Two Cans or Not Two Cans

I debated posting about my trashcans, is it really worthy of a blog post?  But, this is just the type of thing I would tell a good friend over the phone if we were chatting house updates. 

Trader Joe's bags were working just fine to collect our recycling, but they kind of made our kitchen/ living room area look messy.  Plus, our trashcan made a Chewbacca type growling noise every time it closed so I was on the look out for a replacement.  I found a great deal on two stainless steal trashcans a few weeks ago and decided to reserve my Trader Joe's bags for protecting our table when things get messy.  And now we have a trash can and a recycle can!  

I was afraid it would be confusing at first and planned on making labels for the kids, but they all quickly caught on to which was which and no labels were needed.  All of our small to mid-sized recyclables go in the can, while big boxes are broken down and wait in our hallway to be taken out (or we empty our recycle can into a box and use it for carrying everything out).  

I love sharing ideas for keeping a house functional and tidy, do you have any tips for functionality and tidiness? 

Saturday + Sunday

Evidence that the kids were here: cars, drawings and origami

Evidence of yummy white chili: red pot hand washed by Jeremy

Evidence of the Super Bowl: Lincoln waiting for all the yummy snacky food

Evidence of Sunday afternoon routines: girls on the macs playing PBS kids

We have a busy week ahead. It includes a trip to the symphony (me and Emma), a promotional video filming at our apartment (which means I need to clean clean clean) and whole lot of other to-do's as well.  Hopefully, I can grab a cup of coffee and spend some time catching up on my favorite blogs too.  

What are your plans for the week?

-Diane

Before we filled the place up!

We like how this place flows.  The working transom windows and the little mail slots at the base of the bedroom doors are fun details that we love.  We like old, we like character and and we like our modern conveniences too!  I've mentioned before that house flipping is not really our thing, even though we worked so hard on our house in Waco-we got our fill from that, at least for a while I think.  Moving into a new-old place seems like the perfect thing for us right now.

Some before shots of the place:

 

Have a mentioned there is a claw foot bathtub? Sigh...

Room Tour: three kids in one little space

Hey Friends!

We are a family deeply affected by our surroundings.  Which is one of the reasons we decided to move to South City (part of St. Louis) in the middle of the semester!  Not the best timing for sure, but we sure did need this change.  Now that we are all feeling a bit more like ourselves I feel like I can spend some time back here again.

I have one last little room tour from the old place.  We are not quite settled in the new place yet, but once we are I will give a little tour.   In our old place the kids room was pretty small but we really wanted all three in the room together.  The girls got bunk beds and we tried to use every inch of the the space without  it feeling too crowded.

So here you go:

We store toys in bins under their beds, on the bottom of the bookshelf and also in the closet.  More dress up items are in a basket next to the dollhouse.  The metal book shelf with the lamp on it is from Ikea and only $15!  We have five of them, so we are pretty big fans. I can't wait to show you how we used them in the new apartment!

Have a lovely night!

Our Room

I've been snapping photos around our place before it all gets packed away into boxes.

Here is a peak into our room:

Thanks for peaking!  

September

our new place

September you hold some very exciting moments in your 30 days.  Packing up moving boxes is not so exciting but moving into the city is!  Our whole family is anxiously awaiting the end of the month to get settled in the new place with all of it's natural light, beautiful character and city sounds.  Yesterday, we went to measure the space so I can draw it on graph paper and imagine where everything will go. It was beautiful outside and we opened up the windows to let in the cool breeze along with all the sounds of the city street below. I felt so happy being there.

September is not just full of packing boxes and moving. We have Stella's birthday -(a Unicorn theme), a field trip to an apple orchard, a trip to Chicago (next weekend-yippie!) and Jeremy's sister's wedding in Oklahoma.  We are so happy for his sister. She is one amazing girl and currently has one of the best job combinations ever: art and theater teacher at a private Christian school by day and liquor store employee by night.  ;)

Such a full and exciting month for sure! 

P.S. If you came across any cute unicorn ideas let me know!

I went thrifting

Jeremy watched the kids yesterday and encouraged me to go run some errands, visit an antique mall and stop by a thrift store or two.

First, I picked up some pigskin from Tandy's so I can make one of Rachel's awesome projects for my online sewing class.  Then, I went to an antique mall and picked up a few birthday/christmas presents (not sure which yet) for Lincoln and a bowl for me.

 

Then, I stopped by a Goodwill that I have never been to and found a vintage, tufted and curved sofa. I freaked out inside a little bit and started taking photos of it with my ipod to show Jeremy. I fell in love with the bones of the sofa and decided I could live with the vintage floral pattern until one day I could have it recovered and hoped it might jump start my creativity and help me out of the slump I have been feeling for the past several months.

And here's a fun story...

While I was checking out the sofa a nice older gentleman, also a customer, asked me if I like vintage furniture and mid-century pieces. I told him I did but I had never purchased a vintage couch before and felt a little nervous about it. He was so kind and looked over the sofa with me, gave me tips for vacuuming and cleaning it when I got home and measured if for me while I was talking to Jeremy about it on the phone!  I was so grateful for his help and found out the he lives in the nearby town of Washington and buys and sells mid-century pieces on craiglist. Well, Washington sounded familiar to me and I began to wonder if this might be the man Jeremy purchased some things from last summer.  I mentioned that Jeremy drove to Washington last summer to look at some mid-century pieces, liked them and decided to buy them, then he drove to the bank to get some cash to purchase the furniture and the ATM ate his card! So he had to call the man back, tell him the machine ate his card and couldn't buy it.  Jeremy was afraid that really just sounded like a silly excuse to not come back and buy the furniture. Then a few weeks later, Jeremy and the man reconnected near the seminary with cash in hand to buy two chairs and two stools from him.  

