What I didn’t end up loving was the pillow inserts I chose.  I thought the down-filled pillows would be plush and comfortable, and they were.  But clearly there was a reason the inserts were on clearance sale…they leaked feathers left and right (even through the pillow cover!).  When picking up feathers around the room became a new game for Ike, I knew something needed to be done.

Unfortunately I made the pillow covers to fit the rather unusual size inserts and I was having a hard time finding replacements elsewhere.  Right around the same time, we decided to put our house on the market and I thought that maybe it would be a good idea to get something a little bit more neutral—and something that didn’t leave feathers everywhere—so I gave in and bought some new throw pillows in yellow and navy.

I kept the plain navy pillows that I covered before because those particular pillows aren’t down-filled.  And now my bright-colored pillows are retired in the linen closet, just waiting to be used elsewhere in the house…perhaps in a spot that gets less use, which would help limit the number of feathers that are let loose!

In the meantime, these new pillows are still effective at breaking up the beige.  And, I’m having a bit of an easier time decorating around these colors than the previous ones…these things all work out in the end…

…assuming this is the end of my living room pillow saga.

I do hate admitting defeat, but sometimes you have to know when to fold, right?

Do you play musical pillows at your house, too?

Can I tell you something else?  It is totally awesome when your fans ask you if they can become your first-ever, real-life blog sponsor!  And so to that I say, “Dear Fiore Artisan Olive Oils & Vinegars…you rock.”

I feel particularly good about this sponsor shout-out because I know, love and use the Fiore products in my own kitchen.  I’ve mentioned Fiore time and time again…like when I made roasted green beans and mushrooms with the pomegranate balsamic vinegar and the Tuscan herb olive oil.

Or when I made my tomato cucumber basil salad with the 18-year aged balsamic.

And speaking of that 18-year aged balsamic…it is now my only choice for salad dressing. Just saying.

You might also remember that Fiore helped make my 100th-post giveaway possible more than two years ago.  You should definitely re-visit that post to hear all about Fiore’s tasting rooms in Bar Harbor, (and now Rockland) Maine, as well as why their olive oils are far more fresh than what you might buy from your grocery store shelves, why fused flavors are better than infused, and why older balsamic vinegar is better.  You’ll have no idea what you don’t know about olive oils and vinegars until you read it, I swear!

So, yes, Fiore is local to me and I am so grateful for that.  But, rest assured, you too can get your hands on some Fiore products through its website.  And if you need a little inspiration, you can always join the recipe club for great recipes delivered to your inbox, or simply follow Fiore on Facebook.

Thanks to Nancy and Pat for their support of Domestic Adventure and for being outstanding members of our local community!

Psst…if any other fans are interested in sponsorship/advertising opportunities, you can check them out here!

But this weekend, I multi-tasked.  This time our road trip crossed paths with a blogable moment—my first ever trip to IKEA.

Chris may have had to circle the lot twice for me to get this photo!

Our closest IKEA is outside of Boston and about six hours away (six hours!).  Plus, it’s not exactly on our way to anything else, so I had simply never been.  I see bloggers using IKEA products all the time and I’ve browsed the website enough to know that I could find a few things I liked there.  And apparently I’ve mentioned on more than a few occasions that I wanted to go check out this big blue and yellow castle because Chris planned a secret IKEA getaway to celebrate my 30th birthday.  I was super excited.

After getting into the city late on Friday night, we arrived at IKEA promptly at 10 a.m. when the store opened on Saturday (I documented the time just to prove how eager I was.)

And then I spent five hours there (five!).  Chris was there for the first two, but he got burned out before we even made it through the showroom.  I did two full laps of both the upstairs showroom and the downstairs marketplace.  It was overwhelming and amazing all at the same time.  I even made Chris take a picture of me when I thought no one else was around to witness it!

The deal was that I could buy as much as would fit into our car.  However, as the primary keeper of our finances, I knew that wasn’t really plausible.  Also, since our house is on the market, it’s not exactly a great time to buy new furnishings. But it was the thought that counted!  And, as it turns out, I was able to fit a fair number of affordable things into our SUV…

But, there was so much that I left behind.  I was thisclose to pulling the trigger on a new dining room table, but my more practical side kicked in and we left it behind knowing that it will still be there some day.

