Weekend Recap: Tri City Greatness

With my mini love note yesterday to D for our 1 year anniversary, we didn't get to talk weekend recap.

This weekend was crazy town busy!  Friday I watched the first of the 10ish Cards games I'll watch all season - I'm a fair weather fan - quite literally!  I'm not interested in actively watching the boys during a St. Louis summer.  No amount of beer makes sitting in your own sweat cute.

Now that the Cards are officially in the playoffs (tied with the Nationals as of yesterday!) I can embrace the game in my own special way - ridiculous watch parties with lots of red!  Stay tuned for that.

Saturday D and I got up and met our friends X and N for the Tri City Garage Sale.  This is an annual event that I try to hit but missed last year as it was the weekend of our wedding.

Over the years I've gotten some SUPER bargains - all our dining room chairs which I painted and recovered, plus a table which I gave to my sister A, my desk, a vintage steamer trunk for D's side business (more on that in a minute), and tons of fun zhushing elements.

Well despite my furniture hall of year's past, this might be THE GREATEST YET, even though we only spent about $30.  Enter, the 49 star flag!

holy scary outfit, k.  good thing that flag is amazing.

 

 

Not to get all Antique Roadshow on you, but the 49 star flag was only made for 8 months - 8 whole months!! - from when Alaska was inducted as the 49th state in Jan of 1959 and Hawaii was inducted as the 50th state in Aug of 1959.  The best part of this find?  It was only $10.  Amazingness.  I'm planning on making this the center of our den redo which we're hoping to start on in December after we make a final push to finish up the upstairs and main level.

 

Other exciting finds of the day include: a gigantic clock, a vintage globe, an antique printing set, a stately planter in need of some TLC, a sassy metal orange bookcase, original Ball Mason jars, and a brand spanking new projector screen which we'll put to great use.  We also picked up lots of colorful vintage books - always a fun find and great bookcase maker!

 



the cornwell hall

 

 

X was much better than I at immediately finding homes for all her new treasures and snapped this pic of the bookcase, globe, some books and mason jars all zhushed up in their office.

 

look at that zhushing! love it!

 



The rest of the weekend was full of unexciting things like painting outlet covers and bathroom trim in preparation for my family coming in a few weeks.  I did take off Saturday night to visit D and his brother J at Grove Fest, a neighborhood festival where they were promoting their side business, 314 Threads.

the booth was looking pretty messy at this point as we were huddling like crazy to stay warm.

 

That's it!  Back later this week with some spray paint transformations and holiday projects!

 

xoxo,

KC

Weekend Recap: Well Lived Life

Back in the saddle this Monday after a weekend that marked the transformation of a house into our home.  Not to get too corny on you (sidenote: the whole Corny thing now has new meaning, and increased use in our house what with being Newly Cornwells..) but last night D and I were watching the Olympics on our new tv in the living room (an Olympics purchase, duh!), and we both commented on how we finally felt settled for the first time in the eight weeks we've lived here. 

What with the constant travel this summer for work and fun, I think it was hard for us both to remember that this feeling would finally come - the constant to do lists with "MUST GET DONES" would subside and that we'd be left with a smaller, "should get done...eventually" list and a house we're proud to invite people to.

We were finally able to relish some of that sweet feeling with the Olympics party this past Friday.  We had lots of Americana going on all over the house - I scored most of our decks from the Hobby Lobby 4th of July sale for 80% off and supplemented with some Olympics printables.  Glow sticks, flags and hamburgers at the ready we watched the sometimes-baffling opening ceremonies with some key friends and fam.

chandelier decks in the dining room

official London Olympics posters at the front

mini flags EVERYWHERE

it took me awhile to hang this puppy

the kitchen decks complete with AMERICA sign found for 80% off, I'm already pumped for the 4th

It was so fun to share our plans and progress with family and was a great kick off to a weekend of Olympics watching and sun. 

We also got to hang out with our sweet nephew S, not once but twice this weekend!  He cheered on the US at our house on Friday and we got to babysit him Saturday and got a taste of babydom.  We learned that two year olds have expert hearing, and that we're super lucky to have the mix of carpet and hardwood in the house.  We also checked out the pool for the first time with S and found that the lazy river was a happy compromise for all three of us.

