• Cure Clock: 5 Weeks to Go
• Assignment: Read Week 4: Retail Therapy
• Cure Members: 1,360
The pic up top is in our living room. It's a lovely pic from my new book, and it shows a really nice mix of protein and carbohydrate elements combined. Below the jump I list each one with sources, but first, how about a poll?
My Mix From the Pic Up Top
Sofa - Caravane Daybed, originally from Calypso Home (Protein $$$)
Rug - Dippy 12 x14 wool rug from The Rug Company (Protein $$$)
Pillows - Judy Ross (Protein $$$)
Soft Pillow - Vintage from Andrianna Shamaris (Protein $$)
Bolster - DIY with fabric from Purl Soho (Protein, but less $)
Lamp - by BTC Lighting originally purchased at Marston & Langinger (Carbohydrate $)
Stool - Frosta from Ikea (carbohydrate $)
---
This week you are also definitely IN IT, as they say, so I thought it would be good to do a little halfway through check-in. Feeling low? We have help for you. Feeling good? You can help out. Here's a strength machine. Please contribute liberally and remember, you only get one pull on the machine:
Tweet Your Progress!
We've added buttons this week so you can begin to tweet your progress. Read this post? Tweet it. Cleaned up a room? Tweet it. Planned some smart shopping? Tweet it, and let all your friends know that you're moving the needle.
 Tweet Your Progress |  Share Your Progress |
---
Last Week's Survey
Meanwhile, if you're curious about what magazines you all read for inspiration, Here's the result of last week's survey:
It seems that Dwell is the big winner this year, with Elle Decor and Living, Etc. pretty far behind in a tie for second place. "Other" is still a big factor, I have to admit as well, and you've listed some good alternates down below.
Not surprisingly, folks are still really missing Domino and a whole bunch of other mags that have folded in the past few years. Just to see how dramatic the change has been, take a look at this survey taken in October 2008. Three of the favorites listed are missing now.
----
My Project
This is the view looking south down the Hudson on Saturday morning from the garage where our car is parked. Way in the distance you can see the Statue of Liberty engulfed in thick clouds. This never happens.
This past week my project was totally derailed by good weather. Having done this for awhile, I'm not worried, and I want to be honest about this because it happens. I just have to catch up and so can you if you're behind!
With the lovely weather, we got in our car and drove out to my family's country house, where I proceeded to spend the two days cutting down branches, planting planters, setting out the porch furniture and buying a lovely bird bath for the yard. It was tremendously satisfying and very domestically improving, but it had nothing to do with my terrible closets in the city.
----
Post Index
Must-See Small Cool Homes: Week Two
Beth's Romantic & Retro Residence
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Shaw's Original Fir...
How To Make Perfect Bacon in the Oven
How To Cook Tender, Chewy Wheat Berries on the Stovetop
wow, i really like how that caravane daybed is looking in your living room. i remember when you first posted photos of it. loved it then but it's now looking quite divine & comfortably luxurious with all the various pillows & textures!
i am inspired to make those slim cushions for our floor. we wanted some floor cushions, but need them to be washable because i am sure our dog will use the floor cushions more than us. just trying to be realistic. ;)
I really love love love that sofa! I'm always on the lookout for inexpensive furniture solutions for the living room, especially now that we have a cat. It's not a frequent scratcher, but the moment I said yes to giving it a home I could bid all designer furniture containing fabrics farewell.
But this sofa, oh my. You could make one from a simple box bed, then add some layers of mattresses on top of it, all in colours that fit your taste perfectly. The feet could be basic chunks of wood you've given a suitable colour as well. Easy to keep clean, easy to tweak according to seasons or changing ideas and such. When guests arrive, you only have to turn the uppermost mattress upside down, then back again for the kitty to crawl all over. Ah, I'm in heaven and my husband likes the idea as well.
That sofa is gorgeous but I wonder if it's confortable enough to watch a movie on it since there is no back support...
I am definitely behind, I am hoping to catch up on lots of things. Who knew March would get to be so busy!
I'm so incredibly behind. But I'm ok with that.
