Chris loves Julia

Our Plans to Disguise the Pesky Foundation

2012-02-17T07:42:00.002-07:00

Yesterday, we let you see what fun it was to take that silly half wall down--but we can barely wait to build things back up in a way that makes more sense to us than a random wall/shelf two-thirds of the way up a wall. So, here are the plans. Albeit, a very rough floorplanner.com 3D drawing:

We're doing built-in looking bookcases all the way to the ceiling! The space underneath the bookcases will actually be wall that comes out the same depth as the bookcases, so despite the way it looks, they won't actually be floating in the air. We needed a solution to disguising our jolting foundation at the bottom of the wall and we are so excited about having a wall full of shelves. The above picture looks a little wonky, but worry not, all of the bookcases will be trimmed out to look built in so there will be no seams or space between them. We are also adding crown molding at the top of the shelves to keep it extra classy and less, puzzled together.

There are three different bookcases that will go into this wall-o-fun, all from Ikea. First, the Billy bookcase will flank each of the far sides of the right side of the sliding door and we are actually cutting down a full size Billy to fit perfectly on the left side of the door.

In from the Billy, we have the Benno. Which is actually a narrow DVD case, but we won't use it for DVDs only, especially since we only have about 6. However, because of its intended use, it is not quite as deep. We will be adding boards to frame it out, so it fits in nicely and looks seamless.

Those two bookcases together will bring us to the width of our television, plus about 3 inches on each side for wiggle room. On top and bottom of the television, we will also be using bookcases from the Billy collection, but this time they are horizontal wall shelves.

Do you catch the vision? I hope so. And if you don't quite yet, we plan to have this whole thing up within the week, so you won't have to wait for-ev-ver (Sandlot, anyone?) to see what we have so perfectly mapped out in our minds. Right now, we are working on framing and drywalling the platform underneath all of these future bookcases. And hope to have that done to share with you on Monday. Anyone else dreaming of built-ins? Big weekend plans that don't involve sheetrock? Spill, so we can live vicariously through you.

My First Go at Demolition.

2012-02-16T09:30:00.000-07:00

We had some technical difficulties yesterday. I thought I lost my MacBook. I knew where it was--but I thought it had gone kaput. Luckily, its sudden turning off and not turning back on was just a charging issue. So, for now if I keep a weight on the cord, it stays on. Hahaha. I'll take it! All this to say, I missed blogging yesterday. I missed letting you all know about the progress we are making in the family room. So, to catch you up:

We tore down the half wall. This was my very first time demo-ing a wall and it was harder than I thought! We went from pulling and prying to sawing and kicking. And lucky for you, we documented the whole thing and then sped it up 650% and added some snazzy music:

That is how we spent our Valentine's day. Which wasn't a bad thing, really. Chris is really fun to work with and if you didn't notice--I stood back and watched a lot. Hehehe. So after all the demolition, it looked like this:

A reader warned us that the half wall was there for a reason, so last week we drilled a hole and found she was right. The demolition process revealed about a foot of cement foundation jolting out farther than the wall. Thanks to that reader (Hey Michelle!) and us confirming it in a pre-drilling session last week, we were prepared for this hurdle and actually have plans to incorporate it naturally into the look of the new room. More on that tomorrow! Gotta love a little suspense.

Last night, we tackled the electrical work. Which included more of me scratching my head, confused, and just following directions. Since this was going to be where our TV is now going to be, we wanted to rewire all the cable and plugs so that in the end, there wouldn't be any visible cords.

Unfortunately, I can't give you a rundown of exactly what was done because when it comes to electrical work, Chris is my hero. But, if you have any specific questions, feel free to ask in the comment section and I'll make sure Chris answers those. Basically we first mapped out the whole wall to find where the tv would be in the end.

Then, fast forward a couple hours and he had this nifty box installed that will plug in all of the electronics hidden behind the television. The middle slot is for other wires to access the plugs from underneath (where an additional slot will be installed behind the dvd player and apple tv.

Really, I am just real impressed.

Tonight we are doing a whole lot of framing, and tomorrow we'll let you in on the real plans for this wall. It's gonna be major. ;)

Tabula Rasa

2012-02-14T12:25:00.001-07:00

The sectional sold. The piano found a new home. The room is getting measured for new carpet tomorrow and my Valentine (Hey-yo Chris!) took the day off to ~~snuggle~~ get this project started. I feel nervous and excited and anxious to get it going and see our plans come together.

Let the family room reno begin!

Greta's Birthday: What we Gifted Our Two-year Old.

2012-02-13T11:25:00.000-07:00

Greta is two today! Part of our date night this past weekend was to get a gift for our little Greta girl. We got to Ikea 5 minutes before it closed, but we knew exactly what we wanted to get her--this swing for her room:

It was the fastest Ikea run in my history, and hanging up the swing was almost as fast. The one thing that slowed us down was not picking up the brackets that are supposed to attach to the ceiling beams. Ikea is 45 minutes away and Home Depot is only 10, so we decided to head there to see what we could find.

These large industrial hooks were 79 cents a piece and we screwed them right into the ceiling beam. Chris pulled down with all his body weight and they didn't budge--success.

The instructions for the swing said to leave a width of 10 cm (4 inches) between the hooks. We eyeballed it.

