our nest: bed + bath

Another classic example of our humble beginnings: 1. We have no headboard/real bed! Just a boring stack of springs+mattress atop a standard metal frame. 2. I'm completely stalling & torn between upholstering my own headboard or snagging a gem of a sleigh bed from Craigslist. It's tough to know how long we'll stay in this place and whether its worth falling in love with expensive and therefore seemingly permanent furniture. 3. Our wedding picture (heart) needs to have a presence on this wall, but right now it looks like it's just floating in midair! We need the sort of bed that will anchor everything together! 4. Am still struggling to figure out fashionable AND functional window treatments. I need all the bright sunshine San Francisco has to offer on most days, but I also work lots of night shifts (drag) and therefore require pitch black to sleep during some bright sunny days. Advice? On the brighter side, I'm still pretty satisfied with my splurge on this PB quilt. This dresser is a relic of Jeff's childhood. His parents bought it at a farm auction when they lived in South Dakota. Of all the times I visited their home while we were dating, I never noticed this little treasure tucked in between bunkbeds & electronic devices in the room Jeff shared with his bro: 1. because they never setup the mirror (the best part!) and 2. because it needed a little more than a little love. So a few months before our wedding, my dad and I hauled it down to our basement and gave it the ultimate sand+stain+varnish spa treatment! Jeff added the crystal knobs. I know they're not original, but I like them much better. Oh--and yes, those are my substantial hips in the picture. :)

Nothing much to brag about here--except that it's clean and has warm running water! :) Not shown is our hideous pea-green-with-sparkles-shell-shaped sink circa 1970. It's awful. Really. But what our bathroom lacks in luxury probably saves us a whole lotta money in rent! However, I do love, love the fact that we have a built-in linen closet! It has ample space for towels+toiletries. Where was this in the days of 3 female roommates in college!?

our nest: hall

Our place was built circa 1920, so it obviously has the sort of charm that makes my mouth water and my heart throb at first site. Truthfully, it has its turn-offs, but we won't get into them here... Like a huge percentage of San Francisco homes {insert: itty-bitty glorified apartments smashed together up+down+right+left}, ours has a loooong entryway that branches from a common front entrance that we share with 3 other units. Stemming from the eternal hallway are each of our 4 rooms + bath. I once counted--we have 13 doors in this crazy place! I'm not sure why the kitchen needs a door to the hall + to the living room...Maybe for earthquake safety? They say you're safe(r) in a door frame. I've got plenty.

{This is the part where you hang up your coat and stay awhile!}

I love our useless little phone nook. Seriously. Does anyone actually use landlines anymore? The drop-dead-gorgeous antique immigrant's trunk was a wedding gift from Jeff's parents. It houses fancy linens that I'm too scared to use (i.e. embroidered pillowcases from my grandma), and extra blankies.

The hallway serves as a gallery for our modest art collection. We received this Li-Leger print as a wedding gift and decided to mix things up by cropping it and framing each square separately. Is that defacement? I hope not, because I really like how it all turned out. It really warms up our hallway.

you're invited...

...over to our humble little nest for the complete tour of every nook & cranny. That's right. No more hiding out. I've got big plans & tons of pictures of each and every room. {For better or for worse.}

Here's why:

1. It's a great excuse for me to fumble around with our suddenly not-so-new SLR.
2. I promised to join the parade of homes hosted by have a lovely last month! I am horrible. Truly. But better late than never...
3. I know you had a little peek here and here when we first moved in last summer, but seriously, things have changed around here and we're finally starting to feel a bit more settled in.

And just to make the fun last a little, I'm planning to feature a room a day for the next few! Welcome & enjoy. :)

the couch of our dreams...