And I so wanted to get these shelves for our office but, again, house on the market equals not a great time to put holes in the wall.

I was also in love with how this craft space was set up.  So super fun.  (If I had another nursery to decorate, I would have totally bought the curtain panel shown in this photo…it has birds sitting on branches.)

I’m pretty sure that IKEA will need to become an annual tradition.  And now I can’t wait to show you all the things we decided to buy!

Major kudos to Chris for his surprise gift, and for picking something so perfect!

And in honor of this momentous occasion, I’m here to share with you 30 thing s you (probably) don’t know about me.  And if you do, you either know me in real life or are just plain stalker-ish.

1. I was born on Mother’s Day in 1982 (sorry, Mom!).
2. In 2005 I had one of my greatest domestic adventures…pouring boiling water on my right foot while draining pasta and earning myself a trip to the ER, complete with second degree burns.
3. When I was a little girl, I told my parents I only liked frosting…I didn’t like cake because it was too sweet.
4. Also when I was a little girl, I had an imaginary friend named Erin who looked just like me and did everything that I did. (I’ve never had a lack of self esteem.)
5. I spent three summers in college managing a seasonal ice cream shop in my home town.
6. I don’t have a favorite anything.  Seriously, try to pin me down on my favorite color, food and book and I’ll squirm.
7. My high school friends called me Rinner, and many of them still do.
8. I go to bed at 9 p.m. almost every single day (I’m cool like that).
9. My middle name is Kay. (Although it’s not my legal middle name any more; I had to drop it when I wanted to keep my maiden name as my middle name.)
10. I got my one and only detention in middle school shop class when I got caught eating Skittles.
11. I really only like green, red and purple Skittles.  Orange and yellow are just okay for me.
12. I take back number 6…my favorite candy is definitely Snickers.
13. I spelled the word “communication” wrong on my first resume.  To make matters worse, I had just graduated with a degree in communications.  (I still got the job!)
14. I know every single lyric to Carly Simon’s “You’re so Vain.”
15. I’m a terrible singer.  My husband gently informed me of this months after he endured me singing along to the car radio for several hours on one of our first dates.
16. My family had a Sunday morning pancake tradition when I was little.
17. I’m a maple syrup snob–only real syrup on my pancakes, please.
18. I can’t sleep without wearing socks.
19. For my fifth birthday (25 years ago!) I had to, had to have the white poodle Pound Puppy.
20. I spent my 21st birthday at a bar in Elizabethtown, Pa., called Grinders with a band called Pop Tart Monkeys. (P.S. it’s a real bummer when your 21st birthday falls during finals week.)
21. I spent the last semester of college as a communications intern for the state dental association in Pennsylvania.  You should really floss, people.
22. My first job in the world was being a cashier at the local Grand Union grocery store.  It paid $5.15 an hour.  I still remember the produce code for bananas (4011) and grapes (4022 for green and 4023 for red).
23. I’m horrible at doing math in my head (I blame the introduction of calculators into the classroom in third grade!)
24. I played the trumpet all the way through high school.
25. I’ve never eaten at KFC.
26. For most of my life, I thought the phrase “all intents and purposes” was “all intensive purposes.”  For real. (That is so embarrassing.)
27. I refuse to go on amusement park rides that go upside down.
28. I use words like “genotype” and “phenotype” in my work on a regular basis.
29. My son’s diaper was the first one I ever changed.
30. I have a classic case of middle-child-peacemaker syndrome.  It’s an official diagnosis…made by my husband.

As far as I’m concerned, 30 is cool.  I’m quite certain the best years are yet to come!

Did anything on my list surprise you?  Do we have any random things in common?

These are the posts that showcase my “window shopping” at Goodwill.  You know, when I go and daydream about all the thrifting/repurposing projects I could do, if only I had the time.  Le sigh.

Apparently it’s also where I go to take photos of my legs reflecting in mirrors.  True story.

Hop on over and check out my latest Goodwill guest blog post!

Happy Friday,

In all my photos, I wanted to show the house as it is lived in, but reduce some of the clutter.  And of course I needed to strategically place my camera angle in a few instances.  For example, the shot of our entry way below includes some jackets and one little green snowsuit, but I moved the big bags and jackets over to hooks on the right, which you can’t see.  This also helps because this side of my gallery wall is looking much closer to finished than the other side!

