Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Fat Bottom Girls




I'm going to make an embarrassing confession to you all, Nesters.  Maybe some of you will sympathize?  Well the truth is, I am overweight.  I'm not saying I'm "obese" by any means, and I'm not whining {okay, maybe a little} but I'm uncomfortable in my own skin at my current weight.  I attribute this additional ass-mass to the fairly large life changes I have undergone as of late. The sadness with the loss of a job and the nerves of starting a new job with a bunch of strangers. At first it started with being home and having time -that I didn't used to have- to cook things that are more time consuming.  It was also fostered by the several new cook books and amazing cooking gadgets I got for my birthday and Christmas. Kitchenaide mixer thanks to my Lovah, a Cuisinart food processor and mandolin thanks to my Grandparents {they obviously don't know how clumsy I am, and are mistaken to trust me with such sharp objects} and a pasta maker thanks to my brother and SIL. So of course I decided to start making my own pasta from scratch, turning it into lasagnas, or alfredos, or homemade sauce with meatballs and hot Italian sausages.  And who doesn't need some baguette and brie with wine while they cook!?....  Anyone else getting hungry as they read this? Because I'm starved just writing it.  Well... it was a recipe for disaster for my waistline.

via

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Hiya Nesters!  Today we have a guest post from Susi from Arcadian Lighting.  She knows how much of a sucker I am for a new glass accessory and thought she'd share some of her favorites with us.  Without further adieu, here's Susi!

Hi, I'm Susi, a blogger over at Arcadian Lighting, a great source for lighting fixture ideas and inspiration. I'm so excited to be here at Temporary Nest today to do a guest post about cool glass accessories. From vintage finds to contemporary glass mobiles and lamps, glass accessories add color and shine to any space. Hope you enjoy!

Glass Decor


Monday, February 13, 2012

Target is so Romantic...



I headed out to Target the other day with all intentions of getting dish soap and of course I ended up spending $125.  How does that happen!?  Luckily while I was there, I was wooed.  That's right. Wooed. Not by a kind stranger {which -- I actually don't know if I would think that was 'kind' having a stranger trying to woo me... anyway...} but my some beautiful inanimate objects. "Don't be silly, Gina, you can't be wooed by an inanimate object!" you say?  Are you going to try to tell me that you've never spotted something at a store that has literally stopped you in your tracks?  That's right... you've been wooed too.  What was it that caught my eye?


Tuesday, February 7, 2012

I've been debating...  Now that I'm gettin' back on the ol' bloggin' bandwagon {did you say that in an old timey western voice in your head? because I did...} I'm debating on where to even start. Just to give you an idea of what has gone down here's a quick list of what we've {And by "we" I mean Matt and his brother...} done since the house was first purchased:

-Took down all the heinous brass window fixin's.



-Tore out the heinous wall to wall carpets from 1965.



-Scraped all the heinous wallpaper off the walls from 1975 AND 1965 laid on top of one another. {Excessive use of the word heinous? You'd think so, unless you saw it.  It was that bad...}



-Had the hardwoods refinished {god bless those people that never touched the gorgeous hardwoods, and covered them up with carpet to save them for hardwood flooring lovers like us.}

-Had the hardwoods refinished AGAIN.  That's a long post for another day....

-Choose colors for and paint said formerly-wallpapered-to-the-gills rooms.

-Installed brand spakin' new granite counter tops in the kitchen and got beautiful new appliances.

-Completely gutted and refinished the original bathroom {AKA Ol' Blue}.

Old Blue before...
Now we've entered the phase where we have purchased and assembled close to all the furniture we need for the house.  And we did it on a fairly meager budget if I do say so myself. We have a few odds and ends that we would like to fill things out a bit, but that all comes with time.  We've also hung some art- both new and old, purchased and homemade-  which you can see a wee bit of in yesterdays' post.



So needless to say, that there are LOTS of posts that are buzzing around in my head just waiting to be written so you guys can see all the nitty gritty. {And I do mean gritty, with this new jobs' longer hours, I'm just not the cleaning machine I once was...}  With all that jibber jabbin' out of the way, I would like to show you my most personal space.  You'd think it would be the master bedroom, right? Uh huh. My office.  It's the room that Matt gave me 100% free reign to do whatever I wanted.  I could pick any color to paint the walls, hang any art, set it up however I wanted and just have it be my little slice of heaven.  Don't get me wrong, the rest of our house is coming along just nicely but this is the room where I don't have to say "So, whatta ya think about doing XYZ?"  Nope.  Not in my office.  I go all Nike on it's ass and just do it.

