New Rooms!

Finally "finished" the new nursery up last weekend (it still needs some decorative stuff, but, for the most part it's ready to go). 

We ended up doing some switch-a-roo-ing to make "everything" fit in terms of rooms of our house.  Jacob's office was downsized and was moved to a section of our TV room (I was worried that it was going to be too crowded, but it actually turned out ok).  Emily was moved from her nursery to a new "big girl room" that was Jacob's office, and the new baby will reside in the nursery that's been updated slightly since Emily's departure.

For those of you who have been reading my blog since Emily's arrival (and for those of you who haven't), here's a reminder of what the nursery looked like when it was her's.  The main differences now is a new rug, new curtains (we actually got even NEWER curtains since the below photos were taken--they are all navy now) and some different wall decorations:

Emily's new "big girl room" is where most of my energy was spent.  She already had her toddler bed, but needed a dresser, bookshelves/case, some organizational stuff, and some kind of seating... so I got to go shopping.  =)  We kept the curtains from her nursery, just moved them over, and reused the same rug.  I found a great little dresser on a FB sales group and the bookcase from IKEA.  I even got to pick out a new paint color for the walls!  I wasn't sure what to do about seating, but was able to find a slipcover that worked for the chair that was in there when it was still Jacob's office.  So that worked out, too!  We did all of the painting and most of the furniture stuff back in August when Emily spent a week with her grandparents, and then we moved her in a couple of weeks later.

I think my kids have some pretty cute, comfy, cozy rooms if I do say so myself.  ;)  Now it's time to change up my own! lol

Cribbage*

*Jacob came up with the name for this post. lol

Our nursery is coming along nicely.... today we put the crib together!  The crib was a hand-me-down from Jacob's brother, who has two kids of his own.  Once we got all of the pieces to our place (thanks to J's mom) we made a run to the hardware store and set to work!

Scout trying to be helpful

Taking a break for a little lovin' =)

Kitty in a cage

Jacob getting some "practice"

I was a little worried about the whole construction process.... since it didn't come with any instructions and I didn't know what we were doing.  But Jacob had it down... I really need to learn to trust his ability to do some stuff. ;)

Now that we have the crib, we were able to arrange the furniture (which we are pretty much done accumulating) and now I can focus on the fun stuff... decorating!

(P.S.  It's REALLY weird having a crib in our house... lol)

Ringing in 2012

I have never had much of a "party-er" type of personality, but this year our low-key New Year's Eve celebration hit an all time low... as far as social activity/celebration goes.  We rang in the new year with a game of Scrabble... which I lost. lol  We couldn't even watch the ball drop in Time Square because our TV was being cranky and refused to let us get any channel in that televised the events (we are one of the few households in the country, I think, that still don't have cable).

(Dec. 31st also marked our one year anniversary of actually moving into our new home! We've done SOO much in the last year, it's kind of hard to believe!)

While the evening was pretty mellow, our day was productive... we started work on the nursery!

Jacob and I have had the paint color picked out for awhile now, and I purchased the fabric for the curtains several weeks ago.  Jacob also go some help moving all of the office furniture out of the room and into our guest room (so now we have a combo office/guest room), but we were waiting for a "free" weekend to start the painting.  Friday night I asked Jacob if he thought this weekend would be a good one to paint.  Surprisingly, he said sure and even called in his "helpers"  (parents and aunt) who had mentioned that they wanted to help out with the project.  So, yesterday morning we went to Home Depot, used some of your Christmas gift card balance and bought some paint.  Jacob, his parents and his aunt painted the nursery (here's what it looked like before) while I worked on sewing the curtains.  By the end of the day, we had our "finished"* product!

Prepping

And there goes some color!

And the paint is up!

And now for my curtain creations!

Curtain pattern close up

Finishing touches (c/o xmas gift exchange!)

I'm really happy with the way the color turned out.  It's a little more "sea foam-y" than the green that we were going for, but it looks nice and it goes will with our curtain fabric, so I'm happy.  Now I'm just antsy to start getting some baby furniture in there so I can start decorating!



