Secretary

We purchased another vintage, mid-century piece of furniture last week from a shop out of Chicago where we've had a lot of luck. The owner, Cintia, dropped this gem off before we left for Christmas travels, but we've only now had time to get it situated.

Our second bedroom serves as a little study/library/barely used TV room. We had a hugely tall IKEA secretary that I liked, but it was just too imposing for the space. Having something half its size really opens up the room.


It's solid teak in two separate pieces. Very sturdy and in good condition. The lighting in this room is strange, but you get the general idea from the picture.


The front opens up and has three perfect little drawers with original hardware.

I'm adverse to sharing the shop info because it's been so good to us and is fairly reasonable. But, if you ask nicely and you truly like mid-century furniture, I may tell you. Wink.

Rows of Neat & Tidy Spices

After leaving my job for a less stressful one and more time at home, I'm beginning to realize just how many things I've been neglecting. From self-care to home maintenance to cleaning, I've been saying manana to all of it for a couple of years now.

I believe that it's important to take care of even the simplest of our possessions so that we use them thoughtfully and reduce waste. It's not always easy to put this value into practice in daily life because, frankly, it's not glamorous and isn't always fun.

But we are trying to turn our patterns around bit by bit, mostly by cooking more at home, having a mini weekly conference to plan for the week and creating a chore list. These might seem like "duh" kind of things, but I'm not in a regular habit of taking care of the details of my life.

I decided to clean the fridge and organize the pantry this past weekend while listening to the Ueck cover a little Brewer play-off action. I disposed of ten jars of half-used, spoiled condiments and dug through layers of disorganized, flour-covered-junk in the pantry to see what we really had. These tasks took a damn long time and illustrated just how much we have and waste on a frequent basis.

I was amazed at how much wholesome real food we had in our pantry, especially after so many nights of looking in and saying "we don't have much, so let's just go out." Funny how tidying this small closet brought me a measure of peacefulness.


Rows of grains, legumes and other nummy whole foods.


Good thing we have so many empty jars because when you buy turmeric from the Indian store you are in for a commitment. But it's pretty to look at, so it's alright.


And since I've turned into some kind of totally psychotic cat lady, it's hard to resist a new pic of the feline. Plastic bag rug - a gift from my boss' 93-year-old mother. What a perfect combination of Silvio's two favorite things: rugs and plastic bags.

I Can't Believe I Live Here!

So, wow! Over the past year we have been living in a house with an essentially uninhabitable living room. It was the only room in the house we didn't paint justifying it by saying, "oh, we don't want to paint until we know what our furniture will be so it can all work together."

Then we started slowing amassing some vintage furniture pieces, but nothing you could sit on. After nearly a year we took a leap and bought an awesome mid-century couch. When we got it home it turns out it was less than awesome because it smelled and Silvio thought it was the biggest scratching post ever. While he slowly destroyed it, we took our time deciding whether we'd put it on the curb or reupholster it. Turns out upholstery fabric is super expensive and by the time we decided we'd be willing to sell it, it was not salable due to damage.

Then for a while, it was "well, we don't want to spend money on new furniture because it's soooo expensive and we are still afraid it will get damaged by the feline." Funny how we arrange our whole lives around this little being and he doesn't even speak back to us. One weekend, without much fan fare, we just drove down to Macy's in Schaumburg, IL and bought a new leather couch and two arm chairs. I will never look back!

Two lessons learned.

Lesson #1: Furniture that you can sit on is important! It doesn't matter if you have a huge beautiful living room if you never use it because you have nothing to sit on. Also, if you have nothing to sit on it's hard to invite friends and family over because sitting at the kitchen table will only do for so long.

Lesson #2: Even if furniture seems relatively expensive, and I'm at peace with what we paid, it is worth it! You can't live your whole life sitting on the floor, unless you're camping (smile)!

Before the furniture arrived we painted a color I've had on a swatch in the cabinet for five months. Purple, baby!

We still have to finish trim on the baseboards and windows and rehang most of our art, but we're almost there. Without further ado, our new and improved living room. I can't believe I live here! I just love it.

Fireplace Facelift

One afternoon back in April I started peeling paint off of our mantel without really giving thought to how much work it would be to refinish the thing. At that time the only thing on my mind what that it was a travesty for someone to paint over lovely woodwork.

