Jumping the gun.

March is a mere few hours away, which means St. Patrick's Day is right around the corner. Or...17 days and a few hours around the corner.

At any rate, after drooling over many food blogs as of late, I keep stumbling across beautiful cookies. Now, I love cookies AND I love beautiful things. Enter a recipe for chocolate sugar cookies (yes, please) and I'm sold.  Soooo, I had to buy a shamrock cookie cutter and I just had to begin testing these cookies out in order to really perfect them within the next 17 days.

While this isn't a food blog, these cookies are pretty darn crafty.

Piping the cookies with intensity. Note: cookie in left hand "on deck".

Flooding the cookies.

Filling in the flooding with a toothpick and frosted fingers.

Voila!

Louis' favorite.

My favorite.

I'm taking orders for cookies now so I can quit my day job.  (Kidding. About the quitting part. I'll gladly accept offers for you to pay me to bake, however.)

Chocolate sugar cookie recipe, royal icing tutorial, and other deliciousness found here:  Annie's Eats.

Snow daze.

Another snowy day here at HoHub.  Our weatherman says we only need 25 more inches to break the record snowfall in a season of 98 inches!  And we've still got March (second snowiest month) on tap.  So naturally, I spent the weekend dreaming of spring/summer projects I am waiting to tackle.

1) The driveway.  I never made it out to take a picture of Hubbard Pond that formed across the driveway during our thaw-out last week, but I know it will return.  After looking back at this photo I snapped during our house inspection, it's pretty clear what the problem is.  The black arrows point to the cracks, and the main sight of the lake; the blue represents the slope of the driveway.

You know I wish I could mudjack this myself, but I'll have to call in the professionals.

2) A clothesline!  I grew up with summers of clothes hanging on the line to dry and there is just no other way.  I hate running the dryer all winter long.  In our duplex last year our basement was actually large enough to string several lines, but it's just not the same (and our basement here can't fit much more than a drying rack).

We've already got this steal beam...we just need to figure out if we'll attach the line to the back of the garage, or stake something into the ground so we'd have more of a walkway between the house and garden...

3) Yes, a garden! We inherited a plot ripe with rhubarb, Minnesota melon, and some kind of potato.  The garden was transitioning owners last summer and didn't see enough love to come to fruition.  Let's just see how green my thumb really is.

4) This is the one I am most excited about:  painting the porch floor!

This was the porch pre-furniture.  It is already painted dark green.  I'm not thinking of repainting the entire floor, just painting a "rug" onto the floor.  (Here I'm just painting my chalkboard, and trying not to repaint the floor.)

And, of course, I've already found some inspiration:

The folks at Young House Love painted their sunroom floor (that one's for you, Krista!)

Nicole from Making it Lovely free-hand painted this rug, all while 9 months pregnant.  Wow.

And this I found on a blog search; the work of Paisley Wallpaper.  It is by far my favorite.

I'll be on the lookout for shapes, patterns, colors that inspire me, and it seems I'll have plenty of time between now and when these projects begin.  I nearly shed a tear when I saw that first photo of the driveway.  I really do forget what the house looks like in the summer.



Treasure hunting!

I often refer to occasional markets we visit around the cities.  Until this past fall, I had never heard of the concept.  The first place we found was The Cottage House in Minneapolis.  The same friends that tipped us off to it also told us about Flamingo's Divine Finds, not too far from the C-House.  While the style of each market varies, the concept remains the same:  either a house or building packed (and I mean Fire Code-breaking packed) with all kinds of items for sale--furniture (often painted in bold, quirky colors), trinkets, home decor, antiques, jewelry, anything goes!  Often these markets rely on the work of several artists whose job it is to bring in new merchandise each month and usually corresponds to an overall theme.  Each is only open one long weekend per month, too.  All other times they are out scavenging for new goods to sell!

You'll recall some of our favorite finds:  from The Cottage House:  our infamous paint-stripped dining room table, the red cabinet that was absolutely meant for our kitchen, and just last week from Flamingo's the new bench for our living room.

Well, the artist who sold us the bench said we had to check out a place called A Cat and the Fiddle A Fair in Rosemount, MN.  Honestly at the time I was like, "yeah, yeah, drive 18 miles for another one of these markets when I already have two here in Minneapolis I'm addicted to and try not to miss a sale.  Probably unlikely."  And then I looked up the website for this place.  Five BUILDINGS?!  I. Was. Sold.  I immediately planned an outing with none other than the friends who let us in on the secret of the markets:  Derek and Leona (who also happen to be our antiquing buddies).

