Weekend

Everytime I open up to write a new post, I draw a blank.  It seems like I have so much to share, but don't seem to have the right words, or even pictures!  I haven't converted to Instagram, so I don't have any sepia toned pictures of food and feet and myspace self-portaits.  I know, get with the times, eh? 

This weekend was alright.  The weather was phenomenol!  Unfortunately, my husband had to work the first half of Saturday and Sunday and Olive is teething (again!), but we made the most of it.  Did a little bit of yardwork, I tidied up the patio, and we managed to sneak in a barbecue and gelato! (Now, imagine if I had Instagram, you'd have pictures of grilled chicken, peppers, zucchini, mushrooms, onions, and potatoes, along with watermelon and some crazy delicious gelato!  Also, my bare feet, just to show that it was warm out.  All looking like it was taken in the 70's with a plastic toy camera.)

BUT!  Here is a normal iPhone photo of my little monkey

Currently

Reading:  Steve Jobs' biography.  Still!  I promised myself I'd finish it before I move onto the more "fun" books.

Working on: "remodeling" this blog.  Maybe one day it'll be as lovely as this one, this one, or this one.

Thinking about:  Getting a new job.

Anticipating:  The arrival of our guests next weekend.  Cleaning and organizing the house, and hoping 6 of us can survive in our tiny 2 bedroom 1 bathroom house for a week.

Listening:  My Morning Jacket Circuital album every morning as I'm taking Olive to daycare.  This has always been her favorite album since she was an infant.  Keeps her mellow.  I've also been listening to the Florence + the Machine station on Pandora when I'm at home.

Drinking:  Water.  Getting back into drinking 4 liters a day.  I feel as if I am pregnant when I have to get up multiple times at night to pee, though.

Watching:  Grimm.  Originally, I was hesistant, but I love seeing all the familiar Portland locations, but now I'm hooked. Not to mention, I'm in love with a blubat (Monroe).  Don't judge.

Eating:  I've been going on and off on this one stupid diet.  So pretty much eating nothing.  But I'm considering going vegan for a month, again. 

Wishing:  For a quality day off with my husband, without driving around getting errands done.  Breakfast Brunch, movie, light gardening, grilled dinner all sound nice to me.

(inspiration for this came from here and here.)

Operation Baby Room: Success!

My co-workers threw me such an amazing baby shower last week!  I wish I had picture proof of it!  Alas!  I didn't bring my camera (as usual).  But they got such a fabulous gift for the baby room!  Thank God!  Cause I couldn't find anything with owls on it!  I finally put everything together and it looks soooooo amazing! 

The crib, we got at Babies R Us.  It's a "lifetime" bed, (converts to a toddler bed, daybed, and full bed) which is awesome so we don't have to buy her a bed till... ever!

The crib bedding set is called "Haley" that they got at Pottery Barn Kids

I didn't realize how many crafty people I work with!  Sheila made this adorable mirror and two other pictures that match the bedding.

Kellie made those two owls on top of the shelf!  She fooled me!  I thought they were bought at some boutique on 23rd Ave!

The owl bookends are also from Pottery Barn Kids

Bookshelf and Dresser are from Ikea

Gliding chair and ottoman my wonderful mother-in-law got us from Babies R Us.  The pillow is part of the Haley set from PBK.

The blanket is "Little Giraffe" from Nordstroms.  Sooooo soooooft!

That right there, is my very first embroidery project.  Not too bad, eh?

The racoon and bunnies are also a work of mine.  I just experimented gluing felt into a frame.  I love how they turned out... even though I got superglue all over my finger in the process...

Gotta have Mr. Pinnochio from Italy!

And these prints I found on ModCloth.com

On Being Homeowners. . .

I don't have before pictures of our bathroom.  Not only is it tiny, it was hideous!  Ugly green color and the "tiles" all around were actually stickers.  No wonder the shower wall was rotting. . . it wasn't being protected from moisture! 
We had to cut out the whole shower wall and put a new window in up higher.  And tile all around the bathtub.  Can I say how ecstatic I was when we finally had it finished!?  The wall was cut out in early June when the siding project started and everything was finished beginning of November.  In the meantime we had to shower with two shower curtains on both sides.  And for the 2 weeks it was being tiled, we had to shower at either mine or Brian's parents' house.  I love our bathroom now.  Even if it's the tiniest in the world.  One day, we'll expand it.  We didn't want to be hasty and then regret our plans later. 

 So there's the new tiling and window.  We also added a new detachable shower head and one of those curvy shower curtain rods.  So roomy in the tub now!

 All that "tile" you see are plastic stickers.  We only replaced the ones in the shower area since it was most damaging there.

Beautiful, eh?

So being perfectionists, that wasn't good enough.  We needed to paint it.  We've gone this far to improve it this much, why not go all the way (at least as much as our finances can handle, hehhehheh). 

There was too much white in the bathroom it was blinding!  So, naturally, we painted it BLACK!!!

 We added two cabinets and my handy husband put up a new light fixture

 It looks a bit cramped, but for a tiny bathroom it's very functional

And of course, it has a bird theme.  Gotta leave my touch :-)



On Being Homeowners. . .

 As of September 21st, we had this house for 1 whole year! Can you believe we didn't burn it down!!! ;-) I've realized how much work we put into it since the day we got it. 

1.  Had a new sewer line put in (we had no option since we have a "party-line" and the city made us disconnect it... looong story, but it's all fixed now)

2.  New windows

3.  New doors (RED front door!!! :-D)

4.  Insulated the crawlspace

5.  New siding and paint

6.  New front decking

7.  FINALLY put tiling in the shower

And that's not counting the minor projects we had inside like painting and such. 

I'm proud of us.  And I hope we don't have to do anything major for a long long time.

 BEFORE

AFTER

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of when we just bought it for comparison.  But the white strip on the driveway is from the new sewer line.  Note, we got rid of the ugly carport.  I don't have recent pictures but we have a new front decking and small walkway to the driveway.  Having construction all throughout summer, we didn't keep up on our landscaping/gardening.  Hopefully next year will be different.