Swedish for bridezillas?

Buying IKEA's entire stock of white enamel vases.

#centerpieces #crazyladies

Snow day!

Auspicious day. We picked the wedding plates. Beautiful white tin with silver rims.  While for most of the wedding rentals we are going budget (i.e. cutlery, wine glasses, etc), we really felt these plates and mugs were worth splurging on. It feels good to be in agreement for a change.

Toile napkins and gingham runner. English country chic!

Corny

Dinner tonight. Cornbread messages.

What could be more romantic than that? ;)

My kingdom for a book

Neither of us is a minimalist, but perhaps my greatest weakness as far as collecting goes is for books. I may never actually get through my entire list of to-reads, but that won't stop me from buying them when I'm in a good bookstore. Kate's no slouch in the reading department, either, which makes for a lot of literature to house.

Before Kate moved in to the apartment in April of last year, she had Tom build two narrow bookshelves in the bedroom, and those plus a small bookcase just past the entry door sufficed to hold all her books and music, but we just knew we'd need more shelf space. 

During a visit shortly before we made the big merge, my mom (hi, Marta!) took pity on us and brought us to Gothic Cabinet Craft where we ordered a custom-sized bookshelf that would reach nearly to the ceiling without being too wide or too deep so as to block the front door when it opens.

About three weeks later, they delivered this unfinished piece:

Unfinished pine.

We had originally wanted to paint it white (white ceilings, white molding, white doors...why not a white cabinet?) but decided to do it ourselves rather than tack on another $200-300 onto the price of the unit. And we sure were glad we bought it unfinished, because we quickly changed our minds on the color. Painting it stark white would have made it feel a bit monolithic with its height, not to mention that it felt juvenile (baby's room, anyone?), so we decided to try and stain it to look like the piece of driftwood that we have mounted over the door.

Creating texture.

After one spectacularly failed attempt to make our own stain using vinegar and steel wool, we got the color right by using a grey stain from the can as a base color, then using a chestnut colored stain as a light second coat, just wiping it on and then quickly off with a rag, to get a textured, varied color.

Staining the shelves.

The first boxes we unpacked when I moved in were my 10+ book boxes, splitting the new bookshelf between my fiction (on the top) and Kate's music (on the bottom).

We love the color of the bookshelf itself and also our colorful array of books and objects.

Surprise!

July 25. I thought I was having dinner with Kate, Kate's mom, and my best friend Ella, who was in town visiting. I arrived at Melisa's house in Park Slope only to find a beautiful silver envelope taped to the front door, which was ajar. I was slightly alarmed that the front door was open, but figured they had all run to the store and left it open so I could let myself in. The silver envelope seemed a bit fancy for a little note, but whatever - Kate's attention to aesthetic detail was no surprise to me by then. I walked into the front hall and found another envelope, this one gold, taped to the inner door. "Jeez," I wondered, "How many notes did they leave me?"



It wasn't until the third envelope that I began to catch on that I wouldn't be having dinner with all three of them, after all. I looked up the stairs and saw a dozen or more colored envelopes taped up the banister. As I made my way upstairs, shaking and tearing open the envelopes as I went, I found picture after picture of us as a couple, each with a caption that told the story of how we met and fell in love.



The last envelope was taped to the ladder leading up to the roof and read, "...but this is only the beginning." My head was swimming as I began to climb the ladder. I had no idea exactly what I would find up on the roof, but I knew it would be special, and that in just a matter of minutes, I'd be engaged to one Ms. Kate Lerner, whom I adored. First, though, I had to go and get myself stuck in the hatch that opens onto the roof before emerging like a creature from the swamp, not a little bit dazed and confused.



Once I freed myself from the hatch, I listened as Kate told me how happy she was that we had found each other, how clearly she saw our future, and some other generally beautiful and sappy things that I can hardly remember because I was so emotional (Of course she was recording the whole proposal, from two angles, I might add, which allowed us to go back and remember how it actually happened). She got down on one knee and opened a blue velvet box with my beautiful opal and diamond ring, and asked me to be her wife. I could only nod and say yes.



It was only after the proposal itself that I was able to take in all that Kate had done on the roof. She had set up a beautiful table, spread with my favorite fruits, cheeses, champagne, and flowers. We were both too excited to eat much, but we sat and took in the late afternoon summer sun and looked at each other in amazement. Kate gave me a copy of Edward Lear's lyric poem "The Owl and the Pussy Cat," which is funnily quite appropriate for our relationship, and letters from her mom and brother welcoming me to the family.

Eventually we went downstairs, still in a daze, and started to call our family and friends. I remember my dad saying, before he hung up the phone, "I'll talk to you later in the week when you've floated back down to Earth!" It certainly took me a few days to do so, and I had a headache from smiling so much.​ I can't wait to marry Kate and start our married life together! One thing I'm sure of is that life will never be boring with her by my side.
                                                                                           
                                                                                                      -- Molly

Project Microwave!

The kitchen has always been a challenge. Not big enough to accomodate a full roster of standard appliances, and lacking in storage space, its weaknesses were further compounded by the infuriating underutilization of existing wall space.

I'd been doing without, but still pining for, a microwave since my move from Chicago. But where to even put one?

Enter stage left, carpenter and uncle extraordinare, Caleb Davison.

We had seen a shelving unit at IKEA we thought might work, but its dimensions were not the best fit for our very specific wall space.

My uncle graciously agreed to assemble and build a custom shelving unit inspired by the IKEA prototype that would house a microwave as well as some dinnerware. 

On a balmy March day, we headed to the Gowanus Lowe's to buy some high-end birch plywood.

The plywood didn't fit in my uncle's car, but luckily he had the right equipment to secure it:

During the next week, he cut the pices and assembled them.

Then, the moment of truth: installation!

All that was left was for Molly to drill a hole for the microwave cord...

And ta-da!!

(Two views of the finished installation)

A final touch we couldn't resist adding: mug-holders!