#this is so cute i love dala horses

[your-unfriendlyghost]

casper IS getting better at drawing horses. what a cute little horse drawing I love it :))

aw thanks!! I sculpted a couple recently (one simple dala horse and one complicated one) so I think my understanding of their anatomy has vastly improved lol

(Here’s the simple one btw in case y’all are interested!! I don’t have any pics of the complex one cos it’s at school rn)

[goose-nest]

new chapter yippee! 🎉

A LITTLE KITTY CAT FRIEND AAA how cute 😭 <33

and hux carrying it so carefully to give it a special place 🥹 🥹

i love that you added more info about the emojis! ever since you mentioned it last time, i fully believe they’re essentially ASCII code symbols lol

yess finally he’s looking into the mirror properly instead of in disgust! we ARE proud of and want to spend time with you<3

absolutely looove the way he physically moves through his room to each area, imagining what it would be like if reader was there and what activities he should plan for the date. man i really can’t wait for tomorrow!! there better be some smooching 🙈

going back to the little animal figurine, for some reason the first time it was mentioned, i imagined a dala horse xD even though i’m not swedish and don’t have one myself so it makes sense they also have colourful animal figurines in this galaxy :’D

i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again, the way you describe hux’s inner workings and reasoning flows so flawlessly, i’ve been hooked since day 1<3

time after time – chapter eleven (armitage hux x reader)

time after time masterlist

Summary: Hux realizes he needs to put together a plan for his long-awaited date with you

Warnings/Tags: gn!reader; set pre-TFA; brief descriptions of food and eating; mention of alcohol; as always, let me know if I've missed anything!

Words: 3098

Author’s Note: okay I've got something kind of fun and sweet for us after some of the heavier topics in the last chapter! ☺️ Hux continues to struggle with being able to send messages, and I actually did some last-minute editing and added in a little bit more of my headcanons on the topic of messaging/emojis since I had been talking about that and I thought it might help add some context, especially since I'm now prepping to write a little bonus chapter about Hux's personal staff attempting to help him learn how to send messages 👀🤭 also, chapter twelve is the date!! 💕💕 happy reading! 🥰

When Hux awoke he felt almost… rested. He was groggy, his eyes still heavy with sleep. Rubbing a hand over his face, he went to check the time on his datapad, his hand knocking something off the table as he fumbled with the device. Looking at the time, he realized that for once he had slept for his allotted rest period. He leaned over the side of the bed, fishing for whatever he had pushed onto the floor. His fingers found a little tented triangle of paper that had clearly been resting on his datapad before he had carelessly upended it. Sitting up, he investigated the small object. It didn’t take him long to discover that it was a note from you.

Hi Armitage!

I hope you’re feeling better! I had to leave for my bridge shift, but I stayed for as long as I could. I left some things for you in the kitchen. There’s something for you to eat when you wake up, plus some soup you can reheat later in the cycle if you want. There are also a few bags of the tea from last cycle and a little container of honey, if you want to try that trick again!

And there’s also a little friend to keep you company when I’m not around! :)

Message if you need me – I’ll just be slogging through my shift 

See you for our date soon! <3

Armitage read the message once, then twice, then three times, and then once more for good measure. Each time, the warmth blossoming in his chest grew and spread until it filled his whole body. He threw off his covers and padded to the kitchen where he found the container you had been carrying when you visited. Carefully lifting the cover, he found that it contained a number of segmented areas, each holding one of the items you had described: some kind of cake-like bar probably intended for him to eat upon waking, a sealed container of soup, a stack of tea bags, and a small glass jar of honey. In the last section was a flash of color. Hux reached in curiously and drew out a little wooden carving of a loth cat, no doubt one of the figures that populated your quarters. It was painted a yellow-orange and had tiny brown paws. Imaginative purple flowers bloomed from green vines that swirled across the entire surface of the figurine. It was so light, so delicate in his hand. He felt a slight spasm in his chest and a faint pricking at the corners of his eyes.

He stepped out of the kitchen, the tiny cat cradled protectively in his hand, intending to give it pride of place on the shelf above his desk. As he emerged into the space that served as his personal office, something looked different. He scanned the area, trying to figure out what was out of place. Then it hit him: everything was clean. His notes and devices were neatly stacked on his desk, the caf cups were long gone, and even the sticky little rings of liquid that they left behind had been polished away. The events of the previous cycle came back to him like the blast from an ion canon. He had to grip the edge of his desk to keep from collapsing again.