You’ll also notice in the above post that I replaced our entryway laundry hamper near the window with a plant stand, just for the photos!

I am placing these photos in order of the way our house flows.  So, next is the kitchen!  If you’ve been around a while, you’ve seen most of this.  The white paint on the cabinets is holding up so well that many people are shocked that they are painted!

To stage this room, I removed a bunch of appliances, cutting boards, etc. off the counter (I stuffed them under the sink just for the photos and then brought everything back out!).  Also, I helped hide the fact that the handle broke off our oven, but if you look closely, you can tell.  The appliance repairman is coming next week to fix that!

For our dining space I simply put down some placemats and plates, not a full table setting.  I’ve actually kept these out for potential showings, I just move two place settings over when Chris and I eat there!

The living room painting still wasn’t completed when I took the photos, so I just used this “before” picture from our living room makeover.  I’ll be able to share the updated photos of the space soon!

Here is the shot of our downstairs bathroom.  I’m amazed at how much more accurate the colors are when I take the photos with my new camera.  You can see the original bathroom reveal photos here, but this picture shows the colors more true to life!  I’m still loving that DIY towel rack!

Same goes with the better coloring for our guest room.  Here it is, across from the downstairs bathroom!  And yes, I did build that bench at the end of the bed two years ago, and yes, it still isn’t painted!

At the end of the hall downstairs, we have another bedroom that is currently set up as our home office.  Despite being unpainted and not decorated, it is a cozy space with one of our old red sofas in there.

Heading upstairs, here is a shot that I took from laying on the kitchen floor to show how high the ceiling is where the center dormer is.  It also shows off my hallway makeover work!

Now, I am quite certain I’ve never showed our master bedroom on the blog.  There is so much I want to do with this room (it is begging for a headboard), but here it is!  Remember, our second floor was completely unfinished when we moved in (our bedroom was originally the guest room).  We finished this space (and the adjoining bathroom and walk-in closet) in December of 2008.

Here is the master bath.  Since it’s the only bathroom on the second floor, this bathroom has a door to the hallway and our room.  We just keep the hallway door shut unless we have guests who are sleeping on the second floor.

And, here is the room that I think will sell the house: the walk-in closet.  Okay, maybe I’m putting too much weight on this space, but it is the perfect walk-in closet and dressing room.  Want to know my staging secret here?  Well, see that dress reflecting in the mirror?  Those hooks were filled with pants (I hang pants by the beltloops there) and it looked terrible in the photos.  So, I threw the pants on the bed, put a dress there, and then put everything back once the photo was taken!

Moving along the second floor, here is our spare bedroom (most recently mentioned as the place where baby things go to wait).  Not much to see here…it’s a decent size room, but hard to photograph.  This space was finished off in December of 2010 along with the nursery.  And yes, it has a nipple light.  Sometimes you have to go the cheap and easy way at the end of a major renovation process!

Of course I had to include a photo of my favorite room in the house…the nursery!

And finally, here are some exterior shots.  You wouldn’t know it by this picture, but our big deck needs some paint touch up (it’s been two years since we last needed to do it).  And my numbered pots are on display on the stairs!

And here is the front that I showed yesterday.  Any eagle eyes out there may have noticed that our front door is green while the rest of the house has maroon accents.  We replaced our door last fall to help keep some cold air out, and painting it is on our spring clean-up list.  I planned to do it this past weekend but it rained the whole time.  The paint is here and waiting!

Thanks for following along to read how I semi-staged our house for the online real estate listing!  Surprisingly it was a fair amount of work to get all of the rooms looking good.  But at least everything is clean now!

Does anything about our house surprise you?  Any staging tips to share?  Does anyone want to buy it ?

As in, this sign is at the end of our driveway (it was raining so hard that I had to take the picture from inside my car with the window up!).

So yeah.  Selling out house is currently happening.  We think.

Now before anyone that we know gets worried, we are not leaving our jobs or our current area; in fact, it’s quite the opposite.  We are looking to find a different spot for ourselves within the same community.  (Note that I used the word different, not the word better.)  But in order to even consider buying another place, we need a solid offer within a certain price range.

