Of things to come

We've been out of our apartment and completely in our house for almost two weeks now. Naturally, we moved during Central Oregon's ONLY snowstorm so far this season. Bone-dry weather bookended the four days we spent moving. Those four days featured tons of snow that plugged the storm drains, rain that flooded the streets and "fell" horizontally because of the crazy wind, iced-over roads and very chilly temps.

Have to get rid of that storm door soon...I am worried the HOA is going to yell at us for leaving it open all the time.

But we're all moved in now and it feels like we've been there all along. I have been developing plans and plotting with the fervor of a mad scientist. It has been absolutely beyond fantastic. Especially after I discovered this free furniture plans website and nearly lost my mind with giddiness. I am going to build SO MANY THINGS it's ridiculous.

I've also starting purchasing my anniversary present: an assortment of tools. (Happy 5 years, Todd! Our anniversary was in December.) Last weekend, I picked out a sliding chop saw and a small air compressor with a nail/staple gun. Pictures to come soon. Especially action shots.

This weekend, we're in Medford to pick up some of the rest of our stuff and furniture. In preparation for this, I bought a hitch cargo tray (which I have been thinking of and referring to as my "mini trailer") and intend to bring A LOT of stuff back to Bend using it. It's pretty big: it extends two feet behind my car and is five feet wide. Plenty of space for my wing chairs. I hope. We shall see.

I can't wait to post pictures of what the place looks like partially furnished and what I'm going to be up to. This house is going to be a wonderful thing.

Ski Lodge Open January 19

Back in July, we started talking about the possibility of looking at new housing arrangements. Then in August, around when we returned from our camping trip and it was 88 degrees in our un-air-conditioned apartment, we decided we needed to move. Thus began our hunt for a house.

We tried (twice) and got outbid (twice) on one house in SW Bend. That was mid-October. After that, feeling mildly sulky, we bought a second car and forgot about moving for the time being. Then I spotted something the day after Thanksgiving: same floor plan, same street and neighborhood, better price, better location and better condition. We went and looked last Sunday, offered Monday, and as of Tuesday afternoon are well on our way to owning a house in Bend!

Here are the specs: 3 bedrooms and a den, 2.5 baths, 2-car garage, fireplace, private backyard, wired for hot tub. HUGE master closet. Newly installed wood floors and slate tile in kitchen and entry. It has enough tiny projects to keep me happy, but also looks almost like a brand-new house inside. Closing is January 18 (or sooner!!)

So I guess my days of studio living are numbered (45, to be exact). It's been a good run here, but I don't know how much I'll miss it. I think this is going to be a really good change, and we are excited for it.

Burn, baby, burn!

Excited to report that we FINALLY got a grill. Early last summer, our grill tried to blow up our house and kill Todd, so we stopped using it. Then we moved. And still grill-less, we ate no grilled food all winter. Then we decided it was time to find something new. Most of the grills in the $100 range are best described as "rickety" but luckily, Costco came to the rescue.

This little baby is almost normal-sized (plenty of room for two people, anyway) and also perfectly deck-sized. I'm debating whether to build a little table for it to sit on. In the meantime, we had grilled chicken the other night for dinner, and it was great. And I highly recommend the grill (so far).

Odds and ends

I am sooo excited for the new camera I picked up on Saturday--bday present from my parents. Technology has changed a little, since we bought a little Nikon point-and-shoot four and a half years ago (I think it's four mp and 3x zoom). The new toy is 14 mp and has a 7x optical zoom. It can see things I can't, which is amazing. Kind of like taking pictures with a microscope.

Anyway. My parents also picked up this mini hummingbird feeder while they were in Florida a while ago (they've been going so frequently I can't keep track of when it was--mark of Midwesterners with an eye toward retirement). I love hummingbirds and don't really have a good place to put a feeder on my dinky balcony, but this little guy is perfectly apartment sized. Note the suction cup, which will be stuck to my sliding glass door come summer. LOVE.

Speaking of summer and studio living...it has been killing me that I'm not going to have a big garden this summer. We've nearly polished off the stockpile of frozen pesto I made last August, and it just totally bums me out that I might not be able to grow my own (basil) this year.

The earliest of the early-spring plants are showing up at stores (hyacinth, pansies, daffodils) and I have a pot of pansies on the deck that the still-chilly temps haven't wiped out yet. But it's not the same as having a yard. (Then again, I suppose I should be glad I still have a house, even if I'm not living in it. And I am.)

Lastly...love this blog, In Praise of Leftovers. I found it while in search for a tomatillo salsa recipe on the weekend, and I'm a new fan.

The last frontier

Yesterday at 11:45, the doorbell rang. I was expecting a very important package that I thankfully didn't have to wait very long for (Amazon Prime trial...two-day shipping is just enough to build the anticipation, and not long enough for me to get impatient). So anyway, I ran down the stairs, flung open the door and snatched my box, which was in the neighborhood of two-by-two and about 30 pounds. Also, I was wearing a towel, and it was about 20 degrees.

After much awkward scuttling backwards so as not to drop my box (or my towel), I managed to get the door shut and scoot back upstairs. You probably want to know what was in this box, huh? THIS!!

I've decided to become a sewer. Wait a minute. Sew-er. Someone who sews. After scoffing at the very idea in high school (when I really should have been taking a sewing class and not being such a teenager) I've realized that sewing is the last DIY frontier for me.

