week thirty five

Last week was not off to the greatest start with me being sick but it ended pretty sweet with a trip to Pittsburgh. We left Thursday after work and stayed in Pittsburgh until Sunday morning, when we headed to Kentuck Knob, a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Bernardine and I.N. Hagan. After our tour of Kentuck Knob ended we headed over to Fallingwater, which we toured in more detail. We had booked the afternoon in-depth tour, which was great because after our tour ended the grounds were closed and we had time to take photos of the exterior without any people. I do not like random people in my shots and always wait until they leave ;) Got back yesterday and am working to get a post about my trip done for the end of the week...

How did you guys spent the (long) weekend?

week thirty four

Sorry everyone for neglecting my blog and all of yours this week but I have been sick and didn't get out of bed the last couple of days. When I wasn't sleeping I watched TV, mostly watched American Pickers and Teen Mom on MTV. I should have caught up on Project Runway instead but couldn't get myself to switch the channel...Regular blog posts will resume next week. Also looking forward to catch up on everyone's blogs next week as well. I will be leaving for a long weekend in Pittsburgh tonight, which will be highlighted by a visit to Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water...

Enjoy the long weekend even if it means the official end of summer is here!

kitten update

I have not been feeling well the last couple of days so I didn't finish my Yayoi Kusama post but instead leave you with some kitten photos. Unfortunately the cat family moved out of our backyard. I fed them Monday morning and in the evening when I got home after work they were all gone. Wednesday night just as I was about to fall asleep I heard a kitten desperately crying for her mother and sure enough I saw a black kitten run around our house. I guess he was checking all familiar places for his family. We went outside to try and catch him but to no avail. Try to catch a black cat in the dark. Hope he was able to find them...I am so sad that they left us, I was already getting used to the company and saw myself as a future cat mama. Maybe they will come back...

Have a great weekend everybody!

vestibule - new diy floor

Sunday the 12th of August I finally painted the interior door frame of the vestibule and decided to lay the carpet tile, that I brought home from work about a year ago. They were all samples for one client and since we did not need them anymore I figured I could turn them into a nice looking carpet tile mosaic in our vestibule. I had already drawn up a sketch in Auto Cad how I wanted to position the tiles, now we just needed to make a decision on what tile would go where. We laid out the different tiles on the floor and worked up our pattern from there. That was actually the most fun part of the whole project.

Next step was drawing a line that was somewhat parallel to the front door. From there I laid my first row of tiles and then the next two. To make the tiles stick to the floor I bought a roll of  carpet tape, which is basically heavy duty double sided tape. Those three rows were pretty straight forward and didn't need much cutting but the rows on either door opening needed to be exactly measured and cut to size. I did not take any good photos of the process besides this grainy photo with my cell phone because I knew if I'd stop working I would call it a night...

All in all I spent about 4 hours on my knees and my legs were sore for three days straight but I think it was worth the pain. The new floor really makes the space look finished. Not looking too shabby for only spending $8 on the whole project. Next on my list is getting the vestibule door fixed up and re-hung and also installing new glass panels in the transom above.

Have any of you fun projects lined up?

week thirty three

Today starts another week. Can you believe it? If times keeps flying by like it has been so far this year Christmas will be here in no time...

Last week was full of surprises, actually six cute surprises. We discovered a stray cat with a litter of five little kittens in our neighbors backyard. The mother looked very thin so we started feeding her and the little bunch. They are still very shy but have come to realize that we mean no harm. We are trying to get a local organization to help us get all of them spayed and neutered so they can be either set free again or maybe adopted. P and I are still debating if we should keep one or two. I had a cat growing up and still miss the little munchkin...

During week two of my closet project I resurrected a bag, a black pointelle (?) sweater and a striped Marc by Marc Jacobs skirt, that I have owned for ages. On the other hand I already failed trying not to buy anything. I stopped at H&M with a friend yesterday and left the store with a mustard yellow scarf. I guess I have to prepare for fall ;)

This weekend I cleaned up the house a bit and found this old object I made with a friend out of old bottles and concrete. I used it as a candle holder at one point but now that it has broken in half I had to get rid of it. But I couldn't let it go without taking some farewell pictures.

Last but not least I visited the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at the Whitney. Sorry for misspelling her name twice on Instagram! I realized my mistakes after uploading the pictures but unfortunately you can't edit after it is up on the site. I will write about that experience a little more this week so stay tuned...

Have a great start into the new week!

another yard post - fire pits

This month I think I caught backyard fever and I just can't stop looking for inspiration for our future yard. Another think I love in yards are fire pits, who doesn't like to spend cooler evenings around a fire and roast marshmallows and make s'mores. I only discovered s'mores in my twenties so I still have a lot of catching up to do. How could I have lived without them for so long?

I love the simple fire pit that Morgan of The Brick House created. I guess I need to take a welding class soon. The possibilities are endless, I could also weld steel planter boxes etc...Ok, I don't really have time for that but it would be fun. Either one of my selection would be welcome in my yard, No 7 can even be used as a grill.

So who's coming over for a nice chat around the fire with a bottle of wine and roasted marshmallows? Have a great weekend everyone!

1. the brick house - fire pit redux 2. urbanfire by mod fire 3. qrater by extremis 

4. vesta fia fire pit  - woodland direct 5. lighthouse oil lamp by menu - lumens 

6. terra fireplace by cocoon fires - unicahome 7. square brazier via amazon 

8. eclipse fire pit - woodland direct 9. lava rock fire bowl - restoration hardware

cuteness alert

For the lack of finishing a post I will post some cute kittens instead. A stray cat had a litter of five in our neighbors backyard but they like to hang out in ours as well. The little black and white guy is super curious and last night I caught him on our deck. Maybe he wants to move in with us? P promised when we moved to our area, which has a lot of strays, that if I can catch one I can keep it. This little guy is asking for it ;)

Are you cat people or dog people? Or are you like me and like both?