Everywhere in his scattered memories was the image of you: standing at his door with a smile, cleaning up his scattered things, letting him cry, holding him, telling him you cared about him. With a stuttered gasp his legs crumpled beneath him, leaving him folded up on the floor again. Your soft voice flooded into his mind: I care about you, Armitage. Is that such an unbelievable idea? You had stayed. You had seen him – you had seen everything – and you had stayed. He uncurled his fingers, revealing the little loth cat resting on his palm. Perhaps he could allow himself to start believing it.

When he pulled himself to his feet again, he retrieved the bars from the box in the kitchen and then sank into his desk chair, settling the loth cat above him on the shelf. He spread out his diagrams from the previous cycle, reviewing the areas where he still needed to complete his calculations. As he worked through the figures, he found that his mind was much clearer, and he progressed through his work far more quickly than he had anticipated. Every time the flash of color from the figurine caught his eye, he heard your voice in his head telling him to eat, and he would take a bite of one of the bars. 

He wrapped up his work on the Starkiller plans and turned his attention to everything that had lapsed into neglect in the meantime. The number of notifications on his datapad was nearly overwhelming, but most were unimportant, and he was able to file everything into its proper location so that he could better prioritize his time. Hux felt his sense of accomplishment and productivity returning as he continued to complete tasks from his extensive list. He missed you though. 

He wished you could just be there with him, sitting quietly together as you both worked. But maybe you wouldn’t like that. You’d probably find it tedious and boring. But maybe not. He tapped his stylus against his desk. Should he message you? No, you were probably on the bridge anyway, and he didn’t want to bother you while you were working. He checked the time. Your shift had ended a few minutes ago. He stood up and made one pass around the room, wrestling with himself. It was far too presumptuous to ask you to come. You had chosen to visit him last night – it was different if he asked. But then, you had actually wanted to see him. And you had stayed, despite everything, so maybe you would want to come? Or maybe last cycle was too much for you. The note and the things you had left were just parting gifts, easing the blow of your goodbye. You had seen Hux for the wreck of a man he was, after all. He couldn’t blame you for jumping ship to save yourself, even if the thought did send a roiling sickness through his stomach.

When he sat down at his desk again, there was a new notification on his datapad. It was from you. 

How’s your work going?

Maybe you weren’t going to abandon him after all.

Well, thank you.

‘Well, thank you?’ What was he, a protocol droid tuned to the most formal setting? He rested his forehead on his steepled fingers and blew out a long breath. What would he say if you were there in person? He tried to imagine you asking the question. The image generated a potential response that he didn’t entirely despise.

You were right. About resting, that is. I feel much better this cycle.

Awkward, yes. But at least it was honest and not totally stilted? Kriff, he needed to get better at this.

Oh that’s so good to hear! ❤️

Another little digital heart blinked into existence after your words. He looked at the tiny shape for a long moment, recalling the contours of the one you had hurriedly drawn at the end of your written note. Hux’s personal staff used lots of strange shapes and images to communicate ideas in their messages – mostly amongst themselves, but occasionally with him. They weren’t part of the standard datapad keyboard – you needed to know the proper codes to generate them. Learning the codes and producing the shapes was well within the range of his technical abilities, but he hardly saw the point when he could just use words instead. The images were mostly a frivolous additive to the real purpose of the communication. Anyway, he often failed to parse the true meanings of the small digital shapes, since they weren’t always used as expected or intended. What did the little hearts mean to you? Were they a reason to hope? Another message interrupted these reflections.

I won’t keep bothering you though – good luck with your work!

In what galaxy would you ever have been a bother to him? His fingers hesitated over the keypad, not sure how to convey that thought in text form. This could be his chance to ask if you would like to come over. Something like ‘you’re never a bother – would you like to come over and—’ And what? And ‘work?’ He couldn’t say that – it was hardly a tempting offer. And ‘sit?’ That was somehow even worse. And what? He had nothing to offer you, nothing to propose, and the last time you had come over, he had a complete breakdown. He was certain that was not an experience you were anxious to repeat. He resisted the urge to slam his forehead into his desk. Another ping.

Okay also one last thing: I’m really looking forward to our date!

Any excitement might have felt at the idea that you were eager to see him again was suddenly completely overshadowed by a wave of panic that froze him where he sat. The date. The date. He didn’t have anything planned. Not an idea, not a concept, nothing. How could this have happened? He planned everything – weeks, months, whole kriffing years in advance – and now one of his most anticipated events loomed in just a matter of cycles, and he was sitting at his desk like a complete and utter kriffing idiot without even the vaguest idea of what he was going to do. 

