Mid Century Modern - Me?!

When it comes to decor I tend to shy away from labels like "contemporary" "classic" "retro" etc. Mostly because I don't really know what they mean... How is retro different than vintage? How is "shabby chic" different than "piece of garbage I don't want anymore?"

However, to my surprise, when I was looking for things to go with my new table I kept coming across the label "Mid Century Modern" - so I decided to search it, and SWOON! I am in love! The clean lines, the fun style, the colors AND Micheal agrees. Done.

We're so excited to design our kitchen/dining/living area in this style! So tonight I tried my first attempt at creating a design inspiration board for our dining area. The table and chairs were the best representation of what we have I could find (it's hard to use your own pics) and I do intend to refinish the chairs in orange like the pic.

The downside to embracing this style is the price tag - people are VERY proud of the MCM items. Fortunately for us we live in what seems to be the antique furniture capital of the world! So we'll be watching CL and ebay for some of these accents. Right now we're on the lookout for a sideboard/buffet similar to the one pictured here.

So what do you think? What is your design style?

What We Learned this Weekend

Hey everyone!! Hope you had a wonderful weekend! Micheal and I had a great weekend in Chicago free of responsibility and stress. It was fan-tas-tik.

Welcome to our new readers thanks to The Just Paint It challenge on Decorating Obsessed and The Turquoise Super Post from the amazing Better After Blog. Every Monday I post the different things we "learned" over the weekend - it's generally an attempt at being witty, and is a good way to make sure I stay connected to the blog even if I get really busy or overwhelmed.

So without further ado...What we learned in Chicago!

1. I like falafel!

2. Micheal thinks soy tastes like dirt, but a chocolate soy hot cocoa from Starbucks tastes like chocolately dirt = yum!


3. A lot of people in Chicago smoke... I was going to say "everyone smokes" but would hate to totally over generalize.

4. I can't drink an entire pitcher of margaritas on my own or eat a pancake the size of my head on my own - but I sure made a valiant at both!

5. The world actually didn't end when I didn't check my email for more than 48 hours!

6. Once again my mom was totally right - when she would come home with new clothes she would tell me they just jumped off the rack and grabbed her and she had no choice! My internship suit jumped off the rack at Filene's the first day we were there and I LOVE it!


7. People weren't lying when they said that DC metro was the cleanest mass transit system ever!

8. Evidently the Fiji water in our hotel tasted MUCH better than the Fiji in the 7-Eleven across the street...

(...we stuck with the 7-Eleven thankyouverymuch!)

Post Number One Hundred!!!

Wow, one hundred posts - how crazy is that? All of my other blogs tended to fizzle out around 60 posts so to have made it to 100 is a pretty big deal for me. :) I wish I had something to give away to commemorate this post but I'm not one of those big fancy blogs yet that gets cool free stuff so you'll have to settle for...

Pictures of the new table!! Almost as exciting as free stuff right? Since we're out the door to Chicago they're not the best...but I made a promise, and I'm a woman of my word!


The rockin' leopard/lion print chairs with fringe! I love the lines though, which is what sold it for me. :)

There are two extensions so we can have lots of people over for dinner!

It's hard to see, but this is a close up of the style of the legs...

That match the chair legs!


So I am in love with this table, and since I turned in my dissertation draft yesterday (!!!) I have time to work on it! (Until she sends it back...)

I also bought this yesterday:


The most awesome teapot ever! And it matches my KA!!

Alright, we're out the door to Chicago - and guess what, I'm not taking my computer!!! (Please don't die of a heart attack those who know me.) :)

So have a great weekend all and I'll see you Monday!

Just Paint It Challenge!

My friend Ashley over at Decorating Obsessed put a challenge out to her readers to "Just Paint It!" Essentially saying, if there is something you've been avoiding painting, for whatever reason, just do it and I'm giving you a deadline. So I accepted her challenge, and then moderately failed...

I was initially going to paint the kitchen orange while Micheal was away in Paris as a surprise. :)

However, due to the death vine attack and the fact that it was getting worse up to the day he was supposed to leave he opted not to go. So...I didn't paint the kitchen...

Instead, I FINISHED a project that has been on my "to do" list for-eva, MY DESK! And I am in love with it!

I bought this desk of CL from a very nice woman for $12. She sold it for $12 because that is how much it costs for her and her son to go bowling. :)



One of the best parts about this desk is that we know some interesting history about it. It is actually a vanity that originally had a mirror attached to the back. The woman we bought it from had it for a long time and purchased it herself used from a man in Philadelphia. I didn't get a good picture of it (hangs head low) but you can sort of see a latch that had been placed on the top right drawer in that picture. The man said that he had to put that lock on it to keep his wife out of his cigarettes! :)

Interestingly, the original shipping receipt was still attached to the back and the initial delivery date was in the 1940s to an address in Washington DC! So it's been from DC to Philly and back again. And who knows, maybe someday it'll travel cross country to the Midwest!





As you can see, it was in pretty bad shape. Really beyond restoration to it's original stained wood glory at this point. Generally I dislike painting wood, but in this case it was necessary, so I decided to go all out!

The color inspiration for my office came from this place mat from Crate and Barrel. The accent wall is orange so I was looking for a bright green/blue to paint the desk.


Boy did I find it!






I did some minimal staging since I haven't moved it to my office yet :) so ignore the brown paper floor and teal wall - that's what the workshop looks like. (Put some special books in there just for my classmates to appreciate...)

I'm so happy with how it turned out, I think it's fun, funky and will be a great addition to my office!

