Project 52: Week 4

1. Wise words from a 3rd grader.

2. This student is proud of acing his performance assessment

3. Soft new sheets

4. Snowy Sunday

5. Beautiful braided Challah, which Ler made and I gladly ate.

My Nest: Huzzah for White Paint

Perhaps I should pen an ode to white paint, I do love it so. A creative color choice? No. A nearly infallible color choice? Yes, yes, and yes. At least in my world.

At the end of a long day Ler likes to empty his pockets, retire his glasses and charge up his phone on the night stand. A very convenient location, but it was getting a touch chaotic. Also, the cats would decide it was time to bat change around the room at 3:00 in the morning. Lovely dears.

 

I took a quick trip to Goodwill and returned with this beauty. The tray had a study and unfinished wood frame, and hefty chipboard bottom. Only dinged my wallet for 97 cents.

A few thin coats of white paint (left over from my bathroom painting adventures) and things were starting to look good. I finished off the bottom with an insert of cork shelf liner. It has a light adhesive on the back, so it is firmly in place.

Ler's glasses, wallet, watch and other random bits-and-bobs are now corralled into one tidy little tray. Loose change is deposited in a pretty little milk glass vase I have had for years. No more finding nickles in my moccasins.

My Nest: Holiday Decorations

Last year I didn't do much to spruce up my apartment for the holidays. With no plans to entertain, I lacked the desire to do more that slap a wreath on the door and put out a stinky candle on the coffee table. Not so say I was a complete miser- I did help my mother-in-law decorate her home, accompanied my sister to the Nutcracker ballet, wore a sparkly sweater, and was up to my eyeballs in holiday programs and music gigs. Honest.

Even though my entertaining plans are small and limited, I was actually itching to bust out the trimmings back in November. I exhibited some impulse control, waited until after Thanksgiving, and kept the decorations at chez refeathered fairly simple: white, green and sparkly things inspired by nature. While some decorations are clearly Christmassy, I wanted to be able to enjoy a majority of my decorations throughout the winter season.
Take a peak!

 The super fluffy doorman at chez refeathered keeps a watchful eye from a twig wreath adorned with silver and white stars. He'll keep his post until spring arrives.

Atop the bar cabinet sits this little arrangement. The pine boughs light up with LED lights, which make the sparklies even more sparkly. Birds and glass tree courtesy of my mum. 

 

White, green and sparkly arrangement on the table.

My Nest: More Proof

More proof that white paint makes everything better! This little wall shelf came from my grandma's house, where she had several of them to display various tchochkes. This particular shelf was tucked away in storage and was a bit beat up.  Like the washroom, I did not take a proper "before" photo. Bad blogger. Take my word though, not a precious piece of wooden furniture. You can find these for a few dollars at most flea markets. 

Before I began painting I scuffed up the finish with some fine grit sandpaper. After thoroughly wiping off the dust with a damp rag, I began the painting process. The first coat always looks like garbage. At this point one often wonders if this course of action was a mistake, or if it's too late to wipe the paint off. Have no fear! When painting over a dark color, it never looks pretty in the beginning.

 

Looking better after the second coat...

...and even more fantastic after the third. I put the little shelf up in the kitchen and I love it. The perfect place for small, often-used kitchen items, and keeps the garlic and onions out of reach of the cats. Yes, my cats will play with garlic. They are strange beasts. 

My Nest: White paint makes everything better

Yes, I am showing you my washroom. I will try my best to keep it as classy, and avoid potty humor. My washroom is small at approximately 4ft x 6.5ft. While it is neither luxurious nor glamorous, it is most certainly functional. Aesthetically, it needed some love.

Let's start in this corner. One towel rod and paper holder that look like this...

 

...and on the other wall, which is a whole 36'' way, a sloppily painted towel rod. Not thrilled with the mismatch of one painted fixture, two unpainted. 

 

Speaking of sloppy painting, check out the mirror on the back of the door. Quality workmanship. 

 

I love the classic hex-tile and old radiator heats up towels like a dream! The caulk, however, is old, dried out and just gross looking. Whomever applied this caulk also managed to get it all. over. everything. How do you even do that?

One rainy weekend I decided it was time to take on some of the little projects in the washroom.

It's a very, very dark shade of forest green....

