Being the bird nerd that I am, it doesn't take much to get me excited... like yesterday when I noticed the robins had started to form their flock for the winter and FINALLY discovered my bird bath. Ah nature...so good.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
robins
Being the bird nerd that I am, it doesn't take much to get me excited... like yesterday when I noticed the robins had started to form their flock for the winter and FINALLY discovered my bird bath. Ah nature...so good.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Target
I have a Target less than 2 miles from my house. That said I go there a lot. And I always find something great that I wasn't expecting. I heart Target!!
5 years ago when we bought the house, we put Enje roller blinds and the Kvadrant panel curtain rail systems from Ikea up in every window. I never really liked the Kvadrant panel curtains in our bedroom but somehow a way more important project always took priority over getting different curtains in there. 5 years ago Mark was also smart enough to buy a bunch of different options for the Kvadrant rail system including two packs of hook things. I think his thought process at the time was "I'm just going to buy all the little extra things Ikea sells for the Kvadrant curtain system so I do not have to come back". And now Kvadrant has been replaced at Ikea by something different so if I needed them now I would have been out of luck!
Not sure how this happened but I actually put those hook things someplace where I was able to find them 5 years later. I bet they were compatible with some line of curtains Ikea sold at that time. I took a good look at them and figured out how I could use them with the $14.99 curtain panels I had just purchased at Target (beacause I left Ikea exhausted and without new curtains for our bedroom and Target did not let me down!).
So I got out the trusty Viking and a roll of twill tape and MacGuyvered up those curtain panels to work with the hooks. Totally easy.
And now I have curtains that I love!
Because I'm still using the old rail system, I was able to put each curtain panel on a different track (there are three tracks on this rail) so one panel can completely cover the other one if I need to double them up for some privacy. These new curtains are pretty sheer...we do have a giant lilac bush in front of this window so privacy isn't a huge issue.
While shopping for the curtains I also picked up these $29 suede shoes...
5 years ago when we bought the house, we put Enje roller blinds and the Kvadrant panel curtain rail systems from Ikea up in every window. I never really liked the Kvadrant panel curtains in our bedroom but somehow a way more important project always took priority over getting different curtains in there. 5 years ago Mark was also smart enough to buy a bunch of different options for the Kvadrant rail system including two packs of hook things. I think his thought process at the time was "I'm just going to buy all the little extra things Ikea sells for the Kvadrant curtain system so I do not have to come back". And now Kvadrant has been replaced at Ikea by something different so if I needed them now I would have been out of luck!
Not sure how this happened but I actually put those hook things someplace where I was able to find them 5 years later. I bet they were compatible with some line of curtains Ikea sold at that time. I took a good look at them and figured out how I could use them with the $14.99 curtain panels I had just purchased at Target (beacause I left Ikea exhausted and without new curtains for our bedroom and Target did not let me down!).
So I got out the trusty Viking and a roll of twill tape and MacGuyvered up those curtain panels to work with the hooks. Totally easy.
And now I have curtains that I love!
Because I'm still using the old rail system, I was able to put each curtain panel on a different track (there are three tracks on this rail) so one panel can completely cover the other one if I need to double them up for some privacy. These new curtains are pretty sheer...we do have a giant lilac bush in front of this window so privacy isn't a huge issue.
While shopping for the curtains I also picked up these $29 suede shoes...
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Ikea
I have a serious love hate relationship with Ikea. It takes almost an hour to get to the nearest location (or an hour and a half when traffic is jammed up) and costs $6.20 in highway tolls for the round trip. Oh and the bonus... the only time I can go is on the weekend when it's a swarming madhouse. Sigh. After putting it off for months I finally made the journey a couple of Saturdays ago. And once I was there, defeated by traffic and an already super crowded store, I decided to buy anything and everything that I ever wanted from Ikea because I was never coming back (yeah, right).
Got all the staples I needed from Ikea like new towels, replacement dishes and bowls for ones that we had broken over the past year, and cheap $7 throw blankets for the couch Lottie is slowly destroying. I bought the Henny throw-bedspread that I had become obsessed with and a couple of sets of grey sheets. Also picked up the Alvine Rand rug (Ikea stock photo here)- mine is still rolled up in its plastic wrap until I have time to tackle the spare room which is where this rug is going (I think).
I had no idea what I was going to do with this round mini-cowhide thing they're selling for $9.99...
... and it ended up looking good on the dining room table.
Bought this small white wire table with a white glass top in the scratch and dent section for $14. Have since decided that it's perfect as Mark's bedside and his glass of ice water he needs while he sleeps... won't talk about the tragedy of the Hey-Wake bedside and the faulty coaster incident...still too painful. So $14 table that requires no coaster is a big winner!
Now with that new bedsie table decision I ended up moving all sorts of things around and brought in things from other rooms and then changed my mind on the new paint color 12 times. Wow what a trainwreck! I did settle on one color and I bought the paint. Now I just need to find the time to do the painting.
Mark made this tripod lamp about 4 years ago and it has made an appearance in just about every room of our house. Of course I had to try it out in the bedroom! It was my Grandpa's tripod. He was an amazing photographer and most of the black and white photographs in our house are his taken in the 1940s and 1950s.
