Little Life Things (Week of 6/21/14-6/27/14)

It's only been since Aughumdy Eleventywhateverth August since I've done one of these... Guess what happened in August?  Oh right.  I became employed.  So that is pretty much the best indicator of what my first year at my new job (career?) was like!  But it's summer now, so I'm going to try to keep myself on track with these updates!  Let's get to it then.

June 21 to June 27, 2014

• Went to the library and got a library card for the first time since I was a little kid.  It was AWESOME.
• Got some new plant friends for the house.  The succulents above came from an Amish market and are propagating and growing so fast I can't keep up.  I gave some of the babies to my sister-in-law (can I just call her my sister?)
• The other new plant friends have a home on the new ledge/shelf thing in the kitchen.  It's actually three different kinds in one basket.  Let's hope they live in harmony.
• Painted!  
• Made a lot lot lot of jewelry.  And marathoned Orange Is The New Black.  These two events are extremely correlated.  
•  The next door neighbors gave (!!!) us their old treadmill.  For free.  So we added that to our budding little baby home gym that's apparently sprouted up in the den downstairs.  

And then the electrician showed up and claimed we were "sabotaging" him!

So many textures!

How We Celebrated Our Anniversary- Part Three: Let There Be Light (and cabinets and counters and paint)

Previously

When we last left off, we had knocked down half a wall, and then patched it back up.  Here's some photos to jog your memory, if you didn't feel like clicking the link up above.

Okay, so.  Down went the wall, goodbye went the gallery frames, and we tossed our pantry to the wind (just kidding.  It's currently sitting in a corner in the dining room.  Eventually it might make it down to the laundry room or garage, but don't hold your breath).  We were left with a giant cardboard box filled with our chips and cereal, and a whole lot of patchy walls and open/empty electrical sockets.  

With a wave of the magic wand, however, all of that has changed!  The electrician bounced in and fixed some things (the wall socket things were way too low for the level of the counter), then the drywall guy came back and patched some things, and then the cabinets/counter dudes came and installed... well, the cabinets and counters.  Scott and I were in the process of painting the space when the electrician showed up again to put on the plates and hang our lights, and then suddenly without any warning, we were done!  Well, mostly.  There's still some painting to do, and some plates to purchase, but good news- we have cabinets!  And counters!  And the whole space is so open and bright!  NO MORE SPLIT LEVEL KITCHEN!

First of all, our fancy cabinets.  They aren't just any cabinets, OH NO.  As you can see, there are two big drawers, and regular cabinet with a shelf- and then a middle/corner cabinet that is ACTUALLY a lazy Susan, and a pull out drawer that holds two- count 'em, TWO- trash cans.  Jack is a huge fan as well.  Jack actually loves this whole situation, because now he can sit on the ledge and survey the front door, deck door, living room, dining room, kitchen, and hallway from one spot.  

We also painted the kitchen!  No more of that beigey-bleh color that was all over the house.  It's a shade lighter than the living/dining room, and is the same color as the hallway and bedroom.  

Our new lights.  This was kind of a super spontaneous add-on.  When the electrician first came to the house, he asked if we wanted any lighting up there, and I said, "ummm.... SURE!"  He asked how many and my response was "umm..... two?"  So now we have two lights.  And I LOVE them.  The colors are not as bright in the photo as they seem in person, but I think they perfectly pull all of the spaces together- there's the blacks and browns that match the counters, the yellowy color is like the sunflowers I have in the kitchen, and the blue pulls in the blues I have in the living space.  

Lots more counter space!  We were able to hide some appliances in one of the new cabinets, and brought some of the others out onto the new island for an all over more spacious area.  

More pic spam:

Still on the To-Do list:

• Paint the ceiling
• Paint the ledge/shelf and baseboards
• Replace the missing light switch plates
• Fix the few missing/cut tiles

Before/During/After Pics:

Adulting: A Dining Room Table for Christmas

We bought our kitchen table from Fred Meyer in Portland for like 150 dollars about four years ago.  We brought it to Maryland from Oregon, and plopped it right in the dining room, where it looked like this:

This is the only photo I could find of the dining room with the old table, because I really did not like this table and never pointed the camera at it.  Notice all the water spots and just general ickyness.  It's a great table!  It just... needed an upgrade.  And there were only ever two chairs there- one was broken and is That Chair (the one that only exists to collect miscellaneous objects and clothes) in the office, and the other is being used in my craft room.  So we needed upgrades all around.  I wanted a grown-up table, preferably one that had a leaf and was nice and sturdy and... well, grown-up.  I finally found one I liked, and my parents gifted it to me for Christmas.  That's how you know you're finally an adult.  When you're excited to get a table for Christmas.  

