Designer: Jens Risom

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Jens Risom Chairs

Renovation is S-L-O-W. At least it is at my house. My father-in-law told me over the Easter weekend that I could have built a new house by now. (sigh) Of course he was joking and he loves to tease me because I’m a perfectionist. I enjoy his teasing… it’s love in the most fun way! Here’s the thing, though…. slow is not really a good thing in the blogging world. But who cares, right! So lets just say screw the renovation talk for now and lets talk about a designer we love – Jens Risom.

Jens Risom, who designed the first ….

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DIY: silkscreen

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Front Atrium

It’s been a busy week at my day job, and I found myself brain dead by the end of each day. Hours and hours of starting at a computer screen writing code for an upcoming event that required online ticket sales and tons of graphics just about drained all my creative juices. I was determined to take advantage of this 3-day weekend and not only relax but try something I’ve been dying to try… silkscreening. I really want to silkscreen some fabric for our bedroom project… maybe some pillows, curtains, anything. Something that is mine, not bought, and made by ….

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Estate Sale: Photography Books

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Photography Books

Another week goes by and more fun stuff is found. Estate sales are a weekly venture. Lists of addresses are made, maps are brought out, certain neighborhoods are sought after and all the information is gathered in hopes of a score. This time Richie brought home some really fun photography books from the late 50’s. I think they are super cool so I thought it would be fun to share some of the pictures with you. I wish the internet had “smells”… you’d just love the old smell of these books. The pictures probably give you a “sniff”.

I love the ….

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Sunshine on my shoulders….

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Bedroom Windows

… makes me happy!  Yes, that’s a John Denver song.  Sorry, my mom loved John Denver and those records and songs are embedded in my brain. But it does make me happy.  (not necessarily the song, but definitely the sunshine) So I decided to skip out on the master bedroom reno for a while and take some time to work in the yard.  The temp got up to 88 degrees this weekend so I figured I better do some work before those 108 days get here.  It seems WAY TO EARLY for an 88 day.

That’s not to say that I ….

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Sunday bloody Sunday

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Open Window

….. and how was your weekend? HA HA! Mine was bloody good, thank you.

HEY, home renovation is NOT for wussies! You got splinters…too bad. Your legs ache from standing on a ladder all day… too bad. You’re blowing black boogers out of your nose from sanding disgusting windows for hours on end … FEEL PROUD! (yes, we share our sanding boogers with each other. It’s true love. :-) LOL
At the end of the day that’s what it takes … and so that’s what we do. And a good time is had by all.

Did you believe it when I ….

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This weeks finds

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Hand Carved Wood Man

I’ve been a little too quiet this week…sorry. My “real job” is sucking the life out of me and taking me away from the fun stuff I enjoy. I always try to make time for the fun stuff, rest assured! So I thought I’d do a quick little update on some cool things Richie found this week. He always manages to come home with something, even if it’s small enough to fit in his hand… there’s always a little something.

Richie has many talents. One of course is renovation, the other is his musical abilities, another is his annoying ability to ….

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Master bedroom: baby steps

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trim1

Hope you had a great weekend. I think my oatmeal cookie bars really paid off, because we worked well, and accomplished enough this weekend. I say “enough” because there’s only so many hours in the day and the way I see it, whatever you accomplish, big or small is enough. So I’ll take a minute and give an update on “just enough” in the master bedroom project. Baby steps seemed appropriate for the title of this post because that’s exactly what it takes around here.

The walls are done, the beams and door frames stained and now we turn to the ….

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Oatmeal is good for you

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Oatmeal Cookie Bars

At least that’s the excuse for making a sweet treat for us yesterday. Yes, yes, I need to lower my cholesterol… with butter, sugar, and of course oatmeal. HA HA! Lets just say both of us have a sweet tooth from hell… but Richie is the WORST! I decided to just make something instead of him bringing home cookies, candybars, getting DQ malts, or killing me with freshly baked donuts. He’s not easy to be around. At least as far as sweets are concerned.

So I made these Oatmeal Cookie Bars and thought I’d share them with you. Just because they’re ….

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Art Find: Emil Bisttram

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Emil Bisttram Modern Abstract Painting

Yes, I’m still working like crazy on the master bedroom and making great progress… but lets face it taking pictures of paint drying is not so fantastic. For you or me. HA!HA!
It has always been my intention to share more than just renovation work on this blog as we are hunters and collectors of many cool and funky finds and love to share. Ten years ago it was much easier to find something FANTASTIC but it’s getting more and more difficult. I think blogs, television, ebay, and the internet in general has made people think twice about the things they ….

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globe lights

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Yard Ball Light

Lately I have noticed that the back yard is looking super cool at night because of the lights we put out in the yard. I don’t think I ever showed you the DIY globe lights we created. I guess the days getting longer and maybe the sun a little brighter lately has caused the solar lights to kick in stronger and last longer. They have been pretty dim this winter and some nights they don’t glow at all. Now they are glowing like crazy.

We have always loved those very expensive (of course… don’t we always love the expensive cool stuff!) ….

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Saving Daylight

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littlekitty

Does it really save light? Do I have more time? Not really… but who cares, my brain thinks there’s more, so my body keeps going, and I seem to accomplish more, therefore I’m happier and more productive.. and apparently more talkative and able to write more run-on sentences.

Yes, you guessed it, the time change is a game changer for me. It’s a mental thing and I couldn’t be happier about it.  Welcome daylight savings time….I’ve been waiting patiently for you!

And so has kittie. She’s tired of being inside.  That face says it all.  She looks so pissed.  

The flowers and ….

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there’s water where?

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fall apart

Those three words came out of my mouth at the exact moment we were trying to leaving for our friend Charlie Stagg’s memorial service this past weekend.  Not three words a homeowner wants to say or hear.  It means trouble.

We were just about to leave the house and my husband had taken a quick shower.  We noticed water come out from under my brand new cabinets in the kitchen. OH SHIT, the kitchen plumbing was leaking?  No, it’s fine.  Where’s it coming from? The shower that is on the other side of the brick wall in the kitchen.  No doubt ….

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Yarn-It!

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yarn poms and bottle

I have nothing but complaints lately so I haven’t posted anything. It’s been a rough few days and I feel like I’m moving in slow motion. So I’ve decided to just breathe deep and tell you about it later… but for now I’ll share some pictures of a few fun things I did last week. Come on… it’s better than complaining. And just think, you’ll have that to look forward to.

When I’m feeling stressed it’s better for me to just sit down and do mindless things. I needed to do that.. and quick! So I pulled out some rolls of ….

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Ding dong goes the cowbell

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Cow Bell Door Bell

Hello, hello, is anybody home? I’m sure that’s how most people feel when the come to our house. It’s like Fort Knox thanks to all the fences and courtyards that surround our house of glass. Sometimes I love it and sometimes it worries me that people might need to “get to us” but can’t. When the gates are open it’s still a mystery to some because this house is so unique and special they can’t figure out that this….. is the door bell.

It’s a small piece of wood (carved by my husband) and attached to a string that runs through ….

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useful and beautiful?

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pen and pad

My weekend is for big home projects and weekdays are for obsessing over the little things. I’ve seen this quote just about all my adult life and always think “Yes, that’s how I feel”. It has helped me to not keep every little thing just because I have it.  If it’s not useful or beautiful or sometimes both then I’ll have to try something else.

My little pea brain just cant understand why some of the things we use and are surrounded by everyday have to be so damn ugly. (don’t get me started on telephone ….

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