Upcycling

Things have been shifting and changing the household lately.  We moved in over two years ago and we haven't really touched the house since then.  Now that we have settled in, we have a better of idea of our habits and we are working on re-doing parts of the house.  We have 4 bedrooms, all of which are good-sized, but they aren't being maximized so we went to work planning and rearranging existing furniture.

The first project we did was to repaint a horrible bright blue bedroom (think "My Little Pony blue") into a much more flattering and neutral pale grey.  We are also in the process of taking apart the study and moving one of the two desks out to make a sewing/crafting area for me in the grey bedroom. We have plans to turn the study into a more functional library/playroom/guest room down the road.  By rearranging the study, we re-use existing stuff to complete other areas of the house.  We hung curtains and added a large pendant light for the dining room.  It is currently an IKEA white paper lantern but I saw this wonderful DIY hack for making a hemp pendant lamp that I want to try:

I either want to make one gigantic one or maybe 3 medium sized orbs hung in a row.  They look like West Elm's Abaca pendant but at a fraction of the price:

I can see it being a fun craft project with kids so I'll probably attempt this on a weekend when I have my niece over.  

I was Born in the Wrong Era

Hubby always jokes that I was born in the wrong era.   My BA is in English and focused on 18th century Anglo literature (and comparative literature from other countries around that time.)  I love all things from that era: the literary works, the history, the fashion, the furniture, and the lifestyle.  It's just fascinating!  Lately, I've been drawn to living the lifestyle of the generations past:  I'm into baking my own bread from homemade starter, growing organic vegetables, and refurbishing furniture.  Basically, it's just old-fashioned homemaking and working with one's hands.

I have one more professional hurdle to pass in the very near future but once I complete it, I will have a short period of free-time before I begin working again.  During that time, I have multiple home projects that I hope to accomplish.  They include:  remodeling our kitchen (cabinets and backsplash), painting and re-decorating the study, painting a bedroom,  installing a picture gallery, sewing slipcovers for our cream colored sofas, and buying a cheap (<$30) wingback chair to reupholster.

If I have time, I want to make a headboard for the master bedroom, hack our living room ottoman into a storage ottoman, and some other plans that include metallic grasscloth wallpaper.  It's going to be a super busy but very fun-filled summer!  I can't wait!!

P.S. Hubby, if you are reading this, I would really really really like a sewing machine (preferable Janome brand) for my birthday/our 2nd wedding anniversary!  Oh! and an electric nail gun.





okthanksbai.

The Jet-Set lifestyle!

We just got back from Europe a few weeks ago and now we're on our way up, up, and away again! This time, we're headed to the Mayan Rivieria with it's white sand beaches and clear, turquoise water.  The forecast shows a low of 70 and a high of 90 (my ideal zone) but unfortunately, it'll also have scattered thunderstorms.  Regardless, I am so looking forward to our leisurely tropical getaway with a bunch of our closest friends!

We have a couple excursions planned while where there...touring the Mayan ruins, a girl's spa day, and either swimming with dolphins or taking a zipline over the forest.  I think I'd enjoy ziplining but the opportunity to swim with dolphins (Hub's favorite animal) is too hard to pass up.  I guess we'll see what the rest of the group wants to do when we get there!  Can. Not. Wait.

Off to take care of houseplants and a quick mani/pedi!

She sells Seychelles by the seashore.

**Update**

Yay!!  After wishing I had them during my entire trip in Paris, I bit the bullet and placed a pre-order as soon as I got back.  Unfortunately, it took over a month before the order was fulfilled and I wasn't able to  enjoy them in Cancun, but I am enjoying them now!  I ordered .5 size up but I found that they run true to size, so the recommendation to order .5 to 1 size up was inapplicable to me. It fits very well without any chafing, rubbing, or discomfort but when I lift my feet, it feels a tad loose.  The wide leather bands hold it in place and it's not so bothersome that it'd make me return and reorder.  All in all, I am very pleased with these shoes.  I've worn them with a fancy silk and sequined outfit to a wedding, casual cotton summer dress, and a jaunty nautical inspired shirt and shorts outfit.  Yes for the perfect pair of wedges!