As she gets older and taller, we can easily adjust the height, but for now it is pretty low so she can climb up and "read" a book all by herself.

As for us, we are adjusting to life with a two year old. We are learning they don't call them "the terrible twos" for nothing. The tantrums are in full swing, but what is even more terrible (and wonderful at the same time) is knowing my baby is now a little girl. When did her skin lose that baby softness? When did the rolls on her thighs disappear? She is getting too heavy for me prop her on my hip and carry with one arm. Her hair is thickening. She is taller than most 3 year olds. She wants to sit at the table now and eat with a real fork. Her imagination now allows her to mother her baby doll--high-pitched voice and all. She is so independent. She is definitely not a baby anymore.

Greta, my two year old, this year you are going to grow up even more and as much as we will miss the "baby Greta" terribly, you have nothing but wonderful things in store for you. Let's just try to keep the public tantrums to a minimum this year and I promise to keep the freezer stocked with blueberries.

Happy Birthday, Greta the great.

Friday Night.

2012-02-12T19:59:00.001-07:00

We got a sitter and hit the town. Turns out:

Pizzeria 712 proved itself once again and remains our favorite restaurant. We proclaimed our love through every one of our 5 courses.

Also, Crate and Barrel's Lounge Sofa is really just as comfortable as all the reviews said. We. LOVE. it and can't wait to include it in our final family room. If you haven't seen the other plans we have for the room, you can check out the mood board here.

Love me some date night.

The Family Room Mood Board

2012-02-10T13:26:00.002-07:00

We received an especially helpful comment yesterday from one of our readers, Diane. She said in regards to our family room renovation plans:

You've obviously thought a lot about how you want the room to work for you..but what about aesthetics. Have you decided on a design inspiration yet...colors, art, textiles?

The last few days we have been doing some serious layout brainstorming (we have had to tweak some plans, more on that early next week), and haven't focused on putting all the fun details of how we want the room to feel all in one place. Until now. Here's the mood board for our family room:

That's a lot of inspiration right there, huh. Not everything is an actual piece we will obtain, but we hope to end up somewhere around this feel. Let's dive in:

1. We are still on the hunt for the perfect couch--but we are checking out this one this weekend. The 93" Lounge Sofa from Crate And Barrel is supposedly one of the comfiest couches in existence and deep (I could say "to boot" right here, but I'm not gonna). Here's hoping our bums agree with the reviews. Oh yeah, we dropped the sectional idea.

2. A lot of the base for this room will be varying tones of neutrals, so we plan on bringing in pops of color with fun throw pillows and other textiles. Chartreuse, teal, navy, chocolate and mustard and orange are all invited. These four pillows lined up are found here respectively: first, second, third, fourth.

3. Because we really want this place to feel relaxed, I love the idea of lots of framed posters above the couch. In simple black poster frames. Classic and cozy. Found here.

4. Almost mimicking the framed posters, I am dreaming of white curtains with black trim and of course bamboo blinds. The curtains should be easy enough to DIY right?

5. We plan on nixing our current ceiling fan and installing 6 recessed lights on a dimmer, for optimal movie watching, but the addition of a large arching floor lamp like this one will be perfect extending out. Can't wait!

6. Cutest mini globe, ever--that just so happens to hit on all of our accent colors.

7. This geometric, navy floor pouf will be perfect for propping up feet or lounging on the floor.

8. This dark, charcoal chaise from Ikea is a steal! I have searched high and low for reasonably priced chaises and this one just may be the ticket. Plus, it comes in loads of colors.

9. The dark chaise will definitely be broken up with some color, hopefully something like this mustardy houndstooth pillow. Mmmm.

10. Target has the best baskets for storage. I can see us having a few of these scattered throughout the room for all of Greta's toys.

11. A great, unexpected, warm accent chair like this cognac butterfly one from Urban Outfitters has me drooling. I love that it is classic and cozy without taking up too much square footage.

12. Ah, the Billy. We are going to be creating an entire wall of bookcases--you'll be seeing a lot of this guy.

13. The blue adjacent hallway/mudroom is staying, but the whole family room is getting a paint job. I am loving Pewter Cast by Sherwin Williams. You may have seen it on the walls of Kelly Moore's home.

So that's the round-up. We have a little bit of dirty work to do before we move the pretty stuff in, but you better believe we'll keep you posted every step of the way. Favorites?

Psst. Apartment Therapy featured our little Latt Hack today. Love them. Check it out here.

"Violet, You're Turning Violet!"

2012-02-09T13:03:00.002-07:00

Our girl loves frozen blueberries. Loves. Them.

How is it possible she'll be two in less than a week?!

Saying Goodbye to Robert Frost

2012-02-08T14:45:00.000-07:00

My large, 3'x8' painting of my favorite poem of all time, Robert Frost's The Road not Taken, is being sold. With our complete family room renovation, we are clearing the whole room out and starting new. We haven't decided on a price or even how we are going to sell it--let alone ship it yet, but if you are interested in purchasing it--feel free to drop me a line. Otherwise, stay tuned while we work out the details.

Also, I kinda want to have my picture taken with all of my art now.

The Family Room Reno.

2012-02-07T13:18:00.000-07:00

Last week, I told you that our family room is one of my least favorite rooms in our home. It is not very family friendly right now or comfortable. ... Or good looking.