What could he possibly do for you that would convey the magnitude of his gratitude, of his… affection for you? But he didn’t want to overwhelm you – how would he know if he had gone too far? He had no examples, no precedents. Any courtship that occurred between First Order personnel was conducted either entirely in private or else so subtly that no one else was aware that there was a romantic element to a given interaction. Yes, he had a passing familiarity with the tropes of popular romance holofilms, but those were unrealistic and always featured fancy planetside restaurants that were currently out of the question. Maybe someday, he mused wistfully, but not now. And he needed a plan for now.

He could ask his personal staff. Relationships were usually entirely private matters, but rumors got around. He knew Lieutenant Hondrill had been seeing another lieutenant for a few months, but that wasn’t the sort of thing that Hux – or anyone – would ask questions about. He tried to picture himself framing that conversation. Even at these hypothetical visualizations, he shook his head. Unprofessional. Humiliating. Blast it! He was a general of the First Order – he had to start acting like it. Speaking of… he looked down at his rumpled clothing, unchanged since at least the cycle before. Despite the… disaster of the previous night, this was no way for him to be presenting himself. 

He selected a fresh uniform from his closet and pulled it on, smoothing each line and perfecting every sharp crease. Maybe it was useless to wear his boots in his private quarters, but he pulled them on anyway, liking the way they helped enforce his posture. Moving to the refresher, he smoothed a new layer of gel into his hair, drawing a crisp part through his red locks. He regarded himself in the mirror. It wasn’t often that he felt enthusiastic about his appearance, but the difference between his presentation the previous cycle and the image that gazed back at him from the mirror was so stark that he allowed himself to feel at least a little pleased. This was someone that you could be proud to spend time with, to care about.

He made an about-face back into his office, each dull thud of his boots increasing his sense of authority. He sat down in his desk chair with his back straight and his shoulders squared. He would figure this out. He would make a plan. 

Logging into his larger array of data screens, he made a new list. Anything planetside was off-limits at this stage unless it was on official business. He had no time to acquire the proper authorizations for such a trip, and he wouldn’t even know where to take you. The idea of a restaurant wasn’t bad in concept – it did seem standard to share a meal as the main event of a date. Of course, the First Order didn’t have any restaurants apart from the officer’s dining hall, and Hux grimaced to remember his interactions with you there, even if it seemed they had never really happened for you. Except for the time he nearly fainted. His frown deepened. Anyway, the dining hall was very public, and you seemed to dislike the experience of eating there as much as he did – not at all suitable. 

What if he hosted dinner in his quarters? You had done that for him, even if informally, so it was likely not entirely outside the realm of comfort or interest for you. The major drawback of this plan was that his ability to prepare food was nonexistent. His mind presented a scenario in which he offered you an unwrapped nutrition bar on a plate. Utterly humiliating. Although… he could simply order a meal from the dining hall and eat it with you in his quarters. Yes, that wasn’t a bad idea. He typed a few notes into his plan.

He stood to critically assess his dining facilities. As a higher-ranking officer, he had a slightly more well-equipped eating space – a standard, restaurant-height table and two matching chairs. He had never once used this area for its intended purpose. He paced around the table, fingers pressed to his lips, considering. Nothing fancy, certainly, but it was serviceable. He wished he could offer you more – far more – than ‘serviceable,’ but in his current circumstances, his ability to make improvements was limited. 

With food and location sorted, he worried over the issue of beverages. He had been to enough diplomatic meetings in planetside restaurants to know that it was customary for them to serve alcohol of some form. However, alcohol was a tightly controlled substance on First Order ships. His status as general entitled him to a receive a pre-approved ration of it, but he would have no idea what to pick. Wine? What kind? Cocktails were out of the question – he could barely tell one red wine from another; there was no chance that he could construct a complex drink. He slipped into one of the dining chairs, drumming his fingers on the table. Anyway, he didn’t know what you liked, or if you drank alcohol at all. 

He did know you drank tea. But you found tarine too bitter. His lips drew into a small smile at that. Lieutenant Sladden was something of a tea connoisseur, constantly regaling Hux’s other staff with exhaustive descriptions of whatever brew he had constructed that day, pointing out flavors that Hux had never heard of, let alone be able to identify. If he asked Sladden for a recommendation, he doubted the lieutenant would ever question why he was inquiring, lost in the excitement of the fact that someone was actually listening to him rhapsodize about tea. He returned to his desk, adding more notes to his plan.

