be AUDacious

catching up

Many of these objects -- the lip balm, the cough drops, the tissues -- have been close at hand for the past week or more. We spent the week after Christmas at Chris's parents' house, and I spent several of those days battling a stomach virus and then a cold. I'm still trying to get caught up; December was full of fun and loveliness. Hopefully next week I'll be able to get back to blogging on a regular basis.

...'til all that remain is the arms of the angels

1. Cinnamon sugar donuts made from (get this!) canned biscuit dough. No lie. These are so simple to make (claims my husband, since he's the one who actually makes them). You take a small can of biscuits, a deep fryer (or a pot of oil on the stove), an apple corer, and sugar/cinnamon mixed in a bowl. Preheat the oil or deep fryer. Open the biscuits -- does anyone else (aside from me and my friend LL) call these "whomp biscuits?" Anyway, open the biscuits and use the apple corer to cut a small hole in the center of each biscuit. Drop the pieces you just removed into the oil -- they will immediately puff up. When they are evenly browned, take them out and drain them on a napkin/paper towel/etc. Drop the biscuits into the oil. Let them cook evenly on each side. In the meantime, take the donut holes and coat them in the sugar/cinnamon mix. Do this while they are still hot because the sugar will stick better. Once the donuts are finished cooking on both sides, allow them to drain briefly and then douse them in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Simple.

2. We've spent a lot of time at soccer games these past few weekends. Cass's season is now over, but Cami will still be playing up through the first week of November.

3. "Cami, don't play cards with that stuffed animal."
    "Why not?"
    "'Cause he's a big cheetah!"

4. Words cannot explain just how much I adore this face. Of all the adorable photos I have of her, THIS ONE is my favorite. Without a doubt.

5. The perfect place to spend a somewhat rainy fall Saturday. Sharing it with my sister makes it even better. Even if there were crazy old-man cops and scary black vans.

6. Chris's desire to have a house with a view like this is really starting to rub off on me. I'm still not sure if I'd be okay with the 30-minute drive, in reality, or not.

7. I honestly think I buy more flowers in the fall than I do in the spring. That doesn't make sense, but I can never turn down a huge bouquet of sunflowers like this.

8. I love to just soak up all the little details.

9. All week long, she has wandered through the house, looking for her girls. She will be happy when they are both finally back home. So will I.

10. Our living room TV (the only one in our house, I should add) finally gave up the ghost. It's a 19-inch that we've had for 18 years; I won it at my high school Project Graduation in May 1993. We finally decided to replace it after it started malfunctioning this week (the power button quit working, so you had to plug it in / unplug it to watch it). We got a 42" LCD LED flatscreen and it looks huge in our living room. It will take a while to adjust, I think.

I open at the close

I don't even know where to begin. It's 2:30 am and I should be getting in bed, but like most people who just finished watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, I'm too keyed up to even think about sleep at the moment. To sum up the night, I think Cassidy put it best: "I cried, I laughed, I jumped out of my seat, I frowned, I cheered, I held my breath through half of it. What a night!"

I'll admit, I came late to the whole Harry Potter phenomenon. In fact, I was pretty staunchly anti-Potter in the beginning, up until about the time the fourth book was published. Not for religious reasons or anything like that. It was more of an "everyone has jumped on this bandwagon, but I refuse" sort of thing. That doesn't seem like much of a reason, but I'm always wary when something gets so hyped (Twilight, anyone? Blech.) Oprah's Book Club makes me react in much the same way.

But my reaction was a little more proprietary with Harry Potter, too. You see, fantasy (more specifically, children's and YA fantasy) has always been my reading genre of choice, above everything else. So when people started singing the praises of these books, especially those people who admitted to having never read such classics as The Chronicles of Narnia or Susan Cooper's The Dark is Rising series, I was offended; there was no way that these books could ever be as good as those classics. They were classics for a reason, after all. I'll admit, that's a pretty elitist attitude, but I'd read those books over and over again -- I considered them childhood friends, and I couldn't stand for the new kid on the block to be encroaching on their territory.

Eventually, though, I read the books and I had to admit. They were well-written, engaging, and I got sucked into the story just like everyone else. The movies came along, and despite my attitude toward most adaptations, they were just as good. 

