it's so rare

for me to think to myself, "i need to clean this thing."  i mean, i'll do laundry, and my fridge is better than it has been ever (in my life), and the toilet gets scrubbed and no one comes over to my house and gets the plague, but still.  tonight i actually hauled the vacuum down to my room and used it in the nook.  when i trim threads off stuff when sewing, i just throw them on the floor.  probably that's one of the least-adorable habits i have, besides nose-picking.  (shut up, i know you pick your nose too!)   i actually do it when i embroider too.  in fact, whenever i trim a piece of thread, or yarn, or embroidery floss, or snip of fabric, i just throw it down.  i only litter threads, though, i swear.

ahem, this story doesn't need to be this long.  i just looked in my nook and thought, "yeah, this needs a hoover-ing."  i also moved some stuff around and threw out some trash and sorted all my bobbins for my sewing machine and hung up some cute birdie ornaments i got for xmas.  they are too cute for a tree, they are now strung on a line and hang above a doorway in a happy row.  now i'm going to try to put things back in place and get my bed ready for sleeping, since it's covered in fabric. 

i had a meeting with my new boss today, because i have only 8 more days on the phones (squeeeeee!) and HOLY SHIT i am excited about this new gig.  the main reason being: everyone who works in this department is excited about working there.  they are full of ideas and ideals, they want to make health insurance better for customers and they love spreadsheets and research.  i was shown something today called a "config" file that was essentially a gorgeous spreadsheet of information, easily searchable and data driven, and i swooned.  it's nerd-vana over there.

(also, thanks so much for reading my long and self-pitying post about the kid's bio-mom.  i try not to be a bummer, but parenting is new to me!)

house for rent!

the house next door is for rent. they won't be making it available to live in until the first of next month, but i'm curious who is going to move in there.  i think it's a bit pricey for a 3 bedroom, even if it does have a fenced in backyard, because you can't even have a dog.  what's the point of the fence if you can't have a pet back there? also, have i mentioned that our street name is kind of ridiculous?  part of it is spelled "vue" which is soooooo annoying.  it means you have to spell it out every time you give someone your address; the pizza guy, the phone company, the dmv, etc.  everyone gives you the stink eye or sighs when you start to spell it out, then you get to the "vue" part of it and suddenly they realize you aren't a condescending bastard, you just live on a dumb-named street. i tried to talk a friend of mine into moving into the house, but he rightly said, "no way, the rent's too high and what's with your street name? was "kountry kubbard" taken?" 

before we get new neighbors we want to put up our own tiny fence or something to block part of their view into our backyard. not so we can have crazy caligula themed parties back there, or start putting cars on blocks, but because there's this weird gap where they can see where we do all the gardening stuff from their front yard.  we think putting up a trellis for peas and beans and other climbing plants should do the trick.  it will give me especially a little more privacy, so that whoever moves in next door won't have to constantly see my ass crack as i bend over the garden.  really, the fence or trellis is more for their sake than mine. 

technically, NOT resolutions

at the risk of turning this into a house-blog, here is a list of things i would like to do to my home this year!

• paint my bedroom.  i bought a really lovely, icy shade of pale blue for the walls but have yet to actually paint them.  currently the shade down there is a green like cheap chocolate chip mint ice cream, and while it's not the worst, it's not the best.  
• either buy or create a new duvet cover.  i'm not too girly, but one of the things i've always loved is matching bed clothes.  i like a nicely put together bed, and when i was single, that was easy to achieve because i only bought red or pink stuff for the bed. D has never once complained (or spent much time thinking about) about sheets not matching duvet covers, but i've done my best to get rid of all the pink and move into neutral colors.  plus, pink is grand, but i'm also growing up a little and am digging on a soothing palate in the bedroom.  long story short: we need a new duvet cover and some sheets.
• paint the living room.  the walls turned out to be very barely pink, which we not have noticed had i not used a very cool shade of yellow in the kitchen.  i know that the color "warms" a space up, but i hate it. it's such a trivial thing, really, and we're living with it and i'm not going crazy, but i don't like it and want to change it.  i also want to paint the trim in here and cover up the wood on the sills and fireplace mantle with a bright white.  i want clean, modern backgrounds with which to populate with my crazy colorful stuff. 
• rugs! i want some area rugs. to delineate space as well as protect our carpets.
• that downstairs family room is amazing, but needs to be cleaned, organized, and made livable.  there's so much to do down there that i'm going to leave it at that.
• i'm also going to ask my husband very nicely to make me some built-in bookshelves.  there's some space in the upstairs hallway that's begging to be used!
• outside, i'm looking forward to doing a little gardening. nothing too big or ambitious this year; a nice small bed of veggie will do just fine.  i want to get started though, and see how well the soil does here.

