Sorry for the delay...

There has been quite a delay in posts here... but for good reason! T.J. and I undertook a huge flooring project that involved ripping up carpet, taking down doors, painting lots and lots of trim, and laying new floor. It is still in progress so I'm not quite ready to share. In the meantime we also took a trip abroad to London! It is a dirty crowded city, but also had some pretty cool architecture and lots of great chandeliers (kind of like DC, which I shared here). While we didn't see many, the gardens were definitely a treat and something we don't have enough of in the US. I would argue that Charleston SC is just as beautiful though.

Tower Bridge

Victoria at Kensington Palace and below: Kensington Palace gardens

 

Buckingham Palace gates

Big Ben (they even have crowns on the top of their fences)

One of the coolest things we did was visit the V&A Museum and see the fashion exhibit - 

they had clothes dating back to the 1700's. 

At the Victoria & Albert Museum 

1950s - Notice the adorable black and white polka dot one in the middle!

Check out the funny knob right in the middle of the door on the picture below on the right. We saw those all over the place! They made the doors look like faces.

 It was quite the trip and I think we both have the travel bug now... who knows what we will see next.

Porch Updates

The front porch finally got some much needed love last weekend...

While it isn't quite my "ideal" front porch, it has come a long way!

Front door circa Fall 2011, soon after move-in.

So far on the front porch I painted the front door (first red, then pink), changed out the seating, and created a custom round rug in our house colors.

Today T.J. installed a new light fixture (scroll down to see the terrible-bug-filled original one) and I made cushions for our little ice cream chairs. I spray painted them silver last summer.

Still to come...
I have a fox knocker I found at Anthropology I intend to install some day (I dreamed about getting one in this post). I would also love to paint the floor a clean concrete gray and maybe even paint the ceiling a nice light blue like they do in the South. Maybe even hang something 3D above the seating area. That blank siding is calling for something.

To the right is the original light fixture, which was cute enough, but hideous when it was filled with bugs.

So I had been on the lookout for a lantern type fixture but all the ones I had found were gold. I was a little hesitant to attempt spray painting one because I would have to tape off a ton of glass to make it work. Last week T.J. and I went to the local Restore and I had looked through the lanterns and passed them all up because they were gold. Then T.J. spotted this silver one! It was perfect - and marked for only $15. In the end we got an additional 20% off and bought it for $12. What a deal!

I think it looks like it had always belonged there to begin with! And it matches the new door hardware we installed. Next up on Hems & Haws: cushion tutorial. They are round and they are tufted!

Cupcakes & Flowers

On my recent trip to Washington, DC I visited a bakery called Sticky Fingers. It was nearly a life changing experience. I had looked at the cookbook on Amazon before, but after my visit I was sold and ordered it right away. I was actually a little bummed it was only sweets included in the book because their regular food was really good too. So far I have made the blueberry muffins which turned out pretty well, and now the classic vanilla cupcake with almond frosting.

The single cupcake above is on a wine glass turned upside down! Like its own mini pedestal. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In other news, the yard is in bloom! I think these flowers are so beautiful but they only last a few days. Look at all the petals packed into each one. We had a rain storm last night that sort of beat them down, but they are still gorgeous.

Historical Art

On my recent trip to DC I visited the National Archives.

The National Archives is where important documents like the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence are kept. They also have a shop of course - and this shop had really cool reprints of old government advertisements, something like public service announcements but in print. In my opinion, the coolest ones were about food. Farming, healthy eating, etc. I looked for one that I liked + would match my kitchen.

This one is from the 1940's. Notice there are 3 categories for fruits and veggies. I love that at the bottom it says "in addition to the basic 7 (food groups)... eat any other food you want." Yikes! Oh how things have changed.

I think it looks good in my kitchen and draws out the green accents and yellow wall it is next to.

Drum Shade!

About a month ago I set out on an Ikea trip to find a new light for my laundry room. I found the perfect light, but when I got it home, it was WAY too big. I overestimated the space in the laundry room. :-)

Luckily there was another great spot to put the sunny yellow drum shade: in my sunny yellow kitchen! And I would finally be rid of the hideous fan that has been plaguing my existence for nearly 2 years (check out that basket weave on the blades). T.J.'s dad came down to help install this one.

It was pretty straight forward, the only trick was the Ikea light kit has a plug on the end, so Tim had to cut that off and expose the wires for the ceiling attachment. The drum shade was around $25 and the light kit was $5. I also bought the white cap to go against the ceiling at Menard's for about $2. I am a little worried about the shade getting dusty, but at only $25 I may just replace it when we go to sell the house.

Drum shade and light kit from Ikea.

Here is what we started with. Unbelievably bad!

Tim & Sam hard at work on the fan switch.

Windowsill shot just for fun - I found the cow salt and pepper shakers recently in DC.