New Place - Floor Covering

Next month, I am moving into a new and improved place. This will be a temporary stop until I can buy my own place. I am thrilled to have a second room for guests. I am also thrilled to leave behind the "Spring Break" attitude at my current place. My first dilemma: Buy a Rug. My chocolate lab "roommate" is skittish about walking on shiny surfaces. The downstairs and living area are all hardwoods. I need to buy these items first before moving in. For the downstairs area, I am looking at an indoor/outdoor rug that can handle the post city walk puppy feet. The options are below:

 I love the drama of this one.

I love how this one is clean and modern.

My bigger question is what to put upstairs in the living room. This will sit under my white furniture and define the room.

I love this one for the soft colors and I love anything traditional and Indian.

I love the robin's egg color and the subtle sheen of this one.

 This one is the most different (and least expensive). It is a flat weave of leather and jute.

This is a closeup of the sculpted weave rug in neutral color. I love how simple the single color will look. 

So my blog buddy....which do you vote for?

Clean Slate Reunion Part One?

Turns out my hometown, DFW, has seen as much extreme cold weather as my new town, MKE, has this week. In fact, it was a few degrees colder in DFW than here in MKE the last two days. And it is my understanding that many of the schools and offices in DFW were shut down for a couple of days this week. Poor school kids, they're gonna have to make up for those snow days!

My co-blogger, slash blog creator, slash very dear friend Kimberly is flying in tomorrow morning for a long weekend visit. I am super, so, very excited to see her; it's going to be a very lovely weekend here in MKE! It was so cool and kind of Kimberly to just sign up on this visit and book her flight when I teased her about coming to visit me a couple of weeks ago. Yep, just like that; I love that nonchalance in her.

I can't wait until I see Kimberly at the airport tomorrow morning. I hope she's not sick of the cold weather (and snow) yet. A few things on our "loose" itinerary, but we'll still have plenty of convo and catch up time. Maybe we'll blog our visit this weekend, too. Go Packers!

First Snowstorm-- February First It Is!

Tonight, February 1st, marks my first snowstorm experience. The TV and radio people had been broadcasting blizzard warnings the past two days, but coming from Texas, I, of course, did not believe them until it really happened.

The local shoppes, including Milwaukee Public Market, had shut down earlier this afternoon. This snowstorm business must be a serious matter, I thought to myself. I anxiously waited for the flurry to turn into storm; what was this so-called snowstorm going to be like?

Finally, about 5:30 PM or so, the pouring flurries started to come down hard. Then came the whistling, blowing wind, occasionally making cracking noises against the large sliding door and windows in my living room. I kept looking at the windows to make sure they're not going to get knocked down by the strong wind.

And now, six hours later, my first blizzard is going strong. From inside my living room, the snowstorm looks like a thick sheet of haze. It reminds me of the moving clouds you see during your flight.

The downtown traffic had long quieted down as visibility quickly became severely low. Despite the uncertain feelings, I am enjoying this new experience. I know what you're thinking; get used to (the) blizzard, you'll have plenty of it. Indeed, and I will...

Day Thirteen

This place, my new residence in Milwaukee, feels more and more like home to me. In two days, I will have inhabited my apartment for two good weeks. Preparing for my friend Mel's visit last weekend gave me motivation to really finish unpacking and situate my furniture despite Mel's original intent to help me unpack. To tell you the truth, I was glad I had made this space a comfy, little home prior to her arrival because we could then enjoy our time together doing funner activities.

Speaking of friends and visitors, I am thrilled to have a good line up for the next few weekends. Just today, my great friend and co-blogger Kimberly e-mailed me her tentative DFW/MKE itinerary. If all goes well, Kimberly and I will be watching the Packers play in the Superbowl together, which is an interesting irony because (as you may already know) this year's Superbowl is going to be held in Arlington, Texas (a.k.a. DFW). I am sooo looking forward to this... time to scout the perfect local watering hole for us to go watch the game at and, maybe, make new friends.

This weekend I will welcome and host my northwest Missourian friend. It has been a couple of years since I saw her; we will have a lot to catch up on. I imagine I will take her to the local Italian grocery store, Glorioso's, for lunch one day; or play her a few rounds of farkle over great convos when we are not touring the museums. The truth is, I have not done the best job at keeping in touch with her and her family in Missouri for the past eighteen months. This so called clean slate, however, has motivated me to get reconnected to those dear friends and loved ones. I think this visit is a good start.

The Next Chapter: From Queso To Cheese

Thank you for The Beginning, Kimberly; exactly two weeks later...

Indeed, it has been ten days since my big move from sunny Texas to chilly Wisconsin (go Packers, beat the Bears today!). So far, I am enjoying all of this newness in my life; from the new abode, much colder temperature and snowy weather, new street names to memorize, local beer varieties to get used to (although the local Whole Foods sells Shiner), and more...

For now, I think, or I certainly do hope, that the hardest part of this big, state changing move is behind me. I am talking about unpacking boxes and boxes, and many more boxes, of my belongings (and some borrowed properties... oops!) that took me seven days to do. I much preferred the interior designing and decorating that were simultaneously completed in time for my Fort Worthian friend Melanie's visit this weekend.

Mel's visit, along with my newly but strategically placed old furniture, help me feel even more at home in this new city. I also feel very fortunate to have Mel this weekend to explore and experience my new vicinity with. She was game with my last minute plan to show up at the local Lululemon showroom and join the complimentary one hour yoga class, making me feel less awkward than my yoga poses showcased.

Despite the mere ten days taste of my new life in Wisconsin, I am looking forward to what my clean slate brings me in the near future. I feel very lucky and grateful for this clean slate. After all, they say that if one can move to Wisconsin during the winter time, one will be just alright.

The Beginning

So I suppose this is where the blog begins. Today is the official "Farewell" party being thrown for our dear friend (and fellow Clean Slate blogger) Ratna. Next week she is moving from sunny Texas to chilly Wisconsin. It would seem that this is where it ends, but truly it is the beginning. Maybe a little explanation is needed here....

I have been pondering this website for the last few months. I feel as if my life has entered the state of "Clean Slate." In my mid 30s, I left a life of security with a husband and large home and entered one with practically nothing. I called my apartment The Clean Slate. I did have some possessions....One white sofa and a chair. I began to build on this theme acquiring pieces that I loved and always searching for the perfect additions to my new home. My apartment became a cocoon of safety & security with soft bedding and lots of fluffy pillows.

Little did I know, more changes were coming. Ratna and I have known each other for 10 years. We are one-time coworkers and long time friends. We always just pick up where we left off. She invites me to lunch at a fabulous Italian hole-in-the-wall restaurant and tells me that she is moving to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. My sadness at losing my local friend soon turned to happiness, realizing that the job that moves her there, keeps her in the US. This is, of course, Ratna's story to tell. So as we spend the afternoon chatting about her new life chapter, we realized that we could build this blog together. As she moves from a vintage home to a new mod apartment, we have so much to discuss and share.

I will see my good friend tonight at her farewell party and I can't wait to give her a big hug. I'm so proud of you Ratna. You are a fighter and a survivor. You impact the lives of every person you meet. You are also so creative and a true artist. I can't wait to see what this next chapter holds for you.