*I say "final" product because the curtains weren't really done until this morning.  After doing all of the sewing and ironing last night, we hung the curtains and I saw that there was a big spot on the center panel.  I looked like a wet spot, but wasn't wet... maybe a grease/oil spot of some sort?  So, I threw the panel in the laundry to try to get the spot out... and it shrunk!  I know that I should have washed the fabric before I sewed the curtains, but I gave myself extra length/width as a "just in case" measure... but I didn't know that the muslin would shrink almost 6 inches in length!!  I was NOT happy.  And, to top it all off, the spot didn't even come out!  =P  So, this morning I took some pre-washed fabric left over from my Christmas table cloth sewing project and made a replacement panel.  It is now hang up over the window and looking fabulous. =)

Dining Room Addition

Well, after surfing around online, and staring at my dining room decor for a few days, I decided to go for it and get the vinyl decal for the wall.... Jacob helped me put it up yesterday, and I think it looks pretty good!

We also got one for the bedroom (one of my favorite quotes from Maya Angelou)... I felt like I needed something on the wall above our bed, but i don't like the idea of anything heavy hanging over my head while I'm asleep.  i figured vinyl wall art was a little less crack-my-skull-open-scary.  We haven't put it up yet, but you can bet there will be photos of that as well. =)

Heart of the Home

When I was growing up (and even now) the heart of our home was the kitchen/dining room.  It seemed that my mother was always in the kitchen, and, to spend time with her we just take a seat on one of the bar stools at the counter.  We also always ate dinner as a family, around the table.  On special occasions we would finish with dinner and either sit around talking (for hours) or play a game of some kind (we were big fans of Sequence and Spoons). 

When purchasing our house, it was important to me to have a space for a dinner table, not only due to my memories of my family, but also because I enjoy hosting dinner parties, and truly believe that the heart of a home is where laughter and socialization occurs... the dinner table.

We found a great table on Craigslist, but the space around it seemed kind of bland/empty.  I wanted some artwork to hang on the wall above the table, but couldn't find anything (at a reasonable price) that I liked.  Until, one day, I got an e-mail from ArtsCow.

ArtsCow is an online photo product printing company.  If you sign up (free) on their site you get a BUNCH of free stuff, and killer deals.  I've made several photo books with them and only paid for the shipping fees.  I pretty much love them. =)

Anyway, back to my story... I got an e-mail from ArtsCow letting me know about a promotion that they were doing for three canvas prints.  I was immediately interested, however, didn't have any shots that I felt went with the natural/neutral theme in my living/dining room/kitchen space.  So, one weekend, not too long ago, Jacob and I went to the International Rose Test Garden here in Portland and went photo happy.  From those photos, I uploaded three for prints, placed my order and then purchased stretch bars from a couple of art supply stores.  When my print came in the mail, I sent to work mounting the canvas and hanging them on the wall.  The mounting was a pain (the print was a little too small for the bars, but totally my fault and could easily be avoided had I thought about things a little bit more before placing the order) but I am ultimately quite happy about the way it turned out.

I still feel like it needs a little something more though, so I'm contemplating buying some vinyl word art such as this.  Has anyone used this type of thing before?  Does it work well?

Got the Painting Bug!

One thing that I always hated about renting was my inability to change things.  I LOVE color, and the white/taupe walls of my apartments always drove me crazy.  I knew that when I bought a house, I was going to PAINT. =)

You may remember that first we painted our tv room red.

And then I got bored one weekend and decided to paint the bathroom purple.

This weekend I took the shitty weather as a sign that I should finally paint the master bedroom... something that I have been sitting on for several months.  And, of course, I LOVE it!

Here's the before:

And here's my beautiful, chocolate, "after":

What do you think?  Beige rug?

Several weeks ago I saw a blog posting of a DIY project that I absolutely loved... a framed tribute to travel.

I LOVE travel.  I HATE DIY projects. lol  But, this one I thought that I could do... or, at least, something similar.  So, one day a few weeks ago, armed with Michael's coupons, left over white house paint, and a couple of fresh printer cartridges of ink, I set out to create my own.

