A modern life. A modern home.

My house is for sale!

2010-12-17T11:07:00.003-06:00

Eeeeeek! What does a young, single woman need with 1100 square feet and 2 full bathrooms? I've had to neutralize the house major, and have gotten rid of a lot of stuff. I'm a lot neater now, I can clean the whole place in an hour. I love it. The bad part is that it's not as reflective of my personality and tastes.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do exactly, but the future excites me. My first stop will be Texas and then I'm thinking I might head out to China to teach English. I even have a friend who wants to sign up as well.

However, with the market being what it is, I might try to rent it out for a year...but then I'll owe the government $7000 in April 2012. Yikes!

Long time no see!

2010-01-20T22:09:00.002-06:00

I'm still alive! Barely! But alive!
If anyone still reads this I'll be back tomorrow for a post on spring bed linens! I bought mine at the beginning of January and threw those bad boys on my bed right then and there. My spirits have instantly been lifted by bright, fun, spring colors in this drab gray Kansas City winter!

See you tomorrow!

My (Our) bedroom

2009-09-14T17:40:00.007-05:00

Whoa! Two posts in one day! I just took some photos of my freshly painted and mostly-clean bedroom and am excited to post them. I've never posted any photos of my bedroom before, not on here and not on flickr. It's finally coming together, although it is still lacking art for the walls and possible wall shelving, but that stuff is hard, because my walls are plaster and 80 years old. Hanging stuff up is quite difficult. But I did buy a pretty piece of wrapping paper from Borders the other day, that I can't wait to figure out how to frame and hang somehow. So without further ado, our tiny master bedroom. The queen bed and night stands barely fit, and this is the only arrangement that works. And yes, I used the dreaded flash in some photos because we don't get the best light in there (the lot is heavily treed) and I wanted you all to be able to see the paint color which is a mostly yellow green color.

I got this dresser free off the street and painted it up.

I'm making a quilt, even though I barely know how to use a sewing machine!

The light above the bed hasn't worked since my brother first replaced our ceiling fan with it in Jan. :-(

I realize a lot of these pictures are the same, I just had trouble choosing which ones to post!

Wildlife in the City

2009-09-14T12:16:00.003-05:00

I was so proud of my two tomato plants yesterday. The first one, that I got at Lowes, had like 8 tomatoes on it, 4 of which were red. I even took a photo yesterday and sent it to my mom in Texas, where I guess tomatoes don't grow as well.

Anyways, last night we had a little scare. Around 2 AM (yes, I'm a night owl) I turned the porch light out to get ready for bed and I heard rustling right outside the front door. Our trash can was on the porch because I was cleaning the house earlier and throwing lots of things away (food included). I stopped in my tracks and listened then went running through the house to my boyfriend and told him it sounded like someone was going through our trash right on the porch. I thought maybe some late night scavenger, with bad taste, really wanted my mini-blinds that I had thrown away earlier.

We flipped the lights on again, he grabbed a knife and opened the door and quickly shut it. "Well I know what was making all that noise...a possum." Eww. Actually I've seen quite a few giant possums around here and in all parts of KC I have lived in:Hyde Park, Westport and now the Plaza area. I've also seen a raccoon on my street. Eventually the possum got tired and couldn't find anything worthwhile in the trash so he decided to have a feast of my tomatoes.

Long story short, he bit into two of them. I knew he was going for them last night when he made a right off the porch. But I was powerless to stop him for fear he would bite me and give me rabies. We once had a possum come out in the daytime and climb up the stairs to our porch at my parents' house in Galveston, TX. I poked him with a broom stick through a window. He hissed at me and made a terrible face. I've hated possums ever since.

Hippest gym ever.

2009-06-23T16:47:00.004-05:00

Okay, first post in forever, i know. I've just been discourage by a lack of readership I guess. As far as the backyard progress, things are for sure looking better back there. In fact, we even hosted a bbq with some friends a few weekends ago. We strung up lights and everything. I put up a makeshift fence to keep the dogs off the patio, but they've figured out a way around that. Things are at a standstill, until I figure out what to do about the dogs next. They quickly destroyed my new string lights by chewing through two cords and busting up the bulbs. Grrrrrrrr!

And now, for your viewing pleasure, and to appease your retro-loving appetites, I present Scott Fitness, Westside location! This is no 24 Hour or Gold's. It's an independently owned gym, not a chain. This 2nd location is like 4 miles away, while the one we've been going to, is like 1/4 mile from our house. We went to the other location bc it's bigger, the machines are newer and there are a lot more of them. Plus it's totally rad. Or weird, depending on your stance. There's like huge poster sized portraits of found pics from the 1970's. There's wood paneling, record players, several tvs (some of which work), from the 1950's. Basically it's all very retro. I took pics with my cell phone when we went last night. We were the only ones in there working out, which added to the creepy kitsch factor.

It's almost patio season!

2009-04-01T11:02:00.006-05:00

I'm embarrassed to show the following photos of my patio in it's current state:

On the left is the garage, that I just use for storage and the steps lead to the back door. The dogs love to hang out on the patio, or more so, on the steps. Bacon, the puppy, also loves to do his business on the patio. Thanks Bacon! It is impossible to keep this place clean and tidy in the winter. A lot of falling leaves, mud, and snow. Fortunately, I have a plan.

