IT'S OURS!!

Much to our surprise, we finally found a house that we both love! According to our realtor, it is just weird enough for me and just normal enough for Dave. She was right!

I cannot wait to paint and decorate, and unleash all of my ideas on this place like I couldn't do the past 10 yrs at my boring rentals. With the exception of the year I had a huge sunset mural on a wall (with a hidden door to a balcony!), I have been living in a world of white and beige, some shade of brown carpet, and a serious lack of windows.

That is finally over!!! Here's a couple pictures I snagged from online (none of this furniture is ours FYI, these are previous owner pics):

They just ripped all the carpet out for us! Look at those floors! Real hardwood that's been covered in carpet since 1960. I've always looooved hardwood floors, now I have a whole house of them!! And they're perfect! I'm envisioning yellow in here. A pretty sunshiny yellow that screams "HEY, THANKS FOR COMING IN! AREN'T I AWESOME?! WOOHOO!" or something to that effect. Dave is not sold on yellow, so I'm sitting here staring at a gallon of slate gray paint, hoping it doesn't darken up my room too much!

This here ^^ is the addition. It's got a 70s vibe to it and I'm in love. I never thought I'd like wood paneling, but I do. If it were our only living room, it'd be gone quick, but we have 2! See over by the sliding door, that brick on the floor? It's part of the hearth for the wood burning stove, shiny black brick! It's so pretty.

And a 3 season porch! It doesn't matter to me that Michigan only has 2 seasons, freezing cold and snowy- or slightly warm with no snow, I get to sit inside and enjoy the outside! I'm envisioning many summer nights sleeping here. I love to sleep outside in the summer. I don't love being the mosquito snack that I am.

I'm only including this ugly kitchen picture because sometime in the next year I'll be able to share a non-ugly kitchen picture. I don't know what's up with those cabinets. I've never seen any that didn't have flat fronts. They are not pretty. Also, carpet in the kitchen? What's up with that?! I'm willing to bet I'll spill spaghetti sauce on it within the first month. The counter will be moved to my workspace because it's so seriously awesome that I will likely never part with it. Dave hates it or I'd keep it in the kitchen forever. Mint green with gold flake, it's too fantastic. I wish I had a better picture of its awesomeness. I've got a vintage bubble mirror that will look fab with this thing.

All of the bedrooms have white walls and perfect hardwood floors. The bathroom is really pretty and white with no crazy ugly bathroom style tile and no pink (ugh so many people have pink bathrooms! Nearly every house we saw!). There's a full basement with an extra bedroom too! I can't wait to share before and after pictures!

We start painting tomorrow!!!

Comments

Since a few followers have asked about it, I wanted to share that I'm now moderating comments here. My blog is being spammed like crazy and I just don't have the time to delete dozens of comments that aren't even in a language I speak. Sorry, I know it's annoying! I won't censor you, if you don't like me and feel the need to tell me, go for it. If you want to spam the crap out of my comment section, too bad! :)

Don't let this stop you from posting, I love to get your feedback!



As soon as I find my lost-again camera, I'll be posting new house pics! It's getting so close! Only 7 days away!!

New News!

We bought a house! We close in 2 weeks! I have a post written up about with pictures and everything, and nothing I've had to say is more exciting than that, so I haven't been motivated to blog anything else. I don't want to jinx it blabbering on and on about how much I love it... yet.

My boy turns 5 in just over a week also! I can't believe I am the Mom of a 5 year old. The past half-decade has gone by so fast! He is the most amazing little person I have ever met and I love him more than I could ever put into words.

Instead of a party at home like we usually do, I gave him the options of a party at Chuckie Cheese or BounceLand since our house will be full of boxes for the next couple weeks. Instead he decided -- all on his own -- that he wants to go to "that big fishtank in Chicago" that I told him about a loooong time ago. So Shedd Aquarium here we come! I am too excited. That is so much better than Chuckie Cheese or BounceLand!!

I went to Chicago a lot as a kid. We always went to the Children's Museum or my all-time favorite The Museum of Science and Industry. I don't remember ever going to the aquarium. I remember being 21 and in Chicago all hungover the day after my birthday and wanting to go but we somehow ended up at Dave and Buster's. Fun, but not the aquarium. Im so excited. He is going to love it! My in-laws are going too! Have I mentioned I'm so excited?!

Ok so it's a summer picture... but the weather is so much sweeter then and he hasn't gotten any taller. :)

And The Good Goes Bad...

Just to update those of you that have asked today... our offer didn't get accepted on the house. The owners decided they don't want to counter offer either. Who does that? House hunting shouldn't be so depressing. If owners aren't selling houses out from under us, they are refusing to sell their house that's been on the market over a year. I don't understand it. I'm just so done. I don't want to look at anymore houses. I was so excited to finally be done after seeing every single house we could afford that we'd even consider living in that's on the market right now. Here in Michigan, that's a lot of houses. I apologize for my premature excitement. :-/

I'm convinced this is a sign that we shouldn't commit to living here forever. We should go somewhere warm and beautiful that doesn't get snow.

