Duvet short list

I swear, this is almost over. We will soon be back to our regularly (and equally mundane) programming.

After lots of helpful input, we have this lovely short list. Feel free to weigh in again! I've tried to add one semi-negative comment for each one. Don't ask me why - that seemed like a good idea.

Fairhaven: No blue!

Twighlight: Matches our shower curtain. Is that good or bad?

Marimekko Ruovikko: Not enough color?

Zen: Color might not work in our bedroom

Sea Reeds: Too much blue?

Morning Bloom: Seems a tad cartoonish?

Branches French Blue: Afraid of getting sick of the pattern

Cove Organic: Hard to keep clean, EDITED: super expensive

Valerie: Hard to keep clean

Time to buy some bedding

When we got married, we didn't put any bedding on the registry. We were already happy with what we had (same goes for towels, bathroom stuff, etc). But over time, I've grown to loathe how haphazard our bedroom feels. Between the navy blue duvet cover and the various pillowcases on the bed at any time, we're looking at navy blue, black, white, and forest green. I don't like the furniture either but that's not something we can tackle in the near future.

So my first thought was to just replace all of the pillowcases with 1 fun print that has at least SOME navy blue in it to match the duvet. That hasn't been as easy as it sounds. So now I'm leaning towards replacing all of the bedding and getting a duvet cover with a print along with solid, matching pillow cases.

After checking out about 6 stores' online inventory, here is the short list:

CrateandBarrel "Marimekko Ruovikko"
BBB 1
BBB 2
Macys 1 "Sea Reeds"
Macys 2 "Morning Bloom"
Macys 3 "Glacier"
Overstock "Branches French Blue"
Pottery Barn 1 "Tatum"
Pottery Barn 2 "Koi Fish" (just the pillow cases)
Pottery Barn 3 "Songbird"

My mom and gram have a strong favorite from this list - I think I agree with them. I'll reveal which one in a couple days.

EDITED: This is so fun - thanks for voting ladies!

Here are a few more I just found - a couple seem to be out of stock and/or are probably too expensive. Man, do you see the common thread among all these? Who knew my taste was so specific. 

Bugheart - I KNEW you'd pick the Marimekko one. That's also my mom and gram's favorite.

Twighlight
Stanton
Cove Organic
Elysium
Fairhaven
Tranquility
Valerie
Zen

In a couple days, I'll probably post a ranked top 5 list based on your input. Can we say overkill?

Weather, a cold, and a cardigan - Fall's on the way

We went to a wedding last weekend - the bride and groom were especially thankful that their guests came out to celebrate despite the near hurricane conditions outside. Also, Erich and I learned that the quasi-salsa and semi-swing dancing we do impresses lots of people. I think the trick is to know about 4 different kinds of turns/spins and make sure the follower knows the leader's signals. Then when 2 or 3 of those turns are done in succession, you can impress everybody.

The bride and groom at the after-party practicing the Dirty Dancing running-jump-catch-thing. This was one of their weaker attempts, though a couple were quite good.

Cold all week - which has meant sleeping on the couch a few times because either my coughing or nose blowing would have woken Erich up. The rotation he's on right now has him up every day at 4:45am and on-call (overnight at the hospital) every 4th night.

Finished Tangled Yoke cardigan! - With Erich on call Mon. night and my cold getting going, there was nothing left to do but weave in ends and sew on buttons. I still don't know how I got the blocking done so fast. I LOVE it. I wore it to work once this week and I know it will get a lot of wear. The buttons that I picked out during my last trip to NYC are perfect and I'm sure they no longer mind the many many weeks they sat in the bottom of my knitting basket.

2 things I learned through this project: buttonholes and 3 needle bind-off.

Labor Day weekend

The following was supposed to just be an outline for a more interesting post. But too much time has past so this is all you get.

Context is that our good friend Darragh had been visiting for nearly a week and went home to England on Wednesday afternoon. Erich had the next 4 days off with only his personal statement for the residency application on his to-do list.

Wednesday

• champagne and photo organizing for scanning
  
• I realized I took a lot of photos my freshman and junior years of high school

Thursday

• Natl. Building Museum
• Ayoti (Indian food for date night; we'll definitely be going back)

Friday

• Work
• Grocery shopping
• Madness of King George and Short Circuit (thanks to Netflix Instant Watching which we JUST discovered)
  

Saturday

• Garden
• Wonderland Ballroom w/ A & M, Wii time

Sunday

• Bike through Rock Creek Park to Trader Joes (7.2 mi.)
• Made mozzarella, basil, tomato salad
• Knitting at Teaism
• Building-wide BBQ on the Roofdeck with chicken kabobs, naan, and salad

Monday

• Bike through Rock Creek and Capital Crescent Trail to Fletcher's Boathouse. BBQ-going-away party (11.8 mi.)
• Knit tangled yoke cardigan in party room while watching Bread & Roses
• Target