Sideways & Shipwrecked

That Stupid Instinct...

I told you about a month or so about my non-maternal instict -although I am feeling that one too now...thank goodness for just having the pups, because I haven't gotten any closer to knowing anything about babies. 

It's the house thing... and I have the bug. The I want a house bug. Where I can decorate and call it my own... it's driving me crazy. So crazy in fact that I started looking at houses in NC, and thought about staying an extra year or two. Yeah, that crazy. (Well that and the fact that our rent went up and all of our friends pay less a month for a mortgage!)

But anyway, the house bug got me tonight because I saw this...

and now I want a house with tons of chandeliers. And that one too.

I want  a house damn darn it. 

I need something to decorate/design!!!

(I guess I have a wedding to keep me busy right now.)

(And something else to design on the horizon. ;) more on that later.)

Holidays in Maine....

Okay, I love Christmas in Maine. I learned a song in the 3rd grade (maybe 4th) called the Maine Christmas Song... here are the lyrics...

"There is still meaning in the magic of Christmas in the State where the christmas trees grow.

Where neighbors still drop by with cookies, breads, pies, and warm themselves by the kitchen stove.

It's the spirit of, sharing, giving and caring, hanging wreaths upon the neighbors door.

That's the spirit of Maine at Christmas time, from her mountains to her great Atlantic shore.

 

You can find a farmer hitching up his horses to the sleigh the family's had for years,

to give their children rides through the snow white countryside and the forest filled with timid white-tailed deer.

It's the spirit of, sharing, giving and caring, hanging wreaths upon the neighbors door.

That's the spirit of Maine at Christmas time, from her mountains to her great Atlantic shore.

 

The family still invite their friends and neighbors in their search for the perfect Christmas tree,

walking across frozen fields and rivers often times in snow above their kness.

It's the spirit of, sharing, giving and caring, hanging wreaths upon the neighbors door.

That's the spirit of Maine at Christmas time, from her mountains to her great Atlantic shore."

    The song is so accurate to the feeling you get when you spend Christmas in Maine. I have always loved the Christmas season, but after spending the last two Christmases away from Maine, I cannot tell you how good it felt to be back in my home state. To feel the small town Christmas... a community... I just felt like I was home.

   Anyway, it's time to share some pictures!

Holiday window in downtown Portland

I always wanted to live in these apartments- I love the windows, and the tree makes it even prettier!

L.L. Bean always has a gorgeous winter display... this is like 1/4 of it...

The L.L. Bean boot all decked out for Christmas...

The newspaper office I used to work for looking all festive...

The fisherman is back on his feet and dressed for Christmas! (The cape is handmade!!!)

Mom, sister and I with Poppy and Issa...

Dad, sister, pups and I

The tree... may have adjusted the curves a bit too much...

The fireplace and our stockings...

The five girls again...

My mom being silly...

Baby me on the ornament I made for my mom in kindergarten.

The mantle... my mom loves Santas...

One of my favorite ornaments... we got it when I was little, and I love the little bear popping out of the box...

My other favorite ornament... it was my grandmother's (I wish she still had more left)-it's my mom's favorite too...

...sorry sister, I had to post it!

Cute sister...

I love Annalee... Mr. Wright thinks they're strange... too bad the little sheep's face is hard to see...

The dining room, with lots of Santas on the piano...

Front door... love the wreath, so Maine!

My advent calender... 

My sister's German Christmas Village all lit up...

So long, Maine... I miss ya already!

Oh my Gourdness!

 
 
I love Fall...

the colors...

the smell...

the crispness in air... 

the gourds...

the pumpkins...

the baked goods...

the apple picking...

Oh wait, scratch that. Apple picking? I learned to pick apples I need to drive 4 1/2 hours.

To see real foliage I need to drive that far too...

I miss Fall in New England.

Here's a peek into what Fall looks like around here...

Cupcakes for a friend's 30th "might as well be dead" birthday... black roses & grass in the graveyard...

Fall display at the cafe in Maine I worked at... miss you Mama D's!

My table complete with gourds! Don't you love gourds?

I love their knobs and funkiness...

Who knew toilet paper rolls could look so cute? Recycled and cute pumpkins and apples...

At the pumpkin patch!

