On Consignment

I really do plan on posting a photo tour of the new house soon. We have worked really hard over the last couple of weeks to get everything out of boxes and looking good around the house. We painted the kitchen cabinets an apple green and have a couple more projects to do before we are totally done. All in all, I love this house and I am happy that we get to live her forever. We call it La Settanta. It's Italian for "The Seventy." The house was built in 1968 (I think) and has a great 70s modern vibe. Mark my words; Seventies architecture and design: In. Mid-Century Modern: So five minutes ago. (That's totally not true, I am sure. I will always love mid-century modern. But we want to be cutting edge.)

When we moved in we knew we were going to need to get some new furniture pieces. La Settanta is a little bigger than our Portland home. But we wanted pieces that made sense in the house, and somehow the $1999 HDTV TV, sofa, love seat, coffee table combo from RC Wiley didn't seem to be the vibe we were going for. So Amy started scouring KSL.com. local used-furniture stores and consignment shops. It was like a revelation.

You know when you are watching Secrets of a Stylist and you see some super awesome chair that Emily got and it says she paid $125 for it and you don't understand how that is possible? Well, it is all about used furniture stores, baby. They vary greatly in quality. Some look like junk heaps and you really have to dig. Others are thoughtfully curated, well merchandised and you want to buy everything in the store. There is something about a piece that you know has been around for 50 years and is still in good shape. It just seems to have more gravitas than the particle board desk from ikea (which I also own and love.) You didn't know we were going to be talking about furniture gravitas today, did you?

Our favorite shop is the The Old Flamingo. It is owned by a group of artists/ furniture restorers. They buy from estate sales and either refinish the furniture or sell it as is. Everything is well done and Amy and I want to spend every spare penny we have there. If you are in the Millcreek area, it is worth a visit.

I am planning a more thorough home tour on the blog soon, but until then, here are some favorite pieces we have gotten since moving in.

This vase/bowl is from the OF. I think it was $13. I love it. The X is from Anthropoligie and the red screen is from TJ Maxx. (painted red to match the other furniture.)

Our dining space is small so we wanted a bench to go against the wall instead of chairs. The ladies at the OF custom painted this for us to match the curtains in the kitchen. The seat is all leather (or vinyl? Who knows) Super comfortable and the kids love it.

We got this baby grand at an antique store for $11!! Just kidding - it is from a real piano store. But the green rocker, the spindly coffee table and the leather sling chair are all from antique stores. The green rocker is super creaky and comfortable. I think the coffee table is about the most beautiful piece in the house. If you look closely you can see the dovetail detail on the top. The legs and support pieces underneath are all gracefully curved. I love it. 

This is a close up of the leather sling chair. Real leather. I think it was in an office somewhere. 

I am sitting in this chair right now as I am writing this. Both these pieces are from the OF. The chair is wool and mid-century and swivels and is the greatest red-orange color. The ottoman is white leather (or vinyl. Who knows/cares) with gold legs. What's not to love! (The ghost pillow is from Target. 75% off post Halloween sale.)

In a way I am kind of sad we are done decorating. There is no need to buy more big items from our friends at the Old Flamingo. I am sure we will continue to go and get accessories and additional pieces here or there. If you have never been to these kinds of stores before, check one out. 

MMM Mondays: What is my Modern Mormon Manhood, Anyway?

Eariler this year I stated writing for a new website called Modern Mormon Men. I have since decided to no longer write for them, but had a few posts over there that I was proud of and a couple that stirred up some controversy. I am going to be republishing them here, one each Monday, so that they can become part of this blog, and not get lost somewhere in the ether of space and time. This was my first post for them and it became quite scandalous. See the original post (and angry comments about how I have failed as a member of society and am a bad father!) here. If you read this the first time around, there is nothing new here, but feel free to comment anyway. I measure my self-worth by your comments. 

Me and my boys making cookies a few years ago.

My manhood and I have had always had an evolving relationship. I am not what most people think of as a typical guy. I am, generally speaking, not into "typical" guy things. I am not, nor have I ever been, an athlete. I don't watch any type of sport on TV, unless you count Top Chef. In fact, the only way I know that major sporting events are occurring is when Facebook lights up with everyone's commentary about whose team is winning or losing, or why Utah fans are better than BYU fans. Usually I am not sure what sport is even being played. I don't like camping. I prefer Nancy Drew to The Hardy Boys. I am confused by Home Depot (why do they need so many kinds of screws?) I have no idea what a jimmer is.

