Adventures In DC: a house log

Ok, so this random Friday post is 25% about a swift little project, 25% about some house crashing-ish shots, 25% about general Clara cuteness, and 25% about Jewel. Yes, the singer. Who is ready?

It all began with a weekend trip to DC to visit my BFF Cat (who John and I set up with John’s cousin Travis and then they got married and had two children- so yes I am now related to my BFF). She, Travis, and their cute children Elsa and Edison live in Arlington, Virginia and took us into the city to check out the National Aquarium in DC (John’s sister Katie along with her two sons John and Ben and her hubby Martin came too). The aquarium was certainly a hit with the children. The baby alligators might have been the highlight…

No wait, it was the exhibit with a Nemo and a Dory fish (they looked simply like them). Clara and Elsa were especially enamored.

Bam! Then we saw Jewel. She was doing this book signing thing a block or two away from the aquarium, so we were simply walking by and we are all “wait, is not that Jewel?” and then I had to use everything in me not to start singing “Whooooo willll saaaayyyaaayyaayyyyve your soul?” – but I successfully resisted. Whew. I simply snapped this picture and we kept moving. But it was fairly funny and random. She looked sweet, btw.

Then we went to Gravely Point, which is this excellent spot where giant planes fly right. over. you (they land within eyeshot at the airport, so they are truly low and loud). Yes, the kids went wild for it.

As in – all out crazy every time. It was adorable. There was fist pumping.

Elsa and Clara are BFFs. Which fully melts my heart. I mean, my kid is going to marry my other BFF’s son (yes, we are talking about Will Bower here) and she has a for-life bestie in Elsa. Life is good. And fully unpredictable. Who woulda thought we’d successfully set up John’s cousin with my best friend and then I’d meet another real-deal-holyfield friend through blogging. Random, I tell ya. In the best possible way.

And then there is the fact that Clara is here on this earth (miracle!) and that John and I randomly met in NYC at a job I enjoyed and John loathed (he had in fact applied to go back to school – so I am forever grateful that he did not leave NYC forever before I got my mitts on him).

Sorry, this post is especially meandering today. Like a long dirt road in the country. And I might have some dirt in my eye. Sniffle. Anyway, back to the house related stuff. Tangent over.

Check out this excellent chalkboard wall that Cat has in their playroom. She brought in magnetic paint before the chalkboard paint, so magnets also work on the wall. Clara was in animal-magnet heaven.

And this was a cute Craigslist find that Cat picked up for Edison’s room. One of those pricey Pottery Barn book racks, except it was low-cost-o thanks to being scored secondhand through sir Craig and his list. All hail craig and his list.

Is this post getting weirder? Wait, do not answer that.

Look at this fairly original chandelier that they inherited in their dining room. The best part? Cat’s not that into it. So once they buy a new chandelier I get it. Picture me rubbing my hands together maniacally. So excited about that…

You can see more sneak peeks of her house here from this older BFF-visiting post. We truly need to properly House Crash her, but there are consistently a million kids running around (oops they are ours). Haha. Someday!

And in organizing news… look at Cat’s photo albums. Does not that make you green with envy slash “want-to-go-to-there”-ness? I want my family albums to be that organized. Cat said all it took was grabbing a bunch of the same type of album and pulling out all of her pics from mismatched piles, boxes, and old tattered albums and loading them in with some idea of chronology (but not being too anal, which is key so this does not take five million years). Update: due to a bunch of folks asking, Cat clued me in on where she gets her albums: Target!

Ok, now here is the mini-project portion of this post. See this fireplace in Cat’s living room? Cat called me up a few weeks ago and said “Darn you Petersik!” Seriously, I answered the phone and that was her first sentence. Turns out she was staring up at the wall, realized she hoped some candle sconces to beef up the mirror over the mantel and to fill that blank space on either side of it, and then did some googling and found the exact sconces she hoped. Only problem? They were on our site and were now sold out. Haha. Seriously, her google search took her to this image in this old post of ours.

So she was calling to lament the sconces that got away. But then I revealed that we never found a spot for them in our new house and they were simply sitting in our piles-o-stuff playroom and I insisted that we bring them up to her house and hang them for her during the aquarium-trip weekend. Of course she refused my birthday sconces a few times, but $herdog is a stubborn girl. She consistently wins…

We even packed anchors and screws and our drill with the sconces in the car. Haha. No excuses for not getting those on the wall while we were there. Only thing I did not pack? Two matching candles. Oops. Pretend there is not a shorter one on the left and a taller one on the right.

Oh and is not that little leaf wreath cute? Cat’s a crafty gal. She DIYed that baby. She told me where she got the kit but I forget. Perhaps she’ll stop in with the info. I did a homemade leaf thing for our cousin’s bridal shower last fall though, so this post might assist anyone who wants to make a whole mess o’ paper leaves. And speaking of Hands-on, Cat had some fairly leftover wrapping paper and chose to use it to cover those stacks of books on the mantel. I was in love. The paper was so soft and glow-ey. Simply imagine that candle sconce all lit and flickering. Fairly, right?

Then after a marathon lively-fest weekend full of fish-watching and Jewel-watching and plane-watching and sconce-hanging we loaded ourselves into the car and drove back to Richmond. The children were sufficiently exhausted.

So there you have one of those random Friday posts full of smorgasbord and stream of consciousness. Hope it was as good for you as it was for me. Do you folks have any road trips planned? Have you ever seen a famous singer while out on a walk and said “wait a minute is not that ____?” and then hoped to sing their song to them? Have you ever packed things like screws and a drill into the car in the hopes of hanging something in someone else’s house? Is not it weird to drill into someone else’s wall? It is kind of like driving someone else’s car or wearing someone else’s clothes. It is thrilling but a little scary since you do not want to ruin anything. Haha.