Coffee Table Search

Years ago I lived with my brother, David, in his sweet little bungalow.  At the time, I wasn’t all that into decorating. I was used to the college schedule of moving every 3 to 9 months and never really understood the effort of setting up a more permanent home. I was confused. Most of my decorating attempts included the use of hot pink and black. Again, I was confused.

Shortly before I moved out of David’s house he made a decision that irked me to my core: he got rid of the coffee table. It was quite the disagreement between the two of us. He thought it took up too much space. I thought he shouldn’t get rid of it until he had picked out another one.

Last week (over two years later) he called me and asked me to check some links that he had emailed me. He was buying a new coffee table and needed advice. He sounded miserable. I was ecstatic. We went through proper ratios and talked about potential tables and eventually, I offered to accompany  him on his search. So, this weekend he and I spent a solid three hours going from store to store looking for coffee tables. In boy time three hours is an eternity, especially when you’re dong something like looking at coffee tables. In the end, we found something that we both really liked.

{Both via}

He and Peter go pick it up on Friday. I’m probably more excited than he is. (Although, don’t get me wrong, David REALLY loves this new coffee table.) The best part is that now he’s going to let me help him pick out curtains, take down the UT flag hanging over his window, hang pictures on the wall, and maybe—just maybe–get  a rug! It’s all quite heavenly. I snapped a couple of pictures of his living room with my phone while I was there. Next time I’ll try to remember to bring my camera so that you guys can get the full effect.

(The line on the floor is just the way that the light is coming in.)

Anyone have any suggestions that I should spring on him? His goal is homey.

Surprise Mantle Decor

I’m going to warn you: this post is mostly for our families. If you are not my mother or Peter’s mother, then you may gag. You’ve been warned.

A couple weeks before the holidays I was in a bad mood (probably because it wasn’t Christmas yet–kidding), so Peter decided to go out and decorate what I’m calling our couch mantle. He bought fresh garland that made the whole whole room smell like Christmas and a few peonies. In combination with a package of my favorite tea, it was just the right thing to put me in a better mood. Peter told his sisters and apparently they wanted to see pictures. So here’s one. I should’ve taken better pictures in the moment. Sorry guys!

Oh, and then he made me a really sweet breakfast of lemon ricotta pancakes. My husband is pretty amazing. I’m a lucky girl.

Have a good weekend!

We Love Our Shark

About a week ago we had some friends over for bimuelos. We were all standing around the stove dipping the deliciousness into the honey sauce when I looked down at our floor and realized how unbelievably filthy it was. Now, these were really good friends. The kind of friends that you don’t clean for before they come over, yet our floor was that disgusting. It was the kind of dirty where you try to stand in the way of the gross spots, hoping that they won’t see them. Yeah, that bad.

As soon as they left, I knew Peter and I had to find a solution. He promised he would clean the floor, but his method of cleaning the floor is getting down on his hands and knees and scrubbing it Cinderella style. Don’t get me wrong, whenever he does it, the floor looks fabulous, but I knew we needed a simpler way. A way that would allow us to clean the floor at least once a week.

I went to Target and wandered between the Wet Jet Swiffer (which I’ve read uses chemicals that are really bad for your animals. Apparently they absorb them through their paws, and of course, whenever they lick the floors.), the Rubbermaid version of the swiffer (which lets you add water or whatever chemicals you want), and the Shark. I knew we needed more cleaning power than just plain water, but I also didn’t want to use anything on the floor that would make our sweet little dogs sick, so I settled on the Shark. I figured I could bring the thing home and if Peter thought it was too expensive, I could take it back. Luckily, Peter loves it. We’ve used to twice and our floors look amazing. Plus, you can even use it on your carpets!! It steams them, making the room smell so much fresher.

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Building an Affordable Pot Rack

After receiving a lot of beautiful but space consuming wedding gifts and tetris-ing dishes into the cabinets one too many times, Peter and I decided that a pot rack could be the solution to our disorganized kitchen. I started with a few google searches to suss out our pot rack options. Immediately, I realized that people were willing to pay hundreds of dollars for a bar that attaches to the wall. I also realized that Peter and I were not those people, so we headed down to Lowe’s and picked up a black steel pipe, some hardware, and a few black rubber chair ends. After another trip to IKEA for hooks, we were set.

