busy bees

I'm going to steal Kyle's funny line today and say that I am happy to be at work so I can relax! We had a really busy, but very rewarding weekend, making a lot of headway on our list of things to be completed before company starts coming...see you in a week, Gramma & Papa! Here are some things we got to cross off:

1. Dresser mini-makeover
We snagged this sub-$300 dresser at Ikea and are loving it for its spaciousness, smooth action drawers, and style versatility. However, the round burnished metal (really chincy metal) knobs weren't doing it for us. So, I scored some knobs at my favorite place (RH Warehouse sale...you guessed it) for $1.99 apiece, and voila! A dresser worthy of our swanky hotel-style retreat bedroom. The new, heavier, shinier, and more luxe knobs go really well with the bedside lamps and that Jonathan Adler ceiling light that's on my wish list. Now if we can just get all of our junk cleared off the top of the dresser...

Before

After

2. Re-frame living room windows

Kyle worked his pants off (all the better for checking out his calves that I love!) this weekend on the window trim in the living room. The bay window has been a mess since I hastily ripped the tile off the sill back in June, so he got a bunch of wood, a new router bit, and worked the table saw to come up with this:

He stripped the other LR window and the little on in the stairwell of their trim too, and patched up some drywall before hanging the new stuff. Next it's my turn to paint and dress the windows!
3. Paint new tv cabinet

Kyle and his cousin Corey built this piece of furniture a few weeks ago in a mere 5 hours and for just 60 bucks. I decided to paint it white to coordinate with the trim in the house and to keep it versatile should our decor in that room ever change. Here it is, before and after! We haven't put the tv back on and boxes back in yet, but I'll post those pictures once we do. They custom built it to hold those cute file storage boxes, which are housing our cds, dvds, etc. You can just make them out (they're green) in the background of the second picture.

4. Assemble new headboard and make bed

Thanks to Mom and Dave for this awesome early Christmas present! I was going to try making my own headboard, but after seeing prices for the fabric I wanted, realized it would cost pretty much the same to buy a new one, and it would most likely be a lot nicer. So, they obliged and didn't even make us wait until December. Here it is!

5. BAKE!

My coworker's birthday was Sunday, so I wanted to bring in some treats to celebrate today. I thought I'd use the opportunity to make some double batches and freeze some breakfast goodies for the aforementioned holiday guests! So I spent yesterday afternoon alternating between the kitchen and the service porch (a.k.a. tv room...see previous post for explanation), baking and painting. I think I washed my hands more than I ever have in one day. But I made some good chocolate-hazelnut biscotti, lemon blueberry scones, and orange oatmeal muffins in the meantime! They met rave reviews at work and the rest are waiting in the freezer for ya'll.

Oh yeah, we managed to squeeze in a 14 miler, a hockey game, church, and a tapas party at the neighbors' in there too. How was your weekend?

c'mon baby, light my fire

I have not been blogging lately because I have been spending all of my time searching for a light for our bedroom. Well, now I can start again because I've finally found the perfect one!

from Jonathan Adler, via www.shadesoflight.com

She's a beaut. And I'm even willing to pay the slightly higher than my normal range price tag because it fits perfectly with the decor for that room, and is only 7.5 inches high, so we won't hit our heads on it!

Ok, I was kidding about spending all my time searching for the light. I've been doing other things, like flying to San Francisco, running one marathon and training for another, raising money both at work and not at work, having company, taking two graduate classes (and getting As!), and still working on the house little by little. But I am going to continue my haitus on posting pictures of the house until after the holidays, because I want there to be some element of surprise for the holiday visitors we'll be having. Until then, I'll try to come up with some other creative posts...but don't hold your breath, this fall is really getting the best of me.