it will be interesting to see if anything on this list gets done this year, and what things not on my list do get done.  overall, as long as the roof doesn't sprout a leak and a giant sinkhole doesn't eat the house, i'll be happy.  (i'll just be happier once the living room walls don't look so geriatric and boring.)

home owners, in a way

everyone knows we just moved a few months ago, right after getting married.  what you might not realize is that my in-laws technically bought the house and are now our mortgage holders.  this month we finally sat down and figured out what we need to do to become honest to goodness home owners.  well, my in-laws have been figuring this stuff out, and tomorrow they finalize the paperwork with their attorney.

we thought we were pretty on the ball; while we have not been saving every penny coming in, we also haven't been throwing any huge parties or spending money on tattoos or hot rods.  talking to our folks tonight we were hit with kind of a big expense right out the door that we were not aware of.  i don't think anyone was, to be honest, and while D and i wanted to hyperventilate (OMG they want how much? when?!), the in-laws were calm and collected and assured us that they could and would wait another month for rent money.  we wanted to show them what our budget was and where our money is going every month, but you know what they said? "don't worry, we trust you.  and we know where you live." 

have i mentioned lately how much i love my in-laws?  being in this house means rent is a bit cheaper, the house is ours, our credit ratings are improving, and next year when the boychik graduates from high school, we should be in a position to be helpful parents. that feels good.  it's terrifying, but ultimately for the best.  there's no way a bank would help us out at this point in our life, and this just puts us forward a year or two (or ten).   

i might not be the best wife

today on a whim i totally painted one of the walls in the kitchen a bright, sunshine-y yellow.  without asking or consulting with my husband at all.  the girlchild agreed with me that the color was awesome, so i bought it and now it's up there, no take-backs! 

unfortunately for D, he married a woman who loves color.  if i had my way, i'd buy a bright orange futon cover for the upstairs, to co-ordinate with all my random stripey pillows and the technicolor afghan.  the upstairs part of our house is just so...neutral.  which is okay, because it means it's super easy to liven up with a coat of paint, or a bright orange couch! if D had his way, our house would be outfitted in woodland colors, lots of soft greens and browns and varying shades of "shrub."  personally, i just can't live like that. 

i don't think he'll divorce me for today's color shenanigans, mainly because i bought a really soft blue for the bedroom.  he won't be able to argue with that! (i hope.)

daydreaming

the decemberists are doing a series of posters for every town they visit for their current tour.  every one of them i've seen has been lovely; whenever i get a little facebook message about a new one, i start daydreaming about buying some to frame and hang up in the house. 

 these are just a few of the ones i'd love to get my hands on! putting them up here i realize that they all have similar colors.  i've really been enjoying warm, orangey-yellow tones lately.  as if you couldn't tell.

before i go rushing out to buy any posters, though, i need to frame a lovely nikki mcClure print D and i got as a wedding present.  it's this pretty one. again, more orange!  it was D's favorite wedding present.  he loved that the couple were kissing in the kitchen, with the jars of fruit in the foreground.  our first kiss was in the kitchen, and so he's romantic about that.  who are we kidding, i am too.   

things i want to do as far as the house goes

the theory behind this post is that once i make a list, and make that list public, i'll work harder to get stuff done. 

• paint our bedroom.
• make curtains for our bedroom.
• make curtains for the girlchild's room.
• the boychik needs some too.
• how about some for the living room as well? that way we can wander around like slobs and the neighbors won't know!
• get a futon cover for the futon.
• buy a roku box or something so we can watch netflix on the tv.
• we need a coffee table! or a tv stand so we can use what we're using for that now as a coffee table.
• we also need a couch. in a serious way.
• the girlchild needs a new bed.  this is kind of D's job; he'll be the one building it.
• both kids need new paint in their rooms.
• i'd like a new futon cover for our room.

this is a good start, yes? 

sewing!

after finishing the painting in the nook, i broke it in this afternoon by sewing some curtain panels for the big window in there.  overall, i like the way they turned out, but more than anything, it just felt good to turn on my ipod and sew away.  it went from being dour and rainy and cool to being ridiculously hot and humid out here in the pacific northwest, so sitting in front of an oscillating fan in the downstairs was nice.  it's the coolest spot in the house! 

here is a tiny after and before shot (because i got them backwards!).  look at what a difference a coat of paint makes!  the carpet is the same, because a) it's weird and b) i kind of like it and c) it's not really financially feasible to get rid of it or replace it at this time.  i dig that this is the original carpet as well.  says a lot about my little house! 

