LOOKING SO FANCY

near the beginning of n's summer vacation she had an ambitious idea to dig up a bunch of grass and build some lower tiered flower boxes in the front yard ... well as n's extended summer vacation comes to a close ... n and her fabulous mom have had a couple weekends to sneak away from the never ending house finishing list and step out in the sunshine that finally came and build the planter boxes and finally fill them up with cedar mulch and i must say they are looking so lovely

with the addition of our spacious and lovely veranda came the challenge of trying to salvage the skinny walkway and make it appear larger than it really is ... enter some gravel from the backyard used to make the teeny tiny sidewalk appear bigger

the flowers now reach all the way to the sidewalk

who doesn't love symmetry? it was a little tricky to get this but i think it looks fab

side profile ... so nice to have the front almost done

i am pleased with the end result

cheers ~n

A FUN LITTLE PROJECT

j and i have lots of fantastic pictures in our house but it's always nice to add in your own things to make a place more homey ... enter one of n's many projects from the summer ... redoing and updating j's office

part 1 ... i took some of our travel pictures from our fantastic vacations in hawaii, london and new york ... i developed them in black and white, bought some frames and ta da ... instant personalized art

next i moved the paintings out of j's office, found a spot on the wall and put up the arrangement so it can remind him of happier more relaxing times if he's having a tough day at work :)

part 2 ... do you ever save tickets, brochures or postcards from your travels and never know what to do with them besides storing them in a box? me either ... until now ... i had an idea to get some deeper frames and arrange the leftover reminders of our trips into collages ... i made 2 for our new york vacation and 2 for our london travels

here they sit on the table awaiting a spot on the wall in j's office ... it took a bit of time but i decided to go with a color theme for each frame

new york new york ... aah the memories of staying at the landmark waldorf astoria hotel, going by accident to the museum of modern art (moma) instead of the met, our new york city pass which was so helpful to explore the city sights at a fraction of the price, sightseeing at the empire state building and traveling on the circle line ferry to see lady liberty and ellis island ... all those fond memories in one little box

more new york ... this box includes tickets to yankee stadium during the second last season before they moved ... where we got to see a-rod, jeter, posada, clemens, matsui, the legend that is riveraas they played the tigers with pudge and the chance to boo sheffield, using the metro card to ride the subway to the game and having some super friendly homeless subway guy take our money, disappear for awhile and actually return with our card loaded up for our ride to the bronx (for a small donation of course), our second row broadway tickets to phantom of the opera, and remembering the city all lit up at night

moving onto london ... no stop to london is complete without riding the tube and making sure to please mind the gap, our travels included stopping by the national gallery in trafalgar square to admire way too many paintings, finding the iconic red telephone booths that line the streets, and the double decker buses that are everywhere, cruising the thames on a river boat and admiring the many bridges that we walked over again and again and also a stop to shakespeare's outdoor globe theatre

london and pieces of england ... this box has memories of our one day trip out of the city to soak in the history of the mysterious stonehenge, the city of bath and the amazing windsor castle, of course just like new york this london trip also used the city pass which opened up exploring the sights at an exceptional price, tours of the majestic st. paul's cathedral and the surreal westminister abbey and remembering big ben the official time keeper of the city

i found the perfect spot for these on the wall beside the closet door in the corner ... offset them to make it not so straight and boring

part 3 ... i added in another picture of a street map of new york city (courtesy of ikea), moved j's desk and angled it against the corner, and slid one of his filing cabinets over beside it

i think these two projects found a perfect spot in j's office and remind us of all the fun that we've had over the years

cheers ~n

FIXING THINGS UP

n has been busy fixing up the front yard and trying to make it more beautiful ... anything to take the focus off the disastrous mess of the house ... things have been planted, flowers are blooming and things are definitely looking more pretty ... the planter boxes still have to be built and the cedar mulch put in but here's a peak at the changes

p.s. n can't wait to be done work and have a whole bunch of time to keep working on this:

the shrubs moved from the backyard now sitting pretty in the front

adding more flowers and shrubs to the middle plant box

soon to be a collection of pinks, blues and purples ...

can't wait to see all the prettiness

looking up from the sidewalk

all the grass n dug out the previous weekend ... slowly but surely

waiting for the boxes to be built and cedar mulch

cheers ~n

THE GRAND PLAN ...

the other day i had a bit of a panic attack as i was planning with one of my teaching partners ... there are less than 3 months left until school ends !!!! where did the time go?!?!?! ... and then it hit me ... i now have 5 months left to put a bunch of pieces together for the fall ... well time to spill all the details about n and j's grand plan ...

