Home Stretch

The sun stays up until 9 o'clock now. For some reason the late afternoon light makes me so happy and motivated. As the light turns shades of orange and red, my little brain tells me it is time to go on a hike or have a photo shoot in the garden. Mostly I want to lounge in the backyard with glass of lemonade in a pair of shorts and sunglasses and listen to pop music. Someday soon, when Will and I have our own place, I will be sure to indulge myself.

It is seriously bizzar how the sunshine makes everyone so happy. Will was in such high spirits that he made homemade oreo-cookie ice cream. Milk, sugar, cream, salt and oreos. Only five ingredients! And it only takes 15 minutes to make with our new ice cream maker. Next time, I hope he uses fresh blackberries or peaches or strawberries. I've been on a fresh fruit kick lately. Probably because everything tastes so good right now! Greek yogurt, honey and fresh fruit could be the only thing I ever eat for the rest of my life so long as the berries are fresh and sweet and as amazing as they are right now.
Despite all the good feelings I get from a little sun exposure, I have been homesick as of late. Along with a feeling of being a rat in a cage. So on Wednesday Will, Kelly and I all went to the Angels vs  Mariners game in Seattle. Baseball reminds me of a simpler time in my life. It reminds me of being in high school and meeting my friends at the movie theater on a Friday night. It reminds me of falling asleep in the back seat of my parents van, listening to am radio.
The Angels lost, unfortunately, but by that time I had plenty of beer and stadium food in my belly so I was happy and content and sleepy. It was a good time. We had awesome seats right on the ground floor behind second base. I felt I could reach out and shake Ichiro's hand... I should have. Maybe that would have distracted him from catching every fly ball. Damn him.

Deans are on the home stretch! We are on the last leg of our journey, people! Soon we will be making new memories in a new home with old friends :)

just enough to keep me going

I feel like I'm letting a lot of things slip through the cracks lately... I feel overwhelmed by my daily responsibilities as a result. Mostly because of a few new obsessions: Blog design, DIY room makeovers and digital scrapbooking. Since Kelly moved in, my main focus is converting a dining room into a guest bedroom. Sound ridiculous? That's because it sort of is. Not only is it completely exposed to the rest of the house, and is it adjacent to the stairwell, it also has a giant iron chandelier in the center that everyone keeps hitting their head on. I fear that Kelly may have a concussion at this point. We  finally finished painting the walls back to a neutral shade of white. Now the room is a blank canvas.

A few snags in the decorating process:

*Doors. Without doors, Kelly refuses to put in any furniture out  fear that the dogs will pee on it.

*Kelly has no furniture to begin with. Henceforth, we've been scouring thrift shops, yard sales and dumpsters.

here is a piece that I was really excited about. I loved its simplicity and felt it would be really easy to repaint and add cute hardware. That is, until we realized just how bad of shape it is actually in. Which is discouraging. It needs some serious structural updating, particularly the drawers, and the wood is actually really  low quality.

so instead of trying to restore the piece, I'm thinking it would be a lot easier and more fitting for the dresser itself to go with a "dumpster chic" look. If you think that sounds awful, stop being so judgmental!Anthropologie is famous for this style of furniture. They mix elegant shapes and patterns and bright fabrics with tattered wood and distressed metals. I think its beautiful. 

so with a little more distressing of the wood via paint, stains and sanding, and a few added pieces of beautiful hardware...

I think we could have something that could belong in a room like this:

I mean, the dresser was only $5 and to get it fully restored would cost a few hundred extra- which we don't have so ... I like this idea. Plus, Kelly and I spray painted some frames we found hiding in the garage to use either as a headboard or something else and they seem more along the lines of shabby/dumpster-ey too so ... we think it will look pretty cool!

All this week we will be playing around with the dresser and getting the frame on the wall. Hope we get it done quickly! Kelly needs a room asap!!!

With love,
jess