Author Archives: CT

She’s gone off the deep end . . .

Posted on February 14, 2013 | 9 comments

Hi, interwebs, how have you been? I have been hiding under my desk at work while a major deadline came and went. And then at the chiropractor having all the kinks worked out for being crunched under my desk for so long . . . .

Also, I have some news to share and didn’t exactly know what to write so I’ve been hiding under my desk from the Interwebs as well. How to start? How about a little back story . . .

I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned this here on the blog but I am a LEED accredited professional. What that means is I paid a lot of money for the opportunity to fail a test. It was scary — scarier than gambling even though I was betting on myself and I studied my ass off.

(Image via US Green Building Council)

So, what is LEED? It stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. In short I’m a green freak. I think that is part of what drives my thrift store habit — I’m recycling! On a scale of green-freakiness, I would call myself a 7 out of 10. We don’t have solar panels on our roof (although that would be great) and we don’t have a composting toilet (although the next one we install will be a dual flush).

That’s the back story to tell you I’m part hippie, part practical radical. Now for the next part . . .

For a long time, I’ve also been a vegetarian although really it was bordering on the edge of picky-eater — I was still eating fish, eggs and dairy. The other night, while working on some little touches for our dinner party this weekend, I hit the Netflix for something to watch while my hands were busy. I like to be mindful about my television choices and pick things that might make me smarter or at least not make me dumber and so I settled on “Vegucated”.

(Image via Get Vegucated)

Well I have to say it gave me a long overdue push over the edge . . . Internet, I’m going vegan. No more dairy, eggs, salmon burgers or M&Ms . .. It’s a big jump but I’m ready to do it. I recommend this film to anyone who is interested in knowing where their food comes from and what happens to it before it reaches your plate. (And veganism is good for the environment. Double plus. Oh yeah, and possibly my health. Triple plus.)

So even though I don’t really get into Valentine’s Day, this February 14th I am proclaiming my love for animals. Man animals like my husband (contrary to public belief, it’s not required to become a lesbian to become a vegan), furry dog animals like Sophie and Shenanigan and even bird animals like the one that defiled my window ledge and terrified my kitchen.

P.S. Sorry about the bleeding heart liberal left-wing crazy head nut post there. After this things will go back to design. I visited Warehouse of Stuff and Goodwill by the Pound over the weekend, OUR BATHROOM MIRROR AND LIGHT FIXTURE GOT INSTALLED and lots more good stuff coming your way. Thanks for hanging in there.

P.P.S. I am a practical radical and realize not everyone wants to be a vegan. For the dinner party on Saturday we’re still serving meat. I don’t want to pull a bait and switch on anyone. After this public declaration though, it’s fair game.

9 Comments

Posted in VEGAN

Spastic and Sporadic

Posted on February 6, 2013 | 4 comments

Things have been a bit spastic and sporadic over here at Living Analog. I have about 500 projects half started and zero finished. We’re getting ready for our “Sweetheart’s Dinner” (AKA Valentine’s Dinner Party) and I’ve been really been looking for ways to amp this up and squeeze some juicy blog content out of it. So that led to more projects . . .

So what have I done (besides whining and bellyaching)? Well Pinterest is the devil and sidetracked me with some recipes: baked cinnamon apple chips and homemade cheese-its that I just had to try:

The apple chips were eat-them-right-now-and-then-make-more good. The DIY cheese-its were a little meh. I think I left the dough in the fridge too long and need to roll them thinner. It was good enough to give it a second try — plus it’s nice to make these and know what four ingredients are in them versus the chemical smorgasbord you buy at the store. Off my soapbox now . . . are you on Pinterest? I’m mildly addicted and sometimes majorly annoyed. I’ll pin something and later go to click-through to the original source and . . . nothing. Or spam. Right now my policy is to only repin items — Pinterest is still a gray area for makers and artisans — do they want their items pinned for all to attempt a duplicate? Maybe not. So by only repinning, I’m sort of off the hook when it comes to the point of putting someone else’s item on Pinterest without their permission. The exception to that is items for sale — I totally have a pin board with a crazy expensive purse that I want. I figure if an item is available for internet retail, they only benefit by having it on Pinterest. . . .

