Kim's Kitchen Sink

Disqus 2012

2012-05-30T13:44:00.000-07:00

If you're reading this on my blog and not in a reader of some sort, you may have noticed that the commenting system looks a little different. If you've been reading for a while, you know that I work for Disqus. And if you've been doing your online-tech-startup-etc-research, you might know that we just beta launched the latest version of our system.

You can read more about it and sign up to test it out on your own blog or website here!

There's still a ways to go before the Big Fancy Public Launch next month, but you can get a sneak peek right here :) So play around, and let the team know what you think via the feedback link (or just let me know and I'll pass it along).

Overall Garden Update

2012-05-29T14:00:00.000-07:00

Since yesterday's post was kind of a downer, I thought I'd follow it with a garden update that's a little more upbeat. When I initially posted my question about pests to Facebook and Twitter (pre-blog post), several people suggested surrounding the at-risk plants with ash. Apparently snails do not like ash, and won't cross the borders? We just happened to have a bit of ash in our fire "pit" outside, so I scooped up a bucketfull and began to distribute it.

Ring around the rainbow chard.
Reminds me of that scene in Hocus Pocus,
where the kids make a ring of salt to protect
themselves from the witches.

Smaller ring around the spinach, and one
around the only pepper plant that's been
eaten. I'm sure I'll have to do the others
eventually as well.

The kale is doing great! Pests don't seem to
like it much! Hooray for us!
And say hello to that little Nasturtium poking
through the fence - these guys are everywhere!

We've already lost one sunflower (out of 12),
and I think we're about to lose two or three
more. Not exactly sure why, since the others
seem to be doing ok. We started with 12
though, so I'm not too concerned.

The whole garden, as it stands now.

And now, a garden progress breakdown:

Along the back wall:

sweet peas (mostly doing ok, though they're not growing much)

climbing beans (growing a bit, they look leafier!)

Directly in front of those:

basil (not growing super fast, but not dying either)

cherry tomatoes (3 varieties, 4 plants, look like they're doing ok?)

Directly in front of those:

parsley (surprisingly doing ok, I thought for sure it'd be dead)

marigold (no flowers yet, but it looks strong)

strawberry (plant looks good, but we're going to have to fight the squirrels for the berries)

Directly in front of those:

lemon cucumber (leaves look fine, no growth yet)

zucchini (leaves look fine, no growth yet)

crookneck squash (leaves look fine, no growth yet)

spinach (looks like death; see pictures above, and previous post, for a taste of how deathly...it looks worse in person. I'm hoping that once the pests leave them alone they'll get a surge of healthy growth)

Front row:

rainbow chard (see above, and previous post, sigh)

kale (awesome possum!)

peppers (lookin' good, aside from the one that was starting to get eaten; it now has an ash ring)

Along the right side:

sunflowers (see above; they look taller, but no flowers yet of course)

lemon tree (looks super much happier since we staked it with bamboo and it's standing upright! I guess it likes not having droopy branches)

anise and poppies (not pictured, but they seem to be doing well!

Sunlight Report:

According to the SunCalc, which I placed in an area of the veggie garden that I thought was the least likely to be getting awesome sun (near the chard and cucumber), we have Partial Shade. Not as good as Full Sun or even Partial Sun, but I've heard tell of Bay Area gardeners having luck with these types of plants in Partial Shade. Plus, the other half of the garden gets better light. I'm going to test the other side (closer to the spinach) tomorrow or later this week, depending on which day I get out of bed early enough to get a good reading.

Things have grown quite a bit since the first pictures were taken two weeks ago!

Eaten Alive!

2012-05-28T19:01:00.000-07:00

My little garden project was off to a good start. But then, after less than two weeks, I noticed something had been eating some of my plants!

First we have the Rainbow Chard, with yellowed, spotty leaves, and what appear to be snail or caterpillar holes?

Then we have the spinach, totally getting discolored. I'm told this may be from overwatering, so we've eased off of the watering (Will and I are both chronic overwaterers). Many people have mentioned that yellowing is a sign of a nitrogen deficiency, but the compost we used when planting should've prevented that -- I'm hoping it's because the overwatering caused an imbalance in the nitrogen level of the soil (I read about that online), and once we let it dry out a little bit, it'll rebalance?

What can I do about the pests, though? They don't seem to be attacking anything else, and these two plants aren't even next to each other (though they do have similar leaf-styles? could that be why they are specifically being targeted?). Damn bugs eating my plants!

The other pest (not pictured) is a fat little squirrel, whom I have actually caught red handed, stealing strawberries off our one lonely strawberry plant. There were only three berries, and only one was close to turning red enough to pick, but he doesn't seem to care. What do you do about squirrels on the ground? I've heard of tying tinsel in fruit trees to ward off squirrels, but can I tie tinsel to the strawberry plant?

Help me, oh garden-savvy friends! You're my only hope!

Garden Party

2012-05-13T19:58:00.001-07:00

For my birthday this year, I decided to host a "Garden Party". I was eager to start my vegetable garden (since I couldn't do it before we left on our honeymoon), and wanted a low-key birthday after all that traveling, so I invited friends over to BBQ and help me garden (or watch me garden).

I have to give props to my friends, here: they were good sports about it, helping to break up the old soil and incorporate my fancy new soil, and helping me prep for planting!

I'm more in the mood for photos than long paragraphs today, soooo here ya go:

The Edible Schoolyard, where I purchased
all of my plants! Proceeds go to ESY, and
you should really, really go check out
their website. Amazing, really.

CC, helping to incorporate new soil into
the old. It's a Garden Party!

Emika, wielding my new garden multitool.
This tool is so rad.

See? I didn't make EVERYONE work!
Some people enjoyed the "party" aspect
of the Garden Party :)

Mike was very helpful when it came to
lifting and dumping huge bags of soil.

