Lately…

So much has happened lately that I feel like I have to provide a recap just so I know what the H I’ve been doing. My brother and his beautiful wife had twins: Alex and Chloe. The next day we packed up all of our stuff and relocated to Madison, Wisconsin. Somewhere inbetween those two things my face (or at least part of it) appeared in the Lifestyle section of the Star Tribune, thanks to a wonderful article written by the lovely Beauty Bets (it’s about hosting a Beauty Swap, which you should do). Then, less than three days after moving in, we drove back to Minneapolis, jumped on a plane, spent a week soaking up the rays in Cancun, Mexico, then flew back to Minneapolis and drove back to Madison. Pheew, am I done? Did I miss something? That made me tired.

It’s been hectic, but it’s been fun! We’re finally down to just a few remaining boxes! The past few days have been extremely busy with unpacking, adjusting to working from home, and trying endlessly to find my herb chopper. Why is it that the first thing you need is always the last thing you unpack? Annoying. Anyways, yesterday I was on the phone with my Ever-So-Fabulous MIL (mother-in-law) when she asked what kinds of things we still needed for the house…egads, the list went on and on. Today I decided to sit down and actually prioritize a few of our first projects.

1. Frame Gallery: Our last apartment lacked any type of hallway, but now we have one and I’m excited to do something with lots of picture frames. I’ve found wonderful inspiration here, and a great guide for how-to right here.

2.  Painted Gilt Frames: I’m on the hunt people. The hunt for (extremely) cheap gold gilt frames. I want to paint them one solid color, similar to this. Anyone have any great ideas on where to find ‘em?

3. Refurbing an Old Buffet/Dresser: I have a dream of taking a cruddy old piece of furniture and transforming it into something dazzling (like this). And now that we have a garage (and yard) I think I can finally tackle a project of this magnitude. I’m cruising craigslist until I find just the right one.

4. Guest Room Sleeping: We have a guest room with no bed in it. And our first guests coming this weekend. Erm, oops.  Since this room is also going to house our vast collection of books, I’m leaning towards a futon. But a comfortable one, you know, with a real mattress. Not the metal kind you had in your dorm in college.

5. Curtains: Most of our windows have these really fabulous wood-slated blinds—I’ve heard they are a pain to dust but for right now I’m enjoying how fabulous they look. I’m off-topic. Oh yeah, none of our windows have curtains and we don’t own any. I’m determined to sew some. Or not sew some. Young House Love has an amazing tutorial for making No Sew Curtains. I’m all about that.

6. A Kitchen Hutch: Our new kitchen is so big I don’t quite know what to do with it. It has a pantry and a Lazy Susan. It also has this entire wall of emptiness and I would like to add some type of small cupboard or shelving unit to the corner for my recipes and cooking books. I’m a big fan of the revamp job they did on this little shelf and the way they covered the inside with patterned paper…brilliant!