I spent the last 5 days visiting the fam in Texas. I received some nice gifts. My sister gave me a bunch of owl themed items- kitchen towels, wash cloths, soap dispenser, night light, pot holder etc. I also got to pick out a lot of bedding- a quilt, 2 blankets, pillow cases, 2 sets of sheets (big sales at belks!). I couldn't fit everything in my suitcase so when my mom and brother come to visit in a few weeks everything will be here including my new ikea ceiling lights! We don't have an Ikea in KC so my mom and I went on Saturday and it was insanely crowded. It was worth the trip because I scored three of these lights:
They were only $5 a piece- marked down from $25. Sweet! They're going to replace each of my three ceiling fans (bedroom, craft room, dining room). I might try and spray paint them too. I also got a picture frame and a pretty throw that was $10, down from $20.

I'm going to start painting my cabinets again so Queen T, per your request, I'll do a more detailed explanation of the cabinet painting process, and yes I'm doing everything myself so it's taking an extra long time!

Vote for me!

Hello blog visitors. Since you are here you might as well stop by 1912 bungalow and vote for my living room in the Christmas Decorating Contest. Just click here.
Mine is of course the room with the yellow walls and white tree. My chances of winning are very small since I only entered last night and I think it's been running for the last couple of weeks. You can vote once a day until Christmas Eve.

Thanks!

Christmas Decorations

Well, I've done just about all I can as far as Christmas decorating goes. Christmas is a mere 4 days away so this will have to do. I just put up 4 strings of lights outside today, the very first, and only of our outside decorating.

The kitchen redo

Well...things are progressing in the kitchen much slower than I would like. I've just been lazy, is all...and I feel like I have no room to spread out so that I can paint the cabinet doors. I've basically only done the open shelving...sanded, primed and painted. I haven't done the sealant coat. And I'm not totally finished painting the right side open shelving. I've painted the cabinets over the stove and adjacent to it, but not the doors. Well, one or two doors have been painted. And I can't put the doors on until I decide about hardware. I don't know if I should spray paint all the hinges with a pewter finish or what. Anybody want to weigh in on this? Should I just try to buy new hinges? Would that be a big hassle? Can I get by with spray paint? And I haven't ordered any knobs or handles...money is a little tight now...My mom and brother want to come visit me at the beginning of January so I'd like to have it finished then.

Oh! And of course I've done most of the painting of the walls in the kitchen. I love the color. It's so pretty. But I haven't painted the wall behind the fridge.

Here is a picture of the kitchen I took the very first time I saw the house.
And here is a picture showing the wall color and the finished open cabinet (I'm leaving the doors off)
The wall color is a bit washed out there...it's actually more similar to the bowl on the middle shelf (on the left).

Any opinions for the color of knobs/pulls I should put on the finished cabinets? All of the cabinets will be painted white.

My bungalow

You can view more images of my home, including dining room, living room, den and craft room, on my flickr. Just click here

I moved into the 1100 square foot home in Kansas City, Kansas, in Sept. 2008. I'm in the middle of fixing up my kitchen and am still putting the finishing touches on the bedroom.

My dining room on Apartment Therapy!

Submitted it yesterday, and the image was chosen as a roomark today! Sweet!

The Holidays Cometh

I'm only 24. I've barely owned my house for three months. So it's no wonder my Christmas decorations consist of: a white christmas tree, candy colored bulbs/snow flake ornaments, a four foot pink tree and three skinny, decorative firs. This here house needs some Christmasing up! These are the projects I plan on undertaking:


http://www.marthastewart.com/article/frosty-banners?backto=true



http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.3a0656639de62ad593598e10d373a0a0/?vgnextoid=31fdce908332f010VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&backto=true


http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.3a0656639de62ad593598e10d373a0a0/?vgnextoid=f35e78e45f405110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=default&backto=true


http://www.marthastewart.com/article/recycled-ornaments-how-to?backto=true


http://www.marthastewart.com/article/pipe-cleaner-snowflake-ornaments?backto=true

Well, looks like it's off to the craft store before The Office starts!

Well the potatoes have been boiled, for the buttermilk mashed potatoes. The pumpkin cheesecake has baked. It's cooling in the oven currently. I wanted to get the cornbread cooked tonight, for the stuffing but it's already 11:30 PM. We might make a run to the grocery store for durkee onions, cranberries and a baster.

The full menu is: buttermilk mashed potatoes, cornbread and sausage stuffing, green bean cassarole, buttermilk biscuits, cranberry sauce, maple (maybe) glazed turkey and pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. And there's just two of us!

Uh. So busy. I love the holidays but dread the week leading up to them. I've done an extra 2.5 hours this week, roughly, and I think it will count as overtime. Plus I brought some work home. I have about 130 comic pages to proof. It shouldn't take more than an hour though, because I'm a quick checker. And 75% of the content on each page is the same all across the board. Shop talk. Enough.

