Lovely days and lovely activities

Yesterday was the beginning of the gorgeous weather and it's only getting better from there. Yesterday- 58, today- 72, tomorrow 79, Friday 84... ::sigh::

Thankfully there was no rain after I got home from work so I was able to fill the nail holes and sand the buffet down a bit. Today I should be able to condition and stain the wood, so I am right on schedule. Yay!

We've talked to a bunch of our neighbors who seem to be equally impressed with our work. One guy even offered up his woodworking tools if we needed them. How sweet! I guess you see a lot of people coming and going when you're outside for hours on end, but it's totally worth it. I'm already thinking about what other furniture we need. End tables come to mind. How hard could they be after a buffet with drawers? :)

Also: thank you so much for all the positive comments- we're so happy with how it's turning out. It was nerve wracking to create a piece of furniture from scratch, but it hasn't been too bad. Time consuming- of course. Necessary to double triple check measurements- without a doubt. Difficult with the proper tools- not really. So for those out there itching to give it a try, I highly recommend it!

And lastly: I am so excited for this weekend. It's our five year dating anniversary and while we don't normally celebrate the date anymore, I am just too sentimental to pass it up. We'll be spending some time at a lovely B&B and enjoying ourselves outside while surrounded by nature. It looks like it will be the perfect weekend for it, so that gets me even more excited. I'll be sure to post a recap with a ton of pictures once we get back.

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Busy bees!

Where did this weekend go? Between a trip to Home Depot to buy the buffet supplies, helping my dad buy and set up his new computer and actually building the buffet, we had like two hours of down time all weekend. But it was worth it!

The buffet took a little over nine hours to make, excluding the staining. I still have to do that! We were lucky enough to finish minutes before the rain started, so I didn't even have the option to do that yesterday. Since it's supposed to rain today and tomorrow I'll plan on sanding, pre-treating and doing the first coat of stain on Wednesday. Hopefully it goes smoothly so I can do the second stain Thursday and the coat of poly on Friday. (It's good to be optimistic, right?)

I took a ton of pictures along the way and here are a few:

Drawer housing (yes, it's level)

The rest of the wood waiting for us

Legs are on!

Starting the trim work

More trim work

Completed trim

One drawer in, four more to go

I'm going to leave you hanging here. :) I hope to have pictures of the finished product before we go away this weekend.

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It's baaaaack

The Mr. and I stopped by the grocery store today and our favorite beer is back!

Mmm, Honeymoon. And while we love Blue Moon as well, their summer ale is seriously top notch. The Mr. threw two cases in the cart... that shows you how much he loves it ;)

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Loving this fabric

A few weeks ago I posted about looking for some fabric and I randomly stumbled on a print that I love. It's a fabric by Braemore called "Basha" in Marble. The blues, greens and khakis are perfect and I think there is just enough color to keep it interesting (without being BLAM!! in your face).

Sadly I cannot find a single place online that carries this fabric. The store Project Pretty linked to is a wholesale company, so that's a no-go. Now I am worried I won't be able to find this fabric anywhere and I'll have to start back at square one. Would it be weird to call local fabric stores and see if they have it in stock? I might have to resort to that...

UPDATE: I think I found it:

The colors are a bit different but I'll attribute that to photography and screen resolutions. Turns out it's actually Mimosa in Sandstone by Waverly. Not close... at all. Either way, I still love the colors so I'll probably measure the bench when I get home and order some!

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My latest purchases

It's been a fun few days for me since I've bought a couple things I've had my eye on for quite some time.

I mentioned here that I bought some large letterpress letters (our initials), but I also bought some smaller letterpress numbers. 9, 2 and 2... to be exact. As in 9/22- our anniversary :) I'd been planning on this for a long time and the price was discounted, so I jumped on it. So happy I did, and I can't wait to get them in the mail!

Next is what I am probably most excited about. Last year I bought my calendar from Le Papier Studio and fell in love with most of her offerings. Number one probably being her antique silhouette necklaces. I'd been hoping she would create a silver option and she finally did. I was able to buy a few things for a fraction of the original price thanks to Jasmere. Those items were:

The necklace! (Which I got for $24)

Couple silhouette print ($22)

Hearts and hands print ($20)

I'm hoping to put the two silhouette prints up on our photo wall. I think they'll add a fun touch.

Last, but certainly not least, are these adorable baskets. When we build the buffet we'll need some storage underneath so I went ahead and purchased these babies (for just $9 a piece!) . I looked around on Etsy and at Eastern Market for vintage ones since I love my others so much, but I just couldn't stomach spending hundreds on baskets when the entire buffet will probably cost less than $100 to make.

We're heading back home tomorrow and I'll have a ton of packages coming. The UPS and FedEx guys will be my best friends :)

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Theodore Roosevelt Island

Yesterday was a gorgeous day so SGS, the Mr. and I headed downtown for some brunch at Ris. Just like iEatDC said- it was delicious. The complimentary donuts were sooo good- I could have had just those! I chose eggs over easy with potatoes and a side of toast and it was perfect. My brunch companions each chose an omelette and both looked delicious.

After brunch we headed to Theodore Roosevelt Island to walk around and enjoy the lovely day. Thankfully it reopened for the first time all week that morning, but some of the trails were still pretty muddy. Doesn't matter. The 70 degree weather was enough to make me forget about the mud and mush :)

The footbridge leading to the island

"Pretty" vandalism

Statue in the middle of the island

Spring is officially here :)

I could have sat on this bench allll day

SGS and me <3

We could not have asked for a more perfect day to be out and about. Today was also gorgeous and we went to Eastern Market to look around. I found some huge (8") letterpress letters for just $10 a piece, so I bought a few of those. Otherwise it was fun to just walk around and have breakfast at Marvelous Market.