So how did it all go down?  A few circumstances presented themselves on a Tuesday and Chris and I spent the next 24 hours contemplating selling  On Wednesday evening Chris attended his regular town planning board meeting and chatted with one of his fellow board members who is a realtor.  On Thursday evening the realtor stopped by and we got serious.  By Tuesday the paperwork was signed and now, one week later, it’s official.

I kind of can’t believe our house is on the market.  March 31 was our five-year anniversary of living here and it seems like just yesterday that we moved in.  To be honest, our house rocks and we love it.  It’s our home that we took from two bedrooms to five through our own hard work and hard-earned money.  It’s where we returned after our honeymoon.  It’s where we brought our baby home from the hospital.  And most importantly, it’s where I have my huge walk-in closet (I kid, I kid.  Kind of.).

I don’t have a single bad thing to say about our home.  It could, actually, be our forever home with tons of projects left to accomplish (landscaping, hardwood floors, a garage…).  There are a couple reasons that we are considering selling, but I’m not even going to go there.  Why? Because we could very well end up staying here, happily, and I don’t want to be like that girl who bashes her boyfriend to all of her friends and then wonders why they hate him when she decides to marry him.  (You totally know that girl.)

And guess what other kind of girl you know?  The kind that tells the realtor she’ll take her own photos.  Yeah.  That was me.  I’m a total control freak.  And I’m a nut case that went around the house shifting clutter and messes to get nice, staged shots to be displayed online.  Anything to help it sell, right?

Call me crazy, but apparently it’s working.  The listing went public on Monday and after getting a call from our realtor at 4 p.m. on Tuesday and rushing home to make sure our bed was made, we had our first showing with promising comments.  So, who knows…  We’re just keeping our options open.

Since I went to all of the trouble to stage photos, I’ll be back tomorrow with some shots of the more rarely-seen spots in our home.  And if you know someone who wants to buy a house on the coast of Maine…send them our way!

Oh, and if there are any smartypants out there who noted in the title that there are multiple maisons for sale, it wasn’t a typo.  I’ve rarely mentioned it here, but we still own a home in Vermont that, thankfully, has been rented for the past five years.  Due to the market situations and our need to have a tenant to help pay the mortgage, we’ve never been able to list the house for any length of time.  But while I was in Vermont for Easter I showed the home to a woman who contacted us out of the blue with an interest in buying.  It’s not final by any means, and if it works out we will be trying to navigate a for-sale-by-owner process on that property.  It’s a stretch, but we are hoping.

Maybe this is the month where we sell two houses!?  Never a dull moment.  Really.

A couple of months ago I moved into a different office, and I’ve been slowly trying to add pieces of me to the space.  We have a bustling office, to say the least, and I found these two pieces to be quite appropriate…so I printed them and framed them…

Secretly, I’ve been wanting to use a Keep Calm and Carry On piece somewhere for years, but could never find the right place.  (This is definitely the right place.)  The other “make it happen” piece was found as an image on a website that happened to be large enough to print, so I printed it. (You can find links to both pieces on my Pinterest Office Inspiration board.)

I’m lucky that the walls of my office were already painted that soothing blue color.  And the space came with some beautiful watercolors already in tact.  Here is a larger view of the space in which I spend the other half of my life (you know, when I’m not mothering, baking, crafting, decorating or blogging!).

And here’s the other view of my “corner.”  The lamp is also something I personally splurged on.  I spend so much time in that corner, the ambient lighting was a must!

And the white board you see is my life line.  I use it to keep track of my urgent to-dos and it comes in really handy for a creative brainstorming session.  I think my co-workers might think I’m a tad bit obsessive about that white board…

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little sneek peak into the other half of my life!  Happy Monday…

To refresh your memory, our walls were originally a boring shade of beige.  In an effort to lighten things up, I chose Behr’s Elegant White color and had it mixed into Glidden’s Duo paint because that’s what the lady at the paint counter recommended.

So, I returned to the paint counter (my first mistake) a few days later and repeated my order.  “Can I please have a gallon of the Glidden Duo paint color matched to Behr’s Elegant White?”  The order seemed so clear that I didn’t even bring my “custom color” bar code sticker from the last gallon (second mistake) and I certainly didn’t check the paint mixture numbers to the original once I got home (third mistake).  You can see where this is going, right?