Where the sun always shines, money grows on trees, work is a place you never want to leave, and kids always behave and smother you with love....

I need a reality check.

On With The Good...

We are having quite a go of it over here. Some good, some bad, some ugly. I wrote up a really long post venting about all the bullshit in my life right now. I don't think that my negativity is getting me anywhere, so I deleted it. Taking a little break from the blog lately as it feels like my sounding board, and it's meant to share the beautiful things I make and find on Etsy and the good things about my family. Not a constant rant-fest as its been.

Blah. It's hard to be positive when the week goes this way. Could be worse. I'm the most positive cynic I know. Not dwelling on the bad--

On with the good--

We found a house!! After seeing dozens and dozens of them, it's finally happened! My husband and I agree 100% on it too. That never happens. Ok, not 100%, but at least 99.9%. This is how it went when we walked in:

Envision a 70s mint green with gold flake countertop in the kitchen....

Him: Wow, that's the first thing we're taking out of here!

Me: Wow! That's the only thing I want to keep in this kitchen!

Other than that, we're right on par with this house. We agreed we'd hire someone to take the counter out and reinstall it whereever my workroom ends up being, instead of smashing it out of its ugly misery as he'd like to do. There's no possible way I'm parting with that fantastic countertop. I love all things 70s. It's miiiiiiiiiine. Even if I have to hide it in the basement. I'm already picturing it paired with my bubble mirror that I shamelessly begged a former landlord for when I moved out.

I love the location, even though I swore I wouldn't be a Kalamazoo lifer. It's in Portage so not really Kzoo, right? Walking distance from a gas station (that has slushies!!), a Kohl's and an Old Navy (goodbye $!), and D's future High School. I'm also content in knowing I'll be in a city full of amazing local music and local beer. I know someone everywhere I go, and there's good potential for my business. It's also tucked back in a little subdivision on a dead end. There's already plans to set up a hockey goal and I will actually get my rollerblades on again. Prepare yourselves for a gory broken bone post in the future! I promise pictures!

We are so excited to finally have a place to call home, and have a yard!

We made an offer on Monday and are expecting a counter-offer by noon on Thursday!

*Cross your fingers!*

And because I've been too busy to really even think about Christmas cards this year, here's the picture we were going to use. Because yes, my family is crazy funny and I love them. :)

Also, I've added a new item to my Etsy shop now that I've finally perfected them! Pocket Mirrors! Only $4! Here's a little sample:

2.25" and backed with fabric (some with a layer of mylar, some without), all with a crystal clear real glass mirror! Come check them out!

Sunshine! Beautiful Sunshine!

That's right. Michigan has finally thawed! We even had 2 days in a row of 70+ weather and SUNSHINE! I almost forgot what that was. Of course this sunshine didn't come out much when I was on Spring Break the past 2 weeks! I hear the U.P. still has around 30" of snow!!

I was going to participate in another Strutt show today, but it was far too nice outside to commit myself to a day of sitting inside. I got to visit a friend and see her new place. Her new place is amazing! Like a smaller version of exactly what I'm looking for in a house right now. It's got a great creative vibe, lots of beautiful wood, and COLOR! I cannot wait till Dave and I finally find a house and can end this existence of tan carpet and beige walls. We've both whole-heartedly agreed that no walls in our new house will be anywhere near beige, ever. He did shoot down my kiwi green living room idea... but we'll see. I may win that war yet.

I finally got to try Chicago Subs today. Not that I've ever found myself saying "Hey! That little dumpy building looks like a great place for a tasty meal!" but nonetheless, I ended up there for lunch. My gyro was ginormous and excellent. It also made me feel slightly better after the comment this 'friend' made about some new items I've made, that I brought to show her. Basically, she scoffed at my prices even though I was offering her a very generous discount. She followed that up with a request for Ninja Pants at half price, using a fabric that costs more than twice the cost of the fabric I normally use. Oh how I'd love to go into more detail about this insulting conversation - I'm laughing really - but I'm not one to talk smack about someone I do care about, whether or not she understands what it means to make something with your own 2 hands. My mom would be so proud of me today. I just kept repeating "if you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything at all" over and over and over in my brain. Now that I'm back home I kinda wish I'd have told her off, especially since this isn't the first time she and I have had this conversation. I've had far too much success to let one person's uneducated opinion of handmade affect me too much.

The item I had in the Etsy Gift Guide sold! I was a little sad to lose that exposure, and then found out that I'm back in it! Yay! I'm right underneath an Etsy artist named hine. I bought a camera case from her a while back that is so freaking cool! It looks just like a camera! Except of course it's handstitched felt and buttons! Check out her shop, look at the pictures of the backs of the camera cases too! Such a neat idea!