moving on!

nap time?
yeah right!  (cousins!)

Long week.  Teeth problems for me and the boy, ear infections, sleepless nights, cleaning...putting off projects and to do's.  And now we're off for the weekend without each other and without the boy!  A weekend with the girls for me, and a weekend with his brother and friends for the husband.  The boy?  Fun times with Grandma and PaPa.  A much needed break!  :)  

Some thoughts for the next two months (march and april!!) blog/theme wise: Spring Cleaning!

I thought it a broad enough title to encapsulate cleaning tips/products/tools.  Small decorating projects.  Yard work.  Organization and more cleaning!  Baking.  Sewing prep for the coming seasons.  Some fun outside stuff to do in the Spring.  And lots of photos!  We'll see how it goes--thought it could be fun to have a focus--at least maybe some accountability can be derived from it??

yard work!!

This last weekend we got some yard work done!  We've worked outside some this year so far on the front porch, but not much on the back.  We're just trying to figure out where/what we want to spend our time and money on this year.  

I just drug up that old photo (we've been in our house 2 years this march) of what the house looked like just before we moved in to what it looks like now, and I'm quite proud of all we accomplished!  It's quite a feat to start out from complete bare rocks to something livable and beautiful.  We planted grass last fall and the snow had quite a hay day with it this winter so we'll be working on finishing touches with that this spring (soon!!).  The tile is mostly laid so that is another project off our list.  We've talked about just adding more fence and plants to the back, plus a couple fun and minor building projects for the yard and then concentrating more on the sides of the house till the fall.  

In the fall we would love to pour our concrete driveway out front at least, and it would be so wonderful to actually get the garage up, but who knows when that will actually happen.  In order to do any front yard work though, the driveway and garage need to be roped off so we can get grass and plants in and still have a place to park.  Sounds like a lot, but looking at everything we did just last year makes me hope for at least some of this stuff to get done.  It's so rewarding and we're constantly surprised with how much we enjoy doing this kind of work.  The boy has been out everyday this last week and weekend playing in the grass and it just makes me smile because during all that work that is all I thought about: how nice it would be for him (and me!) to just be let loose in the back and have a great place to play.  :)  Ahhh, we just need some spring and summer days to come our way!

yellow smellow

well...it's very rare that i actually paint something and hate it instantly...enough to repaint it anyways.  

neither of us like it.  i should have read more into my hesitation and sudden like of the color yellow after all those years of distaste, it would have at least spared me some pointless painting.  :)  well at least i know now, right?  

it just doesn't work in our house.  makes the furniture look too different, the books stand out too much, and when we were watching a movie late at night this weekend the husband felt it way toooo bright.  he couldn't relax, felt he was at a mexican fiesta.  :)  but he wants me to leave it all up for a week or two to make sure before i change it back.  hum...so should i just paint it all back to the original color or are there any more suggestions out there?  :)  or maybe i should just STOP.  :)  

another chair tutorial

A house blog I peruse daily just happened to post about recovering chairs today (HERE).  

Meant to be?  :)  It all seems pretty basic...anyone can do it kind of thing.  I'm just a little jealous that the chair they were doing didn't need all the work that ours do.  They're hand-me-down antiques (not to mention, ones that technically aren't even ours!), so I have to keep that in mind while jazzing them up.  It is so tempting to just sand them down a bit and add some bright paint.  And I'm NOT a fan of painting over wood, especially antiques!  I've only done it on two or three other occasions.  The table that is now in our entry way, and our dresser-- which we actually really went to town on and re-stained instead of painted.  We love how it turned out, but it was SO much work!  It was worth it though.  The dresser was the husband's parents for their entire marriage till it came to us, and we'll probably have it just as long.  How cool is that?  (well cool if it looks good.  :) 

Most of the pieces in our house are antiques that have been found by us or lovingly (and fortunately!) passed down to us.  Our dresser, the buffet in our dining room, our TV console, end tables, my piano, entry way table and trunk, dining room chairs, book shelves in the boy's room, and all the mirrors in our house.  Maybe I'll post about them some next week.  I really like new furniture too, but I think mixing the old with the new is not only more classic/casual, but special and unique.  Not to mention a money saver!  We've only purchased our table, living room couch and chair, and our mattress.  Not to bad!  We even attained our master bath claw foot tub from a friend's front yard (they were using it as a fish pond!).  It took a lot of work and paint, but it has got to be one of my favorite pieces in the house.  (i'll post a finished pic when i can find it!)