Like I said, a few WEEKS ago I started this project (not a DIYer... no time, energy, patience or creativity... for the most part).  And, this weekend, I am FINALLY done.  And, after painting the bedroom, was ready to start my wall of travel (I painted a couple of extra frames so that the project could grow as we continued our adventures):

I decided that, instead of just framing the maps, I wanted to also frame photos of us enjoying the places that we've traveled.  So, for each of our destinations (Hawaii, Vancouver, BC, Las Vegas, New Zealand, Melbourne) I found a map of the area as well as several photos, printed them up in the appropriate sizes, and framed them (excuse the crappy photos... it's hard to take pictures of pictures!):

I'm pretty happy with the way that this turned out... and am SOO looking forward to watching our wall grow! =) 

Slowing Down

Things have been slowing down for me lately.  No longer am I going to school/writing a thesis/planning a wedding/buying a house/decorating/furnishing... and I realized something.  I crave projects.  My brother is getting married in a few months and I find myself wanting to plan a wedding.  Jacob's cousin just graduated from high school and suddenly I'm thinking about the job search process.  Not that I WANT another wedding, or a different job, but just that I have a strong urge for a project.  I need something to plan.  Something to look forward to, something to work on in the evenings after I get home from work (there is only so much facebook-stalking a person can do!)

I started a new mini-project this weekend that I hope to unveil in a couple days time... so, I have that.  Our one year wedding anniversary is coming up in a couple of months... but I had that planned three months ago.  Jacob's 30th birthday (I'm throwing him a "surprise" party--he knows that something is happening, just doesn't know what) is coming up in September, but I already know, basically, what that's going to consist of.  I want to go on a road trip or a vacation of some sort.  But we can't really afford it right now.  I want to plan!

Do you all ever feel like this as well?  It's a weird combination between cabin fever and boredom.  I've always been doing so many things at once... it's hard to get used to not having any deadlines in my personal life.

Moving on Out...

It's been awhile since I've blogged anything... I have no excuse, so I'm not going to try to make one... I'll just move on and try to do better in the future. =)

Now that the interior of our house is pretty much "done" (or, at least, there are no overly important/desired "to do"s on my list), and the weather is starting to warm up a bit, we have been moving on to the outside of the house and dealing with the yard. 

I've never been a bit "yard work" type of person, but, for some reason the mere fact that it is now MY yard has changed that tune a little bit.  I am having ideas and planning things out, and even, actually, DOING things! lol

About a month ago I started thinking about the vegetable garden that I wanted to plant.  I knew that I wanted a raised bed design.  I looked a bit at Home Depot's DIY kits, and realized (or, rather, reaffirmed) that I am NOT a DIY type of person.  So, I went to my absolute favorite source for this type of thing... Craigslist!  And I was successful!  I found a guy who custom made garden boxes AND delivered for only a few dollars more than one of the kits at Home Depot would have cost me.  In my mind, it was a bargain!  Then, with some help from my brother and in-laws, I dug out the grass and we filled it up with a combo of dirt and horse manure.  I still need to get out there and mix it up a bit, but here's the "finished" product:

I planted some starts a couple of weeks back, and have been anxiously waiting for them to sprout do I can go out and do the actual planting, but, for some reason, they just aren't sprouting!  I really have no idea why, and am starting to get a bit perturbed as I was hoping to get out there this weekend.  I did have a nice little surprise waiting for me when I came home today though:

One little sprout poking it's way through!  And, best thing yet, it's one of the sunflowers! =)

If the weather doesn't suck too bad this weekend, I'm still going to try to get out there and do some planting.  I have a tomato plant to go in and some carrots and onions that I didn't "start", so, we'll see how it goes.

Another outdoor project that Jacob and I started work on this last weekend was taking down the hideous shrub/bush/vine/thing that lines the back of our yard.  You may remember it from earlier photos:

See that monstrosity that lines the back fence?  I wanted it GONE. lol  I hate it, plus, it would give us about 3-4 more feet of yard if it were gone.  So, last weekend Jacob and I went to town trimming the shit out of it! =)

We made a dent (and found that people have, apparently, been throwing trash into it!), but we still have a long way to go... what we really need is someone with a chainsaw and a desire to demolish. =)  If you know anyone in the Portland area, let me know!  And, while you're at it, I have a front yard FULL of frickin' dandelions that we can't seem to get rid of either... so you can add that to your referral list.  *sigh*  This is our next big project I'm afraid.  I'm tired of having the trashiest front lawn on the block. =(

So Much Space!

Our house is almost twice the size of any other space that I've ever lived in.  Which is almost twice the amount of space that I've had to clean and pay attention to, which, in the short-term, has caused some problems.

