Farmers’ Market Flowers

I’m so excited that the Oak Park Farmers’ Market opened for the season today. Not a whole lot in the way of fruits and veggies here in Illinois/Wisconsin just yet (with the exception of asparagus – everyone had that!) but there were lots of fresh cut flowers, plants, and herbs. I’m hoping to do a better job of farmers’ market shopping this year (my menu/list making tendencies make it hard for me to just buy what looks good and then figure out what to do with it) but, in the meantime, I’ll be enjoying all my new flowers.

I hope everyone’s having a lovely weekend!

Tags: farmer's market, Flowers, Pink, purple

Big News!

We have big news! Exactly the kind you’re probably guessing – and we could not possibly be any happier.

More to come soon, I’m sure, but I’ve been accidentally keeping that secret for several weeks now so figured it was about time it was out in the open. :)

Tags: maternity

Won’t you be my neighbor?

Want to know a good reason to move within a mile of me? Because, if you’re extra lucky, I’ll sneak up to your back door and leave you these!

When I made the recipe the first time all I could think about was how cute it would be packaged as a gift. In full disclosure, I put the muffins in a ziplock bag before I delivered them but that just wouldn’t have worked for the photo. ;)

Happy housewarming, Liz and Roger!

Tags: Food, Gift Wrapping, housewarming gift

True (Laundry) Confessions

I am not good at laundry. I mean, I can put clothes in the washer and dryer and hope they turn out OK (disclaimer: I don’t even remember the last time I did that – Pete does all of our regular laundry) but ironing and stains have me beat. This isn’t usually a big deal because I a) don’t generally buy clothes that need to be ironed b) send clothes that do need to be ironed (like Pete’s work shirts) to the dry cleaners and c) am not that messy so don’t get a lot of stains on my clothes. (Also, now that I think of it, most of my clothes are from Target or Old Navy so even if I did get something on them it wouldn’t be a heartbreaking loss.)

However, this past weekend, I got on a spring cleaning kick and decided the couch slipcovers, window coverings, and our bedskirt all needed to be washed. In reality, they all probably needed to be washed months or even years ago which may be part of the problem here. But Sunday was the day I finally decided to do it. I treated the stains on the slipcovers with a stain stick and was pleasantly surprised that they turned out well.

I moved on to the white roman shades, sheers, and bedskirt. I figured this should be the easier of my tasks since they’re white and I could bleach them. The roman shades were the cleanest of the bunch. The sheers from our bedroom window were literally black. We open our windows whenever we can and I don’t really want to think about what we’re breathing in if that’s what they look like. The bedskirt was fine on the side of the bed away from the window, not so good on the side closest to the window (again, yuck.)

So I washed everything, with bleach, and they look the same as before. Did I do something wrong? Wait too long to wash? Not use the right bleach? Not use enough bleach? I didn’t dry them, so is there anything I can do to try again? Sigh.

Maybe if I had a laundry room like one of these I’d also (magically) be better at doing the laundry?

Source: organized-design.com via Jackie on Pinterest

Source: aglimpseofthegirlnextdoor.blogspot.com via Jackie on Pinterest

Source: centsationalgirl.com via Jackie on Pinterest

Tags: laundry

{Kitchen Reno} Finished – and finally photographed!

At long last, the “After” photos of the kitchen! It has been done for quite a while (with the exception of putting things back on the wall which still isn’t really done) but we’ve been busy hosting dinners and brunches, spending time with family, and all kinds of other fun things. My apologies that it took so long to make the time to clean things up and photograph it for you. :)

Now then, let’s take one more look at “Before” so you remember just what we were working with:

And, without further ado, here’s what it looks like now:

(The color is a little off in that second image but you get the idea. This whole post is reminding me that I need to spend some serious time learning how to set the white balance in my camera. Oh, and please ignore the picture frames that need to be filled and the wall that isn’t quite done yet. More to come!)

Closeups of my favorite things – the light fixtures, backsplash, and drawer pulls.

So, what do you think? We really couldn’t be happier with how everything turned out!

(P.S. Getting the kitchen done was on my 30 Before 30 list so I get to cross it off now…even if it was a little late!)

Tags: 30 Before 30, Before and After, Kitchen, renovation

{Kitchen Reno} What’s wrong with this picture?

Hello! Still here. Still waiting for the last two panels from the cabinet maker to arrive.

I had a feeling this would take a while (the cabinets originally took 5 weeks to come in) so I wish the guy would have just said that instead of suggesting he could get them done pretty quickly. Oh well. Almost there. I’m just ready for everything (including the re-organizing and re-decorating which is coming along slowly but surely) to be done!

