Hey Look It's My House

First of all, let me just say that I am SOOOOO not cut out for contributing a post a day every day for thirty straight days in a row. This might actually kill me. Please pardon the mess if my head explodes.

Right. Now that that's out of the way... Hey look! It's my house!

But first, some disclaimers...

1. These pics were taken at night... which didn't make for the best lighting. I'm sorry.
2. These pictures DO NOT do justice to my house - I swear. My place feels all warm and cozy when you’re in it... but these photos don't give that impression at all. It just looks so blah.
3. And cluttered! It really doesn't feel cluttered in real life. But it looks so "AGH! Look at all the clutter" in these pics... I would have removed all the clutter and re-taken the shots, but it was 11:30 last night, and I was tired, and you know there's the whole gotta post everyday thing, so I'm stuck with these. Please forgive.
4. Do I really have to do this??
5. Please realize that I am about to share with the whole internet something that some of my closest friends have never even seen - my home. It's a very personal place for me, and I sort of have issues with letting people see it. But I'm working on getting over that - this seemed like a pretty good way to start...

So let's get to it. Shall we?


Our wine rack and hallway mirror... this is basically what you see when you walk in the front door (well actually you see a plain wall and then have to immediately turn right... and THEN you see the wine rack, but the plain wall is pretty boring, so I spared you all.)

Things that eat at my soul about this picture: (1) the bottle of wine in the lower left... would it have killed me to move it prior to taking the picture? Gah. It just looks so out of place sitting on the floor all alone. (2) Also, WHY DOES THE MIRROR LOOK DIRTY - I JUST CLEANED IT!?!?!?

Ok moving right along.


Here's our spare room. We can't even call it a "guest room" because it's too small for a bed... an inflated air mattress JUST BARELY fits. Kyle and I sleep in here when the in-laws are in town, all nice and cozy, wedged between the armoire (tall thing you can barely see on the left side of the pic) and the bookcase (not shown because I'm lazy). This room is just off the hallway shown in picture 1. (In fact, scroll back you, you can almost see the door on the left side.)

Things that eat at my soul about this picture: (1) there is totally something sticking out of the bottom drawer. Just barely. I didn't even notice it until just now. But GAH! If I had photo shop I would SO edit it out. (2) My curtains - SO WRINKLED!!!!! These didn't get ironed with the rest because I figured you couldn't really tell with the dark blue color, and because no one ever goes in this room. But BOY do curtain wrinkles show up in pictures! Yikes!!! (p.s. I will totally be ironing these when I get home tonight!) (3) The picture I have yet to hang sitting tucked between the dresser and the wall beneath the window. Again, would it have KILLED me to move it for the photograph!?!? Ugh. (4) Also, the light wood frame on the hung on the wall is totally crooked!! This actually astonishes me because I use scotch tape or Velcro on the back of all picture frames to ensure that they hang straight. (Crooked pictures eat my whole soul in one bite. Chomp!) I really can't even look at this picture any more for fear that the crookedness will make my eyes start to bleed.

Moving right along.


My kitchen... mostly I love the corner...

So here's a bigger picture of it:


Isn't it cute? My violet in the corner? She's growing flowers. This makes my heart sing! And the dragonfly painting and little kitty salt and pepper shakers? Gifts from my mommy. Warm fuzzies. I like this picture. Nothing eats at my soul here. Except, scroll back up and look at big empty space above the stove, this is where I'd like to cut a hole in the wall. Or maybe hang a nice spice rack. I could go either way. But the naked wall definitely eats at my soul.


Here's our little kitchen table and part of super cluttered fridge. (Yikes, it looks terrible! Remind me to organize those magnets and stuff when I get home tonight.) During the day these windows look out onto our neighbors garden. Very pretty.

Things that eat at my soul about this picture: (1) It's a pretty boring picture. Sorry. (2) I really should have removed that cord from the plug in the wall, so ugly. (3) Look how sloppily the windows are painted!!!!! It's like whoever did them didn't even TRY to keep the paint off the glass. If I could reach these windows from the outside (where all the ugly paint is) I would be spend a whole day happily razor blading the stuff off... but alas... we're on the second floor (house is directly above the garage) and we don't have a ladder. So I just have to deal with it. Ugh. If all my hair is grey by the time I get married, you'll know why.

Here we have our kitchen shelves. Nothing special to the casual observer. But there are actually all sorts of good things going on in this picture. (1) On the left you can see our back door. It leads downstairs into our garage and our storage room and our little sliver of outdoor space where I keep all my plants. I HEART our garage and storage room and little sliver of outdoor space and could not imagine living without them. The door is ugly, but all that it represents is beautiful. (2) The red and white apron that you can almost see hanging on the right side of the shelves... my mom made this for me for Christmas last year. I cannot wear it enough. (3) The jars! Filled with pastas, and rice, and sugar, and salt and flour. I LOVE them!!! (4) Our cookbooks! I love them too, and cannot wait to try every recipe in each and every one of them. (5) Our Wok! Hung on the wall! (Because really, is there EVER enough room in your kitchen cabinets to keep a wok that you use maybe once or twice a month?) Well, there might be room your kitchen, but not in ours! So darn it, we hung it on the wall. I quite like it. (6) The shelves themselves (hey, that rhymes!) Kyle and I bought this piece unfinished at Ikea and spent a whole weekend sanding it, finishing and sealing it, and then putting it together. It's not perfect, but it was defintiely built with love. :)

Ok, moving right along.

And now, we get to my favorite room! (Which we actually skipped on the way to the kitched because I wanted to save it for last.)

Again, it really doesn't look this cluttered in real life... and it looks much homier... and the curtains match the pillows and don't look all shiny. I swear. And that lamp that's sorta stuck in the middle of no where next to the couch, um, yeah, that totally doesn't belong there. But it was awkward to move, and plugged in behind the couch, so I left it. Please pretend it is not there.

The things that I do like are the watercolor of SF hung above the couch (so pretty!), my book shelf (it's snazzier in person) and the two little festive pumpkins I bought (next to the plant, sitting on the shelf that Kyle and I may or may not have glued in place using Liquid Nails in a moment of desperation because, darn it, we just could not get the thing to hang level with screws alone! a few hours before his parents arrived.)

And here's the other side of the room:


Yes, I see the ratty scratching post in the lower right hand corner. It's ugly, I know, but it keeps my couches in one piece. This is a functional house, people, not exactly Better Homes and Gardens material.

Things of note in this pic: The red photo album and the white binder on the book shelf? Filled with wedding stuff!!!!! :) As I run of things to post about this month, I'm sure you'll be given a peak.

Anyway, so that's mostly it. Whew! I didn't take pics of the bathroom or of my bedroom because... well... because I was lazy and tired. Maybe for tomorrow.

The End.


Our kitty, Yertle, not scratching the couch. Good Kitty.

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Note: all those places in this post where I refer to it as "MY" house... please scratch those and make it "mine and Kyle's" house. I'm still getting used to this whole living together thing.