**End Update with a fist pump!**

Or so I wish.  I wore out my last favorite pair of shoes--metallic slippers with just a 1.5 inch heel--perfect for wearing with anything from skinny jeans to dresses to shorts.  In my quest to find a new replacement,  I stumbled upon the cutest pair of shoes yesterday.  They are way higher than my last pair of favorite utilitarian shoes but heel height has never intimidated me.  Here are these beauties, in all it's glory:

Seychelles

Aren't they beautiful?  Even though it has a 4 inch heel, it's on a stacked platform so it'll feel like more like a 3 inch heel.  I like them enough to pay full price for them ($110) and there are actually quite a few amazon promotions right now which would bring the price down to around $60.  Yet the gods defy me! There are no more taupe colors left in my size :(  While I can still order it and wait for the next shipment, the next shipment won't arrive for several weeks so it won't arrive in time for my impending vacation.  I guess its probably better not to teeter around in wedge heels on cobblestone streets but still--I feel a pang of sadness.  Add in a double pang because the Amazon sale won't apply on the impending shipment so it'll be full price.  While I said I'd have been willing to pay full price for it, knowing that I can get it at around $60 makes me unwilling to pull the trigger.  Boo!  Boo hiss snarl!  

And the shoe search saga continues...

What's a suburban wife to drive?

I remember when our family first got a minivan--it was a big, boxy, Dodge Caravan that we affectionately dubbed "Big Red". (Apparently, this was a popular car back in the 90's because El Hubbo's family had a silver one dubbed--"Silver Bullet".) I loved the sliding doors and how roomy the interior was, but that fascination eventually faded to embarrassment. Maybe it was because it had gotten dinged up and old over the course of 10-years, or maybe because it became synonymous with suburban soccer mom's, or perhaps even, due to the GIANT phone number and name advertising our family's business all over the windows. Probably all 3, but since then, even though vans are incomparably useful during moving, I have averred against them.


Instead, the 18-year old me looked at shiny, assertive, stylishly towering SUV's with eyes shining in delight and decided that when I had a family someday, I would get an SUV. I'd be a cool mom, rather than the minivan, conservative jean-wearing mom.


Cue to 5 years later, when yet ANOTHER passive/aggressive suburban mom cut me off on the 73, shooting by, no doubt tearing off to drive her children to La Crosse practice. (This was when I lived in SoCal, where I normally drove a minimum of 80 on the stretch from the 405 to the 73). I realized then and there...SUV drivers can often be d*cks. I did not wish to be a d*ck. I mean, yeah, her faux blond highlights were awesomely sun-kissed and she was gabbing away on a fancy phone, but I did not like the attitude. It seems the higher the driver's vantage point is, the lower their willingness to follow general traffic niceties. Gone was my ambition to be an SUV driving "cool" suburban mom.


It has been several years since the 5 years later of my 18-year old self and while I still don't have kids, it is at least within the perimeter of the planning stages. Ok, it's still too early but my current car is 16 years old and it has died 2 times in the past 6 months, resulting in an ungodly shop bill. Although it's back on track, we are hedging our bets that it won't last more than 2-3 years. Since we want to buy a slightly used car for our next car, that means we'll end up purchasing cars around the 2010/2011 generation!


Cue the car search! (It's a great waste of time!) We currently have 2 sedans and we are really looking for a car with excellent gas mileage (so hybrid or electric is a must), cargo space, and all-wheel drive, under $20k used so we can pay for it up front to avoid financing it (since debt is the Great Evil that must be avoided or eradicated). Since we may have a family in 2-3 years, it would be great if it doubled as a family car. Some options we considered are:


1. Prius- Good price, best mileage, awesome for commuting, roomy interior, decent cargo space, but no AWD. Even new, it's attainable. 3 years old would drop it to the $18k category. Oh yes.


2. Prius V (Wagon!)- new car, coming Summer 2011.

(source)

Expected base of $28,500 for new, so a slightly older one will drop it under $20k. 40mpg average mileage, super roomy, awesome cargo space, but no AWD. I love that it's a wagon! Not an SUV! Not a mini-van! Just a super awesome modern family car that doubles as an awesome commuter car? Oh heck to the yes! But...no AWD and it's not always the best idea to get the first gen of a new anything. Still...this would probably be IT if it had AWD. Still a top contender though.

3. Lexus 400H (2008 and newer). Decent mileage for a hybrid SUV, looks curvy, decent cargo space, luxury ride. Cost would be about $25k for a 5 year old car but at that point, are we really just getting it for the name? Part of the consumerist,materialistic self in me says, "yes! I indeed want a nice abstract L on the grill of my car!" but luxury brand aside, it is a nice, compact SUV crossover that has all the functions we want: hybrid/gas efficiency, cargo space, and most importantly: AWD.