I started raking up the leaves and mud yesterday. There's a lot more to go. I'm going to try to put a garden in that area of dirt just on the other side of the patio. I've started planting some things that Bacon has started digging up. Thus I want to put up a fence that will encase the garden and the patio. It'll keep the dogs from getting everything dirty, ruining my plants and chewing up patio furniture. I want to put up globe string lights. 4 strands, so that it looks like this. K-mart has the lights for $7.99, but the strand is just 6 feet .
I also need to figure out where to put the trashcans. I do like being able to just open the door and drop the bag of trash into the can. It's very conveinent. I want to put up a flower box on the garage window.

Oh and I have all this to put back there, along with a host of potted plants that are currently seeking refuge from the cold, in one of our bathroom's.

2009-03-13T21:14:00.005-05:00

My beautiful, pristine Blueprint has arrived! All 8 of them. I love it! Now I'm auctioning off my other wrinkly, not so nice 7, on ebay. I'm totally satisfied with the ordering process and the result. They arrived on Thursday in a flimsy envelope. Shipping said $15.50 on the envelope! But I got everything for just $20. Yay!

On another note, check out this beauty:
I bought it for a reaaaalllly good price at a vintage sale last week. It's lovely, but seeing as how I am unemployed and have a house full of stuff and my sister might be moving in as well, it's probably a sound idea to sell it. Check it out on my etsy. I'll probably be putting it on ebay soon. It's priced the way it is, because of the research I've done. Check out three potato four. They're selling them for $550! Buy this one, shell out $100 to have it restored and save yourself $100. And come on, it's pink for god's sake!

Domino back issues

2009-02-27T14:06:00.002-06:00

Holy crap! Domino back issues are $9 each! Still cheaper than what some of them go for on ebay though. And fyi- their customer service is not outsourced, so it's easier to get through.
(877) 356-9904

Blueprint is incredibly cheap compared to this...I hope I'm actually getting what I think I'm getting from them...I was a bit suspicious too, because it seemed too cheap. Guess I'll know by next Saturday or so.

2009-02-27T13:51:00.002-06:00

I just ordered all 8 issues of Blueprint magazine for $20, including shipping. Click here
to do the same. It was a bit confusing. Customer service is obviously being outsourced so the first lady I talked to didn't really know what I was talking about. She transferred me to a creepy sounding guy, that I imagined had a unibrow and doesn't button the top four buttons of his shirt in order to show off his sweet gold chain necklaces. Anyways, he said single issues were I think, 2.50 or 3.50 and cost $2 to ship...or the package deal for all 8 was $20. So of course I went with that, even though I have all but one issue. I'll ebay the rest or trade out my not so pristine issues for these new ones.

Hmm...maybe I should look into Domino back issues now? I missed probably 8-10 of those.

Lakeside cottages

2009-02-25T11:12:00.003-06:00

I am in love with this place.
I am also obsessed with the idea of owning a lakeside cottage of my own. I looked at them online for a while last night. Not that I have any money to spend on one. Although I did find a pretty cute one in Iowa for $16,000. That's less than my car. But it's still like 7 hours from here.

Then I settled on a backyard retreat, which is accomplishable at about $5000-6000.
It's actually a garden shed but could make a really cool studio. But maybe I should just turn my current garage into a studio. It already has two windows and I don't even park my car in it because I don't trust the garage door. It's an outbuilding too.

Kitchen renovations on hold

2009-02-19T12:37:00.002-06:00

We've (I've) had some setbacks here, so all renovations costing more than $50 are currently on hold. I hope to have some good news soon so that I can update the blog and get back to work on the house.

In the meantime, shoot me a message if you need copy writing, editing, resume writing, article writing, web design, logo design or photography! Hah!

Kitchen before

2009-01-26T09:28:00.002-06:00

And in case you were wondering...here is the only before kitchen shot.....

At least I think that is the only one, and unfortunately it does not include the ugly track lighting, or the over the sink lighting. Also, we got rid of the 80's under the cabinet lighting. They were flourscent lights and when I bought the house I thought they were paper towel holders.

New light fixtures and more kitchen progress!

2009-01-25T22:57:00.007-06:00

My mom, brother and sister came to visit me this weekend and my brother was able to do a lot of work to the house. He took down the old, ugly, track lighting in the kitchen and put up my ikea light. And I bought a pendant light and kit from Lowes for $30 to replace the light over the sink. He also took down the ceiling fans in the dining room and bedroom but something funky is going on with the electrical in there so now I have to call an electrician to put up the two other ikea lights in those rooms.

He also put up a coat rack in the den, fixed the leg on the couch in the den, fixed my broken door (by putting a new lock and handle on it- it probably took him 3 hours to do!), fixed the cabinet doors that were hanging crooked and probably some other things I can't think of right now. All in all it was a very productive weekend.

Here are some pictures. Also, I've decided that I'm going to lay glass mosaic tile down on my laminate counter tops. All different shades of pretty blues. I got a 1x1 sample from ebay. It's $1.60 a square foot, so I should probably be able to knock the whole thing out for $75. Awesome! And it's so me- more so than granite or the plain, white laminate that is there currently. You can see the glass tile laying on the countertop in some of the pics.

Oh and A. and I are getting a puppy on Feb 4th! Half German Wirehaired Pointer (like my parents had) and half Lab. Yay!

