This photo has nothing to do with anything, I just thought the light in the hallway was nice. The photo does make me wish I had a better camera, though. Sigh.
I didn’t make a to-do list this weekend, and as a result I wound up not really doing much of anything other than some freelance work. It’s not even noon yet on Sunday, but I already feel like the day is pretty much gone—by the time I’ve made a grocery list, run errands, cooked a few pots’ worth of lunches for the week, folded laundry, etc., it’s going to be bedtime. Which just makes me want to sit on the sofa with Evan and the dogs.
Sunday always carries a sense of impending Monday-doom with it. Not that anything particularly doom-ful happens on Monday (I actually like going to work), but I hate that feeling of lost opportunities. Opportunities to accomplish stuff and sleep well and not just lie on the sofa covered in dog fur.
I should’ve made a list.
79 Comments
I am right there with you. I didn’t make a list this weekend and now I have the Sunday doomsday feeling. I too enjoy my job, but with graduation around the corning, I have so much school work it makes it hard to manage my time on the weekend and not freak out about everything I have to do. I too, should have made a list.
You are so productive each weekend. Everyone needs a break now and then. Don’t stress!
The front hall looks lovely here. I’m not sure if you’ve shown it from this angle before. That rug is fantastic with the hang-it-all!
I know that feeling well. and I dread it. but then it goes away and friday night with all of it’s looming possibilities comes again.
If that’s how your hallway looks, you can safely know that you’re winning at life!
I call that the SNBs or Sunday night blues. I too enjoy my work but am sad to loose my weekend time.
I hear you. I also like my job, but I also like free time and my boyfriend. Sunday means less time tomorrow doing other things I like. The hallway is awesome, especially that credenza. Are you still doing any major renovations on the house?
No renovation work is going on right now…not enough money! Eventually, though.
What do you plan on doing when you have the money?
The list is endless! We’re on the 30-year renovation plan. 😀 I suppose the most immediate thing I’d like to get cracking on would be the basement, though.
Your entry is a whole lotta happy. Love. It. And as for lists, I’m embarking on writing one right now. I swear, nothing gets accomplished without a list.
i so know what you mean.
oh, and i love your hallway. love the stripes and the coat hanger mixed together with everything.
I was just lamenting the fact that I’ve also wasted the weekend because I didn’t make a list. Actually I wasted the entire week, a whole week by myself and I went list-less. Really too bad.
The light in your foyer is lovely. Such a nice day today.
I know exactly how you feel regarding Sunday. I still get that pang every Sunday evening, stressing about how I need to complete my homework even though I haven’t seen the inside of a classroom in 12 years! Your hallway is so impressive, actually, your entire home is so impressive, the Biscuits need to get our butts up there at some point and visit, although if Mamma shows up, I would remove that great multi-colored rug or else she will pay her respects all over it! 😉
Without a to-do list, my day crumbles. But, like someone said earlier, it’s as important to relax as it is to work hard. Enjoy a well deserved day off. (Easier said than done, I know.)
I know exactly what you mean! I woke up at 8:30 thinking I would be so productive today but now it’s noon and I haven’t done anything I meant to. Should have made a list. This week at work is going to be a doozy too so there will be no time/energy for much else. Oh well.
this pic makes me wish i didn’t have children.
or, at least, that they lived in someone else’s house 😉
lovely light.
Where did you get that rug? I love it.
Allison, it’s two wool runners from IKEA placed end to end. I think the name was UNNI, but I’m pretty sure they’ve since been discontinued, sadly.
your ability to remember the names of all of your ikea purchases (and then some) is amazing!
I think of them as my children. 😉
Missing out on the Unni is one of my biggest IKEA regrets. I don’t live anywhere near a store, so I generally squirrel away a list for a year, only to go and find a lot of the things I wanted most are no longer available. Grr.
Anyone want to sell me an UNNI? Just thought I’d throw that out there to the internets… 🙂
love it all, anna! and love that rug! 🙂
I had a list of things to do this sunday…and then abandoned it part way opting to paint my nails essie Mint Candy Apple instead of going to yoga and buying Toms instead of folding my laundy. My logic: there’s always next sunday!
Hi Anna, I’ve been a reader (from Dublin, Ireland) of your blog for a long time but this my first time to comment. I love your site and appreciate how much you share with us all. I wanted to post tonight just to say that feeling of lost opportunity on a Sunday night really struck a chord, I’m a serial list maker myself. Perhaps a list with ‘do nothing for the day’ is the solution 🙂 I also suffer from the ‘weekendvy’ http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/magazine/2011/0319/1224292238093.html
Hope you have a good week. E
Hi Emer, I am a passionate reader of Anna’s blog and I spend time every year in Ireland, in Co. Cork on the Mizen Head Peninsula. I have begged my boyfriend to order stuff from Ikea Dublin. You live in a great country.
Thanks Kirsten 🙂 We’re lucky to have an Ikea in Dublin alright.
