loving the upstairs bath. The skylight keeps it light and bright and all that white marble and tile are looking sharp, clean and classic. It's pretty great.So those are the bathrooms. One more fun fact, they're pretty soundproof. So if you want to record an album I've got the perfect place for you. 

It's Curtains For Me

Well, things have been busy here at Huron.  After unpacking and unpacking and unpacking ad nauseam it's starting to feel like home. A home that looks directly into the homes next door. So in addition to unpacking I've also been doing a little sewing.

The kitchen got a straightforward white cotton. I bought this fabric a long time ago and made some pillow cases out of part of it. This remnant hung around all these years just waiting for its big moment to shine. I like it, it feels fresh and old fashioned at the same time.  Plus, after all these years I don't remember the moment of buying it so due to a faulty memory its pretty much like it was free.

This little number is working class red pinstripe ticking. So cute.

It was supposed to go in the kitchen but things didn't go as planned. I forgot about the old adage measure twice cut once. Oops. But if you remember the stuff I just wrote under the picture of the kitchen curtains you'll know that I like the white cotton fabric that ended up there. And this ticking looks super snappy in the little half bath. I think another good option in here would have been black and white toile,

like this. The walls in there are Anchor Gray and the toile would have looked great against that battleship color. But like I keep saying, I cut the red and white stripe wrong. And it fit perfectly in the window so there it stays.

Now I don't expect people to like these checks in the master bedroom. But just like Madonna back in the late 80's, I'm very provocative. I can't help it. These curtains are the fabric equivalent of "Papa Don't Preach." So I'll tell you now,

if you don't like them it's because you don't understand them.

Someone is about to lie to you

I'm completely unpacked and everything has been put away. The move is done! 

No, not really. That's a lie. There are still plenty of boxes laying around and loads of stuff that needs to find a place to live. But it's better than the picture above from a week and a half ago.

So even though the place is still an absolute mess there are a couple new pieces being added. I went to West Elm last night and ordered

a couple of these chairs (on the left, not the stool) for seating at the island,

bought this rug, which is too small for the dining room area where I intended to put it but feels great on the tootsies so I'm keeping it, and a box and candle just for fun.

Still on the hunt for a rug for the dining room, soon I'll figure out that I need some other things that aren't on the radar right now, and someday I'll start thinking about the yard. I did buy something fun for the front door but that's also on order and won't ship for another month or two. I'm thinking it'll take about 8 more weeks before it starts feeling like home.

Move It

The big move happened on Monday and the remnants at the old place were loaded up and moved on Tuesday so I'm officially in at Huron.

Right now I'm living in the midst of packing boxes and trying to find the essentials. My winter coat (still very necessary here), printer, books and drinking glasses are all mia. No alarm clock or table lamps. It's a little unsettling, I like when my stuff is where it belongs.

Most of the contractor's work is done, just a few minor fixes left. And then it'll be onto the furnishings and figuring out the yard.