The gentleman at the Goodwill was the same man! He even told me he was driving near the seminary last week and wondered if Jeremy was still there!  

This is what we purchased from him last summer. We intended to purchase these items and then resell them later, but I liked them so much I couldn't part with them, so we sold some of our other stuff instead.

Now back to the sofa. I have been looking for a vintage sofa to replace our Ikea Ektorp. It is still in great condition, but the shape and color don't fit the style of our home.   But now that the vintage sofa is in our apartment I keep questioning if it's a good change. I feel nervous about it being used (silly right? because I know I can clean it) and I have an emotional attachment with the red couch since we have had it for so long. I even got a lump in my throat when I saw Jeremy drive home with the vintage sofa to replace the red one.

Here is a before:

And here is the new one, with old red peaking out behind.  It's more green in person AND I feel out of my comfort zone sharing this picture of the vintage sofa while I'm questioning the change.  Your thoughts on the vintage sofa are welcome we have a week to return it!

Change is good, risks are good and challenging your creativity is good, but it's not always easy!

my big blank canvas!

Last week I was struck with inspiration that put me on the hunt for an old-school overhead projector.  My parents have one, but they are all the way in Texas, so I called our local library and a few other places to see if they had any to check out and had no success.  Yesterday, I was so happy to find one for an amazing price on craigslist and Jeremy volunteered to go pick it up for me. Now, we are the proud owners of an old-school overhead projector. So if you ever need to borrow one....

I need the projector to help me finish the space above our TV.  I've been staring at that wall for quite awhile now trying to figure out the perfect thing.  All along I knew I wanted something big, but I wasn't sure what. There is already a good bit of color on that side of the room and I want it all to flow together and feel good without being too busy. When I had that moment of inspiration last week I finally felt brave enough to go buy a really big canvas for the space. I printed off a coupon for Hobby Lobby before heading out the door with Jeremy. We picked up the big canvas and were so relieved it fit in the back of our car (we were worried it wouldn't!).  Then we went on a date to one of our very favorite pizza places, Dewey's....yum!  I'm so thankful for Jeremy's help and support with all of my ideas and projects for our home. It makes it so much more fun throughout the process!

Hopefully, I can tackle the big canvas this week.  I do hope it turns out the way I have imagined it in my head.  And if the whole thing fails maybe I can get Jeremy to paint the canvas for me.

Our kids are spending the week at their grandparents house in Oklahoma.  It has been so fun enjoying a week with just the two of us, but we sure do miss those kids.  It always takes me awhile to feel at home when the kids are gone, everything feels weird and sometimes there is just not a lot of motivation to cook or clean.  This week I made a list of all the projects I hope to complete while they are gone. The list has helped redirect me when I'm wandering around the apartment feeling out of sorts.

One of my projects for the week is to finish decorating and organizing the office/guest room. I just have two more items to hang on the wall and Jeremy promised to tidy up his desk for me so I can take pictures and share.  The photo above is a little sneak peak of the space.  Hope you have a lovely Thursday!

have a seat

I went to a few antique stores with my neighbor and sewing  partner on Sunday afternoon. I was in search of some vintage chairs and so happy to find this cute little vintage child's folding chair. It is a perfect replacement for the kids not quite so stylish bean bag chair that fell victim to the very unpleasant symptoms of the stomach flu that invaded our family during the week of Jeremy's finals, this past December.  The fabric ball sitting next the chair was Lincoln's birthday present from us for his first birthday. I made it using the pattern and instructions from Anna Maria Horner's book, Seams To Me.  It turns out it is the perfect ball to throw around in an upstairs apartment without disturbing our neighbors below. 

My other little purchase from the day was a cute little science beaker-I am a sucker for science lab equipment.

easy kitchen DIY

I am slowly making my way through our apartment trying to make a the generic space feel and look a bit more like us.

A few months ago I walked into Art Mart to take a look at the 100's of decorative papers they had advertised. When I walked into the store, I freaked out a little when I saw all of the racks displaying large sheets of beautiful papers. When you sign up for their newsletter you get a 40% off coupon!

My plan was to look for some paper to cover the blank space above our stove in our kitchen.

Here is a before shot.

I really just wanted a pattern, that wouldn't compete or draw major attention to it's self in our small apartment. I was inspired by the view outside our living room window, which has a lovely view of trees.

I picked out this  birch wrapping paper, it was about four dollars a sheet (not bad). I bought three sheets and had plenty left over for future craft projects or gift wrapping.

The process was really simple. I measured the space over the stove top, cut my birch paper, covered the birch paper with clear contact paper and trimmed off the excess.  Then, I used a bone folder to smooth out any bubbles.  I followed the same steps to cover the right side of the wall and then the left.  Then, I attached the paper to the wall with thumb tacks.

And here is the after:

The mirror over the stove was found at Unique Thrift here in St. Louis...I love that place.

I love simple projects, that I can start and finish all by myself while Jeremy is studying. I have another one that I am super proud of that I will share one of these days.