The lack of a yard has never stopped me from having plants. This cool info-graphic helps justify my ever growing windowsill collection here at chez refeathered. Next time Ler rolls his eyes at a new plant I can just say "biophilia hypothesis, dude, biophilia hypothesis." However, my green thumb has changed from a verdant shade to a very,very dark shade of forest green. It started with this innocent looking little violet, which was a thoughtful gift from a first-grader.

  

Dead. Totally dead. I came home one afternoon and it was covered in aphids. Where the hell did they come from? I quickly disposed of it and inspected my other susceptible plants. They looked fine. I kept my eye on them and all was good for a few weeks until...

dead. Like, over night dead. Poor little rose bush. Also a gift from students. Damn aphids.

 

Also, dead. Same crappy little bugs killed my basil. They must have been very motivated to make that journey. The distance from the living room window to kitchen sill must be like the Oregon Trail for aphids. The thyme plant, however, meet a kitty demise. That scrappy thing next to the sad basil was once a nice little bush. At least the aphids didn't get the satisfaction of killing that plant. The lavender is thriving though, since it is not pleasing to their palate.

 

Neither bug nor cat related, but the aloe in that picture is also dead. I tried to encourage new growth. Nope. No roots or shoots. Just dead. Dead. Dead. Dead.  

Looking Up

While sitting in my fab little workspace my eyes wandered into the living-dining room. Something, something felt off balance. I squinted and that immediately made Ler ask what I was scheming. I think I need something more than the candle sticks on top the bookcase. It looks lopsided, I replied. I could tell he immediately regretted asking. Nothing major, I reassured him. And then I did nothing for weeks, mostly because I wasn't sure what. All I knew was that I did not want more tchotchkes.

The answer is plants. Always and forever plants. The bookcase needed a little more "oomph" to balance out the amazing painting this lady made. The candle sticks needed some assistance.

I already had the fauxbois planter in my closet (it's one of a pair) and the ceramic dish was in the bedroom. I spent a whooping $6 to balance things out on an English Ivy plant and the "tropical folliage." I have no idea what it is actually, but the colorful, curly leaves told me it needed to be mine. And it had the same light and water needs as the ivy. Win.

In time both plants will fill in and look fabulous. Simple little tweak that makes me stupidly happy. And Ler is super relieved it didn't require a trip to IKEA.

What little tweaks have you made to your nest?

Goals & Getonits: At the Half!

With six (nearly seven!) months behind us it feels like 2013 has grown wings and has taken to brisk flight! This seems like a good time to check in on my Goals and Getonits. 

I know it is simply a matter of semantics, but I do not use the term resolution. As I said in my original post - a resolution is easily broken and allows little room for negotiation or failure. Goals and getonits are statements of intention in which effort is directed, but are flexible and allow for setbacks, failures, detours and happy accidents. I know the progress I have made looks more like the image on the right than the left.

 

Let's check in on my intentions for 2013:

  

Areas of (mostly) steady progress:

My Nest: Small Changes in the Entryway

When I last showed you my entryway it looked like this: 

 

Not a totally fair representation, since many of the items piled up were destine for donation. Before the Get-Rid-of-Crap-Spring-Cleanathon the entryway actually resembled this on most (winter) days:  

Functional, sure. Since it is the first thing we see when arriving home each day, and is the first impression guests get of our home I wanted to give this area some love.  As I have mentioned in previous My Nest posts, Ler and I wanted to live in our space with the stuff we already had and feel out how each space served its purpose. Some elements were already working super well for us, so we kept:

My Nest: Spring Cleaning & Workspace Update

Spring took its sweet time arriving, but I was already itching back in March to take on some spring cleaning. Back in February Ler and I made some improvements to our odd little kitchen, and we wanted to take a similar approach to our living and work spaces. Again, we wanted to live with what we had for a while and evaluate how we were actually using our space.

I'm about honesty. This what our living room and linen closets were looking like. Just a twee mussy and inefficient.

