Halloween, Part II

I've learned a lot about Halloween this year, mostly the differences between Minnesota and Iowa Halloween.  I've lived in Minnesota for four+ years now, and this is only the second time I've had the opportunity to hand out candy.

In Iowa, we trick-or-treated the day before Halloween.  Thanks to the Internet, I discovered this is only common practice in parts of Iowa, Ohio, and New England, though we never referred to it as Beggar's Night.  There are also set start and end times.  Not here.  "When it gets dark out," I was told. 

When I was a kid, we'd usually start around 5:30 and go until 8 (this was also back in the day when DST had already kicked in, so it was plenty dark at 5:30).  My brothers and I could come home with a huge plastic pumpkin full of candy in this short amount of time.  We were dedicated.  And loved love candy.

But enough reminiscing...our first trick-or-treater, the next-door neighbor kids, rang the bell at 6:30, just at dusk.  The last kids came around about 8:15.  In total, Louis handed out candy to 42 kids, I handed out to 1. : )  Some of the kids were scared of his costume!

He's the Phantom of the Opera (sans cape)!

While Louis was doling out the treats, I was whipping up a very Halloween-appropriate dinner:  pumpkin sage soup.  I love cooked pumpkins.  They just glow.

As I was pureeing the soup in the blender, I gave Louis a good scare.  The pressure from the whirring soup caused the blender top to pop up just enough to give a good splatter and to burn my palm.  In a "my hand is burnt" panic, I left the blender on and ran to the sink.  From an onlooker's perspective, I can see how this might appear that I lost a finger or two...

But all was well in the end.

So I guess that's it for Halloween 2010.  We'll be better prepared next year, buy less candy, and Louis's costume promises to be scarier (we'll be better established in the 'hood by then, you know).

So here's a little treat for you.  A roundup of some of my best costumes!  (I recently scanned all these for our wedding slide show.)

I loved this one.  Those Boo glasses glowed in the dark.  And I remember (my mom) RIT-dying my Keds green for this occasion.  The little turtle nostrils-ahh!

My aunt made this poodle skirt.  It was originally for a ballet recital.  And that large plastic pumpkin to my right would be at least 3/4 filled by the end of the night.  I'm also pretty sure the cat-carved pumpkin, second step, belonged to me, which is weird because I don't think I've ever liked cats.

And lastly...

Cheerleader Minnie!  The saddle shoes, the skinny colored belts, the leggings...so cool!  Thanks, Mom, for some seriously awesome childhood costumes.

Happy Halloween!

I bet you found yourself wondering what we're up to on our first Halloween in our new home.  Well...

We bought a pumpkin at the Farmer's Market a few weeks back.  It did not survive the squirrels.  I figured it was because it was small and maybe they could more easily sink their teeth into the thinner skin.  Louis bought me another pumpkin.

And then this happened last weekend:

Squirrels=2.  Us=0.  The neighbors confirmed that is a bit of a squirrel infestation in this neighborhood, confirming my statistical analysis.  All the other homes I've seen have pumpkins aplenty on their porches, but you drive down Hubbard and all you see are chewed-up pumpkins.

We tried.  Yes, we could carve that part out, but truth be told:  I hate carving pumpkins.

I do love bringing a sense of the seasons/holidays into the home, though there hasn't been much time for decorating.  However, thanks to Retail America's need to push Christmas merchandise onto the shelves earlier and earlier every year, all fall decor is on sale.  We snagged this festive table runner at 60% off!

And since our neighborhood is loaded with kids, we're expecting plenty of trick-or-treaters to come by tonight.  Now, I can often procrastinate, but when it came to buying Halloween candy I purposely did not buy it ahead of time so that I would not eat all of it.  Louis and I went out on Friday to pick up some treats.  And wouldn't you know it while there were some bags left, most of it was being shoved out by Christmas candy.  We're the new neighbors.  We have some impressions to leave on the minds of children and their parents, so 1) We can't be those people that hand out Brach's candy (sorry, but we all know it's not that good) and 2) We cannot hand out red and green wrapped candy (too soon).

