Friday, September 23, 2011

mini modern doll house

 i was pleasantly surprised to discover that there is an entire subset of dollhouse enthusiasts devoted to mid-century modern dollhouses. for the record, asking me how i happened upon this information will not result in an answer, so just don't. there's entire blogs and online shops dedicated to mini modern construction and design (like this. omg!). even cb2 has jumped on the mini modern bandwagon with this affordable (especially when compared to something like this) version, and i'm kind of obsessed with it.
top images via cb2; bottom image via the brick house.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

new apartment projects: before & after

 just thought i'd share some projects i've worked on since marty and i moved into our new apartment. to start, i wanted to minimize the amount of different types of wood we have in our apartment, since the floors, moldings and door jambs are all covered in it. so, i repainted my old bedroom dresser, added new hardware and put it in the dining room as a buffet (here are some images i used for two-tone inspiration)
 we scooped up this amazing kroehler chair at an estate sale for $25! all it needed was fresh upholstering on the bottom and a new throw pillow (its final resting place in our apartment is still tbd). for now, it will serve as extra seating for book club and saints games.
 since we can't afford new nightstands right now (which are surprisingly expensive for such insignificant pieces of furniture!), i decided to take the existing, mismatched ones we had and paint them a uniform color, so they would at least match for the time being. here's one of them:
 finally, a few weeks ago becky and i went exploring in her creepy new [old] basement and we found an adorable, but grimy, little fan that had been hidden in the bowels of her garden district house for who knows how long. the only "before" picture i have is this one becky took of me discovering old documents and letters from the early 1960s. because the fan was in such bad shape (i'm inclined to blame katrina?), it desperately needed a steel wool-scrubbing and a paint job, so we went with a sexy black. 

Monday, September 12, 2011

new baby second line

 my friend nikki is expecting a little bambino at the end of the month, so she and her husband threw a welcome baby party in their beautiful backyard last night. i call it a welcome baby party as opposed to a baby shower because they were not showered with gifts (that's why showers are called showers, right?) - instead, the soon-to-be-parents asked for support, parenting tips, secondhand baby items and dinner after the baby is born (learn more about alternative gift registries here). i probably won't be able to resist getting them one of these anyway, but that's just me. so the icing on this backyard barbecue was the second line with the 21st century brass band around nikki's neighborhood, which started with the dad-to-be dancing on the shed in the backyard. 

here are some other awesome things i've gotten to do in nola in people's back yards - here and here

Thursday, September 1, 2011

recent culinary exploits

 ...and jalapeno-cheddar pinwheels for book club 
 leftover jerk chicken (from here) and salami pizza 
 new weekend breakfast ritual: breakfast salad!
chicken and mushroom paella (a hybrid of this and this)