BEDKNOBS & BAUBLES

12 Tabletop Buys for Thanksgiving

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ONE | TWO | THREE | FOUR | FIVE | SIX | SEVEN | EIGHT | NINE | TEN | ELEVEN | TWELVE

Thanksgiving — and Friendsgiving! — celebrations will be here before you know it! It sounds like I might be hosting our friends this year, which has me scouring the internet for fresh serving and decor pieces. I love the idea of mixing this brass garland (which can easily be reused for December hosting) with a mismatched set of candlesticks — either sourced from your local thrift shop or already curated right here. And can we just take a moment to admire that turkey serving dish. It looks like it could be a vintage find!

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On the Right Foot: A Gorgeous (And Affordable) Light Fixture, Quality Workmanship, Inside Conde Nast’s Fashion Closet & More!

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Recent snapshots (clockwise from upper left): Batch Bakehouse made pumpkin bars to look like mummies; finally bought a soap dispenser worthy enough to be in our remodeled bathroom; picked up Oliver’s paw print and, of course, sobbed uncontrollably; went shopping for a new bed, which we hope to select by mid-November.

My favorite holiday candle is back for another year. (If you’re new to the brand, use this code for $20 off your first purchase of $40+.)

We had siding work done on the house last week, which included removing an inoperable door — finally!

Making a case for quality workmanship in a home.

This baking cookbook is on my holiday wish list.

Here are a few mini moments from our recent trip to The Netherlands.

A peek into the fashion closet at Condé Nast.

I just ordered this light fixture to try in our guest room. It’s a great dupe of the West Elm one I had wanted, but for half the price. I can’t wait to see what it looks like in person!

We had an abundance of green tomatoes on our plants that I picked before the first frost and I used them to make this salsa.

Becoming a kinder version of yourself could help boost productivity.

Happy Halloween!

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Home Update: Siding Work & We Removed A Door!

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Sources: Mailbox (similar) | Sconces | Storm Door | Welcome Mat

While a full bathroom remodel this year was incredibly exciting, the smaller improvements around the house are just as satisfying and deserve fanfare! Our latest update happened this Tuesday when we finally removed the inoperable door on our front porch.

As you may recall, this is what we were working with. For some background, our house was built in 1929 and would have originally had a porch to the right of the entry. Our neighbor has lived next door since he was a child and remembers that the space had double-hung windows all along the front of the house until the 1990s when George, a previous owner, decided to close it all up and reduce the window count to just two ugly block windows: one of them is plexiglass and the exterior framing on them doesn’t even match. The window situation is clearly an expensive problem for another day. (Thanks, George.) Our pressing annoyance was that door and since I don’t want a window in that spot, we decided to have it filled in now as we tend to have drafts leak through the gaps and insects making their way in for the winter.

A challenge that we ran into with hiring a siding company is that many don’t take on smaller jobs unless they did the work to begin with — even though we had piles of extra siding in our garage. Fortunately, our neighbor recalled that the siding was done by the person we bought the house from and he was gracious enough to dig through his records to find the company’s information for me. (This is precisely why I’ve started a home binder with things like contact information for tradespeople and paint colors that I can hand off to the next owner.)

The company we hired framed in the gap, insulated it, added the siding, and put up drywall on the interior side. They don’t do interior work, so I’ll be trying my hand at taping, mudding, and sanding this down the road. I don’t feel pressured to do a great job, since this will all be redone at some point when we invest in revamping this space. It’s a huge improvement over that janky door, though, and that posh screwdriver-through-hinge locking system.

Left: The “Before-Before” shortly after closing on the house, and mounting the mailbox. Right: Where we are today.

The team took down all of the siding on the right side and rehung it with some of the long pieces we had in the garage, so there isn’t an obvious patch. You’d never know the door was there!

More posts about the front porch:

Additionally, we had to address the exterior of our bathroom’s shower window. During our remodel, we reduced the size of the existing window (which you can see here). Our contractor ran into the aforementioned issue of siding companies turning down the work because we weren’t sure who had done it originally. Apparently the metal framing around the windows is impossible to do without the proper tools that our contractor would have to rent — and, I’ll be honest, since siding wasn’t their area of expertise, we decided it’d likely be cheaper to have an actual siding company do it eventually. Our contractor insulated the area below and put up the waterproof board at the bottom of our new window. We had him paint it black, which made it look like a regular window from far away and that’s what we lived with for the last five months.

And, here it is now! They really did such a wonderful job to make sure that the patching work was disguised. All in, the project cost $2,800, which I thought was reasonable.

If you’re wondering about that door up there, it’s from when the house was a two-flat and stairs led up to it. We had to install a permanent barrier in front for insurance reasons and found a gate that could be screwed in, but easily removed when we embark on that ordeal. The joys of an old house and correcting someone else’s choices, huh?

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Life Update & This Week’s “On the Right Foot” Link Roundup

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Hey, friends, so I didn’t anticipate being away from the blog for over a month, but a lot has happened since I last checked in here. The most gut-wrenching was that our cat, Oliver, passed away. Without getting into the details, it was completely unexpected. He went from being himself to being whisked to the emergency vet in a matter of hours. It turns out that he was FIV-positive, which is a lot like HIV in humans where his immune system was weakened and he was unable to fight off an otherwise treatable infection. We were blindsided by the news and are deeply mourning the loss of our furry best friend. I had the image above printed and framed at Framebridge. We did one for our previous cat, Bacon, too and it helped me grieve the loss — and eventually made me smile when I looked at it.

Our loss, unfortunately, overshadowed the post-vacation excitement from our recent trip to Europe. We visited Munich for Oktoberfest (and met up with friends there); then went to Salzburg, Austria; and finished the trip in Amsterdam. I have a lot of photos to share, which I’ll get to when I’m feeling like I’m in a better headspace. Getting back into a routine is helping me cope, so I thought I’d kick things off with a Monday link roundup:

How marigolds became integral to Mexico’s Day of the Dead and India’s Diwali.

I just love this kitchen renovation/relocation.

This is a gorgeous use of tile.

We just finished The Watcher on Netflix, which most already know is inspired by a true story, but there’s another true crime that’s woven into the show.

Malachite earrings.

The holiday season is made for charcuterie boards. Here’s how to assemble a good one.

This is my new favorite sweater. I’ve already purchased it in gray and beige. It’s so soft and fits true to size.

Your posture matters when you take pills.

Tips for shopping final sales.

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On the Right Foot: A Must-Watch Documentary, Reflecting on the Queen’s Reign, Statement Necklaces Return & More!

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Recent snapshots (clockwise from upper left): I bought a new coat, and Oliver got a new box to lounge in; Saturday morning pastries from Batch Bakehouse; a stroll through the botanical gardens; it’s beginning to look like autumn at home.

I enjoyed reading this reflection on Queen Elizabeth II’s reign.

Attention Wisconsinites: here’s a list of the best restaurants to visit in the southern part of the state. (I can vouch for all of the Madison recommendations.)

There’s a new Girl Scout cookie in next year’s lineup.

Crushing on these chunky, wear-with-everything earrings.

Get your decorative gourds ready for the season!

Daxxify, a competitor to Botox, was just approved by the FDA and claims to last for six months (twice the average length of Botox).

If you haven’t already watched Netflix’s Trainwreck about Woodstock ’99, add it to the queue immediately.

I love how this home brings in the serenity of its waterside location.

What I bought and loved last month.

Statement necklaces are back!

A roundup of this fall’s most anticipated TV shows.

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