This is my symphony

"To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not, rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconcious, grow up through the common - this is my symphony." [William Henry Channing]

{via Ali Edwards, March archives}

Lost and Found

It was a busy, busy weekend. After lots of debate over what to do with my Friday night....I realized that I was too stressed to do much of anything that I had actually planned on doing. Add to that the fact that there was a Cardinals baseball game that night...and a building had just exploded downtown I knew that my attempt to commute home after work could take multiple hours....so Andrew came out to the county instead and we had a "date". It felt good to go out with each other after weeks of running around being busy. We went to see Star Wars and it was pretty good. Much better than 1 and 2. I had low expectations but was pleasantly surprised.

Saturday we did some stuff around the house, attended a birthday party for our friend Makanaaloha's ninth revolution around the sun, and then headed to the apartment to clean. Our lease there ends Thursday so we have to clean up and hopefully get some of our deposit money back. Cleaning was awful! It took a good 3 hours...and it was so hot in there...yuck. Needless to say I passed out Saturday night around 9.

Sunday was more house stuff. I did manage to put the third and final coat of joint compound on my fireplace mantle. It looks great if I do say so myself!! I'll take another picture after it's all primed and painted. Then we had tickets to a baseball game in crazy, crazy heat!! Ugh... it's gonna be a hot one in Missouri this summer...

On the way home we got a call from our friend Aileen that her sweet little old dog Taylor was LOST. We went home, made some signs and hung them in the neighborhood. Afterward we all went to the neighborhood bar to eat some food and thank goodness Aileen got a call that someone had found him!!! =) Thank goodness!!!

Andrew and I also managed to stop at one of my favorite antique malls this weekend. We FOUND this awesome old dresser which is now the happy home for towels to wipe off Kula's wet feet, napkins, kitchen towels and a much needed junk drawer. Check out the sweet patina.






I also found this awesome fabric! From left to right you see apple green velvet, dark green mohair, and shiny green cotton chintz.



Here are some pictures of how my new "art" room is coming along.

Happy Birthday Gurumayi

Do you want to be happy? Be generous. Give credit to others' good qualities, others' virtues, others' goodness...become totally generous if you want to be happy.

~ Gurumai Chidvilasananda

The mysterious leaking dishwasher

This morning I walked downstairs and noticed an odd puddle of water on the kitchen floor. I commented to Andrew, "Where did this come from?", to which he quickly answered, "I don't know." Neither of us thought much of it because Kula has to be one of the sloppiest water drinking dogs I've ever met. She leaves trails of water throughout the kitchen on a daily basis, so I got a towel and wiped it up.

But then this evening as I was putting away my dinner dishes into the dishwasher I noticed it still looked wet around the baseboard of the cabinets.... and after further investigation I decided to take off the front panel of the dishwasher. Lo and behold there is another odd puddle.... and I can not for the life of me figure out where it came from??


The water valve is close to the puddle area....however the shape of the puddle does not seem to jive with the location of the valve. Needless to say I mopped up the water with some paper towels... but when I came back an hour later the puddle seemed "wet" again??? Where the hell is it coming from!!!???

I wanted to call this entry "The Money Pit" but I didn't have it in me. Somehow, deep down, I know that something much worse will rear it's ugly head some day (hopefully not soon!) and I'll need that entry title to really carry it's weight. Not to mention that just the thought of the words "the Money Pit" makes me want to cry after a week of silverfish, roaches, melted vinyl siding (I'll save that one for another day) and now a mysterious puddle.

In more interesting news I received one of the two rugs I ordered the other day. Take a look.


I'm not sure if I like it....??? I think it will look better once the walls are painted blue....but is it too busy?? Too light colored?? I got it from West Elm. It is the bi-colored jute. Guess I'll hold on to it until I paint and get the couch so I can get a real feel for it.

I added the second coat of joint compound tonight. Sorry, no pictures, it wasn't nearly as exciting or fun this time. It was much harder to gauge the thickness this time, I think I put it on too thin... and I kept getting dried chips from the other day in the plaster somehow and then it would dig groves into the compound! What a mess. Coat number three, the final coat, will be Saturday morning.

The magic of joint compound

Exhibit A: Textured plaster above my living room fireplace. Yuck..I hate it. I spent several days researching online and offline about how to get rid of it.





Exhibit B: Me spreading drywall joint compound over textured plaster.



Exhibit C: The finished first coat of joint compound above my living room fireplace. Go me!! I know it doesn't look that smooth in the close-up, but Hey...it's my first time! Not only that but after a little wet sanding this morning it looked much better. Tomorrow night is coat number 2 and hopefully this weekend....coat number 3, the final coat! Stay tuned!

Surround Yourself with High-Energy People

[Steph and me at the Parker wedding, June 2005]

"Choose to be in close proximity to people who are empowering, who appeal to your sense of connection to intention, who see the greatness in you, who feel connected to God, and who live a life that gives evidence that Spirit has found celebration through them."

[via The Power of Intention Cards, Dr. Wayne W. Dyer. I was already familiar and fond of Dr. Dyer but I first discovered these cards through Ali.]