It seemed that all that was left to do was decide what to do after dinner. He had little faith in his abilities to captivate or entertain you without a planned activity. What had he seen in holofilms? Very little, truthfully. The holofilms available to First Order personnel were limited, and Hux did not have much personal interest in perusing the restricted offerings that did exist. He supposed there was the concept of the romantic after-dinner walk, but the corridors of a Star Destroyer did not exactly scream ‘romance.’ The ex-Imperials never tired of relating the minute details of the supposedly unimaginable spectacle of the operas and ballets they used to attend after lengthy dinners on Coruscant, even as Hux had immediately tired of hearing about them. But something of that nature was far beyond what he could hope to offer, even if it might be of interest to you, although he wasn’t certain whether it would be or not. 

He pressed the heels of his hands against his forehead. What else? What else had he seen in holofilms? Wait. Holofilms. He looked up suddenly. He could suggest watching a holofilm. True, they held little interest for him, but a vision was beginning to coalesce in his mind. He stood again, pacing to the sitting area that held his couch. He could see you pressed up against him, perhaps wrapped in a blanket, bathed in the soft light of the projected images. Maybe you would rest your head against his shoulder. Maybe he could wrap an arm around you, pull you closer. He could imagine the warmth of your skin, the weight of your body against him. He perched on the edge of the couch, beginning to feel a little lightheaded. That could work. 

As his slight feeling of faintness passed, he returned once more to his desk, typing in the final details of his plan. He sat back then, feeling more than a little pleased with himself. It was far less than you deserved – that was all too apparent to him – but he hoped it would be enjoyable nonetheless. Now all he had to do was collect the last few required items and wait a couple cycles. He could manage that.

Just as he was turning back to his mundane tasks, a notification lit up on his screen. A flash of disappointment shot through him upon realizing it wasn’t from you. He opened it, ready to file it away to it proper location, until he read through the contents. It was a request for a diplomatic visit to a senator with whom the First Order had been having… difficulties. It seemed that said senator was ready to at least entertain a meeting with Hux on certain policy points. The visit would take place on the senator’s home planet, just a few cycles after his date with you. He typed out a formal acceptance, a joyful bubble rising in his chest. Not only was he being handed an opportunity to expand the First Order’s political reach, but it was also looking like he wouldn’t have to wait so agonizingly long to spend more time with you.

[kirsteninthesun]

Things I’d Like To See in Kirsten’s Collection

SINGING BIRD. Such a good missed opportunity for a best friend doll. There could have been a new face mold (Kaya’s isn’t a general Native American facemold, it’s very specific.) and a cool exploration of different styles of dress. This is how I picture her. Their friendship is so nice and important to the story, because it adds a critical perspective to what would otherwise be a “wow our lives are so much better and everything worked out”. Kirsten and Singing Bird also go through similar hardships with famine, culture clash, and language learning.

Singing Bird’s gifts. Singing Bird could come with accessories that included Kirsten’s gifts to her, and Kirsten could have a set that had Singing Bird’s gifts, too.

Baked goods. She has some bread but a bread in a basket would be cute. Some cookies would also be nice, specifically pepparkakkor.

Her cinnamon heart from the general store. That could have gone along with her winter woolens.

The family Bible. Those were so important to pioneer families and it ties into her story.

Winter boots with fur. Boots with the fur? Yes please. They’re pictured in her winter story.

Washboard and laundry. Sounds boring but so does a lot of stuff in AG, and kids would love it.

Maybe a Dala horse. I’m back and forth on those for her- in her time they would have been a little more confined to West/Central Sweden rather than far Southeastern Sweden, but taking some historical liberties would have given her a cool toy that Lars and Peter could carve.

I wish her dirndl had been more accurate but you take what you can get and I like it well enough.

Kirsten’s collection is really well done. She escaped BeForever, thank God, and her stuff is really accurate to her time and culture.

[lunatens]

on my mind & in my heart

word count: 952

genre: fluff

pairing: song mingi x gender neutral reader

summary: literally you just go on a drive w mingi

song rec: drive through summer - dala

a/n: wow i literally can’t remember the last time i wrote something that wasn't about stray kids HAH but anyways this is loosely based off of a dream i had about mingi the other day (the dream wasn’t as exciting as this ahasdkdhk but still) and uhh yeah pls enjoy i love mingi so much <3

tonight, you have a date with a bowl of chips, a couple of blankets, and your favourite netflix show. you’re curled up on the couch a couple episodes in when you hear a car pull into your driveway, and you furrow your brows in curiosity; your parents are away for the weekend, and your boyfriend mingi isn’t supposed to come over until tomorrow night. there’s a knock on the door, and you pause the show you’re watching. a moment of silence, then another knock sounds, this time more urgent. after deciding this person probably won’t go away, you slide off the couch and silently creep to the front door. cautiously, you peer through the window, pressing your forehead against the warped glass. the distortion makes the figure standing outside look kind of ambiguous, but you would recognize him anywhere. you roll your eyes, opening the door to cut off a third set of somehow even more aggressive knocking.

