Making-home

Wall coverings.

It seems about time to write something about this place that we're living in. It's cute.

Well, it has a lot of potential to be cute; unfortunately I'm a little lacking in the time to make it cute. So we're making slow progress and taking baby steps in the beautification process. First off, try to unpack some of the bags and boxes. But thanks to an old book of contemporary botanical paintings from Capitol Hill Books and some IKEA frames, we now have a little 'artwork' inthe entry hallway.

Despite the horrible coloring of the photo, they look pretty cute on the (beige) walls and near the (worn sage green) bench. Though we didn't have the space for new acquisitions, last weekend I found this gem at Eastern Market that had to come home with us. It's over 100 years old from Northern China and is oh-so beautiful.

As you can imagine, it's a little interesting to combine two homes into one. Even more so visually. With my green-beige-red leaf curtains and Rich's red-blue-white checked couches in the living room, something had to change. So I made a trip to G Street fabrics and recovered the (rather awful) checkered pillows with a more neutral taupe linen and chocolate brown cotton.

I refuse to buy most art, and all of my finished work is years old at this point, so I decided to make a set of wall decorations for the living room. To help tie together the wide spread of color going on in there, I opted for an obvious description: a set of pantones. I haven't actually affixed the text to the canvases yet, but the canvases are painted and hung and this is a mock-up including the text. Unfortunately the beige wall and incandescent lights aren't helping, and the wall actually curves (making things look crooked)...but you can get the idea...

Giving Thanks in style.

In addition to setting up house, we're also getting ready to host. I am officially cooking my first Thanksgiving Dinner this year. Luckily the guestlist is all international except for two men who eat like linebackers, so I'm confident that whatever comes out of the oven will be consumed and not be compared to their usual family meal.

Unfortunately, a dining table is the last thing on our 'to-get' list. A creative use of trays and boxes has made this mostly non-problematic so far; but we're not going to eat Thanksgiving Dinner a-la-picnic. So, fully anticipating that we will find and get a table between now and Thursday, I have started gathering some things for the table.

First, a lovely assortment of flowers from Blue Iris in Eastern Market


And some cute little pearl onions from Trader Joe's


And a piece of red and white cloth from IKEA that will become a tablecloth, along with some red linen/cotton cloth from IKEA that is working towards becoming a set of napkins.

Fear not, I will have the fire extinguisher and take-out menus handy.

Happy Thanksgiving!