But, while we wait, I thought we could play a game called “What’s wrong with this picture?” (As a bonus, it gives you a good sneak peak of the cabinets and hardware!)

Now, you have to ignore the fact that there’s no countertop, sink, faucet or backsplash. I wasn’t expecting any of those. And I should clarify that by “wrong” I mean something that is completely a personal preference. But is anyone else with me on not putting a knob (or in this case, pull) underneath the sink when that’s not a drawer? Ugh. I know in the grand scheme of life it is not a big deal but it made me want to cry. I swear I’m not usually so dramatic but with so much planning and money going into the project I just want it to look exactly how I pictured in my head. To me, that is not a functional drawer so it doesn’t get any hardware.

In my defense (because I bet I sound a little crazy here), I was very laid back and understanding of the construction related adjustments they had to make based on what was in the walls/ceilings/etc. And, in the contractor’s defense, he was extremely apologetic, made arrangements to fix it (it’s one of the panels we’re waiting for), and asked what I wanted on every other detail. (Ironically, on every other detail we were in agreement or I took his lead if I wasn’t sure.)

So, all’s well that ends well in my book. I just can’t wait for it to be gone. :)

Tags: Kitchen

{Kitchen Reno} How Niklas Hjalmarsson saved the day

Hello! Sorry I’ve been away for so long. A friend texted today that she was afraid the kitchen renovation had done me in. In case anyone else out there is wondering, I am still alive and things are actually progressing rather nicely. In fact, we’re almost done! We’re waiting on a few final things (including some panels that needed to be ordered late from the cabinet maker) but hopefully those will be done soon too. Of course, things are a little more chaotic than normal and when I am at home I generally try to avoid it all by hiding in our room. So far, this is very good for my sanity. Not so good for blogging.

It would be hard to give updates without ruining the final reveal, but we can start talking about a few things that have gone wrong. Let’s start with the biggest error (which was totally on our part) that could have also been the most expensive.

When we started planning, our intention was always to extend the laminate that’s throughout the rest of the living space into the kitchen. Light maple looking laminate. We had seen plenty of it at the home improvement stores. And we even had an extra piece which had the name and serial number on the back for an exact match. No problem.

When we were getting estimates from contractors, the one we hired is the only one who expressed concern at the feasibility of this plan. We assured him we were set. Now, in hindsight, why I thought we were set is beyond me. It’s entirely un-characteristic of me to think something will work until it has actually worked. But, with my momentary lapse in judgement, off we went ordering cabinets and proceeding with plans before we had the actual product secured.

The day after we ordered the cabinets, I decided we needed to order the floor as quickly as possible. And this is when things started to get a little more difficult. Turns out Armstrong no longer makes the same exact flooring. Oh. And do you know how many color, wood grain, and plank size variations laminate flooring comes in? By my estimate, a gazillion. Sure they all look the same when you’re not trying to match them to something but, let me assure you, they are all VERY different.

We checked every local home improvement store. Nothing close. We had a local Armstrong dealer trying to help us find the current version of our floor, which he promised is something they do all the time. It was close, but not great. I searched and searched and searched online. No luck.

I started to have a minor breakdown (mostly because I was so angry at myself for not having it figured out before.)

Right about now, I started thinking about how we’d go about replacing the floors throughout the entire entryway, kitchen, and living areas. We were planning on extending the existing floor because otherwise there’s no place to stop and start something different. If we couldn’t find flooring to extend into the kitchen, it would all need to be replaced. I actually don’t like the floor very much so I wouldn’t be too sad about replacing it. However, that was not in the plan – financially or logistically. I was already worried about the disaster soon to come. I couldn’t imagine moving around furniture and replacing the floor too.

My meltdown progressed from minor to major.

And then something funny happened. Pete gave me a hug, as he generally does when I’m upset. On the TV, the Chicago Blackhawks game was just ending. Niklas Hjalmarsson was recognized as one of the players of the game. Niklas Hjalmarsson made me think of Ikea because I think this commercial is hilarious. And then it hit me that our floor looked like it could come from Ikea!

My meltdown shifted back slightly towards hope.

I wasn’t sure if Ikea sold flooring but of course they do. Tundra in maple effect. Exactly what I had been looking for all along.

Here’s an image of the transition. Can you see where the color changes slightly? It’s in the center of the picture, right at the opening of the cabinet doors. Not too bad, right? It’s not a perfect match but it is close enough to do the trick for now. Best of all, this was a solution that cost less than $100 instead of $400-$600 for the option from the Armstrong dealer or who knows how much to replace it all.

Thank you, Niklas Hjalmarsson, for saving me thousands of dollars and a lot of anxiety. I bet you never thought your commercial would have that effect!

Tags: Kitchen, renovation