The date was set for this past Saturday.  We road-tripped to Rosemount and Apple Valley--it was on the way home and offered another market (yup, that's four of these places if you're counting) called Haupt Antiek Market (I'm certain these folks may have added a 'p' to their name and we must be related). 

And I finally remembered to take my camera along and can show why I love these places so much!

I really liked this numbers print; it was $18, which I assume included the frame and matte.  Reminded me of my favorite fontophile, Elana!  I did not love the tomato-man print so much.  To each their own!

Oh, my word.  So much loveliness.  I really loved the square wooden frame clock--and it even worked!  But I deemed the frame "too wide".  Really?  And now from the photo I see that I also love the mantel clock atop the tall, skinny table.  If I had a mantel, I'd covet that clock.

A wider shot of some of the same items.  Hey Louis, why don't we hang our chairs on the wall?

Either Derek's found something he likes...or he is possessed by the angelic child painting he just saw.

And Leona found this purse!  Can't believe you turned it down! :)

More lovely things.  Stools, cabinets, and chairs.  Oh my!

Lots of kitchen ephemera.  I've thought of the same design of hanging a crate on the wall (like the brown one in the left of the photo) and will probably go for it soon.  Some of my favorite things are the signs in this room--hanging on the wall in the back, but they definitely were reproductions and not vintage.  And another cute clock-- this one made out of a plate!

So that completes out tour of A Cat and the Fiddle.  I didn't take any photos at Haupt because it was a narrow store that was packed with people.  After all this hunting what did we buy?  Nothing.  It's always a little disappointing to come away from a hunt (especially an epic one like this) empty-handed, but I've determined my reasons why this happens.

1) I am frugal.  Even though the items are priced well, I still think, "If I buy this item for only $15, when I find an item I actually want I'll have a harder time justifying it because I've already spent money."  Yes, I am that frugal.

2) It is overwhelming, to say the least.  The rooms are packed and often very narrow (since many of these places operate out of old homes) and on top of that are packed with people.  Some ruder than others.

3) It is exhausting.  The eyes can only scan for so long!  I noticed things in the photos I did not see in person.

4) I have to go with specific things in mind.  Well, this is true for how I shop in general.  And my list right now includes big furniture items.  I'd have a hard time convincing myself I "need" a clock or vintage-looking sign.

So we may have walked away empty-handed material goods speaking, but I left with some inspiration...

Our basement has two fluorescent lamps.  They are ugly.  These houses had lots of them and came up with unique ways of covering them.

Like a window frame, glass punched out, and covered in a tissue-paper like material.

Or what appears to be a door frame covered in fabric and dressed with wreath garland.

Even more unique and rustic--a ladder!

And this one I actually took in Perham, MN, this past summer.  Another frame, no glass, just open and decorated with garland.

Now I just have to find frames...which actually isn't too hard, they show up at all kinds of sales.  I just have to wait another month.

So there you have it:  treasure hunting!  Maybe it makes you want to come along, maybe it makes you claustrophobic.  I understand. :)

Our latest houseguest

You may have noticed the rogue dog in a photo from a recent post.  No, he's not ours.

This is Basil, and he is on day 8 of 11 of his stay at HoHub.  Not that I'm counting down or anything...

This is one of his preferred spots, sheltered under the table.  I've found him here almost every day when I've come home from work, with the exception to the night I found him licking the living room rug.  It's fine by me if he wants to hang under the table as his true nature is to herd me.  Riiight.  Nearly tripping over the dog every turn I took didn't work out so well.  He's learned his role.  I do not need herding!

His other tricks this week have included helping take out the trash.  His third attempt was by far the worst.

Happy Valentine's Day from Basil!  The fun didn't stop there, though.  It seems he may have tasted a few tissue treats.  He proceeded to vomit them on our bedroom floor at 1am.  Thank you, Louis, for cleaning that up.  He got kicked to the living room to sleep for the night.  And when I laid awake for the next THREE hours unable to get back to sleep, I heard him claw at the rug, not once, but twice.

I'll give him some retribution.  He could be worse.  Okay, okay...he is a very nice dog.  He is well trained and does not bark.

So...you can guess which 1/2 of HubHo took "getting a puppy this spring" off the table.  I'll consider putting it back on.  I figure I'll need a dog to be able to embrace children some day.  I could be okay being a pet-less, child-less adult, but I'd have some pretty strong convincing to do of the other 1/2 of this house...



All you need is bunting (cards).

I'm sure it's obvious by now my love for bunting.  I thought Valentine's Day cards to my friends across the globe (seriously, all of you: stop moving!) would be a great way to put into action one of my goals to write more letters this year.