When we moved the half wine barrels, we
uncovered some dirt (sorry, grass. you will
grow back, right?) and a couple of
SALAMANDERS!
(I found them kind of creepy, not gonna lie)

Is Claire Bear interested or freaked out?

By the end of the Garden portion of the Party,
we had turned and incorporated the soil (plus
some compost), moved the half wine barrels,
and planted an Anise plant, surrounded by
California poppies (see frontmost barrel)
The lemon tree is kind of going nuts lately;
I'm going to have to re-stake it!

Beautiful, beautiful fresh soil! Ready to plant!

Carolyn admiring my plant bounty - so
many new friends!

Cake break! I have an awesome husband,
who got me TWO cakes from La Farine.

Will and Rachel play Kinect JoyRide. Super fun.
Not as fun as Just Dance 3, which we played after.
DANCE PARTY!

Today was the day for the main Gardening Event...le planting! Since the soil had been prepped so well yesterday (thanks, guys!), it didn't take long to get started. Let's see how it went, shall we?

I placed the plants roughly where I wanted them to go.
Clearly I have no idea what I'm doing.

But after planting...it kind of looks like a garden, right?
Clockwise from far right (just below that white pipe in
the top corner): sunflowers (2 types), peppers, kale (you can
kind of see it in the shade), crookneck squash, tomatoes,
a marigold (supposedly to protect the tomatoes from pests)
beans (along the fence), strawberries, and spinach (in a little
circle above the peppers)
More detailed pictures at some point, I promise.

The other side of the vegetable patch: the kale, rainbow
chard, lemon cucumber, zucchini, parsley, tomatoes,
basil, and sweet peas.
I realize it's hard to tell what's what - the lighting had
gotten weird by this point.

And just for fun, some rosemary and extra basil in the
flower bed :)

And one last flower, something called
either a Bachelor Button or a Blue Boy.
Supposedly it attracts pollinators, so...good!

We had fun planting the veggies and such today - our first real garden together :) Will was pretty into it too, so hopefully between the two of us, we can keep some of these plants alive! I don't have the best track record with growing vegetables, but everyone deserves a second chance, right?

I'm already thinking about looking into various snail deterrents - I think we have snails aplenty and I don't want them eating my vegs! Also: yes, I will be caging the tomatoes when they get a little larger. Also: will probably have to tie tinsel to some of the plants to ward off squirrels.

Wish us luck...and give us advice! (but please, only advice we can take...no "you planted everything wrong" notes, please! I don't think I can take it!)

Back. Here. Ici. Present. Home.

2012-05-09T17:19:00.004-07:00

Ok, you found me. I'm back. I tried to hide for a few days; with the sleepy weight of jetlag and the busy days catching up at work, it wasn't too hard. But enough public online (and gchat) pestering, and I feel obligated to provide a small "Oh yeah, I'm back, and I didn't even really tell you I was leaving" update :)

Somehow, in the final sweep of honeymoon-preparedness (both at home and at work), I "forgot" to mention that Will and I were about to embark upon a 24-day honeymoon in Europe. Oops! Apologies.

I'm back now, and though the pictures have yet to be sorted and edited and re-sorted for public consumption, I wanted to offer a little taste of our travels. To whet your appetite for the surely disappointing blog posts that will inevitably start off strong and then peter off when life gets busy once again. I mean, I'm pretty sure that I stopped a journal entry before the final week of our trip (like stopped mid-sentence) and never finished it...oops again.

No more excuses though. Just a little sharing because you've been asking, and because it's fun to share. Soon I hope to (re)turn to the blog posts of yore, of home projects still to be completed, and organization/cleaning projects that make our house look happy and clean and comfortable. For now...one picture from each city we visited. These photos don't sum up the entirety of each locale (for that, they will each get their own post), or even necessarily give a broad representation of each place (you wouldn't see most of these on the cover of a guidebook for that region), but they do give you a little preview of something fun that happened, and hopefully they'll make you want to read more. If not, just ignore these posts and skip to the more enthralling posts about Tupperware and cooking mistakes.

Enjoy.

Paris

Brugge

Berlin

Prague

Rothenburg

Gimmelwald

Venice

Cinque Terre

Florence

PS - To everyone who helped to make Roger a possibility while I was away, whether through donations or spreading the word, I cannot thank you enough. More on this project to come, but for now, please accept my gratitude.

Roger

2012-04-04T11:28:00.002-07:00

I'd like to introduce you to Roger.

Nick Dazé has been a good friend of mine for more than 10 years now, and I am proud to have been a small part of helping this book happen. Please take a minute to watch the video and check out the Kickstarter page for more information about how you can get this book published (and get a copy)!

If you're in the mood for some social media, check out Roger on Twitter and Facebook and spread the word!

Nicko, I will be your editor forever if it means getting to work on projects like these. So proud of you and this project.

Guest Room

2012-03-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

This is what I want for my office/guestroom some day:

Welcome to Armstrong Inn: The Reveal from dooce on Vimeo.

Ok, maybe not so fancy, but yes so welcoming.

A basket of goodies.

A vase of flowers.

Freshly plumped pillows.

I have a plan, thanks to Melissa.

Now I just need the money.

Around $1,000 (or less?) should do it.

A small sofabed,
A couple more file cabinets,
A rug to tie the room together.

A LOT of organizing
and throwing things away.

And then our guests will have a little space.

Better than an air mattress in the living room.

Not that I don't make things homey.

But still.

Someday the guest room (and office) won't look like this anymore.

view from the door, looking in

view from the back window,
looking back at the door

Someday.

Flora

2012-03-10T22:30:00.000-08:00

On a more successful garden note...this also happened today:

RANUNCULUS ON THE FRONT PORCH!

I do love these flowers. So pretty.

I also bought a new plant. An indoor plant, to fill the void left by Plantie. A Peace Lily (or Spathiphyllum), which I still refer to as a he. A plant that is happiest in low to medium light, who asks that I keep his soil moist, but who should otherwise be very happy in our ambiently-lit living room without direct sunlight. Here's hoping, Plantie2.

