“Where’s the cat?” That’s my title for the above photo. We are officially moved!

A week ago, our landlady called and asked us to move out 10 days early, giving us 6 days to move all our stuff and clean the apartment. It was the week when Madison was 90 degrees and 90% humidity everyday, the very hottest week of the year. Our schedule quickly became: haul heavy stuff in the morning, lunch, nap, haul lighter but still heavy stuff at night, collapse, rinse and repeat.

Since we only moved a block, we didn’t do much pre-packing and we simply rented an open bed trailer, making small trips back and forth. I learned that even if you are just moving a block, it still means you have to pick-up every item you own. And man do we own a lot of stuff!

Sunday night, apartment clean and keys turned in, it seemed unreal that we actually own and live in this house. It feels so very fancy after our ill-kept apartment with the bathroom from hell and a kitchen from purgatory. I’m so happy to be done with that place. Yay!

Now to begin the unpacking. Our goal this time around: Throw stuff out (or sell it for cheap)!

In Atlanta, we were content to live with our peachy, off-white walls and white, white trim. The whole house was uniform and neutral and chosen by the previous owner. It made life easy. Our new house spent the past ten years as a student rental and received the classic, rental white apartment treatment. Now it is time to face the color wheel. In the photo you can see little slivers of all the colors we picked for our first floor. I love the names of paint colors and I found a book called “Colors for your Home” by House Beautiful, filled with the best color descriptions. Here’s what we settled on:

Cream Puff (aka yellow): ” This is the color of light - sort of like creme fraiche and butter and sunlight and moonlight all mixed together. When it’s sunshiny, it becomes more creamy, but when it’s dark outside, it looks very bright and luminous.”

Bleached Linen (aka white): “It’s the classic formula. Linen White looks as if it’s been on the wall a long time, which works very well with old English and French furniture. But it can be a little too yellow, so I usually cool it down with pure white to make something a bit lighter and more sophisticated.”

Koala Bear (aka light green): “The color creates such a delicate, soft mood. I call it a non-color. It’s like being inside a beautiful egg. you don’t really know if it’s powder blue or gray or a pale olive, but it’s a color from nature, and it puts you at peace.”

Grasshopper Wing (aka dark green): ” Green is my favorite color. It’s just so soothing, and I think a library should be a soothing dark color. Wood, if you can have it. If you can’t make it this woodsy green. ”

Starless Night (aka blue): “I’m mad about this dark inky blue, as it gives great vibrancy and depth to a wall.”

Apple Polish (aka red): “It’s not too orange, not too blue - it looks like an antique red, a Pompeian red. Almost everything looks good with it.”

How can you not love color with descriptions like these? I’ll be sharing the final outcome of these wonderful color choices as each room is finished.

On June 16th we became home owners in Madison. Owning a house in Madison has been a dream of mine, long before SB, before…I can’t even remember…since I knew what it meant to own a house. In college I would take walks late at night, looking at the cozy homes on the Isthmus and wonder what house would someday be mine. After I met SB, we spent many beautiful evenings fantasizing about our own future house. The journey of home ownership in Atlanta did not deter our dream of our one day Madison home. Now, next week, we will move into this house. A house that we now own but is not yet our home.

For the past three weeks, with papers signed, we jumped into home improvement. The first day we picked out our first paint samples and began our new house PORP (project of ridiculous proportions). I’ve learned a ton and the house as our home has started to take shape. I can’t wait to know what our house will become.

There could have been no better way to spend the fourth of July than seeing a dear friend marry her true love. The celebration encapsulated the essence of their love, their family and their friends. The rain held off, the mosquitoes blew away and they danced into the night. I wish them all the happiness of their wedding day to carry forward to everyday.

I recently completed my ninth blanket, since taking up yarn crafting. For this blanket, I returned to my classic crochet ripple, but this time it is a bigger blanket in bolder colors. The little turquoise lines add extra pop to the pattern and it is all done in super-wash merino wool, for machine washability. Looking back on previous blankets I can see how my skills are improving and my aesthetic is developing.

The blanket is for the first child of the Crazy Rosie household and it needed to be vibrant just like their family.

I was reminded this morning that the image I’ve left “all” my blog readers with is poor Miss Lola in her collar. How unfair! Lola recovered in about a month and thankfully did not go so stir crazy that drugs were needed. She’s now back in top form, running through the dog fields and rolling in the deep summer grass.

In other doggy news, since moving to Madison we’ve struggled to find the right dog sitting option for our special needs dog. We had been using a good kennel outside of town but it is heart breaking to take our fear stricken Lola back to a little cage and then frolic off on vacation with this sad image in our minds. No longer! A young woman from Lola’s day care has developed a crazy crush on Miss Lola and suggested we leave Lola with her. We tried it out a couple weeks ago. The woman said dog sitting Lola was “a dream come true”! When we picked Lola up at the end of a long weekend, Lola was completely integrated into this woman’s world, running with her pack of dogs. There was happiness all around. I am so happy we found such a good place to leave our dog. This is going to make vacations even better!

Miss Lola had an accident this week at the dog park while racing down a hillside at top speed. When she came to a screeching halt for no reason it wasn’t apparent at first that she’d been stabbed through her chest skin by something very sharp. When she came limping back to us we noticed the two inch tear exposing her tough muscle. I grabbed her in my arms, SB ran for the car and it was off to the emergency room for eight staples, pain killer and an Elizabethan Collar.

Now she’s on two weeks rest with absolutely no running. So far she has mostly slept but I fear next week I will not have it so easy. Lola gets a good amount of running practically everyday, just to take the edge off her energy. Without the exercise she may drive me out of the house or we both may need sedation.

In other news of the month, we are trying to buy a house in our neighborhood, right around the corner from where we live now. I know a month ago I had sworn off house buying for at least another year, but it is an obsession and when this house came on the market we couldn’t just walk on by. So, we have an accepted offer and the inspection is done. We are just starting the remediation phase of the negotiation. If all goes well, we will close in early June which is very pleasant time to move. I’m sure I’ll be writing more about it in the coming weeks.

Finally, I completed my first two cable knit projects and I learned that cabling is easy and also that working with super chunky yarn makes it all go fast. I’ll have to wait until next winter to really enjoy this set.

January skating in Chicago.

Seven Layer Salad:

From epicurious. I had never made or even had this American “classic” (according to SB). The presentation, for a salad, was classy and it tasted even better. I used all my favorite salad items plus the peas and cheddar cheese. The salad dressing was the real knock-out success. Next time I need a naughty, delicious dressing I will make this.

Roasted Almonds with Rosemary:

From epicurious. These nuts were amazing. They had the perfect crispy coating and were so easy. I would never have thought of using egg whites as the binding agent but it worked like a charm. I will be making these again.

Medjool Dates with Cheese:

No recipe for this one. Just find good dates. I like the bulk ones from Whole Foods and good cheese, like Hook’s five year cheddar or a local chevre. Slice the dates in half lengthwise and fill with cheese. This also makes a great snack.

After a solid six months of couch hunting we found this couch from the 1960’s at a secret, buyer’s club only, mid-century furniture warehouse here in Madison. It is in amazing condition, with original upholstery. It feels and looks brand new and best of all it is comfortable. I have been enjoying watching the Olympics from it.

This winter it became apparent that my sweater collection had far out-grown my narrow drawered mid-century teak dresser. I needed a second dresser with large drawers for bulky clothing. After a good search I came across this refurbished dresser at a local store. It holds everything with room to spare. My only complaint is that it has a lingering smell of cologne inside the drawers. It just needs some more airing out.

I’m still looking for a new tv console and a lateral file cabinet. The hunt is half the fun!