New blog, AGAIN

So I decided to move here, for what will hopefully be my final Internet resting place (sorry, morbid)… at least for now. I wanted a separate space to focus more on the house, domesticity, and design. My first post is all about the bedroom redesign, which you obviously won’t want to miss. Come visit me–and update your readers, the few of you!

See ya!

Measuring Spoons and Cups

Proof that visitors do notice the little things in your home: when we were invited to a neighbor’s house for dinner, one of the first things I noticed in their kitchen were their individually-hanging measuring spoons and cups. Each one hung from its own hook above the sink, and I can’t deny that I was a little fixated on this idea all night.

After recuperating from my hangover the next morning I did some research. Are Naturals and Craft Co. No. 6 both sell sets that hang from their own strips.

Not wanting to lay down the bones for a handmade set of my own, I whipped out my level, tape measure, and some shiny silver hooks. Here’s my version. They hang on the side of a built-in that houses our microwave and oven.

I love the ease of measuring things now! No more rifling through drawers and dealing with the annoying ring they were held together with. I highly recommend doing this, especially for people who do a lot of cooking at home.

Supporting the Economy and Testing Your Relationship

(New Frederick News Post column)

How to simultaneously support the economy while testing the strengths and bounds of your marriage? Start a home project.

Decide that you’re going to take on something that you really have no business doing — bonus points for a project that your neighbor paid someone else to do.

Optimally, make it be a project that involves plenty of aesthetic choices, like paint colors and types of tile. Think long and hard about whether your bathroom would look best in Pensive Sky or Morning Sky — give these decisions their due value.

When gearing up for your first trip to Home Depot be sure to forget your list at home — or even better, don’t make a list at all. This will make sure that you will maximize your time in the store where you will inevitably discover tons of items that you never thought you needed but suddenly now seem crucial to your existence, like a squeegee or an all-in-one screwdriver that your husband will later repeatedly and mercilessly refer to as the “choose your own adventure.”

This will be hilarious at 2 in the morning when you’re using the choose your own adventure to scrape dried caulk from your new tile.

Also, while you’re in the store don’t waste time checking packaging and lengthy descriptions. Just assume that when the makers of your toilet proclaim “All In One, Everything Included” on the front of the box, it will contain a supply line.

This method works best when you have only one bathroom in the house. And even better if you discover your mistake just after all of the home improvement stores within 20 miles have closed for the night. The level of panic that will set in with the thought of no toilet until the next morning will bring you infinitely closer to your partner.

You will also finally get to be that person banging on Home Depot’s locked doors with unwashed hair and paint-stained sweatpants, much to the chagrin of the teenager trying to ignore you inside. You’ve always wanted to be that person.

When you’re ready to get started, have the person who lacks attention to detail do all of the detail work for your project; it’s the only way he’s going to learn.

Put your perfectionism aside, but not before you teach him how to properly tape off a wall using expensive painter’s tape. Don’t forget to closely keep an eye while he attempts to perfect his own technique, one that will most definitely diverge completely from the technique you just taught him. Encourage his creativity.

When the tape comes up a few hours later and blotches of grey are showing through on the brand new white wainscoting, try to keep the I-told-you-so’s at bay. Voicing your concerns will only make your partner feel more at ease with the situation.

Make your partner feel more uncomfortable by letting the blotches speak for themselves. Don’t say a word. Enjoy the awkward silence. Consider the benefits of utilizing the “choose your own adventure” as a weapon, but ultimately decide that you have no idea how to use plumber’s putty and you really want this job to get done.

Finally, you should do your best to completely disrupt your daily routine. Shake things up a bit by moving your bed into the living room. Your cats will enjoy the new access they have to your face while you sleep.

Cuddle your partner to get away from them. Remain very still so that they don’t know you’re there. Use the floor as your nightstand and leave your glasses and tissues all over it. You’ll be thrilled to get up in the morning and back to your project. And when it’s finally finished, celebrate by spending the night apart.

Ambien Makes You Weird

I’ve recently started taking Ambien, and not so coincidentally, my nights have gotten a whole lot more interesting. 

I’ve always had issues with sleeping, or more specifically, not being able to sleep. My parents are the same way. They’re in their 60s and usually don’t fall asleep until well after 1am. If it were up to me, I’d completely switch my days and nights around, because it would just come naturally to me. I’m secretly a vampire.

I’m pretty damn near useless before noon, and I have a major burst of energy every evening from 6pm and on. This has proven to conflict with my work schedule. So, unlike my college years when I could schedule my classes around my sleep-related inclinations, I’ve got to actually get myself to sleep at night and up in the morning.

I tried every brand of over-the-counter sleep aids over the years (finding the most success with Unisom). When I encountered a particularly bad bout of insomnia earlier this year–it tends to come and go in waves–I went to my doctor and got a prescription. First for Trazodone, which didn’t work. And then for Lunesta, which my insurance company deemed unnecessary and refused to pay for.

Then came Ambien. My strange and wonderful friend, Ambien. It definitely works. From Wikipedia, here is a list of common side effects:

• Anterograde amnesia
• Hallucinations, through all physical senses, of varying intensity
• Delusions
• Altered thought patterns
• Ataxia or poor motor coordination, difficulty maintaining balance^[37]
• Euphoria and/or dysphoria
• Increased appetite
• Decreased libido
• Amnesia
• Impaired judgment and reasoning
• Uninhibited extroversion in social or interpersonal settings
• Increased impulsivity
• When stopped, rebound insomnia may occur
• Headaches, in some people  

Some of my favorites (from my own experience) are complete memory loss from the time the drug started working until I wake up; hallucinations; altered thought patterns; poor motor coordination; and increased impulsivity. I can tell you for sure that I do not experience decreased libido when taking Ambien. Just sayin’.