paint!

behr ultra paint and primer, "moonlit pool"

my first painting project in the new house is the tiny room off the master room, known as the nook.  it's a weird little space, i think it was used mainly for storage.  it's big enough for a good sized table and bookshelf, has a great big window that gets a good amount of light, and so i snagged it for myself.  it will be my little hidey-spot, for crafty things and hanging up/enjoying the art i love that D isn't necessarily as charmed by.  the trim is going to be a bright white (the name of it is "frost," doesn't that just sound amazing?), and i'm looking forward to making my own space. 

had a nice afternoon being lazy, visiting yet another hardware store (since moving into a house of our own, we love to wander around thinking about stuff we can do!), and trying out a new chinese buffet with the boychik.  as usual the food was so-so, but i cannot and will not pass up an opportunity to smother everything with sweet and sour sauce.  it's like crack to me. 

one of my favorite people in the whole wide world, my nephew tiernan, had a pretty serious surgery last week.  no one wants to hear about a kid getting poked and prodded and opened up like a can of sardines, and this was no exception to that rule.  the good news is that not only was the kid a rockstar about the whole thing (no complaining, no whining, no freaking out about the IVs), but he got to go home early and is now hanging out, playing his DSi, and trying not to itch his incision.  i got to talk to him this morning, and it made me feel seriously good.  he sounds just like himself, and i can't wait to see him and his brother next week and spoil them rotten with ice cream and cartoons.  i felt so anxious the day of the surgery, even though the prognosis was excellent (very few kids react badly to the surgery, most get sicker from the anesthesia), and hearing his chipper little voice today went a long way in making me feel like he's on the mend. we also had a cute conversation about how patting his chest to help with the itch is a lot like patting a scabbing tattoo when it itches.  such a sweet boy!  i'm taking at least one of the kids down there next week to hang out and watch cartoons and play scribblenauts, and maybe get some sun.  i can hardly wait!

house-work

i don't know if it's the good weather or we're just feeling motivated, but we've gotten a lot done around the house lately.  seriously.  rooms have been adjusted, boxes unpacked, beds set up, plants planted.  i also got D's computer up and running, and have finally been able to properly pore through all 856 photos from the wedding.  yes, 856.  give or take three.  needless to say, i've spent big chunks of yesterday and today uploading and organizing and ordering photos.  to see more than you ever needed to see of me in a big white dress, go over here.  

i would also like to say our plan of winnowing down possessions and simplifying things around the house is actually going pretty well.  it's slowing down the unpacking (the same way it slowed down the packing!) but it's worth it.  it feels so good to get rid of stuff! 

ack

i did not get as much done today as i wanted to, but we do have gas and internet/phone over at the new house.  i spent some time there today washing dishes (in the dishwasher!) and putting them away, unpacking boxes, doing laundry (we got a lot of new towels for the wedding, which is awesome) and waiting.  my mother-in-law came over and helped me line shelves, which was super nice because a) i'm not really very detail oriented sometimes and so b) they looked a lot neater and nicer because she was in charge. 

the difference between the two houses is amazing.  coming back to the rental is a downer; not just because there's still so much left to pack (and there is!), but because it's darker and not as spacious.  i wish my back would also get better.  since messing it up before the wedding, it is not the same, and i've had continuous pain for a little over two weeks now.  my lower back hurts pretty much all the time, and lifting anything that weighs more than five pounds is no fun. my left shoulder and elbow are also kind of wonky and achey right now too.  i feel like i have crabby old lady joints!  i think i might have done too much knitting and strained that left side.  i can't tell if that makes me a bad-ass crafter or a retard.  ugh.  in any case, my body is not cooperating with my mind, and the menthol back patches aren't really working.  i might need to go ahead and get the heated ones, take a ton of ibuprofen, and just power through. 

i did warn both kids that this weekend i'm getting them hopped on caffeine and exploiting their labor.  they can have ice cream when we're done.  i also really really really want to buy paint for our bedroom and get started on that.  i think in my nook i'll use this color (or something similar), but i want a warm-ish grey for the bedroom.  initially i wanted a creamy yellow, but the paint already in there is kind of dark, and the more i see grey tones, the more i love them. it's neutral without being tan, and will dress up or down nicely.  have any of you painted inside recently?  would you recommend a brand?  the glidden was easy to pick up samples for, but i hear behr covers nicer and wears well.    