I love all pumpkins. I don't discriminate. If I had space for them all at my house (and the cash) I'd take them all... I live these skinny stemmed ones that are pasty- sort of like me, minus the skinny stems...

I even love these knobby, warty looking ones!

Proud pumpkin daddy... we don't even have to worry about a car seat or TV for this baby...

The ice cream truck came for the first time ever in our community! And it stayed for hours to make up for missed time this summer I guess... and it played Happy Birthday, Rudolph and Twinkle Twinkle over and over...

My Halloween topiaries... which will be staying up until Thanksgiving, thank you very much.

Teachers Pet to accompany pumpkin carving... peanut butter, bacon, apples and honey on toast... courtesy of the aforementioned, Mama D's... I learned a lot of yummy things working there!

crazy Halloween eyes!

There you have it, Fall in NC! Also, don't forget to add a comment to this post to be entered in the giveaway!

Great Blazes...

I have been enjoying some of the fall's newest sitcoms, including Better with You on ABC. I was catching up with it last night on the DVR and it inspired me to do a little research and I'm liking what I found. 

You see, on the show the couple Mia and her fiancé where looking for a new place to start their family- and he was looking for something unique and cool to convert. They found an old firehouse and he was so excited... she however was not. It got me to thinking though... wouldn't it be awesome to live in an old firehouse? 

There's so much history of the people who lived (because they do spend A LOT of time there) and worked there? I love thinking back to who the people where who lived somewhere- what they were like, what their lives were like. It's always like a mystery and I love mysteries. 

But I also got to thinking- if you like modern minimalism or home renovation or just want to live somewhere cool how awesome would it be to convert a firehouse? I was hoping at the end of the show they'd have it renovated so I could be surprised by the transformation, but I guess that's a little hard to do in 30 minutes. That's where my research came in- I decided to see what others had done to old firehouses- someone had to have done this first, right? Right. 

Here's what I found:

Engine No. 44 in San Fransisco is ah-mazing! It's also 5 million... Seriously though, look at the pictures.

Okay, it's pretty modern... but it is fabulous. It sort of had lost it's firehouse-ness, and if I lived there I would not want the fire pole to be encased in glass. But hey, I guess it would hurt if you missed the pole and fell 4 flights.    

Then there are these adorable firehouses on Cape Cod. They would make the cutest little houses... some of them are... and some of them are forgotten. It makes me sad... I love seeing the pictures of them back in the day. I would like to renovate them and then find the men in the pictures and have them over for chili...

And this firehouse was an adorable little cottage like firehouse. They did a great job with it!

So what do you think? Would you live in a firehouse? I totally would! Now off to bake some cupcakes!

It's Amazing What You Can Find Online...

 

Don't you want a gummy bear chandelier? This is amazing. Your child would fall asleep instantly trying to count gummy bears instead of sheep. 

I love it.

I want it now.

I am way to scared to ever ask for the price.

Too Much Black and White? Never!

Mr. Wright says I own too many black and white things. Well, not that I own too many (although he may think that too), but that it seems to be what I buy... all the time. I disagreed and decided to ransack the apartment and prove him wrong. He proved me wrong.

    
   

... and this doesn't even include anything that has black, white and any other color (like pink! well except for the pj's in the last picture!) Also, the B&W dog bed isn't included here either! Maybe I need to add some new colors? I really like things that are bold and graphic though and I think that's why I gravitate towards black and white. Is there any color you think you have too much of or someone says you have too much of?   
  

Design, Design, Design...

I will need 8 houses for all of my design ideas... or one house with tons and tons of rooms. There is so much inspiration out there! I love our little apartment, but it can't have it's own unique style. Stupid rules. Anyhow, here are some ideas out of my inspiration files... I love bedroom ideas (and living room and kitchens and bathrooms and patios too...)  Someone had mentioned via Facebook that she was looking for headboard ideas and I knew I had a ton saved away for a rainy day and for when we have a more bedrooms. Thanks Jessie (if you read this :) ) for making me look back and remember all the fun ideas I had thought about before we moved in here! Hope they inspire someone else! Oh, and thanks HGTV and all those other great decorating sites! Oh, and if you want some real decorating enjoyment check out Young House Love. I love them! Actually, I want to be them. Anyone, like I said, enjoy!

