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 Uncle Greg: our very first guest-blogger!

I’m always learning of new ways to get great results in short periods of time.  You know the late night infomercials and magazine ads that say, “Do Whatyoumay for suchandsuch amount of time and get thusandsuch results!”  Almost instant!

Now I’ve had a few successes at some short-term lifestyle changes.  I went strictly vegan for 6 weeks and lost some weight.  I’ve read the Bible in 90 days.  I even completed Nanowrimo’s challenge of writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days—granted the story was not complete, but I got to the 50,000 word goal.  (Give me a break, the story was about an immortal.  Do you know how long an immortal lives?  Forever!  That’s gonna take more than 50K words to complete.  Even on a good day.)

Then there was P90X.  Hmmm, okay, that one is still in the box that FedEx delivered it in.  I guess that 90 days has yet to be lived.

Yes, I’ve had failures, too.  Some short-term challenges still seem too long, or the results seem too esoteric or not enticing enough.  (Really, me with a six pack in just 90 short days?)

Last week, my inner nerd joined my outer nerd in a count of the days between Memorial Day and Labor Day.  In my mind, these two days are the bookends of summer—despite what the calendar or the school systems say.  This year, including both holidays, there are 99 days of summer!

“I’ve gotta do something with this knowledge,” I said to myself.

So, I have devised a vague and nebulous plan.  I am going to have a different experience every day of the 99 days of summer.  Just 99 days to a more experienced me!

Since I have lived in San Diego for 5 years, some of the things I experience will not be new experiences because I will still count going to the zoo as one and walking the OB pier as another.  But each day there must be an experience that is unique to that day and different from the other 98 days of summer.

I’m really hoping that “doing laundry” is not an experience that I have to anxiously count one day.  Even worse, I hope “washing a load of whites” is not one day followed by “washing a load of darks” the next day!  But there may be some desperate days!  I can only count doing the whites once in the 99 days.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to convince Mary-Grace and Martha and “J” to join me on some of these adventures; and we’ll be able to post the progress…or disappointment.  I have to be a realist.  I’m sure “stayed in pajamas all day” may end up on the list.

I’m looking forward waking up each morning and figuring out what new, different thing I’m going to do.  I’m not looking forward to the sinking thoughts around day 12 when I can’t come up with anything to do.  Oh, the pressure to succeed!

Dang!  “Write a blog about 99 days of summer” could have been on the list, too.  I should have waited.

Uncle Greg is our “adopted” uncle and we love him to bits. He is both a doctor and a skillful shuffleboard player (pictured).  We are SO excited about the next 99 days, and we’ve already started talking about some of the things to put on our list! Stay tuned.

I made this lamp from a gnarly, dirty, splintery old fence post! I loved the contrast between the modern-looking square cut and the old, weathered nature of the wood. It took a lot of sanding, stripping, sunning and cleaning, but now it’s silky-smooth and beautiful, no stain or finish needed! I drilled holes for the cord as discreetly as possible, then wired a lamp kit though. I made the shade using canvas shelf-liner and I painted it very pale pink with a stripe of faux gold leaf at the bottom.

xoxo,
MG

Lately I’ve been into house tours that just look really real. I still love flipping through Elle Decor for the highly exposed, white-washed photos of rooms where fresh flowers abound, and not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse. But, I have an ever-growing collection of photos of rooms that inspire people just the way they are, so I’m doing my best to follow suit and start taking natural pictures of us in our natural habitat.

 The hallway looks a bit scary here, but normally it’s nice.

Here’s a closer look at the sign on the door. We found it in a small pile of trash (don’t ask) in Tennessee last year, and since finding anything with the name “Mary Grace” on it is quite rare, we took it as some sort of sign. We’ve since bought and named our ’88 Grand Wagoneer “Martha”, so now our little homage to this plaque is complete.

Try and ignore the ugly metal bed frame showing here, the bed skirt was in the laundry pile. Spring cleaning … amiright? The metal folding chair is vintage and it folds in a very strange way that tricks me every time. The bookcase is a mid century media cabinet, and we added the shelf. We listen to music all the time, so we don’t even attempt to hide the speakers, bass and wires anymore. That’s a vintage sheep rug on the bookshelf (sorry, sheep-lovers).

These prints sort of look like a collection, but they’re all quite different.  I made the large sketch/painting on the top right after trying everything to find the artist of the original! If anyone just happens to know, please pass that info along to me! The print on the top left is from India circa. 1880′s. I bought it at an antique store when I was 15 years old. (Nerd!) On the bottom left is a vintage, line-drawn portrait of Greta Garbo. The middle print is from a note my husband wrote me years ago, and in the bottom right frame is a gift from my dear friend Jillian. We were in New Orleans a few days after Christmas and she gave a sidewalk-poet with an old typewriter $13 to write a poem for me. It’s one of my treasures.

On the far right is our brainstorming board, which we use for all sorts of things. The giant photograph of the bridge came from IKEA. We’ve had our eye on it for ages and finally bought it as part of our birthday presents to each other. J plays a mean cajón, but most mornings it’s doubling as an end table for our coffee mugs.

 All sorts of favorite items in this photo! There’s my great-grandmother’s rotary phone, our little green crank radio, our trusty projector, and Clover: my one-eyed stuffed bunny/BFF. We’ve been together more than 2 decades now.

Couldn’t resist snapping a few pictures of Jemima.

Her back-end even made it into this one. The blanket is from Anthro and I made the euro shams one very frustrating afternoon of sewing. I built the coat rack using scraps of some pretty maple that I’d been saving. It’s not the strongest thing in the world, but it’s plenty sturdy enough to hold the uke and two very important possessions: our headphones. Koss PortaPro for him, Grape Urbanears Plattan for me:)

This tour doesn’t include the two closets on the left-hand wall. They’ll get their own post some other time!

*We make no money by endorsing or linking to any of the products or companies we mentioned in this (or any other) post! We just like to make it easy on everyone to find the stuff they might be interested in:)

This is our living room. See anything you’d like to have for your very own?

Maybe in these general directions?

Because on April 27th we are opening up our very own store, and we’re so excited we almost can’t take it.

This is a painting, and it’s also a planter. It’s made of plywood, assembled by hand, and has original artwork on all 4 sides. The inspiration behind the painting/planter was two things: We’re always buying new houseplants, and always in need of more real planters to put them in. We became frustrated by how few options were out there that were both affordable and able to house many different-sized plants without looking funny.

Our second inspiration came from our addiction to collecting original art. There’s just something about owning a piece of artwork that someone invested time and creativity into that leaves us always wanting to collect more. The one problem? Art is usually expensive, especially original art. We think everyone’s home should be filled with art that they love, not just people who can afford to shell out the big bucks! So we’re collaborating with several of our artist friends to bring these planters to life, and we can’t wait for you to see them! Each one will be original, one-of-a-kind, and will come with its own “letter of authenticity”, which really just means the artist will hand-write you a friendly and/or charming letter telling you what they were thinking, listening to, watching on Netflix or daydreaming about while painting your planter.

The shop goes up April 27th. Get excited! (We sure are).