I’m going on day 5 of not having any internet access at home, and it’s not getting any more fun. We’re going to pick up the new modem tomorrow, and hopefully that will do the trick. I’m sort of afraid to check my inbox at this point…it’s going to be a busy Sunday of catching up.

We’ve been making a little progress on the bathroom while we wait for our plumber to show up (don’t get me started on that subject, ugh), which is very encouraging. Evan pried off all of the original beadboard, which was unsalvageable, unfortunately, and we started nailing up the new pine planks in its place. Everything will be painted white, of course—we’re not going for a ski lodge theme in the bathroom!

I also did a little repair work to a rotted corner of the window sash in the bathroom, which was very satisfying. This poor window (which actually isn’t as bad as some of the other ones) still needs a lot more work, but it felt great to carve out all of the rotted wood and patch up the whole corner. I can’t wait to see it totally repaired and repainted. This is the first window that I’ve done any work on, and it’s very encouraging even to see this minor improvement. (Only 14 more windows to go!)

Our tile has arrived, too! I don’t have a photo yet, but we’re using white/gray marble hexagons with gray grout. Like the rest of the house, the walls and trim will be white. If I don’t lose my nerve, the outside of the clawfoot tub will be painted a rich, pinky red.

Hooray! It’s Bruno’s birthday! He’s FIVE YEARS OLD. Such a big boy!

Tonight he’s getting a peanut butter and banana Yöghund … and lots and lots and lots of hugs and kisses.

I love this little guy so much.

Our modem died.

We are likely going to be internet-less until the weekend. As in, FIVE DAYS FROM NOW.

Pray for me.

(If you’re waiting for an email from me, please be patient!)

I probably should have stayed home today, but OH!—Manhattan is so beautiful when it snows, even from an office window. I feel a little bit sad thinking that this might be the last big snow of the season.

This might sound kind of goofy (I’m pretty sure once you’ve used the word “goofy” to describe something, you’re really only describing yourself), but I actually deliberated over whether to shoot around my television set when I was taking photos for the AT tour.

Over the years that I’ve been reading interior decor/home magazines, I’ve noticed that television sets are conspicuously missing from the ones I am drawn to the most. There’s something a bit gauche about showing a TV, apparently, perhaps because the appearance of one is an automatic indicator that the owner of the house does not, in fact, spend all of their free time either reading the The New Yorker, listening to NPR, or teaching their kids about classical music. I suppose there’s a part of me that wishes I didn’t watch TV, and that I spent more of my time at home, say, reading. Or scraping paint off of the radiators.

Anything but watching Rock of Love and Celebrity Rehab (see, I’m not taking the easy road here and just name-checking Project Runway, even though I watch that, too—go, Christian!). I don’t know, maybe I’m still recovering from a non-TV-intensive childhood (We played outside with little animals out of pine cones and sticks!). Or maybe I just like crappy reality TV. Either way, watching television in the evenings is a reality for me, and I’m not going to pretend that I only own a small set that stays hidden in a closet somewhere unless we’re watching a rented movie (foreign, of course—with subtitles).

Honestly, it’s only a matter of time before Bret Michaels is a guest on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, right? High and low culture usually wind up crossing paths eventually, anyway.

So the TV stays, and I’m not going to hide it. Our Sharp LCD gets to sit right there in the living room (yes, directly opposite the sofa, imagine that!), next to the fireplace, and I’m not going to put it behind a door or a curtain. I’d still know it’s there, and I have a feeling it would be even worse having to come to terms with how often I’d be opening that door or pulling back the curtain. At least we only have one TV, and we rarely watch it on the weekends.

And I don’t watch Tyra, because she is crazy.

A tour of my house is on Apartment Therapy today, along with an interview and a long list of resources. You can see all of the new photos here, most of them new.

I’ve added a special I Love Newburgh category to the links.

p.s. I love love love Marilyn Neuhart’s dolls.

Yesterday I made pecan sandies using this recipe. They were delicious and totally devoured by us and by our flower-bringing lunch guests. My only caution when making this recipe is to be careful if you’re grinding your pecans in the food processor—keep a close watch on them, as a moment too long and you’ve got pecan butter instead of pecan meal! (Of course, now we also have a little something special and unexpected to spread on toast, but it was fortunate that I had more pecans on-hand.)

I also made grilled vegetable sandwiches with gouda cheese and garlic mayonnaise, and a butternut squash soup with spinach and rice. Yum. The best part is that there are leftovers of everything (except the cookies!) for lunch today.

The new resident has taken up occupancy in the hallway. Doesn’t it look perfect next to Elisabeth’s amazing poster?

