The 8 Step Cure is winding down in our home, and man! We got a lot of projects done around the house. Sort of like the "big reveal" on those home make-over shows, I've got a bunch of before-and-afters to share this week.

The Kitchen

We moved the Ikea shelves that we used to separate the kitchen from the living room. Opening up the downstairs really opened up the downstairs- what do you know. The openness was what made us fall in love with this weird little rental despite its myriad flaws.

It is funny, the kitchen part of the cure took us, by far, the longest to complete (the cleaning, organizing, and those bookshelves!); and though you can't really see the changes, you can feel them.

The Living Room

I love the living room. The biggest thing we did was get rid of a bunch of crap. The AT book says something about how hard it is for most people to start getting rid of stuff, but once they do they love how their homes feel lighter and more open and from then on it is easier to get things you don't need of love out. That was absolutely true for us. At first is was hard to decide what to send off to the Salvation Army, but by week 4 we were throwing things in the "donate" pile without a second thought.

The dining table and spiral staircase are just out of frame, to the right, in these pictures. My favorite new place in the house is that back corner by the patio doors. We had those dark wood bookshelves (now refinished and int he kitchen) back there and the door didn't evn open up all the way. Now that space is clear, and in the afternoons the light shines in and I like to sit in that chair and soak it up.

Th drapeswere unbelievably simple, but probably the most expensive thing we did. Even super cheap Ikea fabric still adds up when you need 10 yards- and we did, we have very high ceilings. I sewed the drapes, Josh hung them and then once they were up I hemmed them so they would be exactly the right length.

The Patio

Finally, my other favorite place in the house, the patio. A hacksaw, some hard work and $100 were all it took to turn our patio into the kind of place where I want to hang out in the summer. Don't get me wrong, I sure miss my old patio furniture (so comfy!), but this will do. I got our little summer garden planted; nothing fancy, some tomatoes for BLT's and some mint for mojitos (sounds great, right?) and a few flowers for color.

Sunday night we celebrated with a glass of wine, and a game of backgammon.

The 8 Step Cure is winding down in our home, and man! We got a lot of projects done around the house. Sort of like the "big reveal" on those home make-over shows, I've got a bunch of before-and-afters to share this week. Today is sort of a round up of various little projects that I dig.

Spice Drawer

Getting all of my spices down into a drawer saves a ton of hassle; it is so much easier to find what I'm looking for without having to stand on my tip-toes and dig through a cabinet over my head. This clip art template for the labels from Martha Stewart made this project a snap.

Kitchen Jar Display

I like a lot of different grains and rice, and I'm much more likely to mix it up (not brown rice again...) if I can see my options. These glass jars are always available in thrift shops, and make a nice looking display.

Entryway Chair

I found this chair at a local thrift shop. It needed some TLC, a small repair, a fresh coat of paint and a new cushion I made out of this fabric from the remnants bin at the fabric store. This chair now lives in our entry way, and it sure is nice to have a place to sit down to take off my work boots.

Table Lamps

Finally the lamps- I love lamp. We found two of these avocado green lamps on different days and the lampshades a few weeks later. Table lamps are tremendously expensive, I seriously don't get it, and I can't imagine I'll ever buy one retail. It just feels wrong to spend that kind of money on something I can pick up so cheap ($25 and $15 dollars, 5$ for the shades). Again, it's amazing what a good clean and a fresh coat of paint will do. I was planning on covering the shades with fabric, but we have a lot of patterns going on in the living room right now, so we stuck with something simple- another quick coat of paint. I'm not sure if the bird decals are here to stay or if I'll get rid of them.

The 8 Step Cure is winding down in our home, and man! We got a lot of projects done around the house. Sort of like the "big reveal" on those home make-over shows, I've got a bunch of before-and-afters to share this week.

A Bookshelf-come-hutch

I was so disappointed last month when someone else snagged the hutch we had our eyes on. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. This bookshelf never really found a home in the 20 years it lived with my parents, and it's been in three different places since we moved in to our apartment.

It's finally found a home in our kitchen as a makeshift hutch- a place to store some kitchen miscellany and get our wedding gifts out of their boxes and off the floor.

Our Revamped Dining Set

I got this table from an old coworker who owned a florist's shop for 20 years before retiring and taking a job in research. This table was in his shop, and was in terrible shape when I first got it. I refinished it in my parents garage, and finally found a place for it in front of the HUGE windows in our living room. Josh and I have been loving to eat dinner here with a nice view of our "garden.'