Mr. and Mrs. Parker

Congratulations Leigh and John!!
What a gorgeous, GORGEOUS Day! 83 degrees, sunny, light breeze, low humidity. I love Missouri in June! The wedding was a blast! Here are some more snapshots:


[That's me on the far left, Michele, Leigh (the bride), Bridget and Rachel]


[Here are the groomsmen: Matt and my cutie pa-tootie Andrew]


[Here is a polarid of me and Andrew that was for the wedding guest book. For some reason Andrew and I are awful at managing to get our picture taken together. We've been dating for over 2 years and I swear we have like 3 pictures of us together!! Hopefully the one the wedding photographer took will come out well and we can get a copy. ]

The D Lounge

Friday....1:3oam.... Bachelorette girls night out.... Nice veil Leigh! =)

Oh...and note that I have no idea who the girl in the middle is. Steph, on the left, made friends with her in about 2 seconds and scored us a table in a standing room only bar. Go Steph! The night was actually a blast! It's been a long time since I had a girls night out. I have high hopes for the wedding reception on Saturday.

anxiety shades

[Kula and Della wait in the "safe zone" of the apartment as we move our stuff out. June 2005]

I feel, how Kula looks...

I'm sitting in the dining room listening to the neighbors across the street angrily yelling at each other, house (or maybe it's car) sirens going off down the street, my laundry tumbling in the basement. 2 of the sounds make me anxious, 1 sound comfortable... anxious wins.

I'm adjusting to this neighborhood faster than I thought I would. (excluding tonight...) I've enjoyed taking Kula for walks and looking at all of the unique, old homes. Sometimes it reminds me of being in Savannah, Georgia. So much character.

And then I hear stories from friends in the neighborhood about friends of friends in the neighborhood getting mugged at their door and shot in the head, although they manage to survive. These are not the stories I want to hear...although I try to stay rational and realize that this can happen anywhere...even in the suburbs...right?

I've spent the entire evening staring at shades and drapes on this computer....and still no decisions. This is why I tell myself I can not become a designer. I can not seem to visualize what will look good and what will not. Then the buyer's remorse kicks in just thinking about making a purchase. If only I was as good at decorating as I am at being anxious.

Before & After

I'm back online!!! (a big thank you to Andrew's brother Matt.... who assisted us over the phone from a beach in North Carolina) Oh how I've missed you blogger!

A super BIG thank you to our friend Alex who gave us the most valuable advice this morning. She told us to immediately go home and unpack everything, empty all the boxes and put things away. Then pick only one room at a time to renovate. Stay focused on that one room! Do not stray or else you will end up in a very dark and dreary place where you are yelling at each other over who got plaster in the bed.

We followed Alex's advice and I feel 1000% better! I was so overwhelmed this morning I was having a panic attack. But now the place feels so much more homey and functional and I am feeling way more positive and optimistic. Alex, you rock!

When I downloaded my pictures from the camera tonight it said I had 91 photos! Holy cow! It's already pretty late tonight so I don't have time to start from the beginning but I know everyone is dying to see photos of the house so I will start with what I think is most interesting.

Here is a before and after of the kitchen. It is the only room we have painted so far. (This is going so much slower than I imagined!)


Here is a before and after picture of the living room. The before is the seller's picture, the after is a picture I took tonight.


Check out the bounty from my hydragena bushes! (people pay $3.99 a stem for these at whole foods!) And the doggie was my purchase today from our weekly antique run.



Evidence of Sara's green thumb.... Andrew and I got 2 of these flower pots at Crate and Barrel last night and I courageously planted both a perenial and some annuals in the same pot... I have no idea what happens once winter comes but for now I think they look pretty good.

Hi, my name is Sara and I have no closets.

Sorry everyone! I know you are dying for pictures but the cableman stood Andrew up yesterday. =( He isn't coming back until Saturday! Actually....I'm already getting used to not having the TV around...and I kind of like it. =)

Yesterday the security system was set up and the fridge was finally hooked up with water! Now Andrew has all the filtered water in the fridge door that he could possibly want.

If you happen to be shopping for a house of your own soon....here are some things to ask yourself (especially if you are buying an older home.....(my "new" house is 97 years old)):
1. Do you like going up and down stairs?
2. Do you like closet space?
3. How many outlets are in each room and hallway?
4. Where are the light switches and what do they turn on?
5. How wide is the vanity sink in the bathroom?
6. Do you like having level floors?

These are all things I didn't think about when looking for a house but have become enormously bothersome to me in 3 short days.

Some things I enjoy that I didn't expect:
1. The large picture window in the living room.
2. The thought of having a living room without a TV
3. The fireplace mantle.

The house is still a disaster area. I have a feeling it is going to take quite awhile to get things organized. The lack of storage means having to be really creative and that takes time. We haven't even moved everything yet. Our pantry of food is still at the apartment!

Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures on Saturday. Until then send me good thoughts of fabulous organization and storage solutions.

2 days and counting

I had every intention of writing something wonderful last night but it turns out that they turned off our internet connection a little sooner than we were expecting. So, it looks like a won't be posting for a bit...hopefully not too long.

Things are going well. Andrew has had extraordinary amounts of energy and has been carting stuff down to the house every evening. I have been busy packing up the rest of the apartment and the stuff never seems to end!! We are both tired but excited.

Keep your fingers crossed that it does not rain on Saturday. Lots of our very wonderful friends will be coming to help us move all of our belongings and Saturday night will be our first official night sleeping in the new house.

I promise I will take lots of pictures and post as soon as I can!