How I A-door

There's a long list written on a yellow legal pad in my dining room, and yesterday I got to cross off two things:

• Paint kitchen ceiling (check!)
• Hang headboard

It's the to-do-before-Christmas list. This is my first time hosting Christmas, and also our first Christmas living here. It's important to do it up right, and apparently to me doing it up right involves a 71 1/4" door hung on the wall in our bedroom. The door came from our Binghamton house, where it had moldered in the attic for who knows how long. At some point somebody hacked the upstairs of that house into pieces, and there was one door too many. So we've brought it here to live with us, a nice reminder of our old house.

It wasn't an overly difficult project, but it did involve a table saw at the last minute. Fortunately, both dads own table saws. How crazy is that? You know you're in a DIY family when...

All I did was trim a few inches off one end (to center the panel), paint it (three coats), and then follow these crazy ingenious instructions to hang it on the wall, all while holding my breath. 

Our bedroom continues to make progress. Now for a new bedspread and a rug and some rearranged art and to hem the curtains... and a full length mirror... oh, it's still a very long road ahead. One step at a time, one step at a time.

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In the bedroom

Our bedroom as it was, the week after move-in.

It happens every summer. The thrill and delight for stepping on shovels, for digging and hauling, for having dirty fingernails slowly ebbs, with the evening light, so there's just a little less each day. And as it goes, slowly, slowly too there's the trickling in (or rather, trickling back, like the tide) of a desire to be nesting. 

That's really a good thing, because about the time the garden-passion starts to ebb, the "Oh my GOD the house is a wreck!"- thoughts begin to rear their ugly head. 

It felt so good to focus on the inside, yesterday evening. Oddly, the bedroom is the one room of the house that's really beginning to pull together. I think it's because I've had the clearest vision of that room, from the start, and so it's just a matter of connecting dots. In most of the other rooms, there are still decisions to be made, options to be considered. In the bedroom, things are falling into place.

Patrick helped me put the bed skirt I made on the bed before leaving for rehearsal. It's a little wonky, admittedly very wrinkled, but I'm really loving the contrast with the dark floor. I made it out of two queen-size sheets I thrifted for $2, which allowed me to skip out of having to pay $80+ for a pre-made bed skirt. Who in their right mind would do that? I wanted something so basic, I just screwed up my courage (knowing it would be an extremely boring, repetitive project--and it was!) and got it done.

And I should mention-- the bed frame is one of those super-cheapo metal ones that we outfitted with a big piece of plywood (because we don't have a box spring) and nice long wooden legs (courtesy of my dad at Brookside Woodworking). I am thrilled. But that's me. I get thrilled whenever awesome results are achieved with a $20 bed frame and $2 sheets.

The lamps I picked up at a yard sale last year for $10/pair; the shades were scooped up last week as part of Home Depot's lighting sale for $9 apiece. I made the throw pillows. The dressers came to us, for free, by way of my wonderful in-laws and good connections. The duvet cover (sans duvet) was part of the guest room in our old house. The pictures leaning against the wall everywhere ended up getting hung on the walls right after I took this picture (it was getting dark) and I love them. They're from Puerto Rico; a nice souvenir of a trip there when I was twenty.

I really, really love the curtains. They need to be hemmed-- small potatoes-- but so far I'm enjoying rolling over in the mornings and watching the sun and leaf-shadows playing through the delicate flower-printed voile. They look more washed-out in the pictures than they do in real life. That, I think, is the best part of the whole room.

Here's what's left:

• Find a pair of nightstands so Patrick's lamp doesn't sit on the floor and I don't have to use a chair for mine.
• Refinish an old door (from Binghamton) and hang as a "headboard" on the wall over the bed.
• Hem curtains
• Hang a full-length mirror on the wall by the door (just to the left in the picture above).
• Buy a wastepaper basket
• Swap current light fixture (ugly gold "boob light") for chic ceiling fan. Retire oscillating fan to closet.
• Find a rug-- perhaps a runner for each side of the bed?

It's such piece-of-mind having one room beginning to feel like home. Well, the whole house feels like home-- I smile every time I see the dining room light fixture or the flower wall-- but in the bedroom, things are taking shape. Chaos is ceding to order, to chosen details that add up to contentment. 

And that, friends, is what nesting is all about.

Anyone have any door-as-headboard war stories to share? How does it work? Most importantly, what color should I paint mine? 

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Lamp revamp

I finished this project last week, before departing for North Carolina, but I wanted to share it with you before I forgot.

Like most things, the story of this lamp is really more of a saga.

I bought the lamp itself back in October, at Charlie Brown's Antiques. It was five bucks. Where now you see white, it was gold. It had no shade. I looked past those small imperfections, and was lured in by the amber glass.

I brought it home, taped off the glass, and painted it green. Mistake. I smacked myself on the forehead, rolled my eyes, and lugged the now-uglified lamp to the basement.

And there it sat, waiting in the wings, waiting for a brief clearing, a chance to be resurrected. Last week, I doggedly collected the necessary items: white spray paint, a lampshade from Salvation army, ribbon and fabric.

In between applying coats of spray paint, I worked on covering the lampshade. Something I'd never done before. I had a tutorial in hand. I had tailor's tape and hot glue and Gingher shears and a fair amount of Crafty Impunity. In the end, I decided to be satisfied with my first attempt, even though the fabric doesn't quite meet in back. Oh well, that's what the back is for, to be turned towards the wall so no one will see the my true lazy-lampshade-recovery colors.

Right?

Total cost:

Lamp: $5

Shade: $2

Spray paint: $3

Fabric: $3/yd, used less than half a yard

Ribbon: $1

I love that part. And I love my new lamp.

Our bedroom is well on its way to having some style, finally.