So we had the table, but no chairs.  And my turn to host book club was in the spring- so we ended up finally finding chairs and purchasing them for book club.  And I have to say, I love this table now.  It came from World Market, and it has not one, but TWO leaf inserts.  It gets huge!  And it gets tiny.  It goes from a 4 person table to a 6 person table to a 10 person table.  The chairs and bench came from Target, and they feel super sturdy, and are cushy, and they weigh next to nothing.  

The above is what the table looks like with no leaf.  Below is with both leaves in.  We ended up liking the size with only one leaf, so that's how we have left it.  A happy medium!  

One leaf, and how it is for every day.  We were set up for fondue with my brother and his at-the-time-fiancee.  

Anyway, I love this table.  It's sturdy and rustic without looking out of place.  I also really love the bench.  We keep it on the living room side of the table so that we can easily pull it into the social space if we need more seating.  An excellent upgrade, I think!  We did have to have the table replaced once, because it showed up with a giant chunk missing from the surface.  This table had a chip on the edge, but I was able to fix it with some wood glaze stuff that I happened to have handy.  It might be better to buy something like this in person from the store, rather than have it shipped- the closet World Market is a few hours away from our home, though, and once I saw the double leaves, I had to have this one.  It all worked out in the end!

How We Celebrated Our Anniversary- Part One: Let There Be Light

By putting in a new window and blowing out some walls, of course!

Hi everyone, it's been a while ("FINALLY," exclaims my dad).  We have a lottttt to catch up on.  For one thing, Scott and I celebrated our first anniversary a few weekends ago.  It's been a full year of mawwiage, new jobs, house purchasing, and renovating.  That last part has been fairly recent, and is the focus of this entry.  

When we landed in our home, we had pretty much only two gripes with it: 1) the entry way blows (there pretty much isn't one in a split-level), and 2) too closed in and dark.  In the span of two weeks, we've managed to work on both of those issues.

First, our window!  My pride and joy.  One of the first things I said when I saw the front of the house, was "what's with that space over the door, there should be a window there."

You can't even know how much brighter the house is just from this window!  Hint: it's SO MUCH BRIGHTER.  Abby has always loved laying at the top of the stairs just in case someone decides to come over, but now she never leaves, because there's a giant swatch of sunshine that she can lay in.  Here's some more photos because I'm obsessed.  

LOOK how bright!

As you can see, we still need to paint before it is DONE done.  But I just looove how the foyer looks now.  The rug and the plant and mirror made it nice, but the sunshine from the window makes is wonderful.  And this was a super quick project (then again, we definitely did NOT DIY this.  It was super fast for the pros).  I left for work in the morning, and by mid-afternoon, it was done.  Ten-Thousand percent would recommend.  

Stay tuned for How We Celebrated Our Anniversary- Part Two.  That's the one where we blow out a couple walls and live out of a box.  Are you excited?  Cuz I am.  

Plant Life!

I really love having houseplants.  My grandmother always had a whole bunch of houseplants by the sliding door in her house, including the little cactus puff that I once tried to grab like a baseball- I ended up paying the price and learning my lesson on that one.  Not trying to sound too granola, but bringing some nature into my home really boosts my spirits.  Living nature!  In my home!  It's green, it's fresh, they clean and purify the air, and hey- they're pretty!

I'm a researcher by nature.  So I researched beneficial plants, and cross referenced them with the ASPCA list of toxic and non-toxic plants.  Because Jack really likes to nibble on greenery, and Abby... well, I don't think she'd hesitate to eat pretty much anything.  So while I might not know the names of all these plants, I do know that they are for the most part* non-toxic to the babies!  All you have to do is google the name of the plant and ASPCA- for example, "aspca english ivy" and it will pop right up to their site and let you know.  I have it pulled up on my phone every time I shop for new plants- and I have definitely gone through 15 different plants over half an hour to find the perfect one- for both appearance/care/needs AND non-toxicity.