some pictures for you

 the new family room!  while the living room upstairs is lovely, and i'm sure we'll use it often, this is the room we're planning on putting the tv and stuff.  it's got a supremely mellow vibe, and in the summer it's nice and cool since it's sort of underground, and in the winter, it's cozy because it's got a fireplace.

 yesterday while waiting for the new washer and drier to be installed, i made the first cup of coffee in our fancy new coffee maker!  needless to say, it was delicious. 

look at our cute new washer and drier!  i'm excited about breaking them in.  i can't tell if that is pathetic or awesome.  in any case, they are quiet and eco-friendly and blue, and i'm a happy girl.

after doing some house things yesterday, D and i took a long drive to nowhere.  i had a great time. i think D had fun too, but was also busy thinking about all the stuff we still need to do at the new and old houses, and so he might not have had as much fun as i did.  we stopped for a beer at the north fork brewery, drove up a curvy, scary logging road to watch paragliders, and we saw all three forks of the nooksack river.  it was nice to just be out in the sun, people and scenery watching.

today we get to wait around for various people to come set things up at the new house, which is kind of lame.  i hate the whole, "we'll be there between 8 and 5."  really?  you can't narrow it down to a morning or afternoon time?  i guess i should take a shower and pack up the car with another load and go relieve D.

now it's house time!

we got the keys to our new house yesterday, and i was so tired that i didn't even go over there.  can you believe that?  i can, because i honestly felt like someone had beat me with a sock full of oranges.  tonight i'm actually starting to feel human again, so i headed over this evening with D and the kids to drop off a bunch of wedding presents.  we figured they were still all nicely packed, they should go over first!  walking in was awesome.  it's completely empty, a blank slate for us to play and goof off in.  we were fortunate enough to receive some lovely gifts, and while opening them the other night one of the things they girlchild said was, "man, our new house is going to look so cool."  she's right, it is.  going from the wedding to the house is a lot of work, i won't lie, but i think it's more than worth it.  we get to start our new life together in a new place, and that is pretty damn cool.  i see all sorts of fun projects in our future!  my first was to knit my new house key a cozy little sweater, because i am a dork.  i saw a few patterns for key cozies online, then watched some law & order while i winged it.  it wasn't terribly hard to make, and now i kind of want to build a bunch of cozies for everything.  keys, ipods, kindles, lamps, vacuums....okay, maybe not the vacuum.  maybe a nice mug cozy, though.

also, since we had a good friend officiate our wedding (and didn't want to make him have to get ordained as something), we needed to make our marriage legal so we hit the courthouse today and once again said "i do."  it was a super low-key affair, and we have decided that from now on we'll just have a three day wedding anniversary.  going to the courthouse didn't make me feel any more married (i truly feel that i married D on saturday!), but it does make our union kosher, and now i can start with all the name-changing shenanigans.  that sounds decidedly less fun that knitting key cozies, but it will be fun to have a new name.  now i just need to get used to signing it...

country roads

this will come as no surprise to anyone, but i've been kind of stressed out lately.  excited and happy too, but also anxious and busy.  the wedding is less than a month away, and it feels like we still have a lot to do.  the week after that we have to move four people out of a house we've lived in for years, and the thought of that is so daunting to me.  i hate moving all by myself, i can hardly bring myself to pack things in any kind of neat or orderly way, i always wait until the last minute and throw things in trash bags and boxes, then procrastinate for MONTHS with the unpacking.  you've seen me move enough times to know that's true! only this time, i'm kind of a grown-up, suddenly have kids, and kind of need to set a better example.  it's also a lot more important to get set up easily and comfortably in the new house, because kids need stability and their toothbrushes.  on occasion the thought of all my responsibilities kind of strikes me dumb.

in addition to all the fun stresses of getting married and having a home of our very own, the kid's mom has come back on the scene.  it's been about 8 years since anyone has heard from her, and guess what brought her back this time?  facebook.  (dear facebook, i hate you even more now. congratulations!)  it's a weird and touchy situation all around; with one kid trying to make contact, and one kid not wanting to have anything to do with her.  D isn't thrilled to have to talk about it either, and we're worried that the kids will end up disappointed or hurt.  to be honest, so far the contact that's been made between her and the kids hasn't looked too promising.  i hope i'm wrong.

today was a crazy beautiful day, though.  spring in the pacific northwest has taken forever to show up, and this is the first sunny, warm day we've had in forever.  the kids were out with their friends, D was at work, so i took a nice long drive.  i forgot my MP3 player, but found some tapes in the car, and spent hours driving around listening to jane's addiction.  by the time i got home, i felt considerably more cheerful.  the sun, the sights, the aimless wandering all did me good.  since coming home i've gotten some wedding stuff done, made plans to do more wedding stuff with my mother-in-law on monday, and tidied up the house.  it's amazing what a long stretch of road does for my mood.

