A Paint Conundrum

About a year and a half ago, while still an apartment dweller, I went to the Pottery Barn outlet in San Marcos, Texas with my mom.  While there I fell in love with this chair and it became MINE.  

PB Teen's Office Chair

 

I walked into the store and immediately fell in love.  I loved the shabby chic-ness to it, I loved the blue, I loved the girliness.  It was originally a $300.00 chair (can anyone say ridiculous?) that was on sale for $20.00.  I wanted it but I had nowhere for it in my little tiny apartment.  However, that day, apartment be damned.  It was mine.  Even if it then became regulated to a corner while waiting over a year for our move.  

Then a few months ago I came across this: http://www.centsationalgirl.com/2009/12/my-home-office-before-and-after/.  

Centsational Girl's beautiful home office

 

And I fell in love again.  I loved the blue, gray, white combo.  Everything looked so chic and sophisticated.  I decided that once we found a house that this room would serve inspiration for my new office.   

Upon moving I plucked gray samples and attached them to the chair trying to find the just right gray to go with my blue beauty.  

  

I thought I had found a winner in Behr’s French Champagne.  I wheeled my chair into Home Depot to get blue paint custom matched.  My plan was a blue ceiling with blue doors, gray walls and white furniture/shelves.  Last week I put the paint up on one of the walls and I’m just not so sure.  I’m not necessarily loving the gray.  To me it is coming off a little lavender and it is not matching the blue so well.  

What do we think?

 

My husband thinks it looks great, he thinks I need to paint the rest of the walls and move on.  Me, I’m not so sure.  I thinking of taking the gray back to Home Depot and having it darkened up just a smidge.  I feel like the blue is popping too much and not complementing this shade of gray.  Maybe a darkening would help?  Anyone have any ideas/suggestions?  

Stay the gray or darken it up?

 

Double Trouble

This weekend we adopted kittens.  

Meet Lucy and Ethel.

 

Aren’t they just adorable?  

We went to Petsmart this Saturday during adoption time.  After $100 donation to the shelter and $120+ in necessities (litter, litter box, food, food dish, collars, kennel, etc.) we are proud new fur parents.   

  

Lucy is our crazy lady.  She is not shy and just loves to play.  She is most often the instigator of the play cat fights.  She is also a groomer.  When you pet her expect to be lovingly licked in return.  

Lucy

 

Ethel is the more reserved half of the pair.  She follows while Lucy leads.  She also seems to crave more attention and gets lonely.  You can tell when this is going on because that is when the most sad, pathetic yowling you’ve ever heard starts.  

Ethel

 

 On Saturday, after introducing the girls to their litter box, food and water, we decided to leave them along and give them full run of the downstairs while we were upstairs.  We heard little foot steps darting all across the living room while they’re bells jingle jangled.  After a bit I realized the noise had stopped.  It made me nervous so I went to check things out.  I went down stairs and couldn’t find the kittens.  So then I called Bryce and made him join the hunt.  Approximately 20 minutes later he starts laughing and calls me over to the recycling bin.  The little buggers have burrowed down to the bottom of the recycling and that is where they are hiding.  

Trash Mongers

 

But they are ladies after my own heart.  Guess where they went to play next?   

My shoe bins

 

They’re sweet little kittens.  They  play together all evening/morning long and snooze the afternoon away.  Bryce and I are glad we opened our home.  

  

Even if they like to run across our unsealed, chalk-like fireplace before starting a cat chase across the living room…  

Sitting & Waiting

I have done a lot of sitting and waiting on delivery and repair people since moving into our house.  Today is more of the same, but much more exciting.  Today my friends, the television gets delivered.  And not this is not just any television, this is the 60 inch monstrosity that my husband has been drooling over for the last four years.  

We lived in a small apartment where a 60 inch tv would look absolutely ridiculous so I just kept telling Bryce that we would buy his tv when we moved.  We’ll he called my bluff.  We’ve moved and the television has been ordered.  Today he is anxiously sitting by his phone at work waiting for me to call him and let him know that his precious has arrived.  Poor guy, the tv was scheduled for delivery between 9 am and noon today.  However, they called at 10 am and reschedule delivery for between 1 pm and 4 pm.  

