a little bit of history

We have been thinking about how quickly time goes, and how we had forgotten "city life". It's amazing how homeowner ship brings along so many new challenges that apartment dwelling simply doesn't have. From keeping the lawn alive, to not having a super to call in a pinch, the reality is equally overwhelming and rewarding. We wanted to share with you where we lived through the years (almost SIX in total now!), before we landed in the 'burbs and and moved to what we now permanently call home.

 This was a brand new modern apartment with a "backyard" spanning three feet of cement and fence. It’s crazy to look at now and notice, but we had this modern palate, and we were forcing the homey, cozy, vintage vibe into the space. I don’t think we pulled it off very well. This studio had a cut out for a bedroom and super high ceilings. It was a fun place to live and great for company - but we grew out of it very quickly, and move to the place below.

 

This is where we lived for a few years before we bought our home. It was a studio in Brooklyn we turned into a two bedroom with the tiniest little bedrooms you have ever seen. The building was an old ballroom, and we enjoyed the neighborhood very much. It had a cozy vibe to it, and we made it into our home. We made curtains, and art and tried to customize it as much as we could to make it our own. When we realized there was nothing more to do to the space, we felt we grew out of this place as well and “moved on “.

So there is a little peek of the path we lived before we settled down and committed to buying a house. I think no matter where you live, you can make it a home, and there are pro's and con's to every situation. We would love to know from Homeowners: Where did you live before you bought your first house and if your design taste has changed at all? Do tell!

A little late summer cleaning of sorts

Please excuse our mess for the next few days as we are revampin' the old site. Nothing major, just some new additions and organization going on. You may notices things being a little wonky, appearing and disappearing, then back to normal. No worries, it's not an internet ghost - it's just us testing out some new stuff.

A bunch of you have found us in "other spaces" and we fancied the idea of inviting all of you to see what we are up to on the 'net. So check out what we got - and come say hello!

We have a little Twitter site, that's a few months old. We update it daily, with little bits of info about the blog, the day, and ask questions when we are in a bind.Have a peak and shoot us a tweet to let us know you are now following! Also - we will be having *Twitter Exclusive* give-aways!

Our flickr account is very very special to us. We started it as a spot for our friends and family to upload and share photos from our wedding, thinking we would have a few extra photos. Boy were we wrong! With over a thousand wedding photo contributions later, we could really tell everyone had a great time! As some of you know this was a wedding blog - meant for family and friends, and has grown into a home blog - same deal with the flickr!

On January 1st 2010 (just a mere few weeks after buying our home!) we joined Houseblogs.net as a new years resolution. After discovering so so so many wonderful blogs on there, we simply couldn't resist. If you love house blogs, you need to check it out, and if you have a house/design blog, you best join! It helps you keep track of progress on your rooms/projects, and it feeds a bunch of info into your profile in one nice and neat dashboard.

We are big HGTV fans, we bet you are too. If that's the case, I am sure you have stumbled upon Rate My Space. Did I mention, we are fans? Big fans. It's yet another Mecca of seeing what other have under the "hood" of their home. It's addictive. It's also a great place to gather advice about design and share with others as well.

So there it is! I know people are into facebook and digg and so on and so on, but this is the combo we decided to get involved with. It kinda feels special in a way being part of a smaller and more focused community. Perhaps you haven't heard of one of these and now can start obsessing over a new way to see design from real people. We are having fun with it. Hope to see you on the other side!

Bird, Bird, Bird is the Word!

The other day we were walking across our front yard and came across a baby bird sitting in the middle of a patch of grass. It was not scared of us at all. In fact he/she "asked" us for some food. Naturally we complied. Joey found him/her (let's call this baby bird Chirp) a worm and I used an eye dropper to give it some water. Then, we were stumped. We had no idea where Chirp came from, and if we should put him back.

Joey hopped on the interweb and did some research, and we wanted to share this info, just incase you come across a Chirp of your own one day.

1. You Can't Touch a Bird or it's Parents Will Neglect it! We found out this was false! Perhaps a wise rumor to keep children from getting one of the many diseases birds carry. Grab some gloves and remove birdie from an area which cats, wildlife or cars are around. We recommend gloves, cause after all, we don't want you getting bird flue!

2. A Bird Will be Safer if You Bring Him Inside. Another false one! It is recommended to keep birdie outside. If you can not safely place birdie back in his nest, find a small basket and fill it with paper towels or tissue. Tie a string around the basket and tie it to a tree, as high up as you can.

3. Bird need to be fed every 15-20 minutes, day and night! We don't know about you - but this is an imposable feat for us! After birdie is tied safely to a tree, mommy and daddy bird will be more likely to find him and feed him .

4. You Could Have Done More. We thought so too. A tiny little feathered friend is hard to turn your back on. We know. However, messing with mother nature gives you a high risk of hurting the bird more than helping it. The best thing you can do is reintroduce birdie back into nature-land, and walk away.

5. Remember 90% of fallen nest birds do not survive. It's super sad, but true. If the birdie you found can grip your finger with it's claws, it has a higher survival rate because he will soon fly!