sheppard girls

Counter clutter

One of the goals in the new kitchen remodel was to keep the counters more open.  I tend to cluster a lot of items around - shocking news I know.  We moved the coffee maker to a little nook by the frig, moved the knives to a drawer, and got rid of a dish rack.  I also tend to leave half dry dishes sitting out for a long time, so this was a good challenge.  I have been doing well, but slowly pretty things are replacing functional things.

 
Like this cute vintage Thermos ($4 at Mustard Moon) which is the perfect colors and coordinates with my front door decorations for back to school.

 

A giant P

Right after the contractor, electrician and I spent about fours house trying to figure out and install the blue lights over the island, only to discover that the ceiling plate didn't even cover the junction box, grrrr, I took a break and went shopping.  I was quite cross until I came across this

 
a giant aqua blue, metal P!  I felt much better.

Trip to Ikea

I went over to Ikea yesterday morning to see if I could find any useful organizational items for the kitchen, or any fun outdoor items like those Victoria outlined last week.  I came home with these.

 
Which look very pretty grouped together on our kitchen island.  But I already have at least six of these vases and nothing to hold our recycling.

Pillows

Holly Becker from Decor8'sReal Simple email this morning was about pillows.  Specifically, does your significant other think you have too many pillow.  I forwarded it to the dad.

Him - "I don’t mind a pillow or two, but I don’t like that I am not allowed to move the pillows to the floor so I can actually sit on the piece of furniture that is covered with them." 

Me - "When you sit on a pillow, you are squishing my happiness." 

 
Pillow I bought yesterday.  Shhhh.

 

School project

 
After book club today I went to Michael's to look for materials to help the big one with a project.  When I was checking out the woman said "oh, you must be making a diarama, is it about a racetrack?'  No, I replied "it is about the physics of the luge."  She looked at me like I was crazy.  I did however find these super cute pencils.

Blenders

 
  
Our blender had been working less and less effectively.  I am not really sure where the blender came from.  I thought it was maybe one the dad brought into the house when we got married, but I recently came across THAT blender in the basement.  So this one is newer.  It was getting jammed a lot, and when you took the jar part off to pour, sometimes there was smoke.  That didn't seem like a good thing.  So I threw it away and set off to get a new blender.  I really only need it to make smoothies and salad dressing. 

I visited Target, Macy's, William Sonoma, and Crate and Barrel and got a little overwhelmed.  So I searched on Chowhound for blender recommendations and got even more overwhelmed.  I think I took less time to find a new dryer than I wasted on the new blender.

Then today, while exercising I listened to the Spilled Milk podcast about malts.  I have 3/4 a container of malt powder left over from the Malt Cake that no one really liked.  So I needed to get a blender today.

Bed Bath and Beyond, Kohl's and Sears later, I came home with an Oster.  I will report back after dessert.  ***Updated to add, "it takes just like malted milk balls!" 

Vases

I went to Target to pick up a few things and to double check the Liberty of London collection.  I am kind of bummed that I couldn't find a single thing that I really loved, but was kind of feeling like I should get something, when I saw this!

Hello super cute modern very Jonathan Adler-esque vase. 

Darn you Anthropologie

We are redoing our ugly wooden kitchen cabinets in cream, so I bought aqua knobs from Anthropologie.  I may already have a problem with knobs from Anthropologie. 

 
   
 I loved the aqua with cream idea, until I decided that we should also have

these lights over the island.   So I went back to get the same knobs in cream. 

And this lovely new lampshade had just come in. 

 

It was meant to be!

Whimsy

 
I have decided our house needs some more unexpected elements.  The lights above the cabinet in the family room were the first step.  I know that they aren't exactly unexpected in the blog world, but here in suburban Minneapolis, they are downright strange - which I think is excellent.  Next I REALLY REALLY want a garland somewhere.  I saw a grey tissue pompom one on a blog and couldn't remember from where.  I was pretty sure it was Paper Source.  There is only one Paper Source in Minneapolis and it has really lousy parking nearby, but it is next to the place that makes the very best sandwhich I have ever had in Minneapolis, so I was up for the trip.  I decided to double check if it was pre-made or a kit, and then I couldn't find it anywhere on the website.  It was from Kate's Paperie, which is nowhere near downtown Minneapolis.  Good thing I checked.

Candles

About two weeks ago I decided that I wanted a white ceramic candle holder with holes punched in the side for the little arrangement on our kitchen island.  Exactly like the ones West Elm and Crate and Barrel had last summer.  No Ebay search was successful.  I find a very beautiful version on Etsy, but I am afraid I would break it. 

I was nearly out of my lemon scented candles, which unfortunately, I have to buy at Yankee Candle.  I made the treck of shame to our local mall and did not plan my shopping accordingly, so I had to jam the Yankee Candle bag into my purse before walking across to hallway to JCrew, because I don't need to be judged by the ladies who work there, when they are barely nice to me when I am dressed cute.

 
I was so excited to see that Yankee Candle now makes cylinder-shaped candles now and you can easily peel off the label.  Yea Yankee Candle.