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.