unpacking, etc.

ah, moving. not my favorite. i am exhausted and getting ready to head over to our old apartment to (hopefully) finish cleaning out the basement and staging everything for its impending transfer to a) good will, b) the new house, or c) the boneyard. meanwhile, i am listing stuff to sell on craigs list, because who in the hell has time for a yard sale? the landlord's being a cock himself, and not returning my phone calls about the money he owes me in deposits and ceiling fans. and well--i am just pretty well ready to be done with this mess and focus on the new house.

that said, the new house IS progressing along, even if it's slower than i would like. the bedroom is passable, although only half unpacked. the living room is set up, even if all the books are in boxes. the dining room is functional. the guest room and computer room are about half way there, and the kitchen--well, the kitchen is a work in progress. i have managed to unpack the booze, the barware, and the tea. i have also cleaned up the wreck i made out of everything while frantially searching for spoons the other night. and we're, you know, eating and drinking and all that. in fact, someone already spilled a drink in the new house--a whole glass of red wine! she shouldn't feel TOO bad though, since the hippie created a beer tsunami just a couple of days later in the dining room floor. oh the tragedy of alcohol abuse that's been afoot!

our friends have been just awesome through this whole thing. we had MANY people helping is move the heavy things last saturday, one of whom even drove down from maryland with a truckload of ikea bookshelves for the hippie. our friend amy has worked on the house about as much as we have--she's been involved in the painting, the cleaning, the packing, the unpacking, the putting together of furniture, the replacing of light fixtures, etc. we definitely owe her a stripper or something. maybe a new car. and THK has been great company while i have been unpacking. she shows up with her knitting and just hangs out with me while i sort through things and put things away that no one can really help with. it reminds me of the glorious college moments when there was always a girlfriend handy to read trashy magazines and paint her toenails while you cleaned and re-organized your dorm room or procrastinated your term paper. i love that! by the way, that's a picture from the lunch break she and the hippie nad i took on sunday at XIOS, a great little greek place near the new house. it was WAY too perfect outside to work the whole day with no chill-breaks! that's her yarntini yarn in the cosmopolitan colorway next to her neon martini--an excellent combination.

anyway--i am clearly babbling, so it must be time to go. *sigh* y'all wish me luck with the nasty moldy basement...

rant: blogger sucks

i wrote a whole blog post. a long one. with pictures. and blogger killed it because of an html error. wtf, people? old blogger let me fix those--does new blogger just refuse to deal with one tiny broken tag??! anyway--i don't have the strength to re-write the thing right now, and besides--it's a knitting lunch day, so i am going to go knit for the first time in a week. suffice it to say, i am tired. i am unpacking. all is well, but overwhelming. i'll write a real post later today. again. grrrrrrr...

angst past, new house still the Right Thing

now that the well-timed bout of food-poisoning is past, my angst and doubt over the new house appears to have evaporated as well. the new house is so pretty inside, and it's starting to fill up with our stuff, which makes it feel more like Our House. the hippie's been saying that it has felt for the past month like we have been painting someone else's house. i think we are both pretty ready to move in and stake our claim. i wish i could lay claim to this lovely plum tree as well--it's in our neighbor's yard, but the yards are so small that this translates to--right beside our driveway. these blossoms are so lovely--they lift the spirit.

doubt

it's warm out, and i step onto the front porch and inhale the scents of this old neighborhood. i walk into the bathroom where the window is open, and it reminds me so much of my grandmother's house when i was a child that i want to cry. and i wonder, are we making a mistake? i love the new house, but is it as US as this old rickety place has been? call it late night packing melancholy, call it hormones, or call it whatever you like. for all my overall excitement, tonight i am filled with doubt. it probably doesn't help that i have been sick since about 8:30pm. but whatever. not having a good night. glad the hippie's not home to see it.

new pretties for the house

two posts in one day--y'all try not to have a heart attack, now...

because the hippie and i haven't spent any money in a while--oh wait... since you can never spend too much money when you are buying a new house, the hippie and i bought a new dining room table and chairs last night. this is the chemia dining room set from world market, and it's AWESOME. very sturdy and pretty. my friend jenn has this same table, and she sent me a link when it went on sale--now i have it, too! it was just too good of a deal to pass up. it's going to be SO NICE to be able to use things like place mats and table runners and stuff without having to keep the table 100% covered all the time. i am sure THK is going to take one look and go--new yarn table! (and it's true...)

i also caved and bought the media stand from crate and barrel that i have been lusting after. i went and looked at it, made sure that the doors pop out so i can clean them, and then laid some bucks down on the table so the shiny new tv has a place to put its feet. i am not even going to START talking about the appliances! not to mention the retardedly expensive toilet paper holder i bought. maybe buying a house makes you crazy.

does anyone know when pottery barn puts their upholstery on sale?

