Wednesday, January 23, 2013

New Paint

The thought of painting sounds easy. Looking at the walls and envisioning a new paint color sounds easy! picking out paint is easy! buying paint is easy! Starting to paint is a PAIN!!!!!!.

On Saturday I decided to repaint the dinning room. When we first moved in the dinning room was red and the chair rail was really low. We thought about doing  fuax wainscoting on the bottom and paint the top part a gray. Then Chris decides he wants a lighter color, maybe white. We settled for a really light gray from Behr called Natural Gray.  With two coats it just looked okay. When natural sunlight hit certain areas you could see a slight purple hue. This was most likely caused by the red underneath.

We had it like this for month or so and never got around to doing anything about it. Now that I have Saturday's all to myself I took matters into my own hands and decided to paint. I went for a Martha Stewart color called Cement. It's a nice medium color that we both loved and almost painted the family room with this color before we discovered Seal.

I stared painting around 8 am. I used the green Frogs tape. It works better then the blue painters tape.  It took me about and hour and a half to tape and this is because I thought I was going to just paint the top part of the wall and paint the bottom white.  Afterwards I started to paint.....and paint......and paint some more.  After finishing the top part I was not to crazy about leaving the bottom white. I did not start the white part yet but I was trying to envision what it would look like. Our dinning room has a lot of white molding and built-in cabinets and I thought that if I did go for the faux wainscoting, there would be too much white. So I painted the bottom portions too and 2 coats later and a sushi lunch in between, I was done.

I love the overall finish of it . I think the paint looks richer and compliments our hardwood floors.

 

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This was the original color.

 

photo 3 (4) - Copy.

The bottom half was the Natural Gray by Behr. As you can see it was really light and not quite gray.

 

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This is after 2 coats.

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I'might paint my women cave this color. I think it would look cute with pink and gold accents....maybe.

 

Anywhos. I hope you guys are staying warm!!!!

 

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Think You Can Wait

Song of the week....

Think You Can Wait - The National
I was drifting, crying
I was looking for an island
I was slipping under
I'll pull the devil down with me one way or another

I'm out of my mind; think you can wait?
I'm way off the line; think you can wait?

We've been running a sleepless run
Been away from the baby way too long
We've been holding a good night gone
We've been losing our exits one by one

I'm out of my mind; think you can wait?
I'm way off the line; think you can wait?

Did I?
(all I have is all)
Think you can wait?
Did I?
(all I have is all)
Think you can wait?

What I'm thinking is simple
I'll sell apples and ice water at the temple
I won't make trouble
I'll pull the devil down with me one way or another

We've been running a sleepless run
Been away from the baby way too long
We've been holding a good night gone
We've been losing our exits one by one

I'll try.
I'll try, but I couldn't be better.
(all I have is all)
I'll try, but I couldn't be better.
(all I have is all)
I'll try, but I couldn't be better.
(all I have is all)

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Zebra

Song of the week!

Zebra by Beach House

You know you're gold, you don't gotta worry none
Oasis child, born and so wild
Don't I know you better than the rest
All deception, all deception from you

Your love is stag in the white sand
Wilderness for miles, eyes so mild and wise
Don't I know you better than the rest
All deception, all deception from you

Any way you run, you run before us
Black and white horse arching among us

Your love is stag in the white sand
Oasis child born into a man
Don't I know you better than the rest
All deception, all deception from you

Wilderness for miles, eyes so mild and wise
Oasis child, born and so wild
Don't I know you better than the rest
All deception, all deception from you

Any way you run, you run before us
Black and white horse arching among us

Monday, January 7, 2013

Weekend Recap

We try to do one big thing every weekend so we don't feel lazy and unaccomplished with life. This past weekend we needed to take our Christmas tree down and finally get the TV mounted over the fireplace.

Taking the Christmas tree down was some what of a pain. The needles were dry and scratched the heck out of your hand when trying to hold it and water spilled everywhere because our tree was dead and didn't soak up any of the water.  We did manage to get it outside though, and now our living room looks naked on the right side. That will be our next task.

Installing the TV mount was a true nightmare. First off we have plaster walls. The thought of even drilling a hole in our walls stresses me out let alone hanging a 50 lbs TV from it. We had no choice though, the TV looked like butt sitting on the console table. The hardest part of the project was the measuring and the drilling into the walls. We had to use anchors and of course we can never detect studs so we just guessed where to drill the holes after measuring and marking 45 times.

Eventually the mount went up on the wall and the backings went onto the TV. Next we had to lift this beast of  a TV and hang it onto the mount. Our TV is so heavy its ridiculous but we managed to get it up and secured. Mounting the TV made a HUGE difference in the room. It looks so much better above the fireplace. We both love the look and are very pleased with the outcome. Now we just have to figure out how to get the cords looking decent.

This is the result. I am not crazy about the lanterns sitting on either side of the TV but I have no place for them at the moment so that will be their home for now.

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I had to insert this picture of Charlie. He looks so darn adorable staring at the fire. The heat did not phase him at all.

Friday, January 4, 2013

2013

I cannot believe it is already 2013. As everyone likes to say, this year flew by so quickly!!!! I also can't believe I have lived in Saint Louis for 1 full year, 1 full year people!!! It still has not sunk in that this is my home. Many things still feel foreign to me but hey maybe this year that will improve.

One thing I have a hate and love relationship with out here is the snow. It is absolutely gorgeous when it snows and you see the snow flakes falling, masking everything in sight with white. I love when it snows. I hate being cold though. This is partly because I have not purchased proper snow attire to wear . I do not like having my car door frozen shut and I can hear the ice breaking as I open it. I do not like being cold in the snow. That is my only complaint other than that I wish It would snow all the time There is something truly magical about it when it happens.

I have not set any New Year resolutions yet. Lets be real, how many people actually reach their resolution goals? I sure as heck do not so I will be practical and set mini goals. First one being to get the house together so I can have people over for breakfast and tea and have mini parties. I want to have a Dance Central smack down with Chris's niece and nephew. That is another thing, we just purchased Dance Central for X-box and I LOVE IT!! Also everyone should start watching New Girl staring Zooey Deschanel. The show is absolutely hysterical and Jess is my new role model now!

Here as some of the things we have accomplished so far on the house.

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My lovely 8ft Fraser Fir Christmas Tree. I made the tree skirt, it was one of my projects!

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We finally painted the front door black. It looks so much better than the green.

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This coffee table was my second DIY project after the tree skirt. I bought it off Craigslist along with a sofa table that matches it for only $25. It sat in the basement for a few weeks until I finally got around to purchasing Chalk Paint. I bought CeCe Caldwell's Chalk paint and painted over this sucker. I didn't need to sand or strip or prep anything. This is the before.....

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And this is the after! I think it turned our pretty good considering I never refurnished a piece of furniture in my whole life. The color is Vintage White and I am very happy with it. The whole thing cost me about $75 to do which I think is justifiable considering a coffee table of this size and weight runs about $300. Yay go me!!

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Lastly I leave you with this image. This is a shot of our street on the left side. This was during the first real snow fall this year. The snow makes the neighborhood looks so magical.