So when tickets for the midnight premier of the last movie were announced, I grabbed a pair for Cass and myself. (Cami hasn't seen the last couple of movies -- too dark for her, so she and Chris stayed home. We'll go again to see it with Chris, I'm sure.) After all, this would only happen once.

It's really amazing to feel the energy, the magic, at something like this -- and magic is really what it is, I think. Think about it -- crowds of people all over the US, dressed up in costumes, waiting in line for hours and hours, cheering as the theater doors are opened -- it's dorky and fun and completely amazing. What I love most is that it's a STORY that has brought people together like this.

And the bigscreen adaptation of that final story was abso-FREAKIN-lutely incredible. The action kicked in after 15 minutes and it was just non-stop from that point on. It was so incredible to see characters step up and kick ass -- like Professor McGonagall, Neville (hawt hawt Neville), and Mama Weasley (holy CRAP, did she kick some ass!) I kept myself from sobbing out loud -- but just barely -- when Harry walked back into Hogwarts and saw Fred, Lupin, and Tonks dead. There were so many parts that were laugh out loud funny, and I cheered just as loudly as anyone else during the good parts. I think one of my favorite things was hearing everyone let out this whispered "Yesssss!" when the screen went blank and then flashed the words "19 years later." And seeing those characters as adults/parents -- especially Ron -- was just too funny. And you just will not believe how cute Harry and Ginny's kids are, really. Adorable.

I'm just now regaining feeling in my right hand -- Cassidy had it clutched in hers all night and kept beating it against her thigh. It went numb about 30 minutes in. ;) All in all, an awesome experience, one that I'll look back on with fondness.

Always.

home decorating

I've been slowly but surely working on turning our home into a space that we really love -- one that is functional and fun and that reflects the way we live. Like everyone else, I've gathered loads of inspiration on Pinterest; one of the great things is that, by looking at all of my pins together on each board, I can really start identifying the things that are common to each room. This makes adding those types of items to my real home so much easier.

One of the things I've identified that I truly truly love is mid-century modern furniture -- mainly credenzas and shelving units. While I'm still on the lookout for a credenza (to use either behind the couch as a sofa table or as an entertainment center), I completely lucked out at the Peddlar's Mall (a local flea market here in Murray) and found this beauty. It has sliding glass doors that cover the two upper shelves, but I've removed them because they tend to rattle a lot when you walk past them in our house (old house == old floors).

The photo really doesn't do justice to how beautiful this piece is. I've got all our games (which were stored in a cabinet that this piece replaces) in the three drawers, and the open shelves and top are the perfect place to display many of my vintage treasures. I love shopping in antique stores and flea markets, and while I "find" tons of things that I think are really cool, I'm pretty selective about what I bring home. The truth is, we just don't have a lot of room, so I try to keep things simple. These collections are pretty much it for me:

a globe collection on top (which is basically complete at this point, unless I find something that's just out of this world)

vintage cameras on the next shelf (along with our subscription to National Geographic -- I love this magazine, and it's the only one that I actually subscribe to in any format, print or digital)

the vintage typewriter I picked up for $6.00(!!!), a wooden N and number 4 metal tag -- both of which represent our last name and the number of people in our family

a John Derian tray (from Target) and three apothecary jars containing old game pieces and dominos, along with a set of vintage flash cards, a cool little wooden person (these kind of things really catch my eye at flea markets) and a vintage scalloped linen doily

and the bottom shelf holds my 1968 edition of the Childcraft books -- I love the gray binding with rainbow colors -- and can you believe I got the entire set from a thrift store for less than $10?

Styling was a process that took a while; I piled lots of stuff on the shelves and then started mixing, matching, rearranging, stepping back, looking, moving more items, taking photos and sending to my sister for her input, moving items again...you get the point.

