Around these parts...

Yikes.  Yet another break turned blogging sabatical.  I'm still "fairly" new to this whole blogging nonsense and yet I don't know how people do it on the reg.  There is a fair amount of pressure to be consistent and interesting - but I think it might be brought on by my own delusions?  Regardless, I'm going to try to my more consistent - can't promise interesting - to continue on in the spirit with which this started - to document the home we've started to make in our new-to-us house.


So, for those of you outside of STL, last week I was working from home (God bless my employer) because of some of this nonsense.

note: we got 12 inches, but after several glasses of wine and a few more inches i had no desire to document the event any further.

 

And while this really was quite beautiful....

 

mother nature literally laughed at me when it was 50+ degrees the weekend before, when i purchased that wind chime. bah.

 

It basically quelled any hints of Spring and left D and I housebound for a few days.  There was a lot of this:

 

 

a little of this:

 

getting ready for its debut in the master.  more to come.

 

and LOTS of snow time with this sweet face. She is literally a different animal when it snows.

 

 

In other news, we had some friends over for a Bingo + Wine Night + Make Your Own Pizza Night a few weeks ago.  It was a blast.  I bought this on Christmas clearance a few years ago and have gotten GREAT use out of it.  Also a fun way to clear out your "gift closet" of randoms.

 

 

 

wine rate cards and place settings

 

 

 

 a hint of spring with moss and hydrangeas

 

It was nice to get everyone together and start enjoying our house in the way we hoped we would.  Our Holiday party (one day I'll share, I promise...) was a definite kick off but we have big hopes of having more regular gatherings with close friends and family frequently.

 

I'll be back later this week - planning on writing the post now so no cop outs - on an update to our window treatments.  Riveting I know, but maybe fun for others to see why we went with what we did and how we managed to get them made!

 

What have ya'll been up to in these final days of winter?

 

xoxo,

KC

 

 

Weekend Recap: Den Makeover Part 2

Chalupa Batman! This has been a crazy couple of days! (Extra points if you get that reference!)

I was MIA last week with a quick jaunt up to Chicago for work meetings, but I was also able to sneak in some quick (and much needed) home decor shopping - more on that + some initial Christmas inspiration tomorrow.

This weekend was INSANE.  Looking back I feel a little like I just participated in some sort of HGTV home makeover. Although, to be clear, the finished product while impressive - to me - was still not on par with TV makeover greatness - but it was pretty darn good!

I kicked off the weekend by cleaning the house and getting some fixings for a nice, home cooked meal for my husband. 

This was an effort to butter him up to paint....the fireplace...on a Friday night...this Friday night.

Begrudgingly he obliged and that dark fireplace went from drab to fab with a coat (err coatssss) of white latex paint - more on that later this week.

sweet D in progress - I was helping BTW.

Saturday morning we woke up at 7 to start the final crown and baseboard installation process!  D and my amazing brother in law installed base in D's office and the den while I worked on THE WORST JOB EVER - sucking up leaves.

Our big beautiful backyard is suddenly a huge pain in my side, literally.  I spent the entire weekend sucking up bags and bags and BAGS of leaves and it's still not spotless back there.  At the end of the weekend I counted 18 bags - just from the backyard, and that's full of chopped leaves!  Did I mention that Kirkwood charges $1.50 for each bag? 18 from the back + 12 from the front means I'm officially out $45 for lawn care in two weekends alone!

Rant over.

D and our brother in law D finished up the crown in the den last night and I'm happy to report that the place is looking a bit more like this....

look at that big beautiful crown!

 

So I'll be back with a full look at this before and after + detailed instructions on painting of fireplaces. But I couldn't help by take this crappy iphone pic and send to some of my nearest and dearest in a deliriously proud and incredibly exhausted moment yesterday.  Not sold on keeping the mantle natural but too exhausted and not committed enough (to any color) to paint it quite yet.

 

I cannot tell you how much BRIGHTER this room is now - it's actually pleasant to be in!

 

Other item's crossed off my "do before our Christmas party" list?

o   Remove paint from den window done!

o   Remove paint from guest window pushing till after the party...

o   Fix paint touch ups in bedroom done!

o   Call someone to fix ice maker

o   Paint den doors (4)

o   Sand and stain/paint stairs

o   Caulking all base now there's more of it...

o   Caulking all crown now there's more of it...

o   Paint den  done!

o   Install black splash in kitchen

o   Move den bath mirror up

o   Install sliding door screen

o   Paint shutter in front

o   Remove things on windows in front

o   Sand driveway

o   winterize backyard done!

o   Hem dining room curtains

o   Finish café curtains for kitchen

o   Paint office chair (black ) needs final spray

o   Paint office desk (white)

o   Gold mirror installation in dining room done!

o   Buy fabric for dining room, bedroom and kitchen cornice

o   Order bedroom curtains to match bedroom cornice

o   Sand and paint dresser for bedroom

o   Buy bench for front hall

 

Oh yea, and decorate for Christmas, clean the house, walk the dog, order food for the party...and on...and on...  tis' the season!