So, here's a quick tour of the greenery in our home thus far!

When you first enter our home, you're greeted by our ponytail palm.  This one is also our newest plant!  We just picked it up this weekend, as I have been wanting a bigger plant for what tiny little entry space we have.  With a split-foyer, we don't have much of a landing- and I've been really working on making it feel more welcoming.  This plant, which is the perfect size to fit in the corner where the door can't knock it, perfectly fit the bill.  I bought the planter from Target and just dropped the store's container right in.  I'll re-pot it eventually, but the weather's about to take a nasty turn and it's too darn cold and rainy for that right now.  

Next, we move to the living room.  This space was featured a recently in my "Favorite Spaces" post.  Back then, this was an empty pot of dirt, because the African Violets that had been residing there totally croaked over the winter.  This pot is recycled from our wedding- the raku centerpieces were made by my dad, and the white ones were used on the head table, so I'm happy to be able to re-purpose something so lovely and with such meaning.  This plant is Fittonia "Superba"- dudes, I don't know.  I bought it from Lowe's and searched it on the website and it said it was good.  It's low/indirect light and claims to be easy to grow so I'm down.

My hanging plants!  I was so proud of these.  The little copper planters came from Urban Outfitters and were a Christmas gift.  These plants are Peperomia "Isabella"- again, another Lowe's find.  I wanted something interesting and drapey, and these were perfect.  It was one plant that I split after originally wanting to get two different plants and not being able to find two pet-friendly ones.  These are medium light, so they are right in front of the window.  They've been there for a few months now and seem to be doing great!

This hyacinth bulb* was an impulse purchase last year.  We got it from the grocery store of all places- it was super cheap and seemed like a cool idea.  It grew, it flowered, it smelled and looked great, it fell over from it's own weight, and then it died.  Me, being the lazy person that I am, broke off the dead dried up pieces and left it on the bar all winter.  Now- guess what- it being a bulb and all, it's growing back!  How cool is that?  The amount of roots in the bottom has probably quadrupled since the winter.

Succulents!*  I gave succulents to my bridesmaids when I asked them to join my bridal party, and kept the remainders for myself- so two of these babies have been going for over a year and a half.  The Jade Plant (far left) is the newest addition.  Sorry but I have no clue what the other two are.  These are sitting on the window sill in my kitchen, right above the sink.  The pots were a small project a few weekends ago- before, I had them in a skinny glass dish thing and I decided I wanted something cleaner and crisper.  A few coats of white paint later and voila.  Exactly the look I was going for.  

But wait, there's more.. kind of.

What's this?  What on earth could that be?

It is, in fact, the saddest and most scraggliest spider plant that ever did live.  This is the second newest plant, and the most pathetic.  On a snow day last week (yes, we had snow days last week), I went over to my parents' house and stole some of their spider plant pieces.  I put the pieces in this giant pot (I have high hopes) and put that inside a basket.  I'm really hoping it will start to grow and thrive and thicken up and fill out that pot and the basket, and eventually drape down over the china cabinet.  But right now, it hardly even pokes over the sides of the basket at all.  I put it in front of the windows during the day so it can soak up as much sunshine as possible.  Spider plants are supposed to be great house plants- they're low maintenance and filter a bunch of crap out of the air.  Apparently they also grow little white flowers, so that's cute.  

That's all we've got for now!  I still have a running "wish list" of plants on my phone.  Someday my house will probably look like the secret garden.  That's the end goal, anyway.  

*The hyacinth is NOT non-toxic- which means it IS toxic to animals.  It was the very first plant thing that we purchased, and I didn't know about the ASPCA site at the time.  I keep it up and away from Abby and on a surface that Jack has never jumped on.  Succulents are toxic on a case-by-case basis- some are and some aren't.  Again, I've got these placed where Abby can't reach and Jack is way more interested in dangly type plants and has not expressed an interest in them.

Living/Dining Room and the Den: Paint Edition

When we moved into the house, the walls were the same color in every room.  The ceiling was also the same color in every room- the same color as the walls.  It was like Doom.

