BEDKNOBS & BAUBLES

House Progress Report

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House Progress

Happy Tuesday! We’ve owned our house for one week and have already made quite a bit of progress in transforming it into something we’ll call home. I’m going to start putting all home-related content over on Curated Couple, which is where our week one progress report resides (wood paneling, bedroom cabinet removal, and exterior painting — oh my!). I’d like to keep this blog style-related so you’re not inundated with content you don’t care about. 😉 I haven’t had a chance to update all of the individual pages, but I’m entirely too impatient to wait to start posting our progress! (Plus, seeing how far we’ve come keeps me motivated for the next tasks.) If you’re interested, come on over! We’ll get back to clothes and accessories tomorrow!

We bought a house!

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First House

I wanted to pop in to share that we’re now homeowners! We closed on our house yesterday and spent the better part of the day embarking on our ambitious to-do list. We pulled carpet out of the coat closet, removed dozens and dozens of nails and screws from the walls, ripped out hundreds of tiny carpet staples that were left in the stairs (when the house apparently had ’70s gold carpet), and removed kitchen cabinets from one of the bedrooms upstairs. We didn’t get to everything we wanted to do on day one, but we’re feeling pretty good about the progress we did make. I’ll start posting on our shared Instagram account for the house at @curatedcouple soon and we’ll get our home blog up and running, too! Until then, things are going to be on the quieter side ’round these parts. We really need to get the painting done in the house before the floors are refinished in three weeks.

First House

Left to right:

  • A light globe we found at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore for $1. We purchased two. One is going in my upstairs walk-in closet, which the city assessed as a fourth bedroom in the house. We’ll need to have the house reassessed since you can’t actually fit a twin-size bed into the room and still walk in and around it.
  • Our closing-day selfie! I look jazzed and Dave looks like he’d rather we put down the phone and get to work. 😉
  • Adding some life to the place — literally. The most recent owner purchased the house in 2001, but then started dating a woman and moved in with her, leaving the home all but abandoned. We met our neighbors who said prior to his ownership, students lived there and even earlier, there were drug dealings. I’m not sure how true the last one is, but who knows. A house built in 1929 probably has plenty of stories within its walls — and maybe old pot, too. (Kidding!)

Keeping Clean with bObsweep PetHair

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Home purchases are becoming more abundant ’round these parts as we continue to get rid of our transitional furniture and invest in nicer items with a future home purchase in mind. In fact, we’re planning to finally order a king-size mattress and frame this weekend! So, you can imagine how excited I was when bObsweep reached out with an opportunity to try the bObsweep PetHair, a robotic vacuum cleaner that’s akin to having a live-in maid who vacuums, sweeps, mops, and UV sterilizes the floors.

As any pet owner knows, keeping up with hair and dander is a seems like a never-ending chore. (How Bacon manages to shed as much as he does without going bald is a miracle.) And, if we’re being brutally honest, I’m not as good at staying on top of my vacuum duties as I probably should be. (#RealLife) This is exactly why I was thrilled to invite the robot affectionately known as “Bob” into our lives.

Bob arrived with a little birth certificate to announce his arrival. (He wasn’t exactly a petite newborn at 7.6 pounds and 4.2 inches tall!) After letting the the little guy fully charge overnight, he was ready for action. He seemed a little scatterbrained buzzing around our living room and bumping into just about everything, but he began to learn the placement of items and would adjust his trajectory as he continued through our apartment. Honestly, I wasn’t sure he was doing much at first and we laid down a pile of crumbs (rather, a smashed goldfish cracker) to see if he could sweep it up. There’s a setting that forces him to spot clean one area and yet he struggled with the larger pieces. Overall, though, he did a great job with pet hair (as promised), dust, and the fibers my rug doesn’t seem to stop shedding. (We actually had to empty the dustbin five times during his 20-minute excursion because of how much stuff he was picking up. I realize that makes me sound like a bad housekeeper.)

When Bob starts get tuckered out and only has 15% of his battery remaining, the vacuuming component shuts down and he begins to search for his docking station. We didn’t heed the instructions and had placed the docking station in the middle of the room, which makes it harder for Bob to locate. Out of pity, I picked him up and set him on a course to make a beeline for his dock … which he missed. Afterward, we read that picking him up screws up his internal map. Oops. Placing the docking station parallel to a wall with plenty of open space around it makes it easier for Bob to take a break.

