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Hours of searching on Craigslist uncovered this pair of chests: a reward of my Craigslist furniture obsession. Beautiful midcentury modern pieces with white mica tops. I’ve always associated “mid century modern” with the furniture in my grandparent’s lake house — dated, not very comfortable and not very cool. Funny that we now have a table and chests and I never would have anticipated how clean they look in our space. The other picture is of our Rico lamp in action with the orange tree bought in Chinatown. The apartment is starting to come together (although what the photos don’t show is the complete lack of organization everywhere else in the apartment (still no bookcases, filling cabinets, sofa, dinning chairs or place to hang/store our coats).

For the table? From Kurt Peterson.com $87.

Room and Board – I’d heard the hype and I thought I’d be immune. Well, I’m now the proud co-owner of a blue velvet Room and Board Hutton couch. You decide who is immune and whose not.

First, get in the mood. Indigo. This color is mystical. This color has me hysterical. I want to only wear clothes this color, dye my hair this color, get those crazy colored contacts in this color.

I put bum to couch some 50 or so times to find this one. Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, Pier One, West Elm, Martha/Bernhardt, Mitchell/Gold, BoConcept, Atlantic Avenue, Madison Avenue, auctions galore. I’d actually given up. And then it happened, in all its velvet, indigo tantalizingness.

It has rounded edges, it looks just like the tables I’ve been posting about… except… its HALF the price and has the added benefit of not being made in China. Thank god for Craigslist.

I mentioned earlier that I’m looking for a dining room table with rounded edges. T. found this one from Room and Board. Tomorrow we go to check it out as well as test some couches…

For the big move! We drove through a blizzard, T. was in a bank that got robbed and the 249th St. Patricks Day Parade marched on, and we’re still not done! Even though I’ve gone dark on the blog, I’m still thinking — and while I was in Vermont (my childhood home), I thought a lot about the idea of home, emotionally and psychologically. And also about style — how much or how little you can take from your parents style. I took some photos too. Will post when move is complete.

Browsing Duane Keiser’s project on the places we call home:

“Home, aside from being the building in which we live, is a state of mind. Home is an idea that has been silently, and uniquely, cultivated in us throughout childhood. It is where we experience many of our most personal and intimate moments and it is where our memories reside long after we a moved on to other houses: revisiting a home from our past always triggers a flood of forgotten memories that come back as we walk through the rooms in which they were formed.”

Trolling about for more apartment inspiration. Domino, as always, provides.

I love:
* Gold mirror on mantle
* Cluster of photos on each side
* Low bench at windows

I love:
* Oversized Lamp
* Rounded edges on the beautiful honey wood table
* Comfortable rounded chairs

Orchids are everywhere in the past couple of days. Ashley Bradford’s illustrations of orchids are stunning. Dutch Gardens offers these orchid look alikes that you can actually plant in your garden.

A sure sign of the coming spring and of my March blues, the gardening catalogs have started arriving. Even though I live in New York City, I took a look and check out these lovelies. Blueberry bushes and shrub roses I can grow in containers on our balcony!! My favorite amaryllis, but grown for the summer. All of this capped off by noticing that the daffodils and crocus shoots are just beginning to emerge from the cold ground.

Adorable is the word that describes these magnets from The Small Object. I mean, ADORABLE.

Then, as much as I dislike Valentine’s Day, check out this idea from my new favorite blog, One Hour Craft …. DIY PANTIES!

So as you can see from the lite posts this week and last that I’ve been a little distracted by the start of school and my current obsession: the massive apartment hunt. I’m a nest builder/seeker by nature (ask anyone) and I take finding our next space SERIOUSLY. After more sixth floor walkups than I care to remember with tiny kitchens with no storage (cooking is a key ingredient in our marriage) we found this gem in MANHATTAN, a place I thought I’d never live again. We’ve put in an application:

Of course, since we’ve been living in a 300 sq foot room in a shared house with none of our own furniture, this leads to a frenzy of anticipation (our own space! real adult furniture! our own sofa that seats both of us comfortably!). My mother, who rarely makes pronouncements, made one: “Buy the sofa first and build the apartment around that”. Given my complete state of stress this week (work in the office till 10:30pm, starting classes, putting in the application) I found this pronouncement profoundly calming. We just need to find the sofa and everything will fall into place. While I’m not usually a fan of Pottery Barn (too overstuffed and antiqued) I do like this one but in Navy.