 

Are you ready for this week's festivities and all that follow?

 

xoxo,

KC

 

 

Weekend Recap: Wino

This past weekend was a perfect mix of relaxation and productivity.  On Saturday I headed about 40 minutes west of St. Louis to "Missouri Wine Country" to celebrate one of my good friend's bachelorette parties!  It was a mini reunion of sorts as I met my friend X at my old advertising agency and much of the party was also from our old agency.

X, the bride to be and the awesome LED pole.  \

X's mom may have suggested hand sanitizer when we got on...

It was so great to catch up with the girls, some who still work there and others who have gone corporate, like myself, or continued onto other agencies.  We used to joke that because the agency life was so full of fresh faces that each new batch of hires was like another pledge class coming in.  This was our pledge class reunion for sure.

It's interesting because even though I've only known these girls for 3+ years, they really know me exceptionally well because unlike a spouse, boyfriend or best friend, I literally spent 40+ (definitely more like ++) hours a week with this crew, more face to face quality time than I did with any of the aforementioned.  As a group we talked through first apartments, graduating from roommates to living alone or with boyfriends.  The skeptical talk of marriage and careers and then eventual development of both.

some of the pledge class

 

Now lots of us are married, most fairly recently, and some even have kiddos.  It's kind of special to see that much growth in someone you care about in such a short period of time.  With sisters and boyfriends and even best friends it always seems more gradual. Sorry for being a cornball.

At any rate, I had a fabulous time with these ladies and can't wait to see X get married on New Years (I know, so fun!!) so we can do it all over again.

Sunday, D and I got up at the crack of dawn! OK so only new 7/old 8am. BUT we worked all day and I'm happy to say that all the trim in the house is FINALLY done.  What a boring job! No more whining about this not being done now.

D was in charge of a slightly more mind numbing task - scraping paint from the freshly painted wooden window frames with a razor.  Can you say kill me now?  Eek.  If you should ever want to attempt this - and I will say it does look 10X better - here's my recco: wet the paint/windowpane with some warm soapy dishwater before you start scraping  and invest in one of these scraper guys for $2 at home depot that actually holds the blade for you.  It still takes a long time but this makes it a little easier to get off and hold on to.

I also worked on another fun spray paint project, as well as something for the dining room.  More on those projects this week!

xoxo,

KC

 

PS go vote! duh.

Weekend Recap: Finishing Details

So the title of this post would have you believe that we're close to finishing the house.  That's probably 55% true.  As it stands we've got 80% of the "improvements" we want to complete in the first year done - but only on the main level and upstairs. 

Random sidebar that will totally make sense soon...

Every year we have a BIG Christmas party - this will be my 10th year to host!  I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas and decorations and cookies and carols and all of it!  And our annual Christmas party really is just a big way to say thank you and Merry Christmas to all our nearest and dearest, which given the work and cost, works out pretty well as a massive "gift" to most everyone we know.

The thing is this will be another year of first for us when it comes to Christmas.  It's going to be my first Christmas away from my fam (eek, still can't quite talk about that one...) and our first Christmas in our first home.  This is also the first year that we're inviting a LOT of people from our respective companies to our annual party - holy pressure! This will also be the first time A LOT of people (new friends and lots of old!) get to see the house.

Naturally I have begun planning.  In October.

 

Step 1 of my plan includes finishing the other 20% of "improvements" we want to make to the house.  This means, finish the crown, finish the baseboards, finally paint all that stupid trim, add a back splash in the kitchen, put up window treatments, etc. etc. etc. forever x infinity - or so it feels.

 

Step 2, and the MUCH more exciting step in general, is lots of zhushing.  Again, naturally I jumped the gun this weekend and skipped ahead to Step 2.  While we did paint a lot of trim and get out the razor blades to scrape paint off window panes, I also happened upon an AMAZING sale Friday.

 

Enter RugsUSA.com and their incredible 60% off sale.

I was able to snag two huge 8x10 rugs: 1 for our bedroom and 1 for the dining room!

 

via for the dining room this actually has a grey design which will be a perfect tie to the living room.

 

via for the master!

 

Also, not sure why this is showing a blue border on both rugs, but that's not actually on there.  I CANNOT wait for these two rugs to show up on my doorstep this week! 

 

Surprisingly enough, I think the dining room might be the first room finished - I have a fun and inexpensive wall decor DIY that I'm going to try out later this week and then this should be pretty close to done.

 

We did tackle some annoying things from Step 1's project list this weekend, but let's be honest, none of you care about how my dutch door is now a new, hardly noticeable but brighter, shade of sparkly white.  Although I must say, I feel incrementally better about the kitchen now!