Don't worry.  We rummaged the Halloween section AND the candy aisle.  And went back again today for more candy [because 3) We can't run out!)].

So there's the loot.  Louis will be handing it out in costume.  I'll be counting the number of kids and charting my favorite costumes.  Updates to come...

No place like home.

I'm baaack!  Okay fine, I've been home since Sunday, no, technically Monday because I didn't arrive back to House on Hubbard until 12:15am.  It was a long weekend in DC with 11-hour board meeting days.  To top it off, I was busy on Monday and Tuesday nights, too.

In addition to missing Louis while I was away, I definitely missed our home, too.  When I flew out over the Twin Cities last Thursday, my plane went right over our house!  I've never had that happen in my thousands of miles of flying and handful of places I've lived.  We were too high in the sky for me to pinpoint our house, but I tracked down a few visible boundaries that led me to know I was over our neighborhood.

Anyway, it's time to get back to my crafting roots.  I harnessed some extra energy tonight to work on a project that allowed me to sit on the couch. :)  I've wanted to create some hometown art for quite a while, especially after seeing some examples on other blogs (both of which I've had bookmarked for quite a while now!).  First, there was Young House Love's vintage bathroom sign and then there was Bower Power's States of the Union.

Now, I'm an Iowa girl and Louis is a Minnesota boy (but he did live in Iowa for four years, too!).  To pay a little homage to both of our states I took the general idea of these other bloggers, more a nod to the second and thought up places, mottos, etc. that reminded us of our states (Louis helped!).  And because there is something about the outlines of the states that I love, I took it one step further and simply copied a map outline and added my little word text boxes inside.  I conjured up my old background in layout design (editor/staff on three yearbooks and HS newspaper--no big deal).  I wish I had a fancy Adobe program, but I'll settle for Microsoft Publisher any day.

Not much by way of tutorial here.  I simply created many text boxes, typed in something new, and changed the font each time.  I use Publisher for this type of thing because I like being able to easily manipulate and move the boxes to exactly where I click them to go.

This is phase one.  I'll need to print these up and frame them.  I'm thinking they would be good art in our bedroom since we have nothing on the walls right now, but maybe I want these in a place where someone besides the two of us can enjoy?

And without further ado, here are my homemade, hometown works of art!

Oh, Iowa, I will always love you.

And Minnesota, my new home for the past four years.

But for now, after spending MUCH of my work day in Publisher pretending I know anything about creating ads and now this project, it's time to call it a day.  One more day of work and then I've convinced Louis to take a day off with me; three-day weekend, you are SO close!

Birthday bunting banner!

AKA:  my secret project mentioned lately.  What to get for my favorite cube mate at work for her birthday?  Hmmm...oh, I know!  She liked my bunting, and even mentioned wanting to learn how to make her own, so perfect.  Birthday bunting banner it is (was)!


This particular cubemate and colleague, the one and only DMV, happens to be my co-coordinator on our office b-day committee, which once was thriving and since got axed in the office budget.  Not being ones to miss someone's birthday, the two of us usually decorate in some fashion when a colleague's birthday rolls around.  And when DMV revealed to me why she had all this b-day decor in stock, it sealed the deal that this gift would suit her well.  Her mom used to decorate the house each year when it was her or her sibling's special day and it's a tradition she has carried over for her own family.


Knowing her love for all things pink, I knew this project had to incorporate lots of it, and with a one year-old daughter, this banner will be perfect for decorating each year.  Sorry to her husband, but I'm sure he's used to living in a sea of pink by now. :)


Again, fabric quarters were the ticket here.  I used my same triangle template as the last bunting, but wanted to sew these together for a cleaner finish, so each triangle=two pieces of fabric.  With a nod to our buddy, Elana, lover of all things fonts, I even downloaded a new font for this occasion:  Candela bold, courtesy of dafont.com.