One of the best resources that I found was Rachel Denbow's Style Your Space e-course for Red Velvet. I've always loved Rachel's vintage style in her own home; while my tastes do include some "modern vintage" pieces, there's a lot of rustic/natural and cottage elements in our house too (with four people living here, everyone has the things they like, and it's taken a lot of work to get all those tastes to mesh). Rachel's course is helpful, no matter what style you prefer. We live in a rental right now, and there are a lot of things that we can't change (the awful paint job in the living room, for example -- though I'm working on that!); Rachel even has tips on finding your look while renting. The course is really fantastic, and there were great materials included. It definitely gets my whole-hearted endorsement.

Cami's room

Cami's bedroom got another update while the girls were gone out west. I've slowly but surely been working on their rooms, trying to create something for them that looks pulled together and fits into the overall look of our home, but still incorporates all the things they love. With Cami, that meant lots of room for Littlest Pet Shops, her dollhouse and Barbies, and all things natural -- lizards, horses, rock collections, and more. She's a fan of pink, glitter, and feathers, and music is a big part of her life, too.

Originally, she had our room, which features a light pink wall color, so we went with a green/pink color scheme. Eventually, we traded rooms (we got tired of having the smaller room) and so Cami moved into this room. The wall color in here is light yellow, but that ended up working well with the pinks and greens we'd been using.

We're lucky in that Cami has a number of pieces of furniture that have been made for her by family members or passed down to her from us, so I wanted to use them whenever possible (plus, that saves money). Just recently, Chris took the desk that his grandad (Neal) made for him, added a stronger top, sanded it down, and painted it for Cami. She picked out the paint color (Tree Frog Green) and the pink crystal knobs. We also painted a hand-me-down chair from Gigi's old kitchen set (Chris's grandmother). Cami has decided she wants to scrapbook, so she needed a place to work. This was the perfect solution:

Her desk lamp is one I decorated years ago for a scrapbooking magazine assignment; it just happens to pick up the color scheme in her room perfectly.

Continuing on around the room: the bookshelf actually belongs to Cass but works better in Cami's room. Neal (great-grandfather) made it for her when she was tiny. 

On top I use a denim foldable basket (that was originally designed to hold diapers in a baby's room) to corral all the bits of paper and notebooks and pencils that she ends up collecting. The pencils are all in small jam jars; she can just take them out, put them on her desk and use them, then stick them back in the basket when she's done. Simple storage.

The cubby shelves are the most useful thing we ever purchased. We had a chest of drawers in here for a while, and while it did provide storage for Cami's clothes, nothing ever got put away in the right place. So we switched to the cubbies, and they've been perfect. The cubes on the top shelves hold socks, underwear, pajamas, and shorts, while the bottom ones hold LPS pets, barbies, and other small toys. It's so much easier for Cam to put things where they belong, and she doesn't fuss about cleaning up because she knows where everything goes.

She's got a couple of Black Apple prints framed in her room, as well as this cool wood-cut dog that Grandad made for her:

Her bed is even a hand-me-down -- it was part of the bunkbed set that Chris and Eric used when they were little. It's perfect, though eventually I will paint it white (unless I can find a sweet vintage iron bedframe instead). She had a tulle canopy for a while, and then I found this giant leaf canopy at Ikea and knew that it was absolutely perfect for our nature-loving girl. (I don't think they sell the canopy anymore).

The quilt was made for her by Grandmother. Some of the doll squares were actually made by Grandmother's mom (Mutsy, Cami's great-grandmother). I love that the fabrics all have a story behind them and that she's able to have something that means so much. Plus, it's the perfect pattern for her, as she loves dolls. The blanket beneath that is actually the bedspread that was on my bed when I was growing up.

The pink curtains on the windows ended up being too narrow after we hung them, so my mom added a piece of green fabric to either side and decorated it with flower buttons to hold them together. The result is really cute and was a really simple solution to too-narrow curtains. Plus, the green (although it looks yellow in the photos) was another great way to tie the colors in her room together.

The nightstand is another great thrift store find; it's white wicker and only cost $35. I thought that was a steal, since usually wicker furniture is really overpriced when I see it at thrift stores. It provides great storage (which is essential, since Cami is seriously a packrat). The orange doll carriage is something Cami spotted at a flea market and bought for $12.00. 