That’s me, if you want to meet up over there. I should figure out how to put a linky-thing up for that. I probably also need to start watermarking my photos but that’s for another day . . . no time, too many projects!

Oh yeah . . .another Pinterest project . . .

(Pardon the bad iPhone picture). This is my plan to tie in the arc lamp and all its brassy goodness. Add some more gold/brass! This is a thrift store canvas I picked up for a few dollars and have spray painted metallic. Next step paint like this cool pin:

{Image via this blog}

Now that I look at my version versus their version, I think I am going to retape. I like how this canvas has one major vanishing point . . . back to the drawing board . . . and onto other projects . . .

Here’s something for the dinner party:

I found this little cookie cutter at World Market and it will make little shortbread cookies that sit on the edge of a coffee cup. And I just got new coffee cups that nest into a little serving tray from my mom for Christmas so I know that will be getting used. . . next?

Here’s my view from bed last night. A little progress on the art wall . . .

A project with less progress is the pile ‘o paperwork I dug out of the hall closet for filing, shredding and other such pain in the ass handling. I need to get this sucker finished.

So that is a random wrap-up of the random goings-on at the Living Analog abode. It’s all kinds of spastic and sporadic . . . I’ve got project A.D.D – hopping from one to the next back to another . . .

Speaking of spastic and sporadic, or maybe just neurotic . . . does anyone else sort their M&Ms by color or is that just me . . .

Yep, officially into crazy. Back to the races, I mean projects . . .I mean work. Cheers – CT

4 Comments

Posted in Around the house, Art in Analog, D.I.Y., Design Diversions, In the Bedroom, Miscellaneous Diversions

Super Bowling.

Posted on February 4, 2013 | 4 comments

What did you during the “Big Game”? Watch the commercials and cheer for the Murder Birds? JT and I decided to build some shelves! (This is the normal activity during sporting events, right?) I set the plan in motion by picking out a bunch of lumber and once we dragged it home, it seemed best to just go ahead and put it together right away since otherwise it would be still junking up the music room.

We got the plans/idea from Ana White (originally found via Young House Love), carpenter extraordinaire and we used the living room as our workshop.

The dogs cowered in front of the TV while we worked.

We’re not really a sports house, so we sawed and glued, clamped and drilled during the game and paused for the commercials. I almost couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the familiar curly grey locks of Wayne Coyne early on in the broadcast. See the commercial on YouTube here.

{Image via Google Images from here}

I immediately imagined the hipster revolt to follow. “The Flaming Lips sold out!” they will cry. Here’s my take: with the sad state of current music being marketed like lunch lady slop to the masses, if the Flaming Lips go quote unquote “mainstream”, isn’t that a good thing? Wouldn’t this signal a return to good taste – to true artistic expression and not contrived trite designed to sell records? And while, by definition, the Lips did “sell out” by allowing their song to be used in a commercial that is selling a car, this clip is pure Flaming Lips. Robots, confetti, inflatable hamster-wheel balls, galactic travelers . . . methinks the Lips had complete artistic control if not a huge say in this video.

I listen to Pandora at work occasionally and they have a really well-written bio of the Flaming Lips — my favorite part is the beginning: “Even within the eclectic world of alternative rock, few bands were so brave, so frequently brilliant, and so deliciously weird as the Flaming Lips.” {Jason Ankeny, Rovi} So even though we didn’t have a team in the “Big Game” race, I still feel like we won.

(And more pictures when we get these shelves sanded, primed, painted and hung. We originally got enough lumber to make three but one of the 1x4s was so warped that we didn’t end up fabricating the third shelf. These ledges are destined for the new music “listening station” I’m creating in the living room.

Cheers – CT

4 Comments

Posted in D.I.Y., Hand Crafted, Living Room

STL News – Designer’s house for sale!