Ry didn't really want to tackle this job, full-well knowing the work involved, but I didn't give him a choice. Thankfully, he is sweet of heart and possesses home improvement skills. I am a lucky woman who is overjoyed for this change that improves the quality of our living space. We are finally on our way to a cozy living room after a year of sitting in the kitchen!


Peeling process. I helped with this stage, though I'll admit I helped with nothing afterward.


Sanding the oak after scraping and stripping original varnish.


Resting with mask on forehead, admiring hard work.


Applying new stain.


After the last coat of varnish.


Next step, purple living room! Hence the furniture pushed to the middle of the room. I dislike these colors that belong to the former owner with my whole soul. Glad we will have something new in the near future.

Raised Bed

Little signs of spring are popping up everywhere around our yard. Flower buds, little leaves, even a momma bunny who gave birth before our eyes on our walkway, no kidding.


Pink azalea buds.

Unfortunately, my eyes are also now picking up on the years of landscaping neglect by our house's former owner. Last year we watched things coming up and didn't do much, just waiting to see what was there. Now, I know we have a lot of work ahead of us.

Ry has been working on building a cedar raised bed which we placed in our front yard today. We intend to try this one and see how it goes. If it goes well we will add more, perhaps turning our entire little front lawn into a mini-veggie farm!

Our yard is not level and some of the wood that was delivered turned out to be warped, so in order to get it to be level Ry had to do a lot of digging. We tilled out the grass underneath and then had rich soil delivered. Soon enough we hope to be rich in veggies!


Look at the beautiful black soil.


Ry stands proudly by his masterpiece.


Ry washes out the wagon we borrowed from a neighbor to move the soil around. We had a lot of leftover dirt so I raked the wood chip mulch out of this flower bed and we added a layer of rich new soil. I'll plant lovely colorful annuals where there was nothing last year. Also, note the topiary-like perfection of those shrubs. I trimmed them myself last fall.

Our Little Home

There is something so wonderful and gratifying about watching the slow opening of a showcase flower. Two years ago during the Christmas season before I started this blog I posted progression pics of an amaryllis bulb sprouting up and growing into a lovely bloom. It was one of the things that sparked me to start a blog thinking no one wants to see Facebook albums of flowers slowly opening, but maybe that would fit for a blog if it was about our home life.

House plants and flowers are a part of my ideal home and always will be. They are a way of bringing simple joy to our home, not to mention improved air quality.


The fully opened bloom.

Here is a silly little illustration of that ideal home that is close to my heart:






Ry took a class last summer about creative ways to encourage writing in the classroom. It was mostly directed at elementary school teachers so I'm not sure how useful it truly was for him, but there were some fun creative projects that came out of it. One I've kept up on the fridge since. Ry had to create a visual representation of his ideal home in a neat little fold out oragami-style house.

I think he did a bang-up job of representing a place that really does show the simple, warm, cozy environment our our ideal home in timed line drawing exercise. Now, to be fair he says we already lived in our house when he made this drawing. So yes, we have books, a cat, houseplants and a fire place...but I don't see any vaulted wood beamed ceilings here either.

When I think of home, I always try to remind myself that what I want in life and in my home is simple. I don't want many things. I want the things we do have to be colorful, lived in and a representation of our life, not something that's simply there for decoration or show. I picked up this card which I have kept on my fridge for three years to bring me a visual reminder of what I want in home and life.


So this little cabin, which I think is really a shack in somebody's back yard, is my ideal home. It's tiny, essentially one room, but can you imagine the joy of waking up and stepping out your little cabin each day to this view, would it not bring a smile to your face? I keep it up on the fridge as a way to remind myself that what I truly want is very simple.

We decided on the spur of the moment Thursday that we will travel to NYC for a long weekend over some vacation time we have. This is the most spontaneous trip I have ever taken, buying airfare a day and a half before departure. We got good fares and will be staying with our lovely friend Dave at his apartment. Dave will soon be leaving NYC so this is the first time we will be able to hang with him in his element. Ry has before as Dave is his long-time friend, but it's something we've never done before. As Dave works in the travel-writing field, we have spent spontaneous travel time before when we were able to randomly connect in Seattle and Portland two years ago on one of our massive summer road trips.

