Day 3 of the January Cure: Floors & Flowers

Continuing on in this January Cure, this weekend was dedicated to cleaning the floors and buying flowers. Buying cut flowers is apparently important. They bought several bunches. In true “perfect” fashion, I bought the cheapest fresh-looking ones available and supplemented with a stolen palm branch (thanks, apartment!).  But my vase matches my cake stand, so I get points for that, right? Right. 

I was also supposed to buy green cleaners but I HAVE baking soda and a gallon jug of vinegar, and I didn’t make it to the green grocer and this girl does NOT pay 60 cents for a lemon unless it’s an emergency. Especially if I need several. No way, jose. So I got some carpet cleaner (not on their list), toilet cleaner with bleach (not on their list), some dawn dish soap (not the biodegradable soap on their list), and some sponges (hey! That one’s actually on the list!). 

Natural cleaners are great in the kitchen. Natural cleaners are great in general. I myself use a damp cloth to dust with. Natural cleaners do not fly in the bathroom with me.  You know what’s natural? Germs. You know what germs occur naturally in? Bathroom things. So I bring bleach, and nature can suck it. Yeah, you heard me.

Oreo liked the tree. He was not pleased when it went away.

Anyway, it was a rough weekend, so real cleaning didn’t happen until Sunday when we took down the Christmas tree.

So…. the floors maybe aren’t mopped yet?  And I maybe just did a basic vacuuming of the living room? But the hallway, den, and bedroom floors are CLEAN. Like, roll on the floor clean. 

Plus, I reorganized the kitchen (finally) to reclaim some counter space. When the brother-in-law lived with us, he reorganized the kitchen so that my KitchenAid mixer wouldn’t have to be pulled forward every time we used it. Which is good. But it meant that the microwave moved from its happy little microwave hutch onto the counter and ate all the counter space.

And then there was extra space on the hutch, and you know how random crap is attracted to empty space. 

So, the (red) toaster oven moved over next to the (red) KitchenAid mixer and the microwave moseyed into the unused corner at an angle, and it’s making me fairly happy right now. 

Except I don’t know where to put my adorable Anthro-like measuring cups now, but maybe some hook installation is in order. We’ll see. Now if I could just repaint the cabinets and install my red knobs and maybe put in a backsplash, I’d be one rapturous camper. (Happy +40)

Actually from Pier1

It's getting red-hot up in this... kitchen.

I want a new trash can for the kitchen. I got a new kettle.  It’s red. And shiny. And wonderful. I mean, it’s not the Bauhaus kettle (see below for kettle perfection) but it was WAY less than $8,800 and no one will yell at me for boiling water in it.  Oh, and the hubs won’t let me buy Bauhaus things. He doesn’t like them. Or Eames chairs. Though it’s probably best that I don’t have any Eames chairs, or vertical bookshelves or the adorable Eames coat rack because then our house would have the same 3 pieces in it that every other designer’s homes have in them. They’re perfectly lovely things, but they’ve become a bit ubiquitous. (And, if I’m honest, expensive).

Anyway, tea kettles!

It’s art, see, so now you can’t use it. Which, since it’s from the Bauhaus period, is crazy-ironic.

As it happens, you cannot remove rust from a tea kettle with vinegar. It goes badly, don’t do it. I sort of destroyed the stainless steel tea kettle. So… we needed a new one. And I went into Marshall’s (like T.J. Maxx or Ross if you haven’t been), which randomly has a really good kitchen supply section. And excellent tea. Anyway, I found a RED KETTLE. It’s beautiful and it was only $25.

Somehow, I managed not to take a photo of it in my kitchen, so the stock photo will have to do for now. Anyway, if you want one JUST like it, it’s $25 here, too. I could actually do a dissertation on tea kettle design. This one's not perfect. It's good. Water boils, it whistles, the top flips open without burning your hand, water come out without turning the thing upside-down, and it's shiny red. It's $25. What do more do want?

But, but, anyway, I was reading Anna @ Door Sixteen’s post on beautiful things and she showed this trash can that she loves. And I actually love the cheaper version that she wasn’t as fond of because, wait for it, it comes in shiny RED!

We currently have an annoying flap-top trash can in the kitchen that gets dirty and is just kind of gross (think the metal ones at the zoo, but less retro-cool and more nondescript plastic).

So I need to convince the hubs that it is reasonable to spend $99 on a trash can. And that we should get a step-operated one again. (The last one broke and then he hated it. Mostly because it was broken).

I’m currently completely reveling in the red-ness of my kettle. It’s like a smile on my stove! I believe that a red trash can might bring me similar joy. Or at least, less disgust, which is really all I’m looking for just now.

Have a lovely day!

There’s A War On in This Kitchen

So, I have a vision for my kitchen.

And it involves submarines, propaganda, and war.

World War II, to be exact. As a graphic designer, sometimes, I get attached to funny things. Like propaganda posters. WWII had some of the greatest propaganda posters of all time. And I would like 2 of them in my dining room. I got the idea watching the credits to Captain America.

Because I do stay and watch the credits of every movie I go to- they’re cool, I sort of want that job. In that I’d love that job if it weren’t absolutely certainly in either L.A. or New York. Because I hate L.A. (It’s ok to visit, but living there? No.) and I don’t do snow. I just don’t. I can take high heat with aplomb, but cold hurts my ears.

Anyway, there was this cool credit screen with planes on a yellow sky. Unfortunately, it was riffed from a poster involving a rather sinister-looking Hitler caricature (as if there were any other kind) so I can’t really have that one. (I can’t take things staring at me from the walls.)

Instead, I found 2 posters I do like, that have no one at all staring from them, and plan on putting them on either side of the rather magnificent wall cubes that I refinished.

Inside the wall cubes, incidentally, are also WWII-themed things. I love vintage soda bottles, so there some of my burgeoning collection up there, and my husband wants to put together a WWII model airplane (he’s into models, I’m into this idea- magic).

The chairs and dining table were cast-offs from a family friend, as were the rather-awful chair covers. They didn’t even like the chair covers. The only beings who like the chair covers are my cats, who will be very sad to see them go.

We would have just taken off the chair covers, but the chairs, well…

So, time for another DIY project! I found the "perfect" fabric to go on the chair seats. Just the right mix of Americana (the colors) and not (everything else about it). The chairs themselves are going to be sanded and stained with the same stuff used on the wall cubes and the microwave hutch. It’s gonna be sweet.

The kitchen, which I was pondering painting (and am not gonna just now, as it’s a HUGE project of sanding, masking and painting), is getting a little pick-me-up with new, red cabinet and drawer knobs. Got ‘em at ACE for 1.50 or so per pair and a can of Rust-o-leum in fabulous shiny red for $3 and so for $23, my kitchen gets a perk.

I also saw this great rug version of the now-ubiquitous “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster at Anthropologie.

But it is EXPANSIVE(I want a kitchen mat, not an area rug) and EXPENSIVE ($498.00- are you serious?). Plus, when reviewed, apparently it falls apart.

CostPlus World Market has this one for $30….

But I kind of hate that it’s sideways. So… I think I’m going to make one. I’ve made the stencil in illustrator, now I just need to print it out using my Silohuette and paint the $3 rug I got at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart may be destroying the economy, but they’re just so… irresistible.

Then I just have to decide whether or not the utensil-holder gets repainted candy-apple-red as well.

It does look nice its as-bought, black-bronze state, but it doesn’t really GO with the theme of the kitchen. Which is shiny red. And other stuff. It’s like a theme, only looser and less directed. (Kind of like me…)

Anyway, that’s the plan for waging a war in my kitchen.

Stay tuned…