Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Blogstravaganza!

I am insanely blog-delinquent; I haven't put out May's Seventeen blog yet (SORRY! I am furiously scanning the pictures tonight and hope to have it up by Thursday or Friday) and haven't blogged here in days...hopelessly behind on catching up on my life, so I'm going to make this a huge HOME SHOW and embarrass myself by just going to the key rooms and taking pics, mess-on-the-counters and all.

BEFORE I GET THERE, however, I've got to blog our weekend up north! Vee, Kiddo and I left at 7pm, hoping to catch Kiddo's bedtime in the car so we wouldn't have to listen to 4 hours of shrieks like we did the LAST time we did that drive. Since we knew we'd be driving through the dark, we took the route that winds us up along I-35 through northern Iowa--sincerely, with the only exception of Bloomington, IL to Champaign, IL, my least favorite drive ever.

It had been an entire year since Vee or I had been on I-80 west of Des Moines--because it had been an entire year since we moved out west. A WHOLE YEAR! Kiddo was kicking me and I was chowing down on a Dairy Queen Blizzard (very Tori Spelling of me) last time we were there!

I-80 west of Des Moines is generally one of my favorite stretches, though it seems to loom large in everyone else's memory as "THIS IS WHAT I AM TRYING TO AVOID WHEN I DRIVE 'OUT WEST' AND THE ONLY THING I WILL REMEMBER WHEN I AM DISSING THE PRAIRIE STATES." But I'm telling you: IT HAS CHANGED! Stampeding along the fields and farms is WINDMILL CITY, stark landscape billboards-for-alternative-energy that DOMINATE the view as well as FINALLY harnessing all that crazy wind blowing from Nebraska!

(I tried to get Vee to take a picture that really showed it, but as you can see, we are not photographers. We are hopeless "through the windshield; 'you have to see it in person' documenters.)

WOW!

I think it's a great thing; don't get me wrong. It just SHOCKED me! All these in a year! I swear--I've done this drive for years and NO WAY were there as many windmills as there are now.

RECESSION ECONOMY!

So we scooted up I-35 in the dark, no problem, made it to the Twin Cities, crashed out, and went to see our friend Bejevals at the St Paul Craftstravaganza on Saturday morning! Her work is truly beautiful--she sold 6 little buddies at the show--and Vee and I bought Kiddo her First Birthday dress, which is utterly TDF! (pics after she wears it)

My family all went back to my sister's UNBELIEVABLE house for the afternoon (she is renting a house LITERALLY identical to my family's old house back in the Haute...EXCEPT WITH A POOL AND A SAUNA OUT BACK and an entire full basement. AND SHE IS PAYING $300 A MONTH WITH ONE FRIEND TO RENT THIS! And IT'S IN A REALLY NICE NEIGHBORHOOD! RECESSION ECONOMY!) and then Mom and I went out to dinner at the Downtowner Woodfire Grill ("the place to see and be seen," according to Mom's coworkers) before going to...

LEGALLY BLONDE: THE MUSICAL!

Which was A-MAZ-ING! I am not one of those "will chuckle at not-funny jokes in order to keep the mood in the auditorium light" people, so I hope you will keep that in mind when I tell you that I was laughing my face off, OUT LOUD, for most of the show.


We went to church on Sunday and watched Gramma Goose and Grampa PhD do great work as readers, Vee and Grampa PhD went and worked out, and then Vee and I headed downtown for MOM'S SECOND NIGHT OUT IN A ROW: dinner at Palomino with Bejevals and Mr Bejevals and our friend Summ J.D.! It was SO AWESOME to have dinner with such great friends, and then it was followed up by Vee and I casually crossing the street to the Orpheum and entering THE LEONARD COHEN ZONE!

What can I say? It was amazing! Vee and I differed on performance faves (he really liked "Chelsea Hotel" and I thought it was too swingy; his favorite was "The Future" and I will always swoon for "I'm Your Man," although "The Gypsy's Wife" was soooooooooo great) but we both loved it. SHARON ROBINSON was SO GOOD soloing "Boogie Street!" The Webb sisters' "If It Be Your Will" was enchanting! The only part that sucked?

WHEN THIS ANNOYING DUDE IN THE THEATER KEPT LOUDLY AFFIRMING "Yup" AS LEONARD WAS DOING A SPOKEN-WORD VERSION OF "A THOUSAND KISSES DEEP."

AFTER EVERY LINE.

I wanted to punch his FACE in! DUDE! It was soooooooooooooooooooo ridiculously condescending, like, "Yep, Leonard, you are TOTALLY getting my emotions correct; nice work, old man."

But I am so far off track right now--the concert was amazing, our time with Gramma Goose and Grampa PhD and AKA was relaxing and enjoyable, but I need to Home Show this blog and move us up to the present.

Office:




I painted this sucker a nice terracotta (I believe it was Valspar's "La Fonda Tile Red") and this is going to be my Southwest room. It's the office; I live here. We stripped down the corny bordello curtains too, and I need something in their place, but right now, just having the walls painted (we did the north and south walls only) is SO. MUCH. BETTER. Grampa PhD is working on framing some Edward Curtis photographs that are going to be hung on the wall and I'M TELLING YOU: the ambience is going to be sublime when we're all done.

Living Room:

We finally got the photograph we bought, cough, almost a year ago, framed, and it's up on the mantel awaiting the hanging, and we're pretty happy with it, but the dark green matting makes the whole thing look a little more NORTH WOODS than we were aiming for. We'll probably strip it down to a bare frame as time goes on, but at least it's not hanging ashamedly on the wall in ITS PLASTIC WRAPPER anymore.

Kitchen/Breakfast Nook:




Ok, have at it. Still need to make some decisions on those cabinets (i.e. keeping them open, making more open, or putting the doors back on), but Grampa PhD replaced all of our hinges and handles with silver/nickel, so it looks WAY sharper. Honestly, I'm leaning towards a bright pink for the cabinet doors.

YES, I said bright pink. We're going to have to replace them before selling the house in 5-6 years anyway, so I might as well have all the color I want in between now and then.

What do you think? Crazy?

(from Desire to Inspire)


(from Zimbio)

I know, I know--with our green walls, the pink might be a little too much, and I don't want to repaint the walls because I love the green. Any suggestions for what we can do to these boring-ass cabinets, though, without having to buy new doors?

Decal City:
Here's the decal in our hallway

and the decal in our living room

I really like these because I think they add the element of PRAIRIE COHESION we were looking for.

And finally, the moment WE have been waiting for since Valentine's Day 2009:

OUR STICKLEY LOVESEAT IS HERE!






WORTH! THE! WAIT! (Even through all the BS and blame--TEVS, DOGGY, IT'S HERE AND IT'S FABULOUS!)

3 comments:

You Are My Fave said...

I love the terracota paint and the love seat.

And I totally took a picture of the wind/energy monsters when I passed them in Montana.

Unknown said...

So fun to have you back! Where do I start?! MN sounds so super fun! I'm so glad you got to see Bejevals...I gotta get me some of those owls. And I can't wait to see the outfit you bought for Kiddo - are you saving it for her bday...which is coming up SO SOON it's crazy(as if you didn't know).

The house is looking great - the decals and loveseat are awesome...nice purchases. Not sure what to do about those cabinets. I think bright pink would make the room look a bit to Joker like...and the green is really great. Would a white cabinet be too much white? Maybe. I guess I'm not much help here.

katie said...

kris that stickly loveseat is BEAUTIFUL!! i love all of the renovations, it makes me so inspired! you guys have done wonders on that house, congratulations. :)