Whim-sical Bathroom

I got the nasty wallpaper down from our master bathroom and painted the walls a pumpkin-ish color (RL Villa Torlonia). Haven't replaced the vanity, but I did hang up my "Little Girl Gone" print from a.t. whim

TGIF

Thank God I'm Filipino! ;.)

Today I was feeling my Filipino pride listening to some "Jazzipino"
songs by Charmaine Clamor. So I started looking for a t-shirt to advertise my Filipino (half) pride and ran into some funny ones.

Read this out loud and you will know what it's like to hear my mom talk:

AYM BER BYUTIPUL
HU KERS IP AY
HABAN AKSENT

The Tooth Fairy Pays Us a Visit

Last night my sweet precious 5-yr old lost her FIRST TOOTH!!! She was a brave one letting Daddy dry off her loose tooth with a paper towel and then tug on it a few times until it came out.... no tears at all! The Tooth Fairy left Emi $2 which she found under her pillow in the middle of the night.

Turkey Day

Thanksgiving this year was a tender, wonderful time at my sister's house spent with our families (biological and created). We counted our many blessings, spent quality time with loved ones and chowed down on some really great food! Thanks to Deanna and Gabe (aka "Cool Guy") for hosting it this year and sending us home with excellent leftovers. The littlest one chowed down on the Rosemary Mashed Potatoes when we got home and washed them down with Silk Eggnog! Yummers!

Long Awaited Library...

We painted the living room walls a rich Ralph Lauren 'Tea and Sweets' (looks exactly like the "Sugar Cookie" color we had envisioned) and it was perfect in warming up the room. It's a subtle change from the flat beige that the walls were when we moved in, and it looks and feels really nice now. Our accent color (drapes, overstuffed rocking chair, etc) are a vibrant red, so we thought it would be okay to have a mellow color on the walls.

We've begun to organize books onto the shelves of our home library. Soon we will have some nice floor pillows and or bean bags for lounging...

Peace on Earth (or at least at our house)

Couldn't resist putting up a few Christmas decorations today...

Thanksgiving Blessings (Part 1)

We celebrated an early Thanksgiving at my folk's house because they decided to abandon us and go to Florida on Thanksgiving Day. It was nice to get that first gluttonous feast out of the way days before THE ACTUAL holiday just to get a trial run in.... The grandkids roped MeeMaw into whipped cream shots after Pumpkin Pie was served. Look at the grimaces on the guys faces in the background!







And Daddy is not one to be outdone...

Stuck in the 70's

It only took 2 years but we are finally sick and tired of the 70's vertical blinds in the bedroom and the floralie hell that is the wallpaper of our otherwise serene bedroom... We have begun the unlovely task of pulling down the paper...

Today we also ventured out to a furniture store in search of 2 matching bureaus to replace our hodgepodge dressers and we ended up leaving with the makings of our library...go figure! We should probably finish one project before moving on to another!

Why?

I ask you why would anyone stick (literally) their buttwipes on the wall in a permanent fashion? Maybe because the decorative container matched the blue toilet, basin and tub? It's gone now, nothing but a little sticky residue on the white tile...

Soon this room will be painted in a warm pumpkin color and outfitted with some shelving and a new medicine cabinet...yea!

Are we done yet?

After 3 coats of Stadium Red paint in the kitchen, I think we are done....

Not yet!
I finished painting 2 walls (of 4) in the walk in pantry... ...and we are going to paint the area surrounding the built-in china hutch a rich copper to reflect light coming in from the Gathering Room...

Alpha State

Q: What could make you feel warmer and fuzzier than a Kindergartner home from school (parent teacher conference day), cartoons and cookies?

A: Napping in the sun (check out our sleeping cat in the background...)

Feng Shui Fix

I've been in need of some color in my kitchen, specifically the color red to "strengthen healthy energy for the family" for the past 2 years (we never painted over the beige walls when we moved in). So today I took a "quick" trip to the Home Depot to purchase some "glittery crimson" paint for the accent wall in my kitchen. I got a gallon of Ralph Lauren's Stadium Red in semi-gloss.

Anne Painting Red Walls

Now, I am CERTAIN that I saw a show on HGTV where the designer added some glitter type substance to flat paint to give it a subtle shimmer, and so her vanilla walls had glittery vanilla stripes after some clever taping and painting moves. But at each paint center I was unable to find what I wanted, basically silver glitter on my wall of red. I got some silver metal & patina glaze and brushed pearl iridescent finish (both Valspar) to play around with for the desired effect.

Note: The show I'm talking about is the Christmas Before Deployment| After: Comfortable Elegance segment where the "living room makeover starts with a coat of vanilla paint to create a winter-white palette. Large vertical stripes painted with a mixture of glaze and silver metallic paint add some elegant glitz to the walls."

Seeing Red

I still need to touch up paint the accent wall, and paint the rest of the walk-in pantry area (one wall turned into 2 etc). I am LOVIN' the red! The plan is to hang a cable display system made up of the cable gleaned from a heavy frame hanging kit and a couple of cool cabinet pulls. This cool display system will feature Emi's masterpieces. Stay tuned for those pics!

In other news, we ripped up some carpet while waiting for the paint to dry and found that in some of our rooms we have some nice wood floors (at least in the particular part that we lifted up, we didn't check whole rooms) and in the office, there's crappy piecework linoleum). We are planning to do bamboo flooring in the office and hopefully in the living room and master bedroom, the old floors can be refinished.