Granted, it is an improvement from where we started:

But we have recently started talking about putting kitchen plans on hold for awhile and tackling this space asap. As in, start knocking down walls as soon as we can clear the space. It's a hard decision. We both really want to get our kitchen more open, but the kitchen is usable now and isn't a total eye sore and we are anxious to have a true area where we can gather and relax (for more details on why this space is so uncomfortable read this post from last week).

So, we set a budget of $4000. That includes everything. And there is a LOT we want to do:

Our plans include:

1. Find a new home for the piano. *Tear* Unfortunately, it doesn't get used much. When Chris starts to play, Greta always comes and bangs on it. When Greta is asleep, Chris can't play. We have also had to start locking the piano bench in the laundry room so Greta doesn't climb on top of the piano. So yeah, time to find a new home for our "second baby".

2. Sell our sectional and our large ottoman. If you are local and interested, here is the listing for the sectional and here is the ad for the leather ottoman.

3. Take out the half wall behind where the couch currently sits. It jolts into the room a good 8 inches and is weird to us.

4. Rewire the cable to the other side of the room.

5. Remove the ceiling fan (we never use it) and install 6 recessed lights on a dimmer.

6. Get new carpet!

7. Install new baseboards. Tall and simple like the ones in our guest room.

8. Build (Buy?) some sort of media unit. It will go on the wall where the couch now sits. The white storage that is currently hanging out under our tv is causing issues. Greta can now reach the top of it which means she likes to hang on it. It isn't good for our blood pressure.

9. New Furniture! We are on the hunt for a deep couch/sectional. We want the inner depth of the cushion to be at least 27"(not the overall depth). We love the idea of an L-shaped couch and a separate large chaise in a bold color for a set up like this:

10. Make sure there is plenty of storage for Greta's toys.

11. Bonus points: New french doors leading out to the patio and maybe knock out a window on the far wall above the sectional like we dreamed about here. These things will of course depend on how the budget is lookin' once we pick out carpet and furniture.

We are excited about this new project. I hope that we can get it all done by the end of March--for no reason other than I love a deadline as much as I love a cozy living space. Everyone on board say, "Woot!"

The Dog Kennel from Hell. It's gone.

2012-02-06T12:28:00.001-07:00

We had a small miracle occur over the weekend. 10 months after living in our home, we finally were able to get rid of the dog kennel in the back corner of our yard. Hallelujah! This is a miracle for a couple of reasons, first being--it is the middle of winter, kinda. Although we don't have a ton of snow, it is brisk out--but the sun was shining really warm on Saturday, so we decided to put the dog kennel up on the online classifieds. Second--it is actually gone. Someone came and left WITH it, instead of empty handed.

We tried this once before last year, and got tons of calls--but no one wanted to deal with the posts being cemented in the ground--yeah, we don't either--that's why it is free. Considering these dog runs are between $200-$400 at Home Depot, we thought free was a pretty great deal.

We made sure our ad was very clear and obvious that this wasn't going to be a picnic to remove:

Within minutes, Chris started receiving calls. He reiterated over and over, "Yes, it is cemented in." "I would really recommend renting a jack hammer, but if you want to try it with a regular hammer, it is up to you." "No, we aren't holding it for anyone." We weren't trying to be rude by not holding it for people, but experience has taught us that even if someone says they absolutely want it and come to get it hours later, they might realize it is more work than they expected and we all lose. It's happened. 3 times. Fortunately, we were prepared on Saturday. Even after a gentleman was on his way to get it. We continued taking calls and asking people if they wanted to be on the waiting list in case it falls through. The guy came and left without the kennel within 5 minutes (I guess "it won't be easy to take out" wasn't clear enough) and we started calling the people on the waiting list. We were surprised how many people were defeated just because the first guy didn't get it out. "Well, if he didn't get it, I probably won't be able to either." Really?! It's not like you even knew that guy. You didn't even see that he just stood there for five minutes before walking away. The 4th person on the waiting list was finally up for the challenge. The couple arrived in a little pickup, tools in hand--ready to work. They worked until it was dark outside.

We felt bad for them. It was cold. And dark. But they just kept on working. They didn't have room for the doghouse in their truck and said they would come back for it...we'll see. But we are ecstatic (!) to have the kennel gone! This morning I went in our back yard and just stood there and smiled.

We have huge plans for our exterior this year, and getting rid of the dog run was an essential part of the prep for these projects. I feel like we just got a little head start. Come Spring, our yard will be prepped for that edible garden I've been dreaming about.

Striped Nurseries.

2012-02-02T13:30:00.002-07:00

Chris and I have been working on a secret project. And when I say "secret" I mean, it isn't our business to share all the details and photos. Chris's brother, Brandon and his wife, Stephanie just closed on a house 5 minutes from us--in the same little town!!!-- last week. We are thrilled. Their house is huge and newer, but still needs a little work. Unlike us, they are tackling most of it before they move in. Painting 3000 square feet. Replacing all the floors. Putting up wall treatments. It is a LOT of work--like a year's worth of blogging squished into 10 days. Chris and I have been over there almost every night helping out and the whole process is exciting and fresh. I can't wait to do a little house crashing over there and show you their gorgeous house. They have so many great ideas.