2 things...

1. what do you guys think of dishes out in the open on shelves as part decoration, part organization/storage??
2. the 2nd photo is what the dining room looked like "before"...most of the things have been relocated throughout the rest of the house, and now i'd like to add two big long shelves for dishes, photos, etc.  thinking some funky antique (and big) shelf brackets, white or really distressed wood for the shelves, and lots of white dishes with yellow and silver sage accents. (photo compliments of pottery barn)

what do you think?

oh! and wish me luck, painting the living room tomorrow!  yikes!  

thursday's book

Like I said a couple of posts ago...this book was great.  A quick read, not in the sense that it's an easy read, but more so that the plot has you by the hair and is pulling you along at hyper speed whether you want to or not!  

I read Hosseini's other novel (also a big seller), Kite Runner, a few years ago and have been eagerly awaiting this book to come out in paper back (i have a weird issue with hard back books, don't ask).  The first thing that comes to mind that I like most is learning more about Afghanistan.  The fact that the author actually lived there definitely makes everything a little more credible in my book.  

Kite Runner focused on the story of two boys: their friendship and growing up into adulthood.  A Thousand Splendid Suns focuses on two girls and follows them into womanhood.  From the perspectives of the two women I found myself completely engrossed in how women were treated in that part of the world.  "Hosseini's compassionate storytelling and his sense of personal and national tragedy to a tale of two women that is weighted equally with despair and grave hope." (amazon)

The book describes itself better than I can:

[This book] is a breathtaking story set against the volatile events of Afghanistan's last thirty years--from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding--that puts the violence, fear, hope, and faith of this country in intimate, human terms.  It is a tale of two generations of characters brought jarringly together by the tragic sweep of war, where personal lives--the struggle to survive, raise a family, find happiness--are inextricable from the history playing out around them.  

Propelled by the same storytelling instinct that made The Kite Runner a beloved classic, A Thousand Splendid Suns is at once a remarkable chronicle of three decades of Afghan history and a deeply moving account of family and friendship.  It is a striking, heart-wrenching novel of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love--a stunning accomplishment.

Really--a stunning accomplishment.  I enjoyed it more than the first.  There is a point in the middle of the book where a woman and her baby (one of the main characters) are in an unbelievably "jarring" situation, I mean utter sadness and terror.  I haven't found myself that arrested by a situation in a book in quite some time.  Some of the other girls in my Book Club actually called me up to ask what ends up happening to them because they couldn't move on with the rest of the story until they could breathe a little easier.  You'll just find yourself blown away that a country (or at least great parts of it) could enforce such standards and brutality on women.  Women could not go to hospitals, they were only for men.  And women could not practice medicine, so forget midwives.  Locked into houses, beatings, multiple wives, the horrors of war in general.  Seriously.  

Read this book of you get the chance.  

recovering chairs...

I've been watching The Nest all morning.  It's fun to see all the little videos on DIY and home tours, etc.  Quite addicting actually, especially when some projects are on hold due to indecision or lack of complete materials...urgh!  :)

I found some great fabric that really compliments the red of our dining room to cover our old antique chairs with.  I had an idea of how to do it, but due to the oldness of the chairs I think my quick fix just turned into a "weekend project"...

The bases need new foam and new finish boards (the old ones are just splinters, it's surprising that we can still sit on them without falling through!)...so back to Joann's I go.

Here's a VIDEO that I found this morning that pretty much sums up what I'm going to do to the chairs.  Looks very simple and not too expensive--especially if your chairs are not that old and you can just add material to the already existing foam and frame.  I found the material I'm going to use in the sale bin already cut and marked down to just under 5 dollars.  Not too shabby.  Now I just need to wait for foam to go on sale and a good coupon to match.  :)  Photos coming soon (hopefully!).

what color do you think?

What color should I paint the bed?  

This project ended up being a little more intensive than I had imagined.  It took a ton of tools, not to mention time, but at least at the end of it all the husband liked it.  Apparently he usually is able to visualize (somewhat) the random ideas I get, but this one he didn't really get.  I mean, doors for a bed frame...I can understand the confusion and doubt there.  :)  The bed still isn't finished.  It needs a couple more trim pieces AND some paint.  Everything is meshing together a little too much.  I want it to be red, but I can see how blue (it would go with the adjoining bathroom color and the curtains) might be a little more subtle.  The bedding I want to get will all be white (pretty sure about it anyways), so it should go with anything.  Also, the white roll up blinds in the next room (it's really a big open space when the doors are open) could have something done to them to bring more color into the rooms, something complementary to the bed color...like using a fun shelving material (the sticky kind) to adhere to the blinds to add something to the blandness of the white.