Kitchen cabinet unveiling

2009-01-18T11:10:00.003-06:00

Well today is the day I finish painting the cabinets I started painting around Thanksgiving. It wouldn't have taken this long had I not put it off because I thought I'd have to paint the whole thing with a paint brush. I originally started using a roller but it seemed to leave a spongy texture on the cabinets, even after sanding and priming. So I moved to the paintbrush and pretty much did all the upper frames and two of the doors with the brush. Then I put it off for more than a month and started again in the New Year. I picked up the roller again and did a second coat on some of the doors I already had one coat on and lo and behold when it dried they looked great! I had never given the rollered doors time to dry before. So now all it is taking is about two coats with the roller so things are speeding along. I'll finish in less than an hour and then I just have to put all the hardware back on (I haven't bought any new hardware yet, but I have spray painted the old hardware a metallic silver so it looks good for now). Of course there are about 4 more cabinets that haven't been sanded, primed or painted that surround the fridge. The wall over there hasn't been painted yet either.... I'm going to wait to start those til after my family leaves. They come on Jan 23rd and will leave early Monday morning.

Pics of the kitchen cabinets still to come!

2008-12-29T11:08:00.003-06:00

I spent the last 5 days visiting the fam in Texas. I received some nice gifts. My sister gave me a bunch of owl themed items- kitchen towels, wash cloths, soap dispenser, night light, pot holder etc. I also got to pick out a lot of bedding- a quilt, 2 blankets, pillow cases, 2 sets of sheets (big sales at belks!). I couldn't fit everything in my suitcase so when my mom and brother come to visit in a few weeks everything will be here including my new ikea ceiling lights! We don't have an Ikea in KC so my mom and I went on Saturday and it was insanely crowded. It was worth the trip because I scored three of these lights:
They were only $5 a piece- marked down from $25. Sweet! They're going to replace each of my three ceiling fans (bedroom, craft room, dining room). I might try and spray paint them too. I also got a picture frame and a pretty throw that was $10, down from $20.

I'm going to start painting my cabinets again so Queen T, per your request, I'll do a more detailed explanation of the cabinet painting process, and yes I'm doing everything myself so it's taking an extra long time!

Vote for me!

2008-12-22T10:27:00.002-06:00

Hello blog visitors. Since you are here you might as well stop by 1912 bungalow and vote for my living room in the Christmas Decorating Contest. Just click here.
Mine is of course the room with the yellow walls and white tree. My chances of winning are very small since I only entered last night and I think it's been running for the last couple of weeks. You can vote once a day until Christmas Eve.

Thanks!

Christmas Decorations

2008-12-21T18:18:00.007-06:00

Well, I've done just about all I can as far as Christmas decorating goes. Christmas is a mere 4 days away so this will have to do. I just put up 4 strings of lights outside today, the very first, and only of our outside decorating.

The kitchen redo

2008-12-15T22:17:00.004-06:00

Well...things are progressing in the kitchen much slower than I would like. I've just been lazy, is all...and I feel like I have no room to spread out so that I can paint the cabinet doors. I've basically only done the open shelving...sanded, primed and painted. I haven't done the sealant coat. And I'm not totally finished painting the right side open shelving. I've painted the cabinets over the stove and adjacent to it, but not the doors. Well, one or two doors have been painted. And I can't put the doors on until I decide about hardware. I don't know if I should spray paint all the hinges with a pewter finish or what. Anybody want to weigh in on this? Should I just try to buy new hinges? Would that be a big hassle? Can I get by with spray paint? And I haven't ordered any knobs or handles...money is a little tight now...My mom and brother want to come visit me at the beginning of January so I'd like to have it finished then.

Oh! And of course I've done most of the painting of the walls in the kitchen. I love the color. It's so pretty. But I haven't painted the wall behind the fridge.

Here is a picture of the kitchen I took the very first time I saw the house.
And here is a picture showing the wall color and the finished open cabinet (I'm leaving the doors off)
The wall color is a bit washed out there...it's actually more similar to the bowl on the middle shelf (on the left).

Any opinions for the color of knobs/pulls I should put on the finished cabinets? All of the cabinets will be painted white.

My bungalow

2008-12-13T11:00:00.003-06:00

You can view more images of my home, including dining room, living room, den and craft room, on my flickr. Just click here

I moved into the 1100 square foot home in Kansas City, Kansas, in Sept. 2008. I'm in the middle of fixing up my kitchen and am still putting the finishing touches on the bedroom.

My dining room on Apartment Therapy!

2008-12-13T01:22:00.002-06:00

Submitted it yesterday, and the image was chosen as a roomark today! Sweet!

The Holidays Cometh

2008-12-04T18:04:00.005-06:00

I'm only 24. I've barely owned my house for three months. So it's no wonder my Christmas decorations consist of: a white christmas tree, candy colored bulbs/snow flake ornaments, a four foot pink tree and three skinny, decorative firs. This here house needs some Christmasing up! These are the projects I plan on undertaking:

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/frosty-banners?backto=true

http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.3a0656639de62ad593598e10d373a0a0/?vgnextoid=31fdce908332f010VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&backto=true

http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.3a0656639de62ad593598e10d373a0a0/?vgnextoid=f35e78e45f405110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default&backto=true

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/recycled-ornaments-how-to?backto=true

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/pipe-cleaner-snowflake-ornaments?backto=true

Well, looks like it's off to the craft store before The Office starts!