Whyyyy is the ceiling covered in stone bricking also how is that even staying up?

Thankfully, the ceilings were painted white before we officially moved in.  And the walls were fine- very neutral, very blah- but fine.  Once we officially purchased the house, we decided we could probably start looking at paint.  

I didn't take any photos of progress or anything.  And I really don't even want to dig through and find old photos from "before."  BUT, we have only painted two rooms so far, and since everything was the same color, there's plenty of ways to show comparisons.  We will start with the upstairs!  

We started with the dining/living room space.  We went with a lightish grey color that I am in love with- I especially adore it with the white trimmings.  

Man, doesn't that just look so crisp??

Since we haven't yet done the whole upstairs (still working on figuring out where to start/stop if we do different colors yada yada yada), the corner of the dining room is a perfect comparison shot for the old/new colors.

I love it.  It looks different at different times of the day, but it always looks great.  The color is Valspar Metropolis.  Here are a few more photos from around the room, in different lighting and times of day.

Pot of dirt makes a return cameo

Alright, so that's the upstairs.  Let's move on to the downstairs/den!  My goal for the den was an earthy feel- browns, greens, off-whites, wood and brick and stone, and metallics and reds for a pop.  We are getting there, slowly.  When it was time to choose a color, we wanted a green.  I have to admit- this was not my first choice when we swatched, but Scott was really into it, so we went with it.  It grew on my as soon as it dried.  I especially love it up against the brick.  

OOOooOOOoo, Aaaaaahhhh.  I know.  Here's more:

See with the brick?  Loving it.  That hangy-downy-beam-thing is the color that the walls were before we painted them, so below is the comparison photo!

This is with the weird lighting downstairs- 

yellowish lamp light and pure white LEDs.

This color is Valspar Native Henna.  I was a bit worried that it would be too dark downstairs in an already dark room, but it is actually great and really fits the mood I was going for.  

Anyway, those are the two rooms we've completed so far.  We have the paint for the office but we haven

t gotten around to that yet.  It's really amazing what some paint can do as far as making a house feel that much more YOURS.  

Displaying Wedding Photos

I might have gone a little bit wedding-photo wacky after I got them back from our photographer.  But I mean, really- can you blame me?  I don't know about other couples, but aside from our engagement photos, we have never had great, quality photos of just the two of us.  Believe me, I've looked.  I'm getting tot he point where I'm actively trying to find something- anything- that isn't a wedding photo to fill the empty frames I still have around the house.

But anyway.  The point of this post is not "I have too many wedding photos," but "here are some ideas for how to display them- because believe me, I've tried it all."  Let's break it down:

I have two framed tabletop setups.  One on the console table, and one in my favorite nook.

Yes, that is a pot of dirt.

Sticking with the frame theme, I also have one wedding portrait in the china cabinet along with our cake topper.  This setup will possibly relocate into my curio cabinet- once I locate and purchase said curio cabinet.  For now, I think it looks rather nice in the fancy frame with the fancy dishes- and it makes a sweet parallel to the topper.

Pretty adorable, right?

Buttt of course, frames aren't just for standing.  Oh no.  They are also for hanging on walls.  So.  Here I have a trio of "first dance" portraits.  The middle one has our wedding song lyrics printed as a backdrop.

And then OF COURSE, there's gallery walls.  This one is "mixed media" and has been growing and changing since we moved into the house.  

There's five wedding photos in here.

And then, last but not least- I made a gallery wall that is only wedding photos.  Because I didn't think there were enough displayed around our home to begin with, I needed an entire wall.

But wait, there's more!  What's another great way to display wedding photos without actually displaying them?  Coffee table books!  Or, um... albums.  We had a photobooth at our wedding, and the attendants put a copy of each strip into an album for us, which doubled as our guestbook.  Additionally, I created a wedding photo album with our pro photos.  Together, they sit on the coffee table in the living room (or on a shelf on the end table if I don't want them out).

"But wait, Alissa," you're probably thinking right now, "what did you do with your copies from the photobooth?"  Great question.  Remember this?  Yea you guessed it:

Boom.  And there you have it.  I am extremely vain, and there's proof of it all over my house.