My steps:
1) Trace and cut letters out of felt
2) Cut cupcake template our of felt
3) Sew letters to triangle pieces
4) Sew two pieces of fabric together to create one triangle
5) Attach triangles to strip of bias tape


You know how certain smells can bring you back?  The smell of the bias tape totally reminded me of my mom's sewing kit!


Of course, these steps are pretty simple.  If you want a better tutorial, I referred to Pickup Some Creativity as well as amazing mae for the cupcake template.


And voila!  Here she is, hanging in said cube!

Happy Birthday, DMV (yesterday)!  As for me, I'm in DC for a board meeting allll weekend long, which means no projects. :(  I do have plans for a new bunting of my own that says "Give Thanks" so stay tuned!

One third of a year.

Happy four month anniversary to me and Louis!  To mark today's occasion, a little update from our backyard. 

During our wedding ceremony, Louis and I incorporated a tree-planting ceremony.  We chose this over lighting candles or colored sand because we're both outdoorsy people, and we knew we'd be buying a house soon after the wedding and wanted to plant the tree in our new yard.  The idea came to me from a few wedding bloggers who had done the same.

Turns out, saplings are really hard to get a hold of in early June.  When I mentioned this to a colleague, Kim, he said he'd "look around for one."  I had to laugh when he came back to me later and told me he didn't find any...springing up in the office parking lot!  The next day he brought us two samples, maples, from little seedlings that were popping up in his own backyard.

And here we are planting our tree at our wedding (or transferring it from the container to the green pot):

Here's what Joan, our wonderful officiant, said:
"A marriage is a rooting down of one’s love, life, and commitment to another person.  May this tree be a reminder that today’s commitment to each other is part of a life-long journey.

I now invite you to plant the sapling."

And we "planted", with our green gardening gloves that were a two-weeks-before-the-wedding find in the dollar bin at Joann's! :)

Joan continued:
"Let your love for each other be like this tree.  Let it grow tall and strong.  Let it withstand the harsh storms.  Like a tree, your marriage must be resilient.  It must weather each day and the passage of time.  You must give this tree, like your relationship, nurturing.  I invite you to water the sapling."

And I watered with our little green watering can. :)

And Joan concluded:
"Remember to nourish each other with words of encouragement, trust, and love."

We found our house (and gigantic backyard) only 4 days after the wedding.  Add in another month to close + a few mini vacations with both families + general forgetfulness, with a mix of "we really need to plant that tree." "yeah, we do." followed by not planting the tree.

Until September 19th!  One month ago we finally were home, working in the jungle, aka our overgrown yard, and we picked a spot, dug a role, and crossed our fingers that little tree would make it!

We were out in the yard tonight planting some bulbs we received as a housewarming gift, and we decided to check up on our tree.

Here is his one month (of being planted back in the ground) photo!

Still hanging on!  We believe in you, little tree!

Mark my words.

"We'll be eating off that dining room table tonight."

And we will.

Now, from start to finish, here is the good, the bad, and the ugly of paint stripping.

You know how some products ask to "test in an inconspicuous area"?  Yeah, I always ignore that, too, but since I was literally sweating as I stood in line last Friday afternoon with my paint stripper in hand, I took that advice seriously.  Actually, I don't believe it called for that, but I did it anyway.

Tables don't really have "inconspicuous areas", by the way.  But hey, that wasn't so bad.  We can do this!  Tomorrow.  As in Saturday.  So, I patiently waited until early afternoon for the sun to warm things up to 65 degrees, the perfect temperature to get our strip on.  What?  Like I'd really get through the post without a stripping joke?

We slathered the green goop on.  As you can see, there are varying shades of green, which told us the product was working.  We let that sit and came back a few hours later to start scraping.

Which looked something like this:

Surprise!  Under that black paint is a layer of white paint that proved harder to remove.  With this particular stripping product, we were advised to mist with water, which helped reactivate and scraped much more of the white paint off.

Never thought you'd see a pile of paint in your life?