2008-11-26T23:25:00.001-06:00

Well the potatoes have been boiled, for the buttermilk mashed potatoes. The pumpkin cheesecake has baked. It's cooling in the oven currently. I wanted to get the cornbread cooked tonight, for the stuffing but it's already 11:30 PM. We might make a run to the grocery store for durkee onions, cranberries and a baster.

The full menu is: buttermilk mashed potatoes, cornbread and sausage stuffing, green bean cassarole, buttermilk biscuits, cranberry sauce, maple (maybe) glazed turkey and pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. And there's just two of us!

2008-11-25T17:35:00.002-06:00

Uh. So busy. I love the holidays but dread the week leading up to them. I've done an extra 2.5 hours this week, roughly, and I think it will count as overtime. Plus I brought some work home. I have about 130 comic pages to proof. It shouldn't take more than an hour though, because I'm a quick checker. And 75% of the content on each page is the same all across the board. Shop talk. Enough.

I wanted to get some of the cupboards in order, which means I need to finish painting what I'm in the middle of. I don't want the kitchen to still be in shambles when we make Thanksgiving dinner or I will lose my mind. Wednesday will go towards straightening up the house. Tonight we need to do the shopping for Thanksgiving just so we aren't literally waiting to the very last possible minute. I want to keep the cooking fresh and homemade and I dread that by the time we get there, all that will be left is stove top stuffing and instant mashed potatoes. Oh and a pressed meat turkey breast. Yuck.

On the way home I passed the TV station. They are doing some sort of lighting ceremony tonight so there were loads of little kids dressed in Christmas garb/Christmas related costumes. Aww bless. So cute.

2008-11-24T23:07:00.005-06:00

I'm paint-paint-painting away. The kitchen cabinets, that is. Sand, prime, paint a billion coats. It's time consuming, painstakingly so, but they look fabulous, if I do say so myself.

New business venture:

Super cheap kitchen redo

2008-11-17T19:55:00.004-06:00

So I'm updating my kitchen a bit. No new appliances or anything like that. Just some painting, new hardware and some cute accessories. Here is my inspiration board.

1. Wading Pool- a la the Walmart Collection - $10/gallon
2. Milk Blue Chalaine Glass Cabinet Drawer Knobs $3.50/each; pulls are $6.50 each (ebay)
3. My cabinets basically look like this but are a cheap wood laminate. I will be painting them white and taking the doors off some for open cabinetry.
4. Tile. $10/each from ebay. I have one random 'inspirational' tile in the backsplash. I'd like to replace it with something like this or something a bit more sophisticated.
5. Food themed prints from nutandbee.etsy.com $6/each
6. I have 4x4 white tiles in the backsplash. Pretty plain. I'd like to maybe paint them these colors.

Belated birthday present from Adam!

2008-11-15T15:59:00.001-06:00

I got a wacom tablet! My first one ever. And I just downloaded the AI trial. I figure if I like AI, I can use it at work, instead of having to buy it. We have the whole Adobe Creative Suite there anyway.

Say no to the fiance...

2008-11-14T21:06:00.002-06:00

For some reason, on Say Yes to the Dress, which I don't really like anyway, I get angered when I see the groom accompany the bride to the store for dress shopping. Not because it's breaking tradition, but because why is the groom so involved in the picking of the dress? Why does he care so much? It's her dress. It makes me think that he has too much of a say in the relationship and is controlling. Hah! An assumption. All I know is that Adam wouldn't ever demand to accompany me to the wedding dress store if we were engaged.

On the hunt for chic eyeglasses

2008-11-12T22:05:00.005-06:00

My newest search? Cool eyeglasses. I had my eyes rechecked at the beginning of October. My health insurance through work is kind of ehh in the eyeglasses realm. If I got them from eyemasters they'd still be about $130 plus tax, lenses included. That's pretty dang expensive considering I want more than one pair. I'm picky too. I've tried lots of frames on. I want plastic frames, maybe red in color. I want them to be medium to large sized but it seems all the stores have are small frames which make my face look even bigger and that's not my goal here. Walmart had some on the big side I really liked. They're really cheap, only about $60 for the frames only. My insurance isn't accepted there so I'd get about 10% off for that reason. Lenses are like $80 or something there, I don't remember. I then turned my search to ebay. I was hesitant, obviously, because you can't try anything on. But I won a pair of cheap vintage cats eyes and they were less than $10. Here they are:

And then I found some other more modern cat's eyes and I won them too. The guy selling them also was able to put prescription lenses in them and so, as of Monday, I'm the proud owner of a sweet pair of $40 glasses. Awesome. They pretty much look like my old glasses but I guess it makes sense why I was drawn to them.

Of course I can't just stop here. I'm bidding on another pair of eyeglasses on ebay and I might end up getting the walmart ones too. I can't resist. I might get the guy on ebay to throw some lenses into one of the vintage pairs as well.

Craft Room

2008-11-08T21:39:00.006-06:00

I didn't die. I've just been busy decorating the casa. And being lazy per usual. Enjoying the fall weather and my new kitter Beans. He's super annoying though. Here's my most recently finished room, my craft room/studio.