Because we have been in the fixing up phase for a while now in our own casa, or maybe they just know I have an opinion about everything decor, house and design related--they have been asking me so many questions. I'm flattered. From paint colors, to brushes to advice on striping a nursery and I am loving every minute. It has been fun to go over and paint a new color and a new space. I am trying to balance the act of giving my opinion and lending advice without making any decisions for them. So Brandon and Stephanie and anyone else looking for some inspiration, just in case you were wondering--here's a few of my favorite striped nurseries (hehe):

1. Found here, this is one of my favorite striped nurseries of all time. Although the stripes make such a great statement, they don't hit you in the face. It's gender neutral and bright. It's soothing, but the pops of color are so stimulating. I love all the different textures and patterns. Well done! And I can't not talk about how I wish I had that chair and ottoman to prop my feet up when Greta was still a baby. Next time. Next time.

2. Packed full of inspiration (hello built in bookcases--must remember you), this is such a preppy little boy's room. I love how the soft blue stripes coordinate with the dark gray paneling without being so matchy. The whole room is a confident, modern mix of "baby cool". More pics here.

3. Polar opposite of clean-lined preppy number 2, this nursery is eclectic and a little vintage looking. The stripes are vertical and multi-colored and bunched together. A great option when you want to add a punch of color without totally overwhelming the little tyke's room...or your eyes.

4. Vertical stripes done a different way can be less eclectic and more contemporary and sophisticated. Have you ever seen such sophisticated stripes? I love that they aren't all the same width (yet all on the narrow side). They are crisp and subtle and soothing. Oh, and they happen to be done by the royal couple of DIY, John and Sherry. See more of this nursery here.

5. I am gearing myself up to paint a ceiling. If you have neutral walls, striping a ceiling would be a total home run in my opinion. Love this. And, yeah, love those book shelves too. This Elizabeth Sullivan space just seems like such a happy room.

6. Last, but not least...and not even a nursery, but more of an idea. This striped rugs from West Elm come in 4 different colors and 6 different sizes and I can think of about 7 different rooms I want one in my home. Definitely not excluding a nursery.

I hope this round up gives you some great ideas! Anyone else have/love a striped nursery? Anyone else drooling over the West Elm rug? Anyone else have baby fever bad-style now...yeeesh.

February 2012 Chalkboard Drawing + Buy Your Print!

2012-02-01T09:45:00.004-07:00

There's no doubt love is in the air, and I wasn't about to pass up my chance to pay homage to Valentine's day for this month's drawing. And while there are plenty of generic thoughts that ran through my head--cupid, l-o-v-e, a lot of hearts lined up next to each other--I'd thought I would throw all the impostors out and stick to the real thing. Now, that's amore.

Hang it in your home, give it to your love. By request, I have started selling a limited number of 11x14 prints. 25 to be exact. They are now available in our Etsy shop. Click here to get yours!

Happy February, friends!

_______________

Previous Chalkboard Drawings

Messes, Couches and Ottomans that bug.

2012-01-31T12:34:00.000-07:00

This bugs. Every day. :

Yes, it is nice to throw Greta's toys in the storage ottomans before meals (sometimes) and before guests come (as long as it isn't a surprise). But every day, this mess haunts me and bugs me and then yesterday I snapped. I swapped ottomans. The smaller storage ones went down to the family/tv room and the larger one came up to the living room.

And you know what, this bugs:

It is way too big. And our family room which was already desperately needing help--really, it is my least favorite room in the whole house-- went from being the worst room:

To being the worst and messiest room:

And now, officially the least comfortable with the too-small ottomans in place. I admit we have a problem when it comes to buying couches--we buy a lot far too often--but this secitional has GOT TO GO. We are just too tall. My 6' bod and Chris's 6'4" bod do not fit on this couch unless we have perfect posture. Who wants to have perfect posture when watching tv?? If you want to sit straight, go up to the living room and have an adult conversation on the white couch with no toys around you. We always end up slouching on the sectional and then our butts hang off, which used to be caught by the oversized ottoman, but now--there's nothing.

So yesterday, we decided--we need to sell the large ottoman (it really is just huuuggeeee) and the sectional and find something that we really love and is really comfy. Here we go again. Another couch purchase. This time, "extra deep" is the word. Suggestions are welcome--as always. :)

Now we're Fan Fans.

2012-01-30T11:32:00.001-07:00

The cool thing about blogging is if you don't want your readers to see something (like the laundry piled up in your closet) you just don't take a picture of it. This perk has been used quite frequently when photographing our room and trying to hide our ugly ceiling fan:

It's not that we don't like keeping it real. We definitely do, but that ceiling fan can be quite distracting and sometimes it still snuck in the pictures, eh well:

Last week we posted on our facebook page that we had finally got around to ordering a new ceiling fan. We had it narrowed down to these three options:

a b c

We got a $100 Home Depot gift card for Christmas, so the budget and place was narrowed down for us. We ultimately went with a, the Westinghouse Alloy 42 in. Gun Metal Ceiling Fan. We both loved b, but 30" was a too small for our room. C was nixed for size as well--it was 52", which is better suited for a much larger room. A is 42" which is the perfect size, and although I kind of alway envisioned a white fan, the gun-metal finish looks sophisticated without drawing too much attention to itself.

