Hitting the Wall(s)

We are sooooo used to bare walls. Before Christmas, not a thing was hanging. I am proud to say though, that we are beginning to hit up the wall decorating. And that's important BECAUSE our living space is currently very green, white, and brown ...We need some mo' color! 

So here are our first additions. 

This calendar, from PaperSource, knocks my socks. Each month of awesome pattern power can be turned into a gift box, file folder, or note card thanks to cut and fold lines on the back of each page.

Available from Paper Source- Now it's 1/2 off because, well, it's February already

This divider wall between the living room and kitchen, has a face that features prominently in the dining space. Boring whiteness, but now, with the calendar...hello personality. 

On to another dinning room wall. We have learned that, while our new home has treated us very well, there was a time when someone did some shoddy or misinformed electrical work. A lot of outlets are crooked, neutral wires missing, etc. And there are outlets where outlets are not normally needed. Take this one: about 7 feet from the floor and 3 feet from the top of the counter. 

(You can see hints of another project we are working on to the right!)

So, we hid it. We didn't even have to get out the hammer and nails.

I noticed this clock while browsing seltzerstudios.com (a great place for quirky interior pieces). However, Hubs found it for cheaper at Amazon.

Available at Amazon

So our walls are slowly becoming a reflection of us...colorful and nerdy.

Maturity? Sort of...

Today my husband joins me in his 27th year of life. Happy Birthday Ceej! It's upper-20s now for us both. We still feel (ahem, and maybe act) like we are 18. It's hard to wrap our brains around our full 27 years of life. It's strange to realize that we are supposedly functioning adults. However, when I take an external look, I suppose the proof is irrefutable:

- We are married

- We own a house

- We each work 40-65 hours per week

- We have a budget

- We set our own priorities

- We talk through our problems because we want a healthy relationship

- We go on vacations all by ourselves

- We pass on dessert sometimes

And look at the gifts I got Ceej for his birthday this year:

Can be purchased on Amazon and other bookstores...more likely those in Ohio

We want to start a garden come spring! But we don't know how. I watched my parents garden as a child, but I didn't do much other than eat and occasionally harvest the produce of their labors. This book should be the assist we need. Very adult-ish, eh? I just gave my husband a gardening book for his birthday...and he liked it.

And this wii game...it's Wheel of Fortune. We honestly like to watch this show. Hmmm....

Hi Pat, Hi Vanna

So here's to adulthood, or should I say teenagers living like responsible adults?

Thanks for being born Ceej! We have been married for 1.5 years, so it is now actually quantifiable. I am officially and measurably better and happier for having you in my life.

Shamefully Long

It has been....almost 1.5 months since my last post. Consider me ashamed of my blog neglect. I need to find a way to ease the process of images getting from my camera and onto my blog. I'm a digital perfectionist by profession, so maybe I just need to loosen up.

The worst part is...things have been happening around our house! New Christmas gifts have arrived and wall decor is developing. It will all be revealed soon; I pledge it to you!

Until then, feast your eyes on this BEAUTIFUL modern painting from ModernHouseArt. Every now and then I find something that just sticks in my brain; like it's fused to my design subconscious.

ModernHouseArt

For a painting like this, I would be willing to pay $345...if I had it to spare that is. A lot of her art is striking, but this is by far my favorite. Look at the organic colors geometrically confined in an organic pattern! It's magic!

ModernHouseArt

ModernHouseArt

MMMMMMMMM.......

Foxy

Hey remember that owl trend? O wait, it's still happening.

Owls are :

Sneak attack hunters

Wise

Can spin their heads a long way around

Nocturnal

Cough-ers of un-digestible dinner pellets

Unlikely characteristics for a design trend, but we've made them incredibly cute and trendy. I even made an owl pattern once. Eventually this print will be on something in our homemade home. Maybe a journal? Any ideas?

Copyright 2010

But now there is a new animal trend on the rise, as equally unlikely, but just as cute when design-ified. Here some clues:

• Sneaky
• Clever
• Hunter of rodents and small critters
• Nocturnal 
• Foxy

Got it yet?

It's a fox!! Foxes are on the rise!

Here's some of my new favorite fox designs.

Red Fox Screen Print by Sass&Peril

Fox Print by Ty Wilkins via Poster Cabaret

Sly Fox Door Knocker from Anthropologie

Fox Pillow from A Beautiful Mess

Fox on a Bike Shirt from Dark Cycle Clothing

Just like owls though, proceed with caution! :)

Feeding of the Twenty-Five

Feeding 25 people is not a miracle, especially when it's a potluck and all we're providing is the (22lbs.) turkey. Food wasn't the concern...space was!

Every year, on the week before Thanksgiving, our friends in the area and beyond get together for "Friend Thanksgiving". It's a tradition that started about 4 years ago. I must admit, it is one of my favorite meals of the whole year. A giving of thanks with friends.

For 2010, the numbers grew to 25 participants, which meant 25 amazing people at our house for a Thanksgiving feast. I didn't know how on earth that many people could sit or even fit in our little house. BUT, we bought the house for it's open floor plan and put it to the test. By borrowing tables and chairs, we made one long line of tables from the dinning room all the way to the living room wall. Every table surface was covered. The food and drinks took over every inch of kitchen counter space (including the board we put over the sink), and we still had to hide the dessert in the back bedroom until we could clear the dinner foods.

Half of the Feast

turkey is done!

BUT it worked! People were patient and we all had somewhere to sit.

My favorite part of the evening was the growing noise as more and more people arrived. It wasn't long before I had to nearly shout to carry on a conversation. People in groups, chatting it up with big smiles.

A holiday hosting idea : attach a mini-fundraiser to your potluck. People at the Friend Thanksgiving this year could either bring a dish to share, or $5 to give to the Haitian orphans we met last summer (learn more here, here, and here.) Most people were so sweet that they did both!

Moral of the story, it's a major blessing to have enough to survive, enough to share, and enough to give.

Disassembling turkeys