I'm looking forward to seeing NYC again with a guide like Dave and having seen at least a handful of the major tourist markers. I have several other friends there whom I haven't seen in a while and hope to see. The only other site I definitely hope to visit is the Guggenheim. However, I'll tell you what I'm sad I'll miss. It's likely our orchid will slowly open at least two more blooms while we are gone. But that means I should be coming home to some more color on these very gray spring days we've enduring.

Weekend for One

My sweet has been gone for the weekend, which is the first time since August that we have been apart for more than a night. He's at a manly-men-only-weekend at the cabin of a friend where many husbands and boyfriends of people I know gather to drink beer, bowl, compare the ridiculous mustaches they are required to grow as an admittance requirement and, I'm sure,do other assorted things I care to know nothing about. This weekend gave me some time to spend by myself and with my parents one-on-one.

After a Friday commute home in powerful wind and rain, I stopped by the annual Coalition for Photographic Arts (CoPA) Member Photo Exhibit. My Dad is a part of this local photography group and wanted me to come see the show. I braved the nasty weather and the ridiculous Third Ward Gallery Night parking situation to see the show in what used to be the Aveda Institute building. The show was great and I have not been to any kind gallery show in a very long time (except my sister's culmination BFA show). I schnibbled on some homemade cookies, looked at interesting photos and got to meet some of the people from CoPA that my Dad is always talking about.

A few endearing things about my Dad. One: is that he always refers to his friends and acquaintances by their full names, almost expecting that the listener knows all of these people, which of course I don't, but there is something colorful about that. Two: is that my Dad gives huge bear hugs, sometimes so long that you feel like he won't let go, but there's something endearing about that too. At least you know you are loved in that moment.

I didn't stay at the show long because I'd made a promise to myself that I would visit one of the two Landmark Theaters in Milwaukee to take in a film no matter how exhausted I felt or how far away the East side is from my house. I love the Oriental Theater the most, but ended up at the Downer instead because I picked a new version of Jane Eyre out of the lot of foreign and independent films currently being screened by Landmark in Milwaukee. It's rare that I go to any other movie theaters than these two because I love the selection they play, but also because a movie experience here is like stepping into another era. They are such an amazing gem in this city and if you have never been to one, I say go to both, now!

I used to shy away from going to movies alone, because it made me feel awkward. But now I love it. It's liberating to know that I can go alone and it's no issue, even on a date night like Friday. But it's also an intimate and personal viewing experience that can be a nice contrast to going in a pair every now and then. When I go on my own, I select the film I want to see at the exact moment I want to see it with no compromise and the experience is completely my own. Funny to say that something you do sitting in the dark next to fifty other people can be personal, but it is for me.


Since I didn't eat dinner before hitting the movies, I allowed myself to indulge in a little movie theater gluttony: honest-to-God real buttered popcorn, Dots and a lemon Italian soda.

I was unfamiliar with the story of Jane Eyre having never read any of the Brontes. I guess there are something like 19 film versions of Eyre dating back to the early twentieth century. This version was dark, moody and somewhat slow moving. I liked the story and the themes explored. I liked the British landscapes, the sensuality and the effective projection of the central character's rich, yet also stilted inner life. I liked the chemistry between Jane and Mr. Rochester and the clipped sensuality of their interactions. Overall, the whole of it hit me in the right place for a rainy, evening-for-one kind of night.


The marquee lighting up a misty, cold night on the East side.

On Saturday afternoon my Mom graciously treated me to lunch at Cafe LuLu down in Bayview. This restaurant is a Bayview standard having existed there since before the neighborhood was definitively "cool". My family used to go there together for dinner sometimes before my parents got divorced. It's also where I often go to dine with friends and the first stop when we were celebrating my bachlorette party. Ry will go there with me, but it's not his favorite. So, I was happy to go for an afternoon with my Mom. Afterward we visited several local shops in Bayview and the Third Ward looking at sewing stuff, stationary, mid-century antiques and assorted accessories. We ended our shopping at Home Depot where I bought the tension rods I need to complete my kitchen curtain sewing project.

