sold!

the first day of spring seems like a perfect time to announce some big changes on the horizon. we sold our much-loved 1935 bungalow. robert bought this house 14 years ago. when we got married 6 years ago & I moved in, it was a bit of a bachelor pad. action figures on the mantel, a pool table in lieu of a dining room table, plastic mini blinds. you know. guy stuff. but we slowly saved our pennies & started updating it bit by bit to make it feel more like our home. we painted, bought some new furniture (no, plywood over the pool table would not suffice as a dining room table), updated the bathroom, added a deck & landscaped the backyard, totally renovated the kitchen, & turned this house into a home that we absolutely love.

we never thought we would want to sell it, especially after all of the blood, swear & tears we put into it. but robert has always had a weakness for mid-century homes, and a really cool one pretty much fell into our laps (more on that later). we planned to buy it & renovate it for a few months while our house sat on the market. but much to our surprise, the day we listed our house, we had a record-breaking number of showings along with 3 offers by the end of the day. we are grateful in how quickly it sold, but also trying to grasp the fact that we have to be out of here & into our new house in a matter of weeks. 

things are about to get crazy. but I did want to take the time to post some photos of our "finished" first home. while we are definitely excited about all that's to come, our first house will always be so very special to us. there is so much love in this home, I hope the next owner will feel it too. 

happy st. patty's day

my mom bought me some pretty "lucky" emerald sprinkles, so I made some cupcakes for st. patrick's day today. I added green food coloring to a box mix and then iced then with my favorite chocolate buttercream icing recipe. hope you had a wonderful weekend! 

google reader...

did you guys hear tragic the news? goggle reader is going to be no more come july. this is pretty how much I felt when I heard the news (minus the cursing):



you can follow me here at bloglivin'. let me know if you guys find any better options out there. 

vintage finds: arch floor lamp

and this, my friends, is why you take your graphic-designer-artist husband estate sale shopping with you. we hit up this sale late in the day on saturday (we really went because it was in a house located on our very favorite street in all of the city), so the expectations of finding something were rather low. I headed straight for the kitchen as robert made his way to the living area, and bam! this vintage arch floor lamp screamed his name. ironically, we had been looking for floor lamp just like this, but they all seemed to fall way out of our price range. but with a little negotiating, we walked out with this beauty minus $60! talk about a score. here are some before + after pics below. 

{it was just waiting to come home with us}

{pre-clean up}

{the pole was really rusted & dingy}

{with a little #0000 steel wool & some wd40, it shined up like new}

{here's the base before. we cleaned that up as well, although it could still use a good coast of paint at some point}

{perfect fit in our home}

{before + after}

swirl

I took this photo when we were at renningers last month. swirl ice cream makes me smile. 

hearts

I haven't used my sewing machine in far too long. so with valentine's day coming up, I thought it would be fun to use a bunch of the leftover felt I had to make some little decorative hearts. I just cut out two hearts of the same size, sewed them together leaving a space at the bottom to turn them under. I stuffed them with batting & stuck in a wooden dowel that I colored with a gold sharpie. then I just threw a little glue gun on the bottom to seal them up. xoxo

renningers antiques- second visit

you may remember we took a mini road trip to renningers last year & found some great treasures. they held it again in january, so we made another trip to see if our good luck would continue. my mom went us this time, and in the car on the way there, asked us what we were hoping to find. I said, "a big vintage disco ball" and robert said, "a 60s bullet planter". pretty specific (not sure what my obsession with having a disco ball has been, but I've been wanting one for years. go figure). 

we walked around the entire day without really finding anything too exciting (minus the food booths!). and then towards the end of the day, I spotted it from a mile away - a big ol' disco ball, glistening in the sun (cue the hallelujah chorus). the booth owner was all, "well I know how much I have into this and I can't let it go for any less than that." so of course I walked away. right as I was out of her booth, she changed her tune. robert came & helped me negotiate the rest. we ended up getting it for a pretty decent price (I suppose... I have no clue what the going rate for vintage disco ball is these days). 

for the rest of the day, robert was the most poplar dude at renningers carrying this "party on a chain," as I like to call it. seriously- people's reactions were downright hysterical. people would come up to him & just start dancing. some took photos with him, some people shouted out things like, "hey man, I like your ball" & "I've got disco duck on vinyl- let me play it for you!" my mom & I were cracking up. it was such a fun day. oh, and on the way out, robert spotted his vintage bullet planter too! 

{giant disco ball = instant popularity}

  {I fell in love with these vintage travel books}

  {this jade collection totally reminded me of martha stewart}

  {printer's cabinet}

  {we're in love with this heywood hutch}

 {a successful trip}