The weather was SOOO gorgeous on Saturday, it was like a crazy reprieve from all this insane heat and humidity.  The pool was perfect and surprisingly not crowded! That evening while enjoying a homemade watermelon margarita popsicle (recipe from here and SUPER delicious) we thought we'd see if we could push our luck with the good weather and entertaining luck from the night before and try to rile up a group to watch a movie outdoors.  We found some takers and fired up our projector and enjoyed the almost crisp air and the Jack Black/Owen Wilson/Steve Martin flick, The Big Year.  It was not what I was expecting but good none the less.

movie on the garage

We also set up this awesome chandelier my in laws got me for my birthday awhile back.  It was a fun pop of light hanging in the dress while we watched the movie.

it has 3 layers but we only filled 2 of them up.  lesson learned, need bigger, slower dripping candles

All in all, this weekend was AWESOME and for some reason totally unexpected.  I think we forgot how to enjoy ourselves for a bit there, which sounds completely crazy.  We'll keep forging on in our improvements and trial/error home ownership but we're definitely going in the right direction focusing on the things that truly make up a well lived life.

xoxo,

KC



Weekend Recap: Committed

After some harassment from a friend regarding my consistency with blogging (or lack there of) I'm trying to start the week off right with a blog, here we go!

This weekend we traveled to Cleveland to see the sweet sweet wedding of one of my good friends D to his lovely bride M.

It's funny because after you're married you look at weddings a bit differently.  You recognize all the details that went into it and the stress leading up to it and get to experience all that melt away at the reception.  It was a mini reunion of sorts with some of my MOST FAVORITE people in the world and to top it off we met a few new-to-us friends so it was all around great.

This was the groom's cake.  We went to Mizzou and he was a former Oscar Meyer Hotdogger.

Outside of the obvious connotation between wedding and commitment, Dan and I also made a commitment in the United lounge (not switching from my beloved AA, don't worry).  To actually stop being wienies and have our first get together at the new house.  Father's Day aside, I've been holding off on hosting any big events until we get the details wrapped up on our house.  I realized after flipping through my latest House Beautiful that this simply isn't going to happen anytime soon, and furthermore, most of our friends either A) have gone through the process of buying and redoing a house, or B) don't care about all the crazy details that I think will make our break our first impressions.

So without further ado: get ready for Olympics Opening Ceremonies Celebration 2012 and Casa Cornwell!  I immediately started planning our menu (Americana eats like hamburgers and hot dogs, watermelon, corn on the cob and jelly beans) and decor (RED WHITE AND BLUE EVERYTHING)

Here's what I'm thinking in terms of deets:

Lots of these all over the place. via.

These as prereads, duh.via.

Some of these. prosecco please. via

Until then, I'm pulling another unAmerican move and heading to Toronto for the week for work.  I'm thinking of it as researching different countries in prep for the Olympics.  Sidenote: one of my Canadian colleagues' sister is actually an Olympian and playing for the women's Canadian basketball team - she's going to cheer her on, EEK!!  So jealous!

I'm taking the day off on Friday to finish up some final house deets and prep for the party.  Promise for some posts filling you in on house progress in between.

GO USA!

xoxox,

KC

Weekend Recap: Canada, eh?

Sorry for the radio silence around here.  We've been seriously working on building up our frequent flyer miles/points/whatever they call them now and hotel rewards lately.  In fact, D and I experienced a strange first the week before last, both ending up on a business trip in Boston at the same time.  It was strange seeing my husband in a different city, not on vacation, and only for a few fleeting hours.  Needless to say Emma is pretty peeved with us but happy to have gotten in some serious bonding time with my in-laws (who we COULD NOT live without at this chaotic juncture.)

As you can imagine, not a whole whole lot has been completed in the past week and a half with all this travel, but I do have some fun updates on what we've done to date to share this week. I know, I know, I've been promising pics and entries for a long time now but D sweetly uploaded all our before/after pics of the floors and paint last night.  The beauty of DSLR pics is only overshadowed by their size and difficulty to resize and compress on an old laptop.  (a replacement is on the list, but WAY far down I'm afraid)

Anyways!  We did take a quick jaunt to Canada this past week for some R&R with my family.  I know, this is VERY unAMERICAN of us, have no fear the irony is not lost on us, but my father works in Canada currently and we've never experienced the "Canadian Cottaging" lifestyle (this is a thing, look it up) so we decided to give it a go.