present

good thing for y'all those cupcakes were cute, since i made you look at them for so freakin' long! it's been a crazy couple of weeks, as i am sure you can imagine. i won't go into the gory details, but let's just say i have been painting. a lot. and packing. and when i am not doing those two things, i am...um... oh yeah! spending money on paint! i am in the early phase of home-ownership when it seems that $200 leaps from my pocket into the lowes cash register every time i set foot outside the house.

so anyway, sometime last week (the days, they are running together) i went over to the new house to do some things, and i found THIS is my mailbox!

a package! my first one at the new house! flaurella, who rocks, sent me something as a little housewarming present. i LOVE getting stuff in the mail! wanna know what was inside? OF COURSE YOU DO!!!

i may have mentioned before that my friend flaurella has a shop called eclectica that sells vintage costume jewelry--she has all kinds of great stuff on her site. in fact, the hippie bought me a beautiful charm bracelet i wanted from her just last fall--i LOVE it and wear it all the time. and i am not the only one who loves her--she was recently featured in a new york times article about cameos, which is just awesome. but anyway, back to MY package! look at this beautiful wrapping--even the plain white tissue paper looks good. i love the little victorian stamp and i think that the little rosebud on the box is a lovely touch as well. inside, there were three little charms to add to the bracelet the hippie gave me or to start a new one. one is a ball of yarn. flaurella seems to think i might have a thing for yarn or something. the second is a little house in honor of my first house, which about made me cry. and then the third is a tiny currituck lighthouse which was our favorite out of all the lighthouses the hippie and i visited last spring about this time. such lovely and thoughtful gifts--i was, and still am, blown away! i know i am a sap, but sometimes the small gifts have the most punch to them, expecially when they come out of the blue and are so well-considered. so thank you, flaurella! thank you SO MUCH! and i am really very sorry that all my thank-you notes are packed up in a box somewhere in the madness so that i can't send you a proper Southern thank-you. i'll get to it, i swear!

4 days till move-in day. trying to keep the panic at bay...

mmmm...cupcakes!

yesterday's normal sunday knitting and cooking madness was interrupted by the making of 48 cupcakes for gabriella's fourth birthday party. it's really hard to believe she's almost 4 already! i feel like she was just born about 5 minutes ago. anyway--this is how i spent my sunday morning. i baked the cupcakes and made two colors of green buttercream icing for them. then THK and i decorated them with jelly beans in various green flavors and little flower-shaped candies and dark green writing icing. this was SO MUCH FUN! i admit to taking some cues here from the baking of jane and the fairy cakes in nigella lawson's cookbook, how to be a domestic goddess (thanks aimee!)--i am just glad i had a reason to do some baking of my own. i am also happy to report that in all, i only ate two cupcakes. it could have been a LOT worse!!! :)

in other cooking and eating news, THK made her first roasted chicken the other night--go D!

lust, homeowner style

like any new homeowner, i have become obsessed with browsing around for furniture and stuff for the new house. in addition to the massive cash we are about to throw down for the appliances we must have to make the house work, i am also filled with lust for the following items, some of which we actually need, and some of which are just yummy.

needed: the charleston sofa from pottery barn in cranberry twill or cardinal brushed canvas. we have a sleeper love seat that matches this sofa, and it's AWESOME. it's comfy and pretty and has machine washable slipcovers, which i highly recommend for anyone with pets. plus, our cutrrent sofa is a piece of crat that's falling apart and with which the cats have had their way one too many times...

needed: the kingston media stand from crate and barrel. i have been looking at media stands everywhere. the hippie's gonna buy a big screen TV, which is fine and all, but this require some more furniture. the little stand we have now will not work with a ginormous TV, nor will it hold all the crap that goes with it. so. this is the best one i can find that fits the bill and will (mostly) work. plus, it's pretty. :)

wanted: SHEETS! i LOVE sheets. and i think these chrysanthemum sheets from garnet hill are just so pretty. i want them in blue AND green to go with my blue and green bedroom. i don't NEED them at all--i just WANT them. and i am embarassed to say that i also want these christmas sheets. it's actually hard for me to believe that i want christmas sheets as i generally keep the holiday stuff confined to the main living spaces of the house. but man, these are just too cute, and i think they would look awesome with our bright blue walls. *sigh*

i was planning to put a picture here of the pivot dining room table from crate and barrel, which we have also wanted for a long time. but now that i look at it again, i realize i am not 100% sold on it anymore. i still think it's cool as hell, but it may also be too small. hmmmm. guess i have more shopping to do!

seagull grey

i am leaving work a bit early today to go do more of this. this is the color of the new living room. everyone keeps asking what color everything will be, so i thought i would start indulging. coincidentally, many of our color choices fall witin the bounds of project spectrum, so this tiny post is a double whammy. :)