Chairs, Chairs, Chairs

February 20, 2013September 1, 2022 - Julie @ A Life Exotic

Chairs I do adore… for some reason, as I was doing this project, I kept singing about my kitchen chairs to the tune of a little old-school Jay-Z. Why did that pop into my head? Why not.

It all started when Maria brought over a nice blue area rug for Sarah and I because Irie had started acting like a spaz and scrabbling around on the slick floors. For some reason, as soon as I put the rug down, I noticed how ugly our chair cushions were in a way I never had before.

Yeah. Ew. Sarah and I never expected to stay in this rental house as long as we have, so we didn’t originally put a ton of thought into things like our furniture matching or even looking that great (hey, it’s functional). However, that lovely blue rug brought to light another excellent opportunity to get the brown out. That sounds wrong. I just mean everything is brown in this house.

Anyway, a couple of yards of fabric from Walmart (yeah, wasn’t expecting that super-score) and a date with my staple gun led to this!

Voila! They’re not perfect, but they look pretty darn good, especially since I’ve never reupholstered rounded cushions before. That was a little tricky, but it still only took about an hour and a half to do all four, and that was while semi-distracted by watching The Bachelor. Here’s the full view of the before-and-after:

I’m super happy with them. They add some much needed not-brown to our kitchen area and they also make our weird copper table base look really cool with the blue rug! Y’all know how much I love a good blue and brown combo.

The table runner is also light blue, even though it looks blown-out and white in this photo, so it ties in nicely. Just call me Suzy Homemaker. And Irie loves the new rug so much that he wouldn’t allow the picture to be taken without him.

In other home updates, I spent a full afternoon scouring all the thrift stores on the Outer Banks in hopes of trading out The Tiniest Coffee Table in the World (it’s capitalized because I’m pretty sure it actually holds that title in the Guinness Book). Aaand… success! Found this beauty for $7.99:

The top is a little scuffed in places but I don’t mind. I think it’s pretty cool. And just for a little size comparison so you can see how necessary this change-up was…

That was the old coffee table. Tiny. And once again, my trusty furniture model wanted to make an appearance in the lower left.

I felt very accomplished after such a successful home improvement week. It was one of those moments of “I am sort of actually doing okay at being an adult!” Those moments don’t just come along all the time, so I’ll take ‘em when they do.

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

December 4, 2012September 1, 2022 - Julie @ A Life Exotic 4 Comments

When I got home from work yesterday, nothing appealed more than laying down and not moving until the next morning. I was running on two and a half hours of sleep (reeeally late babysitting gig the night before and a 4:30am wakeup call for my opening shift) and basically, the tank was empty.

I took Irie on a walk around the neighborhood (I’m pretty sure I was sleepwalking but he needed the fresh air), made a quick trip to the grocery store, and settled in to the couch with my latest Redbox find and the sole intent of vegging out all evening.

The movie I got was called Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. I’d never heard of it before, but I grabbed it because Steve Carell and Keira Knightley are two of my favorite actors – but a seriously weird on-screen duo, I would’ve thought.

Well, Prison Mike and Elizabeth Bennet probably wouldn’t be friends.

But Steve Carell and Keira Knightley totally were friends! And they were so cute!

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Steve Carell is so endearing as a dramatic actor!

Anyway, it was the premise of this movie that was really intriguing. To make a long story short, there’s a huge asteroid heading straight for Earth and there are three weeks left until it hits and the world is destroyed. It was so interesting to see how differently the various characters reacted to the situation – from depression to denial to total “seize the day” attitude.

I was doing research and office work at the psychologist’s office this afternoon, and we talked about this for a while. It’s kind of crazy to think about the kind of coping mechanisms that your brain would have to activate in order to deal with a concept like the imminent end of all life. Psychology!!

It made me think about what I would do in that situation. My hope is that I’d be able to have the strength and presence of mind to take full advantage of my last few weeks, but it’s hard to say that having no idea what I would actually feel like! What would you do? I think most people’s first answer would be to travel the world or see someplace they’ve never seen, but in the movie, airlines shut down to prevent mass panic and air travel stampedes. I’d like to see New Zealand again before the world blew up… can you get there in a boat in three weeks?