The rest of my weekend has been utterly devoted to sewing curtains. After completely the panels for the large window which I posted earlier in the week, I was set to start the valences for the other smaller windows. This was going to be a bit more complicated because I had to attach several panels together to make them long enough to cover the window. Even though I was fairly sure I had underestimated the amount of total fabric I needed, I still made an entire valence out of just one panel hoping that it would work. It didn't. It looked silly and I had to rip out the seams and do it over, doubling the length. I measured out my new fabric needs and learned that I'd barely have enough to make valences for the two corner windows and wouldn't have enough for the others.


Guess who kept getting in my way? Every time I got up to press a seam he was sitting on the ironing board. Every time I went to sew a seam he sitting in my chair. What can I say, the little fur ball loves his mommy.

Even though I started out carefully measuring, I eventually got a little more lax and started eyeballing it. I know from the first part of the project that this doesn't work. Remember how I ended up with two different curtain lengths? Well, for some reason I did it anyway and again ended up with valences of two different lengths. The summary of my night and a bit of this morning was seam-ripping, seam-ripping and seam-ripping again!

They are finally done and I am very happy with the look. It's funny how we were used to the windows being naked for almost an entire year. Something as simple as a little curtain makes a big difference for how finished the space looks. It makes me excited to try other home decorating sewing project around the house that will make our home unique.

There is something wonderful about creating something you know can't be bought in a store and is totally yours. Even though it's been challenging, I like that I am developing a handcrafting skill that is not super common place anymore. I know many women and men sew, but comparatively few with how many did fifty years ago when people made their own clothes and home decor items all the time. It feels good to be keeping a handcrafting skill alive in my own fledgling little way!


The almost-finished product. This is before I evened them out. It's not completely apparent in this pic, but there was about an inch different in length between the two. I took 'em down this morning and fixed 'em.

New Vintage Finds

This weekend has been kind of a rough and emotional one for me, not sure why. I'm not the kind of person who engages in "retail therapy" as a rule. But today on my way to return the coffee pot fabric ream to Drawstring Studio, I stopped into the Tip-Top Atomic Shop in Bayview. I hoped to come away with a vintage clock for our kitchen, which I did and happily enough came away with two other finds that make me smile. I even threw in a copy of Atomic Ranch magazine! So, I guess on a bad day I will accept the dopamine boost that comes from purchasing stuff.

Slowly but surely we are outfitting our home with sweet, mid-century finds.


I started out my day with yummy, nummy fresh squeezed grapefruit juice. Unrelated to vintage items, I know.


Receipt from the Tip Top Atomic Shop!


Telechron wall clock circa 1950's.


Brand new West Bend Co. aluminum kitchen canister set, circa 1950's.


Absolutely awesome pink lamp, no info. Yes, we do have some work to do on the wall where our house's previous owner had her TV mounted. All in good time!

Merry Christmas!

We've spent today cooking and cleaning. Ry made homemade potato rolls and red lentil sloppy joe's which we intend to take over to my aunt's house to nosh on while every one else enjoys ham. I have to say that even though we've been vegetarian and about half vegan for eight months now, my desire for meat on a holiday intensifies because we can't partake in the same special meal as the rest of the family. Although, today I sampled the sloppy joes and I am looking forward to them, so props Ry!

I didn't do as much cooking as Ry, but I did some raw vegan baking. I used a recipe from a vegan blog called Chocolate Covered Katie to make snickerdoodle balls.

Snickerdoodle balls mixed with the famous Knudson vegan truffles (with due credit given to my former RA Nick Roberts who initially shared the recipe).

Here are just a few pics to showcase the holiday cheer around our house:


Mantel and tree shot from the couch.

Christmas cards on the fridge.

Pinecones from our wedding in a basket.

Kissing ball brought all the way back from Medford.

Music box, a gift from my babysitter on my first Christmas.

Ice lantern made by my Mom.

Piggy with a candy cane in its mouth snow globe.

Mantel detail with cloth garland that I inherited from my family and art in the background. Again, repurposed wedding decorations!

Winterberry bouquet to spruce up the living room.

Weekend Yardwork

After a weekend spent cleaning gutters, raking, trimming hedges, cutting back heaping mounds of dead landscaping and storing away all of the patio gear (not that we have much of it)...I see why people always smile and say slyly, "so, how do you like home ownership?" Well, my answer to that question is even with the mucky, dirty and hard work, I still love it. It's nice to be tasked with taking care of something that's yours and working hard to that end.

