Bling and the Elderly

Some of my dearest friends came to visit last weekend. It is not often that I get to host people at my house who are not related to me so I spent the entire night before and morning of their arrival cleaning. The minute they arrive we broke out snacks and wine and everything was a mess again. But I wouldn't have it any other way!

There was lots of laughter, wine, bling and iphone apps that show you what you will look like in 2060.

I don't know how it could possibly be the last day of January. Time flies when you're having fun. Or, time flies when you work full time, go to graduate school full time and try to maintain a glimmer of a social life.

You know you're a needy sister when....

....before your younger sister goes out for the evening she calls you to make sure you'll be alright at home by yourself.

Yep, I've been watching too many crime shows before bed and have been taking a little too much comfort in having Melanie so close by when husband travels. The poor girl is stuck consoling her older sister before going out with friends!

But look how cute she is. Wouldn't you want this to protect you if you'd been watching crime dramas and were afraid of the dark?

Elle Decor in my hood

I've had a subscription to Elle Decor magazine for years but I must have somehow missed the issue where they sing Kansas City's praises. 


"You can’t anticipate Kansas City’s charms by looking at a map. It has all the elements that create a rich urban experience, coupled with a gracious, small-town intimacy that ensures an easy stay—for a weekend or a lifetime." -Elle Decor

It was really fun to read through their picks of favorite restaurants, hotels and shops. On their short list of best hotels was The Raphael Hotel where JJ and I stayed on our wedding night. 

There are some amazing pictures of this city, where I'm starting to feel more and more at home every day. 

You can see my apartment building in the skyline of this last picture. I tried to figure out a way to describe in words which one it is but I was unsuccessful so you'll just have to pretend I'm waving at you from one of the smaller brick buildings. 

Saturday at the City Market

Our Master-ly Windows

The fabric I ordered a billion years ago arrived and now we have some bedroom curtains. Now our master bedroom feels so "master-ly."

We have had them up for a few weeks now and have used them zero times for their intended purpose {blocking out the sunlight} because:
1. I typically buy things based sheerly on aesthetic rather than practicality
2. There has been no sunshine in Missouri since we hung these puppies up

No curtains for us!

I'd been feeling like none of the rooms in the apartment would be done until they had curtains but we've run into a little hiccup. The side of the building that all of our windows are on is made of brick underneath the drywall. No power drill in the world {that we have access to} can drill into it which means we cannot hang curtain rods. At first I acted like this was the worst thing in the planet {because I'm a serious worrier} but I'm past that now.

I did ended up buying some of this fabric to make curtains for our bedroom. JJ figured out a way to attach a curtain rod to the outside of the window.

We've decided to return the white curtains I bought for the living/dining room and use the money towards some barstools. You have to make priorities when you don't have a lot of dough.

Let the smell in

I've been trying to place the smell that lingers in the air near our apartment. It's extremely strong and kind of smells like a basement.

But a few days ago I figured it out. I drove past this beauty and the smell finally clicked. 

The "basement" smell was really COFFEE! I feel like the worst coffee addict ever that I didn't recognize it. Ever since then I've been leaving my windows open to let the basement {er, I mean coffee!} smell in.

Our home has a few new things I wanted to share with you.

These beautiful silhouettes were made from one of our wedding pictures and were a gift. I told you about these at Christmas time but I just now got around to framing them. Don't they look beautiful on either side of our bed! This is what the bed usually looks like- sorry to disappoint you.

Our contract for our loft requires us to cover 80% of our floors with rugs to buffer noise for the apartment below us. I'd been drooling over this rug from Ikea for quite some time but the sweedish are tormenting me but neither shipping things from their website or bringing a store to the midwest. And yes, this is our laundry drying over the dining chairs. Sorry to disappoint you.

It's really starting to feel like home!

Story Time

I am now eating my words about wishing I was a cat person. I royally failed at cat-sitting for my neighbor this week. My responsibilities were so few......crap.

Every day last week I would go over to her loft, feed the kitten, and scoop a little poop. When I was growing up, I would always {like the three times I actually pulled my weight and helped clean out the litter-box} flush the "business" down the toilet. So, reverting back to childhood, I threw this little guys "business" into my neighbor's toilet, shut the lid, flushed and came home. I did this six days in a row. On the last day I noticed that the toilet had backed up and over flowed into her white bathroom.

I kid you not, then the kitten jumps into the toilet.

In a panic, I went down to the concierge downstairs in our building and begged her for a plunger. She teased me for a bit about my "bathroom habits" then finally gave in. I used my charm and convinced her to come upstairs and plunge the toilet for me. It took us a half hour to fix the toilet and another half hour to persuade the soaking wet kitten to come out from behind the couch.



This is all JJ's fault, by the way. He's the one who volunteered me to cat-sit because he thought I needed the company while he was traveling for work.

I'm going to get real with you

I agree, friends, that I've withheld pictures of the new apartment for long enough. I'm going to get real with you for a moment- it's a total work in progress. We have not hung a single curtain, bought any rugs, and have hung less things on the walls than I have fingers. But, this is my home and I'd like to share it with you. You can click on any picture to make it larger.

As you first walk in the front door, here is what you see...

To your right is the kitchen...

Through the kitchen is this amazing pantry. It is litterly big enough to turn into a home office, if either of us ever did anything on our computers that didn't involve lounging on the couch. In addition to housing all of our food and kitchen appliances, I also displayed some of my favorite things in this pantry.

Past the kitchen is the living room with the ottoman I got for Christmas and my brand new chair. The antique telephone stand is currently being used as a mail station {even though I am not getting any mail delivered here}.

To the right of the living room is the dining room {which is actually just part of the living room that I put my table and fireplace in}

To the right of the dining room is the guest bedroom and bathroom. The guest bedroom is the most neglected room in the house {I'm embarrassed to show it in this state but I really want some guests!}. The guest bathroom has the most amazing "rain" shower head from Sharper Image. I don't know why it took me 3 weeks to try it out but now that I have, I am taking over this bathroom as my own!

To the left of the living room is the master bedroom and bathroom. JJ and I both have our own closets which is really nice {and by nice, I mean marriage-saving}.

The jar in the last picture is filled with memorabilia years of special times: ticket stubs, matchboxes from special restaurants, airline tickets, etc. Those books are antique copies of my favorite classic novels. Someday I'd like to put a chair and reading lamp next to them.


So there you have it- our REAL, nothing on the walls, take it or leave it new apartment! What do you think?