He looks happy, if a little tilted.
Anyone else thing he's leaning a little to the
right? Should I attempt to straighten him?
Is he ok?
I am a terrible plant owner.

PS Big thanks to Dana, Steve and Sienna for including me on their field trip to Berkeley Hort! Couldn't have done this post without y'all :)

DST for you and me

2012-03-10T21:24:00.000-08:00

Does anyone else notice anything funny about tonight's weather report?

Happy Daylight Saving time, (almost) everyone!

Don't forget to set your clocks forward an hour!

*though technically the missing hour should be at 2am, since that's when we technically change our clocks, right?*

The Root of It All

2012-03-10T21:17:00.001-08:00

We started Project Garden today, thanks to an unlucky turn of events that prevented us from going to Tahoe this weekend. But it was a lovely day (on and off), featuring a trip to Berkeley Hort and quite a bit of digging, so it all worked out ok.

Testing the pH of my soil at Berkeley Hort
Lookin' neutral!

There is a corner of our yard that is currently not being used, and our landlord said I could use it for a vegetable garden (yay!) - and hey, it's about that time of year...time to get this garden party started! The plan for today was to get a couple of plants and some gardening tools, and use the rest of the afternoon to prep the soil for planting (to be done tomorrow or next weekend).

The patch of yard - See ya later, Nasturtium.
I would have kept you, but man, you grow like weeds,
and I want room for vegetables!

Once the Nasturtium was cleared, we started digging. Unfortunately, we ran into a little bit of a problem. Do you see it? There, just past the green bin?

Misleading picture, since this is actually at the end of
an hour or so's work, and not when we discovered the
problem. But at that point, I was covered in dirt and not
about to go get the camera.

It kind of looks like a pile of dirt...

...but it's not.

It's a giant tree stump! Granted, we knew the tree stump was there. But we didn't know it had massive roots, submerged over a foot below the surface. Roots up to 6-8" in diameter! We would be happily digging away, scooping up little roots, feeling very good about ourselves, when suddenly we'd hit a giant root and shout something along the lines of "HOO BOY!" or "THAT'S A BIG 'UN!" and marveling at "the SIZE of that thing!!!" We were able to uproot a few of them, but then we hit...the motherlode.

This thing is massive!
And it has a friend,
just out of frame at the bottom of the picture!

As our Yard Waste bin filled with branch-sized roots, we realized that this was a bit out of our league. We emailed photos to our landlord, and are awaiting advice from him; we may need to call in a professional, and we'll need his approval (and maybe help with payment).

Guess we won't be adding new soil/compost to the dirt and getting it all ready for seeds tomorrow...any tips for massive stump and possibly root removal? It's really looking like we have to call the pros in on this one...

A sad, sad day for plantlife

2012-03-10T01:44:00.000-08:00

My dear, sweet little Plantie has died.

You may remember little Plantie from these posts:

My Little Plantie, an update

So young, so hopeful.

I don't know if it was the bugs that killed Plantie,

or if it was the lack of sunlight in its corner in our new house.

Or perhaps the combination of the dry heat from the heater,

plus my lack of attention when it came to watering.

(I suck)

I can't help feeling that I let my Plantie down.

I know it's just a plant.

I do.

But I've had Plantie since the summer of 2008.

It was a teeny, tiny little plant from IKEA, only about $1.99.

At the time, I didn't even think it would live a few days.

Four years later, it's time to say goodbye to the little plant that could.

You lived a good little life, plantie.

And I'm probably more sad than I should be

that I'm going to have to put you in the Yard Waste bin.

I gave you many good little colorful pot-homes,

and you survived each transplant with renewed zest and growth.

You lived with me in 3 different apartments.

You were a good little plantie, and I'm sorry I let you down.

Rest in Peace, little Plantie.

Rest in Peace, little leaves

I know this post is kind of silly in its earnestness (I mean, writing a eulogy for a plant? Who does that?), and again, I am probably irrationally upset that my brown thumb resulted in a brown plant. I know it's silly. But you know, I had faith in this little guy, and I'm feeling a little bit of a loss, knowing it's over and it's probably all my fault. It was a good four years, Plantie. A good four years. You may have been just a plant, but I'll miss you.

Please don't leave comments if you're going to make fun of me. Please do leave comments if you have ever been irrationally upset at the death of a plant or other non-human, non-pet type of living creature (spider you accidentally killed? ants you wish you hadn't exterminated?). I'd like to know I'm not alone in these things, in feeling sad even as you feel embarrassed even as you feel sad again. Sigh.

Ok, it's almost 2am. Time to go to bed and stop writing goodbye letters to plants. Tomorrow is a new day, with (hopefully) new beginnings...as I attempt a vegetable garden. This is probably an awful idea. See above.

Kitchen Sign Fail

2012-03-09T17:16:00.001-08:00

The other night, we were woken up by a crash. No, not an earthquake. Alas, the sign fell down. Next stop, Command Velcro Strips!

For now, the wall looks like this:

Hopefully this will be remedied this weekend!

Project: Kitchen Sign

2012-03-04T22:15:00.000-08:00

Back in September, I did a little review of Bon Ami's lovely cleaning products. They sent me samples in an adorable wooden box, with a removable lid that I thought would look adorable hanging in my kitchen. For months now, I had the lid leaning up against the wall, propped up on the paper towel holder, semi-precariously. I had big ideas about how I was going to drill little holes in it and hang it from little gold hooks, rustic-farmhouse-style. Tonight, upon realizing I didn't do a house-related project to blog about this week (and y'all know I'm trying to do one thing per week), I decided just to do it.

Sorry for the terrible photo quality.
No natural light + task lighting that
makes shadows weird in photographs
means slightly dark and slightly blurry.

