there's no place like gnome.

Today is Doctor Emmett Brown’s birthday. He’s three and living his best life.

He got a new collar last weekend. It’s Mario themed. Like the video game. Because Dave hosted a pinball league Saturday night and Emmett needed to fit in. (Pinball league: We opened our door to 16 people we literally didn’t know and 1 person that Dave knows – the organizer. They hung out in our basement for hours, played pinball, gave Emmett belly rubs, and ate our popcorn.)

He goes to daycare once in a while.  He has some long days at home alone so in the midst of a full week, he’ll go down the road and play with his friends for a day. At first, he kind of hated it. Dave had to push him through the door. Now? Now we say, “Do you want to go play with your friends today?” and he won’t leave Dave’s side until they are in the truck. He runs inside the play area and doesn’t look back.

On the days he doesn’t go to daycare, I try to take him for a walk before I leave. Depending on how I budget my morning time, it’s sometimes a very short walk.  It doesn’t seem to matter to Emmett. About a half hour before I have to leave for work, he will lay by the front door and just stare at me. Waiting. For his walk. So he can pee on all the spots the other dogs peed on last night because Emmett had peed there the morning before.

He makes himself comfortable wherever and can hear the peanut butter jar opening when he’s rooms away from the kitchen. Best life indeed. Happy birthday, Doc.

Let’s go back to November. Thanksgiving weekend. My mom, sister, sister-in-law, and I went on a little trip to New Glarus. See, my younger brother (the Alaska one) got married. (Yay.) They did the courthouse deal and are having a ceremony/party in April. My mom needed to shop for a dress; hence a little day trip to a dress shop in New Glarus.

After a mother-of-the-groom dress was secured, we explored the town a bit, including a stop at a local coffee shop. This coffee shop had THE CUTEST hoosier cabinet coffee station. All vintage looking with the enamel top. Then and there, I decided that I wanted a hoosier cabinet coffee station in my house.

Turns out hoosier cabinets are a bit hard to come by and, when you do, they’re a bit pricey. And Lindsay is not in the habit of spending any too much for furniture. So Lindsay found a hutch on Facebook marketplace for $30 and figured it would be a great Christmas break project. Right? Are we in agreement?

As with every DIY adventure, it proved to be a bit more of a challenge than anticipated. We discovered the hutch to be painted with an enamel-like paint. You think new paint likes to stick to that? Nope. Scratch pads/sandpaper did nothing to breech its surface so we relied on the magic of spray paint primer. We followed that with a chalk spray paint in coastal blue to matchy-match our wallpaper backsplash. A million coats later and three runs to Menards, it was a lovely coastal blue.

So we applied the matte top coat the chalk paint manufacturer recommends.

And it streaked the heck out of our newly blue hutch. Insert angry emoji.

Two more coats of blue and one more trip to Menards and we were done.

Ish.

We moved it into the house and then it was new hardware, placement, and arguing about how the coffee station would work. It still needs a shelf cut for the bottom but otherwise, the hutch is in, right around the corner from the screen door pantry.

It’s no hoosier cabinet but we love it. With the volume of spray paint I had to buy, we probably could have just sprung for the hoosier to begin but then what kind of story would that be?

I started work and then I disappeared from blogging. I promise it has nothing to do with you. Really. It’s me.

To ease back in, how about some (rambling) Friday Favorites?

This past fall, I was drinking – let’s be honest – A LOT of sparkling water. A lot equaled three – sometimes FOUR – cans a day. I know. *shaking head* It was becoming a bit much.  It wasn’t necessarily an issue of cost as off-brand LaCroix is totally my thing but the cans were piling up in the recycling bin and there was the whole hauling it home from the store, taking up space in the fridge, etc. I bought a SodaStream (on the cheap from a lovely woman who posted her still-in-the-box one on Facebook marketplace) and haven’t looked back. SodaStream = super favorite thing.

Christmas break. You guys. As I work at a school, I had a Christmas break. It was super lovely and super weird. What was normally for me a busy, stressful time with the planning of Christmas services and events was strangely relaxing this year. And weird. Did I mention weird? Dave’s company shuts down the week between Christmas Eve and New Year’s so we actually had Christmas break together.  Weird.

A pantry door. It’s hard to photograph because it’s in the hallway but this is our pantry. With a screen door. A BLUE screen door. And it’s my absolute favorite. Why does our pantry have a blue screen door? Perhaps the better question is why does your pantry not? It was a boring door in a short hallway of seven (7!) doors; it needed color and character.  The door was $18 at a flea market; after (a lot) of effort on the husband’s part, it totally brightens the hall and makes me smile when I turn the corner. (It’s also perfect motivation to keep the pantry organized and neat – a project completed after this photograph was taken.)

The movies. Over break, I went to two movies in the theater and it felt like such a luxury. First of all, we hardly go to the movies. Second of all, at our local theater, the seats recline. RECLINE. They are huge, leather, and you can put your feet up. Did you know some theaters also start showing movies in the morning? Like 9am? Call me a country chicken in the big city but this is all new to me!

Meatloaf. Specifically, the meatloaf from Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia Table. If you know me super well, you know that beef is not my favorite. I don’t order it at restaurants particularly often (or ever),  and I hardly buy it because I dislike cooking with it.  I don’t know if it’s the color or texture or the fact that I grew up with a freezer stocked to the brim with cow. Whatever it is, I sucked it up to make the meatloaf on page 259 of this cookbook. It earned me eight wife points* and was delicious. I’m sure there are other miraculous meatloaf recipes out there belonging to you or Grandma Susie; this is just the one I made because I’m bound and determined to actually use the cookbook. (Opposed to other cookbooks which tend to sit idle and sad.)

Marie Kondo.  I’ve had the book forever (The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up) and I know this isn’t new or rocket science. Over break, I pulled the book out again and started re-reading. And then I emptied the contents of my closet and dresser onto the bed. I touched each article, determined it it brought me joy, and put it accordingly back in the closet or in a donation pile. The resale store received four garbage bags of clothes from me that week and my closet since has never stayed so organized. I’m a classic throw-it-on-the-floor and don’t-put-laundry-away-right-away kind of girl. The space in front of and floor of my closet was constantly a mess until I painstakingly took a half hour on the weekend to clean it up. I realize my closet makeover was only two and a half weeks ago but so far, it’s worked. No mess on my floor. Every item has a home and that’s where I put it. The husband/pessimist says it’s just because I’m currently motivated; I think it’s the magic of tidying. Time will tell.

To sum up it up: SodaStream, Christmas break, pantry door, movies, meatloaf, and Marie.

(Hi, Marilyn. This blog post was for you.)

* Points are arbitrary and make little numerical sense/have unknown redemption value. I asked if I could trade in my eight meatloaf points for the new Instant Pot air fryer lid. Waiting to hear back. Fingers crossed.