We stayed in a lovely log cabin, REAL logs that were roughly 1.5ft in diameter and a beautiful cedar looking stain (not sure if it was true cedar though, likely pine) on such a quiet lake. The closest town was called Rosseau, population 250 and was super charming.  Here's a pic I grabbed off Flickr of the adorable grocery we shopped at everyday.  We took some of our own, but they aren't uploaded yet for the above mentioned reasons.

I've been thinking about taking a large photo and creating my own triptych for a while now for one of the big walls in the dining room.  With such a bold color, I'm thinking a black and white photo would be beautiful but would need some high contrast in it to be visually appealing.  I'm kinda digging the blown out, grainy look of some of the canvases designers have been using lately in rooms, but I'm not sure that's in line with D's clean aesthetic.  May need to do some convincing...or compromising!  At any rate, I think the country grocery in Rosseau might be a nice fit especially with those gorgeous umbrellas and the Canadian flags red and white (obviously showing up dark gray and white in a B&W pic)

via Little Green Notebook

Speaking of which, right before we left for Canada I scooped up this beauty on super sale from Pottery Barn!  Cannot wait until she gets here end of July.  I'll be sure to post some picks once we install her on the patio with our teak table and chairs.

via Pottery Barn

Hope you all had a LOVELY 4th!

xoxo,

KC

Back That Thang Up

Here's what we're working with.

To be totally honest, upon first seeing it, I was definitely in the camp of "meh."  While well kept on the outside, it didn't  have the stately characteristics of the traditional red brick colonials I'd lusted over, or even the painted grey brick ranches with the gorgeous eggplant doors (or other funky color combo) that I'd come to love.  It is the Midwest after all, and there are a TON of ranches! But what this house lacks in the front, it makes up for in the back.  I feel like that could be a clean version of a rap song.  I digress.

Geography Side Note: we live in St. Louis.  Home of Nelly, Toasted Ravioli, The 2011 World Series Championship Cardinals, and the haven't-quite-made-it-just-yet-to-the-Stanley-cup-finals-Blues (more on that heartbreaking obsession later.)  STL is comprised of two major sections: County and City.  Now we have quite a few friends that live in the City, which is a wonderful, up and coming part of town that is growing more vibrant by the day. 

In fact, when I first moved to STL back in 2007, I lived in the City. I have nothing against the City. But the County does offer quite a few benefits.  Lower insurance rates (The Lou - the "City" part that is - is constantly in the running for Deadliest City in the US so that can rachet costs up a bit), free recycling pick up (First world problem for sure), and better public schools.

After my brief stint in "City" living, D and I moved in together in a little 2 bed, 1 bath house in a town called Brentwood, within County lines.  Brentwood was sweet, centrally located, and I got my recycling picked up for free (woot!) and the best part was that we were still on the edge of cool, the edge of the City. 

Now we've moved a little further West (the City being the far Eastern side of St Louis, and Chesterfield/the Valley/Suburbia the being the furthest West side of the County).  The new house is in an even sweeter little town called Kirkwood.  I'm kind of obsessed with Americana (hence the brick colonials) and the plethora of American flags in Kirkwood had me at hello. D boo hooed quite a bit about moving further West into the County, but as in the olden days, going West means bigger and (sometimes) better. 

End Geography Side Note.  Although it was important for this next part.

While the new house is "meh" in the front, the backyard is in line with what you'd get at the far far side of Suburbia/the Western most tip of the County.  We have a little over a half acre of paradise in the back of this "meh" exterior, which is rather unheard of in Kirkwood.  This is taken from the most far back tip of the yard and it still doesn't do it justice.



So while, right now, I'd love to dig in (or find someone to dig in for me) and create some beautiful oasis like these:

Found Here: http://www.nehomemag.com/article/beyond-pale#photos

Found Here: http://www.hessla.com/projects/bryn_lawn

Found Here: http://pinterest.com/offsite/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fla-belle-vie.tumblr.com%2Fpage%2F38&shatoken=f7142b45d54226f82bbe8c54d76c3203b99c3f51&token=0bc75af1ab889f1e277b562bf0e5321d&pin=4292562114707793

Found Here: http://theinspiredroom.net/

(I think I might also have a boxwood obsession after looking at these photos again.)

I'm going to have to settle for my new teak patio set and a glass of lemonade (or G&T) for now.  But let it be known, that our backyard was MADE for a pool, and it's in the plan.  I just need the pennies to catch up with my big ideas :)

xoxo,

KC