Relationships at work fascinate me. I’m not talking about secret romantic flings–just everyday co-worker relationships and politics. We have this office cat where I work that’s the source of quite a bit of tension. Personally, I love cats, but this little guy’s space was getting a bit out of control. Everyday on our way to the bathroom we had to stare at not one, but TWO litter boxes positioned right next to one another. I completely understand the desire to make your animals comfortable, but this was a bit out of control. Getting rid of one of the litter boxes wasn’t an option, so we turned to good ole IKEA for a solution!
IKEA has some great curtains that work in a variety of spaces. Basically, you buy a metal rope that acts as a curtain rod and you can separate any space quickly and easily. We used these to hide some litter boxes, but you could easily use them to section off room in a studio apartment as well. Just for fun, here are the photos. We went from looking at this everyday…
To looking at this:
So much better right?
Either I have a black thumb or indoor plants are a little bit trickier than I had anticipated. Maybe a little bit of both. Last week, as I was admiring all of the greenery that I added to our home, I noticed that our upstairs plant was starting to mold!!
After a quick Google search, I learned that house plants mold when you keep them in dark areas of your house and/or water them too much. (I did both. Imagine me with the watering can saying, “You must be really thirsty after I gave you a new home.” Actually, don’t. That’s a little creepy.) The websites that I perused recommended throwing away the top few inches of soil, adding more, and not watering plants often–especially during winter months. After obeying those last few directions, the plants are going a couple days strong with no signs of mold. Keep your fingers crossed that my sweet little plants will stay that way.
For those of you who don’t know, ranunculus are my favorite flower. In fact, I was quoted saying that in the New York Times. Apparently if I go down in history as anything, it will be a girl who loves ranunculus. Talk about official!
We even included them in our wedding flowers. Something about their little wonky heads and plethora or petals gets me every time.
(A note on the photo in the background: we got a couple of really beautiful Kate Spade frames as wedding gifts, but we haven’t gotten around to printing a single wedding photo. We’ll get to it soon.)
Tonight Peter surprised me with this lovely bouquet of ranunculus. I asked him why he bought them for me and he explained that it was for putting up with him lately. You see, he’s been quite preoccupied with work for the past few weeks. I told him that I thought I deserved them too. 
Obviously I was teasing, but they are lovely to have around.
From where I’m sitting right now I can see a green little house plant, a sprig of greens from our supper club, our dried wedding flowers, a single rose, a bouquet or irises, and my new bouquet of ranunculus. I have to say, I feel quite loved.
The weather in Austin, Texas has been pretty fantastic. When I work from home (which lately has been pretty often), my field of vision looks a lot like this.
My darling husband realized that my view was slightly depressing and brought me home a tiny rose bush. The rose bush didn’t get as much light as it needed, but it’s presence made me realize that having a plant in my field of vision really is quite nice. So last weekend, Peter and I bought a couple of house plants and some nice pots from IKEA. The pots that they offer don’t have holes for water to drain like other pots, but this can be remedied with a simple drill bit.
I was sure that these drill bits would shatter my pots, but with no other alternative I decided to drill away. To my surprise, the holes turned out great. I haven’t tried them out on glass, but supposedly they work great on that too.
I can’t tell you how pleased I am with our new indoor plants. Isn’t this bright green one really cool? I think you could easily repot three of them and then put them in a line in the middle of the table for an inexpensive centerpiece that could later be repurposed as home decor.
(That tall, Medusa-like plant was a gift from my mother. Isn’t he neat?)
The best part is that now when I’m working from home I see a tall leafy plant out of the corner of my eye!
Almost exactly a month before the wedding, our wonderful friend and wedding cake baker, Caroline, threw us a wedding shower. Caroline doesn’t live in Austin, so she hosted the shower at our house. All day, before people arrived we were rushing around trying to make sure we had all the ingredients for food, drinks, and decorations–and on top of it all there was a dining room table that I had fallen in love with at Goodwill that was up for auction.
Peter and his mother, who was in town for the shower, were instructed to meet us at Goodwill to buy the table and help us load it into Caroline’s car. On our way there, Caroline and I got into a car accident. We were lucky that we were driving her fiance’s SUV rather than one of our own smaller cars. The accident wasn’t our fault, but we were stuck on the side of the road, shaken up, and feeling stressed. I immediately called Peter and said, “Caroline and I were in an accident. Buy the table from the auction and then come get us.” I realize that this probably makes me crazy, but even in our shaken up state, I knew that I loved that table. Look how beautiful it is. I love the simple lines of the table and chairs and I LOVE that it has two leaves.
So, here’s my dilema: I know that I want to reupholster the chairs, but I’m not sure if I should try to improve the table’s finish. I don’t want to paint it, but there are certain areas of the wood that could use some help. Here are some more pictures that I look on my phone. Forgive the picture quality and the lack of cleaning.
So what do you think? Should I try to get a more even finish on the table or should I leave well enough alone?
