I talk about my feeeeeelings. AGAIN.

I stopped at Whole Paycheck Whole Foods last night for some groceries, and swung through the card section to pick up a card for Greg's teacher.  The card section was chock-full of positive affirmations.

One of them really jumped out at me:

Leap, and the net will appear.
   ~zen proverb

I am not really the kind of person who leaps without checking for the net.  I am the kind of person who Yelps four recommendations for net makers, asks what kind of tensile strength the rope has, how long the net maker has been making nets, and how sturdy the edifice is to which the net will be attached.

Moving to California feels very much like leaping and hoping that a net will appear.  

One more day.

Here's hoping all those Zen followers are right.  

pumping gas; chesterfields

Two more days till we leave!

Ack!

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It occurs to me that I will have to learn to pump my own gas when I get to California.

If the majority of you are scratching your heads at that, let me inform you that New Jersey is unique in two aspects: you can't make a left off a major road here, and you don't pump your own gas.  Obviously on small local and residential roads you can make a left, but generally on roads with more than two lanes in each direction, you will have to get in the right lane and go around a circle at a light to make a left, much like an exit ramp.

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These U-turns are known as jug handles, and they are confusingly placed. Sometimes they are before the light. Sometimes they are after the light.  Sometimes there won't be one and you'll have to go to the next light, or even the light after that.  And sometimes, for no reason you can discern, there will be a left turn lane.  If there is someone sitting in the middle of the intersection, trying to make a left into four lanes of oncoming traffic where there is no turn lane, and there are twenty cars behind him honking with rage, 100% of the time that car will have out-of-states plates and a driver gesticulating wildly.

Anyways, we don't pump our own gas.  The gas station attendant will do it for you, and you are not charged extra for the privilege.  I had a job in Georgia a few years ago, and I managed to spend four months there and only pumped my own gas twice.  The rest of the time I batted my dewy eyes at strapping young men and had them do it for me.  (That was before I had children who stole my youth; I was prettier then and young men were quite happy to help me.)

New states, new adventures, I guess.  I look at it as adding to my life skill set.

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I am obsessively shopping for the sofa for the playroom.  Its distracting me from the fact that I am leaving nearly everyone I love outside of my nuclear family behind. (Waah. Hold me.)  Also, that's what I do--shop obsessively for something once I have a design idea in my head.  Between the sofa and trying to find a way to do the banquette inexpensively, I am a shopping MACHINE.

I went to West Elm and sat on the chesterfield sofa.  It was....eh.  If I wanted a small loveseat for an entryway, or a second small sofa for a rarely-used living room, then that would be a nice choice.  It was a bit hard and stiff (oh, so many jokes here) but not very comfy.  Since I anticipate logging quite a few hours on that sofa, I want something that we can all snuggle on.  That sofa was not it.

Yesterday I was drooling longingly over the green Atelier chesterfield at Anthropologie.  At $6000, its wayyy out of my budget, but oh my heavens, is it not just the most beautiful sofa?  I can't get it out of my mind.  On the other hand, I haven't sat on it either.

And it comes in yellow!

Pottery Barn has a nice one, but at 90 inches long, its too big for the playroom.

Jules has an aMAAAAzing one she found on craigslist.  Stuff like this never turns up on my craigslist.

This picture has been in my inspiration files for quite a while.  I love everything about it--the white chesterfield, the vintage art, the black window trim, the rug, the metal table....I would love to have this living room.

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The rest of my sofa shopping will have to take place in California.  Less than 48 hours till we are there.  

Sofa for the playroom

The playroom and dining room space is a long space, about 20 feet long by 12 feet wide.

The space to the the left will be the playroom space, and to the right, under the light fixture, will be the dining space.

My plan is to put a sofa in the middle of the room facing the back wall, so the back of the sofa acts as a room divider.  This means I need another sofa, since the living room around the corner will have our other sofa.  

My first thought was to buy a leather sleeper sofa.  This sofa will be in the playroom space, and having a wipeable surface would be great with the kids.  I know that we will have plenty of visiting family and friends, so a sleeper sofa seemed like a good idea, especially since we don't have a guest room.  Some cursory internet shopping, however, revealed that leather sleeper sofas are mostly ugly and start around $4,000.....so.....I'm not getting leather or a sleeper sofa.  

