In which I delight in the city

I am not a city mouse. I hate crowds and tall buildings and paying SO MUCH attention to pedestrian-right-of-way and would much rather plod along a quiet, shady street and have enough space to maybepossibly grow some chickens someday when Hubs isn't looking.

But, I shelved the city-animosity for a nice weekend break in Chicago. You know, a holiday - a quick break is what I think I remember the UK-iest of sets calling them.

Please note the dude on the left of me. It's true what they say about Cubs fans - they're hot!

My lack of photographs from this excursion is at once sad (because it was a great hair weekend) and truly perfect (because it was also a weekend of great beers). I mean, we went to the Cubs-Sox game at Wrigley, and I, being a humble Cards fan (OK, fine, just a person from St. Louis), did my best to blend in with the locals, who seem impervious to all that frosty Old Style.

We wined and dined ourselves as much as humanly possibly because, c'mon, it was vacation. I even knocked back my first raw oyster at Gibsons. (I don't want to talk about it.)

Sunday, we wandered around like true tourists and hit the top of the Hancock. I also departed from my standby of empire-waisted day dresses and went for a true waist look. Thrilling and exotic life I lead, right?

We had a great time and if you're looking for a good place to stay in Chicago, I'd recommend the Sutton Place Hotel. It was all swank and swagger with a pinch of 1985. Who doesn't want a chunky black phone in the bathroom these days?

On the Fourth, we made it back to good old Iowa in time for some pool-axin' (pool + relaxing....? Will this one stick?), a quick bike ride to dinner and fireworks.

How was your long weekend? Whatcha doin' this weekend? Can I tag along?

God bless America

Look closely to see the seven Ps at work: Prior proper planning prevents piss poor performance.

Or. In this case, it's being so lazy, we left the damn Christmas lights up so long, there is no point in taking them down.

But you know I'm a sucker for aliteration, so I'm calling this the seven Ps in action. Bug off.

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The basement gets it's day in the sun

Did you catch us on Remodelaholic today? Because that's where our sweet little basement landed. We're, um, kind of a big deal online.

But you knew that.

In real life, we at Bigger, Better, Best also roll in the big time and as such, have declared it summer vacation 'round these parts. We're getting crazy doing things like mowing the monster lawn, skimming the redneck pool of debris and riding lots of dubious hot pink bikes.

Pardon our hiatus. Sometimes, a gal just needs a moment to get her mind right before painting 1/4 of her garage a rainbow of sherbert colors.

Yes. That's happening. Eventually.

Hazy summer days are made for moving slow and around here, we like to let the weather make our important decisions.

Let's make the house a little weirder

It's been a very busy week, but I wanted to let you know : I wasn't kidding about the garage mural project.

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Do you see it, too?

This expanse of garage wall that faces our patio garden needs an autobiographical mural.

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Like father, like daughter

Happy Father's Day to any and all dads who read this blog.

I'm pretty sure there's just one and he's my very own pa, which is why I feel it fitting to mark today with the following confession:

I made and enjoy a Pandora station based on Jimmy Buffet.

Now you all know. I have the musical sensibilities of a man who, probably, has in his lifetime owned more than 30 pairs of Sperry's.

Have a good one!

Don't let that door hit you on the way out

 One of the first mini-projects since falling off the DIY wagon was to replace our janky bathroom door. Previous owners had put this poor thing through the ringer - painting it blue, installing a towel bar (did I mention this is your standard-issue hollow core door and therefore not suitable to bearing any weight?) and letting rusty hinge juice decorate the jamb.

 The towel bar did a real number on the poor door. It used to always fall out of the door, especially when we had guests who weren't used to the supreme ghettoness of our bathroom. In the picture below you can see the totally rockin' blue paint that used to cover not only the door, but the whole bathroom.

 So, we went off to Home Depot and bought a paneled door. Because our house is old and weird, the new door needed to be cut down a smidgey bit.

 Hubs and I got to get back into our respirators and goggles, which is a look I know I missed, so I'm guessing you missed this awesomeness in your daily blog visits, too, right?

How you doin'?

After some slicing and dicing, a little touch up paint, and a fancy new non-brass door knob, we couldn't help but fall breathless every time we caught a glimpse of the new bathroom door.

Cue the choir of angles!

In the spirit of easing back into DIY, we only did one of the three doors in our hallway. The two bedroom doors are still 50's slabs with brass door knobs and bad paint jobs.

In due time, bedroom doors. In due time.

I was really surprised how the panels made such a difference. the bathroom feels cottage-y and that slice of hallway feels new and bright. I'm officially in love with paneled doors.

Here's a really nerdy question: do you have a favorite type of door? I bet you do, nerd.