Still kicking it

Hey everyone :0) I realize it has been awhile since I blaghed. Excuse me for my tardiness but November proved to be a little bitch of a month. There was a election (where I had to pretend extra hard that I knew what I was doing when I didn't.) Then Harry Potter came out, so that took up a lot of effort. Then the in laws came, and we ate turkey (and lost power.) Throw in a leaky humidifier and Joey's first shop vac and let's just say I'm happy the 11th month is behind us.

This weekend

What I should be doing: Writing my weekender.

What I am doing: Planning our weekend.

Here's how Joey's schedule probably goes:

1) Design shizz.
2) Watch football and shizz.
3) Eat shizz.
4) Fall asleep to football (and shizz.)

FALSE.

Here's what I thought we could do, I feel as though my blog has become very Chelseacentric, and while I realize I'm part of the narcissistic generation I've decided to start a feature, if you will, called 9 Square Miles. I haven't fact checked it, but I think that's how big Munster is. Breaking news, Wikipedia says it's 7.6 square miles, so I'll go with that because Wikipedia obviously never lies.

So this weekend for my 7.6 square miles feature, here is what I have planned:
1) Get my Lake County Public Library card at the Munster branch.
2) Go to the Munster History Museum.
3) Learn about all the historic homes in Munster and then make Joey find them with me. Also I'd like to find Jacob M(u)nster's General Store...which I think our realtor already showed us.
4) Eat at El Salto because it's paycheck week and that's also in Munster. Or we could venture to a newish restaurant. Suggestions, please? We've already done Three Floyds.

A middle class, white girl problem

Say someone looked into our front window for purely innocent reasons...they'd see nothing but seafoam green carpet. No, we don't have living room furniture (yet.) But my husband tells me we're getting it soon. We're trying the whole "save before buying mentality." However, I feel our homestead is very crack house chic because we literally look like squatters. I had this cute idea that I'd flea market our furniture and reupholster our new couches with love. That's until I learned reupholstering is super hard.

Because I'd like furniture within the next century, we've decided to suck it up and pay for it at a "big kid" store. We're down to two choices:

First here's the room:



Note the carpet. And matching curtains.

So choice number one (keep in mind the carpet is staying for now)


The Nines Sofa from Crate and Barrel. We'd order in this color because the other ones cost a bit more.

OR....I really like the Silhouette Sofa, and it's about $200 cheaper:
And here are the chairs (but we don't have chairs picked out if we get the Silhouette sofa)




Now for our West Elm likes. This one is a lot more expensive than the CB stuff, but the chairs are cheaper so it balances out (so we tell ourselves.)






Hmmm....

The girls

I wanted to introduce the blogosphere to in-my-own-bias-opinion the cutest dogs on Earth. Maddie and Brandy Kirk. They went in for their annual check up this weekend at the Munster Pet Hospital down the street. We were really impressed. The staff was nice, and it didn't break the bank. Bonus: We can now prove Maddie doesn't have rabies...not that we were concerned...

Here's our Maddie girl:




The things you should know about Maddie:

• She used to live with Phoenix drug dealers, which is hilarious.
• She doesn't get out of bed until you do in the morning. I'M SURE real kids do the exact same thing.
  
• She's feisty and has a huge personality.

Here's our Brandy:



About Brandy:

• There's a 100 percent chance she's allergic to the flowers in that picture. We have a sneezing dog.
• She knows when you're having a bad day. It's like she has ESPN or something.
• She likes to ruin holidays, which is why Joey's never leaving me on a holiday ever again.
  

Fall is upon us

Since the last blog:

• I turned 25. Quarter of a century. I'm not mad about it. People still think I'm 16, slightly annoying when I was 24 but a happy mistake when I'm 25. Another perk: Rental cars are more affordable even after I get the really expensive insurance cause I suck at driving.
  
• Theresa Schneider drank a margarita at El Salto. My mother recently rediscovered her party pants at the ripe age of 50.
• Joey's parents drove straight from Wylie, Texas, to Munster. We took them to Amish Country then because we're a sucker for juxtapositions the next day we went to Chicago. On the way, Joey finally, FINALLY saw Touchdown Jesus.
  
• We got a dining room table. It seats six, so feel free to invite yourself to dinner.
  
• We're planning (or maybe I'm just planning in my little heart) a trip to Europe. Chelsea's Eurovacation wish list: Paris, Rome, Czech Republic. Joey wants to hit the Eastern Seabord as in Washington, D.C., Boston, New York, upstate New York, Maine, etc. I think that would be way fun as well, so we shall see.
• My life goal is to live a year abroad. Right now I'm leaning toward Paris or maybe the CR. Maybe we'll end up living in Texas for a year and I can count that as "abroad."
  
• We're finding new places to eat, our next adventure is to Top Notch. Today we went to a Pancake House in Highland. LITERALLY the best thing ever...and it cost $15. We'll be back.
  

A foodie pick, if you will:



At Les Brothers Pancake House. Hot chocolate 10/10.