We ordered this entertainment center off of Overstock.com in anticipation of the event:   

It fits the space in our game room well and is definitely large enough to hold the television.  

But the fun doesn’t end there, today the bedroom dresser and my night stand also get delivered.  

Dresser

 

Nightstand

 

The only bad part is we have to do assembly.  I normally don’t mind because doing the assembly ourselves saves a couple of hundred dollars, but does anyone really believe that these are going to get assembled tonight when the new tv as also shown up?  Yeah, me neither.  I guess I’ll just have to sit on the floor and stroke the boxes in lovely anticipation of their completion.  

I know that a couple of you are probably giving me funny looks right now for the height of my new nightstand.  But bear with me here.  Our bed is HUGE.  

Huge I tell you. The head-board stands 5'2" or something crazy like that.

 

When I looked into ordering a traditional night stand they all stand approximately 24 inches tall.  That means they hit the middle of my box springs.  So not going to work for me.  Instead this new guy will give me way more storage and stand 48 inches tall.  That is approximately 15 inches taller than the top of my mattress.  (Can you tell I’ve become good friends with my tape measurer?)  I think this will be do-able as long as whatever lamp I buy has a switch at the bottom and not the top.  But I’ll let you know if I was wrong if the sucker ever gets built.   

It might take a while, I’m predicting that my husband gets sucked into a television black hole for at least the next 48 hours.

Let There Be Light!

We’ve made a couple of small changes for big impact with light in our new house.  First stop, the pantry.  There was no light in there which was fine during the day but by evening I was seeing nothing.

I turned the flash off for this picture so you could get an idea of how dark it really was in there.

 

So while at Ikea we decided to pick up a cheap ($13.00) light to see if that would help. 

Ikea's Finest

 

Bryce simply mounted the light above the door frame. 

hard at work

 

And there was light!  Glorious light!  The best light that $13.00 can buy. 

Also taken with no flash so that you can see the HUGE difference our light made.

 

Then we went out to the back porch to switch that light fixture. 

Before

 

After

 

We’re thrilled with the new lights in and on our home.  And I’m glad that I’ve got a guy who isn’t scared to play with electricity.

My New Hobby

I first decided a little over a year ago that I wanted a sewing machine and I wanted to learn to sew.  However, that was not a good time to be taking up such a habit.  I was living in a teeny tiny apartment that was stuffed to the gills.  There was no room for a sewing machine not to mention all of the fabric, thread and patterns that would then accompany it.  

Well, as you know we moved this May.  And my birthday is in June.  So my amazing mother sent me a sewing machine for my birthday.   

How cool is that?

 

And while she was down visiting me she gave me a few quick lessons.  Mainly how to make a bobbin, thread the needle, go forward and backward and how to change which stitch the machine is making.  And while that is all very important stuff to know it doesn’t necessarily fall into the fun category.  

I decided it was time to buy a pattern and real fabric and see what happens.  So last Friday I drove to my trust Joann’s (where McCall’s patterns were on sale for 99 cents) and got busy.  I bought 3 apron patterns, 3 window treatment patterns, a Christmas stocking/tree skirt pattern, a Halloween witch’s hat pattern, a skirt pattern, a pajama pattern, straight pins, a seam ripper, thread and fabric to make an apron.  I settled on item C from this pattern:  

  

I selected a black and white zebra print for the body and solid purple for the accents.  

Saturday night I washed all of the fabric and got busy cutting everything out.  

  

Then Sunday was the hard/fun part.  Time to actually sew.  I had a lot of fun and while it took me HOURS to complete it did NOT take me as long as I thought it would.  My first project it far from perfect but I am ridiculously proud of it.  I made something!  

See that cheesy grin? I warned you I was ridiculously, embarrassingly proud of myself.

 

So here’s the final product: 

 

Overall I’m quite pleased, even though there are a few booboos and things I would change.   

