So Much.

These are things I am itching to write about:

New York April 17 - 20
My House/Yard
New Haircut
Random (but very profound) thoughts.

What is keeping me?

Well, this major project I have undergone as of this week: Our impending Patio.
Here it is in it's glory as of this moment:

















This is what it will look like, hopefully in about one week.


xoxx

Finishing Sentences v.II

So, having all this time to myself, and that is all I have been doing, hanging out at home, one might think that I would be blogging like crazy. Not at all. It seems that I need interactions with the outside world for material & inspiration. But I need a little jump start, so I'm going to recycle this little survey from last summer.

I recorded the first thing that popped into my head upon reading each phrase.

Outside my window
Lots of snow! Our backyard is a giant mound of 3 - 4 foot high snowdrifts.

I am thinking
tomorrow marks the beginning of a new week & I am going to flourish all week long.

I am thankful for
my everlasting optimism. It seems that so much is easier to take when one hopelessly sees the silver lining in everything.

From the kitchen
A very bare pantry and relatively empty fridge. I need to go to the grocer's* tomorrow.
*I've decided to start saying "Grocer's" in place of "Grocery Store", I'm not really sure why. I guess I like the sound of it better.

I am wearing
a vintage pale yellow, tea length night dress with red trim on the sleeves, neckline and at the bottom. I think I picked it up at The Unique Thrift Store a few years back.

I am creating
two blankets for a little girl called Millie and her new sister, Josie.

I am going
to go to bed soon as I have to wake up very early and take Asha The Cat to the veterinarian; she has recently been diagnosed with Feline Diabetes.

I am reading
nothing very good in the novel department. But a lot of great stuff in The New Yorker & The Week.

I am hoping
that Ms. Asha will be back to herself soon and Feline Diabetes isn't as much of a hassle as I fear it to be. Even if it is, my cat of ten years is entirely worth it. She is the best cat I've had in my entire life & I've had my fair share of cats.

I am hearing .
an iTunes genius playlist based from "Be So Happy" by The Heartless Bastards. Just finished "These Are The Fables" by The New Pornographers and onto "Greenville" by Lucinda Williams. Genius is pretty great.

Around the house
it's lovely...even after nearly 6 months that "New House" charm hasn't worn off yet.

One of my favorite things
drinking coffee and journaling first thing in the morning (or afternoon) with NPR providing some background noise.

A few plans for the rest of the week
Movies: The Lovely Bones, Nine, A Serious Man, Sherlock Holmes (The Oscar Race is on)...work, and maybe some a little forage for change in my life.

A picture to share

SNOW! This has quite literally been the winter of great heights. I don't remember the snow being as high as it is in many years...the weather peeps say at least 20. It's remarkable, exciting, and annoying all at once. But it sure makes me proud to be a Minnesotan, as winter usually does.







xoxx

15 Bags of Leaves.

I felt triumphed when I counted 15 bags. Then I went to work & heard stories of yards that produced 30 bags of leaves or in one case over 90. What amazed me about my first raking experience on Fillmore Street is that I truly enjoyed it & had a sense of pride over it all. Sort of like when one finishes painting a room; it's a nice change that was accomplished by your own hands.

And since I'm writing about the yard & house...there is this walkway next to our garage that I didn't know existed until a week or two after we moved in. I love it. I don't really know why, I suppose it's just one of those things, an added bonus, if you will. I think it's such a pretty spot. If I were about 25 years younger I'd be plotting to build a fort here.

xoxx

A Great New Time Waster.

http://www.modwallsblender.com/blender.html

You will spend hours here.



So a little back story. Every part of our new house is just what we would want except the bathroom. In the coming year we are hoping to remodel the bathroom. I am currently torn between mosaic tile & pebble tile. I stumbled upon this site tonight & spent far too long.

xoxx

A Shift

Handsome Randy is currently on the road and will be for a while. I spend so much time at our new house just being and puttering and glowing and feeling old (in a very good way).

This coming weekend my dad & stepmom are coming to Minneapolis for a wedding & they're staying with me. I think this officially seals my fate as an adult. I now live in a house that my parents feel comfortable and excited to stay in and I am comfortable and excited for them to do so.

Many aspects of Homeownership seem to Adultate me. When my Uncle Chris is over helping with random things like installing new stairs outside (today) or fixing the lock on our garage (Monday) and he asks me for a tool and not only do we have it (thanks in large part to him) but there is a convenient place for it & it's there.

I am consumed with gardening. I have planted so many perennials in the past few weeks and I still have more in my garage & at my mom's waiting for me. Listen to me, I am trading perennials with my mom.

There also seems to be coffee on all the time since we acquired our new residence. For me this is also synonymous with adulthood. So whenever anyone stops by to visit (or install a small staircase) it's ready to serve. My grandparents seemed to always have coffee on, and this house seems to bring out a lot of my grandma that's in me; I keep a sheet covering the sofa at all times (except when company's over) so it won't get dirty.

I'm not complaining. I love this shift, in fact I am reveling in it.

xoxx

Glimpse

There is a glimpse of normalcy in my life once again.

Tonight the job that I have been looking forward to for so very long finally began. Truly. My last shift at the old job happened two weeks ago & since then I have been training at the new one. But, tonight all the gloves were off & it all came to be. So sweet! It is going to be a spectacular place to work & I am so excited I can hardly contain myself.

Also: the limbo is over, sort of. All of our belongings are finally in one place, the old apartment is gleaming clean and this morning I went to our old apartment and dropped off the keys. Phew! This is such a relief! Unfortunately the relief completely dissapates when I walk into our slapdash room (Real Estate Speak, "Bonus Room") and see that it is jam packed with our belongings that we are unsure of what to do with.

But I see it..I can almost taste it. Just being. No boxes to unpack or studying to be done or carpets to shampoo. All I will need to do is be.

xoxx

The House Pre Us

So as I've been tearing down wallpaper, changing out doorknobs & pulling down paneling I haven't been able to help but imagine the lives that were once led in this old house of ours.

Built in 1950, the house was essentially in the same family until us. The daughter of the people who built it bought it along side her husband in 1967. For 42 years they held the title to this house & raised 6 children.

As I enjoy my morning coffee in a very quiet dining room, I imagine those six kids bustling about getting ready for school as their mother chases them to hurry in the morning.

As I tore down the bathroom wallpaper I thought about the person who picked it out, loved it & was excited for it to be completed. I imagined it to be the mother whose name was Joanne. I see her applying the wallpaper during the day when she had the entire house to herself and proud of her work. I also think about how excited she must have been so many years earlier when they gutted the kitchen and added the dining room. The kitchen is state of the art 1971: double oven, countertop range & a dishwasher all in sleek almond. Oh, and all the walls are wood paneling. Groovy.

Sometimes I think about the kids, like when I was painting one of the bedrooms as found traces of pink paint everywhere. I envisioned one of the daughters excited to have her own room to decorate as she wished (which included a super sweet wall of mirrored tiles) and to give her privacy.

Other times I think about Dwaine, the dad & husband. The six hooks that are painstakingly placed at each entrance as well as the 6 outlet power cord that is hardwired into the bathroom wall. And then there's the GIANT garage that has all sorts of intriguing shelves, hooks and capped off outlets.

I grew up in one house, a house which my mother still lives in. The houses each of my parents grew up in are mere blocks away from our house and relatives still live in both of them. I get it, the vibe of the house, and it seems that we are in sync with it.

xoxx