Posted on January 31, 2013 | 3 comments

We’re probably still a few years out from leaving our starter house and I alternately eagerly anticipate and shiver with dread at the thought of selling our home. It means so many projects to finish (scary) and also the start of a new house to decorate (scary good). One of my designer friends from college just went through the process of getting their first home ready for the market and now it’s here. She’s letting me show the pictures and I am so excited! You can tell that a designer lives here — the house has a cohesive feel, great finishes and feels like a comfortable place to live.

Without further adieu: 6830 Plateau

She’s nearby in Dogtown with a little brick bungalow similar to ours. But with a finished basement, they gained so much space!

Don’t you love all the detailing on the plaster walls? That shade of grey in the dining room is great (and the chevron rug!) I really love all the artwork — it ties everything together.

For the size of their brick bungalow house, to have this much space in a bathroom and kitchen is pretty unheard of. I need to find out where that hallway rug came from because I love it.

Miss Mila’s room — recognize the message board that her mom made at one of our Stitch and Bitches? Great to see it in situ.

There’s more — a great downstairs with another amazing bathroom and they also have a great backyard – perfect for entertaining. Hop over to the listing for more information: http://www.circastl.com/listing/6830-plateau-ave. That was fun. I’ll have to look around for some more houses to visit. I think that is part of why I enjoy the blogosphere so much — getting to see into people’s homes and also getting to share mine! Cheers – CT

Post Script: For those of you interested in the runner rug like I am, I found out it’s from Crate & Barrel.

3 Comments

Posted in House Guest

Up next in the bedroom, an art wall

Posted on January 28, 2013 | 4 comments

Now that we’re fully up and operational in 2013, I’m working on getting some momentum in the bedroom. (I’m referring to decorating momentum for those of you mind-in-the-gutter-folks.) Over the years I’ve accumulated a lot of little odds and ends to be framed and I’ve been stashing them away. This year I want to create two gallery “art” walls – one in the bedroom and another in the living room.

So I began by unearthing all my treasures.

I’m a hoarder. I had a roll-up tube of things I didn’t even get out because I’m pretty sure it still has a “City of Angels” movie poster from my days in high school working at the local Blockbuster. Also, the bedroom is still in its redecorating funk (e.g. when it gets worse before it gets better. )

Next I sorted my finds into two groupings based on color and feel. The grouping for the living room has more of the brighter colors and the grouping for the bedroom is a little more muted. Nothing is set in stone here but I wanted to get a feel for what I could use.

Here’s what came together for the bedroom grouping:

(Also the extra-large canvas is moving back in from its temporary home in the living room.) Only one item here did I spend actual cash money on — the Bernard Buffet print. (My art terminology is not good — is it called a print or a reproduction? It seems to be printed on a thick chipboard paper.) The rest of these items were either given to me, like the collage by Susan Springer Anderson or scrounged by me (everything else).

Nothing is too sacred or too silly around our house to not end up in a frame. I view everything with the eyes of a scavenger and think about what use and/or re-use I can find for it.

Serendipitously, my sister and I had a date with Goodwill this weekend (the one on Watson) as we were out doing some wedding craft things. (I also had culled two large bags of stuff to drop off and then in we went as part of my frigid winter spring cleaning.) Low and behold, six larger picture frames for a grand total of $17.

(Pardon me but it appears this picture has a hint of dog butt as well. That happens a lot in our house.) I still haven’t decided what color to keep the frames but it’s a start. Art wall 2013.

4 Comments

Posted in Art in Analog, In the Bedroom

What to do when unexpected houseguests arrive . . .

Posted on January 25, 2013 | 6 comments

(Answer: Scream?)

Normally JT gets home from work before I do but yesterday I had to travel for work and arrived home a little earlier (since I also left the house a little earlier at 5:00 am). When I got home, there was an unexpected houseguest waiting for me.