 

This week, we'll finish the trim painting once and for all, and make a plan for the crown, base and cornice boards with my brother in law - cannot wait for those!  Then we'll have to figure out if we have time to tackle Step 3 before the party, which I'm terribly excited about but can't get too ahead of myself with.  You'll just have to wait and see like me, if we get there in time!

 

Pick up any free or cheap thrills this weekend?

 

xoxo,

KC

 

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: Local Fair

Hi All!  Can you tell I'm in a Fall mood?  This past weekend definitely ushered in all the best that Fall has to offer with the Forest Park Balloon Race on Saturday followed by a bike ride to the Kirkwood Green Tree Festival for live music and some local food and fun!

look at that gorgeous sky!  we had to beat the sunset home on our bikes, but we're grateful that it's only a quick 15 minute ride.

 

The crisp air and my new leopard scarf definitely got me in the mood for the changing seasons and I spent most of the weekend tinkering around the house, changing some decor out - no gourds here, no worries! - and making some yummy food.

 

 

way cuter and nicer in person - def worth the purchase

I highly recommend you check out this recipe from my hero Ina - it was super easy and made the house smell great!  I'll be back tomorrow with my top pics for fall essentials - stay tuned!

Happy Fall, ya'll!

 

 

xoxo,

KC

Weekend Recap: NOLA

Hello Loveys!  Sorry for the delay, I got stuck in NOLA for one more day after my flight got canceled but let me just say - WHAT.A.WEEKEND.  Holy Moly, where to begin!

E's bachelorette party got started with a bang on Friday with some fun details, food and drinks in the room and then we hit Bourbon that night.

our mini set up in one of the rooms at the W.  yes, I traveled with all that nonsense.

 

little gift cups for all the girls.  got these at target for only 58 cents each and

added names and filled them with pool ready essentials.

 

 

This was my first time to NOLA and I have to say, I was a little surprised by how chaotic and dirty it was.  EVERYTHING smells, it's just crazy.  As E's fiance later put it: "doesn't it feel so good to leave that place?" Haha. 

 

Smells aside, we had fun and got to check out a few local haunts.  We had breakfast at Mother's, which featured all the classic southern dishes like baked ham, sausage, eggs, grits and biscuits but the general consensus was that only the biscuits were really remarkable.

 



via. yes, this is the creepy street corner of mother's.

 

We later hit up Johnny's Po Boys for lunch where the po boy was invented, also a questionable interior with lots of greasy soul food, but significantly better - try to muffalata - i know, weird choice.

 

And some of us checked out Palace Cafe on Sunday for brunch.  This was my second favorite meal with a bloody mary bar, banana beignets and eggs benedict with debris.  Debris you say? like Trash? Ah yes, this is a common meat term in NOLA that refers to either beef or pork shreds that fall off when roasting - they are served with a light gravy (no cream) on biscuits and it is like eating a delicious heart attack on a plate.  Been there. Done that. Not going to happen again for my health.  Seriously though, the Palace Cafe was beautiful and quaint in such a way that only a little french restaurant can be - caned back bistro chairs, lots of heavy wood work, black and white octagonal penny tiles - be still my heart!

 

and this is their sign out front.  isn't it darling?

 

So if you're keeping track, Palace was only my second favorite restaurant - because we went to Luke for dinner Saturday and it was INCREDIBLE.  Probably one of the best dinners I've ever had - easily in the top 10.  Like Palace, this was a traditional southern take on French food with all the delicious pomme frittes and bearnaise sauces a girl could want.  The service was excellent, the menu had something for everyone and I feel that the price was a deal considering the quality of food and presentation.  two thumbs up!



 

loved the design of the Luke menu.

 

 

You'll notice that this post doesn't detail any of the debauchery of the trip - let's just say we had our fun and NOLA won't be forgetting these 8 girls any time soon.

 

night two. W lobby.

 

Especially after this. We love Texas and the USA what can I say?

 

and you can totally tell the part where none of us knows the words. perfect.

 

More house stuff later this week once I got started on the detox that my liver and heart so desperately need.

 

xoxo,

KC

 

 

 

 

Weekend Recap: R&R + D

Hello Lovelies!  Hope you all had a fabulous Labor Day.  With Mr. Isaac passing through much of Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I got in my fill of R&R with a side of decorating and DIY.  I have a fun few mini DIY's to share later this week but thought I'd include some pics from our weekend.

wished we were enjoying this yard all weekend but had to admire the

green grass from inside the kitchen.

 

i made a roasted chicken on friday night a la julia child with fresh herbs from our garden. yum.

 

added a pair of these guys to my office - a score from a local thrift store for only $10 EACH!

shades from target.