We have needed a couch since before we were married. Our current couch is more of a love seat, circa 1962, passed down to us from my wonderful Grandpa. It is the color of a horrid/putrid green pool of disease, but thankfully a sloppy loose-fitting Target slipcover has shielded its true colors from my eyes for the past 2 years. There's enough room on it for approximately 1.5 people, which makes movie night a 2 hour dispute. Finally the day has come when we can justify spending more than 1 month's worth of San Francisco rent money on a glorious piece of sparkling new furniture. We spent hours last night couch shopping. We left PB giddy and excited about the prospect of living and spooning and entertaining and growing on this deep, down-cushioned, slip-covered, perfect, casual Griffin sofa in natural brushed canvas. I swear it was made for my rear-end. We came home, anxiously measuring every last dimension of our apartment, and to our dismay we realized that it just won't fit. No way around it. It's just plain too big. Utter disappointment. We're trying to collect ourselves and determine whether to resume couch hunting, or just plain find a new apartment to accommodate the beastly couch of our dreams...What do you suggest?

spring cleaning

there's a whole lotta spring cleaning going on here...
we both have a couple days off this week (!!!) and so therefore we've got
*a sparkling clean car
*clean laundry
*cupboards stocked w/ new cleaning supplies
*taxes (almost) done!
*clean apartment
*organized crafting supplies (imagine that)
*clear minds
*and best of all, a little extra free time to enjoy it all. :)

outside lands music festival

...is going to make this the most amazing summer ever. Jack Johnson. Radiohead. Regina Spektor. Beck. Wilco. Cold War Kids. And that's just the beginning. The very best part is that all of the festivities are right in our backyard. Yes, all of these legends will be right in our backyard! Tickets go on sale March 30th. Am SO in.

tres chick

My darling freshman-year of college roommate, Amanda, or Sparkle as I often affectionately refer to her, just paid us a Spring Break visit. Even if we didn't always agree on the way the world should work, we definitely see through the same eyes when it comes to what's cute in the world and how it should be decorated. She brought us these a*dorable chick dish towels as a housewarming gift. It was a complete delight to show her around S.F. and and share all of its most charming places.

easter blessings

Happy, happy Easter, everyone! I just put the finishing touches on Jeff's Easter basket and {accidentally} ate half of his Starburst jellybeans. I hate it when that happens. This is quite possibly my favorite holiday. For all things bright+ springy, pastel+lovely, sweet+ jelly, fresh+ egg-shaped. More than that, I love this holiday for it's message of living hope.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. {1Peter 1:3}

first apt.

I just got my March Scarlet Lime kit in the mail and I couldn't wait to get my hands on its gorgeous goods. This scrapbooking kit club is seriously amazing. Christy does a tremendous, marvelous job picking out the latest+greatest. I feel like I'm receiving a thoughtful surprise each month from a dear friend who knows my tastes to a T. :) I've been a little homesick+nostalgic lately-but putting this page together made me smile. Being a newlywed is the best. Sometimes I wish I could wake up in our first cozy, tiny apartment just one more time and eat a warm bowl of oatmeal again in our itty bitty, bright kitchen.

adore betsy dunlap

Oh, to have the loveliest penmanship in the world.

milk money

I've been in love with the idea of a pretty pitcher of milk in the fridge to greet me each morning ever since our extended stay at Grandma Dorothy's last summer. Today I made a quick dash into Marshalls (um, the best store ever) and found this gem awaiting me. Of course any dash into Marshalls turns into a heap. As a rule, I never grab a cart. I know it's time to stop when my spoils are getting too heavy and awkward to carry through the store. Wait--wasn't I just boasting about my newfound frugality? Well...Nevermind. Today was a great shopping day! :) I've never been so excited about my morning bowl of Cheerios.

vitally {unimportant} information

I've been tagged by the thoughtful, lovely Chelle to share 7 of the most random bits of my life. I'm a little slow in posting, but you know what they say...

1. I'm a closet video-game junkie. I guess that's what happens when you grow up in a house full of 4 boys + a dad. I especially excel at racing games like Super Mario Kart and Bubble Bobble for the original NES system. I even know some of the short cuts in Mario Kart and enjoy schooling my little brother. These days, I'm also a huge fan of Wii Sports. Just look at my zoned out face in the pic above. That explains everything.

2. I looove chocolate chip cookies. They are one of the finest chocolate-deliver devices known to man. They are my ultimate weakness. I just baked some today.