4. Toyota Highlander hybrid- looks ugly. Just can't drive it. I'm sorry. Not even if it was slapped with all the abstract L's, linked rings, and pie looking doodads available on it. I can handle the consumeristic/materialistic self, but I can't turn-off the superficial. Besides, the gas mileage isn't all that great.

5. Commuter sedan/electric vehicle- Tesla looks so cool but at $50k, even with the tax incentive, it is double our price point. Other electric commuter cars are around $30k and will probably drop a bit over the next two years, but that puts us back at the current situation of owning 2 commuter cars with no cargo space and no AWD.

So...what have I learned today? Well, the only nice hybrid family car with cargo space and AWD currently available is the Lexus, followed by it's country cousin, the Highlander. We wouldn't notice extra padding in our wallets because it'll require the same amount of fuel we're using now, but at least we get so much more car for it. Do we want a car that fits all the requirements moderately, or go for another car (such as the Prius) that BLOWS most of the requirements out of the water even though it lacks one of the most integral requirements? What would YOU do?

Doggy Day Care #1

Hubby and I have been thinking about getting a dog but neither of us have ever really owned a pet. We've known people who get all excited and prepare for a puppy only to break down and give it away weeks later. I was afraid we might do that too because we have absolutely no clue how to handle pets. How do we make the call then? With a trial run!

Today, I am doggy-sitting for some friends of ours and it is the first time in my life that I have been left alone with a dog for more than 2-3 hours. I have to admit--when I woke up this morning, I was very apprehensive about it. I am a bit of a neat freak and I cannot abide dirt, germs, or messes. The very thought of my custom Ethan Allen sofa legs getting chewed up is enough to make me break out in a cold sweat. However, this was the best opportunity for a puppy trial run (with a well-trained puppy to boot), so we jumped at the opportunity.

The first thing I did after getting her was to take her out for a walk/run. I wanted her to walk next to me but I also felt bad for preventing her from nosing around so I wavered between staying firm or letting her wander. I did a bit of both, but I'm still not sure what is the best thing to do. She also started getting antsy so I broke out in a jog to get some of her energy out. I think that helped but I got winded before she did. I had a bit of trouble wiping her paws down coming in and she was also kind of sassy with me, so I took her to the backyard and played catch with her for a while. I also used treats to reinforce my authority and by the time she came in, I was able to teach her "Paw.", which means lifting her paws and letting me wipe them down with a warm, soapy, towel. She's such a smart dog! She really understood what I wanted from her! She got lots of doggy treats for that :)

All in all...it's much better and easier that I expected it to be. She's been napping under my desk for about an hour now and I won't need to walk/feed her until 3pm. I've really fallen in love with this friendly breed--she's smart and noble, pretty and friendly, fluffy, and hypoallergenic. Although she nipped/bit my hand a few times when I was feeding her, it didn't break skin. It was more my fault, I needed to calm her down before feeding her and not hold out my treat with my fingertips. We'll see how things go over the next few days :) If she's still as lovable, I might need to get a Samoyed after all!

Downsizing

One of my favorite design bloggers recently announced that she is downsizing from her current large family home and moving to a much cheaper and smaller home. It's not because they're hurting for money, on the contrary, they both have professional jobs and make enough to live well with a 15 year mortgage left on their lovely house. They're downsizing because they actually want to pay off their house in 4-5 years and live absolutely, completely debt-free.

It really got me thinking about how lovely it would be to also be completely debt-free. I want it more than I want a big house or a designer handbag or a fancy car. I never really count mortgage debt as debt until now but now I see all the possibilities of being completely debt-free! So what is our plan? I love to plan. This is our plan.

Neither of us have ever had consumer debt. However, I still have student loans and we have our house mortgage. We'll do our best to pay off my student loans in 2-3 years and then we'll both combine our efforts to pay off the mortgage. Imagine how liberating it'd be to never pay mortgage again! We could save up, quit our jobs, and travel abroad for a year. Then we can come back home, find jobs again, and save up for our next adventure.

The traveling abroad idea is from another design blog that I read--the family of 8 (yes, 8. They are Mormon) relocated from Denver to Normandy for a year. They have portable jobs and they're just renting in France rather than Denver at the same rate of rent. The kids are attending the village school and it sounds like an amazing experience for the family. Obviously this will take a lot of planning because we'll still need jobs while abroad for income to survive during that time--but it's just an example of how free one's live can be without the anvil of debt dragging one down.

Someday soon...if we continue doing what we're doing...we can get there.