fanfarlo again

this time with a cover of neutral milk hotel's "in the aeroplane over the sea"

you gotta have hearth

that stove is just about in, but before it could be installed, there was the small matter of the hearth. we thought about installing black honed granite. however, the cost was more than we wanted to spend and the placement of that big slab of stone (really just a matter of a few feet away from the GIANT slab that makes up our kitchen island) didn't thrill us - stove versus stone.

instead, we went an entirely different direction... steel.



voila! stove in place.



ok, the hearth and surround may look all rusty and disgusting in the picture above, but take my word for it, it looks pretty cool in person. (flashes make everything look weird.) at first, i thought we'd try to take care of all the rust by eliminating it entirely, but honestly, i kind of like the effect now that i've seen it up close. we'll just smear some mineral oil all over to darken it up a bit and call it a day.

next up: busting through the wall with the stove pipe (luckily, the pass through is already there) and we'll be all set for our first fire.

oh yeah, i better order some wood...

they don't call it the gay high holiday for nothing.

perhaps i would've mentioned last friday what we were going to be for halloween had i know at the time. but it came down to an excruciating decision and a last minute whirlwind of activity (yet again)  to come up with the following:

paperdolls!





as you can see, cardboard is our best friend each and every halloween. the "dresses" weren't the most conducive to sitting, let alone dancing, but somehow we managed to a lot of both saturday night at our friend's annual holiday bash.

those wigs?  it's amazing what can be done with a little yarn, a bandanna, and some thread.

whoa.

better to pick up chairs with

this new place we've adopted is car crazy and since we've been living in a walking city for so long, it's been hard for us to accept the need for a second vehicle.

we've gone from a one-car family to a one car + one truck family.

yeah, that's me unloading sod from the back of our new-to-us 2001 gmc envoy.


when the possibility presented itself, we initially hesitated. we never wanted a second car, but the truth of the matter is it sucks to be the one left behind when the other is playing golf or picking up sixteen mid-century chairs or actually working at a show for any extended period of time.

this is for real

just when dabney thought she'd seen everything possibly for sale on craigslist, she runs into this...

OWN A PIECE of Entertainment HISTORY !

Sammy Davis Jr's Glass Eye

Made in the late 1960's

Story behind the The glass eye :

My Gandfather was the Eye Doctor for a
Eye care company that personally and exclusively,
took care of Sammy Davis ,Jr
when he came to St.Louis to preform or visit.

More info. will be provided for the buyer.

Selling to raise money for my sons college fund.



here's the original, if you want to see it for yourself. if it's not there anymore, it must have sold.

burn, baby, burn

we've had plans to install a wood stove in this house all along. we just ran out of funds to make it happen during the construction phase. however, we did manage to have the chimney installed which made total sense to do while all the other innards were being worked on.

we're happy to report that wood stove dream of ours is about to come true - just in time for winter.

while we would love to have a big giant stove to gather around, our designated corner won't allow for such a large appliance. so instead, we've opted for this cute little norwegian number. ja!




at just over 25" tall and a smidge over a foot wide, it's the smallest stove on the market, but it should be enough to take the edge off and give our furnace a break every once in a while.

i just placed the order today, so stay tuned.

see those dewlaps fly!

friday recently discovered the joy of all dog joys... hanging out the window of the car. i am happy to report that she LOVES it.



here's friday at 25 miles per hour.


here's friday at 35 miles per hour. look at those ears fly!

what a way to start a morning

this morning, friday and i were paused on the corner waiting to cross the street.

woman stops at the intersection and rolls down her window, "that is one. big. girl."

man, i hope she was talking about the dog...

the yard, pt. 1

step inside our house and the place is beginning to look pretty lived in already. outdoors is a totally different story.

since the day we moved in, we've lived with a construction zone for a backyard. in fact, we've been using leftover plywood as a walkway from our garage to our house for the past five months. 





we got sick of it all and finally did something about it.  thanks to dabney's dad, landscape architect extraordinaire, we had a plan...

...beginning with pavers that lead from garage to backdoor.



we knew we need a friday-friendly backyard, so nearly half is gravel.





with the help of some magic sod, we added grass.  the stuff is like 30 lbs hair plugs.  instant gratification.



presto!  we were done. 



we still have many trees and containers to add, but this we'll give us a good base to build on. 

more soon...

p.s.  if you're wondering about that frontyard, we haven't touched it.  we're leaving that for a spring project.

won't you be my neighbor?

one of the reasons we were drawn to our particular location was the artists' studios next door.

wouldn't you know it? the damn place is for sale.



not only has it been nice to have other creatives in the immediate vicinity, it sure has been wonderful to not have full-time neighbors across from our still curtainless house.

please, oh, please let some respectful, nice, quiet creative types take up residence - or better yet, make this their monday through friday workspace.

fingers crossed.

mogo cuties in action

one down, sixteen to go...

one lucky ebay bidder will soon be the recipient of the chair on the right.


it's a beauty alright!

congratulations to dabney on the very first sale of one of her many mid-century chairs.

one down, sixteen to go...

this could be yours!

http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/6727124

crafty bastards

meet me in st. louis DC tomorrow at the crafty bastards arts and crafts fair!



back online next week.

jail

it's like we're going back in time

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

uh oh

dabney's at it again.



above are two of sixteen (yes, read that right - 16!) herman miller/eames DCM chairs that dabney purchased for mere pennies on the dollar. her plan: SELL 'EM.

as soon as i see her let go of one, i'll let you know.

cruise photos

i almost totally forgot about these photographic treasures taken aboard our alaskan cruise ship this past summer.

you know how most cruiselines make passengers pose for a souvenir photo at the beginning of their journey. it's usually a nice picture like this...



or this...



here's ours...