15 minutes and 3 attempts later, ta-da! I realized the wood wasn't really the type to drill through, and I was concerned that it would just splinter if I tried to drill through it. I thought I could rig up a hook system by attaching a hanger to the back (with duct tape or something), but it looked kind of weird when I held the hanger up to it, so I nixed that idea. I then tried a clipping a binder clip on top, figuring I'd just hang it from a nail.

This was my first mistake. I used a nail that was too long, and it wouldn't go all the way into the wall (must've hit a super hard stud of some sort?). When I pulled the nail out (which wasn't hard, since it was all not stuck in the wall and all), the hole was...large. I mean, it wasn't larger than the nail, but I clearly had used the wrong nail, here. I grabbed a smaller nail, but it wasn't going to be big enough to hold the binder clip. Brilliant idea! How about hanging the binder clip from a Command Hook! I love those! Sadly, the hook was too girthy to fit through the binder clip. I didn't want to use just the strips, because I was afraid I wouldn't be able to remove it from the wall after (since you have to remove by pulling down, and the board might not have come off easily).

But then. Ohhhhh then. Lightbulb moment of genius magical divine inspiration. I whipped out my trusty earthquake putty, stuck a dab in each corner, and pressed that baby up onto the wall. It seemed super firm, but I tapped it with the hammer just in case. And then, for good measure, I hung a hook for a hand towel. And then took it off (thanks, Command Hook, for your easy removability) and re-hung it at a better height.

And there it is, folks. A too-long story about how I hung stuff on my wall. Mission: Accomplished.

Project: Clothing Purge

2012-03-04T20:49:00.001-08:00

Last weekend (as in a week ago), Reed came over to help me with a little clothing purge. My closet and dressers were stuffed, but I was still wearing the same things pretty much every week. She has great style, and is super creative (and honest), so I figured she'd be a good person to help me figure out how to wear what I have, as well as what I just don't need.

A few hours and several mimosas later, I had a pretty large stack of clothes ready for Goodwill (and Reed got to take home some clothes/shoes as well - win!) as well as a slew of ideas of how to pair some of my clothes in ways I hadn't thought of...and...yes...a reminder about some clothes I forgot I had. Funny how that works.

Newly re-organized tshirt/long-sleeved shirt drawer

Pile of giveaway clothes

All piled up, nice and neat

Looks sort of more impressive this way.

I included this one for perspective,
and also because I feel like I look sassy.

I meant to post this last week, and then I didn't, and it's probably better that I didn't, because I just did the pants drawer (which we didn't get to last weekend) tonight. But either way, my drawers and closets close a little easier, and I'm looking at what I have in a new way. So that's exciting. Getting things done, hooray!

WEDDING PHOTOS OMGEM

2012-02-28T18:30:00.001-08:00

What's that?

Oh, just awesome photos from our wedding.

Totally no big deal.

Except it totally is.

We got married!

This is the face of a happy lady, for so many reasons.

And oh yeah, it's up, folks.

So go read Emily's post.

Thank you, Emily and Aaron. Thank you so much.

I have so much love for this woman.

Being Married Is Awesome (or We Had a Good Weekend)

2012-02-19T23:16:00.000-08:00

Several times this weekend, we caught ourselves saying, "Being married is awesome." Really what we meant was, "It's awesome having a 4-day work week, having friends over to drink beer and do puzzles, sleeping 10 hours, relaxing all day, and watching Jorge and Harper win their Senior Game at Cal (basketball)." But hey, let's just call that "being married", shall we? Deal.

It doesn't look like much, but it's not
supposed to. Presenting...bedroom without
giant cardboard box (used to be on that empty
wall; it would be blocking your view of the
brown dresser right now)!

Anyway, it's been a great week (despite battling a gnarly cold), and a fantastic weekend. And today, I was actually productive. Go figure! Maybe I was riding the wave of awesome from the last couple of days, but I was on fire, you guys! I did four loads of laundry, made my bulletin board of "to-do projects", finally unpacked that box in the bedroom that I've been meaning to unpack since...uh...we moved in in August, and miracle of miracles, I actually cleaned the top of my dresser!

This was no ordinary "scoop things up into piles" dresser clean, either. I actually went through old jewelry and got rid of things. I rearranged how things are placed so it makes more sense. I hung my necklaces and headbands and pictures omg pictures on the walls yay. And now, because photos are more fun than just writing, I'll tell the rest of this story with visual aides.

This is one of those times when I'm kicking myself for not taking "before" photos. Someone remind me to do that next time I tackle a house project, mkay?

Oh hello dresser. You are so neat and tidy
and organized.

One of the things I'd been meaning to do is organize my dresser. Again, a "before" picture would be really handy here, but just imagine a pile about 6" high, that had been growing and shifting over the course of several months. I got this dresser sometime in December (I think?), so I suppose it hasn't been that long, but still. At least two months of clutter just piling up does not a lovely dresser make. It had gotten to the point where I had trouble finding things; necklaces were in a tangled pile and pairs of earrings were separated, and despite the fact that I have a bajillion bobby pins, I could never find one.

Closeup on the left side of the dresser.
Framed photo: Goodnight Moon (card from my grandma)
Black pointe shoes from Nutcracker of years gone by
Clock was my grandpa's (doesn't work, but maybe it will)
Doily was crocheted by my great aunt, I believe (mom? help?)

Now, it's neat and tidy. I emptied every drawer of my plastic jewelry/hair stuff drawer-thing and made a sizable "donate" pile of earrings and necklaces I haven't worn since high school (I don't know why I still had them either). I re-organized my two "nicer jewelry" boxes (to the left of the drawers) so that it's easier to see what's inside. Next on the agenda will be making some sort of wire+frame device like this so that my dangly earrings are easily viewable. Maybe with some way to show off the posts too (stick them into foam, sans backs, perhaps?)