 

hung this guy up in the kitchen with some mini clothespins. just need to add some cute hooks for keys. excited to have a mini command station for invitations, pictures, bills and more!

 

 

We still had our "BBQ" as planned on Sunday but with a few more rain drops than anticipated.  We had some wonderful friends in town (M and his lovely bride C) and got to use our newly decorated guest room (pics later this week) and D made ribs.  I'll see if I can score the official recipe this evening and hope to share it out later this week.

 

In addition to roasting a chicken on Friday night, I made some chicken stock from scratch (always good to have around) and whipped up a batch of Chicken Tortilla Soup on Saturday.  I'm not a big soup person at all, but my good friend E's mother, Miss. T. makes THE BEST Chicken Tortilla Soup ever and has shared some of her secrets over the years. 

 

 

- 5 cups chicken stock/broth (whichever you have, I used stock in this case)

- 1 lb cooked and shredded chicken (I used half of the 3lb chicken I roasted the night previously)

- 2 medium carrots, chopped

- 1 yellow onion chopped

- 3 stalks celery chopped

- 2 small/medium sized jalapenos, deseeded and chopped (our's were a little on the small side because they came from the garden)

- 1 tablespoon butter

- 2 teaspoons ground cumin

- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder (less if you don't like it spicy)

- 1 corn cob cooked and removed from the stalk

- 1 roasted red pepper - chopped (good tutorial here)

- 1 half of a tomato (I used an heirloom variety from our garden and about 10 cherry tomatoes I had from our garden that needed to be used up)

 

Combine the celery, onion, carrots and jalapenos in the bottom of a soup pot with the cumin, chili powder and butter, heat over high.  Saute until onions sweat and carrots and celery turn brighter version of themselves - 5 minutes max.  Add in half the chicken stock to the cooked veggies.  Cook for 10 minutes more over medium heat. Carrots and celery should be softer now and stock should have reduced a bit.  Add in red pepper and corn and remaining stock and cook for another 10 minutes.  Add in the tomato and chicken.  Cook for 20 to 30 minutes on lowest heat.  Adjust seasonings to taste.

 

Serve with tortilla chips, shredded colby jack cheese, a squeeze of lime and fresh chopped cilantro.

 

 

Hope you enjoy this as much as D and I do - he frequently asks for this dish by name year round!

 

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: A little bit of Texas

First ever weekend recap, and at the end of this long, long, LONG Monday, I wish I had more to recap.  It seems like you can either spend your weekends running around with your head cut off trying to do do do, only to be exhausted come Monday and wish you'd just relaxed. OR, you veg out all weekend and get those awful Sunday Blues where you dread facing Monday morning and all the items you neglected.

While we were unfortunately part of the former group and not the lazy latter, my in laws hosted me and the hubs for a lovely little belated birthday dinner so my Sunday evening wasn't so blue.

We kicked off Friday with a riveting trip to the Container Store.  You may be wondering what little part of Texas I was referring to in the title of this post - well it's the Container Store!  Founded in Dallas, Tx, my "home town" I cannot get enough of this store.  Elfa, drawer liners, desk accessories, woven baskets, it's like my own personal OCD heaven.

We went there in hopes of grabbing some baskets/bins/shelves anything we could find to create somewhat of a home base for medicine, towels, sheets, travel accessories, and of course cleaning supplies.

We've got two main "homes" for these items, a hall closet that is currently set up as a coat closet with only 1 shelf and a hanging rack, and then this bookcase-like shelf in our hall bathroom.  The bathroom layout doesn't allow for any sort of "door" to this bookcase shelf, so we've got to make sure items stored here are kept tidy, as this will likely be the primary bathroom everyday guests use.

After much debate, and loads of persuasion, D and I left with some new gray and cream accessories for my office, two boxes of "huggable" hangers (amazing!  I feel like I just got a new closet with all that real estate freed up!), a basic Elfa kit for the hall closet and some woven baskets and plastic drawers for the bathroom.

Outside of dorking out at the Container Store, we did some yard work and put all our new organizing tools to use.  I also took a first crack at some of our bookshelves but that's for another time...

Here's where we netted out with the hall closet and bathroom bookcase. I picked up some Martha Stewart cute(ish) labels from Michaels tonight but I'm not sure how I feel about them.  I swear I pinned a bunch of free printable labels and of course I can't find them.  Any suggestions?

In need of some major zhushing, and home-finding for all the vagabond curtains and mismatched sheets that creeped into this closet.

Notice the separate drawer for "stomach" medicine.  Yes, this is that kind of house.

On another note, this one is still working on adjusting.  She's become slightly needy and clingy which is the cutest and yet most annoying phase thus far in her 7 years of furry life.

Work just shifted into overdrive for both me and D so I'll try to keep this updated but no promises yet! Unmade bed = story of life currently.

xoxo,

KC