Phew. Preparing to move myself and the beagle to another country is stresssssful. I have list after list of things to do… documents to be obtained, official stamps to have applied to documents, lots of overnight mailing, furniture to sell, and so on. Plus my birthday to celebrate & a week long family road trip that will use up a bit of my time left to get everything done. It’s exhausting!

The pain in my jaw suggests I’m clenching my teeth way more often than usual these days. So does the fact that I’ve watched Pride & Prejudice three times in the past two days in an attempt to relax (because what’s more relaxing than Mr. Darcy being totally dreamy?)…

[photo courtesy of house to home ]

I’m home. My feet hurt & I’m too tired to unpack or say much more. I’ll update when all of my photos are up on my flickr. And when I’m well-rested & ready to go!

I spent the day doing laundry for my trip. Tomorrow I’ll have to squish it all into a tiny suitcase. And Thursday I’ll wake up extra early to get to the airport in time for my $5 flight.

Two things I’ve come across recently that I thought were worth sharing:

- Big Huge Labs lets you create a pocket photo album containing 8 photos by uploading photos or grabbing them directly from your Flickr. Once you add the photos & print, there are directions for folding & cutting to turn it into a perfect little album to carry with you for quick showings off.

- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has been turned into especially beautiful chapters in easy-to-read PDF form available for reading and keeping over at Never Mind That Now. Go here for chapter one.

[photo courtesy of June 2008 Anthropologie catalog]

Now, to the point of this post! We picked out our bedding! I’d been drooling over the Kissing Pleat Bedding from Anthropologie for months, and once Frank said he liked it, we decided to go for it. I’m a sucker for the clean, simple look of all white bedding and, oh, the texture on that set makes me weak in the knees. We got the duvet cover and two euros shams, and I’ll finish off the bed with some other pieces that I pick up along the way.

[Photos directly from Anthropologie’s website & Spring catalog.]

DUDE. I’m moving in less than 50 days. TO EUROPE. It’s blowing my mind.

I’ve been meaning to have a garage sale one weekend, and I just realized today that there are only two weekends I can possibly have one between now and when I leave. TWO. Whoa. Better get my stuff together & get the big stuff listed on Craigslist! One thing that makes the whole thing seem more real and soon is that I’ve got a calendar full of notes telling me when I requested different documents (needed for applying for residency in The NL), and notes telling me when I should start to worry if the documents haven’t arrived yet.

I’m going to Washington, D.C. on Thursday! I’m so, so, so excited! There is a good chance I won’t be traveling with any pants (only dresses, I mean), unless I find some long shorts I like between now and then. I just feel better in dresses. But if I wear pants, it’s only jeans… any sort of dress pant looks awful on me (and I’m fine with that as I’m not their biggest fan either)!

We’re down to two kittens now (Tiger & Baby). My sister wants to keep Tiger for herself, and Kim will maybe take Baby if she decides that a full-sized cat is a satisfactory result of getting a kitten. (I hope she does! I worry about finding them good, safe homes!)

Also, I posted a video of silly Baby Kitten jumping around at my wiggling fingers yesterday on my fickr right here!

[photo courtesy of House to Home - go check out the pages & pages of great interior shots!]

We didn’t name them (because we’re trying to not want to keep all of them, but, man! That’s impossible! They’re all so cute). We call them by names that describe them in some way that we came up with on the first day we had them. Three of them still work, one of them should probably be re-temporary-named, the poor thing.

Tiger:

Climber:

Snake Pit:

Baby:

Tiger is the biggest and most adventurous… The first to try something new, and run right up to a beagle 20x his size, and so on. Climber is exactly that, a climber. He climbs up high and anywhere he can fit, and has his siblings follow him as he tries to reach a new place. Snake Pit (who, I’m sure, really appreciates the lovely name given by her temporary roommate, Shelley) hissed a lot for the first two days they were here. Every time we approached her, she’d hiss and it sounded like a pit of angry, tiny, baby snakes. She’s stopped hissing now and is very, very sweet and playful instead. She seems to have been the most hesitant to accept us and our taking care of them. Baby is a total, tiny baby in size and personality. She’s snuggley and requires frequent naps, and is very, very sweet (and loves to pose when she sees me grab my camera).

Climber went off to his new home today. We said a sad goodbye and will miss his daring dangling from every surface of Shelley’s bedroom. He’s got a little kid to dangle from now though, so I think he’ll be just fine!

If anyone reading happens to be in the Houston-area and wants a kitten, let me know!

This is what my best friend, Kim, looks like when she reads the Flip instructions. My video-camera-voice always sounds so weird to me.

Reminded of my love for Australia’s Living Etc. magazine by this post (about using pastels in a modern way - including painting Ikea furniture) on Apartment Therapy, I set out to find a way to get my hands on a few recent issues I’ve missed.

Tucked away in their subscription pages, Living Etc. recommended ordering back issues (all the way up to the very recent June issue) from Mags-UK . I snapped up a few and had them sent to my soon-to-be home country (to avoid having to pack & move them in August). I have a bit of a wait to get to read them, but once I get to our new apartment, I’ll have plenty of inspiration for decorating.

If you’d rather not order back issues, the magazine’s website is full of lots of beautiful photos and great ideas for your house.

Photo credits:
All photos courtesy of Living Etc. magazine.
1. Actress Rachel Griffiths’ family room
2. Style director Paula Reed’s kitchen island
3. Designer Peter Wilds’ kitchen

I like that while she’s got a nice Eames lounger, the rest of the house is full of things from places most people can afford - a lamp from Target, an Ikea sofa, a bed from West Elm.

If you look closely at the wall to the left of the bed there is a sweet collage of polaroids of her friends. The bold graphic print behind the bed is made up of a few fabric panels.

Look at all of those photobooth strips on the refrigerator! Looooove.

The tepee seems like a nice place to lounge outside without being directly in the sun. It’s made from fabric from Hable Construction.

There are a few more photos and lots of explanation (including sources for most everything in the photos) over at the O At Home site right here .