Go check out the 20 other pictures on my flickr account. http://www.flickr.com/succotashandswank The room is a really light, powder blue. The last owners painted it this color. I don't hate it. I would have chosen something a tad darker. I think I'd feel better about this room if I had a daybed in there, in case we ever have over night guests. However, the room is really small, at about 8 feet wide and 10 feet long. Not to mention three doors that can't be blocked. This is the daybed I have my eye on,

It's from overstock and it's about $267. Two days ago it was like $230. Overstock also always has coupons of some sort out. It's not totally my style, but maybe with some pillows and a cute vintage throw blanket. Perhaps I could slap on some hairpin legs? I don't even know if that's possible. The room also needs some drapes, which I've been scouring ebay and urban outfitters for. I'd also like to get a roman shade and change out the ceiling fan for a pendant light of some sort.

i'm no longer a virgin.

2008-08-24T13:34:00.004-05:00

A property virgin, that is. Hah, I slay myself. Congratulations to me. I closed on Friday.

The honeymoon period lasted for about 5 minutes. I then proceeded to have the weekend from hell. This included: my first migraine complete with flashing lights in my left eye, pounding headache and vomiting galore. I christened my new kitchen sink. Cable and internet 'accidentally' disconected by cable company at my apt. They should have dced white trash' but did our's instead. A giant 2 foot in girth branch falling, almost hitting my car at our apt and causing sparks and half the power at the building to go out. Adam and I fought all weekend until my migraine brought us together again. Aww. Small part of my macbook somehow got cracked. White trash left bottles and cans and cig butts strewn about. I threw bottles and cans back onto their porch and considered emptying my vomit bucket on their porch too. White trash' white trash friends or the power company truck ran over my freecycle food I had put out by the curb and it's all strewn about the street, completely ruined. Damn, you try to do something nice and help the less fortunate...

keep calm and carry on, anyone?

2008-08-14T00:17:00.000-05:00

2008-08-12T17:55:00.002-05:00

Every so often bf drags me into a local comic shop. I can occupy myself with comics for about three minutes but thankfully the next two mins I'm able to occupy myself with the awesome architectural details of the 100 year old-ish building the shop is in. Amazingly tall ceilings. Maybe 20 feet high? Gigantic, beautiful crown molding. Original vintage tile floors. I snapped a few pictures of the tile, to keep in mind for my new bathroom. Here's the best one. My new profile photo is the tile floor there as well. Last time we were in there I asked bf if he'd live there, if it was empty and for rent as a residence or something. You know, a hypothetical like I'm so fond of. Of course he said no. He obviously does not have an eye for design. Hmmph.

My new house.

2008-08-03T15:20:00.012-05:00

So I'm buying a house. Hopefully. Closing on August 18th. A little one story, three-ish bedroom, 2 full bath bungalow. I just have to get my financing straightened out.

Of course I've been mentally decorating the place for weeks. I'm rethinking wallpapering. There are some really cool wallpapers out and it could make a great statement on a single wall in the dining room or in the bathroom or kitchen. Not too overwhelming, mind you. It might be cool to wallpaper the kitchen since A) there wouldn't be that much wall space to paper and B) it probably would be less time consuming then painting (well actually, I have no idea) and C) since it is a smaller room it shouldn't be too terribly expensive.
Here is my kitchen:

It already has some very small print wallpaper up. The backsplash has a line of dark blue tile. I don't hate it, but I don't love it. Subway tile would be my preference. I want to paint the cabinets. I don't know for sure what color though. The countertops are white so I don't know if white cabinets and white counter tops would look okay together. Ultimately, I'd prefer stainless steel appliances or even vintage/retro appliances.

I think my house is going to have quite an eclectic feel to it. Recently I thought my design style was retro cottage but now it's that plus modern. Retro-modern, cottage?

Here are some awesome wallpapers from designyourwall.com

So the first three would look good in bathroom #1 and the 2nd three for the kitchen.
Oh here is a picture of the bathroom:

Yes, that awful 'tile' is coming out. A small hexagon tile would be ideal, if nothing else then some black and white checkerboard vinyl.

My sweet "new" couch that left me in pain for three days

2008-07-13T14:18:00.004-05:00

So I won the couch I previously posted about. Ebay. No one else even bid on it so I got it for $50. Probably because there was pretty much no description and just a crappy cell phone picture. When I went to pick it up I was actually kind of pleasantly surprised. Instead of a seafoam green a la the cell phone pic, it was a deep emerald green, with an olive-golden green brocade. And also much larger than I expected. I kind of thought I could take one half at a time in my little suzuki hatchback. No fucking way. After attempting to find someone to pick it up for me and carry it into my apartment (my weakling/ill boyfriend put his foot down here) on craigslist I remembered my friend Ashley had a truck. Albeit a small one. I felt kinda bad about asking for her assistance, since I hadn't seen her in a over a year. She happened to have a day off so she agreed and I sweetened the deal with gas money etc.

So we got to the crappy, smelly apartment building and were unpleasantly surprised to find that the couch resided on the third floor. So Ashley carried the couch cushions (way to earn that money, girl!) and the little red headed, 120 pound (male) seller and I, carried it down to the car. Twice, mind you, since it was a two piece couch. My arms were burning and numb by the time we got the first half down. I was trying to pull my pants up and couldn't grasp onto my waistband. I couldn't make a fist. It was fucking torture. And plus I was on the back end, meaning I had to hunch down to carry it down three flights. So immediately after, my back hurt and it got worse over the next couple days. Not to mention my arms and legs. From now on I'm leaving that shit to the professionals.

