Rob and I moved into a rental house in North Portland recently, and we love it. No more coin operated laundry, no more walking up three flights of stairs just to walk down another set (yes, it was a weird apartment building). Moving was a pain in the ass, but that’s to be expected. We’ve painted, cleaned, cleaned, and CLEANED our new place.
I don’t want to get too gritty here. I don’t know what wonderful bit of deliciousness you may happen to be munching on right now, but sharing a few “before” pictures of our place may cause one to suddenly not feel like eating. I’m talking about those pictures of What Lurks Under the Stove, and Good Lord the Bathroom Trim is Actually White Under that Grime.
But there’s one bit that I HAVE to show you. The Kitchen Curtains That Haven’t Been Washed Since the 90’s were present in our place, and I may or may not have gagged when I took them down. They used to be white, and these babies were terrycloth. IN A KITCHEN. AROUND FOOD.
Ahem.
I mean, I know that print is super…. okay it’s just gross. I don’t want to keep thinking about the dust ball I half-breathed in when I stuffed all three of these homemade panels in the trash.
I wanted to replace them with something that would be clean looking, of course, and I remembered a cute kitchen-themed print from Robert Kaufman. I’m not really a themed kitchen kind of girl, so I just put a border of it along the base of each curtain panel. It gives me a bit of color I was looking for, and matches nicely with the basil that’s in a white IKEA pot on the counter.
There are two more windows over the sink with more panels, that you’ll have to wait to see, when I can someday look at another “before” picture of the kitchen curtains and not shudder.
One thing that came with the house that I am absolutely in love with are the roses. They are literally the most gigantic ones I’ve ever seen. When they first bloom, they are as big as my hand can stretch, and over time they fade into a soft pink. This picture might look over-saturated, but I promise it’s not. It was actually that neon-colored when it bloomed!
And then the color softened as it continued to open up…
Incredible, I tell you.
Other than painting, cleaning, and making non-cancer causing curtains, I have been planting a garden, making jam, and organizing my sewing lair. More on these things tomorrow very soon!