The mirror is actually leaning on the wall (secured with earthquake putty) because I somehow misplaced the bracket that you use to hang it. Oops. Hope it stays - it seems pretty secure, but you never know. Maybe the bracket will turn up. If not, I'll have to get creative at the hardware store (or with the earthquake putty, again). :)

I hung my necklaces on a branch-looking key hook thing that I bought at Urban Outfitters while visiting my sister at UC Santa Cruz, so I've had it for at least a year. I lost it for a while, but found it again when we moved, so glory glory, I got to put it up! Sadly, it was not as easy to install as it looked...perhaps because it didn't come with screws (sale bin), and the screws I had weren't the right size. Perhaps because the walls are old and not super strong. I'm not really sure why it took so much work to get this thing up on the wall, but it seems sturdy enough for the light weight it's carrying. The headbands and such to the left are just hanging on a silver Command hook (love you, Command hooks!). Much easier to install.

More on the photo to the left in a minute.

First, how about a nice little close-up of my "handiwork"?

Yeah, that's the stuff.

You'll notice an anchor that doesn't quite sit flush with the wall, a hole too wide for the anchor, a screw that's silver instead of gold, and if you look really carefully, you'll notice a little white putty-filled hole behind the necklaces. That's actually not actual putty and is in fact earthquake putty (previously mentioned...but you know, it's that stuff that you use to secure fancy glassware and crystal in your cabinets in case of an earthquake). Which reminds me, I need to do that in the hutch. In both hutches. Sigh. Anyway...it's staying on the wall, and it's nothing a little spackle won't fix when we (eventually) move out (some day, far away from this day).

And last but certainly not least, the photo. Apologies for the kind of awful picture of it, but I'm super glad to have found this such a great home in our house. This is a photo collage made by mom and aunt, given to each of my sisters, my cousin and me for Chanukkah this year. Clockwise from the top left is my cousin Talia, her mother (my aunt) Nancy, my sister Nicole (sorry I cut your head off in this picture!), me, my mom, and my sister Danielle. All wearing the same dress. It's been in our family since my mom was a little girl (I think she's just barely two in her picture), and we've all worn it (and been photographed in it) over the years. It's definitely one of those family traditions that will live on...as long as we have daughters :)

How cute are we, seriously?

I'm really glad to have gotten this one project (well, two if you count the cardboard box full of office crap that's no longer in the bedroom! yeah!) done. Not the most crazy of house-related projects, but they were things that needed to get done, and the bedroom is starting to look much better. I'm starting to see little glimmers of possibility for our house now...having an unpacked, lived-in-but-not-messy, homey house with our own touches is within reach! Now that I can devote evenings and weekends to setting up the house instead of planning the wedding, I'm excited to continue settling in. I'm a homebody at heart...but we all knew that, didn't we?

PS - I was just looking at old posts, and realized that not one single time during the wedding/reception did I even take notice of the chairs.

One Week

2012-02-18T12:56:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking about coming back with a little wedding recap post, a "hey everyone, I'm back!" post...but the truth is, I've been recovering all week. Weddings take it out of you, man. In the best possible way, of course, but even when you're about to explode with joy, a long weekend spent entertaining family and friends (not to mention celebrating until the wee hours of the morning several nights in a row) is bound to leave a girl reaching for the pillow.

A few nights with 10 hours of blissful, uninterrupted sleep helps. A nasty head cold doesn't. But we're on the up and up over here now, and even had some friends over for our first (hopefully) semi-regular puzzle night last night. But I do want to share stories and photos, so I'll just ask you to be patient for a little while as I continue to settle back into life.

It's our one-week anniversary, life is starting to return to normal, and I am filled with a renewed sense of optimism when it comes to playing housewife. I want to use my new toys (waffle iron! juicer! ice cream attachment for KitchenAid!) and start on some of the home-projects I've had on my list since before the wedding, and some new ones too. My Pinterest boards are filling up with non-wedding ideas, and I even created a bulletin board on top of my craft dresser that I'm going to fill with projects. My goal is to do one per week, no matter how small (bags in closet? check! well, mostly).

So hello, folks. I'm back, and ready for action!

A little wedding photo sneak peek from our fabulous
photographer, Emily Scott (Gem Photo).
(via Instagram for iPhone)

The Fog of War (Guest Post by Lyz Lenz)

2012-02-12T10:30:00.000-08:00

While I'm out of town for a few days gettin' hitched, I've lined up some blog posts from some truly lovely bloggers and friends of mine. The theme: love, marriage, relationships...or whatever they feel like writing about. I hope you enjoy, and check out their blogs as well, because they're all awesome. I'll be back next week as a married lady!

Today's super special guest post comes from Lyz, one of the most hilarious women I know. She makes me laugh on a regular basis, and I'm proud that we went from internet-stalky-how-did-we-even-find-each-other friends to pen pals to Real Life Friends (this past year at BlogHer). If you haven't already, please do go check out her blog at www.lyzlenz.com.

The Fog of War

It didn't take Dave and I long to find our dream home. Built in 1925, the house had newly refinished oak crown molding and floors, an antique crystal chandelier original to the house and it was tucked snugly away in a picturesque neighborhood. We both loved the same things about the house. "Oh, the stairs!" we both cried in our young-couple in love unison, holding hands and staring gooey-eyed at one another. The only things that needed fixing were the pastel rainbow painted over the front door and one of the bathrooms. It would be easy, we rationalized.

The Lenz home in the fall.
Ed note: I hate them.
Also see: jealousy.

On move-in day, Dave placed his hands on the dining room walls and declared them to be “crooked.” Dave is an engineer and “crooked” is probably the lowest insult and engineer can bequeath, well that and “illogical.” “Is that hard to fix?” I asked. “No, I’ll just do some replastering. Should be easy.” Four weeks later, Dave was still slapping plaster on the wall, letting it dry, sanding and then declaring the walls “still crooked.” Plaster dust is a fine material and has a way of making itself omnipresent. Despite sealing off the room, for four weeks, I’d been coughing plaster dust, spitting plaster dust, tasting plaster dust. I was finished.