The chairs are randoms from thrift shops, painted white and recovered with more Ikea fabric. I LOVE them. Love. Love.

Love.

The 8 Step Cure is winding down in our home, and man! We got a lot of projects done around the house. Sort of like the "big reveal" on those home make-over shows, I've got a bunch of before-and-afters to share this week.

Visit Apartment Therapy to read more about the cure and Design*Sponge to see loads of inspiration for turning your old worn out furniture into beautiful new pieces for your home.

Continue Reading The Big Reveal Week- Day One

Continue Reading The Big Reveal Week- Day Two

Continue Reading The Big Reveal Week- Day Three

Continue Reading The Big Reveal Week- Day Four

Continue Reading The big Reveal Week- Day Five

The 8 Step Cure is winding down in our home, and man! We got a lot of projects done around the house.

Sort of like the "big reveal" on those home make-over shows, I've got a bunch of before-and-afters to share this week.

The Custom Slipcover

This was my white whale- I got every other little project done before there was nothing left to do, and I had to give it a shot. I wish I had a better before picture that showed the front of the chair, it was a mess- Kitty had absolutely shredded it. It came out really well! I am so proud of myself.

The Side Table "Refinish"

I got this table from m y mom when I moved to Chicago. I knew she would be throwing it out, so I snuck it on the moving truck with the rest of my stuff I had stored at my parents house. It is the perfect little table for my reading nook under the stairs, and now it isn't a terrible eyesore. There was a big hole in the top of this table, so stripping and refinishing wasn't even remotely an option. I've been wanting to incorporate this wallpaper (from Ferm Living) into the décor somewhere, but we rent, so actually wallpapering wasn't an option.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a bookshelf-turned-hutch and newly refinished dining chairs.

For the past month (maybe more?) Josh and I have been working through Apartment Therapy's 8 step cure. Part spring clean, a little home repair, with a dash of decorating thrown in it has been a great push for us to get our home in order.

Minor repairs that we've never quite gotten around to have been made, things that we stopped seeing, like a pile of wedding gifts in one corner, have been taken care of. Our house has been deep cleaned, de-cluttered (with several trips to the Salvation Army), and generally prettified.

We had to do the kitchen, the entryway, the bathroom the living room. One room I wasn't worried about was the bedroom. We both love our bedroom, nothing wrong there.

At least, until last weekend.

We broke our bed.

I'll spare you the details, but come on, we're newlyweds.

Replacing the bed has two distinct challenges. The first is that we have better things to spend our money on than a new bed. The second is that the ceilings in our bedroom are vaulted, and we have limited space to work with as far as bed height allowances go.

So right now we're sleeping on a mattress on the floor. Like college kids, but that's not even the biggest problem.

The problem is...

We like it.

Yesterday there were 130 blogs in my reader, today there are 129.

The blogging world is all aghast these days about Miss Musing's blog turning out to be a big fat fake.

Plagiarism.

So not cool man.

On one hand it is really easy to band together as a community and get out our pitchforks.

On the other hand... it's just so sad. I hope that whatever made Miss musing cut and paste parts of other peoples lives and try to pass them off as her own is something she can deal with. I can't begin to imagine what would make someone appropriate other peoples experiences and joys as their own.

I think what is most frustrating about this whole thing, is that I actually know, have actually met many of the people who's blogs I read every day.

I could go on (again) about how I met my husband though our blogs, but today I'll spare you.

I met lots of sweet, interesting, passionate people here in Chicago through their blogs.

Several of my friends back home have wonderful blogs in which they share the details of their lives raising kids and traveling and renovating their houses and just living. I love it, I love the daily updates, the minutiae I'd miss if not for their blogs.

Lately I have been feeling like my blog has become terribly boring. I work, I hang out with the hilarious Josh, we work on projects around the house... none of these things makes for particularly stimulating writing.

I hear from friends (the ones whose blogs I love to read) who also think their blogs are boring. They think that nobody would want to read what they have to say.

After this whole mess, the revelation that Miss Musing was, at best a big fake, and unfortunately at worst, someone whose life necessitated this grand escape, makes me a little glad that my big problem is that I don't have too much to say.

My boring little life is so full of happiness, and my boring little life, is genuinely beautiful.

I totally get why the greater Chicago area is referred to as Chicagoland!

