In progress

Here are some photos of our recent upstairs renovations. We went with a golden yellow for the bedroom and light grey for both the sitting room and office. The bedroom sits in the middle of the house and doesn't get much light, so we thought something light and bright would work well. The yellow is growing on me - it was a little startling at first. I'm thinking crisp white bedding with a little texture, something like this in pure white. I really like the grey color in the other rooms; it has more of a blue undertone than we planned but I think it still works.

The floors were stripped and stained this past Saturday and I'm really happy with the results - I wasn't sure they could be salvaged. The second coat of stain/polyurethane goes on tomorrow. In the meantime we are camped out in the library, sleeping on the couch.

One other thing we need to do is buy carpet for the office - at some point a previous ownder made the decision to put plywood and linoleum over the original wood floors. The linoleum is glued to the plywood, the plywood is attached to the original floors. Such a shame. Anyway, we're not sure what color to go with, it needs to be something that hides stains and wears well but also goes with the grey and white walls. Maybe a sage green?

Other than all that, we finally bought a carpet for in front of the fireplace (this one in ivory). We have inherited a settee and a set of chairs from my MIL which, if reupholstered, would be perfect here. I have to get quotes though, not sure if it's worth it.

HNY

Happy New Year! Despite missing our traditional New Year's Eve companions terribly, we had a relaxed, quiet night in Philly complete with filet, braised kale (From the most recent Cook's Illustrated) and this gingerbread (which was sooo good and pretty easy to make).

Time to revisit last year's resolution list:

2008 to do list

School:

Set up my committee and arrange my first meeting (completed 9/08)

Complete my qualifier (Finished! 12/17/08 - such a relief)

Health/beauty:

Continue running (Dropped the ball in Nov and Dec but have started up again with my friend from school. Signed up for a 5K in May 2009)

Try the cardio kickboxing class offered at the gym (check)

Re-evaluate my skin care regimen - current one is not working! (Things are pretty much ok in this department)

Try to be more healthy about guilt and stress - either do something about it or let.it.go (Well, this is an ongoing goal)

Have a better attitude and expectations about my body and how it will age and change as time passes me by (see above)

Apartment

Frame prints/photos and hang above couch (check)

Find and purchase piece of furniture for horrible blank wall in living room (never happened)

Make pillows for the couch (Managed to make 1 pillow)

New curtains for living room (didn't happen)

New bookcase(s)? (still have the p.o.s. IKEA bookcases)

Misc.

Make all gifts (if possible) rather than purchasing them (did pretty well with this... Also I really cut back on the Xmas gifts this year which was rather liberating)

Decrease my computer time at home (still a bit of a problem)

Recycle (check)

Replace our tupperware with glass containers (check)

Strengths in 2007:

shopping locally

eating healthy

cooking a lot and trying new recipes

plenty of craft/creative time (MUCH less of this in 2008)

research was fairly productive

Room for improvement!

Spent too much time on the internet

Worried a lot about fitting things (ie school kids travel where to live etc etc) comfortably into my life (Moved to a house in 6/08 - thus solving the "where to live" question)

I'm sure there's more but why dwell on it, right? right.

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Unfortunately R's grandma passed away early this morning, so we are Cleveland-bound once again. She was 104, so it wasn't totally unexpected, but it's sad nonetheless.