grand reveal - basement edition.

my initial plan for this post was to start out with a few refresher pictures of our basement in case you couldn't remember back to how it looked two weeks ago.

but then the uploader wasn't letting me do what i wanted.

then i remembered that you are all perfectly capable of just scrolling down the page like two posts to refresh your own memory.

but then i realized that if you were to just scroll down, you would see the rest of this post and ruin the grand part of the grand reveal. and kind of the reveal part too. and then i've got nothing.

which is not the case! because thanks to two gorgeous (snow-free) weekends, a very patient hubband, and enough paint fumes to make us extreeemely happy with the results regardless of what it actually ended up looking like, our basement now looks like this:

i dont think there are enough words for me to express just how very extremely extatic i am about this furniture. i still squeal a little every time i look at that little orange table/drawers/thing with all its orange-ness and its fantastic new round drawer pulls and its just so cute!!!

as a bonus, besides just looking great, our "new" furniture also means we have a place to put things like movies and books which means we have less boxes just lying around which means we're making our giant piles-o-stuff smaller and getting closer to being able to fully enjoy our basement space! as a finishing touch, we have some tentative plans for putting things (including the dartboard and Mark's wolverine claws) on the walls, which i think will continue to make our house feel more and more like our home.

as another bonus, Mark got a little spray-paint-happy and decided to turn an old white shelf black to use in our office/computer room, inspiring us to tackle another mini-makeover in that room! stay tuned for more unpacking fun as we hopefully can eliminate our piles-o-stuff completely!!!

ever gone to kohl's three times in one day...

...and not spent any money?

i got this adorable outfit for my birthday.

unfortunately it was the wrong size, so i had to take it back and exchange it for the right size. i went to the new kohl's that is close to my house, but they did not have the sweater in the size that i wanted, so the nice girl at the service desk exchanged the tank top for me and called over to the other kohl's down the road to check their inventory, since we were heading in that direction anyway. the other kohl's said they did not have the sweater, but the nice girl at the service desk said they were probably just too busy to really check.

we went to the other kohl's. we found the sweater. in the right size. we happily exchanged it with the help of a less than happy and/or helpful girl at the service desk, and brought it home. i was so excited to wear my new birthday sweater to church tomorrow. and then i saw this:

turns out the less than happy and/or helpful girl at the service desk just really wanted us to make a THIRD trip to kohl's today. sigh.

when the wife is away...

... the hubband will (apparently) rearrange the basement!!!

when i left for the weekend, our basement looked approximately like this:

(aka exactly how its looked since we moved in)

and when i came home from the weekend, the basement looked like this!!! yay!!!

Mark says i can spraypaint the furniture any color i want! since its not particularly nice stuff that the previous homeowner just left behind and he might even let me polka-dot it! we're going to try to stay away from red and green (since we've already got plenty of that going on in this space) so i am leaning towards a yellow bookshelf with a little blue chest of drawers. ive also been debating trying to incorporate some orange... perhaps with a lamp on the drawers?

thoughts? opinions? suggestions? speak up quick though cuz as long as its nice this weekend we've got ourselves a project!

**UPDATE**
it was a beautiful weekend, and so we painted!!! too bad no one out there in the internets had any specific input, so i will be forced to take all creative color choice credit. (i cant take ALL the credit though, cuz the hubband was immensely helpful and patient in the actual painting process) we still have a little bit of clear coat to finish, but pictures will be posted of the final product, and it will be so amazing you will wish you were able to say 'hey i helped with that!'

best. weekend. ever.

one short day in the em-er-ald city (aka F-town)

one short day full of so much to do!

one short day and we're warning the city

now that we're in here, you'll know we've been here
before the day's through...

...we're just two friends. two good friends. two best friends

sharing one wonderful, one short day!!!

where exactly?

i was planning on blogging about my amazing birthday weekend with my BFITW, or my amazing hubband, or the dinner i made tonight... and then something happened to change all my plans - i got a song stuck in my head.

it all started with a shirt. a tour du bridge shirt. the one from three years ago when we biked through the wildlife refuge in Maryland. you know, the one DOWN BY THE BAY.

and that was all it took. it was in my head, and periodically leaking out of me. there were frogs riding hogs, and bears combing their hair, and streets made of meat, and i even asked Mark if i could grow watermelons in Maryland, specifically near the Chesapeake, just to verify that such a place could really exist.

but this conversation just kills me...

Me: did you ever see a llama wearing pajamas?
Mark: where exactly?
Me: DOWN BY THE BAY!! down by the BAY where the watermelons GROW back to my HOME i dare not GO for if i DO my hubband will say.... (points to Mark)
Mark: umm.... uh.... what?
Me: (whispers) this is your part
Mark: oh ok. did you ever see a zebra petting an ostrich?
Me: **facepalm**  wrong.
Mark: how so? what you said was just as ridiculous...
Me: but mine rhymed... have you never heard this song?
Mark: i just thought it would be funny... can you imagine a zebra trying to pet an ostrich? (cracks up laughing and leaves the room)

well the ostrich doesn't seems too happy about it...

my model hubband.

over Presidents Day Weekend, i went shopping. i cant really remember the last time i went shopping for something other than groceries and shampoo (part of me wants to say LAST presidents day weekend? but that just cant be right... can it?) so this was a pretty grand adventure for me. like any good Havener girl, i shopped the clearance racks and got an extra 30% off and then threw a little party for myself at the cash register as i realized exactly how much i was SAVING on new winter jackets and work shirts for both me and my husband, who of course was much more interested in knowing how much i SPENT in order to save that much, but was also surprisingly willing to model a few of my first ever clothing-purchases-for-a-boy, mannequin-style.

we like to call this look 'lumberjack-chic'

yes, my hubband decided to grow a beard this winter (with my permission). a recent acquisition of a beard trimmer and a haircut add a little bit of polish to his overall style and makes everyone much happier about the extra face-hair.