The Living Room

I've wanted to post this blog for a long time! We worked hard at getting our living room in good condition when we first moved in, and we finally got it to a place that we're happy with. I am so lucky to have such an artistic, creative partner. Here are the fruits of our labors:

Our living room started out with this beautiful grey-blue paint. Lindsay helped us pick it out:


We recovered our poop-brown chair with cool fabric from Urban, turned our mirror sideways and added a lamp/table.


We have to give some credit where credit is due- to Eric. He found this lamp on Craigslist and it is amazingly perfect. It matches all of our colors and lines and metals- and it's functional and stylish. Good job, honey.


We have awesome inlet shelves near the kitchen. We put some cool crap in there so people can see how neat we are.

These shelves are right above Eric's computer station (I wasn't allowed to take pictures of it for this blog since his bangs weren't did). Some cool features include the initials we painted, the candle holders and orange vase from West Elm, and the huge wooden pillar things we got mega-cheap from Pottery Barn. Gotta love those sales.


Pillows! Urban Outfitters, How I Love Thee:


We bought these circular mirrors because we had visions of being the first cool people to have a set of circular mirrors on their wall. Then we saw about 10,000 other people with them, so I used some scraps from the ottoman fabric and made this frame/art thing. The plant is from Ikea and the phone table is from Mary Roellke. Love that lady.


Accent lamps from Ikea. Oh-so-chic. Brown curtains! We were thinking of doing a pattern, but sometimes you have to know when to say when.


My favorite project. I got a template for paper flowers from a local Paper Source store, and then modified it and bought more paper to fit my needs. These flowers are so fun to make... and look freaking sweet.


Another project (remember, I was basically unemployed for two months!) was this TV stand. Eric had this old, crapper of a stand he got at a thrift store. I repainted it, added some of our wall paint to the bottom shelf for good measure, and then spray-adhesived (my most favorite thing) a decorative kitchen towel to the top. It looks so fun! The lamp is one we already had, but put that cool shade on the top. I salvaged it from a yard sale.


This coffee table was another vintage find. We stained the wood to match our end tables. The coasters are from West Elm and the organic, free form wood bowl is from Home Goods. Honeys, if you haven't hit your local Home Goods store, get off the couch and go NOW. It's like, the Ross or Marshalls of home furnishings.


Then, of course, the ottoman (with strangely expensive orange wool fabric) and the pillow we got from Urban:


So here she is, in all her HGTV-inspired glory. There's still more to be done, but we've gotten comfy with what we have. Ah, yes. Also, please excuse/note our Christmas deco! We couldn't take it down for these pictures. It's just a bit, but just enough for us. Happy Holidays, from our Living Room!

Artichoke Preparedness

We just boil those big poppa's. We boil them until the leaves near the stem can be pulled off really easily. Or until the stem is almost smooshy. It's not hard. It's easy. Those big ones took almost 45 minutes! Holy crap.

Artichoke Awesomeness

That's going in our bellies tonight. We ate his brother last night, and he was meaty and delicious. Mmmm.

Snow Day

The snow stopped falling late last night. The schools closed, however, so I was out of a job today. Eric and I slept in a little bit, worked on some things for a few hours and then braved the extreme cold to run errands. Our first order of business was eating- we had been out late last night at the Sara Bareilles concert and ate afterwards, but it was early afternoon at this point and we hadn't eaten a thing. We wanted breakfast, so we finally found a place that was still serving at 2 pm and was walking distance from a tram stop. We stepped gingerly down the road, choosing our footholds carefully. It was icy, icy, icy. Finally we made it to the restaurant to discover:





We ate until we couldn't talk. Partook of delicious eggy goodness and pigs in a blanket that would make your head spin.
Then we hit the post office, a toy store, Urban Outfitters and Zupan's. Our arms laden with groceries, we trekked up the hill and finally settled back into our warm place, happy and exhausted. My calves are killing me, the artichoke is in the pot, boiling, and I look out the window on a white-laced city with a smile tonight.

Snow

I have another blog to post- out of order- but this one can't wait.
It's snowing today in Portland, Oregon. We woke up to a flurry coming down and the temperature's dropping, which means it's gonna stick. Here's a picture and a video to help describe:

NaNoWriMo No Mo

It's over! Amazing. I completed the NaNoWriMo Challenge. For those of you who don't know what it is, I will tell you! Starting November 1st, writers across the nation join together to write a novel within 30 days. There are no rewards, prizes, or accolades given if you complete the task. Your finished novel is not submitted for review or reading. It's simply a way to motivate blocked writers across the country to write! I have written before about my inability to focus on writing for the last few years. Since my heart is no longer stripped, stamped and hung out in the wind, I haven't had any good material. Or, I haven't had any good motivation to write, since my primary drive before was to cleanse myself of painful memories and ideas.

NaNoWriMo was awesome. I spent the whole month writing! Hating, half the time, what I was doing, and finding that my once carefully constructed writing voice was hidden. I used to be so good at writing! I did it all the time. I was practiced. Even more so, I found it hard to create plot points, since I was used to writing short stories and not novel plots.

I have a lot of editing to do. The one luxury not afforded to NaNoWriMoers is that of editing. You have to just produce. I had to do one little bit of editing along the way, but for the most part it is just poetic vomit. There is a lot of cleaning up to do. With so much material (50,000 words!) I know I have the makings of a good story. I just have to craft it now.

I promise to post good parts when I have them.

I really love writing.