delight in life

four favorite things

We love our house. Have I mentioned that? Bit by bit we're getting settled in and I love it more every time we get another box unpacked. I love big things, like the pretty wood floors and the kitchen counter space and having a finished basement, but I'm really excited about some little things too.

1. MY QUILT WALL. Something I've wanted since about the third time I laid quilt blocks out on the carpet, only to have one cat decide they were a superfun toy and the other decide they were a perfect napping spot. I tacked a big piece of batting to the wall and now I can lay out all my blocks and spend as long as I want deliberating over the perfect arrangement. This one's been on my wall for two weeks and gone through two complete re-designs.

2. MY ROLLY CHAIR. For the last two years my desk chair has been this rickety, ugly, uncomfortable wooden chair. A few weeks ago we went to Ikea and I got a bonafide desk chair, complete with spinning seat and wheels. Sitting at the desk is so much better!

3. THE CATS GET ALONG BETTER. I never would have guessed this would happen, but it has. They've never liked each other all that much, and would spend their evenings chasing each other around the apartment, with every lap involving somebody tearing across the coffee table—where our dinner usually sat. Really annoying. But we have lived here for three weeks now and there has only been one incident like that. Seriously. It's a miracle. My guess at the reason for the change is that we have so much more space they're not competing for territory anymore. 100% fine by me.

4. THE LITTERBOX IS NOWHERE NEAR HUMANS ANYMORE. Seriously, I think this is my favorite. The cats have shared our bathroom for two years now, which was unpleasant for quite a few reasons. Now their box is in the basement corner, far away from anywhere I am showering. So, so, so good.

new look!

I finally got around to giving the blog a makeover—something that's been on my should-do list for over a year. About time, eh?

I said adios to my flamingo friend, and brought in some bright, happy colors. And stripes! I love stripes. I also added a list of categories to the sidebar. If I could go back and tell my early-blogging-self one thing, it would be "categorize all of your posts!" I am slowly working my way back through posts and adding categories, so eventually everything will be in its right place.

I'm really happy with the new look, hope you like it too!

ten days down

We've lived here for ten days now! In that time, we've: bought a sectional, baked a cake, had a sleepover, bought a roll-y chair for my desk, installed a thermostat, survived massive thunderstorms with not even a power flicker, and stopped living completely out of boxes.

You may have heard that huge storms rocked through the metro-DC area last weekend, leaving a lot of people without power. (Some are still without power!) Amazingly, we were totally fine. The worst thing that happened to us and our house was our neighbor's tree coming down and blocking the street for 3 days. Our friends did lose power for a bit, so they came and spent a day and night with us. We had a fun slumber party! With cake.

We're slowly, slowly putting the house together and getting rid of boxes. We've bought a few pieces of furniture, but we're trying to take our time and make sure we buy things that we really like and fit our needs. I keep having to remind myself that it's better to have a semi-empty house for a while than have a bunch of furniture we don't like in six months.

Also, I installed a thermostat last night, so I feel super handy. I realize it's not actually a very complicated process, but that doesn't change my sense of accomplishment. There were wires! I could have electrocuted myself! (Don't worry, I cut the power first.) I used to feel accomplished after assembing IKEA furniture; now I just feel annoyed at how many screws there are. Now I need electrical wiring and preferably the use of a power drill to feel awesome about my fix-it skills.