You've got me floored

Behold, for we were able to move back into our bedroom this weekend. More planks of shiny cherrywood laminate were locked into place, and piece by piece, our new floor was brought into being.

I am thankful for father-in-laws, and for dogged husbands. I am also thankful for mother-in-laws, (specifically, mine) who came over to help pull approximately 500 million staples out of the to-be-reupholstered couch while Patrick and my father-in-law worked on the floor. So, while The Guys measured and re-measured, cursed and cut and sweated, The Girls sipped tea and wielded needlenose pliers like no one's business. It was a good day. Long, but good.

This was the before picture-- pretty sad, considering we've lived in this house for three years. Pretty impressive, considering there was a gaping hole in the ceiling over the bed when Patrick bought the house, and no paint on the walls, and ugly beige carpet on the floor.

And now, post-floor. I still have a very, very long way to go before our bedroom is the beautiful, cozy room I know it can be. For the past three years, I've resolutely poured time and money and energy into just about every room of the house--except the bedroom. Poor, neglected bedroom. Time to rectify this situation. Anyone have any decor ideas? On my list: curtains, stuff on the walls, matching bedside lamps, and a big mirror to hang above my dresser. At some point I'd like to ditch the totally character-less Ikea bedroom set for... mmm... maybe an antique four-poster, a vanity with a hinged mirror, and a bow-front cherry dresser for Patrick. Hey, as long as you're wishing, you might as well go all the way, right?

Right.

Weekend, in five pictures

Starting with boxes:

Covering up:

Cutting:

Making progress:

Sleeping here:

For the time being, our bedroom is populated by sawdust, slightly terrified cats, and the slow progression of copper-colored flooring across the room. It's been a long time coming, but oh, our new bedroom floor is on its way! More pictures to come when the project is finished. Hopefully, that'll be next weekend.

Incidentally, sleeping sandwiched between two sleeping bags on the foldout is pretty darn comfortable!

Where did the weekend take you?

Spring has become imaginable

Mat stands in the change of light as he has been standing all along, but
changed. He knows he won't think of winter again; spring
has become imaginable. He feels an elation, then... Now
they will move certainly again towards what will happen.
     ~Wendell Berry, A Place on Earth.

This is my favorite book to read in springtime. I guess that's a little odd, but don't we all have our favorite songs to listen to in summertime with the car windows down? Don't we have stories we read at particular times each year, every year? Twas the Night Before Christmas, for example? To me, spring is way better than Christmas, and reading A Place on Earth is how I welcome it back.

Spring is imaginable for the first time today. It's gray outside (the picture was taken yesterday), and later it will rain. The air has lost its sharpness; it's calmed and gentled. When the space heater beside me kicks off for a minute, I can hear geese overhead. Later, when I step outside, the air will be pungent with the smells of soil and growth. That's what spring is, really: an awakening of the senses. Every year, when it comes, we all learn again how lucky we are to have the eyes and ears to enjoy it with. Soon, I'll be rejoicing, too, in having sturdy arms and legs to wield a rake and a shovel. My seeds have arrived; I'm bursting with excitement to go out and plant them.

Within in a month, there will be the first leaves of lettuce (maybe even the first fresh salads?). There will be compost turning, and raking, and muddy footprints in the house. There will come a day when I string up lights out on the porch, and sweep and mop a winter's worth of maple twirlers and dead leaves out of its corners. These are the things I thrill in thinking about as I'm waiting to fall asleep at night.

And you, what are you looking forward to in springtime?

Winter blues

Well, it's January, nigh unto the winter doldrums. I love the sweet sheltered feeling of a warm house on a cold night as much as the next person. I love hot soup, (anyone who reads this blog surely knows that) and hot bread, and oatmeal on chilly mornings. Winter has its joys, but right now, I'm missing warm weather. Maybe it's the seed catalogs I keep getting in the mail. Maybe it's the mung beans in the mason jar, reminding me how long its been since I saw something sprout. Whatever it is, I've got a doozy of a case of mid-winter melancholy.

Each year, Christmas comes way too fast: no matter how much time I spend on preparations, it's not enough. It comes and goes far too quickly. All of a sudden you wake up, it's January, and there's a sad anachronistic Christmas tree in your living room. The celebrating has all been done. There's no more carols to sing, no more stockings to hang, no cards in the mail. All that's left to anticipate is long, cold weeks with no punctuation, and somewhere far ahead, a glimmer of springtime. If I could change one thing about the calendar, Christmas would be in February. Two months between Thanksgiving and Christmas, plenty of time to savor the long, slow buildup of expectations and excitement. Does this sound good to anyone else? Maybe we'll start a movement.

How do you get through these ho-hum months of the year? Me, I'm off to research soup recipes, and plan my garden.

... and spend a few minutes laying in the sunshine with Olive. She knows how to beat the winter blues.

Olive in the sunshine

Here's some sweet furriness for you while I post this meme:

1. Started my own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than I can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland/world

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sung a solo

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched lightning at sea

14. Taught myself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown my own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitchhiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a Marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught myself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had my portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten Caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had my picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

100. Ridden an elephant

I like this one. It's a good, representative list of meaningful life experiences. Thanks, Jen, for this. I hereby tag MadSilence.

Have a good Saturday, everyone!

Leedle bordies

Well. It's officially past Thanksgiving, which means it is serious crunch time for those who make their own Christmas presents, like me. Yesterday, I rummaged through my scraps and made these birds. I can't take credit for the pattern, or the idea, it's found right here. I thought it was too beautiful and magical (lifelike, almost) to pass up, and I've never made a mobile before.

And since Pete and Diesel got the glory of appearing on my blog, I thought I'd let our other critters into the limelight (ha, ha). In the foreground is Ophelia, and (yawning) is Olive. They enjoy warm quilts, and sunny days when their owners are thoughtful enough to open the blinds.