Living Analog

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!)

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

Living Analog has been around for a year and a half now (in this format) and we have met some great people here on these interwebs.  I want to introduce you to a few great blogs that have supported us in the last year by adding us to their blogroll – you know, the little sidebar that suggests other blogs to check out.  These bloggers were also nice enough to answer a few questions for me so please browse on over to their blogs and see what is going on in the neigborhood!

A Goode House
http://www.agoodehouse.com/

Mid2Mod
http://mid2mod.blogspot.com/

1) Do you have one piece of furniture that you will always keep no matter what? If so what is it?
I have a Jens Risom credenza that I got for an incredibly low price, and it will follow me wherever I go! It was my first really good piece of mid-century furniture.

Mid-Century Modern Remodel
http://www.midcenturymodernremodel.com/

1) Do you have one piece of furniture that you will always keep no matter what? If so what is it?

Buffet and dining set my dad made which fits perfectly in our tiny dining space.

I love Broyhill Brasilia but our house is small. I scour ebay and craigslist for the perfect piece.

Because I honestly love midcenturymodern and remodeling. I also enjoy the challenge of writing and traffic driving. And a big benefit that keeps me going is other blogger colleagues that I have met along the way!

Mister Modtomic
http://mistermodtomic.blogspot.com/

1) Do you have one piece of furniture that you will always keep no matter what? If so what is it?

Used to, I’d have said “yes, my Selig ‘Z’ chair.  It’s what I consider one of the finest distilations of the Danish modern lounge chair designs.”  But for realz, everything has it’s price.  Offer me enough greenbacks or the right trade and it…or anything else…is yours!  Does that make me a slut?

2) What is your dream piece of furniture that you would own if money and time and space were no object?

 Gosh, I hate to sound so pedestrian given all the world of vintage modern to choose from but I gotta stick with a true vintage (late ’50s through, what? early ’80s) Brazilian Rosewood and black leather Eames / Herman Miller Lounge Chair (670) and Ottoman (671).  There are, of course, hundreds upon hundreds of other sofas, cocktail tables, lounges, dining suits et al that I could drop here, but the classic Eames Lounge and Ottoman are ALWAYS on my radar.  But I’m not so much interested in just plopping down the dosh for one and suddenly having it.  The hunt for one at a bargain price is at least 2/3s the fun!

3) Why do you blog?  And more importantly, how do you manage one blog post a day all while holding down a full-time job and curating an antique mall booth?

I publish my blog because I wanted a blog like mine out there.  There are lots of bloggers out there who blog about much of the same stuff as I, but I wanted more.  I love magazines like Atomic Ranch but it is only published FOUR times a year!  I got really sucked into the blog RetroRenovation when I found it a few years ago and a big part of why was that Pam (the blog author) posted mostly daily.  Also I found myself highly intrigued by a Youtube vlogger called Shaycarl and his Youtube channel: Shaytards.  Shaycarl took upon the challenge of posting a vlog every day for a year.  I was mesmerized by his charm and commitment to his product.  And he’s funny as h*ll!  That’s when I realized the secret to readership is blogcasting daily.  Posting daily is a challenge…and is becoming more challenging every day as I take on more projects.  I’ve missed a few days here and there but only for illness.  How do I manage?  Commitment…and backup plans!  If I don’t have something interesting to blog about (relative, I know!) I can always fall back on an episode of “Not My Turf”!  I’ve actually been flirting with the idea of farming out weekend posts or finding a blog partner who can do a day or two…but I’d really have to deal with some control issues for that to work out!

And because the questions sounded kind of fun, I thought I would chip in . . .

1) Do you have one piece of furniture that you will always keep no matter what? If so what is it?

Right now I would have to say that the one piece of furniture in our home with the most sentimental value is the little desk that is currently serving as my dressing table in the bedroom (Yes, I have been watching too much Downton Abbey and I’m okay with that.)  I rescued it from the curb outside my friend Jess’s house during college and then did a total remodel on it.  I stripped it, sanded it, and stained it the color it is now.  My dad helped me reglue and clamp the drawers and he cut and attached a new back panel for me.  He also helped me put the new hardware on — we had to drill all new holes.  My dad passed away suddently in 2004 (we probably worked on this in maybe 2002 or so?  Not sure.) and this desk is a good memory of some time we spent together and how patiently he helped me achieve my goals. 

If you haven’t seen the online magazine Lonny yet, you should check it out sometime.  I saw this:

And immediately thought of my desk.  Wouldn’t that be such a cool update for it someday? (Photos by Patrick Cline, interior design by Matthew Kowles) Because in reality, my desk is not the coolest desk ever — the kneehole is super small and only fits that amazing little Lucite and white vinyl stool.  There’s no maker’s mark or any designer provenance.  So I love how the glass top and chrome legs remake this piece into something really  unique and a little more useable.

2) What is your dream piece of furniture that you would own if money and time and space were no object?

Because I wrote the question, I can also kind of cheat the system.  Because the dream piece of furniture I would choose would be a conversation pit.  Like this lovely:

Built into the amazing Miller House and designed by Eero Saarinen. (Image from here.)  So, really by choosing this “piece”, I would get this house.  And it’s amazing!

3) Why do you blog?

I started Living Analog as a creative outlet from my daily design job.  Working for a commercial design firm is my chosen profession but it is not often I get to see my very own ideas through to fruition.  I persuaded JT to contribute to the blog with his guitar stories.  One of the few classes  that JT and I actually took together in high school was a creative writing class so a blog seemed like a great venture for us.  I’ve enjoyed the things that blogging has brought to my life: increased accountability to complete projects, a forum to discuss ideas for projects in the works and most importantly the connection it has created for us to the blogging community.  I wasn’t expecting that and it has been so enjoyable.

So thanks again to Stacey and Richie, Dana, Rebecca and Mister Modtomic for their support of this little ol’ blog.  It means so much!  Cheers – CT