See I wasn’t kidding when I said “pattern cray”. This is our awesome rug from the West Elm Outlet in San Marcos. Otie looks like a precious baby lamb. I love lazy weekends.
Our project of the week was to paint the focal wall behind our (future) couch. The issue was that the couch’s off-white color didn’t pop against the equally boring off-white of the wall behind it so we decided to go crazy with pattern. I think Alex is still wary of all the colors and patterns but I think it’s funnnnn.
Not as cheap of a project as we thought because we had to buy 4 different greens to get the effect as well as lots of blue tape which is stupidly expensive. Think it was worth the cash though!
My handy husband working on our future couch. It’s been sad not having a couch. That means we’ve been sitting on the floor a lot watching tv/eating while watching tv. I think sofas are my favorite piece of furniture so I’m reeeeeaaallly hoping this little project turns out comfortable. I mean it wont be AMAZING since it’s pretty much a glorified bench but with a few throw pillows… maybe. So this gem was practically trash. Alex bought it in Hamilton a while back. We painted it a canvas white and we’re having an awesome velvety cushion made for it. Hope it looks nice. The ladies at the upholstery place didn’t speak the best of English (kind of like anyone living near us) so I’m hoping they understood me… Guess we will find out this week when they finish it!
One of the big reasons I love NYC: The city sees the value of spending money on public art and landscaping.
These showed up yesterday in Madison Square Park. They are made out of painted, knotted rope. Very cool and something I could imagine myself designing if I had thousands of yard of rope laying around. I prefer public art to art in museum for many reasons.
1. The looks on people’s faces as they walk by. Mostly disgust honestly. Sometimes glee as they take out their camera phones and pose in front of it. Art loses its pretentious-ness when average people can respond to it honestly without knowing they spent $25 in museum entrance fees to see it.
2. The ability to touch/photograph/let your dog pee on it and not get yelled at by eager docents. I got yelled at twice at the Guggenheim the other day. It hurts my feelings.
3. How it transforms a mundane experience into something novel. Lets you see your surroundings in a way you haven’t.
So that’s my two cents on the matter. I’m lucky to live in a place with money to put into their parks and even more lucky to have a job right across the street from such a beautiful place.
Alex, Brian, and I went to the Guggenheim Museum this Sunday for kicks and because Alex had never seen the famous Frank Lloyd Wright building. Luckily, the exhibit was good because we will not be making the visit regularly with those entrance fees…. sheesh. Art is not for the common man. And I of course pretended to be a student and it’s STILL too expensive. Not sure how long 18-year-old Kelsey photo will fool museum staff…
Our fav exhibit was by Zarina, “Paper Like Skin”. Pretty much a room full of beautifully manipulated paper. Trust me, it’s interesting.
The bathroom below was also a “piece” that I particularly enjoyed because I could take selfies in the mirror in peace. The bathroom was lock-able. Could stay in there all day.
This was last weekend. I have never loved Saturdays so much in my whole life… The joys of sleeping in, long walks with Otilie and my handsome husband, brunches with mimosas. NYC knows how to do weekends. Seriously. This city runs on Bloody Marys… and Dunkin.
We finished finished the table. Painted and sealed and everything. I like it.
Last Sunday we went to the NYC Botanical Garden in the Bronx. It was a perfect day so of course half of New York had the same idea. It was beautiful none the less. The feature was an orchid show! So sexy, those flowers.
This little goat wandered up to The Odom’s house one morning! I wanted to keep him but for some reason, Susie was really adamant about finding his owner… Sigh. I guess his little goat-turds wouldn’t be so great in our little New York Apartment. As you can see he was really sweet and obviously terrified of Otilie. She LOVED him. We need to get her a farm one of these days. With all our extra money.
Thanks to Andrew for posting this website on my Facebook and inspring Otie and my’s little photo shoot.
http://laughingsquid.com/dogs-wearing-pantyhose-a-popular-new-meme-in-china/
Otie as always was such a sweety and really didn’t mind. She of course had a bone in hand so that helped. Just wish we had done this 2 weeks before when she had a little extra “fluff”. She still looks pretty sexy though right?