But I grew up in a home where manhood was more rigidly defined. I have five brothers and three sisters who are almost all athletes. When I was born, the second son, it was likely assumed that I would be an athlete too. I remember playing T-Ball when I was about six, and taking a golf clinic in my early teens. It was pretty much the end of my organized sports career. When I was a teen, my activity in the church was sometimes questioned. I went to all of my Sunday meetings, but rarely went to young men/scouts during the week. Most weeks they played basketball. Occasionally they worked on merit badges - neither one was really my scene. So no, I am not an eagle scout. (Sorry - do I get kicked off the blog now?) I remember once finding out that young men in my ward had been given the assignment to find out what I liked so they could plan activities that I would attend. I am grateful for that leader who wanted me to be involved, but also kind of chuckle that the idea of a boy who didn't want to play basketball or go camping left them so flummoxed.

In high school and college, I did theatre. I don't think my parents were expecting to have to come and sit through a lot of poorly done Shakespeare when they had a son, but they were always very supportive and never missed a performance. I am sure they sat through a lot of poorly done shows just for the 15 minutes or so that I might be on stage. But when I did Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, my senior year of high school, my dad was so proud when he watched me perform that he actually cried.

What I Am Watching

I guess I have created some sort of reputation for myself as an avid TV watcher. I don't know why that is, except that I talk about TV all the time and I go and buy the Entertainment Weekly fall TV preview because I can't wait for the one I am subscribed to to come to my house and I read it with highlighters and a spread sheet.  If that makes me an avid TV watcher, then I am guilty as charged. Lately people have been asking me what I am watching this fall. So as a service to you, my gentle reader, I present my fall TV picks. I am sure half of these will turn out to be lame and get canceled after 2 episodes, but this is what I am excited about now. Also, don't ask me when or what channel these are on. Ask your tivo

New Shows (in no particular order except the one I wrote them in.)

1. New Girl - This is that one with Zooey Deschanel that Fox has been promoting the hizzell out of. Comcast had the pilot for free and it was funny. Zooey is charming and quirky and goofy and it has that one guy that was a cop on Veronica Mars. I'll give it another go.

2. Up All Night - Who doesn't love Will Arnett and Christina Applegate. I have (and will) watch them in anything (I'm looking your way Running Wilde!) It is about the joy of becoming a parent and how it turns you from someone who is cool to someone who is lame. And, so far, no jokes about going to work with poop on your face. It premiered last week and the swearing at the baby bit made me giggle.

3. A Gifted Man - I am 100% sure this will get canceled, but it looks so great that I hope it doesn't. It stars Patrick Wilson as a doctor who starts seeing the ghost of his dead wife (who is played by  and I think she is fantastic.) It looks touching and interesting and about questions of faith vs. science and has amazing actors in it. As I said, doomed to fail.

4. Secret Circle - It is on the CW and is about teenage witches - nuff said, right? I mean, who doesn't want to watch that?!

5. American Horror Story - I am a bit nervous about this one. First, it is supposed to be scary. And I love to think I love scary stuff and then it keeps me up all night (I am looking at you Paranormal Activity!) I mean, even that poster freaks me out. Second, it is by Ryan Murphy - sure he created Glee, but he can also be kind of dark and twisty (and, ahem, trashy.) But, it has Connie Britton. I have said I would watch a TV show about her brushing her hair. (And I have - it was a short lived show in 2001 called Same Strokes. It was canceled after 3 episodes, but her work was genius.) So I will watch the pilot through my fingers and then make a judgement call. (Mom: Do not watch this show!)

There are a couple of others I will be watching (Person of Interest, Once Upon a Time, Pan Am, Terra Nova, Hart of Dixie) but these are the ones I am most curious about.

Returning Shows that I love:

This is obviously before this season when they turned Hattie's hair really ugly. 