Nerd talk aside, I really liked this movie. It’s a good thing Sarah is out of town because she’s been a really good sport about my indie Redbox flicks, but I think she’s getting pretty sick of them and this probably would’ve been my third strike. We’ve already seen two installments in the quirky humor/melancholy overtones film category in the past few weeks.

Last week, we watched Safety Not Guaranteed. April from Parks & Rec, Pete from The League, and Nick from New Girl? Yeah. Winning combo.

A few days after that, we rented Moonrise Kingdom. Too many awesome people for me to even mention (and a HILARIOUS random main kid).

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I loved both of them. Sarah… not so much. We have not been alternating fairly at who gets to pick the movie for roomie night lately. I might owe her a matinee showing of Twilight this week… sigh.

The Best Things About Summer

May 28, 2012September 1, 2022 - Julie @ A Life Exotic 2 Comments

Here on the Outer Banks, we officially left spring in the dust this week.

The sudden appearance of herds of tourists and crazy heat waves clearly point to summer being in full swing. Those might not be my favorite parts of summer on the OBX, but there are plenty of other parts that I’ve been missing all winter!

The Brewing Station backyard

The Brewing Station has a huge backyard with picnic tables, a playground, their own herb and veggie garden, a stage for live music every weekend, and the food truck (I. LOVE. The food truck. That’s a post all it’s own). Technically, you can go outside year round, but it’s too windy and chilly in the winter to stay. And the food truck’s not open (see previous sentiment).

I stayed with Townes again last week while his parents were out of town, and I spent a good four hours out back at the Brewing Station one afternoon while he had art camp next door, and then wanted to stay and play once he got out. A bunch of other moms of kids at art camp were there, too, and the kids all played tag and hunted roly-poly bugs together. Yup, I have mom friends.

Evening beach time

I LOVE the beach in the winter. It’s quiet and lonely in a nice way, and the ocean is cold and beautiful. The beach in the summer is nice, too, of course, but my northern blood just can’t take it during normal daylight hours. Only once in a long while do I actually go to the beach in the middle of the day during the busy season.

It’s best to go right before sunset. The air is starting to cool, but the sand will still keep you warm if you need it to. Plus, it looks like this:

Flowers and lovely things

Summer showers (which we’ve been lucky enough to have plenty of so far) mean that over the next couple months, plants will actually grow in the sandy barren wasteland that we like to call soil ‘round these parts. I’m planning to fix up our backyard a little more this summer, but for now, I’m just taking baby steps towards real gardening.

Reading on the deck

This is my summertime evening ritual. There’s an hour or so right before dusk where it’s cool enough but not too chilly, the bugs aren’t out, and it’s still light enough to see… that’s my read-on-the-deck hour!

I camp out with a good book and a cold beverage of some sort and reeeelax. My preference is to sit out front so I can surreptitiously creep on anybody who walks past. They usually don’t look up and notice me, but I don’t miss a trick in this neighborhood. Although it can be difficult when you have a pal who likes to keep you company like this:

Bodie is Sarah’s dad’s dog and came to hang out with his best buddy Irie for a while. (Also, I just started The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie today, and I love it already!)

Gigantic mutant strawberries from Ed’s produce stand.

Oh wait, you need a point of reference? Here you go:

I know I said “mutant,” but they’re not actually genetically modified or anything. They’re from a strawberry patch right over the bridge in Currituck, fresh and all-natural with nothing funky goin’ on. That is just a humongous strawberry the size of my palm. Mom, no comments about baby hands, please.

Speaking of baby hands, Kristen Wiig’s last episode of SNL was last week. I’m only mildly devastated that there wasn’t a farewell Target Lady skit. I don’t know what the show will be like without her hilarious antics! I guess the rest of the cast members will just have to get on with them by themselves.

Any good summer shows coming up to replace everything that’s ending? Book suggestions to add to my reading list? Keep ‘em coming!

A Life Exotic

The story of a girl with too many homes

everyday life

Chairs, Chairs, Chairs

Seeking a Friend for the End of the World

The Best Things About Summer