“hello min-“ you’re cut off as mingi pulls you into a quick hug and presses a small kiss to your cheek.

“it’s the summer solstice, and we’re going to celebrate,” he tells you rather matter of factly. you frown and look down at your pajama shorts and hoodie (that may or may not belong to mingi).

“i’m not ready to go out, i just got comfy,” you whine, and mingi blinks at you.

“y/n, i missed youuu, plus we aren’t going anywhere really, so it doesn’t matter. even though you look cute as always,” he says, winking and sticking out his tongue a little.

“it’s literally been like 5 hours since i saw you last,” you say, but you can’t hide the smile that’s creeping onto your face. “where are we going, anyways?” you ask as you lock the door to your house and slide into the passenger seat of mingi’s car.

“nowhere, we’re just...going,” he replies. he adjusts his hair and puts on his sunglasses, then flashes you a mischievous smile as he reverses out of your driveway.

~

20 minutes later and you’re racing down an old country road, windows down and volume cranked all the way up. the wind tousles your hair as it roars in through the window; it’ll be a nightmare to brush out later, but it’s worth it for the moment. the sun is beginning it’s slow descent in the sky, faint pinks and oranges slowly becoming more and more vibrant. vast fields fly by as you drive through the long, winding roads, and you admire the pretty little stone farmhouses in the distance. sometimes there’s cows or horses, which always prompts either you or mingi to scream excitedly and point at them.

the song you’re listening to comes to an end, and there’s a comfortable silence as you wait for the next song to come on. your heart is full of happiness; mingi’s made a playlist for you of “songs that make me think of you and your cute face,” (in his words) and the combination of the music, the beautiful summer night, and mingi makes you feel like the happiest person alive. you laugh and clap as “just wanna be with you” from high school musical three comes on, and mingi grins widely. you both sing as loud as you can, belting out words and not caring if you sound good or not.

the song slows down as it comes to an end, and as you sing the final harmonies (or, your best attempt at a harmony) of “i just wanna be with you,” mingi looks over and reaches out to gently caress your cheek, a big goofy smile on his face.

“hey, eyes on the road, mingi,” you say through a shy giggle. he turns to face the road, but takes your hand in his and brings it up to plant a kiss on your knuckles. you blush; even though you’ve been dating for a while, mingi never fails to make you fall in love with him over and over again.

“what’s this all for?” you ask, your eyes now on mingi rather than the views outside he car, admiring him as he seems to almost glow in the fading sunlight. you reach to turn down the volume a little so you can hear each other speak without having to yell.

“for you, duh,” he replies, one hand lazily gripping the wheel while he squeezes your hand with the other.

“yeah, but today isn’t anything special, is it?”

“every day i spend with you is special, babe, i don’t need a reason to make you a playlist or take you out or tell you i love you,” he says, stealing a glance at you. you thought you couldn’t love mingi any more than you already did, but his words fill you with a warm bubbly feeling as your affection for him grows ever stronger.

“it’s the longest day of the year, and i just wanted to spend it with you,” he finishes, giving your hand another affectionate squeeze. you don’t know what to say, so you just stare at him for a moment with major heart eyes.

“song mingi, i don’t know what i’d do without you, i love you so much,” you say eventually. mingi giggles shyly at your words and now it’s his turn to blush. another hype song comes on the playlist, and you crank it back up. you drive until your throats hurt from all the singing (and trying to scream i love you at each other over the sound of the wind and the stereo), cruising along the seemingly endless country roads until long past sunset and feeling like you need nothing more than good music and each other’s company.

[interiorstarweb]

Living Room, 5 years In!

I’ve realized lately that I tend to blog about a room once it’s renovated, and then I kind of move on. I guess I feel like…how many times does anyone possibly want to look at the same room, just a little altered from last time we looked at the room? I never feel like a room is finished because I move stuff around ALL THE DAMN TIME for shits and giggles, and then posting about it feels so…self-indulgent? Unimportant? And then years go by and the room actually does look TOTALLY different than it did before, and then I feel a little regretful that entire iterations of the space have gone undocumented in the meantime. The public must know. For the purpose of…I don’t know, this is a blog and that is what we do here.

