Ceeeeeeddddaaaaarrrrrrrrrrr.

I love cedar (insert sarcasm here).  The boy has had this cedar dresser for who knows how long.  In our old house, I hid it in our closet… out of sight, out of mind.  When I realized in this house it was going to be front and center, I knew something had to be done. 

(There are drawers in the top spots.  The boy just moves faster than my camera.)

The boy had been on a sand-and-stain-spree, re-finishing our entertainment stand and coffee table before moving into the new house.  We’d already done the entertainment center once, staining it mahogany.  It worked… but I wanted it darker.  At the time I was feeling a white/cream/black scheme.  We picked up Minwax Ebony stain and he got to work.  I wasn’t involved in these projects… hence no pictures.  He was very specific about doing the work on his own. 

That would NOT be the case on this dresser. 

My distaste for cedar is due to its smell, mostly.  My mom and sister are both allergic to cedar, so it was never permitted near our house.  That smell was always bad.  If you’ve ever sanded cedar, you know… it smells.  Oh!  And the dust from cedar is out of CONTROL.  The dresser appeared to be an easy sand until we discovered the insane amount of lacquer on that bad boy.  I knew it was super shiny, so I expected some lacquer but this was insane.  Lucky for me, the boy sands and I stain.

After sanding all sides, I used a 1 inch foam brush to go in the direction of the grain.  The cedar practically drank the stain.  I applied two coats, lightly stroked it (hellllloooo….) with a dry towel and applied one more coat before putting it in the sun to dry.  When it was dry, I applied two more coats, let that dry, and followed with two coats of semi-gloss polyurethane.   The original knobs were also cedar (nothx) so a trip to Wally World produced a 10 pack of silver knobs.  While I was not happy with the price, it saved the trip to Lowes and the finish option was very clear to me… my options were white plastic, gold, white ceramic or silver.  Hi-ho-silver!!!

I love the way the edges of the dresser didn’t soak the stain in completely (or maybe I rubbed it off a little?  No one knows…) because it gives just the right touch I need.  I’ve mentioned before the boy likes clean, modern lines and NOT chippy paint and rough edges.  I heart chippy paint and rough edges.

Just a few nights of sanding (garage time for the boy) and one day of staining and this bad boy was finished.  I love love love it so much more than the cedar!  What do you think?

Genius

Can I tell you how the Genius function in iTunes has changed my life?  I don’t have a ton of songs on my iPhone’s iPod, but I do have music I love.  I like to use the shuffle function and zip through Kings of Leon, John Mayer, Glee soundtrack, etc for an afternoon.  But the Genius function…. ahhhhh.  If you’re not familiar with it, you select a song from your iPod, click/tap/push the Genius icon and it creates a playlist of songs that sound like/sound good with the seed song you selected. 

Today, I chose ‘You and Me’ by Dave Matthews Band (its kind of my wedding theme song) as the seed and let Genius do it’s magic.  The playlist goes like this:

• You and Me, DMB
• Heartbreak Warfare, John Myaer
• You Are the Best Thing, Ray LaMontagne (seriously, if you don’t know this song, go… go now and listen.)
• Hey Soul Sister, Train
• Walk Away, Ben Harper
• I’d Rather Be With You, Joshua Radin
• Wordplay, Jason Mraz
• Grace is Gone, DMB
• This Years Love, David Gray
• Who Says, John Mayer
• Cold Desert, Kings of Leon
• One Sweet Love, Sara Bareilles
• Falling Apart, Matt Nathanson
• Someday, Rob Thomas
• Don’t You Evah, Spoon
• Right as Rain, Adele
• Somebody to Love, Glee Cast
• Half of My Heart, John Mayer w/ Taylor Swift
• Ragoo, Kings of Leon
• 1000 Things, Jason Mraz
• Have a Little Faith in Me, John Hiatt
• Bottle It Up, Sara Bareilles
• Give Me the Meltdown, Rob Thomas
• Giving Up, Ingrid Michaelson
• Almost Honest, Josh Kelley

I love that among the love songs are a few KOL rock and roll numbers and to end this playlist with ‘Almost Honest’ by Josh Kelly?  Shut the front door.  I can’t say it makes the day go faster when good music is involved, but I can say it makes it a little better. 

And because I love you too much to let your day go on without hearing Ray, I give you this video courtesy of YouTube. 

You’re welcome.  Now thank me in the comments (I kid) and share a song I should download and make a playlist of.

Fun New Pottery Barn Feature

While working VERY hard (hi mom!) I accidentally tripped and hit the computer… what popped up but the Pottery Barn website!  I knew PB had to have new items on its site, as I have a stack of new catalogs sitting at the house waiting to be read (remember, I’m working).  I always head straight to the Design Tips section on the website for special videos on new items, designer commentaries, etc. and what do I see, scrolling down the screen?