Honestly, I never wanted to replace our old ceiling fan with a new one. Ceiling fans really aren't my jam in the bedroom. I don't like being cold at night and a chandelier or other contemporary fixture definitely looks better--BUT, after we used the fan every night last summer (even if it was on the lowest setting) I was sold on the idea.

Plus, having a hanging fixture would just compete with our statement lamps already in place. So, we went with something simple, contemporary and sophisticated.

We were under the impression that the job would be a lot more difficult than it was--after all, they offer installation when you buy the fan. It took Chris and I 25 minutes on Saturday night. And now I feel a lot more comfortable shooting our bedroom:

Although, some window treatments would really do wonders. I am officially on the hunt!

A Guilt-Free Sweet Treat: Coconut Almond Macaroon Cookies

2012-01-28T19:22:00.001-07:00

I can't have sugar for at least a month and a half, but I found a recipe here for these cookies that almost fit my sugar-free, flour-free diet. I tweaked it just a bit (more on that later) and was giddy when I took my first bite. A cookie! A real cookie! That I can eat and not get sick! That you can eat and not get fat! That's a win-win-win.

First, to clarify we're making macaroons, not macarons. And they look like this:

And you make them like this:

Low-Sugar Coconut Almond Macaroon Cookies
(Makes about 16 cookies)

1 cup slivered almonds*
1 1/4 cup shredded unsweetened coconut**
1/2 cup Xylitol***
Generous pinch of salt
1/4 cup non-fat Greek Yogurt
2 egg whites
2 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 325F/170C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or use a silicone baking mat.

Use a small food processor or the bowl attachment for an immersion blender to chop the almonds, just until they are ground but still a little chunky. Put the ground almonds, shredded coconut, Xylitol, and salt into a medium-sized bowl and mix together with a spoon.

Separate 2 eggs to get 2 egg whites. (Save the yolks for something else or discard.) Add egg whites, fat-free Greek yogurt, and vanilla to the dry mixture and blend together with a spoon until the ingredients are well-combined.

Scoop out dough one tablespoon at a time and form into a round ball, then place on the baking sheet about 2 inches apart. (I used a metal tablespoon, which worked well.) Use a fork or spoon to press each ball down into a cookie slightly less than 1/2 inch thick. (The cookies don't spread out much, so don't worry about that.) I also used the fork to press the edges together because the batter is rather crumbly.

Bake cookies until they are well set and starting to get nicely brown on the edges, about 25-30 minutes.

*The original recipe called for "Generous 2/3 cup" slivered almonds. Well, the slivered almonds in the baking section come in 1 cup bags--so I just went with that. Easy Peasy.

** Unsweetened shredded coconut is hard to track down in your neighborhood grocery store. We happened to find some at the Asian market while there, but I know they sell it at any health or natural foods store, as well.

***The original recipe called for Splenda or sugar. I can't have sugar or Splenda. Sugar is around an 80 on the glycemic index. Splenda? A 70. 70!! Might as well just have the sugar and save yourself from all the artificial crap they put in Splenda. I really wouldn't recommend the consumption of Splenda to anyone. I use Stevia, an all natural sweetener, which is a 0 on the glycemic index and Xylitol, also an all natural sweetener suited for baking(find it at your health food store), which is a 7 on the glycemic index.

Falling Block Art For Sale!

2012-01-27T12:56:00.004-07:00

When my rockstar of a friend, Jane, approached me about getting her hands on some of my art--specifically the falling blocks I created over Christmas--I was thrilled with the opportunity to work with paper and collage again.

So thrilled, I decided to make it available to anyone else that wants one, too. Eeee!! This one is all Jane's, but I added the listing to our Etsy shop. So head on over and let's get yours started.

Get your custom Falling Blocks art here.

Commenting: The Good, Bad and Rude.

2012-01-26T13:10:00.002-07:00

Let's talk about what keeps us bloggers going--commenting. 5.8 times a week (that's how many times I post according to Google) I put words and pictures out there in the blogosphere and then I look forward to feedback. Sometimes there is a lot of feedback, and then sometimes when I write about things that are small and relatively boring, like moving our mattress up, we receive less comments. It's cool. There's not much to say about moving a mattress up. Unless we fell through it--I'm sure that would receive an overwhelming response. Especially if there was an action shot included.

When I was studying art in college, there were days that extended into late nights where I would work on a drawing or painting or print for hours and hours and hours. Then, the next day in class we would all hang our work on the wall and the teacher would critique each piece. As the semesters wore on and us students got more comfortable, my peers and I would also jump in on the critiques--imputing our opinions, praise and thoughts on improvement. It was great. I grew as an artist and a person. In the beginning, I remember being a first year art student in my very first drawing class, Drawing 110 (killer!), one particular texture drawing I spent close to 8 hours doing. It was a close up of a basketball and a towel. When it came time for critique, the only thing my teacher pointed out was how although you couldn't see the whole ball (it extended off of the page), you could tell it wasn't round. He concluded by saying, "that's unfortunate." After 8 hours of work, I didn't receive a good grade or an ounce of praise, but I did learn a very valuable lesson: use a compass! In addition to learning some valuable skills as an art major, I also learned how to take constructive criticism, negative opinions and even praise. I am a firm believer there is always, always ALWAYS room for improvement. I believe that applies to paintings, projects and personality.