Which leads us to my living room, which regularly ends up as the victim of my late-night puttering. And the last time I felt inclined to write a blog post about it was OVER THREE YEARS AGO! Oopsie! We have some catching up to do!

Back when I bought the house, the living room looked like this!

A couple years later, it looked like this! Let’s take a moment to appreciate and mourn the extreme cuteness and specialness that was Linus. I miss that dog so fucking much.

Today, it’s more like this! I didn’t consult my old pictures before taking new pictures, so APOLOGIES for the inconsistent angles. I didn’t ask Mekko (or Linus, who did not take direction) to pose for pictures—she does that on her own free will—so, I don’t know, do we feel weirded out she chose the same spot? It’s like she…is trying to tell me…something. (She isn’t; she’s a dog.)

So some things have changed and some have not changed. My dumb little bench is still my coffee table, which really just goes to show how utterly impossible it is to find a good coffee table. I MEAN MY GOD. All the ones that are right in most ways are still so wrong in other ways I fear I will die before the culture at large figures this mess out.

I got that painting a couple weeks ago from a local consignment place. I had this idea that I’d paint the frame but instead I got home and immediately just put it up and so far have not addressed it further. It appears to be signed S. Eagle in the bottom right corner. Seagull?

Also, the sofa is new! And by new, I mean no longer really new, but I guess making its big blog debut? Just in time for me to WANT IT OUT OF MY HOUSE RIGHT NOW? Fancy that! So this is the IKEA NOCKEBY 3-seater, which I found in the As-Is section at IKEA around 3 years ago for something stupid, like $200. I didn’t like the legs so I swapped them for these Pretty Pegs, which this couch isn’t really made to do but I made it work. I’ll spare you the DIY tutorial but it involves extra screws and additional support and it’s just not that interesting. Anyway. The NOCKEBY is in most ways a good sofa, but I’m not allowed to own a sofa that isn’t going to also serve as a luxury dog bed. This sofa has a limited selection of slipcovers, and this one (which may now be discontinued?) is TERRIBLE when forced to interact with either dog hair or dog nails. TERRIBLE. Of course it can be taken off and washed, but with IKEA couches that’s actually kind of a production, and it doesn’t wash well, and I just do not like it at all.

This lead me to purchasing a SECOND, DIFFERENT slipcover, which had a tighter weave, and that was SOMEHOW EVEN WORSE. After trying every stain removal method I could imagine, I could never get the thing clean and I eventually threw it away.

SO now I’m at this dumb crossroads of either buying yet another slipcover ($$) for this so-so cheap sofa I performed some light hackery on, or getting this menace out of my life and buying a new leather sofa ($$$). I suppose I could also just put the original black/chrome sofa back, since I still have it, and it IS leather, but I didn’t like it in here either so I’m not sure that’s an improvement.

I think I just need a different sofa.

Let me think about it for another three to five years.

The rug is also new! But not new-new. I got it at auction and I like it! The colors and the pattern are so bright and bold and fun. Which is also me saying: I have not taken the time to learn anything about the origins of this rug, but it is a nice rug that was $300 and the main color is mustard and I’m into it.

2013! Those walls were wild, man.

2015.

So this looks like that now, you get it. More stuff on the mantel. Less big scary lady. Bertoia wire chair from yore still hangin out.

Ya know, I feel like I pulled this faux fireplace project off.

The arts above the fireplace are by Gregory Gummersall. On the mantel are stuff and things. We have vintage studio pottery. We have my dead dog’s collar. We have 2 Dala horses. We have my precious lamp. We have some antique crocks.

WE HAVE THIS BANANAS CRYSTAL I paid $5 for at a garage sale recently. I’m not, like, a ~crystal person~ but I’m totally a crystal person. Also, Dala horse butts are so cute.

This is 2015. This wall has always been tricky. I’ve since moved the piano. I have NO IDEA what to do with the piano. It’s HUGE and in reality, there are exactly 3 walls on the main floor that can fit it. I do not play piano. I do not have any desire to learn how to play the piano. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to know how to play the piano, but I do not see myself trying to learn that of all things in the foreseeable future. Shower/car singing is my only real musical passion. But I have this huge piano that came with my home, because the man who lived in it FROM AGE SEVEN TO NINETY-TWO was the lead organist at the Old Dutch Church and taught piano lessons out of this very house during the Depression and, like, the war and shit and who the hell am I to put his piano on fucking Facebook Marketplace?