1. The pockets: I think it would have looked cuter to make the pockets out of the purple rather than the zebra as instructed. 
2. I didn’t get the neck straps attached in the exact right place.  So I had to improvise an additional fold at the top of the bib line.
3. My bow at the neckline is as crooked as all get out, no matter how many times I tie the darn thing. 
4. I did not attach the bib to the apron correctly.  I still don’t know how I was supposed to do that, but I’m still working/pondering.  I’ll eventually figure it out. 
5. I don’t think I’m quite as big as I thought I was.  I cut this pattern at a size large and I think it might have looked better if I cut it to be a medium. 
6. Next time I will not do all of the steps in the order recommended.  I must have switched between purple and black thread half a dozen times.  It was a bit ridiculous.

Next up is a Halloween witches hat.  It involves round circle shapes.  Wish me luck!

The 4th – Revisited

So as you all know this past weekend was the 4th of July!  Bryce and I celebrated like all good Americans; lazy morning, BBQing dinner and fireworks in the evening.  

I spent that morning playing around with the sewing machine my mom got me for my birthday (there’ll be a post about my first project later this week) and baking a S’mores cake.  I had gotten the recipe for the s’mores cake from the online cooking blog Annie’s Eats (http://annies-eats.com/2009/09/25/smores-cake/).   I thought is sounded like a great cake for the 4th, and it was.  

Mmmm...s'mores

 

I have to admit my cake didn’t turn out quite as pretty as Annie’s.  I blame most of this on the fact that I had no parchment paper so I just sprayed the crap out of my cake pans and hoped for the best.  Sadly, my cakes stuck pretty badly.  However, I tried to strategically drizzle the chocolate in hopes of covering up most of the booboos.  Oh, and the marshmallow frosting that is used to garnish the cake?  Delish!  Fabulous!  Amazing!  (Like I might have to frost some cupcakes with that in the future.) 

However, dinner was amazing.  

 

There is nothing better than meat from the grill.  Always juicy and fabulous.  Due to the fact that we were apartment dwellers for the last four years, we were not doing any grilling.  It was not allowed in our apartment complex.  Now that we have a grill we grill out a couple of times a week.  Good stuff, let me tell you. 

That night we drove out to a subdivision that just never got built to watch the McKinney fireworks.  (All of the streets were put in but no house was ever built.)  It was a nice way to finish out the evening. 

Yay! Fireworks!

 

Sadly this is the best firework photo I got. This is why I am not a professional photographer.

A New Set of Wheels

When I graduated high school I decided that I needed a new (to me) car to go off to college in in the fall.  I bought a 1993 Mercury Cougar.  I’ll have you know I was still driving that car as of March of this year.  I have to admit the Cougar did me well.  It got me back and forth to college a million times, it moved to Texas with me, it gave me very few problems and it got decent gas mileage.  

And then it died.  I know it was a 17-year-old car.  I know it served me well.  But it died at the most inopportune time.  It died within a week of Bryce and I getting approved for our home loan.  Anyone who had purchased a home in last few years is probably aware that once you are approved for that home loan you cannot buy ANYTHING requiring monthly payments till after you close.  Otherwise it affects/adjusts your credit and you can lose the house.  

This mean that Bryce and I became a one car family.  Thanks to Austin’s public transportation system and his somewhat flexible schedule we were able to make due.  But a new car was high on my list once we moved and I can now report I am the owner of a brand new 2010 Toyota Rav 4.  

Ahhh...love

 

I love my new car.  Love, love, love.  My favorite feature might be the keyless feature.  The little clicker that most cars have?  Well, my car has it too.  But if the clicker is in my purse or my pocket when I walk up to the car the car senses the clicker and automatically unlocks.  And then the engine starts with the push of a button.  Do you know how awesome that is?  That means I am NEVER digging around the bottom of purse searching for keys.  I am NEVER trying to juggle all of the groceries in one hand so the other hand can unlock the door.  I just love that!  

Me and my baby!

 

I also have a sun roof for the first time ever.  As stupid as it is I also love that feature.  Most of the time I have it closed with the shade pulled back so it acts like an extra window, I really enjoy having the extra light in the car.  My Rav-4 has plenty of get up and go thanks to my V-6 engine and handles so very well.  I have a lot of fun driving this guy around.  