Perhaps the idea of working and creating and then hanging my project up--or now posting it to this blog-- to be critiqued has been engrained in me. It still excites me. I still thrive off of feedback. That being said, I hope you know that I don't expect all of your comments to be bubbling over with praise. I can appreciate when a reader doesn't dig the purple wall in our living room. If you think there is room for improvement in a project, like our 15-frame grid, let us know. If you saw someone else do it better, leave a link, so we can improve for goodness sake. It's why we blog, to share what we've been up to around here and to open communication with our readers.

Yesterday, I made a comment on a fellow DIYer's blog, later to realize my comment had been deleted. I was a little taken back. I had never had a comment deleted before and I felt as if someone had virtually told me to "Shut up" without even giving me the satisfaction of saying what I wanted to first. To clarify, I didn't think my comment was rude or even border-line bullyish. I decided to write the blogger an email (names and project titles have been changed.):

Hey [Lisa],

I commented on your blog post today about "[Up and Up]" and how it was very similar to [Very Popular Blog's] "[One Upped.]" I went on to say "Round and round we go, us bloggers." My comment was simply stating how in the blogging world it seems there are very few truly original ideas, but rather ideas executed differently--perhaps even at different levels. I was shocked to see my comment deleted. I hope you didn't take offense, but even if you did--I would be really interested to hear your thoughts on comment deletion, and what qualifies for it on your blog.

As a DIY/design blogger myself, I encourage my readers to comment whether they like it or would leave it. I think publicly blogging is a great way to open up communication between readers and writers, to share ideas, to critique--even if all of the communication or comments aren't exploding with bubbly praise. I would love to hear your thoughts on this as I have fallen victim to what would obviously be grounds for deletion according to you.

Dish, sister.

-Julia

http://chrislovesjulia.blogspot.com/

I receive the following response:

Hey Julia!

Thanks for your email! I am glad that I have the chance to tell you why! I did delete your comment but it wasnt because I dont want differing view point on my blog. I actually rarely delete comment on my projects or posts but because it was more directed to [Krissy] than me that is why I deleted it. She is one of my best friends and I didnt want her to see it and feel bad. To be honest I am not sure why you felt the need to leave it, obviously when we live in a world where we are so interconnected you will see the same thing a lot of different ways. I thought that by leaving that comment you were assuming that [Krissy] got the idea from [Lori], which she did not seeing as how she has done it more that just this year. I think that there is plenty of criticism in this world and although negative comments dont hurt my feelings, they do hurt many peoples. One thing that I see often in this online world is things being taken differently than they were meant because things are read a million different ways. If that is the case I am sorry for deleting your comment. I honestly have no hard feelings and actually really like your blog, you are super talented (I LOVE your painting that you just did that was the melty chevrony piece!) I hope that you can understand where I am coming from!

Although I am glad things were worked out, it did get me wondering about our own blog. Would I ever delete a comment? Chris and I have talked about it and have concluded if it is spam, crass or inappropriate for our parents' eyes, then yes. This is only DIYing, so I can't really imagine how any of that would come into play, but we're just covering our bases. We really want this to be a place where you can share your ideas and thoughts. Whether praise or constructive criticism.

When I asked a few friends and family member's their thoughts on deleting comments in blogging, here is some of the responses:

As someone in publishing, I don't think any of the comments should be deleted. All feedback should be handled constructively. I say, use it as an opportunity to help your readers get to know you better.

If you are going to post online and leave things open to discussion, you need to try to be open-minded and listen. It gives the writer, as well as the reader, a chance to grow.

It's still the right of a blogger. And necessary in some cases. I think we all expect our reasonable comments to appear once we hit submit, but it's always possible they won't.

In my mind it comes down to severity. If the comment is severely negative and or over the top, then I can see a case for deletion. But the blog owner also must recognize than they will lose credibility in the process and feel that even though they will come across as fraudulent due to the severity of the comment it must be done.

Publish. Publish. Publish. It's what it's all about. I've had my comments deleted from peoples blogs before. And it really makes both my comment and my reading AND the blog/author of blog seem invalid. Block all or none.

Now it is your turn to weigh in. What constitutes a deleted comment for your blog or, in your opinion? Did I step over the line? Should all bloggers take Drawing 110 before publishing a post? *wink*

Ikea Latt Hack

2012-01-25T11:37:00.001-07:00

Ah, the classic, cheap and standard Ikea Latt table. We got this set for Greta for her first birthday nearly a year ago (I'll have a two year old next month. Pinch me.).

Of course to a toddler a table and chairs just their size is delightful no matter what it looks like--but after staring at it for a year, I knew that we could do better. For the most part, this just hung out in her room and held her basket of books. Occasionally, she would pull out a chair and actually sit and pretend to read.

Last night, after she went to bed, I snuck it out of her room to give it a little personality, a new life that didn't scream, "Ikea Latt!" and most importantly, I was hoping a lot more use. After about 4 hours, the tabletop was now a chalkboard (I can't have all the fun), and I color blocked portions of the chairs and table for a contemporary, clean, mod look. Ta Da!:

I had all of the paint on hand, so this project was a freebie. For the chalkboard paint, I used Rustoleum, the same quart-sized can I had left over from my making my big chalkboard for our laundry room. The white border around the chalkboard is right off the shelf semi-gloss white that we use for all of the trim in our house. The green is Martha Stewart's Cornichon. We have used it previously here and here.