I'm not claiming to be stellar at any of these things, but I can do basic electrical work, build decent-looking furniture, strip and stain wood, paint, grow stuff, cook, decorate, operate power tools without losing appendages, and change a flat tire. When I needed sewing done, I shipped fabric to my mom so she could make curtains, pestered my MIL until she had time to take in shirts or paid someone to do my alterations. (Much more expensive in Oregon than LA.) NOT ANYMORE!

Me and my nifty sewing machine are going to conquer the world! Luckily, I have a friend who seems like an expert to me, and she showed me how to thread the thing last night. I'm sure it'll take a while before I feel really confident with it, but making curtains and pillowcases and taking in the odd t-shirt isn't exactly rocket science.

Addicted

So the saying goes, "you can take the ____ out of the ____, but you can't take the ___ out of the ___." For me, the fill-ins would be girl and project. I can't help the fact that I love Home Depot (more on this at some other point. I sing along with Home Depot commercials and inform Todd that More Saving and More Doing is the Power of the Home Depot, while he cringes, imagining astronomical AmEx bills and unfinished projects littering our miniscule living space.)

Then there's this other detail: my under-the-bed boxes don't fit under our queen-size bed. Todd's do, but mine sit next to the bed, which is making me crazy due to how ugly they are. Also, it is a bloody pain to live out of a box. So I started my hunt for a small dresser to fit into the narrow space we have for it. It took a few weeks of craigslisting and a drive to Redmond, but I came up with this little guy.

Of course, that kelly green had to go, but I had peacock blue plans for it from the beginning. The wall to the left in the picture above sticks out only eight inches, so this dresser, at 14 inches, is just perfect for the space.

I originally planned to spray paint it (in the bathroom, which was an ill-conceived idea from every angle I can think of) but decided to paint-paint it instead. (Still in the bathroom so it can stay ventilated and cure properly.)

Anyway, I have to put the second coat on one drawer and the frame today, but then it'll be finished!

I'm hoping to replace the hardware with something snappy at some point, but right now, I'm just really excited to have a dresser (and to have painted something peacock blue -- I've been wanting to do that for a while).

Update to follow on this. Bonus: it will give me one more surface to decorate for Christmas. Which will bring my grand total of Christmas-y spots in the house to two. Not enough, but better than one.

Acceptance

I propagated a begonia a while back, and finally potted it in this super-cool terrarium I bought few years ago under the belief that it was a lantern. (And then once I realized that it wasn't, I thought I could turn it into a lantern. I have since accepted it's a terrarium and decided to use it as such.) Now I'm rooting some geranium cuttings in it and letting the little begonia grow in the most humid environment I can make for it. Cool, huh?

I don't like thift stores. Sorry.

I'm not really a big fan of thrift stores. I don't particularly like digging through piles of other people's unwanted crap without the guarantee that I'll find what I'm looking for, plus they always seem kind of...unsanitary. And one that I went to smelled. This is probably very elitist of me to say.

(I'm also completely amazed by the plain old junk in these places. I know all about the concept of trash into treasure, but WHO buys these tacky little statuettes of cats playing with balls of yarn or garden gnome pitchers in the first place? And is there anyone out there who wants used Tupperware? Ew.)But I'm in need of a few items, and resale shops were/are my best bet. Items needed: a dresser for the apartment (those under-the-bed boxes ...I'm over it. Especially since mine don't fit under the bed.) and some trays for those little pots I got for the windowsill.
Being very picky, I struck out on the dresser. (I'm still stalking Craigslist daily.) But I did come up with some nearly perfect metal trays for those pots. So now, I just need some plants to complete my sweet little windowsill garden!

Items not needed: this silver-plated Paul Revere bowl. But for $4... It's amazing what a little silver polish will do. (That's the "before.") Right in time for Christmas decorations. Also, there was a lady who saw me eyeing it and chatted me up for 10 minutes about how she'd gotten one as a wedding present, it was perfect for everything, blah, blah, and I felt guilty about putting it back after that. So here we are.

Goodbye, blurry pictures

I'm super-excited about this cheap-o tripod I got from the dollar store. (Confession: I totally love dollar stores...there is so much great stuff to be found, and I usually come out with some little item I am jazzed about. My favorite wine glasses are from the dollar store.) I've had these before, but I keep losing them. They're really helpful for taking pictures without a flash (ick) and perfectly purse sized.

Flower pots + pound cake

Last week, I went with a friend to Pack It. (I've been sitting here for three minutes starting and deleting sentences, trying to describe this place.) It's kind of like a junkyard/salvage lot, with a pinch of garage sale, and a dash of antique store, if you're lucky and you know what to look for. On steroids. An acre or so of the most unlikely and utilitarian and just plain weird junk I've ever seen. Anyway, I found these pots among the heaps of pre-owned toilets, unwanted industrial air conditioners and old furniture.

Well, the terra cotta ones, except for the one in the saucer...I had that already. Vestige from my past (brief) life as a cubicle dweller. The whole collection was only a few bucks, and they're the perfect size for those southwest-facing windowsills.

My little begonia that's rooting in water is almost ready to be planted. Some geranium cuttings and other to-be-determined plants will fill out the rest. Just goes to show, you can take the gardener out of the garden, but you can't take the garden out of the gardener.

In other news, we've eaten three pound cakes in the last five days. Wow, that's really bad. The cakes were really good, though. (This is what remains of the last one.) I meant to freeze at least one, but I kind of ate it instead. These things happen. I make no apologies.