I wanted to get some of the cupboards in order, which means I need to finish painting what I'm in the middle of. I don't want the kitchen to still be in shambles when we make Thanksgiving dinner or I will lose my mind. Wednesday will go towards straightening up the house. Tonight we need to do the shopping for Thanksgiving just so we aren't literally waiting to the very last possible minute. I want to keep the cooking fresh and homemade and I dread that by the time we get there, all that will be left is stove top stuffing and instant mashed potatoes. Oh and a pressed meat turkey breast. Yuck.

On the way home I passed the TV station. They are doing some sort of lighting ceremony tonight so there were loads of little kids dressed in Christmas garb/Christmas related costumes. Aww bless. So cute.

I'm paint-paint-painting away. The kitchen cabinets, that is. Sand, prime, paint a billion coats. It's time consuming, painstakingly so, but they look fabulous, if I do say so myself.

New business venture:

Super cheap kitchen redo

So I'm updating my kitchen a bit. No new appliances or anything like that. Just some painting, new hardware and some cute accessories. Here is my inspiration board.



1. Wading Pool- a la the Walmart Collection - $10/gallon
2. Milk Blue Chalaine Glass Cabinet Drawer Knobs $3.50/each; pulls are $6.50 each (ebay)
3. My cabinets basically look like this but are a cheap wood laminate. I will be painting them white and taking the doors off some for open cabinetry.
4. Tile. $10/each from ebay. I have one random 'inspirational' tile in the backsplash. I'd like to replace it with something like this or something a bit more sophisticated.
5. Food themed prints from nutandbee.etsy.com $6/each
6. I have 4x4 white tiles in the backsplash. Pretty plain. I'd like to maybe paint them these colors.

Belated birthday present from Adam!

I got a wacom tablet! My first one ever. And I just downloaded the AI trial. I figure if I like AI, I can use it at work, instead of having to buy it. We have the whole Adobe Creative Suite there anyway.

Say no to the fiance...

For some reason, on Say Yes to the Dress, which I don't really like anyway, I get angered when I see the groom accompany the bride to the store for dress shopping. Not because it's breaking tradition, but because why is the groom so involved in the picking of the dress? Why does he care so much? It's her dress. It makes me think that he has too much of a say in the relationship and is controlling. Hah! An assumption. All I know is that Adam wouldn't ever demand to accompany me to the wedding dress store if we were engaged.

On the hunt for chic eyeglasses

My newest search? Cool eyeglasses. I had my eyes rechecked at the beginning of October. My health insurance through work is kind of ehh in the eyeglasses realm. If I got them from eyemasters they'd still be about $130 plus tax, lenses included. That's pretty dang expensive considering I want more than one pair. I'm picky too. I've tried lots of frames on. I want plastic frames, maybe red in color. I want them to be medium to large sized but it seems all the stores have are small frames which make my face look even bigger and that's not my goal here. Walmart had some on the big side I really liked. They're really cheap, only about $60 for the frames only. My insurance isn't accepted there so I'd get about 10% off for that reason. Lenses are like $80 or something there, I don't remember. I then turned my search to ebay. I was hesitant, obviously, because you can't try anything on. But I won a pair of cheap vintage cats eyes and they were less than $10. Here they are:



And then I found some other more modern cat's eyes and I won them too. The guy selling them also was able to put prescription lenses in them and so, as of Monday, I'm the proud owner of a sweet pair of $40 glasses. Awesome. They pretty much look like my old glasses but I guess it makes sense why I was drawn to them.

Of course I can't just stop here. I'm bidding on another pair of eyeglasses on ebay and I might end up getting the walmart ones too. I can't resist. I might get the guy on ebay to throw some lenses into one of the vintage pairs as well.

Craft Room

I didn't die. I've just been busy decorating the casa. And being lazy per usual. Enjoying the fall weather and my new kitter Beans. He's super annoying though. Here's my most recently finished room, my craft room/studio.

Go check out the 20 other pictures on my flickr account. http://www.flickr.com/succotashandswank The room is a really light, powder blue. The last owners painted it this color. I don't hate it. I would have chosen something a tad darker. I think I'd feel better about this room if I had a daybed in there, in case we ever have over night guests. However, the room is really small, at about 8 feet wide and 10 feet long. Not to mention three doors that can't be blocked. This is the daybed I have my eye on,

It's from overstock and it's about $267. Two days ago it was like $230. Overstock also always has coupons of some sort out. It's not totally my style, but maybe with some pillows and a cute vintage throw blanket. Perhaps I could slap on some hairpin legs? I don't even know if that's possible. The room also needs some drapes, which I've been scouring ebay and urban outfitters for. I'd also like to get a roman shade and change out the ceiling fan for a pendant light of some sort.

i'm no longer a virgin.