It's like a playground for adults- even adults with early bedtimes. Josh and I spent this weekend celebrating the one year anniversary of our first date.

Continue reading One Year In The Making

What a great weekend. It was one of those weekends that doesn't exactly leave you rested up for the coming week, but does leave you sighing with contentment.

It didn't help that Friday and Saturday brought with them unbelievably gorgeous weather.

Friday Josh and I took a walk through Lincoln Park and stopped for dinner at Geja for fondue. It was good, quite delicious actually, but not exactly what I'd recommend for a romantic date night. After all that cheese, meat and chocolate we were stuffed! It was all we could do to roll ourselves into a cab and up the stairs at home; needless to say neither of us was feeling remotely sexy. We were home from our big date by 8:45, turned on the TV to a Harry Potter movie and I was asleep by 9:13.

So much for our big date night.

We decided to try again Saturday night with a date at a tapas place, Ole, in Lakeview. It was pretty good. The portions were huge and the prices very reasonable. The pours were strong and cocktails like Caiphirinas and mojitos were muddled fresh to order- no pre-made mixes here. The dj was spinning some very mellow tunes and the service was great. While the vibe of the restaurant wasn't quite right for dinner, it would be a great place for a party.

Sunday brought rain but we had brunch plans so we had no choice but to bundle up and leave the house. We headed down to the Indian Garden restaurant for what turned out to be a great buffet and, finding our selves two blocks from the big movie theater, caught an afternoon showing of I Love You Man. (Funny!)

We didn't get one gosh darn thing done around the apartment, and our bank account is giving us the stink eye, but it was a great weekend, and a great way to welcome spring.

I was cleaning out my camera this morning and found lots of pictures that I'd taken but never looked at again. Here are my favorites:

Fresh flowers! We are actually using our wedding gifts!

New girlfriends! Martinis!

Hot husband in oven mitts!

Snuggle bug pets!

Colorcoded cookbooks!

Recycled decor! Mason jars as picture frames and vases, thrifted and painted candlesticks!

I had to wear sunglasses this morning on my way to work! It was sunny! It was still not warm out, but tomorrow... and Saturday... they're saying it will be 70!!!!

Today tickets for the Ravinia summer concerts are on sale. Josh is manning the internets and we are hoping to get tickets for The Gyspy Kings, BoDeans, Indigo Girls and Bonnie Raitt*. I'm dreaming of a picnic basket filled with fried chicken and a few bottles of wine, a picnic blanket like this (my next project) and a starry night sky.

Our first anniversary- Josh and I had our first date April 22 last year. I was super excited and a little bit nervous, we'd spent so much time together on the phone, and on the internet before we met in real life. I was just in town for a day and a half, and apart form my interview we spent every minute together. To celebrate we have a date planned for Friday night. Dinner at Geja for fondue (another Groupon purchase) followed by a glass of wine at D.O.C (where we had our first date) and then probably a walk around the neighborhood. It's so funny for me; remembering how disorienting that whole night (and the next day) was for me, I thought Chicago seemed so big and confusing and now I know that neighborhood like the back of my hand. Time- she flies.

Saturday morning I have a massage scheduled at Urban Oasis Spa. Josh got me a gift certificate as a Valentines Day gift and I've been saving for just the right Saturday. If I didn't already have a massage scheduled for this week I would definitely take advantage of the $50 spa treatments available all across the country via Spa Week.

Sunday morning Josh and I are having brunch with some friends we met through meetup.com, this has been a great way to meet people and get out into the community. This is how I heard of the Chicago Zombie Pub Crawl, which we are participating in next weekend. I can't wait to get all decked out; Jill put it best "getting all dressed up to go day drink sounds a lot more fun than just going to day drink." I've got to tell you, that just about sums it up!

*There are so many more great shows- like Elvis Costello- but they are on week nights, and I can't hang. Rats!

But last night we finally got the last of the wedding gifts out of boxes in piles on the floor and put away. This involved a lot of rearranging- but needed desperately to be done.

We've been crazy productive around the house lately- opting to actually do some work before melting into the couch to watch Cupid (have you seen it? it's pretty cute* ).

I'm warming up right along with the weather here in Chicago, and excited to get out and about in the coming months. Starting with...

The Chicago Zombie Pub Crawl

The CZPC is exactly what it sounds like, you dress up as zombies and day drink.