A bird! We think it must have come down the chimney somehow. (In my grainy iPhone picture it almost looks like an Eames House Bird. Don’t I wish. It was real. And really terrified.)

Picture this frantic phone call: Me: “There’s a BIRD IN THE HOUSE {SCREEEEEAM}. JT: “There’s a burglar? Calm down, what is happening?” Me: “No, there’s a BIRD IN THE HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”. Cue hysterical laughing on husband’s end of phone as all his co-workers within a four cubicle radius hear my screeching through the phone.

I finally got it together, opened an umbrella over my head and got the doors open to shoo the bird out. He left his mess behind.

The irony is that while I like most animals, I do not like birds so coming home to a freaked out one in my kitchen almost put me over the edge. They’re like little feathered dinosaurs. However I do have bird decor items, like this little tealight holder from CB2 that is right now living on the new lamp/table.

Why is it that I think something is cute in the ceramic form but not the real life form?

Have a great weekend everyone! I’m going to try to make the most of the daylight this weekend by taking a lot of pictures of things we have going on around the house. . . . more to come (hopefully no more birds though!) Cheers – CT

6 Comments

Posted in Around the house, Miscellaneous Diversions

Resolutions – 2013 – TCB

Posted on January 21, 2013 | 4 comments

Not only will 2013 be The Year Of Wine, as previously dubbed, I think it is also going to be The Year of TCB. As in our friend Elvis, Taking Care of Business (in a flash). It’s rapidly advancing on February so I thought I better post up my resolutions for 2013 so I can have something to help guide my year.

Home & Project Related

1. Bedroom — I think I’ve been blogging about the bedroom (yes we have only one in our house) since I started this blog. Time to put a fork in this room. Two walls are currently partially painted. . . must finish . . .

2. Living Room – This room may always be in flux but I have some Danish Daybeds lurking in the god forsaken basement waiting for a chance to see the light of the living room day. Time to make that happen.

(Image above from Mr. Modtomic)

3. Organize this #$$% (AKA the basement) -Really my goal is to touch everything in our house — every knick-knack stored in every closet will be sorted, pondered and eventually donated to Goodwill. This will culminate in a grand cleaning of the basement, where all things go in this house to be stored and then forgotten. This is a big one and is going to take buy-in from the husband (whom I have not yet consulted BTW).

4. Exterior – Also requiring buy-in from JT as a lot of this falls into his domain – he was a part-owner of a landscape business during college. Our yard is sad, sad, sad right now — we have cinch bugs in the front and dog poo covering the back yard so it’s kind of now or never for some yard work and updates.

5. TCB – Here’s where the real TCB kicks in. Window with torn screen – TCB. Door needing sweep – TCB. Hole where doorbell receiver was needing patch and paint – TCB. There’s a lot of little things that need tackling. So by lumping them together and turning them into one “big thing”, I’m planning on tackling most if not all of these items this year.

6. Music – Right now our house is not set up so we can easily listen to music. Which is really quite sad if you ask me, considering I live with a musician. In 2013 I want to make a special effort to make music easy and accessible in our home. My plan has to do with Apple Airports and a new record player set-up, coming soon to a living room near me!

(This is the old layout — soon to be new and improved!)

Personal Goals

1. Book Club – One of my goals last year was to read at least one new book per month. I don’t think I quite got there but I read some good ones: The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin, The Pearl by John Steinbeck, Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo by Stieg Larsson and The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. Also Starting From Happy by Patricia Marx and Bossypants by Tina Fey in the comedy division. So I guess seven out of twelve ain’t bad? I’m trying out a book club in 2013 to keep me reading and engaged with others. Fingers crossed it goes well and there’s not that one annoying person who talks just to talk. Also, I hope that person I just described isn’t me . . . the first meeting is Wednesday so I’ll let you guys know how it goes! (And I recommend all those books listed out above – so good!)

