SUCCULENTS AS A DISTRACTION

I'm supposed to be working right now. And oh, won't my client be angry to see me blogging instead! But the heart wants what it wants, or rather, my lack of creative focus has stifled me and I need a side project so I can reboot. Does that make sense to anyone other than me?

And so, in attempt to thoroughly clear my head and ultimately get back to work, Thora and I made a quick detour to the Home Depot garden section.

I tell you, if you need a healthy distraction, hang out with my child. She is chock full of ideas for things to do and ways to see the world in different ways. She can turn a jaunt through HD into a trip to Wonderland. She loves the ceilings, the huge aisles, the labels on a can of wood stain, hinges, the water fountain set up near the house plants, and succulents in teeny tiny teeny pots.

We bought three. Plus two more.

I chose this grouping of three to put in a trio of vases from days gone by.

It sits behind my desk, sending me get-to-work creativity vibes.

The other two are identical and I placed each in its own Ikea Asker container-turned-planter. These planters have been sitting empty for a while. Well, since a failed attempt at keeping maidenhair ferns in Thora's room. WHY can't I keep a maidenhair fern alive?! I swear.

I don't know where in the house I want to put these lovelies yet, but they do make me happy. And that amazing redness in the background? What is that? That, is a fantastic and terribly rundown hutch we found abandoned in our basement when we moved in. It's been living in the garage but I recently convinced Mike that I can bring it back to life and make it appropriate for our kitchen.

Gotta love a project. Work or otherwise.

THE TWO YEAR HIATUS

And then life happens, and everything changes.

What was huge, is suddenly small, replaced by something even more gigantic. You forget to shower, you forget you had a blog.

It's altogether refreshing, exhausting, thrilling, frightening, paralyzing, amazing.

Our thing? It wasn't the house. Her name is Thora. She is a sprite and she has taken over. 

Not that we don't still have a house. Not that it isn't still bursting with projects. We do! It is! Some major checklist items got done right-quick in order to have a safe and functioning home for Thora - mainly the kitchen. I'm looking forward to updating this little blog with where we are now. Of course, there is still so much more to do, but we are on a different timeline. Projects are done in bits and pieces. (One Christmas I painted just a corner of baseboard in order to put a tree in front of it.) As everything, Thora is the driver. So is her nap schedule.

Give Table

The past few weeks have been a killer. Lots of work (not complaining) has left little time for anything else. All work and no play, that's me! Not always, just lately. And when I work sun up to sun down for days in a row, I get annoyed. I act put-upon and sometimes I forget to wash my hair (I work from home so this is totally ALLOWED). Anyway, this past Tuesday was a big day with a big deadline. I stressed and worried and worked and in the end, I conquered.

Post victory, I settled in for a little craigslist browse, something mindless to begin my decompression. I always start in the Free section because you never know...

Title: Give Table
Reaction: Interesting wording. Ah, pic included. click!

The ad was quick to the point, some dimensions followed by two blurry photos of two tables. One, an 80's bore. The other, excuse me, some sort of Saarinen-style tulip table? Say what?

I gasp, nearly jump from my seat. Do I need this? I must, it's FREE. Hmm, size is nice. 30" diameter x 28" tall. I bust out the tape measure and check my kitchen table. Looky there, 28" tall. I wrote the author to ask if it was still around. She said yes, please come get it right away!

Now, I just mentioned how much I love my farm table. And I do, I really do! But in working out kitchen layouts I'm having a hard time fitting it in. It's another rectangle in a sea of rectangles, and I was just at the beginning of considering something round for the space. I do have other ideas for my farm table, so... my feelings of guilt are minimal.

We hopped in the Jeep and headed out to Lafayette. During the drive, some time was spent pondering whether the table could actually be authentic. I was totally kidding myself, but man, what a score that would be! We knocked on the door and the cutest French girl let us in. There was our new table, in all its free glory. It's got stains, a chip, some rust. But that silhouette is to die. Don't you agree?

We got it home and I couldn't be happier. It's just the sweetest little thing and is going to be perfect in a kitchen nook. Apartment Therapy has a post where someone had an identical base repainted at an Oakland shop. This is a great option for down the road. For now, I'll just clean it up a bit.

A couple of tiny succulents on top and I've completely forgotten about my deadlines...

Screen Door Chickens

It's Spring. We've been spending every non-work moment happily outside. I'm dying to post about our backyard progress, but must wait to finish a couple key elements before any big reveal.

However, I had to share this daily occurrence. As you can see, I'm not the only soul filled with enthusiasm about The Great Outdoors. Orange and Roosevelt, who are quite literally house cats, have the bug in a big way. This is them, being as patient as their small bodies will allow, every. single. day. The rule is no cats outside without flea control, which I have yet to purchase. Plus I want to make sure the yard is completely blocked in. I have a no-roaming-the-neighborhood-getting-into-fights-or-killing-birds policy around here. I know, no fun! Sorry chickadees.

I thank my lucky stars that it has never occurred to these guys to pick at my screen door.

I assume there's some sort of etiquette

On the day we got the keys from our seller she asked if we wouldn't mind holding her mail, that the neighbor would stop by and pick it up. Of course we said, yes, no problem, not a big deal! And the neighbor did stop by one, twice and then... nothing. So, uh, is it cool to toss this now?

I mean, that's a lot of JC Penny catalogs!

Cats and what they need

We have two cats, Roosevelt and Orange. Roose is twice the size of OJ, half her age, and something of a bully.

Roosevelt. See, total sinister beast.

 And Orange. Why would anyone want to eat her?

So I saw this little house on Moderncat and thought, in addition to the incredible amount of adorable, this could be her perfect sanctuary, a place she could just "be herself."

Alas, with shipping from Canada, this one breaks the budget for cardboard cat houses. But it's inspiration. Maybe I can make it.