I'm also sharing my work on the DIY Showoff Parage! Check it out!




PS - Do those drawer pulls look familiar? Check out how I reused them!

What We Learned this Weekend

We had our second visitors this weekend! My Mom and step-dad came out to see our house for the first time. They are co-owners of a real estate agency in Topeka, KS so were going a bit crazy when we were buying a house out here on the east coast and they couldn't be here. I'm so glad they got the opportunity to see it!

What we learned:

1. According to the "experts" ;) we have a lot of good "usable" space.
2. The pictures of our kitchen make it look a lot worse than it really is and the pictures of our back yard make it look much bigger than it actually is (according to Mom).
3. If you're going to eat dinner in downtown DC on a Saturday night, reservations are recommended. :P
4. Our mangled leggy bushes are azalea bushes! Still too leggy and overgrown to keep, but they're giving me pretty flowers for now!
5. A tiny green plastic bull can entertain people for hours! (Or at least me...)
6. When you find a table on Craigslist - POUNCE!
7. Our guest bath does not have a diverter for the tub, so even though we "fixed" it we still couldn't use it!

Sneaky Peak

So I have been on the hunt (on craigslist of course) for a dining room table and chairs for the past two weeks. It was my goal to get one before my mom and step-dad got here so we wouldn't have to sit on the cat scratcher and recycling bin like when Jason and Jolene visited.

It was intense! Dining table and chairs go FAST on craiglist!! They're either listed for $1000 or less than $200 - if you're going after one less than $200 you'd better be fast. We initially started out emailing tables about similar to this:

Modern, clean simple lines, dark finish.
The emailing process went about like this:

Table #1
Me: Please I want to buy the table!
Seller: No response
Me: I REALLY want to buy the table (insert funny email quip here)
Seller: No response
Me: Crap they must have sold it

Table #2
Me: Please I want to buy the table!
Seller: No response
Me: I REALLY want to buy the table (insert funny email quip here), I'll give you $10 more!
Seller: Too bad you didn't email earlier! You're email was super funny and I would have given you right of first refusal - but I just sold it.
Me: Crap

Table #3
Me: Can I have more pics of the table?
Seller: (1 day later) Sure here they are.
Me: Looks great - can I haggle a little (insert offer here) - It's CL right? I should be able to haggle?
Seller: Sorry already got a full price offer.
Me: Crap!!!

Table #4 (Really beat up, didn't really like the chairs, getting desperate)
Me: Has anyone purchased this table yet? Can I come look at it?
Seller: Someone is coming tonight I'll tell you if they buy it.
Me: Okay...(yeah I'm screwed)
Seller: Sorry they bought it.
Me: Sorry Mom and Bob, cat scratcher and recycling bin it is...

Mom and Bob arrive... (we end up using computer room chairs)

Table #5 Totally different style, very retro contemporary
Me: Micheal - what do you think about this table? I think it's awesome.
Micheal: Whatever you want babe (fearing the wrath of another table lost)
Me: You're the best! Email: I'm interested in this table, when can I come and buy it (I'm really stepping it up now, no more haggling/asking for more pics)
Seller: You can come by tomorrow before 4 or Sat after 3
Me: Okay when can we come tomorrow?
Seller: Crickets.......
Seller: Crickets.......
Me: Seriously?? CRAP!!!!!!!
Seller: Call me @...

I call, we talk and arrange the pick up, Mom, Bob, Micheal and I go and get the new table!

SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!

And for reading all of that crazy story, here is a sneak peak of the new (to me) set:


Oh yeah baby, that's a tiger print with FRINGE! Hot!

Update

The death vine reaction got worse and Micheal had to visit the doctor. He hopped him up on steroids and suggested longs sleeves and pants next time we work up there! Still not sure what it was, Doc said it didn't look like poison ivy, sumac, oak, etc etc etc...

So I'm sticking with vine of death.

My mom and step-dad are coming tomorrow to visit and I'm going to try and talk my mom into planting some flowers with me! Yay!

What we learned this weekend

1. You can't eat a peanut butter sandwich through a dust mask.

2. The demon vine rallied his poison ivy-esque minions to attack Micheal!


3. Beautiful weather makes it very difficult to be productive on boring school work...

4. Our nature friends love it when we set out food for them! The kitties are also happy with this arrangement!

5. Our neighbor across the street's name is Bob...the guy three houses down's name is Bob... That would be Bob #4 in my immediate circle of life, at least it's easy to remember!

6. Depression is the leading cause of disability in the United States with the estimated years of people living with this disability being 472.2 million - coming in a distant second is iron-deficient anemia with 50 million years attributed to it.

7. I am the coolest aunt ever.

8. The Easter Bunny has bugged our house...

What's up this weekend and progress!

Greetings all! Hope you are enjoying this beautiful weather as much as Micheal and I are - we even took a break today to get out of the house and work on the yard!

We made our first spring trip to Home Depot to stock up on the essentials: a new garden hose, bird seed, woodland creature food and a hatchet! Why a hatchet? To battle the vines of death!!!



These crazy vines have taken over the trees on our hill; their leeching tentacles have burrowed into the trees creating a safe haven for bad bugs like carpenter ants. We have decided that they were killing our trees and the roots made it impossible to to do anything to the landscape, so we declared war!




So Micheal spent the afternoon doing that and I jumped back and forth between vine killing and door sanding. When we went to Home Depot I also picked up some sand paper with a heavier grit and it worked MUCH better on the door! I have one side done!




Tomorrow I'm going to take it outside, flip it over, and sand in the sun!