“You have two more days,” I threatened. And on midnight of the second day, while Dave was still sanding, I ripped down the plastic barrier, picked up the tools and hauled in the shop-vac. This project was over. “You are just going to have to get used to the fact that nothing is going to be perfect,” I yelled and then flicked on the shop-vac. Whoosh! A huge cloud of plaster dust exploded throughout the house. Later investigation would show that I had the shop-vac set on “blow” instead of “suck” and boy, did it blow.

Coughing, I slapped blindly in the dust, trying to shut the vacuum off. When I finally hit the switch, it was too late, the billowing cloud of mess was disseminating through our house. I sat down on the floor and began to sob. “It’s everywhere! On our furniture. Our new couch. You did this!” “I just wanted our house to look nice,” he said. I sobbed harder. “It doesn’t! It’s worse!”

Through the haze, I saw Dave turn to me and smile through his plaster mask. "Do you know what this is?” He asked waving his hands in the air. “This is the fog of war!” He laughed, doubling over and grasping his sides. It was midnight, we’d been working since 6am and we were going crazy. I started laughing too. My eyes stung with dust, my throat hurt from breathing, but we couldn’t stop laughing.

Cleaning the house took months. And if we’re being honest it, actually, took five years, because the plaster dust wasn’t totally out of the cracks in the dining room floor until this fall, when Dave refinished them.

And when I walk through the dining room, I still think about those crooked walls and part of me wants to punch Dave and part of me wants to kiss him. But that is the daily story of our marriage, some days I wonder how I got into this mess and other days I can’t imagine anything else. But it’s always those moments of eye-burning frustration, when we find the redemption that we need.

In the end, our dining room still has crooked walls, but now, instead of fixing them, we just hang pictures over the dents and tell everyone about that time we tried to make everything perfect.

The Wedding Budget Competition (guest post by Well Heeled Blog)

2012-02-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

The Wedding Budget Competition

As a personal finance blogger who is planning her wedding, I've noticed an interesting phenomenon. In the Real World (or certainly the Beautiful Wedding Blog World), there seems to be a competition on how pretty and meaningful and personalized your day is (all judged on the beauty of the photographs, of course). From the joyfulness of your photos, to the uniqueness of your reception, to the loving touches that perfectly captures "who you are as a couple," it's enough to make even the most confident and laid back of brides feel inadequate. Most of these efforts take a fair amount of time or money, or both!

I think most of us, especially personal finance bloggers, can agree that such a competition to Have The Most Perfect And Expensive Wedding Ever is pointless and maybe counter-productive. A wedding is about love and celebration, and a smaller budget doesn't mean there is any less of those two qualities. Your chances of staying married and in love isn't higher in a $2,000 dress than a $200 dress.

In the Personal Finance World, however, there seems to be another competition going on.

It's no surprise, personal finance bloggers can be a goal-driven, competitive bunch. This competition is about who can spend the LEAST on weddings, who can more loudly proclaim that The Wedding Is Just One Day, and that it's ridiculous to spend over $X or $Y. But a wedding is about love and celebration, and a bigger budget doesn't mean there is any less of those two qualities. It certainly doesn't mean, as I've read in some comments on other blogs, that an more expensive/elaborate wedding means the marriage will fail. And if a bride and groom (or bride/bride & groom/groom) want to rock a $2,000 dress or band or venue and it's important to them and fits their budget, they SHOULD!

It's funny, because there is such an emphasis on spending on experiences in among personal finance bloggers, and one could argue that a wedding is the biggest experience of them all. It's the day that two people pledge to love and honor each other, in view of friends and family. It's probably one of the biggest and most important events a couple will host. So why the disdain for an expensive wedding, when we cheer on folks who spend the same amount, or more, on a once-in-a-lifetime vacation, or on a down payment for a bigger house? There is so much judgment surrounding weddings, when in fact it really shouldn't matter what people spend as long as its reasonable for their situation. Some people get more joy out of a beautiful wedding than travel or a bigger piece of real estate. I say, more power to them.

If a couple manage their wedding budget according to their priorities and resources, there is no wrong way to have a wedding, regardless of how much or how little they spend. The only three things I'd never do to pay for a wedding would be to (1) take money out of retirement accounts, (2) take on debt, or (3) ask guests to pay. After that? It's all personal. Just have the wedding you want with a budget you can afford.

--
Well Heeled Blog | Personal finance blog at the intersection of life, money, and happiness

Read: http://wellheeledblog.com
Follow: http://twitter.com/wellheeledblog

Getting Hitched!

2012-02-08T23:38:00.000-08:00

I'll be offline for a few a few days, getting married in Tahoe :)

While I'm gone, there will be a couple of guest posts from some very fine ladies. Enjoy, and I'll see ya on the other side!

Photo by Emily Scott (Gem Photo)

Less Than A Week...

2012-02-06T00:02:00.000-08:00

This time next week, we'll be married. That's totally crazy, in that "it makes perfect sense, of course we're getting married, this is a huge deal, I'm not sure what it will feel like, will it even feel different, soon I'm going to call him 'husband' and he will call me 'wife' and it will be for real, forever, like adults or something" sort of way. Every so often, he looks at me, and says "soon we're going to be married," and I get that warm, fuzzy, happy feeling inside.

There is still a bit to be done (finalizing programs and table assignments, dress fitting/pick up, emailing some guests, ordering Top Dogs, picking our ceremony songs, and Reed's knitting one more tie and crocheting buttons for cowls and finishing boutonnieres, and Aly's picking up more jars and printing table assignment signs), but I'm confident in our ability to do it. It sounds like a lot, considering we're leaving for Tahoe in three days. THREE DAYS. But we can do it. We can.