1. Parenthood I love, love, love this show. I want to be a Braverman. And I sometimes think I am, with Adam and Christina and there son with Asperger's and him losing his job at the end of last season (right when I lost my job!)I find it charming and heart felt and touching.

2. Glee I know people love or hate this show and I unabashedly love it. I love the music and the musical-theatre-nerdiness of it all. And this summer there was a reality show called The Glee Project which was the best reality show in a long while and I can't wait to see the kids who won that show up on this. Got it?

3. Parks and Recreation I know there are a lot of funny comedies on TV, and I love Community and 30 Rock and Modern Family but none of them consistently deliver the funny like P&R. It is the perfect combination of snarky hilariousness, real seeming people and heart. Remember how last season they added Rob Lowe and Adam Scott and it got even funnier? Why aren't you watching this show?

4. Grey's Anatomy What?! You are saying. People still watch this show? I have been with it since day one. It has had it ups (Kyle Chandler as a bomb tech) and downs (Kathryn Heigel doing open hear surgery on a deer and also, Kathryn Heigel.) But last season was fantastic as the hospital dealt with the aftermath of a shooter. I can't wait to see if this season lives up to it.

Honorable mentions to Survivor: Wherever on Earth We Are Now, Amazing Race, Biggest Loser, America's Next Top Model (I have proudly watched all 17 - yes, 17 - cycles,) etc.

Many premiers start this week (or last)! So you need to get your tivos warmed up and ready to go. They might be dusty after the long, hard summer. If you want the full nerdy report, here is my TV spreadsheet, shared publically for the first time.

What about you? What shows are you watching this summer?

Goodbye, old girl

The time has come. Amy and I are leaving Oregon. Or more accurately, have left Oregon. As we faced all of the uncertainty and indecision of being jobless and wondered what to do, some things became very clear. I had a lot of jobs I was pursuing in Utah and everything that I had been pursuing in Oregon had fallen through the cracks. Even Dick's Sporting Goods didn't want me! Then we realized that schools in Utah started on August 22nd, and that if we wanted our kids not to miss weeks of school, we needed to get out here and get them started. Luckily we had a vacation planned here anyway for my brother's wedding, so we decided to come and stay.

We have been here for about 5 weeks, living in my MILs basement. (Thanks, Bob and Linda!) And meanwhile, I have been interviewing for jobs, we have put our house for sale in Oregon, and we have are shopping for houses here. A couple of weeks ago, I flew back to Portland with my little sister (Thanks, Beccy!) to pack up my house and load it into two big containers to be shipped to Salt Lake and drive our cars back to Utah. And Amy stayed here on her own and got to deal with getting the kids to school and trying to prevent them from breaking my in-laws furniture. It has been a fun few weeks.

But we are here. And I have a job (Thanks, Old Navy!!) and our house in Oregon is under contract (Thanks, jerks who bought our house and who are asking for a bunch of unnecessary repairs!) and we are under contract to buy a house here (Thanks, OCD old lady for keeping your awesome 70s split-level in immaculate condition!) So life is getting better.

I wanted to take a moment to list a few things I will miss about Oregon, and a few things that I am excited about in Utah. Let me say first it goes without saying that what I will miss the most are my friends in Oregon, and what I am most excited about are my friends and family in Utah. But that would be a boring blog. So I know these are all superficial and inconsequential, but they still matter.

Goodbye, Oregon. Thank you for:

1. Trader Joe's. I have blogged about my love of Trader Joe's before. And many of you may just not get it. Even if you have visited a Trader Joe's once or twice, you probably think, "What's the big deal?" But when you live by one and do 80% of your shopping there a week, it changes your life and the way you eat. I'll miss having my kids hunt for Moto the monkey and getting a free sucker for finding him. Goodbye Floes, Peach Pops, Salsa Authentica, Joe Joe's, Chili Sauce, Cherry Jam, Hamburger Buns, Pizza Dough, Goat Cheese, Goat Cheese with Honey, Goat cheese rolled in blueberries, Orange Chicken, White Balsamic, Gnocchi with Gorgonzola cream sauce, lemon curd, bagged arugula and many, many more things I have forgotten. (Please feel free to share your favorite Trader Joe's items in the comments!!)