Moving on to less expensive options!

A strong front runner is the Movie sofa from CB2, which was a contender last year when we bought a new sofa.

Last year we both said "that's too modern and a bit too slouchy," but it was definitely comfortable.  And I don't mind how it looks--for my playroom.  I wanted something a little more sophisticated for my living room, but for a playroom, I think it would be just fine.  Also, a huge plus--its a tight-back sofa, so my children would not disassemble the sofa fourteen times a day, as they do with my current sofa. (Every time I want to sit down I have to pick up all six cushions off the floor and put them back on the sofa.)

One drawback to the Movie sofa is that it is 88 inches long,  The room is 12 feet wide, and the sofa is nearly 8 feet long.  After we move in I will tape off the dimensions of the sofa to see how it feels in the space.

Another possibility is the tufted chesterfield sofa from West Elm.

I have yet to sit on this sofa, so I can't speak to its comfortableness.  But, it does have two advantages; it is a tight-back sofa without cushions, and it is 77 inches long.

The Club sofa from CB2 is also 77 inches and a tight-back:

I really like this leather sofa that Dana at House*Tweaking bought for her new home:

Its leather and its the right price, but it seems to be sold only on the internet, not in stores.  I am reluctant to buy a sofa without sitting on it.

Seen any good sofas lately?  Would you buy a sofa without sitting on it first?

Garage of Doom

I cannot recall if I ever discussed our travel plans.  Our belongings are currently on a truck wending its way across America, which will take two weeks.  Because that means I have no furniture in New Jersey, and no furniture in California, we are currently staying with my in-laws in New Jersey for two weeks.  We will fly out to California on the 14th, and our belongings are scheduled to arrive at the new place on the 15th.  Its a few days before I get to start decorating yet.

When we found out we were moving, the Mister and I knew that we would have to tackle the garage.  The garage has been crammed full of furniture and bins of stuff since the day we moved in.  The use of space was not very efficient.  I do not have a true "before" picture, which is a shame--the furniture literally came up to the garage door and in the middle of the garage, with a tiny, narrow corridor to get to all the bins arranged on the right side.

Here it is after we started shifting some of the furniture out.

A few weekends ago my family came up for dinner, and my sister's awesome husband helped the Mister play a game of furniture Tetris to rearrange the garage.

We gave these bookshelves to my mother.  My sister took a brass headboard and a campaign nightstand, a stroller, and a bunch of clothes for Denise. My other sister took the two bright turquoise chairs, which I recovered on the spot in some Robert Allen Kiki Pinata fabric for her.  Sadly I didn't take any pictures of this.

I went through every single one of the bins on the side of the garage.  They contain mostly boy's clothing in sizes from 3T to 7, off-season adult clothing, and other household items.  I consolidated, donated, and purged.  I finally found the bin that contained my sweatpants, now that I bought replacements a few weeks ago.

Many, many, many things went to Goodwill:

True story:  this trip to Goodwill took a very long time because the road to Goodwill was shut down in both directions for Whitney Houston's burial.  We took the long way around.

After the furniture tetris, the garage looked like this:

When I was notified that the moving estimate was over the weight limit, I decided to leave behind some furniture.  I planned to leave the big black bookshelf and the china cabinet, because I had no place for them in the new house, and the campaign furniture, because it weighs a gazillion pounds.  I discussed this with the movers when they showed up, and they moved the china cabinet into the garage for me.  My sister was going to take the china cabinet and the campaign dresser.

Yesterday she asked for the measurements, so I went out to the garage to take them, and realized....the movers had taken the campaign furniture and put it on the truck.  Oops.  (We made it under the weight limit anyways.)  Sister is only getting the china cabinet.  The black Ikea bookshelf was finally given to someone off craigslist yesterday afternoon.  I gave it to them for free in return for getting it out of my garage.

And now the garage looks like this:

My sister will be picking up the china cabinet on Saturday, and then I am finally done with this house. (That chair belongs to the landlord.)

Over the course of the past week I have cleaned up, patched all the holes in the house, primed over all the crayon on the walls, and painted over all the dings and scratches.  This should have been a post in itself, but I was sort of busy and did not take any pictures.