There are a lot more readers in Ireland than Anna could have ever imagined (unless she looks at her geographical info on her site stats often :P) – am also in the Emerald Isle as well, up in Belfast though. Sunday night blues is a good phrase, we most definitely experience here – it always means we didn’t get enough done but that we most definitely enjoyed ourselves! Lists are good because they make you feel like you can actualize your ‘to do’s but you don’t have to make em!
all the best,
meagan from row house nest
anna-
your site is one of my dailes and my husband just yesterday said, “hey, what’s that site all about?” …So, I gave him the stranger version of your story 🙂
Love your photos! and in hopes of making you feel a bit better i have made a list for you…i’m certain you’ll be able to check off more than a few…
– wake up
– walk down stairs
– feed furry ones
– love my husband
– be loved by husband and furry children
– lay around with all three
– walk upstairs
– go to bed
I did all these things today! And feel quite accomplished! 🙂
I haven’t done the last two things yet today, but I plan to. 🙂
That console is way too big for that foyer area.
Thanks for the input, but it’s actually just right. The credenza is only 17″ deep, and the hallway almost 8′ wide.
You sound like Nathan who used to call Sunday his day of mourning. 🙂
You always accomplish so many amazing things on your house–I am envious of your time and motivation! Hopefully you were able to get some relaxation in despite your absence of a list.
Have you read Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning? It’s possibly the high school book that’s stuck with me most. He describes his concept of the existential vacuum as “that feeling you get on Sunday afternoons.” The book’s kind of heavy, but totally illuminating, too! (and short, which helps.)
I think I may have read it in the Intro to Existentialism class I took in my first semester of college and subsequently blocked from my memory completely!! 😀
Was the marble top added? Or part of the credenza. Thanks!
Sundays have that bittersweet quality, but I try to focus on the here and now. Doesn’t usually work. Fastforward and now I am in Muuuuunday.
Um, Risom Chair. Is that new? Gorgeous!!!!
I think I got the chair about a year and a half ago (?), but I never took a picture of it. DWR Annex strikes again. 🙂
This posts sums it all about not “publishing” my to-do-lists online.
I really have some pile of stuff to organize.
I’ve been following your blog and yesterday me and my husband went for a walk and saw this so amazing I can’t describe house, with a magnificent view to the tejo river here in Lisbon and we immediately thought about you and your blog.
It was not on sale, unfortunately. It was like an old daycare for children (I’m not sure if you say it like this) A lovely patio with an old playground and a 7 dwarfs and snow white mural painting.
Again, not on sale!
If I were to put my entire to-do list online, believe me, it would be MANY times longer. What you see on the blog is just a teensy sliver of my life. 🙂
I like my job too, but I know just what you mean about Sundays.
I would like to give that credenza a shout out. It IS just right.
jbhat
The credenza isn’t going anywhere, trust me. 😉
Is the marble attached to the credenza? Where did you find marble that can be custom cut like that? This is such a beautiful space.
Sally, the marble is actually just resting on top of the credenza (we got it for super-cheap because the top was completely de-laminated). It’s so heavy that it doesn’t budge, so there’s no need for it to be attached. You can get marble custom cut at any stone yard—anyplace that does marble or granite countertops can do it. The only thing you need to be careful about is making sure that the furniture you want to put the marble on is strong enough to support the weight. Knoll credenzas are built like tanks (which is why you see them in banks and office buildings so often!), so it wasn’t an issue for us, but it’s something to be aware of.
The marble we chose is honed/matte white Carrera with 90° corners (absolutely no rounding of the edges).
Anna,
Read about your blog in this month’s Dwell magazine, my favorite new mag. I visited the Hudson Valley and NYC for the first time two summers ago and fell deeply, lastingly, in love with the entire area…my husband likes it a lot, too, thankfully; I hope to resettle there myself someday, if possible. Your house is looking great, so good work on that so far.
I am mainly from the northwest Chicago suburbs, although I lived in Buffalo for two years while finishing my formal education. I am a writer. I may never work again…
…at least, on anything to do with writing for pay, or maybe even on anything else viable. On the off-chance, if you hear of any ongoing work I could try to get out your way, or around here, or of any legitimate remote work, please clue me in! The recession has laid this area pretty flat for a long time now, and even clerical work is tough to scare up…either that, or I have somehow truly managed to make myself next-to-unemployable, or I am simply being labeled as over the hill, when I am not. For this and other reasons, it’s all I can do some days to keep myself from getting in my car and driving the fourteen hours straight toward your area and the Atlantic Ocean…except that, I would run out of money too fast, unless a job was waiting for me there.
I’m glad you and others can enjoy the Hudson Valley and the city firsthand, even if I can’t right now (my travel budget being all but nonexistent). So, thanks for sharing about it all in such an engaging way, and please continue…
I love that light fixture and I agree the credenza is just right…shout out from Canada love your blog 🙂
Know what’s a mystery to me? Our Sunday night is technically our Friday night, yet we still feel the Sunday doom. It just is I guess. Sigh…
Touche! I’ve been so devoted to projecting on my weekends lately, that I’ve entirely forgotten the relaxing part. There’s something to be said for giving yourself that gift.
where can I get that light fixture. it’s ideal for my living room.