So what's a bride to do when she has so much happening? Why, she throws a small Super Bowl party (because we needed to be home, taking care of business, and not out at someone else's house all day), complete with filet mignon and baked goat cheese ('cause we're fancy), and bagel bites and pigs in a blanket ('cause we're not that fancy). A few friends, some football (and some Puppy Bowl), and some booze, of course. It turned out to be a lovely, un-stressful day, and I'm glad we took a little time to lay low and chill out a bit.

Ah, but in addition to the chilling out, there was also boutonniere-making, hairstyle-testing, house-cleaning, bouquet-fixing, and print-material-typing. And just now, at 11:30pm, I decided to make myself a "toss bouquet". For those not familiar, a "toss bouquet" is a separate, sometimes smaller, bouquet that a bride throws during the bouquet toss if she doesn't want to throw her bouquet (usually because she wants to save it). My bouquet, while totally awesome, is a little...not great for throwing, since it's a little heavy and a lot delicate, and I'd like to save it and not let it get ruined by being thrown through the air and probably landing on the floor and being grabbed at by crazy women :)

I was proud of myself, using the techniques I observed (learned? maybe?) from Reed during the bouquet-making. I think it turned out nicely! It's a decent weight for tossing, it should hold up well, and it looks pretty, too. I even used up all of the leftover flowers! Woo! I wonder who the lucky recipient will be... ;)

Top view

Side view - the lighting is weird, so it's hard
to tell, but the stem is wrapped in silver
ribbon and yellow yarn, a slightly different
version of what my bouquet looks like.

Have you ever had one of those burst-of-inspiration moments, where even though you should maybe just go to bed, you decide to make or do something?

Cleaning (or It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better)

2012-02-02T23:38:00.000-08:00

I took the day off today, to take care of several things that had to get done in the middle of the day, on a weekday. Major thanks to my boss for letting me have this day I needed so very much. Thanks, bossman.

Too bad I'm such an overachiever though, because I decided that instead of taking care of my appointments and then giving myself a mental health day to relax and recharge, I decided to take care of a bunch of cleaning/errands/more cleaning. To be fair, I needed to make some headway on this stuff in order to have a clear head. I just didn't think it would be 11pm and I'd be bone-tired. And that there would be so much left unfinished.

I tell myself that it has to get worse before it can get better, but that doesn't stop me from collapsing on the couch, multiple times, throughout the process. It doesn't help that after a practically non-stop, super busy day, there is still much to do.

What I did do:

Dermatology appointment
Dress fitting
Target
Michael's
(mostly) Cleared dining room table (granted, a nice chunk of stuff just got put into a bag)
Started reorganizing closet (I swear, it looks different).
Sort mail
Remember to eat
Tested seating arrangement display printing for wedding
Figured out earrings for wedding
Unpacked suitcase from last weekend in LA (ok, so I exploded it on the bed. But it will get put away before I get in bed...oy)

What I didn't do (or what still needs to be done):

Finish clearing dining room table
Go through backpacking storage box and put it in the closet
Figure out misc. loose storage items in the closet
Tackle pile o crap by the piano
Take 4 boxes out of the closet and put them in the living room
Empty box in bedroom (stationary, etc.)
Clean dresser, hang mirror and jewelry hooks
Do sink full (and counter full) of dishes
Do laundry (delicates)
Clear coffee table, misc. surfaces around house
Look through pictures and choose some to display at wedding
Read mail
Remember to eat healthy things

Some pictures of the closet, since it ate up the main portion of my "relaxation" time (seriously, I spent about 4-5 total hours working on this crap - and this is all I have to show for it? sigh).

The first thing I did was hang Command hooks
on the wall behind the coats and sweatshirts.
I've wanted to do this since we moved in.
In August.
CHECK!

Blurry, but you can see how there's (mostly) room for bags
and such behind the coats and sweatshirts.

View from the door: BEFORE
Not a lot of room to walk, lots of piles.

View from the door: AFTER
More floor space, but you can see how I
ended up throwing some things in haphazardly
towards the end. Need to find solutions for
some things still, clearly.
I spent a long time sorting our several boxes
off hardware/toolbox stuff into a 3-drawer
plastic cabinet thing (back right) that we
had on hand.
And reorganizing the camping gear.

Side wall: BEFORE
Piles upon piles

Side wall: AFTER
Piles upon piles
Ok, this hasn't changed much.
But I spent a long time on the other stuff,
so this will have to be for another day.

Ok, so it doesn't look like much. There's still a ways to go. But it is better, I swear (trying to convince myself too here). Now I just have to clear off a huge pile of stuff from the bed so I can go to sleep. Jeez, it's been a busy day. At least it's almost the weekend! More of the same on Saturday!

Bridal Shower and Baby (Visit)

2012-01-30T14:37:00.000-08:00

This weekend featured a quickie trip down to LA, for a few fun little things. Makes me glad that home isn't too far away :)

I got to visit my old friend Myles and meet his awesome wife Laurel and their brand new baby, who is now officially 3 weeks old.

The baby is skeptical of my double chin.
Don't worry, Fenton, it's just because of
the face I'm making.
Photo courtesy of Myles' Blog

I also had a super wonderful bridal shower, thrown by two of my oldest friends.


Alyssa, me, and Colette. Friends for like, 16 years. No big deal.

We played a game where they had (secretly, previously) asked Will to answer 20 questions, and then I had to guess what his answers were, The Newlywed Game style. :) I am pleased to say that I got almost all of them correct - even the ones that contained qualifiers or secondary answers, like "he would probably say this, but it's actually that". BOOYA! After 7 years, I guess I know him pretty well. See also: I'm awesome.

Colette and Alyssa, thank you for an awesome, awesome* shower. It was just perfect.

Family and friends, enjoying a delicious lunch :)


Oh, and Alyssa made cupcakes. She's good.

*the word awesome is used gratuitously in this blog post.

