Library! AKA - controlled chaos...

This weekend, we finally (mostly) finished the library. Our original plan was to use expedit shelves from IKEA. I was on board with that for a while, but truthfully, I had always envisioned adjustable shelves. I wanted to be sure I had a place my globe collection would fit! Josh needed a desk area as well, since he is in school, and since the long wall by the closet had a good depth to it, I thought we should just get a deeper shelf on the bottom to use as a desk. Otherwise, all four walls would be spoken for, and since it's a tiny room I wanted to have as much free space as possible, visually and otherwise.

Saturday morning we headed to Home Depot to get our materials. Unfortunately, we got the wrong stuff. We got the single track stuff. Once we finished the first wall, and put up some shelves, we quickly realized that it was not stable or sturdy enough to support a desk and the weight of books.

This thumbs-up was given too soon.

We removed it all and drove back to Home Depot to exchange everything. Even though the receipt for the stuff we had bought earlier flew away on the wind, we had no problems returning it. I am finding I love Home Depot more than Lowe's more and more every day.

Unfortunately, the holes for the new tracking did not line up with the holes for the old tracking. This meant we had to drill almost double the amount of holes that we already had in that wall. Some of the holes are alarmingly close together.

At least the new tracking was wide enough to cover it up!

And all that drilling made a big mess...

Finally, though, we got into a groove and made progress.

Though it was a little uncomfortable for Bip at the end...

It took a lot longer than we planned. It was Sunday afternoon before we completed installing all the shelves and organizing books into categories.
The Bip is thrilled with his new desk area. It's only about 16" deep, but it's 68" long, so it's still plenty of space. We moved the sexy chairs that were in the living room in here until we figure out where to put them.

My books are thrilled to have a place to call home instead of being piled up on the floor.

I think my globes are happy, too.

(We have since put our bedroom tv on these shelves, too. I didn't take a pic of it yet, though.)

Sadly, the wall in the above picture needs a little more work. There is not much on it at the moment, at least not in the middle, because we're going to need to put another strip and more brackets in the middle, otherwise it sags a bit. Books are heavy, so we can't take any chances. Also, I didn't plan to run the shelving all the way up on this wall, but we're going to have to, because we have so many books! 90% of them are mine, but Josh has definitely contributed, and will continue to. We're big readers.

I donated about 150 books to Goodwill in May, and it's definitely time to do another purge. I try to get rid of most of my fiction after I read it, but it's piling up a bit again already.

Also, now that this room is mostly* done, I finally have a place to put my gumball machine! My dad got this for me 5 or so years ago at an auction. Whoever had it before me filled it with Happy Meal toys. I just think it's a fun thing to have, it makes me smile! Some of the toys are old - Pac Man and Mr. T!

* I say the room is 'mostly' done, because there is still more to do. Add some more decor, hopefully a big comfy chair, stablize and add more shelving on the third wall, and paint the trim. But, the major parts of it are done, and we love it. We find ourselves popping in there for no reason just to look around and admire it all.

We managed to accomplish a few other things this weekend, too, but not as much as I had hoped. Projects take time and money, and neither of those things are as readily available as we'd like (especially time!! We worked up until about 9pm Sunday on this room and other things in the house). Hopefully we will get more accomplished after the wedding (we still have not printed or sent out invites - yikes!) and through the fall and winter. Next spring I think it's time to tackle the outside - adding to our garden, landscaping the front, painting the trim and front door, etc.

We definitely have enough stuff lined up to keep us busy for the next few years. But I think we're (almost!) at a point where we can relax for a bit and admire what we have accomplished. But I'm always thinking about what I want to get done next... that's just how my brain works.

We now have real living room chairs! I love them.

Still not sure about the paint color.

The lamp and trunk are temporary.

Ignore the part of the dining room table that is peeking into the picture. There is still one wall to paint in the dining room, so the furniture has been pushed partway into the living room.

The white chairs look so good! However, it does not look as great with the brown couch as we thought it would. :( We may have to go buy another slipcover for the sofa from IKEA. This would mean we have to completely take the couch apart to put the new one on. In any case, nothing is going to be done about it immediately.

We also finished the library this weekend. More on that tomorrow!

Weekend Accomplishments and Manly Pedicures

Friday afternoon Josh got started on painting the front bedroom while I did the grocery shopping. It took him almost no time at all.

In process:

The color is "Chinchilla" by Martha Stewart. I totally and completely love it. Keep in mind, all our trim will be painted white sometime in the near future, so the paint will look even better. Here it is finished:

I really love the color!

I think we could have even went with a darker grey, but I am glad we didn't because it might be a little too depressing during the winter.

I've had my eye on this bedding from Target:

However, it seems to be sold out online as well as in stores. I've also been scouring Craigslist for new bedside tables. I found some that are contenders, I am waiting to get the dimensions emailed to me so we can see if they will fit.

If we are able to get the above bedding, I'd like to paint the bedside tables yellow. I am obsessed with yellow as an accent color. Especially with grey. Mmmm! But it is my favorite color... so maybe it's no surprise that I am trying to incorporate it into a few rooms. And the front door.

