IT'S BEEN A BUSY WEEK

MONDAY: Justin and I closed on our house. That means we signed A LOT of papers, wrote A LOT of checks, and officially became homeowners.  

 

That day we saw a deer, a groundhog, and an abundance of birds and little critters in our backyard. It's like the nature channel outside our kitchen window!  

We ate a lovely dinner on the kitchen floor and spent the night on our air mattress. 

The next morning we woke up and caught the tail end of sunrise outside our bedroom window. So dreamy!  

TUESDAY: We had to go back to Brooklyn to finish packing up our apartment...which took WAY longer than we wanted it to.  

WEDNESDAY: The movers came at 8:00 am. It was amazing how fast and efficient they were. We were out of there by 10:30 am and on our way back up to Kingston with Steven Kit Kitterson in tow. 

Justin and I decided that hiring movers was one the the top five best decisions we've ever made. It came in just below getting married, buying a house, and bringing home a cat.  

THURSDAY: We woke up early and went to a local stone quarry where we made the world's largest impulse buy: 10 TONS of rocks. I'll explain more in a later post.  

That evening we drove up to South Hadley, MA for a Bishop Allen show at Mount Holyoke. We played in a big beautiful old hall with a legitimate stage. (You never know what you're gonna get with these college shows. Usually we end up playing in more of a cafeteria / rec center / snack bar type of situation. And it's WEIRD.)

The whole band came back to our house and stayed the night. Our first visitors!

FRIDAY: We woke up early and made breakfast tacos using our newly unpacked cast iron skillet.

Yesterday the Bishop Allen boys loaded a trailer with the ENTIRE contents of the old practice space, hitched it to the van and drove it to our house. Today we hauled ALL of that gear up three flights of stairs to the new attic studio.

And just a few minutes ago we did our first load of dishes......in a DISHWASHER!!!!!!! We had to read the manual because neither of us had ever done it before. To me a dishwasher seems like something from the Jetsons. I mean...you push a button and it does it for you??? Really??? I can't believe I own one of these futuristic contraptions.

We've definitely made some progress packing.  Last night I very carefully wrapped each of my vintage glasses and boxed them ALL.  Today I decided I would take on an easier task:  to collect all of the bottles and jars and vases of flowers and that I have displayed around the apartment.  What I didn't realize was that I have them hidden ALL OVER.  On every shelf, every table, every nook, every cranny. 

See, I love flowers.  Especially ones that don't die. (I think this stems from my black thumb complex and grim history with houseplants.) I have all different kinds - crepe paper, corn husk, ribbon, metal, fabric, wood.....  On top of that I also like to collect anything natural that I can put in a vase and enjoy for years to come - branches, pussy willows, feathers.....  The list is endless.  

Well, I finished gathering all of these whatnots from around the apartment....and it turns out there was 48 of them.  Seriously?!  48?!  That's SO not right.  I AM a crazy cat lady.  This apartment is NOT that big. 

 I lined up a sampling and took some photos for you.

I love both of these.  It's hard to tell from the picture, but the one on the left is a vintage piece made from silvery seed beads and wire....and the one on the right is silk flowers from the 20s that are meant to be worn in your hair.

These are another one of my faves - vintage Japanese paper flowers from the 1960s.  When I got them they were never used and still in their original super 60s packaging. 

LAST DAYS

We have one week left in our apartment. ONE WEEK. After 5 years and 7 months of living here.

So: we are 7 days away from moving and Justin and I have finally faced the facts - we have to start packing. I have always been a super sentimental person...and no matter how excited I am to move on to bigger and better things...I do have a special place in my heart for this apartment. So packing seems kind of bittersweet. Not to mention intimidating. We have collected an UNBELIEVABLE amount of books and art and knick-knacks and bric-a-brac.

Before we started boxing everything up I decided to treat our apartment to a proper photo session. Here are pictures of each and every room. And a couple of Steven Kit Kitterson.

See what I mean? Books....and knick-knacks.....and bric-a-brac.

And the kichen? BRIC-A-BRAC GALORE. Hmm...I think we need more boxes.

This was always Steve's favorite springtime spot. Perfect for terrorizing the neighborhood birds.

It's official. Justin and I are trading in our railroad apartment in Brooklyn for a three story Victorian in Kingston, NY. Our loan is approved, the contracts are signed, and our lawyer will be calling us this week to set a closing date. After years of fantasizing about moving upstate, we are about to actually do it. So crazy.