I purchased blank cards, festive paper, and some stickers on February 5th only to realize I wouldn't get too far without a glue stick, which I quickly acquired the next day.  And then on February 13th I figured my Valentine's would really be cards that just happened to be a flurry of red, pink, and white and arrived post V-day.  The point is cards were eventually made and sent!  And I got to use our address stamp which I adore.

Without further ado...bunting cards!  Because all you need is bunting love.

p.s. KHeil, I am sorry yours was not cute bunting and appeared to have been made by a kindergartner.  I'm sorry if I just ruined the surprise.  It probably takes longer than 2 days for mail to reach Korea? : )

Spring fever weekend.

Holy hot weather, Batman!  It was 45 degrees out there today.  And internally, our house made it to 67 (surpassing its own setting of 65!).  This is the warmest it has been since...November?  Oh yeah, the first time it snowed.

Warm weather=direct correlation to higher productivity.  Today Louis and I managed to walk the Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis and around Lake Como in St. Paul.  I think every Minnesotan was out today!  And surprisingly, I only saw two people in shorts.  I had a lot of fun taking the Rebel outside for the first time since the failed attempt on New Year's Day where I nearly lost all my fingers to frost bite.  And around House on Hubbard, we were busy this afternoon...

We chopped the 2-3 inch thick layer of ice that had formed on our driveway and shoveled it up.  Me thinks this will continue to be a problem as spring comes and goes (c'mon, no one really believes spring is here to stay on February 13th, right?).  I've been thinking a lot about mud-jacking the driveway come summer to prevent this problem, but it also needs some type of drainage...things that keep me up at night (no, really).

While the sun was still shining I made my way to the front yard where I've wanted to attend to our three little trees for some time.  The harsh winter and heavy snow knocked the middle one to the ground.  The twine has been sitting for over a month as I've waited for a warmer day to give the tree a boost.  Before that, though, I put myself through a torture exercise called un-stringing the Christmas lights 2 1/2 months later.  Thankfully Louis wound them up while I got to the real task of anchoring the tree.  Because of the close proximity to the house, and the mounds of snow still in the way, I simply tied the two limbs of the tree together so it can support itself.  So far it's standing up taller than it had before.  When more snow melts, I'll see about additional support.

And last, I took apart our Christmas wreath and donated it to the compost pile.  Whew!

But I couldn't let this post go without some photos...photos of our latest furniture find!  Louis and I were at Flamingo's Divine Finds in Minneapolis yesterday.  We almost left empty-handed except for a look in the last, tiniest, couldn't-possibly-be-even-10-square-feet room.

I can now cross this off my "furniture I would like to have" list.

I have very much coveted a bench just like this to sit in front of the window to the porch.

Now I we have one!  The artist actually hesitated a little--he didn't quite want to give this up.  I love the unique-ness of the added shelf underneath.  You know, so I can continue to further ignore the mail that I've shoved into that basket (like a Netflix rental from pre-Thanksgiving that is going back tomorrow-I swear!).

Here's the thing.  I'm not really sure in front of the window to the porch is the bench's destination.  I'm thinking about swapping that side table to the couch's other side and giving it a shift in the other direction to see if that helps balance things out.  I don't know what to do about the one leg on, three off the rug.  And I do plan on either glazing it or "mudding" the color with the aforementioned can of nutmeg paint I currently possess to soften the bright yellow.  All in good time...Wait!  Where that'd dog come from?  More on him later...

Close-up on the bead board.  Why?  Because I love bead board.  Random fact.

Oh...and the chipped marks.  Yeah, the artist did that himself as he was attempting the scuffed, shabby chic look.  Um, not quite.  I will find a way to fix that.

So there you have it.  Earlier when Louis asked if we were celebrating Valentine's Day (and I questioned him outright), I told him if anyone asks, he can say this was my present.  Now, I'm off to make some non-belated V-day cards that just happen to be red, pink, and have resemblances of a certain holiday that I did not forget.

I think we're alone now...

there doesn't seem to be any mice around now!

It has been exactly one week since we found our last victim.  With fingers crossed, I think a slight celebration is in order to the tune of Tiffany, another great redhead, circa 1987.

I really hope this isn't like last time (or the three, maybe four times before).  I'd really like to put my cupboards back together without risking the need to wash all contents again.

Seriously, I can't take this.

Disheveled plates, toppling bowls, silverware in the cupboard?!

I HATE cluttered counter tops!

All the while my drawers are empty.  What is wrong with this picture?

I am reclaiming my drawers this weekend.  Fingers crossed! 