my newest crush

*dreamy! handy!*

this guy, antonio ballatore.  he has a show on HGTV, called the antonio treatment, which i have quickly become obsessed with.  i guess he's been on tv for a while, but i only recently discovered him.  i tried to find a photo of him with his awesome glasses, but this will do.  isn't he handsome?  his decorating is also totally fucking insane, and i mean that in the best way possible.  his rooms look bizarre and beautiful, and he's got what i think of as a coney island aesthetic.  plus, he's tall, he can obviously grow a beard, and he's got a super cool dog.  swoon alert!

just check out some of these awesome rooms for yourself, and try to tell me they aren't ridiculously wonderful.  i can only hope some of my house looks so good someday!  

a few home declarations

the knowledge that we are soon moving into our own home, a real house, has slowly been sinking in over the past week.  it all happened so FAST.  barring anything crazy happening in the next week, we'll be closing within a month! 

of course this means i've been thinking a lot about how i want the house to look, what i want to do to it and in it, scanning blogs and paying more attention to home and garden magazines.  in my head i'm making a list of things i do and don't want to do, and i have a feeling this is going to turn into some kind of home-owning manifesto for amanda.  after the jump is a short list of things i'm going to try to adhere to.

grumpy pants

we should leave this in the boychik's room just for spite

man, i have been seriously super grumpy lately.  i think that's what being stressed out does to me, and we're all kind of in a heightened state of "oh my god there's so much to do" and also antsy to get the hell out of this house and into the new one.  i think the only one of us that isn't a grouch right now is the girlchild, and she has been a refreshing change of pace.  if i could have two days alone in the house, i think i could get a lot done and feel a lot less fussy, but the problem about having a family is that you can't kick them out for a few days because you want to.  you need a good reason, and i don't really have one.  also, i need to get over my thing where i only work on house stuff when they're gone.  after all, we're about to get married and they're not going anywhere any time soon.  i am actually going to have to adapt, i can put it off no longer.  at least the kids are back in school today and D works; i feel a great big productive streak coming on already.

lately i'm all about reading home and design blogs and am having five million ideas for things i want to do to the house.  we had the inspection this weekend, so this morning i meet with the realtor to go over the findings and maybe re-negotiate the price.  the report really didn't find much though; there are a few things that will need to be repaired and/or replaced in a few years, so we'll need to set up a fund for that sort of thing, but overall, there aren't any glaring defects.  yay!

you know what i am really excited about?

having my own tiny space to make a studio in.  i know i don't do a lot of drawing or painting or doodling, but when i do, i am very happy.  that little weird "closet" behind the master bedroom closet calls to me at night, and i've spent days now daydreaming about how i want to paint it and where i want to mount the cork.  right now i have a very steve zissou theme in mind, meaning i need to pick out exactly the right shade of blue for the walls, and obviously paint my desk red.  who's excited?  THIS GIRL.

when it rains it pours

that saying also applies to good things, thank goodness.  in about two months i'll be married, have a new-ish last name (i'm still trying to decide if i'll hyphenate or not!), and guess what?  i'll also be a homeowner.  well, mostly a homeowner.  my amazing in-laws are helping us buy our very first home!  we've been talking about it with them for a while now, but had decided last week that we should really just focus on the wedding stuff, and look at houses after that was all over.  then, we all (independent of each other) saw this house come on the market that we thought looked great.  one thing led to another, we saw the house, fell more in love with it, made and offer, and TA-DAAH!  as it stands right now we move in the monday after the wedding.  isn't that crazy?

it's a great house, just big enough for the four of us, with both a sitting room and a living room, a nice big backyard, a deck, a garage with a shop built into it, and this weird "storage" room off the master bedroom that is so becoming my little craft cave.  it was a great price, we discovered that we actually know the owners, and our experience with the realtors and inspectors and all that has been good. 

to be honest, my brain is going a thousand different ways at once.  i wonder how we're going to take down the wallpaper in the kid's rooms (it's kind of dated and too young for the kids), what i'm going to paint the bedroom, how much it will cost us to buy a refurbished or used washer/drier set,  what will come with us and what we'll get rid of, what other sorts of things i should put on the bridal registry that we'll need a new place, etc.  i literally couldn't sleep last night i was so excited.  i've been in rentals now for 14 years; being able to make a place really, truly my own is just totally fucking thrilling.  it's blowing my mind! 

and here, my dears, is our lovely new place,

i'll let you know when the house-warming party is!