classing up the joint
Our friend Kiersten gave us one of her paintings a few weeks ago, and we finally got around to hanging it up. Plaster walls are a little intimidating to hang things in, especially anything moderately heavy. The only other large thing we’ve tried to hang came crashing down a day later. But we finally just put our fear aside, grabbed a couple of masonry nails, and went to town. With our new found confidence, there’s nothing to stop our art collecting now. Move over Steve Wynn, the Bennetts are entering the market!
happy belated birthday (to me)
Well, despite the fact that it was a few weeks back at this point, I had a pretty nice birthday. At this point it’s sort of pointless to bring up, but I was bummed that I never got to share my pictures, so I’m going to post about it anyway. And besides, my mom always says it’s your birth MONTH. So anyway, the gals who work for me arranged an ice cream sundae party…
Lizzy and Kevin made me the most amazing birthday card ever…
And Greg and I had a beautiful hike in White Clay Creek State Park in Delaware…
Hopefully 31 will treat me well.
ode to the forgotten child
You know, Franny really gets a bad rap. Not like she doesn’t bring it on herself – she hisses at anyone who’s not me and Greg, she tortures Porter, she scratches on all of my Anthropologie furniture, and she requires special prescription food that’s expensive and hard to come by. But still. She’s been with me for a long time, almost eight years. I even remember a certain someone [coughcoughGREGcoughcough] telling me, “Don’t get a cat, I hate cats, they’re terrible.” And although Porter tends to steal the limelight these days, I still love my Franny Fran.
five more minutes
Oh Porter Pants, I didn’t want to get out of bed today either.
what have I gotten myself into?
I’m in the middle of the dreaded biannual seasonal clothes switch. It has to get worse before it gets better, right???
color me productive
Finally made some new curtains for the dining room! I went with Pink Zinnia by Alexander Henry because I am terrible at coordinating colors, so I decided to cheat and pick a pattern with every color in it.
mash good
Boy do I love Halloween. It’s the perfect holiday – fun, silly, and full of unhealthy food. I have such fond memories of swishing through leaves up to neighbors’ houses, bringing home a huge haul, and watching Halloween specials with a lap full of baby Snickers and Milky Ways. As an adult it’s a little difficult for me to get all that into it. I don’t really have any friends that have parties, my husband is a Halloween curmudgeon, and it always sneaks up on my and catches me unprepared. This year hasn’t been much different, although in the past few days I’ve gotten more into the spirit – I carved a pumpkin (which has already disintegrated), hung some lights, and made a ghost cake. Tonight we’re going to see Haunted Poe and maybe we’ll squeeze in a horror movie or two.
I brought Porter to work yesterday and thoroughly embarrassed him by parading him around in his chicken costume. It was quite the hit, only magnified by the fact that he looked so miserable in it. My favorite quote of the day was from Meredith, who said, “You already have the world’s most emo dog, and now you’re making him dress up like a chicken? What did you expect?”
I know that “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” gets most of the Halloween cartoon limelight these days, and I understand, because it holds a special place in my heart, too. There’s also “Mr. Boogedy”, which only my mom and I appreciate. But since Mr. Boogedy will sadly never be released on DVD, I’d like to introduce you to another oft-overlooked spooky gem that they never seem to show on TV anymore – Garfield’s Halloween Adventure:
And last but not least, a song I wish could be played all year long…
addendum to my post about how I want a different life
I feel I should say a few more things about my post from yesterday, lest everyone think we’re miserable homeowners who regret their commitment and yearn for the open road. Yes, it’s true, we have talked about doing the same thing, dropping out of society for a bit and driving across country, which neither of us have ever had the opportunity to do. In theory I think it would be a good thing for us. Greg and I tend to nuzzle into our comfort zones and always choose the safe and reliable path in life, and sometimes I really want to shake things up and give up some of that security in exchange for some excitement and more meaningful experiences.
And then I remember the down side of things like, say, rehabbing a camper and spending a year driving across country:
- We complain almost every second about having to work on the house, and are incapable of doing most things without the help of professionals. What on earth makes me think doing the same thing to a camper would be any different?
- Cleaning out a waste tank? Yeah, no thanks. I mean, can anyone envision Greg standing outside in his underwear saying, “Merry Christmas! Shitter was full!” So yeah, pass on that.
- How would I order things from Amazon.com? How would my mom send me my birthday card with $20 in it? Where would all of my Crate & Barrel catalogs go?!?
- Where would I store all my craft supplies?
- I’m not sure we’d fit in too well with the campground crowd, as we’re both democrats under the age of 65.
- Making every meal in a kitchen the size of an elementary school desk has got to get old pretty quickly.
- I’m not sure anyone we know would be willing to take Franny for an entire year. It’s basically like saying, “Can you take care of my tiny pet cougar? Thanks! Oh, but don’t get too close, and don’t look directly at her, and don’t talk to her. Other than that, she’s a sweetie.” We might just have to leave her on someone’s doorstep in a basket and hope for the best.
- We pretty much have like two friends that live outside of the east coast, so that would be quite a lonely year.
So yes, when you get down to the nuts and bolts, a trip like that could prove less glamourous than it seems on the surface. And ultimately, I’m a homebody. I like to cook, and decorate the house, and watch movies on the couch, and sew, and go down to our local on weeknights. I guess the moral of the story is that nothing is ever clear cut, and when it comes down to it there’s positives and negatives to every lifestyle choice, and maybe I just need to focus more on the positives of ours.
getting there is half the fun, come share it with me
I know that originally this blog was all about our house, and how we were new homeowners embarking on fixing up an old house, and generally just a blog about settling down and staying in one spot for a while.
But I have to admit that pretty much immediately after buying the house, I started to feel a little trapped. Like, “So this is really it, we’re really going to be in Philly for the foreseeable future.” Which is sort of a joke because we’re both such wimps it’s not like we could make a big move anyway.
And for right now, I’m pretty happy with where we are, at the moment I don’t hate the house, I’m looking forward to working on it in the coming months, and even called a couple of contractors today about upcoming projects we have in mind.
That being said, when I see a story like this, it makes me want to kick myself for settling down too quickly. I was originally drawn in because I saw a project involving renovating a Scamp camper. Greg and I saw one on the road a few months back and thought it was the greatest little thing. But then I started digging into their story and was hooked. After a year of being married, this couple quit their jobs, rented out their house and are spending a year traveling around the country in their fantastic little remodeled Scamp. Oh, and they’re writing a blog about it, of course. Being that this is something Greg and I talk about once in a great while but would never have the guts to do, this is a pretty inspiring story.
Read their blog, The Wanderlusters…