No progress has been made on the buffet, which is sad, but I'd put this project on the back burner for months if the weather was like this every weekend! Hope you had wonderful weather wherever you are.

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Pow-pow-power tools!

That's what we're the Mr. is going to be playing with this weekend. I'll help if he lets me :) What are we going to be building? This!!!

Every time I look back at pictures of the cube storage in our kitchen I get more and more annoyed by the black and brown combo. I need cohesion, people! I also didn't like the open storage right next to the dog bowls. Big jowls + water = big mess that I don't want on my plates! So we're going to move the black buffet we had back into the kitchen and make this for our dining room. It's 10" shorter than our previous IKEA hand-me-down and a lot more airy looking, so I think it'll be perfect.

We'll only cut the wood while we're at my sister's house since we don't have a vehicle that would allow for transport of a 60" piece of furniture. But nailing/gluing everything should be easy as pie with the finishing nailer and a square. SO excited!

And if you've been pining away for a piece of Pottery Barn or Williams Sonoma furniture but don't want to spend the money- check out Ana's site. She has a ton of plans and a lot of them are for beginners. Kind of sad I didn't know about this site before I bought our dining room table. How cool would that have been to say "Yeah... I made this table."??? I still love my table though, so it's all good :)

I also love the bragging board. Really gives me hope that we can do this! It also helps that when I emailed the plans to the Mr. he said "I like it and I'm confident I can make that." Heck yeah!

Results won't be posted for a week or two, but stay tuned! I'll make sure to take a ton of pictures and I'll include a cost breakdown for those interested in doing something similar.

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Five things I'm thankful for this St. Patrick's Day

1. This guy. He turns seven (!!) today and even though I probably won't see him, I sure am thinking about him.

2. Being able to wear my diamond studs again. There was a span a few years back when I never took them out. One morning I woke up and my ears were totally infected and I wasn't able to wear these (or any other earrings) for a year or two. This morning I was able to put them in without a problem. Yay!

3. A paycheck. In this economy, I feel extremely lucky to have started a new job that pays more. Even more lucky that the Mr. is still happily employed. That's not something we can take lightly with the unemployment rate at over 10% still.

(Note: this is not how I feel about my job... I just think it's hysterical.)

4. This big, furry, ball of skin we affectionally call Huckleberry. Why? Because he knows what "sleeping in" means, unlike our two dogs.

5. And lastly- for the weather the rest of the week. Highs in the 70s with the sun shining and rain at bay. My ideal forecast!

What more could a girl ask for? :) Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!!

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Dreaming of a vacation

The rainy weather now followed by beautiful sunny days has got me longing for a warm vacation. It's been about a year since we went to Israel and while we've had smaller vacations (West Virginia, Philadelphia, Atlanta), I am getting the travel bug again. It doesn't help that we just watched Couples Retreat and they were at a gorgeous locale.

I talked here about going on a big vacation in 2010, and it might be time to start planning that trip. We'll most likely be going around our wedding anniversary so something above and beyond would be nice. Maybe staying in huts over water, like these:

But at like $700 a night, these may be a bit out of our price range. So maybe we'll just go to Hawaii ;)

So many places, so little time...

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Dreary days = sad Mrs. Foot

This rain is killing me. I stared out my window at work allll week to see the sun and green grass, and then when I can actually go "home" and play, it's raining and dismal. I'm looking forward to tomorrow since the rain is supposed to finally stop. ::fingers crossed::

To celebrate, I am really hoping we can make it into DC for brunch (thanks for the rec iEatDC!) followed by a stroll around Theodore Roosevelt Island. It's been so long since we got out and enjoyed each other, so I think it's time. Hopefully SGS can join us!

Just as I was about to post this I realized it's only Monday, which means my yummy brunch and site seeing aren't for another five days. Boo. Hiss.

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Today was a good day

1. I now have access to my building, so I don't have to be escorted in, out, to the bathroom etc.

2. I was able to actually do work today since the building airflow issue from yesterday was fixed.

3. There was very little traffic at 4pm today, so getting to my sister's house was easy peasy.

4. It's Thursday, which means tomorrow is Friday... and hopefully I'll be able to stop by my old company to see my friends!

On another note, I got my first flu shot in... 10(?) years. And I actually got both the seasonal and pandemic H1N1 shots. Turns out my job requires it. Thankfully I'm not in pain, but I'm planning on waking up to some sore deltoids.

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I apologize in advance to my male readers

(Don't say I didn't warn you.)

I've been thinking about fabric a lot lately. It doesn't help that we had to go to the fabric store for the Mr.'s latest project, either. Fabric for what, you might be asking? If you're not asking that question, just shush :)

For my dining room bench

It's a really comfortable bench, but I think a padded cushion would help the comfort and cuteness factor. The only problem is, I don't know what color or pattern to use! I change out so many items in that area (table runner, decorations) that I think neutral is the way to go, but I don't want to go with a boring beige. Maybe subtle stripes like this gorgeous throw pillow:

I've always loved ticking fabric! But would something like that blend too much and just be "blah"? Maybe something with a bit more drama, like this:

But does that style clash with the farmhouse style of the table? What about a simple pattern that pulls in some calm colors, like this one:


Too much pattern? Not bright enough? Gah! I've also thought about a sky blue or green to tie in with the nearby wall colors, but I don't want to be matchy matchy.

So here is where you come in. I need suggestions! Links to fabric! Links to colors! Links to cushions already made! Any and all help would be appreciated :)

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