A property virgin, that is. Hah, I slay myself. Congratulations to me. I closed on Friday.

The honeymoon period lasted for about 5 minutes. I then proceeded to have the weekend from hell. This included: my first migraine complete with flashing lights in my left eye, pounding headache and vomiting galore. I christened my new kitchen sink. Cable and internet 'accidentally' disconected by cable company at my apt. They should have dced white trash' but did our's instead. A giant 2 foot in girth branch falling, almost hitting my car at our apt and causing sparks and half the power at the building to go out. Adam and I fought all weekend until my migraine brought us together again. Aww. Small part of my macbook somehow got cracked. White trash left bottles and cans and cig butts strewn about. I threw bottles and cans back onto their porch and considered emptying my vomit bucket on their porch too. White trash' white trash friends or the power company truck ran over my freecycle food I had put out by the curb and it's all strewn about the street, completely ruined. Damn, you try to do something nice and help the less fortunate...

keep calm and carry on, anyone?

Every so often bf drags me into a local comic shop. I can occupy myself with comics for about three minutes but thankfully the next two mins I'm able to occupy myself with the awesome architectural details of the 100 year old-ish building the shop is in. Amazingly tall ceilings. Maybe 20 feet high? Gigantic, beautiful crown molding. Original vintage tile floors. I snapped a few pictures of the tile, to keep in mind for my new bathroom. Here's the best one. My new profile photo is the tile floor there as well. Last time we were in there I asked bf if he'd live there, if it was empty and for rent as a residence or something. You know, a hypothetical like I'm so fond of. Of course he said no. He obviously does not have an eye for design. Hmmph.

My new house.

So I'm buying a house. Hopefully. Closing on August 18th. A little one story, three-ish bedroom, 2 full bath bungalow. I just have to get my financing straightened out.

Of course I've been mentally decorating the place for weeks. I'm rethinking wallpapering. There are some really cool wallpapers out and it could make a great statement on a single wall in the dining room or in the bathroom or kitchen. Not too overwhelming, mind you. It might be cool to wallpaper the kitchen since A) there wouldn't be that much wall space to paper and B) it probably would be less time consuming then painting (well actually, I have no idea) and C) since it is a smaller room it shouldn't be too terribly expensive.
Here is my kitchen:


It already has some very small print wallpaper up. The backsplash has a line of dark blue tile. I don't hate it, but I don't love it. Subway tile would be my preference. I want to paint the cabinets. I don't know for sure what color though. The countertops are white so I don't know if white cabinets and white counter tops would look okay together. Ultimately, I'd prefer stainless steel appliances or even vintage/retro appliances.

I think my house is going to have quite an eclectic feel to it. Recently I thought my design style was retro cottage but now it's that plus modern. Retro-modern, cottage?

Here are some awesome wallpapers from designyourwall.com








So the first three would look good in bathroom #1 and the 2nd three for the kitchen.
Oh here is a picture of the bathroom:

Yes, that awful 'tile' is coming out. A small hexagon tile would be ideal, if nothing else then some black and white checkerboard vinyl.

My sweet "new" couch that left me in pain for three days

So I won the couch I previously posted about. Ebay. No one else even bid on it so I got it for $50. Probably because there was pretty much no description and just a crappy cell phone picture. When I went to pick it up I was actually kind of pleasantly surprised. Instead of a seafoam green a la the cell phone pic, it was a deep emerald green, with an olive-golden green brocade. And also much larger than I expected. I kind of thought I could take one half at a time in my little suzuki hatchback. No fucking way. After attempting to find someone to pick it up for me and carry it into my apartment (my weakling/ill boyfriend put his foot down here) on craigslist I remembered my friend Ashley had a truck. Albeit a small one. I felt kinda bad about asking for her assistance, since I hadn't seen her in a over a year. She happened to have a day off so she agreed and I sweetened the deal with gas money etc.

So we got to the crappy, smelly apartment building and were unpleasantly surprised to find that the couch resided on the third floor. So Ashley carried the couch cushions (way to earn that money, girl!) and the little red headed, 120 pound (male) seller and I, carried it down to the car. Twice, mind you, since it was a two piece couch. My arms were burning and numb by the time we got the first half down. I was trying to pull my pants up and couldn't grasp onto my waistband. I couldn't make a fist. It was fucking torture. And plus I was on the back end, meaning I had to hunch down to carry it down three flights. So immediately after, my back hurt and it got worse over the next couple days. Not to mention my arms and legs. From now on I'm leaving that shit to the professionals.

Ashley and I brought it into the first level of my apartment, which is essentially just where the door to the basement and the stairs up into our apartment are. It needs to be cleaned and defumigated (smokers). I'm leaving it down there til we move. Anyways, here it is. shoved up against the wall on the first level.