 

The workspace. It wasn't horrendous, but it felt stuffy. When we moved in we used furniture we already had and a few hand-me-downs to set up shop. Perhaps the biggest challenge for our apartment is the limited number and odd placement of outlets, and this room has only one. Our initial layout did not provide enough space for both of us to work and was a bit cramped for practicing bass. I kept hitting the light fixture with my scroll, or stabbing something with a bow. Frustrating to say the least.  In addition to being unattractive, the lantern light didn't really illuminate the whole room. It made a spot on the center of the floor more fitting for an interrogation scene. Ler and I sat down and made our list of priorities for the room:

1. A slimmer work surface to open up the space.

2. A sharable work space, perhaps a double wide desk?

3. Improved storage.

4. Better lighting.

More after the jump.

Scenes from My Weekend

1. Sun! Rain/sleet/snow/sideways-pellet-things for the last 12 days. Sun!!!

2. Moggers enjoying said sun.

3. Hunting for new recipes. 

4. Mo & I ventured to the place of all things magical and organizational.

5. After a successful Swedish conquest, we took on the Italians. Yeah, we ate at Olive Garden. Not ashamed in the least.

6. Getting back on track. Smoothie and lesson planning.

7. Did I mention the sun? Simandl spent most of Sunday perched in prime basking locations.

My Nest: Small Changes in the Kitchen

When Ler & I moved into our apartment in mid August we so excited to be back in Milwaukee (actually, we still are!). We enjoy city life, being near the lake, and having sidewalks and bike lanes*. Our apartment is in a fabulous 4-story brick and stone building that includes a view of a park and a sliver of Lake Michigan. Our neighbors are friendly and the property manager is probably the cutest mother-hen I have ever met. What's not to love? How about our awkward kitchen...

*Side note/complete tangent: Sidewalks are now a requisite for anywhere we live. Our last abode was in an area with few pedestrian/bike paths, and many did not actually connect or go somewhere. Why would someone plan a town that way? Anyway, after numerous close calls of being run-off the road or nearly hit by inattentive drivers I practically kissed the sidewalk when I went for my first Milwaukee run. I didn't, but I thought about it. Okay- back to kitchen stuff.

Our apartment was built in 1925, so it is full of charm and quirks. The kitchen is pretty poorly laid out. The refrigerator is oversize, and is in the only spot in kitchen where the door will open. The sink is tucked into a corner away from, well, everything. The stove is tucked into the opposite corner. While I am not in want of storage (the pantry is huge!) it came with literally 1.5 square feet of counter space. See the little tiny slice by the sink where my dishes are drying? Yup. That is it.

Ler and I unpacked and set-up our kitchen with what we already had. Very college dorm chic. Neither of us liked it, but we wanted to live with it for a while before we started making changes. As renters we cannot do anything major and need to work with what is present. We actually lived with this layout for nearly 4 months. It gave us time to discuss priorities and set a budget. Guess what our topped our wish list?

1. Prep space. Ler has been teaching himself to make bread and pastries, so the lack of workspace was making it hard to roll out and shape dough.
2. Improve storage, flow, and accessibility. The oversize refrigerator and L-shape makes for interesting traffic patterns. We wanted to streamline our workspace as best we could.
3. Get rid of the tacky, torn-up, mismatched shelf paper in the pantry. I hated the whole sticky mess. Blech!

With the magic of Ikea and Target our kitchen is in progress. The Flytta stainless steel cart and Limhamn wall shelves work wonderfully. The extra storage below keeps mixing bowls, towels and kitty food close at hand. It is the perfect size for rolling dough, and is easy to take care of. The wall shelf is home to our coffee and tea fixin's.

The wire shelving moved to our storage locker. The green cart moved away from the stove and replaced the wire shelving. It is a great little span of prep space by the sink. Certainly improves the flow in the kitchen. Also, the garbage and recycling bins now reside under the sink. More needs to be done in that area, but it functions just fine as is.

We emptied out the pantry and gave it a good scrub. I put in black and white contact paper on all of the shelves. Yay coordination! Hurrah for non-sticky shelves! Items were put back into the pantry in a more organized fashion. All dishes hang out together, baking supplies have a self, pots and pans are in a central location. Huzzah for order! Even Ler's KitchenAid has its own little nook.

There are more tweaks I would like to make. The windowsill and radiator will have to wait until it's not so crazy cold and we can open the windows. Some paint touch-ups, pantry improvements, and under the sink storage are just a few of the items on my list. However, I am quite happy with the current results.  Small changes, big impact.

What small changes have rendered big results in your abode?