Now I Want A Piano

After seeing this situation on Design*Sponge's Before & Afters I knew I had to say something.

SOMETHING!

Thank goodness there are always free pianos on Craigslist!!! I don't care if it plays AT ALL. It's just so pretty! Nick thought about maybe removing the innards before transporting to make it lighter. He's smart-ish!

Hey guess what'll look awesome atop a painted piano? Painted trophies.

Painted Trophies

About a month ago, on Craigslist, I saw that someone was giving away a big assortment of chess trophies! Uh... how could I refuse?! So now I have a bunch of cheap, shiny gold-ish colored symbols of some anonymous person's disposable glory. Awesome.

I thought to myself wouldn't these be cool if I painted these? I looked on the Internet for pictures, figuring someone else surely would have had a similar epiphany. Not so much. Here's what I found:


I like the horse one! I don't know what color my trophs are gonna be, but I'm leaning towards white or grey. Show you soon!

A Proposal

Isn't that cute? (I forgot where I got this pic from. SORRY.)

ARIZONA

(OMG Hahaha I just realized I forgot to post this when I wrote it!!! So do me a favor and pretend it's a month ago? Thanks.)

Nick and I had the pleasure of being treated to a Pre-wedding honeymoon by Mary Grace, my birth mom. She has a knack for knowing exactly what you might want and when you might need it. After reading both Nick and I's many blog posts regarding airstreams, etc. She read somewhere about a place that you could stay in a vintage trailer park. The Shady Dell.

Which resides in a place called Bisbee, Arizona. (Check out the article in next month's Country Living about Bisbee!)

We went for a weekend and it ABSOLUTELY changed our lives.

First of all... we had been kind of stressed about the wedding. We felt overwhelmed trying to plan it (duh). Also the weather had been cold and kind of grey for weeks, you know... cause it's winter (duh). So the timing of this vay-cay couldn't have been better. We had a car, which was pretty fancy. The guy at the rental place gave us an upgrade, cause it was our pre-wedding honeymoon. That car was awesome.

Arizona was awesome.

Our 1951 Spartan Royal Mansion? Awesome.

The pictures from our trip are totally awesome!!!
America, which is different from New York, has so many cool old signs and weird places in the middle of NOWHERE! We accidentally drove to New Mexico on our way back from actual Mexico, which was pretty darn sketchy.

The picture below is the only picture we took there, cause that's about as long as we were there for.
This is a picture of my new favorite truck. It was in the eerie border town of Douglas, Arizona.

HOW DID ARIZONA CHANGE OUR LIVES?

We had such a carefree experience. Instead of speaking of the wedding, we spoke of being married. It wasn't stressful, it was fun. It was our future!

Also the moment we stepped into the trailer we knew that we wanted one.

The planning of the wedding was not the only thing that was causing some... stuh-ress, but trying to build our home Upstate! Contractors and plumbers and not having any money. Ya.

So we thought that perhaps if we found an old Spartan (we fell in love with the Spartans) we could live in it Upstate, while we saved up for the house. And if we got a chance to actually live on the land it could help us see what we want to do with the place. Every time we go up it feels like we're just visiting. But THAT will change.

As things do.

ARIZONA WAS AWESOME!!! Thank you Mary Grace. You always amaze me.

The Silo

This past weekend we drove Upstate. Our land was covered in about 2 feet of snow. Attempting to brave our long driveway to the barns would have meant sure doom. We parked on the side of the road and walked. It felt like a crime to tarnish the perfect snow with our footsteps, but it had to be done.

Analise and I were working on transporting things from the car to the barn (which wasn't easy) when we noticed something strange by the side of the silo. As we got closer she recognized the strange pile to be Milan's jacket a top of his father's home-made sled, which is basically a wood platform attached to a pair of skis!

Just as we were about to wonder where the boys were we hear "HHhhhhhheeeeeeeyyyyy!" It was coming from the inside of the silo!!! (Which until only moments before had never been seen from the inside!!! At least not by us!)

To enter we had to wade through thorny brush and crawl past the plywood barrier, which now stood unhinged, into a dark and narrow shaft. Once inside we looked up.

Nick decided that he would climb to the top. He was so brave (and crazy), but it enabled him to take this:

That's really high up! Beyond the first wall of trees is the lake, it's frozen and covered with snow, but you can still kind of make it out. To the right of this view you can apparently see the mountains!!!

Instantly, upon entering the silo, all 4 of us got dangerously inspired. We should build inside of this! Words like "office", "guest house", "3 stories" and "structural engineer" were thrown around. Nick and I recognized this kind of excitement. It was the kind of excitement we felt when we first walked into the 1951 Spartan Royal Mansion. Like destiny. Like when we walked on the property before we bought it. Complete possibilities. The only problem with these kind of surges of great vision is that you only really have the time and money for maybe one of those cool things. And this is where priorities come into play. Do we NEED to fix up the silo? It would be cool, but shouldn't we work on our house first? Shouldn't we work on having a place that's insulated and has plumbing?!! Choices.