A Busy Month

Wow. For someone who normally has no formal sort of plans my July is beginning to look jam packed. My aunt and uncle are also coming to town this weekend, but they're only staying for a day. That day is the 4th and since it is the 4th and all, I won't be able to meet up with them.

New York Cares

2008 vacation has been decided! We're heading to NYC on July 25th. We'll stay 3 nights, including July 27th, our two year anniversary. Aww. We went to Los Angeles last year so NYC seems appropriate. I went there in October 2001 (I know right, a little soon?). A. has never been.

Ebay-ing

Just bought these on ebay...my parents will be bringing them to me, from Omaha, on like July 13th.


I'm currently bidding on this couch. I was hesitant at first, because of the picture quality, but this is the first cool couch to go up on ebay, in the KC area in a super long time. Plus it's a two piece, so it should fit in the hatch back in two trips.


I've also got my eye on these two pieces, both of which are in Omaha. Omaha is like 180 miles away. If I can get them for a steal, I'd do it. There are no reserves set, they're both from the same seller and they end in 5 days. Maybe Adam and I could make a trip of it, and go to the Old Market, catch a rock show etc. I have relatives there so I could even stop in and see them.





They're both at .99. If I can get the tulip table for cheap then I'll do it and try to get the coffee table too. But I won't make the trip just for the coffee table.

Chairs

I found some cute fiberglass, eames era chairs on craigslist earlier this week. They were $125 for 4. Or 6 for $150. The guy was firm about the price. I don't know, more than $100 just doesn't seem like a deal. In the grand scheme of things $31 a chair doesn't sound too bad, I suppose, but I'm a bargain hunter dammit. Here they be:


And I thought they'd be great with this Saarinen knock-off, from Ikea:


The nearest Ikea is like 8 hours away. But when I finally buy a house in the near future, my parents can bring it up from Dallas. Speaking of my parents, they're driving from Dallas to Omaha and then into KC to see me. I might get a couple small things off ebay from a seller in Omaha and have them pick them up and bring them over. Two fiberglass chairs and a coffee table.

I hit up two garage sales and this store's "estate sale" and got some sweet stuff. Photos to follow, when I can be arsed.

Flowers. It's about time!

We started the day off with some home cookin'. Of course, not cooked by us. We went to Skillet Licker, a cute little cafe that feels very small town. They have delicious little donut holes with a variety of frostings to dip in. I had B&G and it was delicious. Prices are good too. We went there because they got a good review on The Walt Bodine Show yesterday.

Then we went to the city market and I finally got my flowers. They have the best flowers there and quite a few vendors. They're all so fresh and pretty and cheap as well. I looked at Home Depot and Ace Hardware last week and their flowers were all dying. I spent $5.50 and got two different kinds. I don't know much about flowers so I don't know what kind they are off the top of my head. I need to get some more pots though. I think I even overcrowded. Hopefully that won't kill them..but just in case I might replant some in another pot.

House Hunting update.

So I've been house hunting since sometime in March. To date, I've made two offers and one back up offer. The back up offer was cancelled when I put in my last offer last weekend. And ta da, I still don't have a house. The one I made a back up offer on still hasn't closed and it's been over a month...here's to hoping that the damn investor who put in the accepted offer doesn't have financing or something, because it was the most perfect house. Nice and big. Updated. Foreclosure. A steal. Sigh.

I have a new realtor. My last was good sometimes, bad other times. Not to mention the fact she referred to me as 'kiddo'. WTF? I'm your damn client, not your child. She didn't even know how old I was anyway. I mean I never told her. I looked at another house with a different agent on Wed and she seems better than the last. Sadly, that house had 7 foot ceilings. Not exactly the bright and open house I had in mind. Great location though.

On a good/bad note. The market in KC is in an upswing.

More More More!

I got to this danish-looking chair at garage sale a little late and it had already ended. They had free stuff at the curb, including this chair. It's funny, because they posted pics of some of the items from their garage sale on their ad on craigslist and this chair was in the picture. I had my eye on it all along and ended up getting it for FREE. Awesome. The upholstery is weird. It feels like vinyl or something. It's in pretty good condition but I don't really like the color.



Got this vintage, orange desk chair for FREE from a garage sale.


Educational bird flash cards. These are lovely and from the 60's or so. I don't know what to do with them, maybe frame them? Fifty cents from a garage sale. There are soooo many of them too, and all in color!



Vintage planters, about $4 each from vintage warehouse. I'm going to the farmers market today to get some pretty flowers for them!


Deer lamp from ebay for about $10. I painted it aqua. It had been brown...painted to look 'realistic', vomit.



Another purchase from that vintage warehouse. I think it was about $4.



I really like the frame. I painted it white though. It's a piece of silk with a bird embroidered on it. I bought two of these, each with a different bird, for about $6.00 at a garage sale.


Continuation of the post below.