2. My Favorite Muffin. What's better than a bagel sandwich and a giant muffin and then getting really fat? This place makes the best. I will miss you, Sicilian Sandwich on a spinach bagel and a coconut cream muffin!! (Honorable mention to Burgerville and their sweet potato fries and walla walla onion rings.)

3. Agriculture. I know Utah has agriculture (we export sagebrush, right?) But we have made it a tradition to partake of the lovely agri-business that were all about 5 minutes from our home. We loved cutting down our own Christmas trees.

Picking our pumpkins from the pumpkin patch.

Harvesting raspberries from Smith Berry Barn. And I love that we pay for the privilege of harvesting ourselves.

4. It's so pretty here! Utah certainly has its own beauty which I didn't really realize until I didn't live here for a while. But Oregon will always hold a special place in my heart. I love the forests
and the coast and the tulip festival.

I kind of look like a 85 year old woman in this photo

That tree was in my backyard!!

5. Powells. Its the country's largest independent bookstore. And it is amazing. And beautiful. And the books are so cheap. We would go every year for Bingham Book Day. BBD just won't be the same at the local Barnes and Noble.

6. No Sales Tax. On ANYTHING!! I still can't get my head around it here. I had to buy a new cell phone and had to pay like $15 in tax!! And whenever I but a $.99 fountain drink I am really annoyed when the total is actually $1.06 or whatever. I hate you, sales tax.

I hope when my kids grow up and get married that they all move to Oregon, so I have no choice but to follow them there. Because I hate the idea that I am done with Oregon. Who knows what life will bring.

So onto Utah. Of course, as I said the greatest thing about living in Utah is being close to friends and family and having people that can come to Jonah's baseball games, or Sunday dinners, or piano recitals. Utah has really hipped itself up in the last few year, with the Ikea and the H&M and the fancy local restaurants. Here are the other superficial things I am excited about.

1. Holiday Oil. If you live in the Holladay area (why isn't it called Holladay Oil, you may ask?) is there a greater gas station chain on earth than the Holiday Oil? They have a wide variety of fountain beverages (I am enjoying a Holiday Oil Diet Coke in a Styrofoam cup as we speak.) including Fresca! Don't you sometimes need a fountain Fresca?! Where else can you get that?! They also sell these little beauties:

The Dunford Bakery Chocolate Cake donut. They are so delicious and so chocolatey. You can buy a big box of them from Costco and when we were visiting here we would always get one "because Jonah liked them." Then Jonah would eat 2/3 of one and we would eat the other 17 1/3. They are dangerous. And delicious. In the few short weeks that we have been here, Noel has also become obsessed and asks us every single morning what time we are going to Holiday Oil. 

2. Cafe Rio I know it is cliché. And I know you have to wait in line with a bunch of Moms who have had boob-jobs and who are part-time wedding photographers and who drove up in their Ford Escalades. But it's super popular for a reason! The food is dang good and you get a lot of it. It makes the best take out for watching TV after the kids have gone to bed and you just want something yummy while you watch So You Think You Can Dance. 

3. Great Harvest Bread We had this lovely institution in Hillsboro, but the bread was usually either over cooked and a little dry or the wheat wasn't ground all the way so the bread was a little crunchy. And the people who ran it were slow and grouchy. And you had to ASK for a sample, which they would begrudgingly shave of a tiny sliver for you. The bread at the Great Harvest Bread Co. here is always fresh and delicious, they have a much bigger selection and they practically force you to take a sample. And it is always warm and about as big as a quarter of a loaf of bread. 

4. Theatre  I am certain that there is fabulous theatre in Portland. But when you have small kids, it is easier to not make the effort to get a babysitter, drive downtown, find parking and attend a show Which makes our total number of live theatre outings while living in Portland zero. But in Utah we have a lot of friends that act in and direct plays, which makes it much more easy to get off our badonkadonks and go see something. Last week we saw the FANTASTIC The Drowsy Chaperone at the Hale Center Theatre in Orem starring our friend Brett Merritt. It was great. If you live in or near Utah County, there is no excuse not to see this show. But it also reminded me how much fun live theatre is. Can't wait to see lots more stuff!

I am sure there are things I left off this list, but it took me about a month to get this blog put together, so I better just publish. We are truly glad and grateful to be back.