A room divider...

Lots of bookcases...

A plain headboard with cushions...

 

A piece of plywood carved out in a neat shape with... ours is similar, but it wasn't shaped we framed it with wood and decorative ends.

   

 

This one is cool with lots of neat framed out areas...
 

Very elaborate looking with fabric hung from the ceiling with a rod...
 

A cool painting with mirrors on each side...
 

This one could be separate pieces of wood with batting, there was a great article on how to do it in the last DIY magazine from BHG, I couldn't find a link to it though, sorry.
 

Paintings again, or you could mod podge some cool fabric on a canvas.
 

A piece of wood with chalk board paint... you could write little messages to each other... 
   

A bookcase...
 

Mismatched giant letters...
 

Another elaborate one...
 

I love this one, simple wooden panels with pictures hung on them.
 

Love the idea, can't remember which blog I found it on. Sign is not my cup of tea, but the idea is awesome!
 

Old shutters...
 

A picket fence...
 

Another chalkboard...
 

Fabric again...
 

A mantel.... I love this one!

 

Another picket fence...
 

I loved this one too, I'm not sure how it was made, but it looks so magical.
 

A little too country for me... but pretty.

 

And I want to make this for one of my pups... probably not fat-so, but she would try to make herself fit in here!
     

               

Hello, Charlotte!

Okay, so I have finally gotten around to updating! A few weekends ago we took our first adventure to Charlotte (cool city!... awesome city!) I loved that there were so many artistic sculptures, beautiful trees and I especially loved that they had so many literary references in the park around the library- metal book pages, brick scultpures, sky high book scultpures, road signs modeled after famous authors, hop scotch based on basic words... it was great! I loved that the city placed so much emphasis on reading- we don't place enough importance on being literate! So, even though Charlotte is stupid Bank of America's headquarters, it was pretty awesome! Without any further ado...

Not only was it our first trip to Charlotte, but it was also our first trip to.....

Can you see how excited I am? I think I was doing a little dance in this picture... So anyway, my heart went pitter patter and now I'm in love. We bought some cool things for the apartment and I finally re-did my dining room table. You see, when we first moved here I had toured a few apartments and fell in love with the idea that we needed a round, glass table for our dining area. So, before we knew where the ghetto was, we went to a store called Not Your Granny's Panties, which was basically a thrift store with lots of estate sale finds, etc. I saw this round glass table with metal chairs and decided I had to have it. Mr. Wright was not excited about the purchase (it meant work for him since the cushions were rotten and we had to create brand new seats) but hey, it was a table for $25. We made our cushions, fixed the rusty spots and made it look cute. But after I fell out of lust I felt the black iron just looked too abrasive. This is it...

It is cute, right? But I needed something with a little more color... I needed to make the room POP!!! So, I bought some fun fabric at Ikea, some spray paint and decided to have at it! We finally replaced the one last cushion that was rotten... yeah, yeah, we've been here over two years and we just got around to doing that. But hey, we also just got a desk chair for Mr. Wright's desk so now we finally have four chairs at our table!  I really wanted a square wooden bar type table, but now we have a table that's screaming, "We NEED to move to the beach!!!" Take a look, I personally, think it looks great. Pat on the back for me. :)

 
What do you think? I think they add a bit of fun and whimsy... plus since I have been giving the rest of the room a bit of a beachy feel I figure they add to it. I just love those little crabs! Thanks Ikea for some fun fabric! Miss Asia benefited from the Ikea trip too, as she got some fabric and a pillow to make a new cushion from her bed that was falling flat. (Literally, it was flat and uncomfortable even for a dog!) I am so serious. She would have rather slept on the floor than her bed... Cricket of course loved it though, because fat dog loved to smoosh herself into the tiny bed. Anyway, this is Asia's new bed!

Checking out... hmm... will Crick still fit??? Maybe not...

Thanks Mom! No, thank you Ikea! Oh, and Ikea? Thanks for organizing my spice rack!

Before:

What a mess! The drawer never wanted to close!

After:

Yup. Magnets. Yup. Our refrigerator. Yup. Much more organized. Yup. I love it. I heart Ikea.

Wow, sorry for such a long post! I guess it makes up for all those others that I should've done!   

Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Valentine’s Day, whether single, taken, dating, hanging with the dog, with your best girlfriends, multiple girlfriends (if you’re a man who thinks you’re smart enough to juggle multiple women… which you’re not because you just spent extra money on overpriced gifts and meals for a day that isn’t even a real holiday!) etc. etc. Mr. Wright and I enjoyed ours- we decided that V Day meals get so expensive so we cooked at home and went out Saturday night instead. Before I share the lovely pictures of our dinner at home let me tell you a little bit about dinner on Saturday. (It’s my time to rant, so bear with me.)

We decided to go to 18 Seaboard, in downtown Raleigh, where we had gone for our first Valentine’s Day when we moved to NC. It’s not too pricey, but we remembered the food as being delicious, loved the ambiance of the restaurant and they have excellent Sangria. I should have known not to call on a Friday afternoon, especially when OpenTablesaid there weren’t any reservations left. I called- was told we had the choice of 5:30 or 8:45. Okay, we’ll take the early time slot- we always eat super late, this will be a change. 5:30? Okay. We don’t have seating in the main dining room so we’ll seat you in the Gallery. Okay, sounds good. So we got there and found out that the “Gallery” was a space in a converted part of the building with entirely white walls and a couple of paintings for sale. The tables are basically metal folding tables crammed in- like they figured, “Well we have a full dining room- why don’t we just add on some space in the back so we can make more money?” I’d rather sit in the kitchen than be shoved in the back… “Welcome to Loserville, you didn’t make your reservation in time, you moron.”

So anyway, I debated between a few things on the menu… Black Peppered Beef with Handkerchief Pasta, Ashley Farms Chicken stuffed with Spinach and Goat Cheese or 24 hour Marinated Sirloin with my choice of sauce. I almost went with choice three, however, I realized that I was most excited about the sauce choices and a marinated steak most likely will have its own sauce anyway! So the great debate ensued… chicken or beef? Mr. Wright almost choose the beef so I decided I’d get it and he got the salmon. First off, have you ever been asked how you wanted your salmon cooked? I never asked that question when I waitressed for Salmon, only tuna. I was also told that I made a great selection. Yeah, a great selection if you want beef stew on top of a piece of pasta, I found out. I mean seriously, if I wanted beef stew I would have ordered the soup du jour. If I wanted beef stew I would have waited until Tuesday- the day I planned to make it in the crock pot… and thrown on a piece of fancy schmancy handkerchief pasta underneath. (Which was basically a lasagna noodle folded over itself.) Needless to say, if you don’t understand my sarcasm, I was totally disappointed. Oh, and the menu made it sound cheesy- yum, chunks of beef with cheese and pasta?- that little tiny dollop that looks like they may have accidentally dumped a creamer on top? Yes, that’s the cheese. Oh, and Mr. Wright’s salmon? How was that you ask? The girl who hates fish wanted to eat his salmon instead… and he didn’t like his salmon. (That’s how desperate I was!) I am not a fish connoisseur, but he said it wasn’t cooked right and didn’t want to finish it. Our waiter stopped by once in a great while… when someone answers the question, “How is your food?” and all they can muster is a good or fine… that should indicate something isn’t good. It may be me, but when something is GOOD! Like really, really good I always say, “Wonderful!” or “Delicious!” I want them to know how great it is… good is just so mild, and fine is basically, not so good. Maybe if I said, “Well his mashed potatoes are good…” he would have paid attention to the fact that or food wasn’t so great.

Maybe we should have said something, but instead we paid and left… even skipping dessert. Hey, at least the Sangria was good! We tried to be positive saying we learned our lesson… whatever that lesson was… I guess you just feel better thinking you came away from a lackluster experience thinking you learned something! We ended up getting dessert at Coquette Bistro… and their food looked so delicious we almost wanted a second dinner! We had delicious desserts, a great waitress- a waitress with personality?? Gasp!! Afterwards we came home, watched some Olympics and then went out to see Valentine’s Day… fun little movie, even Mr. Wright thought it was funny, and what a great guy for going to a “chick flick!” I loved the area where Ashton Kutcher’s character lived… I went home, looked it up and discovered it’s Venice, CA. Honey, my bags are packed, when are we moving?