I felt happy for the sunny and mild weekend, which made the outdoor work more enjoyable. We tied the beast up in the yard where he rolled around in lots of dirt and each of us set out to our own individual tasks. As we completed this work I couldn't help feeling satisfied that we have a modest home and small yard. I can't imagine what it would be like to complete these cleaning and maintenance tasks for something even twice the size of our small lot. Modesty is a virtue - it's gratifying to know that not only do we not need more, but that it would probably be really annoying to keep up with maintenance for something larger.

I was also thankful for the opportunity to try my hand at home maintenance tasks that have always interested me, but I wouldn't have been allowed to do in my family home because I was known (and still am sometimes) by the nick name "Brutus". Clearly my parents don't think I have a delicate touch. Point in case, I was not allowed to use the lawn mower or the exercise bike for the last several years I lived at home.

So, why would anyone be excited to clean gutters you might ask? For the sheer novelty of it, I suppose. But I also liked the additional perspective being up on a ladder, seeing our neighborhood and St. Luke's hospital for a different angle. I was closer to the birds and I could peer down on things. It was also interesting to see the top of our house. No big explanation there, I just liked being up high. It's also clear to me that our previous homeowner may never have attempted to clean the cutters during her tenure. They were filled inches of black muck that I had scrape out with a putty knife and lots of leaves on top of that.

Not a flattering pic in the least, but you get the general idea.

Gutter muck. It got inches thicker than what is picture here.

Bucket of gutter muck.

Additional tasks accomplished this weekend:

Ry - Put on storm windows, cut down several years worth of unattended undergrowth from our landscaped yard and bagged up lots of yard waste.

Brutus - Cleaned cutters, trimmed out-of-control boxwood bushes into sweet little topiary-like globes with a hand trimmer, raked the yard and stowed away fire pit and chairs.

Beautiful hawthorne tree berries.

I love this man. My little elf, messing around during a break from hard labor.

On a totally separate note, what's a Knudson weekend without cooking?

Ry made his typical weekend loaf of bread, a whole grain sourdough miche. We improvised a dish with Israeli couscous, a grain we've never cooked with before. And I made my weekly pot of Sunday soup. I realized that this weekend makes something like four or more weekends I've cooked a big pot of soup for the week. It's nice to see little traditions emerging that define what our family life will be like. We'll be out of town this coming weekend, but I like my Sunday soup tradition, so I'll try to stick with it.

Here are the vegan, gluten-free soups I've made over the past month, three of which were totally improvised and turned out deliciously:

Weekend #1 - Pureed Lentil

Weekend #2 - Tomato, Potato & Kale

Weekend #3 - Black Bean & Kasha

Weekend #4 - Butternut Squash & Potato Curry Mash

Yay for hard labor in the yard and new family traditions!

Sunday loaf.

Israeli couscous with steamed brussel sprouts and pine toasted pine nuts.

Squash innards.

Butternut Squash & Potato Curry Mash

Beast in the sun. I'm a little embarrassed how quickly I'm becoming a unabashed cat lover.

Teacher's Convention Weekend 2010

For the last several years we've planned getaways for Teacher's Convention weekend. Nothing solidly planned this year turned into a pleasant hodgepodge that provided a little taste of many things. It didn't have all the expectations of something you plan in advance and it breathed some spontaneity into our normally quiet weekends. There's freedom in deciding what you'll do at the spur of the moment and real enjoyment in discovering new things. It makes me feel like an explorer.

Thursday

I took off work to attend a continuing education course related to substance abuse at the UW-Madison Extension. Ry tooled around all day doing his own thing while I sat in a day-long course at the Pyle Center. The course was useful enough and it's always invigorating to learn something new that will stretch me professionally. After the course ended we met a friend of Ry's back from his college student teaching days named Darcy. We dined at Graze (a down-market sister of L'Etoile that uses locally sourced ingredients) with Darcy and her husband Andy. It's rare that you do the couple "first date" thing and it ends up swimmingly. However, this was the exception to the rule. They were super cool and I enjoyed myself quite a bit. They are into cooking, gardening, canning, literature, home projects and all things interesting. So, rock on Darcy and Andy.