Hum...what do you guys think?

it's 70's night!

So I usually don't post many people pics on this blog, out of privacy mostly, but I couldn't keep these photos to myself.  Don't hate me for those of you that are in them!  :)  We have a game night about twice a month, and for Valentine's Day we decided to slap a theme onto it to spice things up a bit.  :)  So 70's it was.  It's hard to narrow down exactly what the 70's looked like!  Lots of hair spray and some tight fitting polyester, and don't forget all the gold bling (if you could only see my matching shoes!).  Fun times.  Isn't the husband scary?!

anyone?

My dad called me up the other day to tell me about the Kindle 2 that Amazon just put out.  I've noticed out of the corner of my eye for a while now that the first Kindle existed, I just never really took a moment to look at it and see what the heck it was.

A very interesting idea.  Not in my mind worth the 350 bones it would cost, but there are supposed to be 230,000 titles that this little baby can access anywhere in about 60 seconds or less.  Not just books mind you, but newspapers, magazines, etc.  And it is not a lit up device I guess.  It reads like a book, if you want to read in the dark you actually have to attach a book light too it just as you would to a normal paper back.  Hum...

I do think it's cute, I love white technological devices.  Very clean cut.  Seems small and easy to carry around, but I just can't bring myself to like the idea.

Newspapers and magazines are shutting down around the country like crazy.  Layoffs, etc.  So much is accessible through computers today that there isn't much need for all the human bodies to do the foot work themselves.  I know Amazon sells much more than books, but that is mainly what I use them for.  So it seems strange to have them sell something that is going to join forces with the rest of the technology we now have (which can be great--i do use it all myself too i realize) that is pushing paper forms into non-existence.  I love filling my shelves with books.  I love holding them and turning pages.  I see the money saving (besides the initial cost!) feature, the space saving feature and how easy having a Kindle 2 would be, but I can't get past the feeling that I would be cheating on my first love.  That I would be aiding in the partial deletion of real paper backed books.  Sniff sniff!  

Am I just crazy?  A little too emotionally invested in this area to really form an opinion?  What do you guys think about this?  Check it out HERE.

thursday's book

Not till I was looking for a photo of this book title did I see that they've made a movie of it.  Much less a movie staring Nicole Kidman.  Hum...most classics are made into movies at some point, not sure why I'm surprised this one was.  

Anyways.  This book took just a bit to get into, like most classics, especially Henry James, but once in--you're stuck.  :)  My heart is always first and foremost for the classics, then comes everything else.  With all the extra books I've been reading interspersed with book club picks I decided to balance things out a bit and read a classic every other book.  So I finished Portrait this weekend, started and finished 1,000 Splendid Suns (amazing!!! review next wk), and then last night picked up War and Peace.  We'll see how it goes.  I feel like life will be a little more balanced...or my reading will be more challenged.  A mix of a learning and a somewhat stretching experience for my mind.  I'm sooo not bashing everything but the classics.  I just love really delving in and letting my brain pick them apart. 

Henry James', The Portrait of a Lady, has been on my shelves for years.  I've read Joyce's, A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, and was always intrigued by James' book, wondering how similar of a plot they would follow.  I loved Joyce's book.  I read it for one of my most favorite literature college classes and found it equally intriguing and disturbing.  James' title didn't fail me, yet it also didn't quite compare either.  

Again, anyways...The main heroine is easily likable.  It is somewhat confusing as to what her personality truly is like, but all the same one roots for her as she heads to Europe after the loss of parents to live with relatives.  I was torn between understanding why she passed up suitor opportunities (quite good ones at that) to try making it on her own instead--traveling and self-discovery.  The man she does end up with makes for a very conflicting situation both for the heroine and the reader.  James did a great job hiding some pivotal details/events from his readers.  I picked up on a vague idea of what could possibly happen in the end, and some other things were alluded to on the way, but overall I was completely captivated by his puppet playing of the plot.  I was very engrossed, yet as I was frantically turning the last few pages of the book I was quite disappointed in an intriguing way (i guess).  I've since read the intro/afterward/and have thought a good deal about it since I've finished the book, but I still am left with the unsettling feeling that I haven't quite "gotten" the very end of the book.  I really don't want to give away much, so my "review" really can't get into it for fear that I'd ruin the book for someone (not that many people actually read this and take me on my recommendations!), but I feel agitated despite my overall likeness of this book!  I bet there is some forum out there, or some website that discusses this book and shares different ideas/conclusions as to how James really ends his amazing classic.  Maybe I'll Netflix the movie and see if that sheds anymore light.  