Defying Gravity

2012-01-28T09:00:00.000-08:00

Like most brides, I bought a lovely dress that I absolutely adore, but that needed to be altered just a bit. It's so common, I bet bridal gown manufacturers purposefully make them so that they'll need to be altered. They probably have a deal going with the seamstresses. Just kidding; I'm not that much of a conspiracy theorist. But seriously, I don't know many brides who can wear their dress as-is when it arrives. I was prepared to go in and put my dress under the ~~knife~~ seam ripper.

I happen to love my seamstress. She lives in a house up in the hills with a beautiful view, and together, we have deconstructed bits of my dress and reconstructed them so that A) the skirt is not a big puffball, B) there isn't a train, and C) the dress actually stays put. Or as I like to call it, defying gravity.

Not sure if you're aware, but even with a bit of boning, strapless dresses don't uh, stay put. Not if you have a little bit of, uh, an hourglass shape? (I can't vouch for other body types, as I never wore strapless anythings when I was a pre-pubescent stick figure, and have had zero success in my post-pubescent hourglassness) So we've been getting creative. Adding "waist belt" elastics, additional boning, and finally last night, a "waist cinchy sort of belt/corset piece of stretchy but tight fabric thing". And we seem to have found a solution. It's very exciting, raising my arms and feeling like the dress stays in place, even when I lower my arms again! Now she just has to finalize the hem (don't want to finish a hem before you figure out where the dress is going to sit on your body), let out the back a little (you let it out so there's more fabric to tighten it back up without squishing/pinching your back fat), take in the sides of the bodice a tad, tack on the sash, and complete the finishing for the top of the bodice! Easy peasy in 2 weeks, right? Ann is awesome. Have faith in her. I do.

Second part of the story...This is a picture of me, in our office/guestroom (someday), holding a giant bag of tulle. This bag of tulle is all the tulle that is no longer in my wedding dress. We removed a lot of tulle. Four layers, to be exact.

Now I have a giant bag of tulle, and if I don't think of something to do with it, I'll just give it back to Ann, since she will surely need it someday to insert into the dress of a bride looking for a poofier dress than I.

Of course, I could make myself a tutu (or as my grandpa would say, a three-three). Swan Lake in my backyard, anyone? No? Yeah. I don't really need a tutu. Could be used for a great Halloween costume at some point, or I'm sure Reed could find something to do with it...but the reality is that I probably will not find a reason to use it. Though the cheap Jew in me is all, "But I paid for this tulle! It's part of my dress! I bought it! It's mine!", I do kind of like the idea of bits of my dress going to good use, helping some other bride who wants a fluffier skirt.

What would YOU do with a bag full of tulle?

Who Cares About Chairs?

2012-01-27T11:33:00.000-08:00

Ah, the great chair debate. I don't understand how the WIC (that's Wedding Industrial Complex, for anyone not in the crazy wedding planning phase of life) worked it's weird WIC magic and made it so brides would freak out about chairs (read the comments; they're full of smart ladies, this one in particular), but uh...hi. I am an otherwise perfectly sane human being, and I am a bride who has freaked out about chairs. Twice.

First it was the reception seating. Our venue provides these perfectly fine, albeit somewhat conference-center-esque, chairs. For free. They mentioned that we could rent chair covers to match the linens if we want to, and that a lot of people do that to make it all look nicer or whatever. Sure, sounds easy enough. But, uh, chair covers? They don't come cheap, yo. That's a minimum of $4 per chair, $5 if you include a chair sash - or just $1 if you only want a sash, but uh, that would look odd. Why tie a ribbon around a normal chair? It would just call attention to the fact that we didn't get chair covers, I think. And that all just seemed silly.

I took this picture when we checked out the venue.
Chairs are fine. They're just chairs.

We thought back to weddings we'd been to, and couldn't remember what kind of chairs were in the reception room. I had to look at pictures of the wedding I'd been to barely a month before to remember what kind of chairs they'd used (I looked - they used fancy chairs, that we were being quoted like, $7.95 per chair for. Yikes!). So I finally said, "Screw it. Nobody is going to care if we don't get fancy linen covers for the chairs. Besides, they kind of coordinate with the carpet (which we also don't love, but who's gonna be staring at the carpet)? And also, who cares about chairs?"

So, no on spending $400-500 on chair covers. Yay! Ah, but the Saga of the Seating was not over yet!

We had planned to rent wooden benches for the ceremony, which is going to be outside (hopefully in the snow, fingers crossed, though the forecast does not look good). Ideally, it would look like this:

So woodsy! So wintery! So quaint!

But alas, renting enough benches for our guests (even assuming some choose to stand on the deck above) would cost us around $500. And now that there may not even be snow, it seems silly to rent wooden benches, just because they look cute. We can't even rent the ones pictured above (they don't have enough, and they are being super flaky), so we'd be renting slightly less cute ones anyway. Harumph. Bridal whine. But I'm over it.

You know why? Because the venue provides perfectly fine white folding chairs, for free, that we can use, for free, and they looked perfectly fine when we saw the venue the first time, when there was no snow, and hell, I'm sure the white chairs would look fine in the white snow if the weather cooperates.

With a view like this,
who cares what kind of chairs you're sitting on?

Why did I get it into my head that white folding chairs would just be awful? That it was just laughably silly for us to use white chairs? That of course we were going to rent benches, because duh, we could. They were available, and look how cute they look in the pictures! And obviously, they're cute, and it's easy, and we are doing it! Without even questioning whether we needed to (ha! it's our wedding! we can do what we want!) or really cared about it (very important) in the first place. Personally, I'd rather take that $500 and use it towards the honeymoon. Or saving for a down payment on a house. Or anything other than benches that people will sit on for 15 minutes. Even if they do look really cute.

We have been emailing back and forth for the better part of a week, trying to figure out what company to rent the benches from, and how many benches to rent, and what's going to happen if we don't have enough benches, and well, it just all feels very silly to me right now. I just want to get married to my best friend, and have a fun party with our family and friends. No matter what they're sitting on.