It starts working after about half an hour. I usually take it somehwere around 11pm, most commonly while we’re watching something on TV. At some point, after I’ve forgotton I’ve taken it, I’ll start to completely lose all comprehension skills regarding whatever we’re doing/watching. Suddenly everything is really, really confusing. Once the confusion is in full swing, I start having some good ideas, one of which always includes having sex with Jason AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, NO MATTER WHAT HE IS DOING. He doesn’t mind this so much. 

I think the idea is probably that most people fall asleep before any of the side effects hit. But my ability to stay awake is pretty tenancious.

Here’s a picture I don’t remember taking of myself after taking Ambien the other night. 

Home, updated again

Our living room has come pretty far since last month. We replaced the ridiculous couch and the old rug, and moved the armchair to the dining room for more space. We also exchanged the tiny side table we were using for the TV for a sofa table from Ikea and added ottomans.

Here’s are the new couch and ottomans, that also serve as mini tables for food or craft projects. The ottomans were $50 a piece from Target. The throw pillows came with the couch.

Here’s the left corner of the room. The chair is gone and has been replaced with a last-minute-decision cat tent. The cats are obviously more in favor of the windows.

We also replaced the floor lamp with a hanging light kit set-up from Ikea. Super inexpensive, but I love the look. And saving floor space is always a plus.

And here’s the front of the room with the new TV stand. We spent what seemed like hours searching for the perfect TV stand/entertainment center and we simply couldn’t find anything to match our taste or our living room. On our way out, I came across the Ikea Stockholm sofa table that fits perfectly. Our electronics have more space now.

The bottles on the bar were making these gorgeous shadows on the wall last night just as the sun was going down.

This is where we dine when we’re not eating on the couch.

This is the bathroom that we were going to re-do, but have since decided to save our money. I’ve decided that it could be worse.

And finally, our cozy li’l bedroom. I bought branch lamps from Target for each side of the bed, and I’ve completely fallen in love with them. We have the standard four poster bed from Ikea that’s pretty popular, but I hung a curtain on the back rod to mimic a headboard.

And Jason is installing new ceiling fans in the living room, bedroom, and a tiny one for the bathroom, as we speak. It’s pretty great around here lately.

In with the new

It’s funny how your taste changes over time. How something you thought was so stylish and inventive a couple years ago is now just plain tacky. We’re sort of in the process of removing those things from our house and replacing them with better (i.e. less tacky things). Case in point: last year we were thrilled over our purchase of the “Super Sofa,” which is the real name that the manufacturer gave the thing. What made it super, you ask? Well, let me tell you. It comes complete with built-in heating and massage controls (two levels), pop-up lights, two recliners, a storage drawer on the bottom, and armrests that opened to reveal yet more storage (where all of my crochet hooks and chap sticks eventually ended up.) It was a monstrosity. And not only that, but it was also really, really poorly made. I listed the thing on Craigslist last night for $100 and have gotten five offers within 24 hours. Apparently there is an abundance of function-over-form folks in Frederick just dying to get their hands on this thing.

This is what our family room looks like now.

And the couch in all of its glory. These are the pictures I took for Craigslist, so I didn’t put much (any) effort into them.

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These are our new additions that will hopefully be in place by the end of the weekend. The couch is a Broyhill Tasha model. It was once $1,750, but we nabbed the perfectly good floor model for $600. The rug is from Ikea, and the TV stand is from Target. The whole deal is going to cost us just over $1,000. Not bad.

New stuff

I spent a few days last week revitalizing The Ripe Radish. I’d been neglecting it for months after I got burned out on button bouquets. After making over 150 of those suckers, I really needed a break. Here’s some new stuff:

New bathroom

We are officially embarking on a new home project. I’d like to say that it’s the LAST big home project, but I know that would be a lie. We’ve decided to spend a portion of our healthy tax return this year to update our bathroom. I don’t have a current picture of it, but image a pink toilet and sink, taupe bathtub, faux tile walls, and floral linoleum that peels up if you step on it wrong.

Everything, for the most part, will be coming from Ikea and Lowes. After all of the color we’ve had to deal with in there, I’m looking for something a little more neutral. We’re going with a grayscale thing, with tiny splashes of red.

My Flickr set has the details and links.

Catnip

Jason and I are, by definition, crazy cat people. My only saving grace is that I’m married, and therefore, I can no longer be the crazy cat lady. But we have four cats (Potato, Winnie, Niko, and Rambo), and each cat over two starts to make you a little bit more of a social outcast.

My mother-in-law got me a catnip growing kit for Christmas. I planted the seeds a few weeks ago. I may or may not have had to Google “how to plant seeds.” But this is what it looks like now.

He hasn’t found out yet.

Cat Nativity

It’s not much of a secret that I’m not so big on the whole religion thing. But I’ve decided to make an exception to my rule of generally not supporting anything that has to do with Christianity.

I have a coworker who received a cat nativity scene for Christmas, predictably from a wacky aunt. When I say cat nativity scene, I mean that all of the manger characters in this set are cats–baby Jesus, Mary, and all the other folks that were “there”.

This coworker thankfully saw a regifting opportunity in this treasure and asked me if I wanted it. I don’t want to consider the implications this has on her perception of me, especially because I was also the recipient of some regifted ceramic hula girl salt and pepper shakers from her that I just love.

Do I even have to tell you what my answer was? I hope not. 

Next year, this will be proudly displayed near the Christmas tree. Praise Jesus!