moving

My Dual Personality

May 6, 2010 by Edie Wadsworth 23 Comments

My life has become a dichotomy of old house, new house.

At the new house:

The girls and I have been making tissue flowers and sugar and salt scrubs for Mother’s Day. The ladies in my extended family are coming over for high tea on Saturday. And I’m making this frangelico cake (I love Ruthanne) and I’m eating a ginormous piece of it. And because you are just like me and I know you’ll ask, the labels for the scrubs are available here for printing.

Stevie and I have date night every night on our back deck for a little star gazing. There’s a cool app on his iPad that gives you a real time replica of the night sky. You hold the iPad up to the sky and the smarty pants thing knows which direction you’re holding it and gives you an accurate picture of where the stars and constellations are!!! It’s the coolest thing ever. Right now, the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, is perfectly situated due West just above the horizon. It’s my new favorite star.

At the old house:

My life has become one giant yard sale. My car looks like a yard sale and my purse definitely looks like a yard sale.

Don’t hate me but I’m having my final moving sale at the old house this Friday from 8-12.

Why would I torture myself in such fashion? Because I love a good yard sale. And yesterday, when my sainted mother was turning my basement into a virtual K-Mart and I was tripping around in broken flip flops, I ‘bought’ some flip flops from my own yard sale. Yes, in fact, I did. So, y’all better hurry and buy the rest of this stuff, ’cause I love it all. And there’s a TON of Christmas stuff for sale this time. A TON! Except everytime I walk through, I remove some other cute item that I just can’t live without.

And here is part of the beautiful patio furniture that I bought with my yard sale money last time. So comfy, perfect for sipping coffee or knitting or snuggling sleepy children or star gazing with your dreamy husband. And it’s from Lowe’s. I looked everywhere and ended up buying this from Lowe’s. I love it. And I take back all the times I called them

S-Lowe’s.

My old house. This Friday. 8-12. Be there and buy lots of stuff.

Kitchen Dilemma

May 4, 2010 by Edie Wadsworth 53 Comments

I’m sitting on my new deck watching the geese and egrets fly by and the lake water ripple, drinking a wonderful cup of coffee as I type this. I still haven’t shaken the feeling that I’m on vacation—in Hilton Head—with no definite endpoint for my return ‘home’. The only downside to living your entire life like your on vacation is that I seem to have lost my skills for meal planning. Dinner sneaks up on me—-because really, who wants to spend their vacation at the grocery store? And take out in this town is a poor choice for long term eating. Which brings me to my kitchen.

My new kitchen is all ordered and will likely be installed in 2-3 weeks. I ordered four cabinet doors before I settled on a color. After almost ordering 3 different cabinet colors, two different door styles and 2 different counter tops, I finally settled on one color, one door style, and one countertop. I know, boring right? I’ll just have to add spice in other ways. I wanted clean lines and simplicity because of the openness of the floor plan. Besides my IKEA farm sink, I think I’m most excited about my 48″ Dacor stove and hood. {Honey, I promise I’ll cook more when I get my stove}. I had several inspiration kitchens but the one I leaned most heavily on was this one in April’s issue of Southern living. My cabinet color is very similar and my countertops are white quartz. I also took plenty of inspiration from Erica’s kitchens in Coastal Living but eventually decided against the blue island that I was sure I wanted. I’m still deciding between the small 1 inch iridescent tile and regular subway tile for the backsplash. I settled on open cabinetry for the back wall on either side of the hood even though I sacrificed some wall cabinets for open shelves that will likely span across the windows too.

My main dilemma at this point is that I really want to paint the few walls in the kitchen a different color than the living room. (a much lighter whitish color that would be too light for the living room). As you can see, that will be somewhat difficult to do without coming up with a creative way to transition. I’ve thought of a framed chalk board— to be used for menu writing. I’ve also wondered if putting drapes on that window and hanging the rod to the ceiling which would obscure a marked paint transition. And I know the railing is still bothering you but for now, stay on task and let’s discuss this pesky transition. What would you do?
And why, you ask, do I still feel like I’m in Hilton Head?
I don’t know if it’s the plethora of sunsets I get to enjoy…..

or the plethora of beautiful plants in my yard. My azaleas are in full bloom and are simply gorgeous. Now if I could only get my cooking mojo back…..

p.s. those rocks are a jumbled mess because I keep running over them with my ginormous SUV. I think I need a vacation car.

