December 27: Abode To Be

What does your office/home/bedroom tell others about you? (Kristen)

Are we going for something other than, "Wow, she really doesn't clean very much, does she?"

My offices (work and home) would tell you that I love high-end post-its and notepads and organizing/filing systems from the Minneapolis-based organizational/office-supply store, Russell + Hazel...even if I'm not particularly adept at using them. I try to keep things filed and organized, but often fall victim to severe pile-itis. And sometimes I think the post-it notes are too pretty to use...and the notebooks and binders not worthy of my banal work/thoughts.  But I love the colors and the style it adds to the desks at which I spend so much of my time.

Thoughts are more fun to organize (and so are recipes) when they're stored in a sharp little binder with a fun rubber-band holding it shut. I even used a particularly gorgeous notepad (that I won!) to provide extra motivation as I cranked out that complete draft of my dissertation.

As for the rest (bedroom/house)...we're sort of in transition right now. We have lots of ideas for the new house...we just need all that to come to fruition. I'm looking forward to creating an eclectic home that is replete with our personal styles and interests.

I want a kitchen full of vibrant Fiestaware...with crock pots and toasters and coffee pots in red stainless steel (or whatever material it really is). We want it to give off a bit of a space-age diner vibe. We think this awesome print by Sean Tubridy will add just the right touch. We've had it for years. But it doesn't have a place of honor in which to hang. It will soon.

And we're hoping to find a way to do a digital scan the actual box top of a childhood toy of my father's, have one of our talented graphic-design-y friends do some retouching and recoloring, and then print and frame it. We think it would make a really unique and personal addition to our home. Is this so us or what?!

But with a lighter background and brighter reds and blues...
...and even some oranges and greens!

In the rest of the house, I want my quilting to be a pervasive, though not necessarily prominent, part of our home. A few folks have suggested that our (potential) walls will be the perfect size for hanging quilts. But I'm not sure that I want to be so self-aggrandizing. We'll see.

We're looking forward to furniture and accessories that hang well together....but don't match at all. We're looking forward to mixing mid-century modern and batik fabrics and retro space junk. We're looking forward to pictures and plants and hopefully a puppy that keeps us from getting too tidy or fastidious.

We're looking forward to creating a home that is comfier than it is clean, and quirkier than it is cosmopolitan.

We are so ready...