All work and no play.

Work and a road trip with the mister to Pennsylvania (to help clean out/organize a house owned by his family that's headed to market) has kicked my behind. And to add insult to injury I ended my commute week very late last night on a train chock-o-block with loud, inebriated passengers. On their way home from a Neil Diamond concert. Sometimes the world is so unkind to me.

So I'm a bit behind on the blog (and sleep!) front but my mom's gotten a kick out of the extra mileage (and wonderful comments) her baby picture has gotten in my absence. It's all good. And thank you for your kind wishes...she read each and every one. Probably two or three times. :-)

As the result of an ill-planned late day caffeine jolt, I updated my blog header in the middle of the night this week. It's not perfect, but that sort of suits me. And if you knew the software (or lack there of) I cobbled it together with you'd either gasp in horror or applaud my craftiness. For the designers among you it would surely be the prior. Props to Please Sir for spotting it on her own mere hours after I uploaded it. And Hooked on Houses noticed it today, too, so for Olympic Fever purposes Julia gets the silver medal. Good job!

Now...on to the really good stuff. There was a piece of furniture we spotted in the Antique Emporium of Asbury Park a few of weeks back. The old 1930s china cabinet had solid wood (walnut or chestnut? They said chestnut, I say walnut.) doors and was a nice, usable size. Not too big, not to small. The $295 price tag wasn't too shabby either. But we've pretty much gotten all of our major furniture purchases in so really don't have the room or the need. I was bummed.

The following week I was still pining for walnut, and was surprised to see it still in its place right inside the store's front door. I thought for sure someone would scoop it up. I suggested maybe we could shift around pieces in one of he bedrooms to make it work. "A dining room piece in a bedroom?"

Obviously the mister doesn't watch enough HGTV to know that with creative furniture placement, all things are possible. But he was right -- he reminded me that the bedrooms are on the small side so we need to keep furniture to a minimum.

Last weekend he popped in the room I was in to announce, "I have an idea but I don't think you'll like it."

Whoa. Was he selling his business? Moving to China?

There he was, my sweet man, measuring the living room and moving around furniture to show me that it could fit perfectly against a wall where a palm tree I bought was perched. He wasn't sure I'd be OK with moving the tree.

This is one of the many reasons I love him. He made it work. The cabinet was coming home. We raced over to store...they were locking up, but the lovely coffee klatsch of ladies running the show went back back inside -- the piece was still there -- to make the magic happen. Behold, beauty:

I moved some stuff on top temporarily but I'm also pretty psyched for this new display perch that I've "inherited" along with the cabinet! We're going to drill a small opening in the back and make this our stereo cabinet, so the piece will be as functional as it is lovely to look at.

One of the "side effects" of having this home together has been the unexpected, yet welcome ways renovating and designing our home (and, in a way, new life) has brought us closer together. Yay, team Shore House!