Dumpster Divin’ Yard Sale-in’ and Lake Livin’ aka the longest post known to man

April 26, 2010 by Edie Wadsworth 26 Comments

I’ve been keeping things from you and I apologize profusely. But I knew you’d be jealous.

I have a dumpster.

There, I said it.

I rented one for the move and I’ve never been happier with a rented item. I’m giddy about it. And to celebrate my sheer joy, my friends Kelly and Denise went dumpster diving with me. And tried to pull out some old fabric. But I put my foot down and made them come shop at the actual yard sale.

Which you should have attended, by the way. When you move into a house with at least 4 less rooms, things must be purged.

And if you didn’t happen to make it to the sale—you missed out. Because everything was negotiable. Even the small children.

Everything except the pressure cooker, that is.

Nick marked the $15 Walmart pressure cooker at a whopping $100. It was a conversation piece. Here’s a sampling of the many people who asked about the cooker.

Random Yard Sale Attendee: “Do you mean to price that cooker at $100?”

Nick: “Yep.”

RYA: “Is there something special about it?”

Nick: “Not really.”

Turns out, Nick is an aspiring chef and wanted to keep the cooker for himself. We told him to just take it out of the sale and keep it but he insisted that, for the right price, he’d sell it. At the end of the day, he let his guard down and offered to take $40 for it. The woman laughed and said, “You can just keep it then.” He was happy to see that absolutely NOONE was tempted by the world’s most expensive pressure cooker. We laughed all day about it.

Then there was the scary pumpkin/shoe display.

I walk into the garage and overhear this:

Daniel: “Why is that scary pumpkin with the really tall legs wearing a top hat and eating paper?”

Nick: “I don’t know but I think that’s why the shoes aren’t selling, man. We should move the pumpkin.”

{{{Backstory: The teens were in charge of the yard sale and got to keep half the proceeds from the things they sold. They were highly motivated workers. Nick and Daniel (Steve’s nephew) on the lower garage and CAiti on the upper garage. The boys worked hard to set their garage up like a department store with a veritable sporting goods’ section. It was priceless.}}}}

The boys worked hard and seldom did I see this when I went downstairs. But I love the cat ears head band Nick. And the price tags.

And CAiti was busy all day too—-negotiating, chitty chatting and watching lots of our pretty things go bye-bye.

I was so happy to sell both of our extra refrigerators. I called my favorite appliance delivery boys to load that baby up for the happy new owners. I’m sure Stevie and brother Jeff were thrilled to be interrupted in their fishing excursion to help—-but they really did deliver appliances for their dad’s store back in the day. It was all so vintage. I’m just sayin’.

It was a great day and fun was had money was made by all. I love these guys.

Of course, since we were so lucky to have brother Jeff, Daniel and Grandpa Eddie visiting, we had to squeeze in a little lake fun!

We live on a peninsula, with our house on the ‘main channel’ side and our dock on the ‘cove side’. Our 4-wheeler will make the trek down to the boat a little easier on the 40 somethings.

They were such good sports to put up with our busy schedule this weekend and our beastly mammoth, Hank. Hank thinks he’s died and gone to heaven. He swims and chases ducks all day.

We were sad to see our family go today. We made them promise to come back down soon. {Thanks so much for making the long journey down—we love you guys!!!}

I leave you with one more pathetic peak into my house. I’ve been meaning to clip some wisteria from our road and put it on the mantle but I’m so exhausted that by the time I remember to go clip some, I’m too tired. You can see more unedited pics from the weekend and from the house on my flickr stream.

And I’m gonna go collapse in a heap.

Love to you!

If these boxes could speak…….

April 22, 2010 by Edie Wadsworth 36 Comments

You might find this strange, or just strangely amusing, but although I haven’t yet unpacked my socks or all of my pantry items or my underwear drawer for that matter, I don’t waste anytime hanging my wall decor. It makes me feel like it’s home and gets a lot of stuff off the floor. I think I hung these items on day 2 or 3. If your memory is fuzzy, they were hanging exactly like this at the other house but against Hershey’s chocolate walls.

My stuff looks so different in this house.