You might remember my big gallery wall that I had in my old apartment.  Well, it, along with some new additions have made their way into the space, hanging on the wall above the guest bed. We decided to use my office as the guest room for several reasons.  One being that most of the out-of-towners that would potentially stay, are my family members.  The other being that Matt's office from the get-go was intended to be essentially an arcade.  He's well on his way but more about that in a later post. I tested out the bloggosphere's most popular method to arrange them without it being completely random.  I used a few weeks worth of the grocery store ad's that come in the mail.  Traced all the frames, and methodically decided where each should hang.  I knew I wanted the LOVE poster of yore to hang in the center since it is the brightest of them all. 


Oh and don't forget the Federal Mirror I picked up at the flea market a while back!



I invested in some good cash-ola in one of my fave Premier Prints.  The yellow chevron slub cotton canvas to compliment my beloved Love poster. And used my old blue crinkle chiffon sheers behind them.  I must admit, I'm not totally wild about the blue on blue sheer on wall.  That might have to change to a white sheer soon. Anyhoozle. if anyone wants a tutorial on how I made the curtains, leave a comment and I'll whip up a post.  I know there are so many on the web about it that I didn't want bore you since its such an easy project but if any of you want to learn, I'll go through the step by step.


Yessss crappy cell phone picture that caught the light! Ugh. Sorry.

Opposite the bed is my desk.  Yes, that is the same desk.  I'm sure you're catching on that not a whole lot has changed in terms of actual furniture pieces. I've got a fun little tablescape that keeps my organized and inspired! I have the mini-armiore that once held my bathroom linens, now holding and displaying some of my fabric stock. {I have an exciting plan for all that fabric you see and you guys are going to be the first to see the outcome!!}  



I love that it has the glass top for the pretty goodies {that are terribly disorganized currently} and the opaque cabinet below for the ugg-o stuff no one wants to see. And I've maximized the ceiling height by loading up the top of the cabinet with my beloved birdcage filled with, and surrounded by candles.



The Almond Blossom framed poster I was not so in love with in my former bedroom has taken a big spot here over my desk.  Somehow, in this blue room it's much more inviting and exciting.  It's almost like wallpaper. {Not the heinous stuff that was there before... YUCK!}






I hung my old Spring wreath on my closet door. And the blank wall there is probably going to have a full length mirror some day for sewing purposes.


If you're paying close enough attention you might notice what I was talking about with the fabric in the mini-armiore.....  And finally, we will have made a full circle around the room.  We are back to the foot of the bed where the gallery wall ends and my bookshelf begins- and to the left is the doorway.  It's the right size for French doors but right now, it's just open. We've been toying with the idea of a barn door...


Well I hope you've liked the grand tour of my office so far.... It's most definitely a work in progress still but its getting there. I want a million more pillows and need to work on the storage in the closet.  And of course the aforementioned door.

Happy Wednesday Nesters!!

Monday, February 6, 2012

Yep, it happened again...


Well... I'm finding this to be a trend.  What, you ask?  That I am coming back to you with my tail between my legs apologizing for having been MIA.  While I am sorry, I have had a good amount of "stuff" going on...

Just after Thanksgiving, I turned the ripe ol' age of 27 and Matt and I went to the White Mountains for a weekend away.  We spent most of our time and meals at the Mt Washington Hotel, despite not actually staying there.  {Are you kidding me!? We couldn't afford that!}




Matt even treated me to a romantic sleigh ride around the grounds.  I've always wanted to and now I have.  It was absolutely frigid and to be frank, slightly awkward since we didn't want to gush about how much we loved each other in front of the driver, so we kind of just sat in silence.  But it was nice to get some fresh (cold) air and enjoy the peace and quiet.  Isn't he such a good dude for taking me on a sleigh ride?  If only there was a ring at the end of it.... *sigh*

Lack of ring aside, let's see... what else has happened....