It’s a real problem.

Also I got a nice bench that matches it pretty perfectly. And then I moved them both into the hoard room of doom.

So, in a fit of I-don’t-know-what, I made this situation all by myself and I call it Curiosity Corner because I don’t know what it does, it just is. It is my things assembled in a way that is just a way to look at a lot of things at once. Shiny objects I have acquired by various means.

The mirrors are nutso but I like it a little nutso.

I inherited these two really groovy lucite end tables from a recent exciting purge of my parents’ storage space, which came in a shipment including things like my old soccer trophies and these truly astonishingly long spools I made of my finger-knittings (not pictured). The tables originally came from my grandparents’ house! I don’t really have anywhere for large end tables like this right now, so to maximize Curiosity Corner I put them side-by-side and then put things all around them. Over! Under! Inside! More things!

That blanket folded up on the chair, yonder, I bought at a war reenactment with my friend Chandler in high school. The bud vase I got at a thrift store in Sweden. That little colorful container has a set of matching coasters in it, and once lived in my grandparents’ rec room (the other grandparents, not the lucite table grandparents). My friend Maya gave me that mirror above the lamp. The lamp is from IKEA and I love that thing. Maybe not as precious as some of the other stuff but I’d still TRY to save it in a fire.

Also on display are a few things I’ve found in the walls or swept into the corner of the attic, that kind of thing. I blogged about the one in the back a while ago!

Is this…doxxing? Forgive me Madame Jeanson.

That pillow in the background was part of the Marimekko for Target collection and the alpaca wool pillow on my safari chair was a thrift find a couple weeks ago! It was $20 with the down insert and is in PERFECT condition. It’s by Elvang Denmark and was…definitely more than $20 new. Look at me with a fancy throw pillow.

Does that about cover things? Mekko’s OVER. IT.

Living Room, 5 years In! published first on https://novaformmattressreview.tumblr.com/

[billydmacklin]

Living Room, 5 years In!

I’ve realized lately that I tend to blog about a room once it’s renovated, and then I kind of move on. I guess I feel like…how many times does anyone possibly want to look at the same room, just a little altered from last time we looked at the room? I never feel like a room is finished because I move stuff around ALL THE DAMN TIME for shits and giggles, and then posting about it feels so…self-indulgent? Unimportant? And then years go by and the room actually does look TOTALLY different than it did before, and then I feel a little regretful that entire iterations of the space have gone undocumented in the meantime. The public must know. For the purpose of…I don’t know, this is a blog and that is what we do here.

Which leads us to my living room, which regularly ends up as the victim of my late-night puttering. And the last time I felt inclined to write a blog post about it was OVER THREE YEARS AGO! Oopsie! We have some catching up to do!

Back when I bought the house, the living room looked like this!

A couple years later, it looked like this! Let’s take a moment to appreciate and mourn the extreme cuteness and specialness that was Linus. I miss that dog so fucking much.

Today, it’s more like this! I didn’t consult my old pictures before taking new pictures, so APOLOGIES for the inconsistent angles. I didn’t ask Mekko (or Linus, who did not take direction) to pose for pictures—she does that on her own free will—so, I don’t know, do we feel weirded out she chose the same spot? It’s like she…is trying to tell me…something. (She isn’t; she’s a dog.)

So some things have changed and some have not changed. My dumb little bench is still my coffee table, which really just goes to show how utterly impossible it is to find a good coffee table. I MEAN MY GOD. All the ones that are right in most ways are still so wrong in other ways I fear I will die before the culture at large figures this mess out.

I got that painting a couple weeks ago from a local consignment place. I had this idea that I’d paint the frame but instead I got home and immediately just put it up and so far have not addressed it further. It appears to be signed S. Eagle in the bottom right corner. Seagull?

Also, the sofa is new! And by new, I mean no longer really new, but I guess making its big blog debut? Just in time for me to WANT IT OUT OF MY HOUSE RIGHT NOW? Fancy that! So this is the IKEA NOCKEBY 3-seater, which I found in the As-Is section at IKEA around 3 years ago for something stupid, like $200. I didn’t like the legs so I swapped them for these Pretty Pegs, which this couch isn’t really made to do but I made it work. I’ll spare you the DIY tutorial but it involves extra screws and additional support and it’s just not that interesting. Anyway. The NOCKEBY is in most ways a good sofa, but I’m not allowed to own a sofa that isn’t going to also serve as a luxury dog bed. This sofa has a limited selection of slipcovers, and this one (which may now be discontinued?) is TERRIBLE when forced to interact with either dog hair or dog nails. TERRIBLE. Of course it can be taken off and washed, but with IKEA couches that’s actually kind of a production, and it doesn’t wash well, and I just do not like it at all.

