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.

NaNoWriMo

is taking up all my time. Here is an excerpt:

Jordan laughs and laughs. She has a really nice laugh, one that is not too noisy or shrill, but still makes you want to join her. She also has an easy way of talking, listening carefully to what you say, but always responding quickly. Her face is interesting, not just a normal, boring face. She has those heavy lids, thick lips. She doesn’t wear too much makeup. Enough to make you look at her with purpose, but not so much that you can’t tell what she really looks like. She has watercolor eyes, liquid and moving. A button nose, turned up a little. High cheeks. She’s good looking, and people notice her. Not just because of the dreads. We walk out the back exit to the bar and she leans up against the brick wall, wet with rain. I hold her against the wall and put my hands on her high cheeks.
“You are adorable.”
“I am ethnic looking.”
“You are.” I kiss her, and it’s actually not as sloppy as it should be. She keeps her tongue close to her lips. “You are very good looking.”
“Well, yes. It’s the eyelids.” She closes her eyes and raises her eyebrows, showing her perfectly spaced eyeliner dots.
“You ready to go home?”
“Almost.” She leans in again, this time pulling me down by my neck. She kisses me along my neck, my ear, then gives me a couple closed-mouth kisses on my cheek. “Yes. Now we can go.”
When we get into my place, she has not forgotten the séance, as I hoped she might. She rummages around in my junk drawer and finds a few votive candles. She lights them on my coffee table, and I get some plates from the kitchen to set them on. No need for waxy residue. We look up séance online and find some hints about how to make them safe, but both of us are shaky, drunk, and can’t stay focused on the tips. We sit facing each other across the coffee table.
“Okay, now you say something about wanting to talk to the spirits.”
“No way. This is your deal. I am here for support. You have to talk to them.”
“It’s your building!”
“…”
“Fine. Spirits, we come to you in peace. We want to talk to you and ask you questions about yourselves. We want to see your scary spirit faces and tell you to go home.”
“That’s it. I’m sure that’s gonna make them come.”
Jordan giggles and holds her hands out closes her eyes.
“You do it, too.”
I do the same.
“If there is anyone here tonight, we want to talk to you. We want to hear what you have to say. We can help you move on.”
I can see the flicker of the candlelight through my closed eyelids. I can feel Jordan’s hands, resting in mine, twitch a bit in anticipation. It’s warm in my apartment. Jordan asked me to turn on the heater.
“Spirits, come to us. We are here for you to speak with. Come join us.”
This goes on for a few minutes. Jordan stops talking and I peek open my eyes to look at her. She has her eyes closed. I feel a little breeze and wonder if I’ve left the window cracked open. I turn to look and in a flash I see the girl from the laundry room, standing near the window, looking out.
“Whoa!” I pull my hands back from Jordan.
“What? What? Did you see something? What happened?” Jordan is on her feet now.
“No, nothing.” I look back at the windows and nothing is there. “This is too freaky, I think we’re forcing it. We should do this when we’re sober or something.”
“Did you see something?”
“No.”
“Yes, yes you did, I can tell by looking at you, you saw something! And I felt something cold, I did.”
“No, you did not. And I did see something, but it was a woman who lives in this building, on this floor. I just fooled myself. It’s nothing.”
Jordan lies down on the ground.
“Damnit. I thought we were getting somewhere.”
I crouch down beside her on the ground. She looks very symmetrical in the candlelight. She opens her eyes and looks at me.
“Thank you for having a séance in your house, Andrew. It was very nice of you.”
“I’m a nice guy.”
“I hope you’re not too nice.”