a new year

between the autumns of 2012 and 2013, i lived in china. although I've been back for a long time now, i still think about time in relation to that year i spent away from new york. i think that i thought that i would have accomplished a lot more than I have during the year+ that i have been home, but maybe i am being too hard on myself. or maybe not. (it's a common complaint among those writing dissertations, no doubt.) at any rate, it's now 2015, and time again to think about the expectations that i want to set for myself. i'm going to be teaching and writing, and also thinking about whether or not this scholarly life is one that i will pursue. after all, i have a lot of other interests that have nothing to do with academia or ngos, as this blog so clearly shows.

anyone who knows me knows that tidying is one of these interests. i was always very particular about keeping a clean house, but this book really took it to the next level for me. i've already made it the topic of far too many conversations. but it seems like an apt topic for the threshold of a new year, doesn't it?

yesterday, i packed up the holiday decorations and tucked them back under the stairs. the living room feels tidier without them, but i am itching to cull away a bit more. maybe it's sarah's influence, or all those minimalist rooms i've been seeing on remodelista. god knows hhh and i love our tchotchkes, but i'm hoping somehow that 2015 will be the year we decluttered our lives. we're off to a good start, i think - hhh spent the better part of our holiday break in california sorting through the debris of his childhood (although i think he would say "treasures"). have you ever sorted through an entire lifetime's worth of mementos? i wouldn't recommend it. (i have never seen such so many pez dispensers in one place before. nor snapple caps from the 1990s.) to prevent this fate, i'm going to be more deliberate and mindful of the things i buy and keep. the housing works up the street should also expect to see me hauling bags to their door with increasing frequency.

some of the holiday trimmings.

but hhh's great purge also unearthed some delights. among them: pencil sketches by his grandfather (including this incredible likeness of queen elizabeth), his first book (written when he was 13 in 1990, about a father who goes off to war in iraq), and a misshapen wooden carving of his adolescent hand made in shop class, which i insisted on bringing back. after all, home wouldn't be home without the things that remind us of those we love.

so, with that in mind, it's back to decluttering - but remembering that there is room for the most precious of tokens. (but you really gotta be careful here.)

have a wonderful 2015! xoxo

bob vila!

excitingly, bob vila named our kitchen makeover one of the most impressive in 2014! to see it all: before/during, after, and the reno tale as told to sweeten. 

carroll street kitchen

i promised more photos of the our kitchen, and here they are! although i'm really enjoying taiwan, i also can't wait to get back to cooking in that lovely space. you might notice there aren't actually that many photos here, and that's because the folks over at sweeten (where i found my contractor paul of ulaj interiors) were nice enough to feature the renovation on their site! please head over to the sweeten blog to check out more photos and my thoughts about the process. 

hope you like it as much as i do. i kind of wish i had another kitchen to redo now. and by the way, i've become a pro at the ikea kitchen planning software, so if you need help with your kitchen reno, just let me know. :) 

p.s. for before photos, follow this link.

why i've been m.i.a.

i haven't posted in a while! it's because of this:

and then this: 

the apartment has been a construction zone for the past two weeks, but it's almost done. (we were three feet short on tile! ridiculous. so i had to order it from amazon and now the contractors are back to install the last bit.) i found ulaj interiors on sweeten, and thought the entire process went great. i'll share more about that in another post.

check back soon to see the photos. but here is a little something to tide you over: 

have a great week! xoxo

dining area

on a whim one day when hhh was out of town, i changed around the entire room: the sofa went against a different wall, the fireplace went into the nook where the dining table currently is, and the table went into the middle of the room. it didn't look quite right though, so i moved it all back. at least it was a good workout. this is what it looks like: 

what do you think of the gallery wall? too cluttered? thinking of switching it out for one bigger piece. 

there's something about autumn that makes me want to change things up around the apartment. (although i should probably be focusing on work now that school is back in session, and not on random household improvement projects.) so here are the photos of the dining area, because i'll be mixing it up soon. 

(actually, that floor lamp has already migrated to poughkeepsie and a new one has taken its place.) hhh found the chairs upstate for cheap. one of the terrariums are by twig, the other is by me. vase from anthropologie. the art deco mirror was found at the ps 321 flea, before it was the bk flea. art on the walls: a couple from clare elsaesser, custom artwork by yina kim done for this piece by hhh, a black and white photo of mlk jr. eating a slice of pizza, a bunch of giraffes, and a bunch of dogs.