Chris and I moved the desk in and rearranged her room while she was on vacation; she came home and was thrilled with the results. I am too -- it's a sweet little girl's room and it matches her personality so perfectly. I love how everything came together, and it cost us very little to do it.

decorating goals -- finally completed

Last summer, I posted a list of goals that I wanted to work on over the summer. A year later, I'm finally getting them all completed.

The first one on the list was painting this metal rack in our bathroom. As I noted in my earlier post, we found this rack on the balcony when we moved into our first apartment here in Murray. We need bathroom storage, so we put it to use. However, the metal was rusty in many spots; so while it was functional, it wasn't pretty. When we moved into our current home, the bathroom (again) was a tiny space and so we used the rack again. The bathroom has turned into a really cute space; it started off with this great green/cream toile wallpaper and white beadboard on the walls. Adding a simple white curtain, some baskets for storage, and a great striped rug and shower curtain really pulled the room together. I finally headed out to the backyard this week and gave the shelf a nice coating of spray primer and then a couple of coats of glossy white spray paint. Simple solution that looks sooooo much better. Wish I'd taken care of this sooner!

Here's a before shot:

And here's the after: 

Those baskets have been the best thing to put to use -- I like how they add some natural texture to the room (and pick up the brown/tan in the shower curtain) but also keep things somewhat hidden. The baskets with liners came from Walmart, and the longer basket on the top shelf is actually a desk organizer for 8.5x11 papers from Pier 1. It's the perfect size to hold all our handtowels. 

I use a couple of milk glass pieces for storage (this one holds the girls' ponytail elastics); I wish I had a little more display room so I could add a few more pieces.

There used to be a round handtowel holder that hung right above the sink. It was completely useless, and so we took it down, but it ended up leaving a big hole in the wall. My solution was to pull this wooden postcard out of my leftover scrapbooking supplies (it came in a kit from ScrapInStyleTV, one that Kristina Contes put together); I loved it but had never found anything to do with it. Add a simple wooden frame and it makes the perfect cover for that spot, plus it adds a touch of art to the room.

Here's a shot of the final room. Of all the rooms in our house, this one is the closest to being complete (well, as complete as things can get in a rental). The only thing remaining that I'd like to do is replace the set of mini-blinds with a roll-up rattan shade -- I think it will do much the same job as the baskets do: introduce some additional texture and play up the browns in the shower curtain.

a peek into my room

I've been wanting to redecorate our bedroom for a long time, but I was having trouble making up my mind. I was finally able to purchase the bedspread I've been wanting from UO (it was out of stock for the LONGEST time), and with that purchase completed, everything else seemed to just fall into place. I thought I'd share a bit, since I'm really happy with this room. There are still some things that I'd like to do, such as paint the nightstands and (possibly) the chest of drawers, but that will have to wait for warmer weather.

Here's a look at the entire room, taken from the door.

There's really no perfect orientation for the bed. We don't want it on the wall to the left of the door, because of how the door opens. That leaves only two remaining positions, and both of them involve the bed's headboard in front of a window. So we deal with it. What can you do?

Here's the view from the closet door.

Chris gave me a hard time, because it took me forever to find a bedspread that I liked. See, the problem was that the quilt needed to match the orange milk glass lamps that I'd found the previous year at a Pottery Barn outlet. I adore them, and they are one of my favorite things that I own.

The nightstands were purchased for $8.00 each at a local thrift shop; I'll be giving them a nice coat of white paint this spring and possibly adding some wallpaper or a stenciled design to the top surface. The vase is from a West Elm outlet in Memphis. The books underneath are a handful of hardcovers on my "to-read" list and my full collection of Neil Gaiman's Sandman graphic novels.

Here's another glimpse at the quilt -- it's so soft and I love the variety of patterns. The pillow was a Christmas gift from my mom that she made. Usually he stays tucked over in the chair at my desk.

Here are a couple of shots of the bookshelves that we have in our room. I'd eventually like to get one larger bookshelf -- something with either more height or width (or both) to hold these books. Ideally, I'd like to have more shelves in our living room and move some of these books in there, so that our collection isn't divided like this, but right now there just isn't room.

These are all books that I've read. The top shelf contains my autographed books and advanced reader's copies. The small cut-glass jar holds jewelry, and there's a really neat clay disk on top that Cassidy created as part of an art field trip. The canvas above it is one that I made. That's my favorite bit of a Mary Oliver poem with just some freehand shapes to fill the space.

