Cold weather and house pictures

Y'all. It's so cold and windy outside.

Abe went to Costco, but I prefer to experience the howling of the wind from the comfort of my pajamas. I don't know about you, but I believe that people who live in places with months of 100+ degree weather should be allowed to whine and sit inside by the fire when it gets cold enough to kill the aloe vera plants.

Ergo: wah!

I got sort of bored with whining (who knew that was possible?), so I decided to take some crappy cell phone pictures* of the kitchen/dining area of our house in its still-in-progress state.

*I still haven't packed and moved my camera charger because I'm lazy.

This is the kitchen/dining area:

Likes: the fireplace, the big window, over the sink, the color of the kitchen cabinets.

Dislikes: SoMuchBrick!, tile floors, kitchen lighting.

I'd like to paint the brick and take down the mantle, but 1.) I'm pretty sure we're not allowed to do that, and 2.) I'm afraid we might be overwhelmed by too much white space on the walls.

The tile floors would be great, except that they weren't sealed well when they were installed, and are prone to staining and sucking in dirt like weird little tile vacuums.

I'm not sure what we'll do about the lighting.

This is a better picture of the kitchen:

(Note the little bird salt and pepper shakers to the left of the fruit bowl. Love them.)

We painted the kitchen and dining area much brighter colors when we moved in (previously, the rooms were a combination of beige, dark grey, and wall-to-wall wood paneling). I love how bright the kitchen is.

On the other hand, I wish the countertops were solid surface instead of tile. I also have a love/hate relationship with the mini blinds. While the kitchen gets fantastic light during the day, and I love being able to open the blinds to let the sun in, the mini blinds are sort of ugly. Abe hates curtains, so I'm guessing we'll end up getting Venetian blinds or something similar.

I doubt that we'll upgrade the appliances (except maybe the fridge) since it's not our house.

So that is that.

In other news, here is a picture of Bailey looking pensive by the fire:

And here he is doing his Mrs. White impression:

"Fl- flames... Flames on the side of my face!"

And I think it's time for me to put the cell phone down now.

Painting, drawing, musing

We spent the weekend painting the living room and making repairs at my grandma's house. Abe's parents helped us. (I still get a little nervous around Abe's parents, even though they are probably the nicest in-laws I could have asked for. Social awkwardness FTW!) I should have probably taken before/during/after pictures, but I'm a little lazy and forgetful about that sort of thing. There's still a lot of work that needs to be done, so there will be plenty of opportunities for pictures of the rest of the house.

***

Tonight my friends and I are getting together for our annual gift exchange. I had a really awesome gift planned for the friend whose name I drew, but the entire gift creation/shopping process was a comedy of errors, and almost nothing worked out the way I originally planned. I'll post pictures of the part of the gift I made tonight (just in case she secretly reads this blog). The gift turned out OK, but not as perfectly as I had originally planned. C'est la vie.

***

I have been a little frustrated by the semi-anonymity of my blog lately. Mostly only friends and family know about my blog (and I'm a pretty open book as far as they're concerned), but nagging doubts in the back of my head that a stray boss or frenemy might secretly be reading sometimes keep me from being completely open.

I guess I should just remember this:


via

...and continue to keep my secrets to myself until they are ready to be shared with the world.

Sigh.