a nice breeze

Yes, summer has started at least our temperatures have reached summer levels. Today's temperatures climbed to around 90° (about 32 Celsius). We do not have central air in our house and unless it get's brutally hot and humid we like to rely on a fan in the bedroom. Unfortunately we don't have a ceiling fan in the bedroom but P's and my office does. When it gets unbearable we bring out the big gun our portable air conditioner, so far it wasn't needed.

Here is a little selection of fans to keep you cool.

 1. Loft Ceiling Fan by Emerson 2. Plum Ceiling Fan by Modern Fan Company 3. DC Slim Ceiling Fan by Modern Fan Company 4. Levon Ceiling Fan by Fanimation  

5. Vintage Vornado Fan 6. Allaire Desk Fan by Restoration Hardware 

7. Deco Breeze Retro Table Fan 8. Otto Fan by Stadler Form

 This is what actually creates a nice breeze in my office while writing this post. More suited for a little girls room, right? For now I'm just dreaming about one of the ceiling fans from my selection...

week twenty one

Yes, it's Monday again but this time it doesn't mark the beginning of a new work week because we have a holiday today. The past week it has been raining on and off. At one point it made me feel gloomy but another day while walking home from the gym I enjoyed playing in the puddles of water. On the first pictures you can see the view I get when I'm sitting at my desk at the office. If the weather is nice I can see the Empire State Building right next to the highrise building but it sometimes disappears when it's raining, snowing or it's foggy. When I first started my job I needed to look at it every 5 minutes to remind myself that I am really working in New York.

Because we are having a three day weekend over here I made a huge to-do list and so far I was only able to cross off one thing. Sigh... But today is another day and maybe I can cross off a thing or two. Maybe my to-do list was not really realistic anyways.

- front yard (weeding, cut back tree) ✔

- get guest room ready for visitor

- paint step stool

- finish sanding dresser

- add blogroll to blog

- add menu bar to blog

- sand chair

- pack return package for asos ✔

- catch up reading & commenting on my favorite blogs ✔

What have you been up to this weekend?

p's office

In February I shared how I painted a desk that had a beat up plastic laminate finish. The desk I scored for free on craigslist and a couple coats of paint turned it from drab to looking fresh again. Because P's old chair was broken and wobbly we checked out the Design Within Reach Outlet that is close to where we live and found this Series 7 chair. It was marked down quite a bit and they also had a 20% off sale that weekend. P had a gift certificate as well he ended up spending only about $50 on the chair. And the chartreuse color looks great in combination with the grey of the desk. Now you can also see where the framed pucks hang. It's so great that each of us has a room for ourselves, it's a solution that works for now. Who knows what we might need the space for in the future. 

You know both of our work areas now, I already showed my desk a while back. What does your desk/work area look like? Would you mind sharing them with me? If anybody would be up for it you could send me a picture and a description about what you like/don't like about it and I would turn it into a post. It would be fun to see where you sit while blogging...

Happy three day weekend everybody!

 

experiment & my first guest post

How cool is that experiment? I would have been one of the people who would have picked up one of the chairs if I had found one...

You're probably wondering why I am posting on a Tuesday but I had to let you know that today my very first guest post is up on like/want/need where I'm sharing one of my greatest vacations with you. Erin is on her way back home after traveling through Europe for the past week and let a bunch of guest bloggers take over her blog to share their vacation stories. I have to admit it's kind of scary writing for somebody else. I had a big case of writer's block and turned in my post in at the last minute.

week twenty

Can you believe that next Monday is already Memorial Day? And then the summer season officially begins...

Last week felt so short again, I can't remember what I kept myself busy with but I felt pretty busy. I started a little freelance drafting job, my first one in years. Yay! P and I spent the weekend at a friends place on the Jersey Shore and went to the Bamboozle Festival in Asbury Park both days. Saturday we had great weather and hanging out at the beach was a lot of fun. On Sunday we had a sunny morning but by the time we arrived at the festival grounds it had gotten cloudy and windy. I had to put on all my layers but was still cold, so I bought a hoodie for myself. There were lots of booths on the festival grounds that either sold band merchandise or clothes from small independent labels. The hoodie I got is from this label, unfortunately I couldn't find it on their website. It kept me warm and looks cute too! 

The temporary tattoo I got at the last Apartment therapy design Evening where Tina Roth Eisenberg (swiss miss) spoke and everybody got a little bag full of tattlys one of her latest endeavors. I chose this one because I want to focus more on being happy and not dwell on the things that drag me down..

i wish...

After putting my flea market money into my secret stash I started thinking about what I could treat myself to again. Started the secret stash about three years back and since then nothing was good enough to justify spending that money. After my post about making money at the flea market Erin suggested buying an iPad but I already had ruled it out although it's still on the list of things that would be nice to have. Theresa hit a nerve when she suggested a nice piece of mid-century furniture. I remembered how much I love the bar cart that Niki from my scandinavian home owns so I started looking for one on Ebay and will also start looking for one in thrift stores. As somebody who loves wearing boots a pair of Frye boots have been on my wishlist forever but so far I could not bring myself to fork over more than $300 for a pair of boots. But on the other hand they will probably last a lifetime. Another expensive item on my list is a telephoto zoom lens which would be great for our upcoming vacation in Utah (hiking in Bryce Canyon). Or maybe a nice leather jacket?