I’m looking forward to the long holiday weekend! Saturday will be very full: picking up the floor tiles for the bathroom (!!!), lunch with old friends, dinner with new friends. By Monday evening, I am determined to have curtains sewn for the living room. The fabric has been sitting around for months, but I’ve been procrastinating because I don’t feel like ironing. Isn’t that silly? I just hate ironing, especially huge pieces of fabric.

The dressing room as always been a little bit neglected. It feels empty, it needs life. I have a bit of buyer’s remorse over the glass doors on the wardrobes, but I think doing something dramatic and happy on the opposite wall will help. Wallpaper, perhaps?

A lot of warm puppy time, and a little peace and quiet when the cold set in.

Hooray for color!

p.s. I know, I know, my house is overrun with chairs.

Last week I posted one side of the new office/studio, which is now at the front of the house (where the bedroom used to be). Here’s what’s over by the window on the other side of the room.

My desk is made from the top of my father’s old drawing table. It originally had these beautiful, gigantic, adjustable legs, which are great for drawing, but not so great for sewing or cutting or using a computer (not that I use that ancient iMac very much, believe me—most of my computer usage is limited to the sofa with our MacBook, or at my workplace on a G5) I’ve had the table in storage for years now, because it just wasn’t meeting my needs. To make it more functional and bring it out of hiding, I took the adjustable legs off (they’re back in storage), and added a pair of steel VIKA MOLIDEN underframes from IKEA in their place. Because they are screwed directly into solid wood, the table is now incredible sturdy and perfectly level. I’m very happy that I’m able to use my father’s table again! It holds more personal meaning to me than any new surface could, and I think that’s important to have at least a little of that in every room in the house—particularly in a space that’s use for creative endeavors.

I really really really hate seeing things like scanners, printers, modems, electrical cords, and powers strips. I’ve squirreled them all away in my trusty IKEA PS cabinet (raise your hand if you own one of these! Maybe there needs to be a Flickr group…), which I’ve been dragging around from apartment to apartment to apartment to house for 5 years now. It’s one of the most functional, attractive, and durable pieces of furniture I own. I think it has entered the realm of design classic, and I hope IKEA continues manufacturing these cabinets for a long time.

The cute teak lamp I picked up a couple of months ago finally has a new, more appropriately-scaled shade. It’s a SKIMRA shade from IKEA ($8!). I love this series of shades (they can but used on a lamp or a hanging pendant)—it’s hard to tell in the photo, but the black shade has a wide band of dark gray at the bottom. A very subtle but special detail. The shade is 16″ tall, nearly the same height as the lamp base itself.

The lamp has also been moved to a previously empty nook in the living room that desperately needed a bit of lighting, and it makes its home on top of my DIY tray table.

This entire corner brought to you by two $20 bills!

I’m so flattered that Kathryn at Perfectbound has given me a “you’ve made my day” award, because really, isn’t making someone’s day just about the nicest thing you can do? Kathryn and Julie’s blog is so beautiful—such attention to detail! Thank you.

Now I’m supposed to pass along the award to five blogs that have made my day! This kind of thing always makes me nervous because I can be shy sometimes, but this is all just about showing appreciation, right? So I’ll try.

Jen at My Polariod Blog
Jenn at Jenn Ski Studio
Kelly at Hoping for Happy Accidents
Sandra at Smosch
Tina at Swissmiss

Thanks! You’ve made my day!

Here are the obligatory “rules” that follow these sorts of posts…
The ‘you make my day award’ works like this:
1) Write a post with links to 5 blogs that make me think and/or make my day
2) Acknowledge the post of the award giver
3) Tell the award winners that they have won by commenting on their blogs with the news!

Hot pink tulips in the office, and white mums ready to be potted for the dressing room.

It’s muddy and gross outside, the groundhog says it’s going to be six more weeks until winter ends, and we don’t even have any snow to speak of. What’s the point of winter if there’s no snow?

I am ready to start gardening outside again!

This isn’t my scavenger rehab project, but it’s so impressive that I have to post it. Gregory over at AT:LA found a mangy-looking old stereo cabinet on the side of the road, and totally rehabbed it to the point of gorgeousness over the course of a month. It was gutted, stripped, standed, and stained. The front panel was unsalvageable, so Gregory covered it with these bamboo pulp wall flats. Amazing! Here’s how the cabinet looked BEFORE:

Gregory will be continuing to document the electronic upgrade to the interior of the cabinet at Unplggd, but for now you can take a look at his step-by step process in seven parts:
The Stereo Cabinet #1
The Stereo Cabinet #2 - The Strip Show
The Stereo Cabinet #3 - Enter Sandman
The Stereo Cabinet #4 - No Guts, No Glory
The Stereo Cabinet #5 - House of Stain
The Stereo Cabinet #6 - A Stain In the Neck
The Stereo Cabinet #7 - Moving On