Anyways...very glad I read this, I just need a little more closure!  Next week is my Book Club title, A 1,000 Splendid Suns (same author as kite runner).  Can't wait to review that one.  If you haven't read either of his books, read this one (they're both amazing)...it is extremely good!

yum!

I keep finding myself going back to this blog.  I've made several of her recipes and they've all be yummy and creative.  These biscotti are just calling my name.  I think I'll try them sometime this week.  I've never gotten around to buying an actual rolling pin, I just always use a wine bottle, but she says the dough is pretty sticky, one of the toughest she's worked with? so maybe I'll relent and pick one up...a little valentine present for myself.  :)  

Another thing I noticed that she did was to compile all her chocolate recipes!  You just click on the picture of the chocolate pie in her side bar and wooh-lah! heaven.  :)  

Other recipes I've tried (well the 2 i actually blogged about) from Smitten Kitchen: HERE and HERE.

ikea wish list

We're not the biggest Ikea fans, but I do love them for all the fun little (and so inexpensive!) things.  I've had my eye on these two things for awhile for the living room.  I'm hoping to maybe paint this weekend depending on the weather, so the only other things I would like to get to finish off the room are an ottoman (probably will be awhile) and some new little shades for the lamps on the piano.  I will also coordinate the photos to whatever accent color I choose to keep color flowing through the room.  I'm thinking one of the two blue shades would be a fun color to go with the yellow and greens.  I think the ottoman is actually for a chair, so I'm not sure if the size is going to look funny or not.  I just have to see it in person I think.  

After I see the lamp shades in person too, I might pick some more up to make the bar lights in the kitchen with.  That would be way more cost effective compared to the other idea I have for that space!  :)

Also, check out my friend's blog.  She did something similar to what we wanted to do with our bed till we decided to use some extra doors we have instead.  It turned out great, and would be a fun and easy (not to mention cheap!) project to do to spruce up your bedroom! 

phone envy? nah...

i've never been one to want an iphone.  they are pretty cool, but i guess i just figure that my internet skills/interest (really the lack there of)  would probably transfer over to the phone...thus it never really getting used to it's full potential.

all that to say, having a level in your phone is pretty dang cool.  could have used that a million times already.  i have one.  quite a few actually.  they just tend to be across the house when they're needed, and my phone is always somewhere nearby, nice and handy.  :)  like just the other day!  trying to raise this photo project i have above our piano.  measured it and everything.  8" above lamps.  couldn't be too hard to do myself (i'm pretty stubborn about doing most indoor projects myself), but noooooo it has to be too hi and just slightly crooked.  dang level hidden in the dang laundry room.  when you're trying very hard to keep your balance on top of the piano it seems much easier to just screw the thing to the wall than to set it all down again and go rummaging around the house.  :)  i'm just a little impatient is all.  my husband loves this quality in me.  :)  (sarcasm)  hum...i think i added more holes to the wall to spackle this weekend.  fun!

another fun blog to stalk...

check it out HERE.

thursday--book club

I had my fill of "historical fiction" (and all the other muddled genres that fall alongside that category) in middle school.  My grandmother used to mail me her books.  They would travel all the way from New Jersey to Washington, finding me in a space between heavily influenced book choices and stepping out on my own to find out what I enjoyed most.  

All that to say, they entertained me for a short period of time, and since then I honestly forgot about the genre in general,  but it was a pleasant reintroduction.  This last book club choice was read in about 24 hours.  :)  A quick read.  

A book about the Oregon trail, covered wagons-- the whole sha-bang.  What was interesting about it was the focus and development on the women.  Sickness pretty much wipes out most of the men, along with some women, but it's really the women who are the ones to forge ahead and make it to California despite some incredible odds.  I was easily sucked into the different personalities and individual characterizations.  For example: a woman becomes blind in her first trimester due to a chemical accident (before the trip).  She already has a very young toddler and is heading out west.  She is an angry bitter woman (duh) and also loses her husband on the way.  What else could possibly go wrong with her situation?  It's plots like this that suck you in and make you cry.  :)  It was a nice change of pace.  May even read the rest of the series.  Might break up the other heavier reads I've been consumed with.  Hum...a random short review...take it or leave it, back to projects!

what a little rearranging can do...

