Next Up

Despite the fact that none of our done projects are actually complete--every single one is missing trim, windows, finished doors, and not a single radiator has managed to find its way back to where it came from--I've decided to move on and tackle the next project on the list--the room we were sleeping in which will become the office/guest room. This one should be relatively easy since we're not taking any walls down, refinishing the moldings, or messing with any electrical. The moldings and windows are all currently painted,so I'm planning on just painting over them in some kind of white. As for the walls, I want to paint three of them some kind of red and then wallpaper the fourth in black and white floral. There's also an awesome closet in this room which we're going to continue to use since our new bedroom doesn't have one. I want to wallpaper the closet as well and definitely get rid of the current doors. I'm thinking I may replace them with a curtain since that seems to be one of my current obsessions. In addition to the painting, we're going to refinish the floors (BD's been threatening me that he's renting a sander this time instead of doing it by hand, and getting rid of the replacement moldings. This house suffers from the curse of the replacement moldings where at some point for some reason the original molding were replaced with others that don't even come close to matching. As we finish each room, we're removing these replacements, but it will be years until we have the big bucks to have replacements for the replacements custom made, so in the meantime, we just suffer through the gaps.

Vintage Photos

Someday, when we magically come into the big bucks, we're going to do over our kitchen in a retro 50s theme featuring red, white, black, and chrome. I'm picturing retro sign photographs for the walls and have found some great Etsy sellers:

Laughing Dog Photo

Friendly Made

Roadside Photographs

Carrot Cake

No. You don't get pictures (at least not of the finished product). Yes. It tasted fine. If there's one thing that I don't do, ever, it's bake, but with all the bunches of carrots we've been getting from the farm share, it seems as though a carrot cake might be in order. I tried to get the Boos Man to give me the recipe he and his wife use, but after a couple of failed attempts, I just looked up a pretty simple one on the internet. I mixed up the ingredients (with some help from BD who's the resident grater) and set it to bake for 40 minutes. Except when I took it out, it was still pretty jiggly as if under the thin cake veneer on top, it was completely still batter inside. A quick jab with my fork confirmed this to be case, so I let it bake for another 10 minutes. And another 10. And another 10. You get the picture. By the time this thing was solid enough to eat, I was convinced there was something utterly work with it and wouldn't touch it. After BD scarfed down 3 pieces, though, I ventured a taste. And I did not die instantly. It was a tad on the too sweet side (I think from the frosting) and would have been better with nuts (BD's allergic), but all in all, not too failed an attempt.

Um...Yeah...About That

So today was supposed to be the big day that we finally moved into the master bedroom. And we did. Kind of. There are still pieces of trim missing. And a doorknob. And some window pieces. And the radiator. And the curtains because when we went to buy them last night, the store had the curtains, but not the rods. But these things are all okay because the really bad part is that our room is tiny. Minuscule I tell you. Somehow because we'd never seen it with anything in it before, we assumed it was spacious and amazing. As soon as we started to put the bed frame together, I knew we were screwed, because really that was the only thing the room had space for. I kept sitting there, thinking that I could have sworn we measured this all out, but in reality I think we just measured the width of the bed against the width of the windows, not the length of the bed, or any of the other pieces of furniture. Because furniture we have. While this room was made for a bed and maybe one bureau if you're lucky, we have a bed, not one, but two bureaus (one of which is about six feet long, and two nightstands. Oh yeah, and that radiator still needs to go back in....

Woodland Nursery

So, if I have a girl baby (no, no, I'm still not even pregnant, but a girl can dream, right?), I really want to do a kind of nature, woodland theme. Originally I thought I would plan a gender neutral nursery and then I'd be set either way and my kid would have no societal gender influences, but I've kind of changed my mind and landed on the nature idea for a girl and a retro, classic look for a boy (think robots, rockets, and a radio flyer wagon...). Anywhoo, I've found some things that I think would be so cute in a girl nursery.

This blanket from LuLusWoobies.

Mahar's Drygoods also sells a similar one.



I love this mobile. I found the directions for it at Spool Sewing. I think I'd probably combine it with this bird mobile project from The Red Thread and have some birds on branches, some in rings, and some decorative balls here and there.



And what about these pillows from The Little Stitch?? Wouldn't they be super cute in a woodland nursery?




I'm also really digging this clock from DecoyLab.

Carrot Top Soup

Our farm share group sends out an e-mail newsletter each week along with a reminder to pick up your food, dammit! In this week's newsletter there was a recipe for carrot top soup. Since I had been saddened by lack of ability to do anything with the glorious greens from last week's carrots except donate them to the cause of the Boss Man's rabbit, this recipe thrilled me to no end. Since I'm practically a soup addict, there was double cause for excitement. Truth be told, I didn't even wait for my carrots from this week's share, but used some I still had left over from last week. The recipe is really simple: carrots, carrot greens, celery, onion, rice, and vegetable stock. I also added in some basil and some dill since we're currently incapable of cooking something here at 29 Timson without one or both of those. My first spoonful of the soup was unlike anything I've ever had before, but it really grew on me and was quite delicious. In fact, I think I may even make it for Thanksgiving. If our dining room is anywhere close to ready this fall, I really want to host my first Thanksgiving at 29 Timson, so I'm constantly planning out my fantasy menu, and this soup is on it!

Look, Ma, Windows!

As you can see from the current photos of our soon-to-be master bedroom, some big changes have taken place, ie we actually have windows instead of just gaping hole in the walls. Considering that we reglazed and repainted the windows at least six months ago, I thought putting them back in would be a snap. Little did I know. Back when we were taking out all the moldings a year or more ago, not one of the window sills turned out to be salvageable. Some were rotten and others couldn't be removed in one piece. As a result, BD had to cut new sills, using one of the originals as a template. The only problem is that originally, each of the window sills was created by hand to perfectly go with its window, while BD's were all the same, based on one of the originals. You see where this is going, don't you? When we went to put the windows back in, only one actually had a proper fit with its sill. Normally, I would have suggested we just adjust the sills, but since they were already nailed in place, we had to do the next best thing and trim the windows to fit. You can't tell from these pictures, but if you were to open one of our windows, you would see that the bottom actually has been cut at an angle.