Bedroom update: the master

So our "master" bedroom is really only 5-10 square feet larger than the guest room.  Guess things weren't so "masterly" back in 1921.  Or they had smaller beds.  I don't really know.

A while back (okay, fine, October), I showed the images I had created of our homestate pride:  Minnesota and Iowa.  Then the project got delayed because we needed more paper...or maybe it was more ink?  And then frames and mattes.  Finally this came together sometime late last year.  I printed the images on an ivory sheet of 8 1/2 by 11 cardstock.  I found inexpensive mattes and a set of two brown frames that I thought were over $20, but we totally scored and they were on sale for around $8 total, making the frames + mattes for each picture just over $7.

And finally we hung them.  They are in our bedroom for now, but they might move around once we determine other art for our room.

Blue matte for Minne because of all the lakes, and green for Iowa because of the rolling plains (ahem:  Iowa is NOT flat, contrary to what everyone thinks!) :)

And another October project long-discarded would be the curtains.  Seriously, what happened to me post-October?  Oh, it got cold and my inability to get off the couch/out from my pile of blankets took hold.  Sigh.

These were pretty simple.  I skipped the sewing.  Because I'm still fighting with my machine.  I opted for the Young House Love no-sew version and it's worked out so far, though in between having these hanging in October, but then taking them down (long story:  our previous curtain rod was too short, so we had a temp one up there) they did "unhem" a bit, but I touched them up with the iron and they seem (or seam--ha ha, sewing pun!) to be staying together.

An evening shot...complete with unmade bed.  Meh.  Oh, and the real reason this project got delayed: even with the power drill I could not get holes in the wood paneling around the window, so I patched the holes and attached the rod straight onto the wall.  Luckily I had made the curtains wider so this worked out, and I like it--it makes the window frame look larger than it really is.

Close-up of the fabric during the daytime.  And a realization that lighting makes all the difference in photography.  These look blue.  They are not.  They look more tan like the photo above.

And the side window.  Technically these curtains have been up since about a month after moving in since there's no shades at all on this window. 

Next up:  I've been dying to paint our nightstands!  I finally picked out a nutmeg color.  We'll see how I like it...I have my doubts.

Bedroom update: guest room

Or as I like to call it, my "dressing room". :)  But for real, my clothes are in the guest room closet (Louis inherited the closet in our room because the rods are seriously 6 feet tall and I would not be able to reach my clothes).

Anyway...after a long project recess, I found some things that needed updating (or paint, as you may have it).

We scored this nightstand for FREE over a year ago, which was great because nightstands are some seriously overpriced pieces of furniture.

And sometimes free comes at a price.  This piece was a little banged up, but nothing a little love couldn't fix.

Eep!  Gouges and cracks, oh my!

Good thing I had wood filler on hand.  No really, you should see my our workbench--so many goodies.

Holes filled, time passed, then sanded smooth (total lie; I let about 30 seconds lapse before I sanded).

And then I went and did something crazy.  I primed!  And should have primed again, but was so eager to get the color onto the wood that I didn't.  Next time...right?

My choice color was grey.  Or dark gray (with an a) since this was all I could find.  A little darker than I wanted, but worth a try.  Love the baby paint can--perfect size, no wasted paint!

Three coats of dark gray later...

Lovely!  I spray painted the handle in a light yellow.  I love a good grey/yellow combo.  I could definitely see adding more yellow detail in later, like painting the shelf completely yellow, or some flowers painted on the back.  The possibilities are endless, really.

And a close-up of my never-going-to-resolve project impatience (the yellow smear on the grey paint from putting the handle back on too soon).

On the other side of the room, my vanity.  Scored this pretty little thing back in November from the Cottage House for a mere $28!  The stool was picked up at another occasional market called Flamingo's Divine Finds (TWO occasional markets?  I know!)  The stool was a cool $8.  Score!

Except it used to look more like this:

(The hunter green one in the back.)  The country kitchen vibe just didn't fit the color scheme of my dressing room.  I used some of the cottage white paint from my chair and mixed in a bit of yellow to color match the vanity.  It came pretty close.  I also used leftover fabric and a piece of foam cut in a circle to add some padding to the stool.

And finally, the mirror.  We picked this up at the Shady Oaks Flea Market back in August.  It had chipped blue paint.  I spent a long time sanding it off (suited up in an eye mask, gloves, and face mask...just for fun in case of lead paint).

A fresh coat of green!  So here is where I sit and get ready each morning, looking out over mounds of snow in the backyard, pining for spring.

Next up...updates in our bedroom!  But before I go, I need a before and after side-by-side!