Well, now you have.  With a mix of leaves.  Gross.

By now the green goop had dried, so we called it a day.  I put up a good fight, though, but soon realized I didn't want to cry in our driveway, so I let the paint win.

We applied a spray-on paint stripper to the edges and sides and scraped like mad.  We washed the whole thing down with paint stripper wash and then sanded smooth.  Resulting in this beauty!

Time for the stain.  We opted for something slightly darker to match in between our floor, baseboards, and other furniture, choosing a "cherry" finish in the end.

One leg finished.  One leg unfinished.  Followed by a coat of polyurethane finish, which yes, I did apply at 8:45pm in the garage.  I returned home at lunch today, not to eat lunch, but to sand and apply the final coat of polyurethane.  My final steps, upon arriving home, was another light sand and wiping off the dust before moving it back in the house.

 Ah, right at home!  And I'll be the first to admit, it's not perfect, but given what we started with, that neither of us had ever done anything like this before, to us, it is perfect.  But if you come over for dinner and point out imperfections you probably won't get invited back.  This is our child we're talking about!

Do you need a before and after?  Because I do!

                                                    BEFORE:

                                                    AND AFTER:

After undertaking such a large, life-consuming project, I again have come in conflict with my "project patience".  Louis calls this obsessive, I like to think of it as determination.  And you might be wondering what happened to my ban on craft and hardware stores?  Well, that doesn't count for gift-making purposes, and the table?  I had to squeak this one out while the weather gods held out for me!  Aren't you glad (for us) that we did?  We get to enjoy this nice cherry finish allll winter long!

So, our $28 table...PLUS

$9 first paint stripper

$6 stripper wash

$3 cheap brushes for application

$10 wood stain

$14 polyurethane finish

$7 second paint stripper

$6 additional stripper wash

$3 rags to apply stripper wash

$2 cloth to apply stain

=GRAND TOTAL $88

[Additional cost=$9 for Nature's Gate Papaya hand lotion.  Never underestimate how many times you can apply lotion.  I carried that bottle to work and maybe put it on, oh, 12-14 times.  It's saving my sandpaper hands and smells so good!  And yes, I am totally plugging this paraben-free product.]

Damn.  It was worth it.  And we have lots of stain left over for, you know, no other staining projects in sight.  And the bonus is that my husband isn't going to leave me.  But he should really start thinking about staging a DIY intervention.

All in a weekend's work.

DIY Saturday spilled over into DIY Sunday.  House on Hubbard has never completed so many simultaneous projects at once.  And for your viewing pleasure, here they are:

The painted-black dining room table went from this:

to this:

to the now stained and one-coated polyurethaned table sitting in the garage.  Mark my words, we'll be eating off that table again tomorrow.  More on this later, since this table has seen so much of our time it's become the newest member of the family.

I also transformed this old lamp of Louis' (that everyone seems to love, while I simply let it still live here) from this, 1970s chiq fabulousness:

to this:

Still crazy antler-like lamp, but modern colors.  The gold shade was spray painted cream, the wood and metal base, now a red.  Red to match the red basement couch, but what possessed me to pick up the glossy paint?

And finally, we solved the rug dilemma.

You'll recall this:

We just weren't feeling it.  Plus, it's made from olefin.  Ole-what?  Yeah, synthetic.  So we rolled that sucker up and took it back to the store.  If you're thinking it's wrong that we let it live here for a week first, well, just think that we let the synthetic chemical fibers off-gas for a week here.  Ick.  I also vacuumed it before returning.  That's like paying it forward, right?

We upgraded, opened our frugal pockets and sprung for this guy:

100% wool.  Whew.  [Because someday there will be a little puppy crawling across this rug and we don't want him rolling his fur in harsh chemicals!  Any by puppy, I mean the puppy of the future.  Spring 2011=puppy for House on Hubbard?]  Louis pointed out that this rug matches our front door mat.  Wow.  Maybe trust our instincts next time?  Could have saved like 17 times of me saying, "Let's just browse the rug section again."  I think the new rug totally makes us look like grown-ups.  Bonus!