This post is backtracking a bit (honestly because I’m running out of material for the week!). Sometimes I go through Alex’s phone… not to be nosy I promise! But to see the photos he’s taken that I haven’t seen. I found some really awful triple-chin sleeping photos that I will NOT be sharing.
Here’s a few of our (hopefully) last snow of the winter. It was actually a beautiful and believe-it-or-not warm day. It’s pretty funny listening to the cars on our street try to drive up-hill on our little, windy, one-way street the morning after a fresh snow. Anyone concerned about the bumper of their parked car should not park here… Especially when Alex is behind the wheel of a U-haul. Ya it snowed while we were moving in too of course.
That concrete ramp was slippery with mud and water. I slid all the way down on my side for a good 20 feet. Minimal injuries maximum mess.
There are some beeeeautiful flowers here in NYC but I am missing the fields of Bluebonnets and the warm weather that comes along with them in Texas. We took this photo off the highway while we were visiting Houston for the Watson wedding.
We are hoping to get a little garden growing outside our window that faces to the alley. We bought a wax leaf tree last weekend and poor Alex had to lug our new baby onto the subway. Annoyed commuters were definitely smacked in the face a few times. Lo siento. Still not sure how people move large items around the city. I guess just pay for delivery. Too cheap. Not happening. My sweet husband can handle that. Right Alex… right?
First completed “crafty” project while in NYC. Man I wish we had a before picture of this table and chairs set… might have to go on a craigslist hunt to find it. Alex and I bought 4 chairs and a table w/ a leaf for $30 right before we left Austin because we knew we couldn’t afford anything up here. They were in rough shape to say the least. Who uses a light cream fabric to cover kitchen chairs? Gross. We spray painted the metal a slate-blue and covered the chairs with a satin orange, dot fabric. Turned out a little too “hook em” for my taste but overall they look really cute. Lot of work though. First time upholstering anything so I got a little staple-gun happy.
Can’t wait to have our first dinner party!
Also a big thanks to Brian for helping strip the gnarly old fabric. We found some goodies in thur..
I’m trying to get back in the habit of “blogging”… aka public journaling. It’s been hard to find the free time since moving to NYC, but it seems like things are starting to settle down finally. Or maybe the time change makes it feel like the days are longer. I think that’s it. We occasionally leave work when it’s still LIGHT outside. A miracle.
Happy April! I’ve never been so excited for April because I’ve never had such a long winter in my life. It’s still chilly up here in the Big Apple while it’s already sweatin’ weather in Austin. On our regular Odom walk through Fort Tryon Park precious little flower babies are starting to bloom. I’d guess 2 more weeks till the park actually has some color to it. Going to be amazing.
Otilie is also hoping for Spring soon with her new do she is sporting. Even with her ridiculous knitted sweater she is always shaking from cold. Must be hard shedding a coat you’ve been wearing day and night for the last year. No, we did not mean to cut her that short either. We took her for her first trip to the groomer and of course they didn’t want to work on her matted hair so they just cut it off. O well, she looks like our little lamb now.
My aunt Elaine pulled out her wedding dress circa 1980 and I did her such a huge favor by posing for some photos so she could post the dress for sale on craigslist. The backyard and Otilie create a pretty good backdrop.
On my grandmother’s property, there’s a pretty nice little pond with some fish weighing approximately… .03 pounds. Luckily, these little guys seem to like to be caught, shown by their multiple hook holes in their lips.
Here are some pretties we saw while hiking in the Smokie Mountains near Gattlinberg, TN. My favorite part was the super friendly butterfly who just wanted to give me kisses. Injuries wise, we did pretty good too. Mom hurt her knee on a rock. Alex stubbed a toe when he fell in the waterfall. Dad’s feelings were hurt when no cuddly black bears came out to play. I left unscathed.
Today was my final review for the Summer London Studio I just took. Of course I don’t know what to do with myself post review so I had to make up something to keep myself occupied… like this blog post.
I ended up focusing on the redesign of the coach station and a nearby block of affordable housing. Here a few perspectives I did. The other stuff was too big to add.
While in London, I took a day trip to Bath, England. It was of course rainy there too.