It’s David Trubridge’s Coral pendant. It’s from New Zealand, but there are a few US retailers (including DWR). Be forewarned, though—it’s self-assembly required, and it’s HARD. Or at least it was for me! Once it was all together, though, I felt pretty proud of myself, and it looks awesome. 🙂
I had exactly the same weekend — and I made a list! It was so overwhelming I did nothing.
Kathleen, I am a writer too. It’s not you, it’s the industry. It’s disappearing. You could try marketing or public relations or something else. Health care, universities, and finance are some areas that are doing ok.
Gasp! I love the rug! It’s so fun! Also, I’m a big fan of the art on the walls. So pretty!
Also, I spent about two hours going back through the before and after posts from awhile back. 🙂 I used to look at houses and say “oh, so sad that one went to waste…” but you’ve definitely proven that they can all be saved!
I love the picture, with or without the good camera you get the idea. And I love lists!
Beautiful entryway! So happy…love the coat rack. Just ordered the walnut one 🙂
What is it with all you people making lists (or wanting to) – and then after a hard week on job relaxing (as in just being) and then feeling bad about it?
Please, pleaaaaase don’t feel guilty. Allow yourself a lazy day or two once in a while.
I used to be a workaholic – and it nearly killed me. I had to learn the hard way – and its not worth it – trust me 🙂
Give yourself the gift of doing absolutely nothing once in a while and forget about lists. Your body and mind will thank you later.
Rosa, I’m being quite honest when I say that not making a list always, without fail, ends up with me feeling a great deal more stressed out than if I do make a list and just get everything done with. It’s not about being a “workaholic”—it’s about managing my time so I can spend my free days not having to agonize over everything that’s going to have to be done at the last minute.
A perfect description of how I always used to feel on Sundays. We called them “Black Sundays” for years. Now I have Tuesdays and Wednesdays off and for some reason, the gloom doesn’t hang as heavily on a Wednesday.
I love this photograph … especially the Eames hang it all …. did you end up hanging your oak limited edition one? I bought the same one and I love it !!!
“Groupon” has subscriptions to Dwell for $10 for the next five days, look under “All Deals”! Sorry to be spammy, but it is pretty exciting!
To bad we will miss the issuse Anna is in!
Adore the lighting…thrilled to find and follow your blog this morning!!
Gorgeous photo, actually! It’s so dreamy. It looks like it was taken with an old-school film point and shoot! I also feel like I should be super productive on weekends. Lately I’ve been trying to limit what I try to get done, though. Otherwise I don’t finish and I get really stressed. I’d rather finish my to-do list early and come up with more stuff later than try to write a giant to-do list and not finish. I also try to get everything done on Saturday so I can rest and relax and recharge on Sundays. Anyway, don’t feel guilty and I hope your week is going well!
“old-school film point and shoot”
Well, THAT comment makes me feel old! 😀
Super for NOT making list last weekend 😉
Why super? All it did was make my week more chaotic!
Anna, you have such a beautiful house. You really did an amazing job on it.
Cheers!!
P.S. We are going to look at that house in Ossining again….. still trying to figure out where the heck we want to live!!!
http://harrisbeachbums.blogspot.com/2011/04/charlie-jackson.html When I read this, I thought you might appreciate it as well. Hurray for a young kid who has the courage to be an individual!
Oh geez, that made me cry!!
So this is the first time i’m seeing your blog (don’t know how i haven’t discovered this gem) and first time commenting. I have to say, Anna, your house is gorgeous! It has all the elements I would want in my dream home. The David Trubridge Coral lamp, the eames hang-it-all, white walls, a splash of bold colours – how lovely!
Anna – this a lovely photo as it gives a great example of how the elements of your home fit together. Thanks to you I’ve succumed to the walnut hang-it all and have found my way round DWR’s no international shipping policy.
I hope your slide into this weekend involves just the right amount of planning and list making for you. Some of us are list makers and some aren’t… knowing which you are makes life a lot easier!
Hope spring has arrrived and stayed where you are – I think it makes weekend chores so much easier when the sun is out and it’s warm but not not too hot.
You might already be savvy to it, but I came across these book covers and thought you might enjoy them 🙂
http://motherjones.com/media/2011/04/rock-albums-book-covers
That’s awesome, Sara! I love them!
love the buffet!
I love this foyer, especially the credenza, is that a carrera marble top on a walnut base? Did it come with the top or did you add it? I just built a 18″ deep by 5′ long walnut credenza for under my tv, I love the look of the white marble!
I often feel the same way on Sundays… The husband and I were quite productive this weekend with our garden/yard spring cleaning list so it was a particularly good Sunday. There is always next weekend 🙂
I like your photos Anna, and your hall 🙂
Oooo! I love that rug! Perfect bit of color for the space.
Anna,
Someone might have already asked this, and you might have already answered but…where, oh where does that fabulous entryway RUG come from? I LOOOVE it!!!
Thank you!
Tamara
IKEA! There are more specific details above 🙂
You just summed up exactly how I feel each and every Sunday! (And I, too, love my job.)
P.S. Adore your stripey rug.