Entry way is complete besides a mirror that needs hung above this cute little red table.  This old table had been passed down to us and we almost got rid of it till I decided to tackle it with some fabulous red spray paint.  The boy was using it as a changing table which we don't need anymore, so now it adds great color to our front entry way!  Love it.  I have a beautiful bevelled antique mirror that I dug from out of storage yesterday to hang above the table once I can buy some hooks.  It will add a little depth and keep the old look around.  :)

I've been very happy with the trunk being in this space too.  A nice place to hide all our shoes and outdoor stuff.  I think I actually might just keep the quilt on top instead of making a covered cushion for it.  Using what we already have instead of spending more money always is a plus.  The plants in the window sill added some more color too.  Very happy with that.  I have two more white pots that I need to get plants for so that all four pots are matching.

Oh, and the chalkboard?!  Just moved from the dining room.  Like it much better here, and it will be fun to change and for people to see when they walk in.  It makes a nice transition to the living room too.

so, what do you think?

In view of today's wonderful sunlight, do you still think I can pull of the yellow?  

I think a quick trip into town might be in store for some paint swatches...hum...

Finished pictures of the entry way coming, along with a couple "quick fixes".

It's amazing what some rearranging of furniture, pictures and other various things can do to a space to rejuvinate things a bit.  I think I have a small sickness.  Poor husband.  Poor holes in the wall.  Poor me for all the patching jobs I've created for myself!  :)

ps. can i get away without an ottoman?

i've never been a fan of yellow BUT...

I really have never been a yellow fan...it's just a little tooo bright and shiny for me.  But this warm, mustardy yellow color in the photo here, doesn't it just make you feel like it's a beautiful day, even if it were rain pouring on those windows and not sunshine?  It seems so, well, so cheerful!  Maybe that's what is attracting me to it right now.  The lovely sun we've been having lately has been making me crave brightness.  Am I just being a little crazy here?  :)  

Our living room is the warm brown that most of the rest of our house is.  I picked it because it seemed neutral, yet warm.  But the living room could be brightened up a bit without the expense of changing much else.  We already have the exact shades, plus some white and black curtains that would keep with the "brightening" theme.  Leather furniture goes with everything, and the bright green accents I have would also work.  I moved some things around today a bit and think we might be able to get away without an ottoman.  I'll post photos tomorrow when the sun is shining again so you all can give me a good opinion.  :)  So what do you think?  Yellow or no?

links

 I'm not much of a blog hopper (or stalker like some--you know who you are!).  Or for that fact much of anything besides good old hotmail, shopping online...and yup, that's about it.  Sad I know.  I would just rather pick up a book or play with the boy.  But I do have to say that once I stumbled across some really fun and inspiring house blogs, I can see how the attraction/addiction finds one.  Here are a few of the house/decorating blogs that I've discovered in the last couple of weeks...

• This one proves quite practical, comes close to my tastes, and they post a lot!  HERE  
  
• resources HERE
• somethin' somethin' HERE

There's a couple more, but I'll save them for later in the month.  Get some ideas! 

february--house month

ps--i finished the book review below finally!

I've dedicated this dreary month of February to house project/decorating month.  :)  I've been taking a small stint from sewing (burnt out from xmas??) and my thoughts have been constantly humming with different ideas/projects for around the house.  Maybe all the sickness around here that has kept us so housebound is making me crave so much change.  So hopefully this month I'll post some of the blogs/sites I've been following that have given me lots of evil inspiration, some small projects we get done, and who knows what else.  

ideas:

• find some fun light fixtures for the entry way (above finished photo missing a couple hooks and a trunk butt pad)
• sell that dang wine cabinet to possibly purchase an ottoman for the bare living room
• hang some shelves above the dining room antique piece for dishes and glasses
• get some wiring done in the kitchen to hang bar lights up
• get our bed built sometime!!  (we keep putting the project off!)
• find curtains for the dining room
• finish the outside porch area
• makes some linens for the dining/kitchen areas
• make a lamp shade and find an old base for the upstairs office

So who knows, we'll see if I get around to any of this!  I'll try to post lots of photos if I do.  :)