Onwards and upwards!  The next house is lacking the basement we had here, so all of the stuff that lived in the basement will be in the garage, plus all the stuff that was in the garage here...so....I think its safe to say that there will be a William Morris organizing project or two in the garage of the next house.

I'm linking up this post to Pancakes and French Fries William Morris Project.  

dining room banquette

This is the only picture I have of the dining room end of the bonus room/dining room off the kitchen.  If you look closely you can see the light fixture peeking out from either side of the column in the middle of the doorway.  There is a set of windows in the back that you can see in this picture, and another set of windows plus a sliding door on the right side wall.

Its not the biggest space, and around that corner to the left is the playroom space.  I think the best possible use of space would be to make that far corner a banquette.  We have a round dining table we could use, or our long rectangular table.  

The challenge is to do it inexpensively and non-permanently.  There are lots of diy tutorials about building banquettes out of kitchen cabinets.  However, I need a non-permanent option, as this is a rental and I don't want to hang cabinets that will have to be removed in a year.

The average seat height is 18-20 inches, and the average seat depth is 16-18 inches.  What if I used two single Ikea Expedit shelf units, one along each wall?  The Expedit measures 17 inches high by 15 inches deep.  If I built a base for the bottom, that would raise it to over 18 inches.  I could do the same for the back to extend the depth.  Then I just need cushions. I think this could be done fairly inexpensively, and its not permanently affixed to the wall, so that when we move again it would just lift right out.

Here's some banquette inspiration:

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Two things I notice about my inspiration pictures--one, many of these banquettes have shelves with pictures above them (love that! must have been why I pinned them), and two, nearly all of the round table banquettes only fit two chairs around the rest of the table.  

Does anyone have a banquette and care to share how they like it/dislike it?  

Over the fireplace

I have a fireplace in the new living room.  I also have realllllllly high ceilings.  This means I have an enormous space over the fireplace that needs an enormous something to fill it.

I love large, fancy mirrors over a fireplace.  My peacock mirror, however, is not quite big enough for the space. I've been looking on craigslist and the interwebs for other possibilities.

I saw this pagoda mirror at ZGallerie (aside: squee, I will finally be living within driving distance of a ZGallerie!).  I luuuuuurrrve this mirror.  I had plans to put it in my bedroom, but at 54 x 32 it might be big enough for the fireplace?  I'd probably paint it red if I put it in the living room.

This Louis Phillipe knockoff from Ikea is 77 inches tall and 36 inches wide, so it definitely has a nice scale.  I'd spray paint it gold.

Another ZGallerie option is this ornate Angelique mirror:

I'd love to find something like the Angelique mirror on craigslist for cheaper, but I haven't seen anything so far at a price I'm willing to pay.

I could also put up some vintage art--I am particularly partial to vintage travel and advertising posters:

Aside from the Ikea mirror, however, none of these options are terribly economical.  I am debating attempting an abstract art myself.  However, the canvas in the size I need is itself over $100, and there is a reason good abstract art is expensive---its harder than it looks.  Plus the moving company did not move our paint supplies, so I'd have to buy paint as well, making the DIY option just as expensive as most of the mirrors on the list. 

Decisions, decisions.  I will probably keep hunting craistlist. 

Comedy of Errors

Who's got two thumbs and will never again agree to move across the country on seventy-two hours notice?

THIS GIRL!

Who decided not to stress out and try to get everything done in 24 hours and accomplished packing only what she and the kids needed for traveling in a leisurely fashion, until she received an email the night before the movers showed up notifying her that her belongings were estimated at 525 lbs over the weight limit and thus she owed an astronomical sum of money to the movers, and had less than 12 (nighttime) hours before the movers showed up to get rid of stuff?

This girl!

Who dropped her keys in her mother in law's car, thus necessitating a two hour trip to go get them while the car shipping guy twiddled his thumbs in her driveway waiting for her to return with the keys?

This girl!

Who sent all her food to Grandma's house the night before in a stroke of brilliance, and discovered the morning of the move she had three children, two baby yogurt cups and one spoon?

This girl.

This girl is tired, yo.

This girl has Project Patch All The Holes and Project Paint Over All the Crayon On the Walls to accomplish, but today I am going to hang out with my girls for a last hurrah. Onwards and upwards, peeps.