2. Dinner Parties! This didn’t happen in 2012 but it will in 2013. Invitations for the first one have already been sent.

3. Wedding!!!! 2013 is the year of my sister’s wedding. I am the oldest and bossiest of three girls so needless to say I have a lot of bossy-ing to do to get this wedding together. (Total sarcasm. My sister and mother could totally do this but I’m so excited to help in any and every way that I can. That mean’s I have been self-elected president of the Committee for Decorations, Centerpieces and Favors. Watch out world (I mean St. Louis.))

(Their save the date by yours truly.)

4. Invest in Myself — This might be an obvious one but sometimes I find it hard to justify spending money on myself when there are so many other things I would rather spend it on (furniture, vacations, etc.). But I would benefit from some advanced Photoshop and Illustrator classes and things like this could maybe move my career forward a little. So it’s time to give me a chance.

5. Guitar!!! – Okay this was a 2012 resolution. It’s another now or never. First I need to decide what to learn – bass guitar or regular guitar. Any advice/opinions on this one?

6. Music (again) – Organize the digital music library! It’s a mess and we’re going to DJ #3 WEDDING so this is a priority.

So that’s an even 12. . . just to throw things a little off-balance I’m going to add a lucky #13: Studio! I have a little room in the basement and it might be nice if it was a place I could go to work on projects and dream up ideas for this little ol’ blog. What are your 2013 resolutions? Do they involve Elvis?

(For kicks a picture I took when we visited Graceland three or four years ago before this blog was even a twinkle in our eye. Elvis loves blue as much as I do.)

(PS – JT took me to see Memories of Elvis (a tribute/impersonator) and no kidding, this was his Facebook status: “About to watch my wife scream at not-Elvis”. )

(PPS – You guys probably think I am way more obsessed with Elvis than I am. I just have a healthy love for the guy. I mean, he is the king of rock and roll!)

4 Comments

Posted in Miscellaneous Diversions

New Stuff!

Posted on January 17, 2013 | 5 comments

Who doesn’t love new stuff? I’ve been doing a January purge and somehow having some free space makes me think I need to hit the thrifts (plus we have been on a lamp quest as noted in the previous post . . .)

So what did I find while out and about?

A few little treasures and trinkets . . . (or random junk, the definition is all subjective!)

Like a banjo back from Kenrick Antique Mall. Maybe someday JT will find a neck and put the whole thing together. For now I just like it’s shiny (and nearly impossible to photograph) wood grain and cool eagle graphic.

(PS – We had the backdrop all set up for an eBay photo shoot so I thought I would try out my thrift find photography too. It’s an old bed sheet stretched across the fireplace and clamped with two C-clamps to either corner. Pretty classy. )

What else? A little trophy-esque urn planter from St. Vincent de Paul. I need another planter like I need a hole in the head but I just couldn’t leave this guy behind. Right now it’s sitting empty on the window sill and I love it even like that.

Some great fabric (about 2 yards and probably 54″ wide) also from St. Vincent de Paul on the same trip. I had just left the dentist and thought I needed a little treat. . . . Am I the only one who goes thrifting as an antidote to the dentist? At any rate, pillows to follow!

And this cool Moravian Star light . . .

It needs wiring and a good clean-up. There is one little sliver of glass missing in one of the points but nothing major. We looked at some places to put this up around the house during the great lamp debacle and I think it may be headed for the bedroom. Considering they have a slightly larger one for sale at Shades of Light for $269 I think we got a steal! The ladies checking out behind me at Value Village thought so too . . . I had to run out of there with my new light fixture pretty quick!

That’s my January thrifts — I’m going to try to steer clear for the rest of the month as I do a final purge of the house. (And then, as usual when I drop off at Goodwill, I make my donation in the back and promptly walk around front and look through all their stuff for something new to drag home. Oh well, maybe it’s a one in, one out situation.)

Speaking of one in, one out I also reposted the cute vinyl chair we had at the Green Shag Market sale on Craigslist. The poor thing has been languishing in the basement holding up my wine shelves and it’s time for it to move on to a home free of chair-hoarders. Do you want to adopt it? Ad here.