The white and green color-blocking also got 3 coats of clear high-gloss Polycrylic to seal, protect and shine! And boy does it shine:

I love the juxtaposition of the raw pine, the glossy color and the matte black chalkboard. Once I showed Greta her "new" table and chairs--I realized I should have saved it for her birthday even if we would be regifting her own gift. She went bananas.

And just when I was sure we had a left on our hands, she switched:

Of all the DIY projects we do around here, there is hands down nothing more rewarding than doing something special for Greta. She gets so excited and is so grateful. Now, I am just hoping the excitement of drawing on the chalkboard lasts the afternoon...at least.

Open Shelving Evolution.

2012-01-24T12:27:00.003-07:00

We love our open shelving in the kitchen. It is so convenient to have our everyday dishes handy. That being said, it has been a slippery slope keeping it organized and looking good. When we put the shelving up back in August (photo on left), we put everything we thought we needed and wanted on the shelves. I eventually painted the pots for the plants and that was fun for the summer (photo on right).

Fast forward a couple months...to yesterday and this is what our shelving looked like:

Yikes! The blue potted succulent died a month after I got it and as you can see from the photo above, the other two were on their way out. Why!? Grrrr. I needed a change anyway. I packed up the pots for use later and cleared off both shelves and started fresh.

With the plant pots packed up, I decided to do some other rejuvenating paring down. We don't need multiple sizes of glasses out. We're adults--and Greta uses her sippy cup for the most part, so having a dozen juice glasses taking up space didn't make sense anymore. Also, having two sets of bowls that don't match is dumb. For the record--I don't like either set much--and I would love new bowls someday soon, but having both out now isn't helping me like them more.

A few of Chris's cookbooks found their way to the shelf. He reads his cookbooks cover to cover like novels and I found myself putting them away everyday. But why? If he reads them everyday, they deserve a spot. After paring down what we don't need and adding what we do, this is where we ended up:

*Sigh* That feels better. On the left of the bottom shelf, most accessible, is where I stored what we use multiple times a day. Plates, a modest number of glasses and bowls. A few more of Chris's books stacked next to the bowls so they won't topple onto our dishware add a pop of color. The smaller clear plates we use occasionally, so keeping them out and extra handy was important to me.

On the top shelf we have our fruit bowl (gotta love maximizing counter space) which is still very accessible and adds color, as well as smaller appetizer plates, sushi sets and serving dishes that we use often. Whether we are having company over, or it is just a daily dinner for the two of us, Chris really likes his meals to LOOK as good as they taste.

I think it is a good idea for open shelving to evolve. Hopefully those black bowls will evolve right outta here soon (I got them at Walmart when I was a freshman in college). But in the meantime, I am so happy that our shelving doesn't look like this anymore:

Sparse and dead:

Now--bold and organized:

Reason #76 to ALWAYS pick up the Mistinted Test Pots

2012-01-23T11:54:00.001-07:00

I have a bunch of paint tester pots from the mistinted section at the hardware store. They are always marked down to .50 and I use them for all sorts of small projects and even large paintings. Today, I put a dark turquoise one I had on hand to use in the kitchen.

It's true, this microwave cabinet isn't permanent. None of the cabinets in our kitchen are staying once we get the renovation under way. But, considering, we are still trying to finalize a layout (yep, we're back to the drawing board)--I figured we have some time before we break out the sledge hammers and this open microwave cabinet could use a facelift in the meantime.

The interiors of all of our cabinets are this natural wood--which I really don't mind because the cabinets are usually closed. The microwave cabinet never had a door on it--so this light wood with dark screws is always on display--which I do mind.

So I took out the microwave and gave it a good scrubbing and removed all the dust.

After a coat of primer and two coats of a very rich turquoise color (it's a mistinted tester pot, so unfortunately I don't have the name) this little cabinet looked 100x better:

Normally, I wouldn't recommend painting the interiors of your cabinets because dishes are constantly moving around in there which could make for some scratched paint in no time. However, because we never move our microwave and the cabinet is an open one, there is no reason not to make it look a little more sophisticated.

I painted all 5 sides of the interior box twice and only used about half of the tester pot. So does that mean that this project cost a whopping .25?? Why yes, I guess it does.

An hour and .25 cents--no one has an excuse not to do this. :)

Takin' it To the Mattresses.

2012-01-20T12:33:00.000-07:00

Our bedroom has been slowly evolving. We have painted the walls and our bed frame. Got some swanky nightstands for cheap. And I whipped up new lampshades that totally transformed some of the ugliest lamps I have ever seen. Which means our room no longer looks like this:

Well, some parts do. We still don't have any window treatments and that OO-gly fan is still in place, but see those box-spring mattresses sneaking out from under the bedframe--they are officially gone and it only took 9 months, which is funny because the project only took around 30 minutes.

When we bought our bed back in 2008, it came with slats to hold the mattress. And then my parents bought us this great mattress set--the box springs, too. So, we used to stack the set on top of the slats and you could barely see any of the headboard. Our bed was so high! When we moved to this house, we wanted to get our bed set up immediately, and with the looming fan, having our bed as high as we had it in our apartment was a scary thought. So we just kinda plopped the mattress set inside of the bedframe and called it good...for almost an entire year.