Ashley and I brought it into the first level of my apartment, which is essentially just where the door to the basement and the stairs up into our apartment are. It needs to be cleaned and defumigated (smokers). I'm leaving it down there til we move. Anyways, here it is. shoved up against the wall on the first level.

A Busy Month

2008-07-02T19:02:00.003-05:00

Wow. For someone who normally has no formal sort of plans my July is beginning to look jam packed. My aunt and uncle are also coming to town this weekend, but they're only staying for a day. That day is the 4th and since it is the 4th and all, I won't be able to meet up with them.

New York Cares

2008-07-01T23:18:00.000-05:00

2008 vacation has been decided! We're heading to NYC on July 25th. We'll stay 3 nights, including July 27th, our two year anniversary. Aww. We went to Los Angeles last year so NYC seems appropriate. I went there in October 2001 (I know right, a little soon?). A. has never been.

Ebay-ing

2008-06-29T21:09:00.006-05:00

Just bought these on ebay...my parents will be bringing them to me, from Omaha, on like July 13th.

I'm currently bidding on this couch. I was hesitant at first, because of the picture quality, but this is the first cool couch to go up on ebay, in the KC area in a super long time. Plus it's a two piece, so it should fit in the hatch back in two trips.

I've also got my eye on these two pieces, both of which are in Omaha. Omaha is like 180 miles away. If I can get them for a steal, I'd do it. There are no reserves set, they're both from the same seller and they end in 5 days. Maybe Adam and I could make a trip of it, and go to the Old Market, catch a rock show etc. I have relatives there so I could even stop in and see them.

They're both at .99. If I can get the tulip table for cheap then I'll do it and try to get the coffee table too. But I won't make the trip just for the coffee table.

Chairs

2008-06-28T16:07:00.006-05:00

I found some cute fiberglass, eames era chairs on craigslist earlier this week. They were $125 for 4. Or 6 for $150. The guy was firm about the price. I don't know, more than $100 just doesn't seem like a deal. In the grand scheme of things $31 a chair doesn't sound too bad, I suppose, but I'm a bargain hunter dammit. Here they be:

And I thought they'd be great with this Saarinen knock-off, from Ikea:

The nearest Ikea is like 8 hours away. But when I finally buy a house in the near future, my parents can bring it up from Dallas. Speaking of my parents, they're driving from Dallas to Omaha and then into KC to see me. I might get a couple small things off ebay from a seller in Omaha and have them pick them up and bring them over. Two fiberglass chairs and a coffee table.

I hit up two garage sales and this store's "estate sale" and got some sweet stuff. Photos to follow, when I can be arsed.

Flowers. It's about time!

2008-06-21T14:07:00.007-05:00

We started the day off with some home cookin'. Of course, not cooked by us. We went to Skillet Licker, a cute little cafe that feels very small town. They have delicious little donut holes with a variety of frostings to dip in. I had B&G and it was delicious. Prices are good too. We went there because they got a good review on The Walt Bodine Show yesterday.

Then we went to the city market and I finally got my flowers. They have the best flowers there and quite a few vendors. They're all so fresh and pretty and cheap as well. I looked at Home Depot and Ace Hardware last week and their flowers were all dying. I spent $5.50 and got two different kinds. I don't know much about flowers so I don't know what kind they are off the top of my head. I need to get some more pots though. I think I even overcrowded. Hopefully that won't kill them..but just in case I might replant some in another pot.

House Hunting update.

2008-06-20T17:11:00.002-05:00

So I've been house hunting since sometime in March. To date, I've made two offers and one back up offer. The back up offer was cancelled when I put in my last offer last weekend. And ta da, I still don't have a house. The one I made a back up offer on still hasn't closed and it's been over a month...here's to hoping that the damn investor who put in the accepted offer doesn't have financing or something, because it was the most perfect house. Nice and big. Updated. Foreclosure. A steal. Sigh.

I have a new realtor. My last was good sometimes, bad other times. Not to mention the fact she referred to me as 'kiddo'. WTF? I'm your damn client, not your child. She didn't even know how old I was anyway. I mean I never told her. I looked at another house with a different agent on Wed and she seems better than the last. Sadly, that house had 7 foot ceilings. Not exactly the bright and open house I had in mind. Great location though.

On a good/bad note. The market in KC is in an upswing.

More More More!

2008-06-15T11:15:00.008-05:00

I got to this danish-looking chair at garage sale a little late and it had already ended. They had free stuff at the curb, including this chair. It's funny, because they posted pics of some of the items from their garage sale on their ad on craigslist and this chair was in the picture. I had my eye on it all along and ended up getting it for FREE. Awesome. The upholstery is weird. It feels like vinyl or something. It's in pretty good condition but I don't really like the color.

Got this vintage, orange desk chair for FREE from a garage sale.

Educational bird flash cards. These are lovely and from the 60's or so. I don't know what to do with them, maybe frame them? Fifty cents from a garage sale. There are soooo many of them too, and all in color!

Vintage planters, about $4 each from vintage warehouse. I'm going to the farmers market today to get some pretty flowers for them!