Anybody interested in joining us?

*And I really like Sarah Paulson, I think I'm one of like, seven people who really enjoyed Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

And why bother you might ask? Considering that neither of us is particularly sold on the whole Jesus thing, why not just avoid the crowds and have a nice relaxing Sunday at home?

Because I got married- and this means making time and space in my life for Josh's friends and their traditions. This particular tradition was brunch at Kit Kat Lounge. Beignets, drag queens, and bottomless mimosas.

After brunch we all moseyed to our friend Ben's bar for Guinness and darts and many, many hours later Josh and I disembarked for sushi and then, finally, home.

We don't to out too often, and I certainly had my doubts about hitting up brunch on Easter Sunday, but it was a fantastic day and I had so much fun with Josh.

I love days like this- unexpected reminders of why and just how much I love my husband.

Last night Josh's friend Rion invited us out to dinner with some friends of his. It was a really fun group of folks to break bread with, it seems like everyone I meet through Josh and his friends is some kind of artist or designer and I cannot even begin to tell you what kind of career envy I have.

Blech, metallurgy.

I meant to take a few pictures last night, but I was so wrapped up in great conversation I forgot all about my little point and shoot sitting in my handbag.

Instead I thought I'd share this little glimpse into Josh's world with you.

That lucky son of a gun gets to wake up next to all this every morning:

As far as I'm concerned, there is no more optimistic feeling than being faced with a three-day weekend.

Regular weekends are great, but a three-day weekend- now that's something special. I work in a union mill in Indiana, which means yes; we get Good Friday off. I love that tomorrow I can sleep in a bit, walk the dog make breakfast play a little Wii, and then... well I can do whatever I want- and all without any residual guilt feelings of using up a vacation day. It's honestly a free day.

Maybe you're reading this and starting to think I'm a little pathetic for getting so excited about a day off. That my life might just be a little sad if that's all I really have going for me this weekend. Maybe I should think about the bigger picture- but I don't want to right now. I spend a lot of time worrying about the bigger picture. I listen to waaaaaay to much public radio and I spent too much time on the internet. I just want to stop for a bit.

My goals aren't too lofty this weekend. I don't care if it gets a little cold, I don't care that it's Easter and Passover all at the same time. My only aspiration right now is spend one lazy day with my husband and our pets and R-E-L-A-X.

I talk a lot about how much I miss Denver and all the things I loathe about Chicago (the weather, the traffic, the noise...) but today I'm going to mix it up and sing some of Chicago's praises.

When the weather is good it's great, the architecture is amazing and there are quality restaurants everywhere. However there are two things here that Denver just can't compete with...

Trader Joe's and Ikea.

We can walk to the Trader Joe's closest to our house but we usually stop in when we're out running other errands.

Ikea is another matter altogether. It's a trek out to the suburbs, but thank goodness for that. I don't think my wallet could handle it if we lived any closer- and that is taking my no new purchases rule into account. We just went for fabric!

Not wanting to waste a Saturday on Ikea (and on a weekend it's a madhouse) Josh and I went last night. I've been sewing a lot lately and I'm feeling confident enough to try my hand at some drapes. I also happen to have a three day weekend this week (thanks Christians!) and I'm going to do some major house work.

I picked up three coordinating fabrics for three different projects (only one of which I'm ready to try now, I just didn't want to risk Ikea running out of the fabric) and shocked Josh with how much fabric costs. Frankly I was shocked too, but I didn't want to let him see me sweat it. At $7.99 a yard for home décor fabric Ikea is 2-3 times less expensive than Joann fabrics, but floor to ceiling drapes still require a lot of material.

I bought this fabric for the drapes.

I bought this fabric for slip covering my orange chair that Kitty has shredded to bits (eventually, this looks complicated).

I bought this fabric for a mystery project that Josh isn't quite sold on yet, but I'm confident he will be.

Last week I made some cute placemats with some fabric I found in the remnants bin, they came out really well, but something about cutting into fabric I actually paid full price for makes me very nervous. I keep reminding myself that drapes are just big rectangles. I really just have to finish the edges.

Easiest project ever.

I hope.

We'll see.

One of my favorite things Josh ever said to me was when we were walking around downtown Chicago enjoying a sunny day and reading menus in restaurant windows; one Italian restaurant's menu particularly excited me and Josh sort of looked at me sideways and said, "I love to eat, but you just love food."