... this fall j and n are going to move across the pond for 4 months and n taking a leave of absence from teaching and is going to grad school ... she is going to be studying in london, england ... n is taking her master's in education and international development through the institute of education (in a very teeny tiny nut shell she will be studying educational systems used worldwide and education program planning for developing countries) ... that's right we are going to london baby ... part of this incredible opportunity also includes a study visit to paris for a week to work with the international institute of educational planning and UNESCO ... that is why j and n have been taking french lessons ...

we are so excited and can't believe that in less than 5 months we are going to be living in a flat somewhere in this city:

cheers ~n

THERE'S NOTHING MORE BEAUTIFUL THAN AN ORGANIZED KITCHEN

the other night j and n made the trek to the local ikea to pick up a few more supplies to finish organizing the kitchen cabinets ... because the store is so big and we left so late we were there right until they kicked us out ... with our recyclable boxes in hand we came home and set to washing the supplies to ready them for their use the next day ...

n being way too excited and a bit nerdy about organization decided to reorganize the kitchen with j at 10:00 pm (usually n's bedtime but i was just too excited about the organizing that i probably wouldn't have slept anyways)

everything found a perfect place and by taking the time to put food in proper containers and quickly move things around so the kitchen flowed better we actually gained a ton more space in our petite kitchen ... we were debating whether or not we should put in a pantry on this one wall but both of us agreed that it would just make the kitchen feel crowded and squishy ... we've worked really hard to open up the space and make the 600 square feet on the main floor seem bigger and we are happy that we don't have to cram more stuff in for the sake of storage

one side of our kitchen ...

in love with the sunlight streaming in

from the garden doors

... still need to find the tile for the back splash

(i would show you the other side but

the capping on the half wall is too ugly right

now once it's fixed you can peak at the

other side with the dishwasher)

my favorite dishes cupboard ...

organized mugs and new cups :)

the new coffee and tea spot and cookbooks ...

love the frosted glass jars ...

so clean and organized

this corner cupboard was a disaster stuffed with all our food and appliances

... hated going in there to get stuff out

now all the baking supplies and containers have a home in here ...

i feel like i can breath when i open it up now

the new spot for the food

all our baking supplies tucked in the drawer at the bottom of the oven

all the mixing bowls, cutting boards and pasta bowls

cutlery ... all bright and shiny

pots and pans

my absolutely favorite cupboard

(and the whole point of the trek to ikea)

look how beautiful the spice cupboard looks

even though most of the kitchen has been reorganized there are still a few spots that need some major help with being organized

like the utensil drawer

under the sink ... notorious for being disorganized

the new appliance cupboard ...

not quite sure how to help this one?!?

all that tucked away in our little kitchen and with some room to spare :)

cheers ~n

p.s. new dining room table is going to be delivered next wednesday ... can't wait to show it off

JUST FOR FUN

so very recently n was sent on a little adventure of finding a new haircut courtesy of j ... well here's a peak at the new do

flashback to a few weeks ago:

here's the inspiration:

here's the new do:

(why so serious n?

well it's because she is just trying to concentrate while taking a picture of herself in the mirror)

a smile just for j :)

cheers ~n

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE THE FIRST (AND NOW FINISHED!)

j and n are very excited! we have a finally have a home for all our lovely coats and shoes in the front entrance. this is huge as we have waited 3 plus years for this day and finally everything is put away, clean and organized the way it is supposed to be. after much searching the best solution (and affordable for us) was to take a trip to our local ikea, bring home the flat boxes and let the magic happen.

side note - the setting up of the wardrobe unit didn't take long at all ... securing it to the wall was the issue ... j did run into some trouble when attaching it to our lovely plaster walls ... as he was putting the screws into the wall the entire screw and a chunk of plaster disappeared into the wall! our solution was to put a piece of wood in front of the brackets and attach it to the studs and we are happy to report that this beast is going nowhere :)

the beautiful glass doors that n just had to have were another story ... n is gifted at being able to read and interpret those pesky ikea pictures fairly easily and her job is to get the pieces ready and direct j with what to do ... after 7 plus years of marriage and setting up multiple pieces of ikea furniture we have a beautiful system ... there was no such luck with the doors after 8 frustrating hours they finally came together and now we have storage!!

the closet does stick out quite a bit in the entrance way ... much more than we hoped ... even though n is a fabulous photographer and it doesn't seem that way :) the eventual and ambitious plan is to steal a bit of space from the guest room and sink that closet back a bit more ... but we have upstairs dormers to build and a basement to finish so that is a much later plan. we are just excited to have a home for our coats and shoes

let the merriment begin :) all these boxes just waiting to become something

zoe seems confused why these boxes have taken over her play area

the first day the frame is made ...

yeah so close but little did j and n know that it would take forever for the front to be put on

here are the gorgeous

(time consuming pain in the butt) doors

but they are amazing and totally fit our clean line square design for the house

here is each side of the closets with drawers and shelves at custom levels ...

notice the boot shelf height is not too tall or too short its just right

one of my favorite parts of the closet ...

the drawer with all these compartments that can fit all our closet odds and ends

(keys, watches, garage door openers, mittens and all of zoe's leashes)

and without further adieu a final picture of organization perfection

which makes j and n extremely happy

cheers ~n