You know everything looks better with a sheepskin on it! Cheers – CT

5 Comments

Posted in Thrifting

Is this the lamp for me?

Posted on January 15, 2013 | 6 comments

You guys, I had a folder all set up on my trusty little thumb drive, on which I transport around all my precious blog cargo, to post about my desperate quest for a lamp. I figured if I posted up on the inter-webs what I was looking for, it would magically appear at my house.

Our living room has no ceiling light fixtures and so we rely on lamps for all of our light in this space. Next to the “Man Chair” there was a space that needed some illumination. But we also need a table there to set important things like wine glasses and remotes. So I began a quest to find the perfect lamp, looking for images or items to add to my little blog folder and post for your perusal. Items like these:

#1 Similar to a walnut one I spotted at Treasure Aisles Antique Mall. It was too expensive . . . we left it behind. (Example image from 1st Dibs). And it would still need a table . . . .

#2 Designed by Jonathan Adler for Lamps Plus . . . really too expensive, although it does have a drink holder.

#3 My retro dream – a tension mounted light fixture that would span from floor to ceiling. With such a small footprint, I would find it a nice table. Doesn’t it already look like it was photographed against our new dark grey wall? Sigh.

And then while scouting around the internet one day, I found this on World Market’s site.

Simple , clean lines and on sale for $50? Includes table and lamp shade? We went Friday night and scouted it out — we found it way separate from all the lighting, almost into the kitchen department. So we scooped it up and brought it home before I ever had a chance to post my plight on the blog.

I like a lot of things about it (price, function, overall aesthetic) but I’m not 100% sold. It’s just a teeny bit too tall and I worry that it competes with the other light fixtures in the room.

(Oh and that’s JT’s latest eBay item just lounging in the living room, like guitars do.)

Here are the other major light fixtures :

1) Pendant above dining room table, just adjacent. These two shades actually play well together.

2) Brassy arc lamp with pretty wood base across the room.

My other thought rather than ditching the new light is maybe to hit brassy light with some nice black spray paint . . . is this sacrilegious?

So — let’s vote! Either we A) Return the World Market lamp and keep looking and hope that tension pole retro fixture magically is delivered to our front door or B) spray paint the arc lamp black that I scored at auction last year. Or maybe you have a write-in ballot C option for me? Thanks for playing! Cheers – CT

6 Comments

Posted in Around the house, Living Room

Resolutions – To Keep or Not to Keep, That is the Question

Posted on January 10, 2013 | 1 comment

Making New Year’s resolutions is right up my alley. I mean it’s a list of things you want to accomplish. And I am all about lists. However, the point of writing a list is also checking things off said list and I’m not always so great at the follow-through. So let’s check up on 2012. I created a “Twelve for 2012” list of things I wanted for last year.

Blog Related:
1. Write an average (minimum) of 2 posts per week. One caveat though — I only want to post (what I think) is interesting and relevant stuff. So if there isn’t anything interesting to blog about, no blog post.

So close! We had 102 new posts last year, which if you divide by 52 weeks in a year comes out to about 1.96 blog posts per week. Two more posts and I would have hit it. Although this was a minimum so . . . I’ll let you guys be the judge of that.

2. Grow the blog. I’d like to get Living Analog recognized on a larger scale and maybe get a project featured on Apartment Therapy or Design*Sponge. This goes back to #1. If it’s not interesting, the big dogs aren’t going to be interested.

I count this as a sort of. The kitchen project was on The Kitchn, a division of Apartment Therapy for the Small Cool Contest. The sort of caveat is that I entered it in . . .

3. Fine tune the blog to make it user-friendly and rocking. (Any suggestions on what this means to anyone who reads this is greatly and humbly appreciated.)

Not really much work has been done here except to continue posting as much unique content as we can produce.

4. Tempt JT into doing guest blogs once a month. If anyone has good suggestions on how to induce one’s husband to blog, I’m all ears.