Overall, it seems that Bob will be best at keeping up with daily or weekly chores. We’ve actually set a timer for Bob to get to work at 9:00 on Saturday mornings so we can lounge around enjoying brunch while he picks up after us! You can adopt a bObsweep of your own at www.bobsweep.com.

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I was giving Bacon so many treats (enough to take the place of his dinner) to get him acclimated to Bob and he was doing so well … until I turned it on. As you’ll see below, Bacon wolfed down the last of his morsels before making a mad dash in the opposite direction. He eventually warmed up enough to tolerate the bObsweep PetHair as long as he was on a perch looking down on it with plenty of room to bolt if Bob got too close.

Rug: West Elm
Coffee Table: West Elm (it’s the raw mango version)
Book: Styled by Emily Henderson
Vacuum: c/o bObsweep PetHair

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Thanks to bObsweep for partnering on this post! 

A monthly chocolate delivery? Yes, please!

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Chococurb Nano Review, Plus Coupon Code

If there’s one way to a girl’s heart, it’s through the sweetest subscription box yet: Chococurb. As you may suspect, Chococurb is a monthly chocolate delivery featuring a selection of gourmet chocolates from around the world. You can choose from a full-size box with five to seven treats for $35 per month, a mini box with three selections for $20, or the nano box with sample-size pieces for just $10. As with most subscription boxes, you’ll save money by signing up for multiple months at once.

I was delighted to get my chocolate fix with Chococurb’s nano box in July. The box arrived inside a small Styrofoam cooler with an ice pack to protect the chocolate from the summer heat. (Sidebar: I’m not terribly keen on Styrofoam for environmental reasons, but Madison does have a recycling program for the product and, if we’re being honest, chocolate is a hard product to mail without an insulation.) Nestled inside were four small samples of different brands of chocolate and one full bar. Selections change each month and while this box was comprised of all milk chocolate pieces, they varied in flavors and places of origin. There was a chocolate-covered cake batter candy from Seattle, one infused with coffee from the Bay Area, and yet another with ginger from Belgium (an especially fun surprise given that I had purchased Dolfin chocolate when I was in Brussels a couple of years ago). My favorite was a decadent bar of milk chocolate with a hint of vanilla from Madagascar.

I’ve been a hard one to impress when it comes to subscription boxes, but I’m totally on board with Chococurb. It’s a great way to try different high-quality chocolate brands at a relatively low investment of $10 per month. Heck, you would probably spend that much on two venti drinks from Starbucks in a month, and I promise that chocolate is more satisfying! And if you’re craving more, visit their blog for all things chocolate.

Save 10% off orders through Sept. 4, 2016 with code BEDKNOBS.

Chococurb Nano Review, Plus Coupon Code Chococurb Nano Review, Plus Coupon Code Chococurb Nano Review, Plus Coupon Code Chococurb Nano Review, Plus Coupon Code Chococurb Nano Review, Plus Coupon Code

Cocktail Hour: Pineapple Punch

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Cocktail Hour: Pineapple Punch

If there’s one thing I love about summer, it’s the excuse to sit outside with a tropical cocktail in hand — and it’s especially fun with a few colorful outdoor linens to liven up an otherwise humdrum patio, like this indoor/outdoor tablecloth and these punchy napkins from JCPenney’s summer collection. They’re the perfect complement to a pineapple-based drink for a sweltering summer day. Read on for the recipe!

Cocktail Hour: Pineapple Punch

Ingredients:

Cocktail Hour: Pineapple Punch

Directions:

  • Put all ingredients in a cocktail shaker filled with ice
  • Shake vigorously
  • Pour over ice (preferably an oversize cube or pineapple-shaped ice if you’re feeling fancy)
  • Garnish with blueberries speared by a pineapple frond and a wedge of pineapple

Cocktail Hour: Pineapple Punch

Tablecloth: c/o JCPenney
Napkins: c/o JCPenney
Glasses: Target

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Thanks to JCPenney for partnering on this post!