Saturday, we slept until 8 a.m.! It felt like heaven. However, once I got up, I didn't feel that great. The Bip kept telling me not to poop out on him, that we had a lot to do that day, but I just couldn't get any energy going, at all. It was like someone had drained it all out of me. By 11:30, I was back in bed and could barely keep my eyes open. By 12:30 or so, I was out like a light and I slept all day, about 5 or 6 hours.  I was tired down into my bones... I can't remember the last time I felt that sleepy for seemingly no reason.

When I got out of bed, finally, I was still tired. Everything I did made me feel the need to sit down and rest. Just emptying the dishwasher was a chore. So, I can't take credit for any of the home improvements this weekend - it was allllll Bip.

He did get the living room painted, and he is supposed to do the dining room tonight. I don't know what it is about me that I am just not happy with any paint colors so far for the living room. I love the bedroom and bathroom paints - we got them right the first time, no problem. The last living room color was too 'baby' blue, and now this one feels too bright. Anyway, I am getting ahead of myself. I loved how it looked with the first stroke...

But as the room got closer and closer to completion, I started second guessing myself.

We matched the color closely to the tablecloth - this was the color I had in my head, and the tablecloth has all the colors that we plan to use in the living and dining rooms -Brown, Blue, yellow and white/natural.

Maybe it's just the trim that's throwing me off? The wood has a reddish tone to it, and nothing looks good with it (again, we will be painting it white soon).

I think I will like it more once the trim is painted, our shelves are put up, and the new chairs (which I just ordered - we will have them on Friday!) are in the room, too. But, the Bip says he's not painting the room again anytime soon, so I have to live with this a while at least - unless I want to paint the room myself.

We're getting two of these...

I can't wait! They are perfect for the room.

I really do think I will like the color more once everything is in place.... we're going for a lake cottage feel, and I really think we're going to be able to pull it together! We should be able too, after all. We do live in a cottage and we're only 8 blocks from the lake!

Sunday was Father's day. Hopefully next year we'll have cause to celebrate Josh's fathering skills, too, but this year we just celebrated his father.

After the family brunch, we went to Target, I wanted to show him a side table I was considering for the living room. We're still kind of undecided... But we did find this big charcoal grey chair. Only $150, and it folds out into a single bed!

I think this will be absolutely perfect in the library! It's a tiny room (about 8x10 - TINY!), but I've always envisioned it with a big comfy chair in the middle. And the price cannot be beat. So I am working on talking Josh into it... It's not working yet, so I guess I need to bat my lashes a little harder. Also, he just looked so dang handsome yesterday. He's always handsome, but I thought he looked extra-gorgeous in that cream colored shirt. Yum! The painted toenails are a nice touch, too. He got a little crap from his family for it, but I dig it and so does he.

The painted toenails started thanks to Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott. We watch their show religiously (I can't help but love Tori Spelling. Josh had no intention of liking the show, but by God, he loves it, too. Their kids are so damn funny, too. They steal the show!). Anyway, Dean always has his toenails painted black or some other manly color and I remarked that I thought it was cool that he did that. I thought it looked great, and I also like that he doesn't give a crap what some people might think about it. Josh said he liked it too, and would be totally on board with painting his toenails. So he tried it one night and was hooked. He even has his own nail polish now. I don't think it's something every guy could (or would want to) pull off. But it definitely works on the Bip! He's got the look and the confidence to get away with it. Plus, it's fun to have someone to paint your toenails with. I see a professional couple's pedicure in our future...what a way to bond, right? ;)

Anyway, I got sidetracked there, huh? Enough gushing. Long story short, we (well, HE) did get some things accomplished (ordered chairs, paint!) the weekend, but we still have more to do (shelves, more paint, switching out bedrooms, etc).We only have until the end of next week to get those things done, as we'll have company for the 4th. Can't wait!

Hopefully we'll make some good progress this week, and I won't be so drained!

Resolving to keep trying!

I am not so good at keeping New Years resolutions, so I try to be casual about it and keep them attainable. But here we are halfway through the year, and I realize I've barely put a dent in them.

My first resolution every year is to work on being a better me. I am imperfect, as is everyone, but some years I am more imperfect than others. I have been working hard at this one. I can't undo anything that's already been done, but I can go forward and do better. And that's what I'm trying to do. At some point, you just have to forgive yourself and keep going.

My other two resolutions have not been going so well. What were they, you ask?

1. Learn to accessorize.

2. Use reuseable bags for grocery shopping and such. No more plastic!

I'm a failure when it comes to these two! I have managed to get two new rings this year, and a bracelet. They've only been worn a few times each. That's as far as I got with accessorizing. Our money goes one of three places: toward house projects, savings account, or toward wedding and honeymoon plans. I don't exactly have the luxury of spending money on myself these days. Mostly, I'm ok with that, but sometimes I wish I could be a little frivolous without having massive guilt. Aside from my weekly issue of People magazine, frivolity is not something that really happens in my household anymore.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at Whole Foods, and the lady in line in front of me not only blew my mind by spending $430 on mostly produce (how does one eat $430 worth of vegetables before they go bad??), but she then bagged it all into reuseable shopping bags and went on her merry way. It made me and my box of mini-cupcakes feel pretty bad about ourselves.