This bookcase, on the bottom two shelves, holds all the books that I haven't read yet (with the exception of about 7 books on the bottom shelf). The top has a large framed vintage map of Belgium (no particular reason why it's a map of Belgium, other than that is what I found and I thought it would look neat framed).

The chest of drawers is something I'd like to either refinish, paint, or just completely replace. It's still a good piece of furniture, despite the fact that it's at  least 40 years old. Chris's parents bought it for his room when he was just a year or two old, but it was a used piece of furniture even then. The knobs were purchased at Anthropologie almost two years ago; I love the shape and the color.

Hanging above the chest of drawers are two framed portraits of me and Chris; Cami drew these of us when she was only 4 or 5. I love them, and they are truly one of my most prized possessions -- like "grab them if the house is on fire"-prized. There's also a cast iron bird with two hooks, where I hang most of my larger necklaces. It was an antique store find and cost $3.00.

Our bedroom is large enough that I have a small desk space in the corner. This allows me to work on my laptop or to pull out my sewing machine if I'm working on a craft project. The desk is an old library desk that my mom purchased at an antique store when I was in elementary school. She used it in the kitchen as an island when I was younger. I really need to give it a good rubdown with some wood oil; it looks dry. Underneath are baskets with yarn and fabric, as well as my sewing machine.

I bought the desk chair at a yard sale for $2.00. I absolutely love it -- the seat sinks in a little and there are a couple of worn spots/stains, but overall, it was a steal for two bucks.

Here's a glimpse at the 'stuff' on my desk; the wooden owl is what Cass bought me for Christmas. Isn't his face just adorable? The coffee cup is from my friend Jan; I've got three recylced cardboard binders where I store magazine clippings and articles for home decor, scrapbooking, and knitting ideas, plus a plain white magazine file from Wal-mart for all the other paper odds and ends (plus some cute file folders).

The other side has another neat owl -- the white one is a creamer that my sister bought for my birthday. I use it to store pencils. The glass owl with the cork lid holds some lovely perfume oils from Flourish; I bought it at an antique shop for $1.50. The little wooden owl is one that Cami carved (with Grandad's help).

I really needed a bulletin board, but couldn't find any cork sheets large enough to fit an old gold picture frame that I've had for 15 years or so. Instead, I used a large piece of cardboard. Since most of it is covered up, you can't even tell, and it works just as well as cork right now. Of course, eventually it will end up full of holes, but it's super-easy and cheap to switch it out with another piece of cardboard.

I've got my Damien Rice Hatch show poster hanging there, from when he played live at Lovett Auditorium here on campus almost four years ago (we had just moved to Murray, and I was thrilled at the chance to see him live). I've also got a cute tea towel from my sister, although I'm pretty sure I'm going to make a pillow out of it eventually (to replace the orange toile one in my chair).

I've got some prints on the wall -- a Curly Girl print that I LOVE (there's a card by her on my idea board also), a bee print that I picked up here on campus by a local art student, and a small print I made with some of Kate Hadfield's cute doodles.

I'm really happy with how everything has come together; I'm especially happy that I was able to work with the existing paint color on the walls and the curtains we already owned. I've been working hard to create a cozy comfortable home with thrifted pieces and things we already own, and I feel like my style has really come together over the past year. You'll likely never see my house on Apartment Therapy, but that's okay. It warms my heart to know that my family loves our little rental house, and that we've made it a HOME in the truest sense of the word.

 

in limbo

One quick note of good news: I'm guest posting on the Ella blog today. Look to the left -- see that snazzy orange elephant button? Just click on it and you'll go directly to my post. Hope you'll check it out! Thanks!

In other news, my laptop (which is less than 2 years old) is dead. Looks like either the processor or the motherboard went out on it. Of course, there was a ton of stuff that I hadn't backed up recently, including the wonderful photos of the girls that I took while we were in Gulf Shores. Chris is seeing what he can do to get the files off the hard drive, but so far nothing is working, so it looks like there was some hard drive damage somehow as well. I'm just sick about it.