Well on Saturday night after Ike went to bed, I pulled out the almost-empty original can of paint and used it to finish cutting in around the ceiling.  The next day, I waited until Ike’s afternoon nap time, popped open my new can and started painting.  With the cutting in process done, I knew it would be quick and easy to finish off the project.

I immediately noticed the color seemed a little off, but I assumed it would even out once it dried.  So, I proceeded to paint the remaining three wall sections.

Now, look closely below…

The shadows make it hard to see, but sure enough, the paint was way more yellow than before.  Quickly I compared lids and could see from the label that the paint had been mixed with a different combination.  I had used a mystery color.

Luckily Maine celebrates Patriot’s Day, so I had a three day weekend an an extra day to fix my paint debacle.  Ike and I had to trudge back to the paint counter, and you can bet I remembered my custom color label this time!

I learned two lessons in this whole ordeal.  First, never trust the paint lady to mix your colors right; always bring the label.  And second, paint stirrers make great entertainment when you wait wayyyy too long at the paint counter.

At least our living room is fully painted now!

Have you had any paint mishaps lately?

Before I jump in, let me tell you that I am a minimalist when it comes to kitchen gadgets.  I really don’t have that many.  I just barely picked up a proper grater (to make these zucchini bites).  So, suffice it to say, the gadgets I have are gadgets I use. Let’s get started, shall we?

The sharpest
Let me introduce you to my little friend, the Zyliss pizza slicing wheel.

When you have family homemade pizza night every Friday night like we do, this tool comes in handy.  With a few quick swipes, I can effortlessly zip through the thickest of crusts.  This is also helpful for slicing random food (grilled cheese sandwiches, french toast, etc.) into toddler-sized bites.  You can easily take it apart for cleaning, but I usually put it in the dishwasher fully assembled and the whole thing comes out sparkling.

The least appetizing
You might not know this about me, but I make a mean gravy.  And, like it or not, making a mean gravy means dealing with fat (as in separating fat from the broth of a freshly roasted turkey).  It’s gross (I know) but necessary.  And this is where the magic fat separating happens:

Yes, it may look like a glorified measuring cup, but there are some key elements.  The gray insert on top is a strainer to keep random roasted pieces out of your gravy.  And the black stopper in the spout magically keeps fat out of the spout so you can drain out just the broth.  Whoever created this is a genius.

The best multi-tasker
If you make apple pies by hand-peeling and slicing your apples, then please allow me to make your acquaintance with the handy-dandy apple peeler and slicer.  That’s right, it happens all at once.

Bonus points if you noticed that this picture is from before we installed our new sink!

This gadget suctions right to your counter and magically makes apple peeling easy (and even a little bit fun).  As an added bonus, you can also use this gadget to peel potatoes (you just move the coring and slicing mechanism to the side).

The most surprising
I have to admit, when I put this strawberry slicer on our wedding registry, I thought I was falling for a gimmick.  But, I couldn’t have been more wrong.  If you’re anything like me, slicing strawberries by hand is the one thing that stands between you and strawberry shortcake or strawberry rhubarb pie.  That’s where this tool comes in handy.

The slicer whips through berries and produces nice even slices.  It’s especially helpful when you go strawberry picking and have a gazillion berries to freeze.  Trust me.

And another handy feature is that you can fill up the container and measure out your berries at the same time.  It makes it very easy to cut up the two cups of berries you might need for muffins.

The smoothest
Now that my baby food pureeing days are behind me, my Cuisinart hand blender sees a lot less use, but it is still my go-to choice for smoothies or blending.

This tool makes fast work for pureeing fruits and vegetables.  I’ve also used it to puree soup, or to mix up pesto our sauce for a meal.  Unlike traditional blenders, it only has a few parts, stores easily, and cleans up well.  The container and the bottom half of the blender goes right in the dishwasher!

So now that I’ve spilled my gadget goodness, tell me all about yours.  Do you have a gadget you can’t live without?  One that you wish you had passed over?

And if you’re always looking for new inspiration for kitchen tools, head on over to Centsational Girl to see all the other bloggers who are linking up for the Kitchen Gadget party.