getting settled

this was the scene infront of our new house in dallas last week. these moving vans are huge. they can fit 3 households on one van. incredible.
as i watched the boxes being unloaded and stacked, i wondered how we had accumulated so much stuff.
and i considered applying to hoarders.after steve and i organized the kitchen, i got to work in the master bath. i found this great drawer liner at wal-mart (my nearest superstore) and lined all the bathroom drawers with it. it resembles grasscloth. love it.
pixel intended to help but fell asleep.here's a shot of one side of the bathroom.
these are some of my favorite pictures. they're antiques. i bought one of them in central pennsylvania last year while on vacation with my mom and sister. last christmas, my sister drove 2 hours to get me another one.
(click to enlarge)
next up... reassembling the pixelimpress office. but pixel and i are having motivation problems....and only feel like doing this.

we're here!

we carted this face and 2 other four-legged across 6 states, 2000+ miles. from seattle to dallas. and we're still sane.
this is utah. moab i think. utah is beautiful. i must go back.

and now we're off to buy a house! be back soon.

the countdown is on

the countdown to when we take our positions as such. (click on it to enlarge.)

this is us. us being our little family of steve, me, pixel, cali, and beauty. we have 54 hours remaining in seattle until we resume these positions in our nissan xterra for the next 5 days enroute to dallas. steve will most likely do the majority of the driving. i'll backseat drive from the passenger seat. notice steve's smirk and my non smile. that's because he likes to sing jingles until they are stuck in your head and you're left singing them for the next 17 days. he thinks it's funny. pixel will be harnessed to the back seat, lounging on her fluffy memory foam cushion. cali and beauty will reside in their makeshift 1.5 story condo (ie a large dog crate equipped with small litter box). i'll make that half story by stretching a piece of cloth between the top lid and bottom in the back half of the crate to create a hammock. cats love hammocks. hopefully so much so that they'll forget about the fact that they're locked in that crate for the next 5 days. and just in case they don't forget, i've got plenty of cat sedatives to make them forget.

wish us luck!

adding to to my birthday wish list

with this. giclee print by anne hartwell. so lovely.

reading nook

i've been mentally decorating our new home for weeks now. actually, since i stepped foot inside of it. here's the floor plan for the 2nd floor. there's a small room off the back. the builders/designers envisioned it as a homework area. you could even have the builder install computer desks in the small room. my initial thought for the space was for a storage area to hold pixelimpress supplies. gosh, how boring is that.

i then spotted this photo from house beautiful. a reading nook. i love this space. then the wheels were turning... what if we made our 2nd floor nook into a reading space?

here's some more inspiration.

this one i love, love, love. our nook even has a window.

what do you think? do you have a reading nook? do you want a reading nook?


photo sources can be found here.

we have landscaping!

steve went out to the new house yesterday and took some photos. the workers had a busy weekend... they landscaped, painted some interior rooms and laid carpet upstairs.

front yard. the little tree off to the back left is a crepe myrtle.
magnolia tree!! in the backyard.
and the kitchen has a fresh coat of dark taupe paint.
and under that brown kraft paper above is beautiful dark handscraped hardwoods.

where's pixel

scroll to the bottom to play 'where's pixel'. but first you might as well look at some pretty flowers.

this is our backyard yesterday evening. (click on these to enlarge them and get the full effect. things are looking lush. as they usually do in the pacific northwest.
lavender background and some purpley feather-like flowers. steve knows. i forget. honey? honey? name this plant please. i know it start with an "l".
the tall red flowers are crocosmia. and boy do their bright tubular flowers attract the hummingbirds. they're here every evening. lavender in the foreground.
the tall stalk like plant on the right is a stargazer lily. they're just about ready to bloom.
peach astilbe.
agapanthus! he gets an exclamation point because he made me wait 3 years for his appearance.
crocosmia.
pretty, pretty pretty lavenders.
hydrangea.
cutest puppy in the world. aka pixel.and speaking of pixel. she's in the doghouse right now for causing me some panic this morning. i don't let her out in the backyard unsupervised. i'm either back there with her or at a nearby window. she can't escape from the backyard if she tried. totally fenced in. no holes. but i'm a worrier. so i always panic if i look back and see she's not around. which happened this morning. i gave one sweeping glance and didn't see her immediately. i panicked. i walked right into the adirondack chair, stubbed my toe and hit my ribs on the tall back. cursing ensued. here was my view. do you see her? (click to enlarge)




yep, there she is.
sneaky little sh*t. hiding behind a lavender. she knows she's not even supposed to be in that flower bed. wait til i tell her daddy.

island storage

my new kitchen in dallas is similar to the this style and layout. except i have espresso color cabinets. i've never had a sink in my island before. it'll be a change for me. change is good, right?

see that paper towel holder on the island.

via

they should have thought ahead and done this. genius. and there's the farmhouse sink i'm leaving behind in seattle. i may never recover from that. seriously. i love my sink. the good news about having a sink in an island is... if you ever want to change out the sink, you only have to replace the granite on the island and not all the perimeter granite. (just thinking ahead, honey... it'll cost less $$ to change the sink than the therapy sessions to get over letting go of my farmhouse sink.)

let's look at some other clever island storage. trays anyone?

fridge drawer.
dishes. below my stovetop will be 2 drawers. i thought about doing something similar to this.
but then i saw this. bingo. linen storage.

last 5 photos via here

stuff

this is why i'm still craving summertime.
this was the sky yesterday morning as i drove into seattle to meet my friend. 11 am. sad, huh? we had a good time though. did some shopping. ate lunch. lisa is one of my oldest friends (oldest as in i've known her many years). she was my hairdresser in atlanta 23 years ago. and we've always kept in touch. she moved to seattle years ago. steve and i just 4 years ago. soon we'll be in separate cities again. but i know we'll always stay in touch.

back to that shopping part of the trip. i picked up this. read about it at erika's blog. she's a big fan of fresh products.

i hadn't bought lipstick in 4 years. the last tube i bought was for my wedding. i rarely wear it here in seattle. but i felt like i needed just a hint of color. love this. and it tastes like sweet lemonade.

and where will i be tonight?? glued to the tv watching this.

ben?or jp?
rumor has it she chooses jp. but i'm not sure. my guess is neither. we shall see.

is it too early....

to start my birthday wishlist? my birthday is 7.5 months away. i'll take a set of these please.


pantone postcards. 100 of them. i love color. i love pantone colors. i love paper goods. therefore i love these.


i first read about them here. you can buy them here.