He fits. He sits.

Someone dropped off a basket of cookies at the station the other day. We all enjoyed the cookies, and I snagged the woven wood basket.

Like this, but with less flowers and more handle.

It's nothing fancy, but I thought it would be a cute fall piece, and that Mr.Beans would like sitting in it. True to form, ~2 seconds after it walked in the door; he checked for fit. Spoiler: good fit, he sits.

I had to wake up much earlier than normal for work today, and Beans was NOT pleased. He loves sleeping in (after hopping back in bed from an early morning jaunt to the kitchen for breakfast).

The 'not getting out of bed' face

Mr.Beans is a sleepy guy in general:

sheepskin on the porch couch?
loves it

new chair?
quality assurance testing in full swing

fluffy blanket snuggles?
all in

mom just got back from out of town?
insta dog cat pile
that happy little smooshed face.....adorable

So this morning when I had to be up early, he begrudgingly crawled out of bed and redeposited himself in the new basket over where I was getting stuff together in the front hall:

eyes. don't. want. to. open.

 Navy thought I was crouching down to hand out treats and ran over to get some. Always the optimist.

No treats, just picture taking.
Thanks for the photobomb.

I'm glad Beans looks comfy in the basket, another recent fits-n-sits attempt seemed a little too snug:

next size up, please

Oh Mr.Beans, you are a silly guy.

-Lindsay

Weekend Treasures

While trolling Craigslist on Friday I saw a posting with blurry pictures for a shipping trunk and old speaker.

Mind the sea-sickness

Is that teak I see? And a shadowy peg leg?
Yar.

From what I could see, they looked good enough to go for, so I said I'd take both and headed over during lunch to pickup.

The trunk was gone to an earlier scavenger by the time I got there, but the speaker was mine all mine. I also landed a barely used cat tree and an old wooden Encyclopedia Americana shipping box.

NEEDS MORE COWBELL JOINTING. Said no one ever.

The box is drying out, after which I'll mount it for use as a wall shelf somewhere. Comme ca:

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For the speaker, I plan to do a speaker-gut-ectomy and add simple ledger shelves.

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It has beautiful mid century bones with solid teak construction and 3 brass-tipped peg legs. It's banged up pretty well, but is structurally sound. I'll only sand and lightly seal the exterior ala the entertainment center. Hopefully it will come out just as well. The inside will probably be painted something dark to contrast with the lighter exterior wood box.

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I haven't seen any speaker-to-shelves floating around the interwebs, so perhaps it will be a genuinely new fangled idea.


The super sweet lady who put up the craigslist post was cleaning out her parents house after they moved into a condo. I offered to help lift/move around anything she needed since she was kind enough to give away good stuff for free. She declined at the time, but our pleasant interaction must have made enough of an impression that she emailed me the next day offering a different trunk she'd intended to keep, but couldn't, and could I help move a couch while I was there? YES and YES.
I'd seen a trunk the day before and was hoping really hard that it was the one she was offering. Because it was a real-life antique version of a Restoration Hardware piece that I've been loving from afar.

Reproduction
on sale for $1045

And it was.

The Real Thing.
(Pardon the spiderwebs n schmutz on the carpet)

Stenciling, and leather handles, and shipping stickers; oh my!

With a promise to never throw it away and to email her should I ever not be able to keep it; I loaded it up. Judging from the shipping label on the back, I think it was used by her Dad's while he was in the Army in the 60's. I understand it's an important piece to her and am glad she thinks I'll give it a good home. Not that I ever plan to stop loving it, but if push comes to shove, I'd be happy to get in touch with her and send it along.

In the meantime, I need to clean up several decades of cobwebs & dust on the outside, and check the state of the inside. There might even be some junk in there.

What will I use it for? Where will I put it? Do I even have room? Am I losing my marbles to get another trunk (this makes 3)?
Excellent questions. I have no answers yet.
Much like sparkly things, shiny things are appreciated here and resolutely kept, murky future or not.

Leather handles also appreciated.

-Lindsay

Pillow Talk

My Bf threw out his back  last weekend, so I ran into to Bed Bath & Beyond to grab him a heating pad, an ice pack, and some goodies while his non-mobile self waited in an 'almost comfortable' position in the car.
I told him I would be quick.

Uhhh.......about that: I should have known better.
No trip to BB&B sticks to the list. It's unpossible.

My intentions were good, but the '$4.99 & Under' pillow bin was better. 

I may have definitely went a little pillow crazy.

Mostly neutral colors with interesting texture, embroidery, or accents that go well with the furniture and fabrics already in my house.

11 pillows for about $45, when most of them were in the $30/$40 dollar range each at full retail price. Not too shabby!

Fill types:

5 are down-filled, the rest are cotton

Coverings:

4 are silk, 3 felted wool, 1 chartreuse sweater-knit, 2 cotton, and 1 HAS SPARKLES!!

Captn. Sparkles has already received a kidnap threat. But you just go ahead and try Michelle; I will take you down like a cheetah on an antelope. Except with way more shrieking, wheezing, and jiggling from both of us. Somebody might loose a shoe or an earing. Who knows, it could get crazy. Moral of the story: not worth it.

Idle treats aside; 'That's an unreasonable amount of pillows!' you might say, especially since I already have a handful of pillows. 

Nonsense. 

Don't you love how lush and inviting a seating area or bed full of pillows looks? Well I know I do. 

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I've got a lot of seating both inside and out on the patios that can use some pillow-licious comfort:

outdoor

1 couch, 1 rocking chair, 2 side chairs

indoor

1 couch, 1 chair & a-half, 3 comfy chairs, 1 settee, and 1 big queen bed.

So comfortable and REM-inducing, I miss it when I don't sleep there.
It could use some flair to make it as pretty as it is comfy.

With all the available spots, I'm sure the new pillows will quickly find happy homes.

I'm happy that the Bf's didn't/couldn't turn around to see me loading 2 big BB&B bags o' pillows into the trunk. My excuse for the delay was long lines.....sorry hun; pillows' out of the bag now. (bazinga)

;)


-Lindsay