Thursday, May 22, 2008

Needed: Design Help

Ok, all those of you out there with better design sense than I, please offer your opinion on this. Before we got our new floors in the downstairs, we had an old embarrassing monster-sized tube tv in a big giant entertainment center. The whole thing was ginormous, but it worked because we have cathedral ceilings and that wall needs something to break up the tall and wide expanse of nothingness. But now that we upgraded to a fancy new flat screen and moved it to a different wall, we need something on that big papa-sized wall. We bought two of these shelves (in black-brown) from IKEA and came up with the idea of hanging them on that wall over the credenza. They'll be used mostly for decor and to add visual interest to that wall--and NOT for displaying tons of knicknacks. At the most I'll display on them a small handful of books, probably my two Kate Spade crystal vases, and maybe 2 or 3 framed pictures. My question is, how should we hang them? One directly above the other like this? Or with them staggered off center like this? What say you all?

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Project 3six5: Day 21

I love it when pictures come out entirely differently than what you'd expected. This is a piece of plywood I'd just finished painting with black chalkboard paint. Light from the window introduced this crazy, beautiful blue.

Project 3six5: Day 20 Help Me!

Charlyn was sweet enough to invite Kelly and me over for a yummy dinner at her swank pad, but I can't decide which version of this shot I like best for today's 3six5 pick. What do you guys think?
A:
B:
C:

Project 3six5: Day 19

I keep these strange little mossy balls in a glass bowl on the table.

Project 3six5: Day 18

The sky had some great colors tonight, but I was surprised to find that I prefered this shot in black and white.

Project 3six5: Day 17

We L-O-V-E our new floors.

Project 3six5: Day 16

One of the good things about being stuck upstairs while new floors are being installed downstairs is having a good excuse to get In-n-Out for lunch.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Why Didn't We Do This Sooner?

We're not finished taking our photos and whatnot back out, and we still need to re-hang the curtains on the French doors, but I knew if I didn't post an updated photo of our new floors some of you out there would be unhappy with me. We couldn't be happier with how it turned out. Now everybody come visit us! (Er, how many of you caught the appearance of that fancy new HD flat screen tv in the last shot? Sigh. The rest of the downstairs just looked so good that we couldn't bring ourselves to defile it by bringing our old, ugly, ginormous tube tv back in. Movie nights at our house from now on! In part because we can't afford to go out ever again.)

Friday, May 16, 2008

Project 3six5: Days 8-15

I'm going to get kicked out of this 365 group if I don't get better about posting my photos regularly, but I just haven't been in the mood lately. Here's another round of catch up photos. Don't forget you can always look at all of our pics here.

DAY 8: One of the great advantages of marrying a nerd who was into painting models as a kid is that if you ask nicely sometimes he'll paint your toes.
DAY 9: The chicken chili didn't taste so hot, but I was happy with this shot of the beans boiling. DAY 10: Booze was imbibed at the Buble concert.DAY 11: It was a happy Mother's Day with my mums, even if the Lakers did lose. She couldn't take her eyes off the tv....DAY 12: It rained. In California. Yes, it did.DAY 13: Self portrait from the car. Don't worry, I was parked. And listening to NPR. I loves me my NPR.DAY 14: Awh. These bears live at my office.DAY 15: My coworker, Minas, is a ham and loves getting his picture taken.

1:20 Flooring Update

Here's the starting point. We packed up and moved out everything we could do on our own so that the guys could get to the actual laying of the floor as quickly as possible. I ran out to do a couple of errands, came back an hour later, and they'd already done all this. Then just a few minutes ago we peeked from the landing and saw this.

Sequestered

Today M and I are stuck upstairs all day while our first floor is totally transformed by the installation of new laminate flooring. Goodbye to the old, stained ivory carpet. Hooray! Farewell strange mystery stain that appeared out of nowhere in the living room. So long horrible eyesore created that infamous day when I dropped a bottle of orange oil cleaner onto the rug and then scrubbed it in vain so long and so vigorously that the carpet stretched and developed a wrinkle. Arg. And adios embarrassing transition from the kitchen into the dining room. You've been hidden under a throw rug so long I almost forgot you were there. Almost. And lest we forget the spot that started it all, hello tear in the linoleum. Nice knowing you.

The two downsides to this day are 1) it's supposed to be 103 today and we're stuck upstairs and can't use the a/c because all the doors and windows are open downstairs, and 2) I have to find someway to entertain myself up here all day long. Here are my various plans and projects:

  • Nap
  • Go to Home Depot and get supplies to transform an old corkboard into a chalkboard for the kitchen
  • Make a dent in my stack of Netflix movies, including 27 Dresses and The Business of Being Born
  • Did I say nap?
  • Update my 3six5 photos before Kelly kicks me out of the club
  • Post periodic updates of the floor installation
  • Bug Matt and keep him from getting anything done (he's working from the home office today)

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Project 3six5: Days 1-7

For the last week I've been in Portland, Oregon, helping the Morisses move into their new home. I'll post more about that later, but first I need to catch up with Kelly and Jan and John-Arne on our Project 365 postings. You can see all of our shots so far here, but I'll also try to post my daily shots here for those of you who don't want to have to visit Flickr all the time. So here are my day 1-7 offerings.

DAY 7: My first day back to work after a week-long vacation. Ugh. DAY 6: Before leaving for Oregon, I hid this note so that Matt would find it in the sheets when he went to bed that night. Because I'm sweet on him.DAY 5: After dinner we spent a cozy time around the table drinking martinis and B's homemade liqeur. Yumminess. And, uh, deep sleep that night.DAY 4: The Morrises have a great old Dutch door leading to the backyard.DAY 3: I wish I was sitting back on their front porch this very minute.DAY 2: Audrey screeches like a torture victim when she's being tickled, but if you stop she makes the sign for "more."DAY 1: Portlanders are so cool, and it's reflected in their front porch still lifes.