Stop and smell the pretties

I have really enjoyed the suprises my garden/yard has given me since we moved in. I haven't quite found my green thumb but I'm sure with paitence and practise it will come..

Photo Session Sneak Peek..

We had our pictures taken by a local photographer Jill Coursen on Sunday. If you are looking to have something similar done I HIGHLY reccomend Jill. All I can say is this gal is FULL of talent.


Check out her website here.

Quick Kitchen Light Update

This project took 2 hours from start to finish and it has turned me to the darkside! I want to spray paint e-v-e-r-ything now.

Here are some before shots of my kitchen light fixture..





First I took everything apart..



And taped off anything I didn't want to get paint on..




Here is the amazing product I used! Its 'Oil Rubbed Bronze' from krylon. I picked up two cans at Wal-Mart for $3.97each. It's awsome!



Definatly spray paint outside with large enough piece of carboard for your project! My poor poor grass got a nice new ORB finish aswell.. :(




And here is how it looks now. I have a few touch up areas I need to address but for now I like the results! What do you think?










Total cost? $8.33 plus 2hours of time. Not bad eh?



And a quick suprise.. our neice Emily had a present for us..



Flowers! Isn't she sweet? Love love love that little girl.

Rain Rain Go Away..

Come again.. Never.



I wish I were back in Vegas.. lounging out by the pool.. BUT instead our weather forecast is calling for 5-10mm of rain. JOY.

The good news about all this rain we are getting? Free lawn maintenance
and I am getting a ridiculous amount of cleaning done. I have to tell you that I get more done when the sun isn't tempting me to sit out on the patio and make a cold drink!

Airing our (not so dirty) laundry..

Our dryer is an old thang that uses up (according to the energuide) 82kWh of electricity a month. *cough* bullpoop *cough*. I have to dry my clothes TWICE because they are still damp if I only put them on once. Two cycles of 60minutes. I feel like I'm pouring money out the window.. and not my own window where I can just go get it again. And yes I've tried almost everything to figure out what the issue is. You probably have never seen a cleaner lint trap in your life.

The solution? No its not to get a new dryer. This weekend we were on the hunt for an energy saving eco friendly answer to our problems. And we found it! Sorta..

Meet my new retractable clothes line!



Why did we choose this? Well you see. Thomas didn't like the idea of a big ol' ugly clothes line always draping across the yard. There are many diffrent types of options out there for drying clothes outdoors. But this is ultimatley what we both liked and picked up.

It was easy enough to install..



We chose to attach it to the fence post and span it right across the lawn to the other fence post. It was personal preference not to drill holes in the exterior of the house or garage. At a cheap $21.00 this was an affordable purchase that just made cents. (Ha! Get it! .. oh geez.. )





I'm loving the way my clothes smell right off the line! As long as the sun is out I'm going to take full advantage of using this outdoors but in the winter we are going to install it inside.

I'd like to take this moment to appoligize to our mothers and fathers for any light we EVER left on in the house.

Our electricity usage was 333.00kWh this month which is averaging us $1.70 a day. I will use this new method to dry our laundry and see what next months bill comes in at..

Hope you all had a great weekend!

The Help

Okay so this is unrelated to any renos we have going on but I just had to share this gem. The Help by Kathryn Stockett was amazing. The characters were so captivating and well developed. The story line kept me turning pages. It was thought provoking and intense at times. If you are looking for a good read, I would suggest this!

It generated tons of great reviews all over blogland and I figured I would give it a chance. Now I understand what all the fuss was about! Have any of you read this book? What are your thoughts? Do you have any great books to recommend?

Living Room Design Ideas..

Here is Design Idea Numero Uno..




We have already purchased the big items like the couch and chairs.. so if your all "Ew those are ugly" dont comment that because I might burst into tears. That furniture was our first big people purchase together. How exciting!

The style? Well.. I love the beachy cottage look but usually those are more white on white and I'm going to be honest.. I live in my house.. I eat popcorn on my couch with cream soda. Accidents happen thats why we purchased the extra STAIN PROTECTION WARRANTY. So now that we have agreed I'm sloppy, the style has to accommodate. That is to say, hide accidents that may or may not occur. I like modern lines, but I feel sometimes TOO MANY modern lines lead to a house not feeling comfy and cozy. So you will see modern in the coffee table chosen above and the ikea bookshelf between the chairs but they are complemented by the oversized couch/chair cushions.

We also like to think of ourselves as environmentally conscious. At least, thats what we strive for. Thomas loves bamboo and I do too! So the blinds are bamboo and the rug is jute. I think it gives the room a little nature vibe? And talking about nature.. check out that starburst mirror made of wood. I think it rocks. The picture collage above the couch would be a collection of personal photos and possibly some art prints.

Another consideration is storage. I added those wicker baskets for lack of a better solution. There wouldn't be much of it with this furniture so thats something I need to work on.

Anyways.. This is a work in progress.. I will rearrange the board and share more when the time comes. But for now this is a sneak peek at whats going on inside my brain!

Ideas? Love it? Hate it? Too neutral? Let me know! I'm a big girl I can take it, unless its about my already-purchased-too-late-to-return furniture... Then I'm a baby.

And you thought we were going to stick with the retro lino..

First of all, you'll notice a diffrent color on the walls..



My friend here is a painter! I am lucky to have her because I am a terrible painter. There aren't many things Thomas isn't good at.. but.. lets just say lightly.. painting is not his forte. We were so thankful for the extra help and to have an expert around!

We chose the Aurora brand from Benjamin Moore. This is an amazing paint + primer in one. Personally I haven't used other brands like Behr, but based on the research and reviews I've read its not very good. BM's Aurora was expensive but we didn't have to prime so that made it okay. Its also low VOC and thats really important to us. The BLUE kitchen of mine had me a little worried but this paint got the job done in ONE COAT.

In the kitchen we painted Benjamin Moore's Baffin Island..



And the living room got a facelift with Benjamin Moore's Seaspray..



Okay so after we painted the walls we had to wait for the ceiling to finish up (sand,sand,paint,stamp)so that slowed us down a little but as soon as it was finished production sped up 10fold!




The flooring we bought is a Costco special. It was a great deal and THICK at 14mm. It's laminate so installation wasnt as difficult as a hardwood. Thomas installed all 500ish SqFT himself and made it look easy breezy. We decided to leave the bedrooms carpet for now and just install the laminate in the kitchen, living room, and hallway.




Hey Wendee.. this wasn't planned you know.. but I'm glad your gift got in the picture! I love them! :)

Please disregard my messy closet! I've warned you.. now onto the hallway ch-ch-changes..

Before



After



Alrighty. That concludes the floor update. Next we have to finish installing baseboards..



Do you know how hard it is to chose a baseboard style? Which one do you like best here?

Back!

I'm Sorry!! I've been a terrible blogger!!

Actually, we've just been crazy busy. We had to get the house ready for our House Warming. We were up some pretty late nights but we did it! The party was a success.. even if it was all a blur to me. We had a great time with family and friends and can't wait for the next BBQ. We left for Vegas the next day (who does the PLANNING around here??) and we are back... alive!


Vegas 2010 - Red Rock Canyon

We finished up a couple major house projects and a few minor ones that I can't wait to post. I want to add some more detail but they should be up tonight or tomorrow. Hope to see you all around and commenting! :)



By the way.. this guilty summer pleasure starts in 1 more sleep.. !!!!