Yule Aight Up Mile Eiff*

This weekend J and I did some shopping for our new house, though it was a bit early for it, I suppose. The superstitious person in me (and in J) told us “nooooo, don’t do it!” But the shopper in me said “bring it on!”. Luckily after a few weeks of nagging, J was on board, too, so we spent all of Saturday hitting up the usuals.

First, we bought a lawn mower. By Husqvarna. That’s who makes my sewing machine. J and his friend, S, who sold it to us at Sears, thought that was funny. And it’s orange. Double-score for J’s favorite color.

Then we bought a ceiling fan for the kitchen. After craning my neck upward for 10 minutes checking out all the weird blades and swirly light covers, I’ve come to a conclusion: I don’t really like ceiling fans. Sure, they’re great for circulating air, but my curiousity got the best of me and I googled “living room” and almost NONE of the photographs included a ceiling fan. You know why? Because they don’t usually add to a room like a big drum light might. Perhaps the fans were cropped out of the photos (the ones that didn’t show the ceiling), but still, my research didn’t sit well with me. I’ve tried to convince J to change our plans for a master bedroom** ceiling fan to a light, but with three dogs, it gets hot enough. Oh well. Now I’m just on the hunt for a nice looking one. Good luck, right?

Next we hit up IKEA, where I got this chandelier for my craft room:



Which, by the way, IKEA calls a “ceiling lamp”. I don’t like that. And I’ll be painting it, just in case you forgot.

Of course my trek to the thrift store yesterday uncovered a few old, gold chandeliers for about a quarter of the price, which bums me out (1) because they’re cheaper, and I’m thrifty, and (2) I went to the thrift store last week JUST to look for chandeliers, but apparently I went right past where they were all hanging yesterday. Bummer. But then it occurred to me – how do I know that they work? So I think my “choice” to buy from IKEA was well-founded. At least that’s what I tell myself.


I’m dying to find a place for this one but can’t think of it now. Maybe the down-the-road dining room? I love the texture and of course the natural color:

Then I tried to convince J to get a few of these for over the kitchen sink (to go with our fabulous color palate!), but his color-blindness evaded him (damn) when he said they weren’t the right shade. And they were on sale for $14.99 each in the store. Oh well.

Then we bought a few of these really ugly ceiling lights for the hallway and the “office”. I say “office” because it’ll be a place for J’s computer and allllllll of other crap as we renovate until the basement’s done. I’m hoping to replace the ugly light in the hallway after we’ve painted, but in the meantime these will do. And as for the “office”, more on that later:

I hope I don’t turn into one of those light fixture-crazed people, which I doubt I will because they kind of scare me. They’re so critical to a room’s impact, yet I know nothing about them.
We also got some inexpensive rugs to get us through the first few months of renovations as well as a flatscreen hangy thing, which J is very excited about.

But, in more exciting news: today’s THE day! We’re going to settlement around 2:30, which means that we’ll pay eyeball-bulging amounts of money for a very special set of keys. And then it’s alllllll ours. Can’t wait!

*Sorry – only a few bests will get this one. And as Shannanigans says, inside jokes aren’t fun for anyone when they’re explained, so you’ll have to let this one go.
**Master bedroom sounds so fancy, doesn’t it? So adult? Not sure I like that!