Part 2 of our adventure was getting this TV out of the barn and into our car, to take back to the city. We were planning on using that TV as our upstate TV, but we figured, what's the point of having a TV if you don't have floors? We're not real big TV watchers, but we do love movies and we do watch LOST every week with our friends at our place. So why should we continue watching LOST on our old boob tube from the 90s when we have this newer, BIGGER boob tube just sitting in our barn!? But HOW were we going to get the TV to the car in 2 feet of snow with the car being over 100 yards away and uphill?!! The answer? Milan's dad's sled!!!

That's my helping stance.

Well anywho. I'm sure whatever our endeavors will be I'll be posting about em. Oh! That reminds me... I just realized that there all all these posts that I never published because I forgot to! So expect a to be reading about some good times from the past.

Kitchen Inspiration: Take 3

It's all about STORAGE...

I have plans this Saturday to prime the kitchen. It is going to be some undertaking. I will let you know how we do.

Top pic: Via Remodelista, 2nd down: Martha Stewart, White Le Creuset Shelves from Wide Open Spaces, Last photo, again, from Martha Stew.

Gray Marriage

Hi. So we painted a wall in the living room gray. We wanted something neutral yet bold to bring out the white moulding around our windows. (Will post picks soon!) Here is some post paint inspiration. (Just to keep us excited about our color choice... "French silver"!)

Top pic: DecorPad, 2nd down is Jenna Lyons' living room (from J.Crew) via Habitually Chic, Daybed photo courtesy of Martha Stewart, Next pic is from Design*Sponge, 5th down is another from DecorPad, 3 big arched windows: DecorPad, the next one is... (so embarrassing...) ALSO from DecorPad, Please don't hate me DecorPad, The last photo is from a website that appears not to be in English Xanga?

Gray can really cool a room down, which can lead to a sort of sterile, sad feel to the space. Even though we have a very sunny living room with 2 big south facing windows I think we may need to add some warm wood to the area, perhaps hanging a picture (or several) with nice wood frames. We'll see! Painting is so fun BTW.

Nick and Faryl on Brooklyn Bride

Our SAVE THE DATE was featured on the awesome blog Brooklyn Bride!
Cool.

Nice Throw

I LOVE THESE.

1. Because they are gorgeous.

2. Because they come from Prince Edward Island, where Anne (with an e) of Green Gables lives.

I found them on Katy Elliot's blog: Katy Elliot. They are made by MacAusland Woolen Mills. If I could order them online they would be on that registry so fast. The only other problem, other than not being able to order them online, is which color should I choose?!! 

Stripes and linens are m.t.b. (Meant to be!!!)

The Vision

After writing my last post, so... post post, if you will, I went home and had a little look-see at our kitchen with Nick at my side. We thought how can we make this the best kitch poss without spending a fortch? (Sorry I'm feeling a bit abbrevy.)

Our design pow-wow went well and we are on our way, equipped with a clear vision and a tenacious can-do attitude.

Here is some inspiraysh:

Top photo from LivingBetterTogether.blogspot, second down: The Style Files, the one with the dogie: MarthaStewart.com, next one via Decor*Pad, and the last: Carrie. Can.

(Now, I DO have a can of blackboard paint, HOWEVER I have no intention of using it to paint an entire wall as shown in some of these photos.)

Things I am sure of: I'm sure that our kitchen will be predominately white, as it is now. I'm sure we will have accents of wood and stainless steel. I'm sure that we are gonna prune the unnecessaries from our kitchen, as we did last night. "See ya later table!" AND I'm sure that it's gonna look great!

Don't Count Your Kitchens...

This is not my kitchen. It belongs to THIS PERSON.

As I was dancing through my kitchen this morning I realized I have been neglecting her, regarding her cleanliness and her aesthetic potential.

Weddings and life and the Internet have pulled my focus slightly from my actual habitat. I've been living so far in the future and have been so consumed with what I want for the future I have forgotten my plans for our apartment. You know, the one that we ACTUALLY live in right this very moment!!!?

I have an armoire, if you remember, that could use a touch more TLC before calling it done. I have an armchair, you may also remember, that is bored to tears with being 3/4 finished. Our living room has had painters tape around our window frames for 2 weeks in anticipation of a small paint job.

Neglect, neglect, neglect.

It's also hard to imagine what kind of things we should register for when our apartment could stand to be a little more cohesive, design wise. Right now it has the slight feel of an indoor flea market. (Only slightly.)

But the thing that would make me the happiest would be to straighten up our kitchen. Shelves need organizing, pots and pans need a peg board, pantries need to be consolidated, counter space needs to be excavated. This is my goal.

Kitchen, prepare yourself, I'm gonna make you so happy and I'm gonna cook in you like crazy!!!


(Some of those pics are a little sterile, but even if I tried to make my kitchen as showroomy as some of the above, it would still come out looking kind of old and charming. I vow to try and work on this, folks... but don't get too excited. With weddings and life and the internet all I'm saying is:

Don't count your kitchens before they hatch. (I hope it hatches before easter!)