I also completed my secret project, which will be revealed sometime this week.  Secret because it's a gift!  I'm tempted to keep it, but this blog pretty much serves as my conscience on this one.  And, we also managed to do other normal human things, like eat, clean the house, go for walks, Louis raked and mowed, I did laundry.  We forgot to sleep, though.  How else did you think we got all this done?

But now it's time to shower.  Over the past two days, my hands have been covered in:  paint stripper, paint stripper wash, spray paint, wood stain, and polyurethane.  Which probably explains why they feel like sandpaper.

We live on the best street in the world.

Tonight, our next-door neighbors stopped over while we were in the backyard.  They were out of town and not able to make our housewarming a few weeks back, but wanted to get over and introduce themselves and their three kids.


What I love about this family is their two boys and daughter, in that order.  Reminds me so much of growing up with two older brothers.  I just hope the boys weren't listening too closely when I joked with the parents about this experience.  I'd feel bad if I came to find out they pulled their sister's hair and sat on her.


I love this street.  I love this neighborhood.  I love our house.  It's true.  We are never moving.

Rug dilemma.

Sometimes, when things are going too smoothly at the ol' nonprofit job, it's good to know there are still crises to solve in the world of home decorating.  Yes, I am being highly sarcastic.  I feel the need to point out that a "rug dilemma" is not really a problem at all compared to, well, just about everything else in the world.


Now that I've started on a high note, I'll get right down to the point.  We got a new rug!  I've been browsing at the rugs for the last few weeks.  Even with our wedding gift card money, they are still so darn expensive (our gift cards completely covered this one).  But Louis finally convinced me to at least take one home and test it out.  That's right.  The packaging is still here in case I decide it's not the one.


So here it is:

And my verdict?  I don't really like it.  I mean, I think I like the rug.  It just...doesn't match the room.


But hello, I've read enough Young House Love to know the trick is all about accessorizing!  And the lightbulb went off.


I had just made some curtains to cover our basement windows with fabric that was surprisingly familiar...

Red, yellow, and black/grey flowers.  Hmm... Coincidence?


I was planning on making an additional curtain to cover the window on our side door that leads down to the basement, or even pillows to match the red couch in the basement, but perhaps I need more of this fabric for additional pillows for the living room couch?

So here's what that would like look...(in the form of an existing pillow wrapped in the leftover fabric).  I don't know.  I was a little hesitant to buy that fabric in the first place--it's more modern and bold (which works when you have a red couch) but in the living room?  So maybe just some plain red or yellow pillows?  Or maybe even curtains above that window?  Or maybe I should swap the sheer dining room curtains, which are red, with the sheer sage curtains in this room?  [My poor husband endures a lot of these conversations.]

We're on day 4 of testing out the rug.  Usually by now I'd have solved this dilemma, but I'm in the midst of a secret project and still waffling on the idea of stripping the dining room table.  Sigh.  DIY work is never done...

Comments/feedback welcome.  Please.

Make room for table.

I teased you yesterday with the news of our $28 dining room table.  Truth is, when we picked it out, it was completely covered in other items for sale that we didn't quite know what it looked like.


We made our way back over to The Cottage House this afternoon armed with bungee cords, and were pleasantly surprised to find our new little guy fit snugly into the ol' Vibe.  Goodness, I adore that hatchback.  We did have to take one set of legs off, but we ended up taking all four off to get it through the door at home anyhow.


While I cooked up a fall meal on another 80-degree October day, Louis reassembled.  A bigger table was always something I glanced at while shopping, but never did I think we'd find one in good condition (it's birch and pretty solid, by the way) for under $30.  Take that, IKEA! 


Our old table was fine.  Just fine.

But small.  And slightly rickety.  And still in need of a good finish and stain, hence the permanent tablecloth.