I thought I would be able to get a lot done this week, but I didn't consider the Easter holiday or the fact that not all stores would be open (like Crate & Barrel or The Container Store).
We're also still in the middle of unpacking, which isn't too terrible, because I get to do Cure AS I unpack, rather than just shove everything into a drawer or closet to get it out of a box. :)
i am definitely behind (i started a consulting project after not working for a long, long time). but i am still very excited and purging when i have the chance - my Outbox is overflowing! even though i haven't reaped the full benefits of the Cure, i have been evangelizing with friends about the merits of this process. i even bought the book for my sister.
I am sooo behind.. & such a slob... but instead of complaining about what I have NOT done... (pretty much EVERYTHING so far)..... I HAVE.....
*built a fence around my garden (got chickens not too long ago.. they eat most ALL plants AND dig up everything else!)this involved 4x4's AND cement, a HUGE accomplishment, if you knew me! Though my daughter did more than her share!
*had a great birthday party for above daughter, involved lots of fun cooking & bonding w/ daughter, AND lots of drinking, that is how OLD my daughter is!
*because of above party, I DEEP cleaned living room (wish same could be said for the kitchen!), got rid of 2 big boxes of books!
*because of above drinking & cleaning (dust) spent a day in bed... found some great blogs, & new enthusiasm for my life.
*made 2 great pillow covers out of an old skirt of my mum's, found out at party above, that her beloved dad gave that skirt to her for her 21st birthday.. a way cool hand woven from Guatamala, that he picked out himself in Berkeley, in the 50's....
* so WTF am I complaining about? As I wrote, I noticed how cool is that? One thing leads to another,
so maybe I am not "following directions" but hey! things are proceeding quite nicely!
THANK YOU FOR THE INSPIRATION!
off to can some ginger/dill carrots (mum's fav)for HER party!
Easter turned out to be exactly what we needed to get our Cure back on track. My parents came up for the day so my husband and I spent about 4 hours beforehand whipping the place into shape. For the most part we stayed on task about putting things in the outbox instead of shoving it into a closet to deal with after our company left. I look forward to working on it more this weekend!
I am behind and ahead, all at the same time. I finally cleaned my kitchen this weekend and felt inspired to replace the stained fabric in the screen that hides my water heater with the curtains that formerly hid my storage shelves. Then I bought new fabric to make new curtains to hide my storage shelves.
I ignored my landing strip to leap ahead to my living room and completely rearranged it after discovering floorplanner.com. That was an amzing breakthrough! I really opened up the flow to my apartment and fixed a lot of problems I was having with that room. Yay!
Of course, I am supposed to be focusing on my bedroom for my one-room remedy. Ahead and behind. Behind and ahead.
Thanks for being honest about being behind - I was really beating myself up for also being behind - but maybe some extra effort this week will get me back on track.
I did manage to finally move an old bureau out of the living room/daughter's room - what a big difference! Oh and i did fix the toilet that needed repair for 2 months now... but so much more to do.
I've been doing some cure-esque activities, but I probably should have been following along with the cure for inspiration and encouragement. I just moved overseas and have been having to furnish an apartment from scratch on a pretty limited budget (basically what I managed to make from quickly selling off most of our stuff on craigslist before moving). We still haven't got the boxes we shipped, which should infuse a bit of homey-ness with some books, quilts, and pillows.
We bought some carb furniture from IKEA for the stuff we really needed immediately (table, 2 chairs, bookshelf, sofa). But some protein choices have been filling in round the edges (solid wood bedframe made locally, antique cupboard with drawers/shelves). Most recently, I'm painting and changing the knobs on a small thrift store bureau and today I found 2 old plywood school type chairs in a secondhand shop for 10 euro each.
We're still missing some fairly major things like a large chest of drawers and a desk. I've been pretty good at the cleaning/cooking parts of the cure since those have been part of my habits for a long time.
Now I'm off to catch up on the other cure posts ...
I'm behind, but doing some quick catch up this weekend. I'm trying to finish my regrouting project in my kitchen. The grout is 30 yrs of grossness, so since it's an apt and I can do a lot of things to it, I decided to grind out the grout and reapply. It should give the "bones" of the old kitchen some much needed oomph.
:-)