JT has started to rack up some blog entries with all his guitar buying shenanigans. I think we’ve seen that this can oftentimes drive interested parties to his eBay store and that’s always a good thing.

Project Related:
5. The Kitchen. ’Nuff said.

Yes!!! I love that little kitchen. There’s some TLC/TCB things that need to happen in here in 2013 but it is still working great.

6. The Bedroom.

Fail. All that got done in 2012 is some partial painting. 2013!

6. The basement closet — this project has been waiting in the wings for about a year. It’s now or never.

Done. I never posted an “after” after because it wasn’t really so pretty once I filled it up with clothes. But I’ve been loving having a place to put everything, and to be able to hang it up in color order! (Yes I’m a freak like that!)

7. Living Room – besides the new daybed/sofas I blogged about earlier (Note: starting in December 2011!) there are some other furniture and miscellaneous fine tunings I’d like to accomplish in there.

Started . . . this will continue into 2013!

Life/Self Related: 8. Read one book a month. I love to read but I will stay up for three days straight and not pay attention to anything else around me when I start a new book. So as a result, I tend to re-read old classics so I can get to bed at a normal time. I am currently on my 4th or so perusal of Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility” and have read “Pride and Prejudice” at least 15 times. “Persuasion” is my favorite Austen novel which I have probably only read 4 or 5 times. So. New books. January will be “Like Water for Chocolate”.

Another sort of. To be continued in my 2013 resolutions. . .

9. Guitar chords. I’m hoping that 2012 will bring me the JT-made Explorer I’ve been waiting so patiently for. In order to be at all deserving I need to practice. A lot. I’m shooting for once a week.

Nope. Fail. It’s now or never baby!

10. Dinner Parties. JT and I are homebodys and we don’t get out much. A lot of my close friends live out-of-state sadly enough (for me). I’d like to try to host at least three dinner parties and two brunches this year (St. Louisans do not value brunch like they should, it’s the most awesomest meal ever). I’m hoping once the kitchen is “done”, I’ll be more apt to invite people around.

We did really good on brunches in 2012 and a few casual meals at the end of the year. Having a completed kitchen has helped (I noticed the light fixture was still all wonky on my brunch picture below). Now on to the dinner parties. And I need to prepare a little earlier so I can really photograph and document these things.

11. Participate in a outside-of-work money-making opportunity like the Rock and Roll Craft Show or a Flea Market to whittle down all the furniture/crafts I have stashed in the basement and maybe pave the way for the future “Thompson Guitar and Thrift” store that husband and I will run someday.

Yes! We did the Green Shag Market Parking Lot sale in October. I cleared a lot of stuff out of the basement and it felt so good.

12. Attempt to upholster a piece of furniture. Attempt.

Yes, I did attempt an upholstery job on a crazy chair I found clawed up in the alley. It did not go so great (some visible upholstery nails on the backside) so I sold that puppy at the Green Shag sale for $7 with a full disclosure of its sordid past. But I’m glad I tried it out on something I wasn’t so emotionally attached to. I want to try a few more in 2013. . .

So that’s the resolution recap. I’m not a math genius but I’m giving myself a 7.5 out of 12. And that’s pretty good for me. Also 2012 saw a Phase I Bathroom project that wasn’t on the original list along with so many other adventures.

See what I’ve got cooking for 2013 . . . resolutions to follow. What are your resolutions? Some of my favorite I have seen so far around the interwebs are from AB Chao, creator of Design Camp and Dewit. (Check out her resolutions here.) They are so simple and to the point. My list is already much longer . . . maybe I need to pare down! Off to edit. Cheers – CT

1 Comment

Posted in Miscellaneous Diversions

Author Archives: CT

She’s gone off the deep end . . .

Spastic and Sporadic

Super Bowling.

STL News – Designer’s house for sale!

Up next in the bedroom, an art wall

What to do when unexpected houseguests arrive . . .

Resolutions – 2013 – TCB

New Stuff!

Is this the lamp for me?

Resolutions – To Keep or Not to Keep, That is the Question

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