don't you just love my "moose antlers" a la dabney?

there are a million chances to take ship-sanctioned pictures onboard. at every port, at every activity, hell, at every meal, there seemed to be photo opportunities. they usually involve mascots or cheesy fake backgrounds like below.

someone got me GOOD

i have no idea how long i have been driving around with this on the ass of my car, but strangely, i feel so embarrassed about it. god, i hope it wasn't there long. and, no, it's not my love for vermont that causes me such angst.

i have a feeling i know the two possible (and related) culprits.

design geek outrage

did you hear that some folks are livid that ikea has changed its font after 50 years?

that's what i call design geek outrage.

that poor bird

hello, padma.

best dressed at the emmys

sarah silverman cracked me up last night during the emmy telecast. it was the combination of the fake hair and the deadpan expression.

need your opinion

friday doesn't know what think about our latest craigslist find, or maybe she's disappointed that no movies are actually playing. i dunno.

but as you can see, we came home with a big something from an advertised "warehouse sale" but more accurately a giant garage with junk piled ceiling-high. the dude in charge was wearing little kiddie sunglasses decorated with little ducks. we weren't sure what to make of him or the randomness of his items (everything from an old hospital sterilizer, to foot lockers, jars, and old doors). hidden in the back was the old painted wood sign above. we thought it a gem. not sure what others will think.

in fact, what would you think if you saw this hanging in our home? kitchy/humorous or too pervy/weird?

andy richter kicks ass on celebrity jeopardy

reunion

last night, we had a impromptu and surprising party chez superette. not that impromptu gatherings are so unusual in our past homes, but what made it extraordinary was the company - a majority of whom were friends of mine from high school. ok, you may be thinking this is not so weird now that we're back in my old stomping grounds. but considering that the high school i attended had approximately 70 students in its entirety (yes, you read that right - the entire school = 70), the group below is not an insignificant gathering. hell, we can call this a downright reunion.



it was great to see everyone - a few of whom i haven't seen since i was 17 years old. we reminisced about old classmates, demerits, doghouse, and mr. smith. we laughed and drank ourselves silly.

friday's new trick

into the closet we go

it's one thing to move into a new place and throw in your furniture. it's another to actually organize your crap once you're inside the place.

you gotta love ikea for providing basic, functional, and affordable shelving. our workroom is now a much more useful and tidy place.






our master bedroom closet is almost done. a few more shelves here and there, and we can call it a day. our contractor made the multiple hanging bars on the far wall possible, and again, ikea was our source for the drawers and shelves on the left. please, no comments on the amount of clothes and bags. remember, we're two girls here.

thanks, readymade!

i just love readymade magazine, so you can imagine the thrill it was to be featured in their renegade recap.

is it a bed or is it a shoe?

is this the weirdest dog bed ever or what? if you can't resist it and have $129 to spare, go here.

rcf weekend

renegade chicago was a blast this weekend, as it always is when the weather remains dry (unlike last year's debacle).  with the sun shining and the temps in the low 80s on both saturday and sunday, folks came out in droves.

the new designs we had were an instant success and soon, we were having to tell shoppers we were out of certain sizes.  we just hate doing that.





of course, every time i perused the line of vendors up and down division street i couldn't help but find something irresistible.  namely, i replaced the generic nikon camera strap on our new dslr with something with more personality from souldier, two booths down from us.  then, the piece de resistance was, not one, but two prints from dan of crosshair silkscreen design, who makes the COOLEST BAND POSTERS OUT THERE. check his work out! i just love it.

on saturday night, the rcf organizers were nice enough to throw a private vendor party at a lumber yard. formerly an old stable, the space was amazing (as was the cake and brownies).




thanks to all the nice chicagoans who paid us a visit this weekend.

another bit of shameless self-promotion

look for us this weekend at renegade craft fair (chicago edition)!

oh, yeah, i live in stl...

for the second time this week, i noticed the distinct smell of hops in the air while on my morning walk with friday. silly me thought two miles between us and The Brewery would make this a very rare occurrence.

not a bad way to wake up, if you ask me.

look, ma, i am taking my vitamins!

ok, who the hell came up with this genius product?! gummy vitamins for adults. dabney and i love 'em. they sure beat the horse pills that we used to take.


i know, i know - the picture is backwards, but you get the idea.

just warn us if you start to notice that we're drawn to goldfish crackers, dry cheerios, fishsticks, and juice boxes, ok?

roly poly

not that this video hasn't been seen a million times over on cute overload and everywhere in between, it just KILLS me though. for this reason, here it is again...

madmenyourself

i couldn't resist. i just had to "mad men" myself (and while i was at it - i went ahead mm'ed dabney, too).  i think it's a pretty good likeness, if i do say so myself.

if you want to blow ten minutes, check it out for yourself here.

rhetorical question

is there anything better in the world than manchego cheese with a generous dollop of membrillo? i don't think so.

mogo sighting

doesn't miss "e" look adorable in her mogo balloon dog tee?

ukelele

last weekend at our dinner party, two of our guests brought over their ukeleles for a dinner time interlude. i marveled at their instruments as it reminded me of dear ashbloem and the evening of our ukeladies performance. (hell, if i can find the original post.)

little did i know, that i would soon be the recipient of this little guy (on loan) and a chord book.


i particularly like the inscription, "this ukelele kills fascists."

thanks, joe! i promise i'll practice.

sad mac

that shiny and new machine arrived yesterday. but before i could migrate everything my old powerbook - the thing DIED.

R.I.P. little powerbook, you served me well. if only you could have made it a few more hours.

zola, you're prescient. however, if i had only taken your advice a few hours earlier. my last backup was in february.

between flickr, evernote, etc - i have spent my friday afternoon trying to recreate what was.

lesson learned: backup, people, backup.