Ask and ye shall receive

We'll start with the table, which we received today. Admittedly, we're a little bummed because they kinda screwed up our order. We asked for legs about half the chunkiness and I guess they ignored us? We can't decide whether we care enough to return it or not. We're really pleased with the size otherwise and the stain. I'm mostly pumped for the SPACE -- now we can both eat cereal and read our magazines with our laptops up. Enough of this TALKING.


And no, you're not blind, we also need new dining room chairs. This is a hodge podge of office chairs and such. We've got some wedding cizash left at Crate and Barrel and will probably make the purchase there.

The new couchy! Mustard! Velvet! Long! A little bouncy! We were semi-unsure at first about the ride (we don't exactly sink in), but we're into it now. It's just so darn soft and I love the high arms -- perfect for snuggling in with some pillows and brownie bites and Dexter.

I'm showing you where to look, over my shoulder. Our old white table is now stationed near the window in the extra room. I think it'll be nice for sipping tea and staring into space.

Chilling at the table, taking it all in. Slowly but surely becoming home.

Coupons and Curtains and Craigslist

I keep forgetting to buy the Sunday paper so I can clip coupons and celebrate the recession. Clay remembered for me this morning and brought one home. Looks like I've got cheap Cheerios, apple sauce and razors coming my way; I will be passing on the cheap Skippy.

Confused by green sports page. (Shirt from last year's birthday trip to Love in Vegas. If you are there, if you love the Beatles = G-O.)

You may remember back in April when I tried to hem our curtains. It was sad. Clay took on the project today while I sat back, snapped pictures, and watched Murder She Wrote.

I've been whining about needing a dresser for a few days (months) now. Our place is so small we're loathe to bring in big pieces of furniture, but we finally decided the floor wasn't cutting it for sweater storage. Also loathe to deck out our place in exclusive Ikeachic, Clay found a Mid-Centch gem on Craigslist; a smelly Dutch lady delivered it via Subaru this morning. I'm insanely pleased with it.

(Please note the "houses" across the street. We're thinking of applying for a butler/maid Remains of the Day situation.)

Our bedroom. We sleep inside cozy gray walls, beside vintage tables, under a quilt made by Clay's aunt Sharon. Also featured: The new old dresser (!), newly hemmed curtains, Ikea platform bed. If I knew how to take pictures, you'd see the bay through the window.

We like it here.

the apron

have you heard of it? it's a really great invention - right up there with sliced bread!

i've had two of them hanging off my refrigerator for a year now, but i never thought to tie one on. it just seemed like one extra step in an already complicated dance called cooking-in-a-very-small-kitchen. but i'm trying to make more foods these days to save some moola and just, you know, be a grownup.

for many a day i felt frustrated by how filthy my jeans got after one wearing. the oily peanut butter smears, the dried egg yolks, the flour powder. do other people just get naked to cook? is that how they keep their clothes clean? and then i looked over one day, and the cutest apron ever, homemade by my friend caroline for a christmas present, covered specially in a tea cup print to honor my addiction, winked at me. and i fell deeply, irreversibly in love.

it's like a big napkin you can wear! that's got pockets! and kind of feels like a pulled-together outfit! and it makes me feel all feminine and feminist simultaneously, somehow. also: as happy as i am with my current choice, i think i may have just stumbled across that all-important thing-i-can-collect. you know, for when people ask me what i want as a gift or i'm, uh, spending hours at a time on etsy, the site that is the answer to every crafty dream, and i want to drop a few bucks that i don't have.

or maybe i could just make my own?

if you sit on the corner of our bed, backwards

we've got a bay view. right now i'm watching a barge chug along, finding its way through the fogginess. and...it's gone. good luck, little engine. come again soon.

i'm living on the edge, giving this room a whirl at noon, because i never really see it except at night, and it's looking so lovely these days! what with the new gray walls and the vintagey bedside tables and the hangy lamps with dimmers. you'd like it, i think.

having a one bedroom apartment is an interesting thing. it's not like we go and hang out in our bedroom with a snack (do you? are we weird for not?) so essentially, we end up in the same room together all the time. i'll admit we don't really mind the arrangement, because we happen to be talented at sharing space while doing our own thing. (read: face plants into video games or magazines or the internets or mystery novels or brownies.) in fact, clay once moved his "office" across the apartment to a weird little closet (damn that hgtv and their world-shifting ideas) and we actually missed each other. okay, yup, just puke right here into my cupped hand. finished? okay, moving on.

but since these days we're both here more than normal, in a perpetual snow day (pajamas and hot beverages and midday television) because he's working from home and i'm...not working, i thought i'd branch out and expand my horizons. heyoh! three boats now? my undivided attention has been requested by the coast guard. must focus.

in the name of comfort

i'm writing this from our new couch - and when i say "new" i mean "old"...but free! our neighbors down the hall moved out this weekend and, during a hallway scuffle trying to get the thing down the stairs, offered it up to us. the price was right, we both approved, and so it was done. the former couch (now displaced to a cozy alcove) was too short and too white and the cushions were always sliding down and separating and, along with the roar of passing motorcycles, made me rage against existence.

but our new golden oldie is nap-tastically long and has one cushy cushion that can't separate when two people sit on both ends and runs deep and it's unstainably brown and worn in and lovable. the real hallelujah of the situation, though, is that cc actually likes something that's comfortable - usually a four letter word to him. this is such an achievement that i vow, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, to carry this couch on my back wherever in the world we may go.

i'm not entirely sure why,

but the following commercial fills me with unbridled rage:



in other news:

fingers are crossed for potential very-cool job situation.

we rearranged our living room for the...twelve thousandth time. i fight it tooth and nail, but it always turns out better than the last iteration. plus, i'm closer to the tv now.

i have a dentist appointment tomorrow. the only not-awful thing about this is i'm encouraged (read: forced) to take prescribed anti-anxiety meds. this prevents me instantly striking the fetal position and calling for my mom. you think i'm kidding.

afterwards, i have a date to watch the little mermaid with my same-birthday-gf. we realized this had to happen after spending much of our hawaii vacation serenading our men with "part of your world" from the back of the convertible.

i've taken to eating twizzlers in the middle of the night. this is an old habit i'm not interested in rekindling.