A new interactive Design Your Own Bed feature.

SHUTTHEFRONTDOORILOVEINTERACTIVESTUFF.

You select wall color from Benjamin Moore’s PB line and then go crazy with duvet, sheets, quilt, and shams.  Once you’re done with your selections, you choose the size and confirm all items go straight to your shopping cart in the color/size selected.  Sweet!I based this set off the fact that I already have the Cranberry quilt (awesome eBay purchase from a few years back) and the Sophia duvet reminds me of a set of sheets my grandma had when I was a kid which makes me luuuuve it.I want navy blue walls somewhere in my house so why not mock up a bedroom with the blue?  I went neutral with the bedding because honestly, blue and I have a so-so relationship, so it probably wouldn’t last long.  I miss my chocolate bedroom walls from the old house so much.  They worked so well with red bedding… The Vintage Floral quilt with ruffle edge is another PB favorite. 

I could go on and on with different options.  If I was a math minded person, I’d totally figure out just how many options there are… but I’m not math minded…and that would take away from creating more bedrooms!

HVX4H7J4JJN6

Make It Rain!!!!!

That is such a LAME blog title. So lame I’m laughing about it and leaving it, all so I can bring you pictures of clouds.

CLOUDS, PEOPLE!!!! Where’s your excitement???

That’s right folks, I just came back to blogging after a month off to bring you pictures of CLOUDS.

You’re welcome 😉

From the Time Capsule

This comes from my Junior year English III class. We were instructed to do an assignment titled ‘Just for Today’ and write about what we were going to do today, if there were no restrictions. Here’s what I turned in.

Just for Today

Just for today I will be who I want me to be. I will dress as I wish, mismatched and comfortable, flip-flops and dress pants, green t-shirts and orange undershirts, with a blue polka dot tie as a belt. I will wear my hair as I wish, scrunched up and messy, twists and turns that beg for attention. Just for today I will speak my mind and say what I’ve bottled up inside all this time. I will tell you when you annoy me, interrupt me, and let you know that all this time I knew you were using me. I won’t care what your response is because just for today, I can say what I want, because that’s who I to be. When you say that I look stupid, I’ll simply smile and turn away, because just for today, I’m who I want me to be.

I read it now and I know I was having some friend issues at the time with a “best friend” who I ended up having a major falling out with after high school. It’s funny, I still wish to be that girl I wrote about just for one day. To speak up, speak out and not be a door mat, as my mom would say. I guess I haven’t changed that much in 8 years.

Hey, It’s a Time Capsule!

In the new hizzy, I have an office that needs to be organized so I can start making some money. Because of this, I’m going through all the things that I’ve been keeping for years and deciding what I really care about and what is just junk.

I’ve been toting this ‘time capsule’ around since my Sophomore year of high school. That’s almost 10 years. I know I’ve added to it since then, but I thought it was time I actually went through it to see just what I was keeping.

Boy, am I glad I did!

I found my graduation cap, a lanyard from my trip to Disneyland when 9/11 happened, ticket stubs for movies and concerts all through high school, Valentine’s Day cards from my silly guy friends, papers I had written for English classes and the assignments we had to have for our time capsule.

Inside this book, are the papers we had to write, including where we wanted to see the world in a few years, what life is like at 16, poems, a funny family story, interviews with family members and more.

How about this poem?
“Letters”
I’m not the math type, really I’m not.
Writing words is where I’m hot.
Confusing formulas, my letters flow,
it’s easy come and easy go.
Sometimes the words are all I’ve got.

Deep, right?

These assignments were so awesome that they take me right back to where I was at the time I wrote them. I plan on sharing a few of them in the next couple days simply for my benefit.

Also inside this time capsule were a few of the birthday cards that were made for me in Creative Writing my senior year. Considering what I’m doing with my life now, reading this card I knew I had to post it so I can come back to it.

Front:
Happy Birthday Meghan!

Inside:
Once there was a girl
named Meggy G
who wanted to be
an interior design-y
She worked as hard as she could
and found it to be very good
when she ended up making
tons of money

Awesome, right? Thanks John for unknowingly giving me this inspiration so long ago.

Does anyone else keep stuff like this? I can’t be the only one! I can’t wait to share more of this stuff, really for my own entertainment 😉

Um, Who’s Idea Was This???

(Daisy, too tired to get the towel off her head)

Who has a garage sale and moves in the same weekend? With a forecast guaranteeing rain?

I’m not going to point fingers (ahem, boyfriend) but I understand (kind of) why it happened that way. Considering the time of year, we are guaranteed rain any time. We had originally planned to have the garage sale the first weekend, then move the second weekend.