Deer lamp from ebay for about $10. I painted it aqua. It had been brown...painted to look 'realistic', vomit.

Another purchase from that vintage warehouse. I think it was about $4.

I really like the frame. I painted it white though. It's a piece of silk with a bird embroidered on it. I bought two of these, each with a different bird, for about $6.00 at a garage sale.

Continuation of the post below.

Recent acquistions!

2008-06-15T10:54:00.009-05:00

Here's a pic post of some of the little knick-knacks I've acquired lately. I missed a couple of things so I'll go back and add them later.

Set of two framed, and matted, bird prints. $20 with shipping included from ebay.

Set of 6 frosted glasses with a random ranch house on them. $4.50 from this vintage store/warehouse that is only open once a month but has good prices on most everything.

Sweet velvet painting from garage sale for $1.50. I think my cat has been sharpening her claws on this.

Decoupage small art piece for like fifty cents or a dollar.

A classy plaque type thing for I don't remember what at a garage sale. Adam really wanted this. I don't know what we're going to do with it. They had a lot of these things at this garage sale.

A vintage Esquire Host book. Fifty cents, garage sale.

I don't know if it's an ashtray or just a serving plate or something. Fifty cents at a garage sale.

A history lesson on Knoll at work

2008-06-04T17:52:00.002-05:00

So this afternoon at work we had our "state of the company" speech. It was interesting to see what the other departments have been working on and what more they plan to do. One of the heads mentioned how well our cook books have been doing. Which got me thinking that they should really do more with decorating/home design, maybe going as far as knitting and sewing instructional books. He mentioned Nell Hill, who owns a homestore in KC. Not really my style but it's cool that my company has delved into books on interior design. He also mentioned that they were looking for their next Nell Hill (http://www.nellhills.com) and that if we had any suggestions of people with a story like her's that owned their own little design stores etc we should let him know. I've read a ton of blogs by ladies who are so amazingly creative and cool with beautiful houses to boot that would be perfect and should be featured and be the subject of their own book. I think maybe my next big move within the company will be into the book group, I mean at least I'd like it to happen.

Also, we are moving into an old building currently under renovation downtown, very close to the new power and light district. So they spent a long while showing us all their design choices. That was awesome. They are going with Knoll furniture, all very modern of course. Saarnien chairs! A Bertoia table set. A beautiful Florence Knoll couch and chair set for the waiting area that I am completley coveting. The person giving the briefing even gave a little history on the Knoll company so it was really interesting.

Here is the Florence Knoll sofa.

And this is what our office will kind of look like:

Urban Outfitters Couches

2008-05-29T11:31:00.004-05:00

So I had two cancelled flights and then a delayed one at Dallas Love Field on Tuesday. I had some time to kill (a lot, actually) so I boldly jumped on a bus and took it to Mockingbird Station (after confirming with a friend that Mockingbird Station was a shopping area). At MS they had a lot of little shops, Ann Taylor Loft, Starbucks, a paper store, Gap, Urban Outfitters etc. I went into UO and they had all the couches (most) from their website on display! It was great because I've been thinking of getting one from there once I move and have some money to spend but I was afraid it'd be a crappy quality. These all seemed nice and structurally sound. I paid particular attention to the convertible mid-century-esque model.

$480...I think I might go for it. Too bad about the $115 shipping fee. I wonder if it comes assembled? It was nice and big but Macy's has some pretty sweet couches too, that are around $700. And a lot of the time you can find 10 or 20% off Macy's coupons online, plus free delivery maybe? Or at least local pick up.

2008-05-11T10:33:00.006-05:00

So one of my old English Professors called me last Wednesday to ask me if I would come in and speak to one of his classes about my job. I was an English major and actually got a job in an English related field after graduation (May 2007). He said I'd only have to talk for like 5 mins and that two other people would be there speaking as well. I hate public speaking. Especially in front of a group of people I have never met before. I hesitantly agreed though, because it was flattering that he was asking and because I used him as a reference on many a job application and he also wrote me a letter of recommendation for an internship I applied for in 2006.

At least it's a good excuse to buy a nice spring outfit. This is what I'm working with thus far:

I bought the shoes at Target last night because I don't have any brightly colored shoes. The cardigan I bought a couple of weeks ago on clearance.

I also bought a dress I thought I would wear at Old Navy last night but turns out it is too long for my 5'2 self and looks like a sack when I put it on. Thus I must return it.

So now if I can only find this dress at Target:

I think the navy will look great with the yellow shoes and gray sweater.

2008-05-10T23:35:00.004-05:00

Love.

http://www.kathleenbrock.com/listings/campbell4429

My dream home. Too bad it's about $50,000 out of my budget. If only my boyfriend wasn't a full time student with a part time job and $10,000 in credit card debt.

Oops, I've said too much.

Look who's back, back again....

2008-05-06T19:48:00.007-05:00

Well, it's been a while. I've been reading a lot of AT lately which has led me to other design oriented blogs. So here I am again. Plus, I'm now looking to purchase a house (the sooner the better- I hate my neighbors!) so I'll have more to post about. I'm very excited. I love checking out all the listings on the MLS database and craigslist etc. I'm even acquiring stuff to put in my future home. Via ebay, mostly. It's most convenient. And, I've been going to the local Salvation Army pretty frequently, picking up vintage dresses on half price day. I then list those on ebay and use the profits to buy tchotskes (sp?). They never seem to have anything good for the home. It's in a pretty ghetto area downtown and so not many "hipsters" or design enthusiasts venture down that way but I'm just not really seeing any cool furniture down there, but who knows.