Now that I have reminded myself of the personal goals I wanted to accomplish this year, maybe I will try a little harder to make them happen. :)

This weekend we have a lot on our plate - finally installing shelves in the Library, painting three rooms, switching out bedrooms, moving bed and furniture that is in garage into what is going to be the guest bedroom, and hopefully ordering two living room chairs. Wow! Send us some "git er done" energy, because we're going to need it. I really hope we can make it happen! We want to have a little 4th of July shinding (actually, we'll probably do it on the 3rd) and I want the house in a little bit better shape by then. That just gives us this weekend and next weekend - eek!

But first, I need a good night of sleep. Let's hope that finally happens tonight!

Happy Picture.

I think this is a trumpet vine. It's growing over our fence in some spots, courtesy of neighbors (on all three sides). Pretty!

Garden - Week 9

As you can see, our dogwood is dead dead dead. Not sure what happened there or why, but we've pulled it up and hope to replace it with a magnolia soon.

If you don't think this little yellow baby squash is one of the cutest things you've ever seen, then your heart is black and dead. Sorry to be the one to tell you.

If you're wondering why things are looking a little less bushy than in weeks past, it's because I did a little googling and found out  that it was ok to trim off some zucchini leaves. It was getting huge, and the leaves were blocking sun from getting down to the ground (helping my little zukes grow), as well as overshadowing some other plants, like our poor rosemary.

As you can see, I have re-potted the heirloom tomato plant, and added a tomato cage (had to, I came home one day last week and the whole plant was keeling over on itself because it was so heavy).

There is a reason you are supposed to cage your tomato plants BEFORE they get too big (and I can't take the blame for this, since I just bought it last week) - trying to do it after the plant is huge without breaking off some major branches is impossible. Actually, one of the branches that broke had three little blooms on it. I left it be, and it has not withered up and died yet. I wonder if it will survive? Time will tell.

When I was at Home Depot Saturday to get the pot and cage for the tomato, I found some tiny, dried-out struggling okra plants. Apparently, the hose had overlooked them a few times. I bought two of them. I just planted them in a medium pot and we'll see if they take or not. If so, I'll probably have to transefer them at some point.

I also found some regular thyme, which I was unable to find when we planted the garden originally. Lemon thyme is growing in the garden now, and it's huge... I'll never be able to use it all.

Happy Monday, if there is such a thing.

More iphone photos, hurrah!

The Bip has been so very busy lately, doing some summer work here and there, that  I haven't seen too much of him lately. He was gone all day yesterday, and he's got some stuff lined up today, too. Hopefully, he will be home by 1p.m. I really miss him!

So, while we haven't had any adventures this week, I did download some more photo apps, and spend some quality time with the boys.

(I look about 12 in the above pic!)

And, I may have found a Hipstamatic film/lens combo that I actually like....

Hope your weekend is perfect - this one has been ungodly hot in Nashville, and I am not one who minds heat, usually.

Garden Tour!

Josh and I had the pleasure of going on a Garden Tour last Saturday (our friend Meredith helped put it on through her workplace), and all the photos can be seen here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sbarrington/sets/72157624113484573/

We took about 100 pictures, so I am not going to post them all, but I did want to post a few of my favorites, including some I converted to black and white. Have I mentioned my love for my iphone photo apps yet?

There were 8 gardens featured. One was a biblical garden, at a church. All the plants in it were mentioned in the bible, and there was a plaque at the base of the plants with a quote from the Bible mentioning it. There was an enormous fig tree there full of baby figs, and we just marvelled at the fact that someday, our little fig tree will be growing them, too!

There was even a Japanese inspired garden at one house, including a koi pond and a 'dry garden'. What's a dry garden, you ask? Well, it was full of gravel and had a few bonsai trees and a RAKE. Yes, a rake, which you can use to rake the stones and get all Zen (totally right up the Bip's alley).

One drawback of this tour, though? As if I didn't already have Hydrangea envy! It has turned into a raging case of it, thanks to this tour, and can be cured only by HAVING MY OWN HYDRANGEAS (which I still don't - could you people comment and help me convince the Bip?).

This is just ONE of two kitchen areas this guy had on his patio.

Oh, and here's his pool.

You know I fantasize about Japenese Maples almost as much as Hydrangeas, right? I also have a Magnolia-lust issue, but we will get to that another day.

The most envy-inducing thing of all (besides the Hydrangeas bigger than my head)? These people had not one, but TWO Greenhouses.

TWO GREENHOUSES!

The Bipster keeps telling me he is going to build me a greenhouse someday. I just want a simple one, made of old windows and doors (windows are only $10 a piece at the salvage yard!). Something like:

That would be more than enough for me. Just a place to start my seeds in spring.

After the tour, there was a lovely little Tea Luncheon. I was lucky enough to have this guy for my date:

I'm a lucky girl.