Basically, all we did was find the studs, drill some holes, screw in the hardware, and insert the pipe, but here are a few details to help you out if you decide to do this on your own.

Here’s the pipe we chose:

I wrapped the ends with duct tape and then slid a black rubber chair tip over each one.  This hid the ugly ends of the pipe and ensures that the pipe will never get shoved over in a way that would force it to fall out.

Peter was very proud of us. Isn’t the face he’s making hilarious?

The hardware that we used looked a little bit like this. We used three to support the weight of the whole project

You’ll also see me coloring the pipe with a Sharpie. When we took the sticker off the pipe, it got a little scratched up, but it wasn’t bad enough for us to want to spray paint the whole thing. To our pleasant surprise a couple dots of Sharpie worked perfectly.

After we were satisfied with the base, we hung the IKEA pot hooks (we bought the largest size) on the rod and added our new pots and pans. We’re excited that they’ll stay out of the cabinets and that we won’t have to worry about them getting scratching in the midst of a chaotic cabinet.

{Recognize the hutch? You can read about the process of us refinishing it here.}

This project was ridiculously simple, but it did require some trial and error. Even though we were finding studs, Peter was terrified that the weight of the pots would pull the hardware out of the wall. We started out using SUPER long screws. Because they were longer than the drill bits, Peter  we ended up cursing at the walls and stripping the screws.

Now we have the rest of the kitchen to reorganize and the days before Thanksgiving are quickly vanishing! Does anyone have any tips? Are their any organizational products that you can’t live without? Please, let us know!

I’m Famous!

Well, sort of–okay not really. A couple weeks ago I did something that I’ve been wanting to do for a really long time. I attended a class at the Little Flower School. Coincidently, a reporter and photographer from the New York Times happened to be covering the class. So, last Thursday I was quoted and pictured in the home and garden section of the paper. It looked a little something like this.

See this awkward looking girl right here?

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That would be me. Surprisingly enough a couple of people actually found the article on their own and contacted me about it. I think the weirdest connection was a guy who I studied abroad with read the article while he was on a train in Tokyo and then facebook messaged me about it. Crazy! Anyway, you can read the article here. Below are my feelings about the class.

I’ve been longing to take one of these classes since they started popping up everywhere in the blogosphere, so you can imagine how excited I was when there was an opening in a class during the time that I was in Brooklyn. I was a bit terrified when I arrived because I really don’t have much experience when it comes to arranging flowers. In fact, usually when Peter buys me flowers I let him put them in the vase for me—wait, does that make me a terrible woman?

Anyway, I was immediately entranced by all of the beautiful flowers.

And despite my fear of doing horribly in the class, things turned out really well. I got a lot of hands on instruction and the teachers weren’t afraid to jump in and make suggestions. Everyone’s arrangements turned out beautifully and they were all very different. We each got lost in our own little worlds for a few hours and when we looked up the room was covered in discarded stems and wild looking little bits of art. It was amazing and worth every penny.

I can’t imagine having that many flowers at my disposal any time ever again. Two fabulous things came out of the class. First, I remembered how wonderfully satisfying it is to spend time away from the computer and create something tangible. Second, I realized that as fun as it is to make flower arrangements, doing one and getting it right takes quite a bit of time. Peter and I had originally thought about doing our own flowers for the wedding, but after having a little bit of hands on experience, I’m happy to outsource this task. Plus, Sarah recommended a  florist who is just starting a business in Austin! How amazing is that?! Maybe I will recommend some of the really great flowers that we got to use like this scabiosa pod:

and this one:

and this black basil:

Okay, here’s one last picture of my arrangement from the Little Flower School website. I will venture to say that its a bit more advanced than my last stint with flower arranging.

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Gush! I’m envious of this beautiful world that Nicolette and Sarah get to work in.