This is what I've won on Ebay in the past few days. I'm still waiting for them to arrive and they feed my Audubon/vintage addiction:

Two framed and matted, 17x13 bird prints. $9.99 plus $10 shipping
total!

Vintage sheet music for framing. $5.

10 Arthur Singer prints for $10.

Todd Oldham loves Charley Harper and so do I.

2008-01-27T15:32:00.001-06:00

I remember seeing a photo of the inside of Todd Oldham's home, or something, on some blog, and he had a bunch of Charley Harper prints up. I tried to find that picture again but couldn't! I have a few prints myself (copies of) and have hung them up in my dining room too. I was surprised to find an adorable planner at Barnes & Noble a week or so into 2008. So since the year had already started the planners were on sale and mine was only $4! Love it.

I bought a table!

2008-01-27T14:56:00.000-06:00

So I decided to visit another huge antique mall. I moved through it pretty quickly, as I was keeping my eye on the prize. I saw a pretty neat red and white metal table with leaves and 4 chairs. It was $75 plus the store was having a 15% off everything sale. It would have required two trips, at least, and even then the table might not have fit in my car. I have a suzuki reno, which is a hatchback and the seats fold down. Also the chairs were not super cute and most needed the vinyl repaired. In the same booth I found a good size gray dinette table for only $25. A little while later I found the cutest mid-century modern, blonde wood desk. It was $45. It's very girly looking, I love it. I decided I would forgo the teal table at the other store and instead get these two things. I was able to get the table in my car and I have to go back and get the desk...tomorrow maybe. It will look great in my craft room/studio...Now all I have to do is get rid of my old craft table and the dining room table...

My search for the perfect dining table

2008-01-26T22:35:00.000-06:00

Today I dragged my boyfriend to my favorite four-story antique store. I was on the hunt for a new table for our dining room. I guess I should say right now that I am a bargain hunter. All my furniture is pretty much used with the exception of like the bed, some bookshelves and some tables from ikea. I started gathering furniture when I moved into my first apt with two other girls in 2006. I have accumulated a lot and have bought and sold on craigslist and the like. Anyways, I got the dining table I have now from this antique store. It's round and pretty big and it was like a teak, I believe. I painted it black and got some mismatched chairs which I painted teal. When I moved out something happened to the little slats that hold each side of the table up, so now it's more of a half circle shape. It was like $60 when I bought it. I mean I know I could just get some pieces of wood from like Home Depot to fix it, but I'm a little creeped out by the table ever since my dumb cat decided to pee on it. It's never been the same since.

So yes, I went to the antique store and they did not have too much in my price range of $50 or less. I kind of wanted to just get a vintage dinette set but the cheapest set was still about $150. I found an apartment sized (small) metal dinette table with like a fake wood finish on it which came with one 60's styled flowered chair. My boyfriend pointed out that it would be too small for the room. I said that wasn't necessarily a bad thing plus it was $24 (with a 25% discount that the dealer at that booth was running). But I think he's right. Plus the wood is kind of tacky...on the next floor I found a teal, metal dinette table. A beautiful color! I mean, I love teal. Of course, being 50 or more years old, it was discolored in areas but still I liked it. It was $45. This dealer also had this sweet mid-century modern style chair that said "as is" on the tag. But it's only $15! The material is in decent shape but it would look great recovered. I don't know how to sew (I know, gasp!) but I'm quite capable of stapling.... Anyways, this is my inspiration for my dining room...I mean I'm putting a different spin on it, and not copying it exactly.

Damn I can't wait till I can take photos of my dining room. This was a reader submitted photo from Domino's website.

Next up on my shopping list? A new couch. My 60's couch leg broke off...it's repairable, I'm sure, but I want to go in more of a mid-century modern direction. I'd describe the couch I have now as "Hollywood Regency"....Love this one that's on Ebay now, but like 1500 miles away.

Post numero uno

2008-01-26T18:26:00.000-06:00

This is my first post! I originally made the blog in November and have since deleted it and decided to start fresh. First, a little about me. I'm 23 and live in Kansas City, Missouri with my boyfriend, Adam, my cat, Cornbread, and our mini dachshund, Hashbrown. We live in the top floor of a duplex of a nearly 100 year old building. The apartment is pretty large- it has 2 small bedrooms, a craft room, a large dining room and an average size living room and a pretty spacious kitchen. The fixtures and appliances are all pretty old school, the apartment hasn't been updated that much, retaining all it's original character and grandeur. We even have a large staircase in the apartment that leads down to our front door and the shared basement. There is a large balcony on the front of the duplex but we really never spent much time there because we are on a very busy road and the traffic is constant. There is a back balcony that leads down to where we park our cars. As soon as I can find my camera cord I want to post some photos. I'm also very excited because I'm getting a Nikon D40 on Tuesday! My first DSLR, I've been wanting one since forever. A little more about me....let's see, I work for a newspaper syndicate (and publishing house)- it's a fun job, and I get to take home free books and calendars all the time. I'm going to make another post in a minute. This will do for now.