I asked him what the difference was and he answered that he loves eating but he doesn't get the kind of excited I do when I read menus or recipes or stroll the tiny little gourmet markets that pepper Chicago.

And he's right. He loves my cooking and loves eating out, but I'm the one that gets excited when I find a store that carries the kind of anchovies I like of when we come across ramps at the farmers market. And I do get excited; even after my worst rush hour commute a new issue of Food and Wine in the mailbox is enough to make me spontaneously dance a little jig in the kitchen.

The problem with all of this is, of course, that I'm no longer a sweet young thing who can eat whatever she wants. But I used to be and that might be the bigger problem. I have never before struggled with my weight. I could eat and drink anything I wanted, and was always about the size of a chopstick; so I never really developed any real urge to watch my weight or diet. I didn't even try dieting for my wedding.

That's not to say that I eat a bunch of junk. I love fresh produce and I almost never buy packaged foods. I don't care what you say I can taste the preservatives in just about everything. I was just more into real food, not necessarily low fat or low calorie food. So I never once turned down a nice triple cream from France or a homemade chocolate chip cookie. I wouldn't say no to a hoppy IPA or some piping hot garlic bread.

But then I was rock climbing, walking the dog and running around at work all day. Now I sit in the car for two and a half hours a day and I sit at my desk for nine hours a day. I am so tired from all that sitting that when I get home all I want to do is sit there too.

I am hoping that with the change of seasons here in Chicago I can work hard and change my attitude and habits too.

How's The 8-Step Cure going? Not bad, we keep falling behind, but we're not giving up.

Continue reading The Cure: Week Two

Our trip to Denver put us even more behind schedule than we already were- and then I went ahead and got sick. The plan was to take care of weeks two and three last week, but then I got sick. We will be finishing up Week Two tasks tonight, the last thing we have to do is install a water filter and we'll be ready to start Week Three!

The first task in week two was a deep cleaning of the kitchen; cleaning out the fridge and cupboards, editing the mismatched plates, cups, glasses and silverware floating around the kitchen.

Josh picked up more than his fair share of the cleaning part of this weeks work. It seemed the easier thing when fighting to get contact paper laid down left me swearing like a sailor on leave and slamming our cheap kitchen cabinets.

My favorite thing about this project is how many things we're noticing need fixing or sprucing or just plain cleaning around the house- things that we'd gotten totally used to and that we'd begun to simply overlook. Like a pile of wedding presents stacked in a corner. Instead of unpacking and using the gifts, we're still using my mismatched glasses from college. Frankly, we're so used to the pile of boxes there, we don't even see them anymore, but at the same time, we never feel like our home is really clean. No wonder.

So the editing has been a big thing for us. We could save the nice glasses we received as wedding gifts for company, or we could donate the ones I have and upgrade. Why not?

Week two's second task was grabbing that list I made of all the small repairs we need done around the house- and doing one. Just pick one and do it. This wasn't be a problem, as most things on the list are no more labor intensive than tightening a screw, hanging a picture or removing some unused hooks from the walls. I tackled four of these repairs while Josh was working in the kitchen.

One big disappointment- We've been looking for a hutch for ages. I feel like I've thrifted all over the place and just never found quite what I was looking for. I gave up the search and began looking for a bench for our entry way (more on that later) and just sort of stumbled upon a perfect vintage hutch at the Salvation Army- for only $60!

Unfortunately I was sick and not really in the mood to figure out the logistics, so I went home without it. Later that day, I sort of realized what I'd done and Josh and I made plans to go back the next morning and buy it but... it was gone!

I know, I know... lesson learned.

So while week two and the kitchen are done, the kitchen doesn't look quite... finished. I'm still on the lookout for a hutch, but next time I won't let it slip through my fingers.

It's snowing again in Chicago, and I don't even feel like bitching about it this time. It isn't very cold, the roads aren't very bad and I'm at work anyway so I don't really care.

I'm just happy that I'm feeling better. Poor Josh. He was so sweet last week when I was sick; bringing me soup and cherry 7-Up, and hot tea- only to be rewarded with a mound of used tissues all over his side of the bed and a sink full of dishes. I gotta' say, I love that man.

NyQuil
Hot soup and tea
Kleenex with lotion
Vaseline and Vicks Vaporub
Daytime TV (and DVD's, lets be honest)
Murphy and Kitty (supreme snuggling skills)
Josh