When it was time to go car shopping I knew that I wanted a cross-over.  I liked the idea of sitting a little higher, having four doors and having ample cargo room.  However, I wanted something small that would handle like a car.  Enter the cross-over, a small SUV built on a car frame.  

I also test drove a Honda CR-V, Nissan Merano, Nissan Rogue, and VW Tiguan.  After the first round of test drives I easily narrowed it down to the Rav-4 and the Tiguan.  That’s when it got much harder to make a decision.  But in the end I went with the Rav-4 and am thrilled with that decision.  I love my new car!  

Glamorous Life

So somehow I’ve gotten a small taste of the Glamorous Life this last month.   

First my way cool realtor invited me to join her and some of her girlfriends to see the premiere of Sex and the City 2.  Skyy Vodka was hosting an event here in Dallas and she had an in.   So me being the SATC fan that I am, I HAD to go.  The only problem?  Everything I owned was packed up on a truck somewhere and I wouldn’t see if for another 48 hours after the movie.   

So this meant that at 8:30 the evening before the premiere I made a mad dash to go shopping.  All the girls were planning on dressing up and having a ball, while all I had packed in my suitcase was jeans and t-shirts.  A mad dash to White House Black Market procured me a cute dress and then a stop by Target got me a headband (so not me and I’ll probably never wear it again, but it is SATC I felt a need for a few accessories) and a fun purse.  

I didn't do so bad with only 60 minutes shopping time.

 

Who doesn't love a goodie bag?

 

In the goodie bag was a fedora, a scarf, a t-shirt, two drink stirrers and…my favorite…a ring.  The ring might be made out of fake gold but it is FABULOUS!  It says hello lover and is adorned with rhinestones.  I know it is stupid and childish but I love it, I think the ring is just grand.  

  

Then just two weeks later the hubs got me tickets to see Wicked for my birthday.  I’ve actually seen it once before in New York City but had been wanting to go again.   

Wicked - Dallas Summer Musicals

 

It was fun to get all dressed up and drive into the city to see a show.  We ended up hitting AWFUL traffic (All four lanes of the highway shut down due to an accident awful.)  and getting there JUST in time for the start.  We walked in right as they were doing the final warning before curtain call.  But we made it and that is all that matters.

Peacock Blue

So, hi…I suck.  I know it’s been a month since I’ve posted.  And I have a ton of lame excuses I could use but instead I’m just going to pledge to do better.

We’re in the new house these days.  See below for photographic evidence of us signing our lives away.  (Technically just 30 years.)

And one of the big projects we’ve been tackling is the dining room.  We don’t have any dining room furniture yet but we have big plans of hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year.  So to get started we painted.  Sounds simple right?  Wrong!

The "before" shot.

Dude, I had to pick a color.  And seeing as this was the first time I was ever allowed/able to pick a paint color it stressed me out!  So once I had narrowed it down to two colors we bought those magic little testers and painted test spots.

After staring at them every 20 mins for 48 hours we finally had a verdict.  Number one was the winner!  Our walls are now Peacock Blue!

My mom came into town a week later and helped us tape everything off and get down to painting business.

Just FYI, arches are a biotch to paint.

Love the Peackock Blue walls!

After all of that was completed Bryce and I got the wild idea to add a chair rail and crown molding.  (Some how I only manage to have pictures of the chair rail and no crown molding shot.  But trust me it is b-e-a-utiful.)

Now the dining room is all done!  Well, except for the table and chairs, and the china hutch, and the ceiling medallion we want to add and some sort of something hanging on the walls.  So I guess I should fix that statement to say that the dining room is well on its way.

Real Excitement

Despite the sarcasm in my blog title my life has actually been pretty exciting the last week.

My in-laws came into town, my husband is now a doctor, all of our belongings got packed on a truck, Bryce and I closed on our very first home, I got to attend a pre-screening of Sex and the City 2, and the movers dropped 100 boxes off at our new home today.

However, joke is on you if you think you get to see photographic evidence of any of this.  While I was smart enough to put my camera in my purse I was NOT smart enough to do the same with my USB download cord.  So until I find whatever magic box holds the cord there will be no photos.  So sorry!