29

what i'm working on tonight:

tracing pattern and cutting fabric for my sewing class

this one's cheating because i started this months ago and haven't spent much time on it, and probably have run out of time to do anything with it tonight, but it looks like i'm more productive than i actually am with a second picture up.

28

yikes, i'm terrible at this. it's been so busy, but - surprise - mostly just revolving around the house, which i'm completely in love with for no good reason other than it's ours (in 30 years).

so, i'll just throw some pictures up to get my feet wet again and then i'll get back to business, whatever that could mean. i don't have a ton of pictures available right now, though, because we haven't transferred them over yet. transferred over to what? why, the bad boy below, which we got super cheap from some friends who got an even more bad and more recent boy. we're counting ourselves really lucky on this one and are really grateful and excited to play with it some more:

we've been taking walks and collecting pictures of yards and plants we like. these were at our neighborhood nursery.

a recent and much-loved craigslist acquisition.

a mask the husband made which i love - i thought it was from when he was a kid but it was a high school project for a children"s theater. i still love it an unreasonable amount.

classy paper blinds taped to the window produce a bit of afternoon delight.

our first real meal at the house.

a source of pride: our first bit of electrical work. also a great craigslist find (all our craigslist finds courtesy of our excllent unofficial decorator).

our first night at the house, complete with kiss-opoly.

27

technically, there are a lot of more important things to think about, but i just wanted to take a moment to say goodbye to an old friend:

on to bigger and better things, i'm sure, but you will be missed.

26

this may be the best thing that's ever happened to me at work. ever.

i had to go through old photos and records for this sort-of-fundraiser/initiative we're working on, and i found this. i kind of don't want to ever find out what this is about. terrifying and amazing.

25

well, today kind of sucked. it started off well, though, so i can't complain.

instead of packing - which is what i definitely should be doing, this (and, sort of, this) is what i've done with my entire evening. i haven't gotten to go crazy on it for a while, so it was pretty fun. but now - maybe - packing.

here's to a better tomorrow, for everyone.

24

it's impossible to believe that december is over and that the holidays have come and passed! things have been busy with painting and spackling and caulking (insert caulk joke here, husband), dishes and laundry, buying and wrapping gifts, barely getting our tree up in time, and the like. but we've also found a small amount of time for some definite december fun, and since you pals who look this way already have to hear about the house 24-7 from me, here's a little recent inspiration :

i've had a fair isle craze for a while and have been working on a faux fair isle vest, but a special holiday movie didn't hurt the situtation. we only got around to watching "a christmas story" this year, but i was reminded of all the amazing, amazing knits in the movie (especially in the classroom scenes! where are all the pictures of those?). i may have to base my entire wardrobe around this movie.

i made some time for some other movies while i knit a few weeks ago, and was again inspired by these two stylish ladies! a you've got to love that bathing suit. how gorgeous are they?

speaking of bathing suits, i also have been loving "two for the road" much too much lately and it doesn't hurt to have albert finney and, well, i just dig the whole thing, but their bathing suits in their first week together scenes are just too much.

then again, the past several months i've also been obsessed with a general 1930s style, as evidenced by, well, projects i never finished. but, i've also been pretty into 1930s-nostalgia movies, like "sweet and lowdown" and "papermoon." seriously, how gorgeous is ryan o'neal in "papermoon"?

of course, my heart will always belong to this guy. we can't even get into all this or i'll be here forever, though.

i've been working on a few other projects but have to wait until i can get some pictures. most importantly, i made these for my family's traditional christmas cinnamon roll breakfast and just about died. we've decided they're too delicious to make more than once a year.

anyway, this all helps remind me that i haven't been only buried in paint (besides, there are worse things), but have had a very lovely past few weeks. belated happy holidays to all! (of course, only the bottom photo belongs to me)

23

hallelujah, we're starting to make some decisions and (kind of) feeling like we're making progress on the house. this week we got our new tankless water heater and the old removed from the kitchen (thank god!) and we got about half of our paint. and decided on appliances. The weekend work took longer than expected but we're still right around on track because we got some extra other stuff done in place of the stuff we didn't.

so, ths is pretty much what our entire weekend looked like (plus, lots of super messy caulk, and old weatherstripping and adhesive remover and lots of sore muscles):

here's the primer - also got some paint - that we got 30% off and used lots of this weekend (thanks green sacramento)

and here is what's to come next weekend (oh god, and lots more priming and painting):

here's the paint we ordered for the concrete in the laundry room

and the color we tinted it (second from bottom)

and, just for kicks and so i can think about something other than paint (which i am most definitely still pulling from my hair):

this is the doorbell we've decided on

these are the house numbers we...well, that i purchased without spousal consent. i fessed up immediately, though, if that counts for anything. they're just so much cheaper than the ones i really love and very similar; i couldn't resist. photo from shelterrific

and here are some other items i wish i had gotten approval to buy and put on the walls (though the list really could go on forever and ever, and i'm tired):

but, of course, there are more important things first, like getting our electrical done without killing ourselves, trying to not fall off ladders, and avoiding the crawl space.