And for some reason, I didn’t feel quite settled until I bought eggs. Apparently, having eggs in the house means it’s official. Otherwise, I’m just on vacation at a really cool lake house. But with eggs, I can bake, which means I’m home. We’re lucky to have family visiting this weekend so I think I’ll make chocolate chip cookies. And then unpack my essential sundries so that I don’t have to retrieve undergarments and garlic seasoning from a giant box in my car. (In my defense, I’m almost done unpacking what I’m going to unpack—about 6 more boxes to go!!!)

So, how do you unpack and what’s the one item that let’s you know you’re home?

P.S. Moving sale at my ‘old’ house this Saturday from 9-2 rain or shine. There’ll be something for everyone. And we’ll be selling stuff from both the upper and lower garages. Don’t miss it!

We’re ‘Moo’ved

April 18, 2010 by Edie Wadsworth 25 Comments

This could be a tiny exaggeration but this may be the first time I’ve sat down in two weeks. I fear my eyes are permanently blood-shot and my hands ache so bad that I’m threatening to make a doctor’s appointment. And not with myself. All in all, the move went very well. This house in unbelievable. The mornings and afternoons and evenings by the lake are just unreal. Someone pinch me. On second thought, don’t pinch me, I’m aching all over as it is. There’s still a mountain of work to do at the other house—and plenty of stuff to sell or give away. I’m planning on having a moo-ving sale next weekend but I’ll let you locals know for sure.

Speaking of moo-ving, don’t you love my cowhide footstool from IKEA?!?!?! I went to IKEA wholly given over to the idea that Steve could finally get his recliner. I’m not a fan of recliners. Not a fan whatsoever. But the Ecktorp one from IKEA was the least offensive one I’d ever seen and I was ready to lay down my decorating weapons in lieu of reclining comfort. Only when we got there, we found out that it’s not slipcovered. And the only one they currently sell is the one that looks like a bad pair of really blue, blue jeans. (My profuse apologies to anyone who owns this recliner—it’s so comfortable–and under the right circumstances, I’m sure it looks just dandy).

So I used all the diplomatic savvy I could muster and convinced him that the slipcovered non-reclining chair paired with the cowhide footstool was a much better option and insanely more manly and functional. I think it’s my favorite piece. I can’t wait to show you more pictures but it may take awhile…….

because of this….

Who can possibly work under these circumstances?

By the way, I did a whole post the other day on the “24″ extravaganza at Issues Etc and the next day the post disappeared. Just ‘poof’—GONE. It’s in my reader but not on my blog. Has anyone ever heard of this?! I’m bamboozled by the whole thing. Someone tell me what possibly could have happened? Or in my moving daze, did I just dream that I wrote a post on it? But no, some of you had already commented. I’m not crazy am I?

I’m not a fan of snow globes—just so ya know

April 6, 2010 by Edie Wadsworth 45 Comments

I’ve missed you. I’ve missed my blog. And I’ve dearly missed my computer.

I’m just poking my head into blog world briefly to say hello and to tell you that my life is like a snow globe that has been turned upside down.

Except instead of raining snow, it’s raining boxes.

I miss my quiet life of reading and crafting and cooking and blogging. {Big sigh}

And it looks like it’ll be awhile before I get to live that life again.

So here are some pics from my week. I hope you had a blessed Resurrection Day.

key lime pie

zester extraordinaire

lamb cupcakes with caiti

happy birthday donna! you’re the best! and so is my ginormous flower pin.

living room/kitchen from dining room perspective

hazy sunset from my deck

first communion on Easter Sunday

my favorite Easter food

my favorite Easter peeps

Hope this little update finds you and yours well. We close on our house today and move to the lake in just over a week. I’m really gonna miss my neighbors and the girls are starting to realize what moving actually means. I’ve had a VERY difficult time settling on the colors for my kitchen and I’m still working on finalizing it all. I decided to go with the Dacor range because of the price and the fact that I got a free ventilation hood with it. I also love how the griddle sits on top of the burners instead of inset in line with the burners. And it has a very schwanky mechanism for oven rack extension. I need to pick out carpet today for the upstairs. Any suggestions? Feel free to include model numbers. I’m very ambivalent about carpet. What else? Oh yeah, JamieKnoxville is in town visiting which means I’ll likely laugh alot. I spent the night with my sister the night JK came into town and the three of us argued about discussed cabinet colors for hours. I’m so thankful to have had their help because even I was sick of looking at color swatches.

In a nutshell, think snow globe. But with boxes.