And here's the new table:

Yes, it's painted black.  What do I plan to do about that?  Nothing.  Unless this heat wave holds out long enough to strip the paint outside.  Otherwise, I think it's staying black until next summer.  And only 2 of the chairs match, so you can tell that dining room table sets aren't that big of a deal to me, maybe because I'm flashing back to being trekked to boring furniture store after boring furniture store as a kid when my parents picked out their current set?

This is pretty much my favorite part.  The sheer size allows for decorating!  This calls for placemats and table runners!

These are the metal leaves we also picked up yesterday for $6, complete with our Farmer's Market pumpkins, and one wrinkly cloth napkin.

It was a little weird dining with Louis tonight.  He was like a 1/2 mile away at the other end of the table.  We both discovered a new-found love for roasted sage thanks to this dish:  pasta with butternut squash, sage, and pine nuts.  Ahh, fall!



Welcoming the newest member of our furniture family.

I know, it's been a while.  I've got loads of completed projects to share with you and even more exciting news:  House on Hubbard now has wi-fi!  Here's hoping this will speed up the posting process and allow me to bring even more content to the Internet world.  You should also know that I am on a self-imposed JoAnn Fabrics/Michael's/Menard's sabbatical.  Something about standing in the line at the cut-counter on a Friday night to work on curtains, alone, in the basement, while Louis went out to a show will spark that.  16 days and going strong!

But enough of that.  Louis and I have a new member of our furniture family to introduce!  But first, the background, because this has been a long sought-out piece, after all, and it deserves such build-up.

We've been on the hunt for some type of table or kitchen cart for this large spot in our kitchen entryway.

We weren't even planning on antiquing or thrifting this weekend.  We did a bit yesterday because, as you can see, we now have a modem problem on our hands.  Problem=that mess of cords piled up on the floor because the jack in our kitchen is the only operable one.  We haven't struck gold yet on this one, but the lesson learned on today's piece is: all in good time.

Thanks to our good buddy Derek's tweeting today, we learned about a gem of a place in Minneapolis called The Cottage.  This store is jam-packed with so, so, so much good stuff!  It's more thrift store meets upcycled.  I would guess the vendors here picked the pieces, painted them, and are reselling.  The Cottage is also only open ONE weekend a month.  I found this out at 3:45pm and they closed at 6pm.  I'd just like to say I have a pretty great husband who will jump in the car without really knowing where he's headed, especially when I have that "look" in my eyes.

I think "that look" is something like this:

This is totally normal behavior when you finally find the mail sorter you've been looking for.  Oh, and this place was another gem out in Hastings, but that's another blog post. 

So, we pulled up to this place just after 4 and I immediately fell in love.  The front yard was loaded with stuff.  We entered the house.  Two floors of stuff.  The backyard.  The tents in the backyard.  The garage.  Each month they have a theme and this one kicked off fall (ahem, October 10th and 80 degrees?) so there were lots of pumpkins and Halloween decor.  I hear they repaint the house each month as well as stocking with new inventory.  This is genius.  It moves the inventory out and is priced to sell.

I set my eyes on the prize.  Finally!  A cabinet for our kitchen.  I didn't have my measuring tape on me (I used to carry one in my purse, as well as the dimensions for this particular kitchen spot), but I just had a feeling.  We scoured some more.  In the end, we found three wire leaf decorations for $6, a large black dining room table for--are you ready for this--a mere $28 (!) and this lovely red cabinet that had been reduced from $58 to $42.  Score!  It does have a small hole in the back, but nothing a little tack board (or shoving it against a wall?) can't fix.

And here she is, right at home.  Not only does it fit perfectly, it expands our amount of counter space, AND gives us even more kitchen storage.  I'm in love.  Louis caught me gazing at it from the dining room table.  Oops.

And a view from the side.  It was made for the House on Hubbard.  Welcome home!

Our red lodge cooker fits so nicely, and finally has a place to live.  And there's my wonderful husband making another amazing meal.  The modem and cords still sit in a mess, but meh, maybe we'll find a great side table next month?!  I'm already counting down.