Friday

We had firm plan to visit Ikea to purchase some sort of sidebar/buffet/shelving system to fill up our very long and empty kitchen wall. We'd been looking around for a while without much luck, so we figured the Swedish giant would have something. I've only been there one other time on a Saturday, we walked through a tiny portion of one story and I almost flipped out in a full -n panic attack and we left right after we found what we came for. The store was bearable on a Friday during the week and we had a mission, so we stuck it out for three hours looking at all of the options until we came up with the perfect option.


Having a little too much fun with the cart!


I made Ry pose for this pic, which apparently embarrassed him. I learned afterward that he's not all about this type of tom-foolery in stores. You learn something new about your partner every day and I can respect that for the future.

The combination we picked out wasn't actually assembled together anywhere on the floor, but we dreamed it up and were happy with the results. The pics don't do these justice, but they look very nice, especially with the track lighting system we've got that shines right down on it. Ry got the great idea to put our china in it and the silver detailing just sparkles in the light. This sparkling-bling-china-thing seems a little upscale-snooty for my taste, but I was so happy with the results. It looks downright classy.


Full-frontal.


Another kitchen angle.

We took so long in Ikea that we weren't going to be able to do some of the other things we wanted to in Chicago, so we decided to drive into the city and spend an impromptu night. Ry has been jonesing to eat at a vegetarian restaurant he used to frequent when he lived in the city called The Chicago Diner. We enjoyed delicious vegan potstickers, lentil cakes, a seitan gyro and a vegan reuben with bubbly beverages. Weirdly enough, our waitress was a girl who has served us at Beans and Barley many times. We also knew the Manager who happened to be a friend of a friend.


Mural under the 'L' on the way to the restaurant.


Neon with hipster waiter rushing through.


Bill with little note indicating Wisconsin love from our server.

We called up a boutique hotel called the Hotel Burnham and were able to get a room. It was luxurious, cozy and historical, just what the doctor ordered. We stopped into the Walgreen's next door and bought toothbrushes and some candy (funny combo). We chilled out in our complementary robes and watched movies until late into the night.


View of the Trump tower from our window.


Hanging art exhibit in Burnham lobby.


Breakfast in the Atwood Cafe, the house restaurant.

Saturday

At least once a year we visit the National Museum of Mexican Art Day of the Dead exhibit and the Lincoln Park Conservatory for a stroll down memory lane. We went to both of these places on a chilly December date about a week after we first got together. It was a magical time and it's nice to relive it with warm fuzzies each year. Not to mention that we also like hanging out in Pilsen for its Mexican flavor. This year we added the Lincoln Park Zoo to our agenda. The weather was warm and sunny, but also cool, a perfect mix for a fall lakeside stroll.


Ah, Pilsen, you're such a colorful neighborhood.

Beautiful little urban treasures.

Hmmm, Chiapan artist...not quite sure what you're trying to say here. Just kidding.

Day of the Dead offering.

La Guadalupana.

Flamingos at the zoo.

Fiddler at the zoo.

Cool old-fashioned sign. I highly recommend their winter seasonal exhibit starting in December.

In the Palm Room.

In the Orchid House recreating a shot from one of our loverliest dates ever.


Dessert at Pizzeria Spacca Napoli to finish off a sweet day.

Sunday
Ry spent a good chunk of the day assembling Ikea shelves while I raked the yard. We also hung up some items we hadn't been able to get to yet like our colorful Oaxacan cross purchased at a mercado in Mexico City, a decorative leaf wall sconce above our bed, papel picado paper cutouts to celebrate the Day of the Dead and our chat lunatique sign in the kitchen. The house is starting to feel much more like our house now that we are getting the last of our items up.

We had only a few trick or treaters who got a kick out of us having our cat out on a leash. There were many comments about his pretty silver coat and his green eyes. We carved punkins together at night and Silvio escaped and climbed up a tree. Ry was able to grab him down by his tail at the last second. I roasted punkin seeds and cleaned up while Ry finished his crazy-super-detailed carving.



Colorful tree. This is actually deceiving since I raked the whole yard except between those two bushes.

Cat on a leash.

Ry with his super complicated stencil. I just want to point out that he carved the Mexican revolutionary Zapata, while I carved a smiley face jack-o-lantern.

Punkin guts.

From the curb.

Up close.

Roasted seeds. Yeo family recipe.

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend! I wish for another pleasant little odyssey just like it sometime soon. Well, maybe not just like it, but full of the same spirit of variety.