That didn’t happen, naturally. Because of the rain, naturally.

Our weekend looked like this:

Thursday night – stayed up til 2 am finishing packing for moving and finishing stuff for the garage sale. The wind was INSANE that night, so we couldn’t set everything up the night before, which lead to a 5 am wake-up call Friday morning.

Friday – up at 5 am, garage sale from 6 am to 3 pm. We had to quickly pack up the garage sale and get it in the garage because it was raining. CORRECTION: storming like it had never stormed before. We let the rain pass, took a 15 minute nap and then moved all the big items (bed, couch, fridge, washer, dryer) and just what we needed to get through the night. We stayed up ’til 11 trying to find things like sheets and towels.

Saturday – I don’t even remember. Seriously. I know we woke up earlier than expected and MOVED stuff between thunderstorms and stayed up way later than we should have. Boyfriend played softball in the rain that night while I tried to find more things, like plates and cups.

Sunday – Woke up in time for church. Didn’t go because we had to move MORE stuff. Boyfriend hurt his knee playing softball, which left me to load up 3 truck-fulls and 2 trailer loads of stuff from our basement. Basement meaning steps… up and down. Up and down. UP AND DOWN.

Monday – We finished cleaning the house, which thank goodness, the boyfriend had done almost all of while I was moving Sunday. Then started the new hizzy unpacking…

That’s not even a weekend! That’s over four days. Did I mention I started a new diet the Friday this weekend happened? More on the diet in another post, but funny story relating to it.

Friday when we finished the garage sale, neither of us had eaten all day. I’m only allowed lean meats and vegetables, which I didn’t have NOR did I have any way to cook it if I had it. I was starving. The boyfriend hopped in the shower and asked me to order him a pizza. No big deal. Until I started thinking that I can’t have pizza. I started to get angry.

Boyfriend exited shower and wearing boxers and a t-shirt, plops down in his chair. Cue doorbell ringing – the pizza was here. I look at the boyfriend and he says, “I can’t get it, babe… I’m in my boxers.”

I’m angrier.

I get his awesome-smelling-so-greasy-I-wanna-die-and-have-a-piece-of-that pizza and I go towards the kitchen. He stops me. He’d like to have the pizza, while sitting in his chair, right next to me, no-plate-k-thx-bye.

I’m really @&$#(()@*!(*@&$( angry.

He apologized, which was nice and luckily I was tired enough I just fell asleep for the 15 minutes it took him to eat. I didn’t eat until almost 10 o’clock that night.

But I LOST 2.5 lbs between Friday and Saturday!!!

I felt it was a decent consolation prize for the pizza incident.

(God bless the iPhone and it’s apps)

Washing In Style

“New Hizzy” has a laundry room. A laundry ROOM with a DOOR that CLOSES. Not a walk-thru from the garage to the kitchen, not a catch-all with an accordion door. A real ROOM, people.

So I’m excited.

I searched for ‘laundry’ in my Pictures folder, and these are the first three that caught my eye.

Melissa at 320 Sycamore spiffed up her laundry room and it’s stinkin’ cute. It’s official, I am going to need a lamp in my laundry room.

This Country Home Laundry room has been on my radar for, like, ever. I’m in a big black and white (and gray) phase right now.

But, BUT as much as I love black/white/gray… I really love red. And the laundry room is really my little home… while I soak softball pants for the millionth time and turn shirts inside out. Maybe this is the room where I have a little fun with color? (Not sure of source on this one… anyone know?)

What kind of laundry room do you have? Have you done any special decorating in it?

Moving…

(Not sure of original source, but I recently saw it on Bryn Alexandra)

Again.

At some point, this madness will stop and I’ll stay put.

Since 2004, I’ve moved:

* From my parent’s house to my first apartment with a roommate, then to…
* An apartment at my work by myself, then to…
* Another apartment at my work with a girl I worked with, then to…
* My parent’s house when I left that job, then to…
* A duplex through my next job with the boy, then to…
* A house the boy bought, then to…
* A house (where I was when this blog started), then to…
* An apartment (where ‘The Cottage Apartment’ came from), then to…
* The bungalow AND NOW…

To a new house. A new house that is new in age and new to us. It has three bedrooms, TWO!!!!! bathrooms and it will have a fenced in yard for the D-O-Gs.

The sad thing? We’ve been so busy packing and moving and planning for a garage sale that I haven’t had time to dream about the new decor. Sad, sad, sad. My favorite part of moving is the planning and day dreaming… so watch out, as I spend a couple upcoming posts sharing some inspirational photos and my thoughts on this new hizzy.

Now, back to pricing garage sale items…