3. One habit I'm proud to have picked up since marrying Jeff is the gift of frugality. I used to tease him that he was the cheapest man alive. Cutting your own hair and buying generic Mac & Cheese? Come on! But now I've embraced the cheap life. Of course I'm totally still guilty of the occasional indulgence, but I get a total rush from clipping coupons, taking the muni {bus} to alleviate the pinch of the pump, and just plain not buying things we don't need. I'm too cheap to subscribe to beautiful periodicals like Martha and Real Simple, so I read them second-hand after my mom's leafed through her copies. :)

4. If you can't tell by the color of my hair, I'm a complete ditz. I might have been a stellar student in H.S. and college, but nevertheless, I'm a complete ditz. As you can well imagine, I've made some pretty classic moves and remarks in my day. Like asking a friend {who has a twin brother} if twins ran in her family when her big sis gave birth to twins. Like forgetting my wallet last week when I went grocery shopping and not realizing it 'til the checkout line. Then flying home to get my wallet while the ice cream in my cart melts and my milk sours, only to realize that I also forget the keys to apartment. Like getting a flat tire and flattening my little bro's tricycle in the driveway all within one week of earning my driver's permit. Classic.

5. Creamy-white is {currently} my favorite color. I love white painted trim, white towels, and white chocolate.

6. I've been bit by the travel bug. Bad. Tonight at dinner, Jeff and I made tentative, hopeful, potential, possible plans to head to Europe next March. I'd also love to check out Russia and do a little mission work in India or Africa some day...

7. If I could be any Disney princess, I would be Sleeping Beauty. Hands down. Aurora rocks and I always love, loooved the scene where the fairies fought over which color her dress should be. Pink? Blue? She was a goddess no matter what.

{7} signs of spring : a photo fling!

This month I'm heading up the posts at Creative Juices (a little blog of craft challenges that keep my long-distance girlfriends and I connected & inspired). This week I'm hostessing a 7 signs of spring photo fling there and you're invited!! I'm posting a daily photo challenge to help you collect and admire all of the bright, springy aesthetics happening in your world. Please, please join us and drop links to your photos in the comments section each day. I can't wait!

brag book

I know, I know. Lately this blog has consisted of nothing but ceaseless obsessing over my new little nephew...And I just have to share one more thing! This weekend I put the finishing touches on this little brag book {scrapbook} for my mom. Every first-time grandma needs one, don't you think? Now that I've tested one out for her, I'm thinking I need to make a second auntie brag book for myself!:) Enjoy!

granny style

I just started taking knitting classes this week. I've been needing to expand my crafting horizons, learn a new skill or two, and maybe even meet some more nice San Franciscans. I showed up to my class on Wednesday, expectations and aspirations running high. Should I have been surprised to discover I was the only one there who was not a member of the AARP? I thought that knitting was hip again; I thought all of the cool urban girls were doing it. Not bashing my classmates--they had plenty to say about lavish trips to Bordeaux (sigh), the skinny on their latest colonoscopies (TMI), and why Barack Hussein Obama is the last good man on earth (TMTH!). And well, I survived...With nothing much to add to the conversation...but I learned a great new knitting trick or two. Even more than I can't wait to show you the finished product, I can't wait 'til knitting classes are over.

egg hunt

I can't believe that Easter will soon be here--it's earlier than ever this year! Never mind the fact that I've been enjoying spring weather since the beginning of February...I'm hunting for a fun new technique to use for dyeing eggs this year. This one is looking tres chic.

baby cakes

We're back at home after a delightful weekend in St. Louis meeting sweet Elijah! As an added bonus my whole family was there (minus one little brother) for his baptism. Poor little E, we completely invaded his 2-week-old world and probably traumatized him taking waay too many pictures. :) Now it's impossible for me to narrow it down to just a few to share! Even though I'm a completely infatuated auntie, I'm sure you'll agree that he falls into the category of super cute babies. It's so funny how you can never get tired of ooogling and oggling over ever bitty move an infant makes. This little guy has such a personality! His expressions are changing constantly and he looks like such a handsome little pea pod. Now I can't even wait to see him again in a few months, when he's learned to coo and cuddle and smile.

Isn't my mom way too young and cute to be a g*ma?
Eli + Mommy Katie + Daddy Christopher = the happiest new family in the world.