Decisions, decisions, decisions*....

1. Frye Boots 2. telephoto zoom lens 3. iPad 4. bar cart 5. Leather Jacket

* Actually I have already ordered one item from the list. Can you guess which one? ;)

getting framed

Crossed another small project off my list. Yay! And it didn't even take long to finish it. P had these two pucks he got a after NJ Devils hockey games that one of his coworkers had gotten signed by three Devils players. Two of them are still with the team and currently trying to beat the NY Rangers in the playoffs for the Stanley Cup. (Let's go Devils!) For those hockey fans among you the players that are still with the team are #8 Dainius Zubrus and #26 Patrik Elias.

I had promised I would frame the pucks and got shadow box Ribba frames at Ikea a while ago and then I totally forgot about them. When I finally started on the project it took me about 15 minutes to get it done. Unwrapping the frames, finding the center of the back panel, drill a small hole, find center of puck and then drill a small screw through the back panel and into the puck. Hang the frames in P's office. Done! And the husband is happy too :)

week nineteen

Wow, another week just flew by! Well when you are busy time flies...

I found another chair on the street last week on my way to work, it stood there on a corner right next to a trash can in the rain and I had to take it home. Yes, I am a chair hoarder! Ok, first I had to drag it to the office and on Friday I brought it home. I had P meet me at the Path station so I didn't have to take it onto the bus. People looked funny at me on the train after I sat down on my chair and started reading a book. It needs a good sanding and I'm not sure if I should paint, stain or just keep the natural wood. I think I will know after sanding it. Don't really know when I'll be able to get to it because I still have about a thousand other projects to finish first which is kind of frustrating me right now. The more I think about it the less I get done and the more frustration builds up...

On Wednesday I went to an event in Long Island City, the venue had a great view of the NY skyline. They served prosecco mixed with Fragoli, a wild strawberry liqueur. So good!

On a happy note the weather finally warmed up and we were able to hang out outside all weekend. I didn't read any of my magazines because in order to be able to sit outside I would have had to clean our backyard furniture and I felt too lazy to do it...

Have a great week!

weekend reading material

Yesterday when I read Santa's post on her blog homestilo about the special edition of Domino I remembered I had bought it about two weeks ago and had totally forgotten about it and never opened it once. The last couple of weeks things kept just piling up and I feel a bit overwhelmed trying to get to the bottom of the pile. This upcoming weekend will be the first weekend without any plans and I'm really looking forward to it. Maybe I'll have time to catch up on all the magazines I have lying around, my favorite blogs, finish one of my many started furniture projects and maybe kick back and relax...

The Martha Steward magazines were in a little goodie bag that was handed out at the end of last month's  apartment therapy design evening, which hosted Pilar Guzmán, the editor-in-chief of Martha Steward Living, hence the MS magazines. You can check out the interview over on apartment therapy. 

What are your plans for the weekend?

another neon post - diy

Remember when I spray painted my candelabra hot pink in February? If so you might also remember that I was already looking for something else that needed a neon makeover. After seeing some cool neon necklaces while browsing the internet I thought I could make my own. I bought two necklaces on sale at a Burlington Coat Factory store near my office. I liked the shapes and at $3 per necklace I could justify to give spray painting them a try.

The supplies I had already at hand from previous painting sessions and I followed the same procedure as I did with the candelabra, just omitting the mistake with the dark primer and using white primer in the first place. One necklace got a yellow makeover and the other one was transformed with fluorescent pink spray paint.

I have to say both necklaces came out better than expected and really brighten up my wardrobe. What's your take on the neon trend? I already had a neon phase in the 80ies but feel it is different now. Back then I liked the combination of midriff baring and neon. I've already seen cropped shirts again in magazines but this will be a trend that will not make it back into my closet.

week eighteen

Phew, another week just flew by. I didn't even get to write a post last Friday and over the weekend I was busy selling at the flea market and riding my bike 40 something miles. At the flea market I made $186. Yipeeeh! The money will be put into my secret stash of cash, well it is not secret anymore now is it ;) I started to put money I made selling some stuff on ebay and at another flea market into a box a couple of years ago and wanted to treat myself to something nice with it. So far I haven't found anything that makes me want to spent my secret money and the more money I save the pickier I get on what to spend it on...

Yesterday was the day of the 5 Boro Bike Tour and I feel kind of sore today. And right now I feel I never want to eat bananas again. I ate around 7 or 8 over the course of the day, they hand them out at the rest stops and I didn't eat breakfast yesterday so I stuffed my face with everything I could find. The tour ends on Staten Island and you get to take the ferry back to Manhattan in the end. They sell food & beverages on the ferry and I treated myself to a yummy Häagen-Dazs ice cream bar. It tasted heavenly!

woman vs chair - round 9

I did it! The chair is finished, I am sitting on it and writing this post. It is so comfortable but I might be biased after fighting with it for nine rounds. I'm even jumping for joy :) Can you believe that in mid-February the chair still looked like this?

Did you finish a project that made you really happy lately?