This is the second time I've lost information when a computer went down, and while I have more stuff backed up this time, I just hate that so much of what I consider important is now lost. I am seriously rethinking technology -- not completely -- but just how I handle it and how much I depend on it. I foresee a number of changes in the future, I think, beginning with much less reliance on a computer system.

ETA: Does anyone know of a software program that lets you take small photos (for example, photos that I saved to Facebook or my blog at 600 pixels, approximately) and restore them to a larger size more suitable for printing? I remember there being a program mentioned in an old issue of Digital Scrapbooking Magazine, but I don't have it anymore. Any help that anyone could provide would be wonderful!!!

what's going on: now

This space has been quite empty, but not for lack of trying. Several times a day I stop and think, "I need to write a blog post about that," but before I can get to it, we're on to the next thing. So here's a quick summary of what's going on with us right now.

Chris: Things have been busy at work. They've hired a couple of new student workers, so training them has taken up a good bit of time -- plus, because they're new, it's created a bit of a backlog in getting work orders filled as quickly as needed. There's talk of him going in this weekend to get caught up a bit more.

Audrey: Things have been really busy, even though technically I don't work during June and July. In the past two weeks, I've made one trip to Louisville (there and back in one day = 8 hours of driving), attended a two-day curriculum development meeting in Louisville, made the 12-hour round trip to EKU in Richmond with 8 high school kids and their luggage in a 15-passenger van. I have another one-day trip to Louisville again this week, plus another trip back to EKU at the start of July. I've also done a lot of reading, some thrifting, not enough scrapping, plenty of homework for my two classes, and lots of design plans (though with too little execution at this point -- need to remedy that TOMORROW.)

Cassidy: Soccer, soccer, and more soccer. JV and Varsity conditioning has started, and she's doing a Futskilz camp this week too. There's a tryout session for a competitive travel team coming up. Of course, there's been plenty of phone time with the boyfriend, plus a good bit of reading and some World Cup watching too.

Cami: This one's been into a bit of everything lately. She's been working her way through a math workbook to keep her skills sharp, plus doing 30 minutes of reading a day. Each day involves a Disney movie, plus some arts and crafts or games -- whatever she digs up, really. She's looking forward to the fair this week, and a trip to Gigi's next week with Cass for VBS.

my dream house

For quite some time now, I've been turning over the idea of possibly building a home instead of buying one when the time comes (and there are lots of things connected to "that time," but we won't go into those things). It all comes down to creating the kind of home that works for the way we function as a family -- the TV doesn't have a central location in our home but our computers do, we prefer to all be in the same space at the same time, and we don't want something big or fancy.

I've been sketching out imaginary house plans for a while, and I keep coming back to a house that I found in Real Simple several years ago as the basis for the house I want. Essentially, the house is a large rectangle, with most of the living spaces open to each other.

I found an online site that let me create a floor plan -- keep in mind that this is not to scale. I simply wanted an easier way to picture this house I have build in my mind.

The large green area is the garage -- that's really just a holding spot. In terms of furniture and appliances and such, most of those items in the plan are just there to hold space. I haven't fully determined what type of arrangement I'd really like to have, although I have some inpsiration photos tucked away. Here are a few of them:

I want a desk like this built in -- that's in the top right corner of the plan. I'd like the wall above (where the large calendar is hanging ) to be built-in shelves, however.

This is my little game nook that I want -- do you see on the floor plan to the left of the front entrance (closet area) where there's a round circle on the plan? Yep, that's where this little spot goes.

In the living room, by the two armchairs, that's where I'll have my floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, of course. Something along the lines of this:

 or maybe this:
But full of books, of course.

I'm completely in love with this bathroom -- it's what I'd like to have in the space between the girls' rooms. It would also serve as the general bathroom for guests, etc.

 

For the girls' rooms, I like a built-in desk area like this at the end of each room, only modified to include a large wardrobe as well:

The kitchen is still the area that's most up-in-the-air. I know that I want open shelves above the counters. The panty will be a wall of shelves in the hallway that leads to the mud room. I'm still busy gathering inspiration for those areas.

I guess the next step is contacting an architect and seeing just how much a house like this would cost.