Blue Stripes

Friends (or Joey who is the only other person who stalks this blog,)

We're at the end of our painting season...we've painted the big ol' room downstairs and then our bedroom. Now we have to wait for furniture to keep painting and the change out of the best seafoam green carpet known to man. We're thinking beige. The dogs are mistaking the green for grass if you know what I mean.

So now I'm switching gears to: PILLOWS for our gray couch which might I add went ON SALE at West Elm like the weekend after we paid full price for it. I'm not mad, I'm just questioning whether my shopping instincts are still intact.

I really want blue striped pillows. I have in my head what I want, and if I don't find it I search for it until I do. It's really one of my more annoying qualities...bc not only do I know what I want I also have a price range in my head.

As in...I'm not going to pay $50 for a pillow cover unless it sings to me...and maybe drys my hair in the morning. Who am I kidding...I don't dry my hair, baha.

What is more even annoying is that I only use my pickiness quality for purchases under say $500. My new-to-me car is the first car we test drove. My wedding dress was the first dress I tried on. But I will literally go to every fabric/home goods store known to man until I find blue striped pillow covers UNDER $20. Yes, I'm even up to sewing the dang things myself. Or you know asking Meme nicely to sew them for me.

I had almost hit a win-win at IKEA this past weekend. But no, they had yellow/white stripes and black/white stripes...they were out of stock of their blue/white stripes. The nice IKEA lady (not Swedish) tried to tell me I wouldn't notice the difference between the blue and black. But I would I so would. I tricked Joey into thinking I was going to the bathroom at the check out line but really I was getting a non-Swedish, $1 ice cream cone to soothe my soul. Oddly, the line was packed with boyfriends and husbands...who also needed to soothe their soul. Strong marriages endure IKEA, even stronger ones endure putting the furniture together.

One blue/white striped pillow option:

Dear Joey, Can I please haz $37 pillow covers from Austrailia.



(via bestlilshop on Etsy)

The Yellow Chair that Chelsea will make her bitch

Here's the thing. I love vintage shopping. But I'm not really artsy and craftsy so the whole art of how to reupholster a vintage find is beyond me. In Chicago, when you go "vintage shopping," you need to also be "old money rich." Most of the furniture is LITERALLY priced more expensive than really expensive new furniture.

So we decided to go vintage/secondhand shopping in Highland on Saturday and found a 1960s era gold, buttoned chair for $8.25 originally priced $10...but for some reason they decided to make it MORE ON SALE. When I first looked at the price I thought it said $100 and reasoned with myself that, "Hey, that's cheaper than a new Crate and Barrel chair..." So we checked the price and the lady said 10 bucks. I wanted to hug her.

So here's the gold chair that I'm going to make my bitch. My plan is to Google: How to reupholster a $8.25 chair, and go from there. Currently it's in the garage because I'm Theresa Schneider's daughter and scared of bugs living inside of old things. Also the previous owner had I'm guessing 10 cats.

Old, ugly duckling chair:




My inspiration from Room & Board, the "Guffman Chair." Named I'm sure after one of my favorite movies "Waiting for Guffman." "It's a Zen thing, like how many babies fit in a tire." However, this little ditty is $800 some odd dollars and far off budget.

Back to the $8 chair, I'm thinking red houndstooth...then I'll name it Rooms Chair after my college rooms who ROCKS that fabric on a daily basis.



(via Room&Board)

"It's like you own the Mad Men's grandma's house."

Let the record show it was Chelsea's idea to purchase a home in Indiana. Joey was distant to the idea of becoming a Hoosier mainly because he works in downtown Chicago and the Red Line was extremely convenient. But after four months and tons of mortgage paperwork under our belts, we moved into our first PURCHASED single-family dwelling in late August. We're trendy people, and mortgages are super trendy for the first-time homebuyer crowd as of late. Did we get the swinging tax credit? No. We're unapologetically late adopters.

Who needs $8,000? Obviously not the Kirks (sad.)

Why Munster you ask? Why not other faraway burb lands like Naperville, the-always-classy-but-off-the-hellish-Kennedy Schaumberg, or even Highland or the totes vintage Crown Point? Well after our schooling in property taxes, we decided it was the Hoosier way to be affordable. That swayed our decision to cross the state line. Also, Chelsea works in Merrillville and the whole two hour commute was wearing on her psyche. This involved crying and questioning her life's work on Lake Shore Drive.

So long story short: Joey agreed to live in Indiana IF AND ONLY IF our exit was Exit 1 on the Borman. We took a drive and decided on Munster. Several houses later, we decided on a cute, 1960s era bungalow on a tree-lined street.

Goodbye Chicago and all your cool, sweet things. Hello suburbs, where life is gladly a little slower.

We love our house. We love the lady who built this house with her late husband. I even love her flowery wallpaper she chose for the upstairs. But we're also making several changes to make it a little more "us."

As the guy at Design Within Reach told us (after we decided that DWR was NOT in reach for people on media salaries) "It's like you own the Mad Men's grandma's house."

OMG, we do! Pictures next post.