TMI alert... just FYI.

My cat is bulimic.  He will eat, eat, eat.  And then walk/run/turn around somewhere and throw up wet, undigested cat food.  It's kind of gross.  Especially when you don't know that he did it in the middle of the night on the floor of our bedroom, and get a between-the-toes surprise first thing in the morning.  It's never really been a problem before, rather just an annoyance.  We always kept carpet spot cleaner on hand and would just do a little scoop and spray when we found something.  We were actually pretty happy about the non-carpeted floors in our new place for this reason.  However, what we didn't take into account was that he would do it in places that it would take days (if not longer) for us to stumble across now that we have so much extra room.

This weekend I realized just how big of a problem this was going to be.

Our laundry/utility room is the one space in the house that hadn't really been organized yet.  I knew that we needed to label totes, and we just hadn't gotten around to it yet.  Stuff was still in stacks along the wall.  But, as it was seasonal stuff, I didn't think it was that big of a deal.  Until this weekend, when I went in to grab something and found a pile of wet-regurgitated-cat-food-stuff  behind one of the totes... covered in ants.

I HATE ants.  They are so hard to get rid of.  I have childhood memories of them crawling on me in my house while lying on the living room floor watching TV... I just hate them.  So I was more than a little upset when I found them feasting on what my cat couldn't keep down.  I yelled for Jacob.  We cleaned, sprayed and let the room air out for a bit.  And then I told him that we NEEDED to organize that room to, hopefully, avoid future problems and make me feel better about the space.  So, we did.

Here is our laundry/utility room looking all spic and span and fantastic. =)

It never really occurred to me before that a dryer couldn't be pushed flush against the baseboard like the washer can (due to the dryer hose)... so our machines are a little off... which bothers me (the little bit of OCD in me is kicking in).  I think I need to pull the washer away from the wall so that they match better... lol

All of this stuff used to fit our little 4'X6' (if that) storage closet on the deck of the balcony at our last apartment... it's a lot happier (as are we) with all this extra space to spread out!

We did buy this bike rack pretty shortly after we moved in.  We honestly don't think it saves us much room... but it sure looks kinda cool. =)

So.... Yeah....

I know I said that I was forced to choose living room furniture over a new dining room set based on our lack of tax returns and budget... but... well... yeah... I found a good deal on Craigslist and couldn't resist. =)

This set looks very similar to one that I had my eye on at Target.... but much better quality!  It does need a little work (some sanding and staining are in order), but it was well worth it.  I'm so happy that I found this and that no one else jumped on it in the WEEK that it took me to find a pick up and drive out to the 'burbs!  (Really don't know how it lasted that long!)

Jacob and I have some night stands for the bedroom on order (should be here tomorrow), but other than that (and the new TV, etc. that Jacob wants to get), our house is now fully furnished... and I can't wait to host a dinner party! =)  I do want to get some art work to hang on the walls in our "great room" (living room/dining room area), but am not sure yet what I want... I haven't had "the vision" yet... any thoughts?

Our "Grown Up" Room

When Jacob and I bought our house, I was a little intimidated.  I have never lived a "nice" place before, and, thus, didn't have "nice" things to put in it.  Most of our stuff is odds and ends that came together when Jacob and I did.  None of it is really "matchy" (except for my family room couch set that my parents split with me as a college graduation gift... but that was about 6 years ago now) and there is definitely no "theme" or anything like that to what we own.  Plus, because our house has so much more space than any of the other places we've lived before, we didn't have enough furniture to furnish it!

I know that I wanted the "great room" to be divided into a "formal" living room area and a dining room, but I only had a kitchen table to fill the space when we moved in.  I was determined to get nice, new, grown up furniture (at a good deal of course). 

After a few months of shopping around, ordering, and piecing things together, I would now like to present our living room. =)

Ignore the big boxes... that's currently "kitty play area". =)

My original goal was to use our tax return money to furnish the room, however, since we did not get a refund (boo!) I had to make some decisions... i.e. what furniture was important enough to me to go into a little debt for.. I chose living room over dining room, but the cost wasn't that bad (I'm a big of a bargain shopper), and I still have my eyes out for a nice dining room set on Craigslist (which I love!).

I am very happy with the way this room turned out.  Maybe I am capable of decorating like an adult. =)