The only thing on my Ikea shopping list that I didn't come home with was curtains for our bedroom. No worries, there is always Target!
Got all the staples I needed from Ikea like new towels, replacement dishes and bowls for ones that we had broken over the past year, and cheap $7 throw blankets for the couch Lottie is slowly destroying. I bought the Henny throw-bedspread that I had become obsessed with and a couple of sets of grey sheets. Also picked up the Alvine Rand rug (Ikea stock photo here)- mine is still rolled up in its plastic wrap until I have time to tackle the spare room which is where this rug is going (I think).
I had no idea what I was going to do with this round mini-cowhide thing they're selling for $9.99...
... and it ended up looking good on the dining room table.
Bought this small white wire table with a white glass top in the scratch and dent section for $14. Have since decided that it's perfect as Mark's bedside and his glass of ice water he needs while he sleeps... won't talk about the tragedy of the Hey-Wake bedside and the faulty coaster incident...still too painful. So $14 table that requires no coaster is a big winner!
Now with that new bedsie table decision I ended up moving all sorts of things around and brought in things from other rooms and then changed my mind on the new paint color 12 times. Wow what a trainwreck! I did settle on one color and I bought the paint. Now I just need to find the time to do the painting.
Mark made this tripod lamp about 4 years ago and it has made an appearance in just about every room of our house. Of course I had to try it out in the bedroom! It was my Grandpa's tripod. He was an amazing photographer and most of the black and white photographs in our house are his taken in the 1940s and 1950s.
The only thing on my Ikea shopping list that I didn't come home with was curtains for our bedroom. No worries, there is always Target!
Friday, September 24, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
new look for HousePet
blog post version 3.0
I got a new monitor today and my old HousePet blog layout and colors looked kinda crappy on my new fancier wide screen. I tried out some new templates and colors and wound up with this...the new look for HousePet.
I got a new monitor today and my old HousePet blog layout and colors looked kinda crappy on my new fancier wide screen. I tried out some new templates and colors and wound up with this...the new look for HousePet.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Elle Decoration: February 1998 (British Issue)
Busted out a stack of Elle Decor UK the other night. I'm in the process of revamping our bedroom and remembered an issue that had the vibe I'm hoping to achieve in there... February 1998. Definitely still as inspiring today, 12 years later, as it was the day I brought it home. They featured advertising superstar Doug Lloyd's NY apartment which was minimal, full of fantastic pottery, natural textures, tons of black and white photography, and the color palette that I'm striving for in our bedroom. Next up was "White On White" - who doesn't love a Wegner chair in a lovely white room! What a nice mix of white shades and natural textures. I think I'll leave this issue out on the coffee table so if you stop by, be sure to thumb through it. The photos I attempted to show here hardly do it justice.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
new at the ranch
This amazing (very Platner-esque) wire bowl is new on the dining room table. Purchased from the fine folks at modernrelicsshop on etsy. Even Mark said, "I like that new bowl". He never comments on the stuff I buy. It really is awesome...especially at night when the bubble lamp overhead casts the cool shaddow on the table.
This nicely shaped wooden bowl is another etsy purchase from Gizmo's shop. I love it!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
design harvest festival
Design Harvest will feature a sampling of Chicago's local furniture and home accessory makers, vintage and antique collectors, and local retailers of the home design industry. Renegade Handmade will present a "DIY" tent previewing their best in the home design industry. Enjoy french wines by Lulu B, music provided by The Hide Out Inn, and locally roasted coffee by Intelligensia.
A rain or shine event, vendors will be housed under large tents.
October 2nd & 3rd 2010, 11am-7pm
On Grand Ave between Damen and Wood Street
FREE ADMISSION
Who's going?
Monday, September 13, 2010
hide that ugly AC unit!
BEFORE
AFTER
After 5 years of hatin' on that monster, the old and ugly AC unit gets hidden with some slatty goodness!! As you can see my attempt at hiding it with a potted foxtail fern didn't really fool anyone. The wood slats are threaded with a steel rod at the corners creating a hinge - allowing it to fold up when we have to store it in the winter. The ends of the steel rods also act as stakes going into the ground a few inches - this keeps it in place around the AC unit. This project was Mark's concept...I just did the nagging...and the constant pointing out of good wood slatty-ness. Thank you Mark!
refer to this post back in February for the AC unit in the winter snow
jump to the future to this post to see photos of the top
AFTER
After 5 years of hatin' on that monster, the old and ugly AC unit gets hidden with some slatty goodness!! As you can see my attempt at hiding it with a potted foxtail fern didn't really fool anyone. The wood slats are threaded with a steel rod at the corners creating a hinge - allowing it to fold up when we have to store it in the winter. The ends of the steel rods also act as stakes going into the ground a few inches - this keeps it in place around the AC unit. This project was Mark's concept...I just did the nagging...and the constant pointing out of good wood slatty-ness. Thank you Mark!
refer to this post back in February for the AC unit in the winter snow
jump to the future to this post to see photos of the top
Sunday, September 12, 2010
polar bear plunge
74 degrees might not sound that cold but trust me in pool water that is really chilly! We took one last dip today. I cannot believe it will be 8 and half months before we swim again. That is just plain sad.
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