This lead me to purchasing a SECOND, DIFFERENT slipcover, which had a tighter weave, and that was SOMEHOW EVEN WORSE. After trying every stain removal method I could imagine, I could never get the thing clean and I eventually threw it away.

SO now I’m at this dumb crossroads of either buying yet another slipcover ($$) for this so-so cheap sofa I performed some light hackery on, or getting this menace out of my life and buying a new leather sofa ($$$). I suppose I could also just put the original black/chrome sofa back, since I still have it, and it IS leather, but I didn’t like it in here either so I’m not sure that’s an improvement.

I think I just need a different sofa.

Let me think about it for another three to five years.

The rug is also new! But not new-new. I got it at auction and I like it! The colors and the pattern are so bright and bold and fun. Which is also me saying: I have not taken the time to learn anything about the origins of this rug, but it is a nice rug that was $300 and the main color is mustard and I’m into it.

2013! Those walls were wild, man.

2015.

So this looks like that now, you get it. More stuff on the mantel. Less big scary lady. Bertoia wire chair from yore still hangin out.

Ya know, I feel like I pulled this faux fireplace project off.

The arts above the fireplace are by Gregory Gummersall. On the mantel are stuff and things. We have vintage studio pottery. We have my dead dog’s collar. We have 2 Dala horses. We have my precious lamp. We have some antique crocks.

WE HAVE THIS BANANAS CRYSTAL I paid $5 for at a garage sale recently. I’m not, like, a ~crystal person~ but I’m totally a crystal person. Also, Dala horse butts are so cute.

This is 2015. This wall has always been tricky. I’ve since moved the piano. I have NO IDEA what to do with the piano. It’s HUGE and in reality, there are exactly 3 walls on the main floor that can fit it. I do not play piano. I do not have any desire to learn how to play the piano. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to know how to play the piano, but I do not see myself trying to learn that of all things in the foreseeable future. Shower/car singing is my only real musical passion. But I have this huge piano that came with my home, because the man who lived in it FROM AGE SEVEN TO NINETY-TWO was the lead organist at the Old Dutch Church and taught piano lessons out of this very house during the Depression and, like, the war and shit and who the hell am I to put his piano on fucking Facebook Marketplace?

It’s a real problem.

Also I got a nice bench that matches it pretty perfectly. And then I moved them both into the hoard room of doom.

So, in a fit of I-don’t-know-what, I made this situation all by myself and I call it Curiosity Corner because I don’t know what it does, it just is. It is my things assembled in a way that is just a way to look at a lot of things at once. Shiny objects I have acquired by various means.

The mirrors are nutso but I like it a little nutso.

I inherited these two really groovy lucite end tables from a recent exciting purge of my parents’ storage space, which came in a shipment including things like my old soccer trophies and these truly astonishingly long spools I made of my finger-knittings (not pictured). The tables originally came from my grandparents’ house! I don’t really have anywhere for large end tables like this right now, so to maximize Curiosity Corner I put them side-by-side and then put things all around them. Over! Under! Inside! More things!

That blanket folded up on the chair, yonder, I bought at a war reenactment with my friend Chandler in high school. The bud vase I got at a thrift store in Sweden. That little colorful container has a set of matching coasters in it, and once lived in my grandparents’ rec room (the other grandparents, not the lucite table grandparents). My friend Maya gave me that mirror above the lamp. The lamp is from IKEA and I love that thing. Maybe not as precious as some of the other stuff but I’d still TRY to save it in a fire.

Also on display are a few things I’ve found in the walls or swept into the corner of the attic, that kind of thing. I blogged about the one in the back a while ago!

Is this…doxxing? Forgive me Madame Jeanson.

That pillow in the background was part of the Marimekko for Target collection and the alpaca wool pillow on my safari chair was a thrift find a couple weeks ago! It was $20 with the down insert and is in PERFECT condition. It’s by Elvang Denmark and was…definitely more than $20 new. Look at me with a fancy throw pillow.

Does that about cover things? Mekko’s OVER. IT.

Living Room, 5 years In! published first on https://carpetgurus.tumblr.com/