As for our Valentine’s Day night… we ate late… almost 11:30 p.m… I guess the day was almost over? We had delicious rib eyes, cheese and crackers, mashed potatoes, squash, mint brownies, chocolate covered strawberries (which were not touched?! Are we crazy?!)  and a nice bottle of Brunello that I bought for Mr. Wright. He has been wanting to get a bottle forever… he had it when he was in Italy and has loved it and thought about it ever since! I made him a video of pictures of us over the last five years… we realized it was our 6^th Valentine’s Day together JWe ate by candlelight and it was sweet and fun, romantic and reminiscent. It was fun to just sit quietly and relax and talk…. And then listen to The Jolly Mon, by Jimmy Buffett and Savannah Jane Buffett… one of my favorite children’s books. Even the pups behaved themselves and were quiet! What a nice evening… see below!

 

 

I made these plates for our romantic evening- just mod podge a plate, sprinkle your favorite glitter over it and then either mod podge lightly over it... or spray with a clear sealing coat. (Don't spray sealer over fresh mod podge though- it won't dry and will not be clear!) Just make sure not to put through the dishwasher!

 
xoxo's!

Furniture re-do

So Mr. Wright will tell you I am one of those people who always have a list of wants. Especially when it comes to items for decorating and when it comes to new furniture. So yeah, you would think, “Oh they live in NC the furniture epicenter of America. Furniture must be cheap since it doesn’t have to be shipped, it’s made there, etc. etc. It must be great furniture.” Yeah, one would think that. I thought that moving down here. If you want decent furniture you have to sacrifice your first born and the arm and left leg of your second born. Yup, you got it, the left leg. Not the right, but the left. BUT NO. It’s all garbage. We hunted forever, really, forever, for so long that even I was tired of furniture shopping! Go figure. Eventually we(meaning me)  got sick of all of my underwear and socks piled on the floor because of my lack of dresser. SO I just went to K-Mart and bought the first thing I could find. It was this……

 

And it was cheap. (Well cheaper than most furniture- I don’t know if I enjoy paying $40 for laminate with a cardboard backing that I have to put together!) So I have been angry at it forever. It’s brown. It’s not attractive. It doesn’t match. The stupid freaking drawers fall apart all the time because the bottoms are just fancy cardboard! So, in case you hadn’t noticed, I am not in love with it. Mr. Wright says this is why he’s so picky. The stuff is crap. But he was a carpenter- he is use to finer things- me? I just needed to get that mountain of underwear and socks in a drawer.  I get it now. I am sick of the junk. So I keep saying how I want to get rid of it… and get a nice bedside table for both sides of the bed- that match!) (Not to fear- our fabulous neighbor gave us a gorgeous dresser- made of wood-say it with me people- wood- that came from India.) So it’s in the nice dresser that my underwear and socks found a home.  However, Mr. Wright says no new furniture. I didn’t like that answer so I went some of my favorite blogs for inspiration. I love http:// modpodgerocks.blogspot.com and I found some great re-dos on there. I decided to do over the bedside table that looked like this….

 
…and the dresser too. I have to thank my Wii Fit- without all those squats I have been doing I would have been freezing my a double q off sitting on the freezing concrete when it’s 30 degrees out! I could seriously squat for minutes at a time… so if you have a Wii I strongly suggest EA Personal Trainer- especially if you will be painting a dresser! I am not the tidiest painter (I did track in a little black paint on my Ugg’s…. shhhhh… I don’t know how that got there! J ) and Mr. Wright is always telling me to “Try this or do that” since his work always had to be perfect when building. So I am outside painting away, and he comes out and says, “You forgot the one thing that all the painters I have ever known used while painting.” Oh crap. Typical impatient me. I just want the ugly brown things to disappear. “You forgot music.” How sweet! He plugged it in for me and away I went painting to Sublime- good painting music- until I decided to switch to Antje Duvekot. (Love her. Check her out. Support her. She’s a-mazing!)

So I got them all painted, used hounds tooth scrapbook paper and mod podged myself a new dresser and end table. Without much further ado or tangents…. Here they are! (Ignore the mess!) Now maybe when I put things away I want yell at an inanimate object anymore.

 

Much better, huh?