Yikes. So one night this week, when we both had some energy--we moved our box springs into the third bedroom across the hall. I love that they are just 2 twin boxsprings, because I know we will definitely use them when Greta and any future children are old enough for a "big kid" bed. For now, they will fit in nicely with all the other junk we aren't using in that room.

This is the part when we moved the area rug from the dining room up to our bedroom. Sadly, it was too small, so we brought it back down to the dining room and brought the slats up for the bed from the garage.

Having the mattresses plopped inside of the frame for so long really stretched the frame out. We had trouble trying to keep the slats in place while Chris screwed each one in. Especially toward the middle, it was really bowed. Word to the wise--your bed frame needs support, no matter how tired you are when you move into your house.

Luckily, we eventually got all the slats screwed in with a little pushing and putting some screws in at an angle.

And then we put our top mattress on and held our breath. So far we haven't broke through the bed, so we're calling it a success. And having space under our bed with no mattress showing makes me more giddy than I should admit. It's just been sooooo lonnnngggg comminnnggg:

Psst. We have officially ordered a new ceiling fan for our room. We may have dropped hints on our facebook page.

What's For Lunch.

2012-01-19T13:09:00.001-07:00

First, I just wanted to thank you for all of your feedback yesterday. Planning a new kitchen layout takes a lot of mental legwork and it's so refreshing to hear outside pointers and opinions. That being said, we got out the measuring tape again last night because we just don't think we have it perfect yet. We are confident that all of the planning and researching will pay off and are so grateful you are here to tag along and help us through this exciting upcoming renovation.

While we are on the kitchen topic, I thought I'd give you a little glimpse into the extent of my cooking skills. When it comes to putting a meal together: my motto is quick and easy! Unfortunately, my health issues that I am currently fighting through, are dependent on eating very clean. Absolutely no sugar and nothing that turns into sugar like most carbs, flour, and high glycemic fruits and vegetables. I have been in this situation once before, back in 2008, when my body started shutting down due to a yeast overgrowth in my intestines. It took about 4 months to get better. It's a rough battle but I know how to overcome it now. This time around, it's not nearly as bad--so I am hoping for a quicker recovery. Eating a strictly healthy, clean diet can be time-consuming. Time--I don't have a lot of. I usually eat a bowl of cereal for breakfast, grab some crackers or heat up a Kashi meal for lunch and then Chris cooks dinner, and then a tasty snack while watching some reality tv at night. Well, my diet restrictions nix all of my usuals. A few days into my new diet at the beginning of last week, I felt ornery and hungry and super tired. All I wanted was cake and I don't even like cake.

Now, I have a routine down. The diet is getting easier. I am feeling so much better and my hope has been restored. With Chris's help and a little prep work at the beginning of the week, I have my lunches for the day that I can put together in less than 3 minutes. My style.

1. A spring mix of salad. One of these big tubs lasts me the week. The dark, leafy greens are packed with nutrients.

2. Chris cooked up a whole package of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. He cubed each one and stored them in a bowl in the fridge so they are ready to be tossed in a salad.

3. Sunflower seeds. With crackers, cereal, chips and croutons (that's a lot of "c's") off the table I really crave something crunchy. Sprinkling these seeds on my salad adds a ton of flavor and texture.

4. Hard-boiled eggs. We are now those people that buy to big 2 1/2 dozen carton of eggs at the store. Hard-boiling half and putting them in a separate container makes my life so easy. Sometimes I peel one and have it for my afternoon snack, and sometimes I slice it up and toss it with my salad for lunch. Good thing we have an egg slicer or I probably wouldn't do the latter---when I say "quick," I mean it.

5. Salad Dressing. I can't have normal salad dressing. Too many ingredients that I can't have. Chris mixed up this homemade salad dressing that contains olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard, and salt and pepper. It's delish.

6. Salt and Pepper. Redmond Real Salt sea salt is what I was told to strictly use. The flavor is fantastic so I don't complain--until the time of day when I have to drink a glass of water with this salt mixed in--not that pleasant. Apparently this salt has more minerals (something my body is really lacking right now) and is better for you than any of kind. You should try it. We really love it...on food. :) Sprinkling my salad with salt and pepper kicks it up a notch.

That's lunch! With everything already prepared, it takes minutes to throw together. For dinner, Chris has come up with some deliciously, creative, Julia-friendly meals. So far, the braised brussel sprouts have been my favorite. And even if you don't have a health issue, I am convinced you would feel better eating cleaner. Also, you WILL lose weight. Like, 4ish+ pounds a week. Just saying.

Third Time's a Charm

2012-01-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

Or, "If you need multiple possibilities for your future kitchen reno, we're your peeps!"

Two weeks ago exactly we spilled our new kitchen plans for our upcoming renovation. Leave it to us to change our minds--again. We want to make sure we get it perfect before we drop 10K on a project. Some of you brought up the concern about countertop space--and whether there would be enough. Well, we think that there would have been, especially if we added a small free-standing island in the middle--but we decided to take a second look and see if we couldn't think of a better solution than this one we proposed 2 weeks ago:

Our brainstorming brought us to Ikea on Saturday for some inspiration. We love browsing their showroom and seeing different solutions for every size space. When we saw this layout, it clicked (well, after Chris explained how we could adapt it to our home). And the wall oven and built wall microwave. Mmm!!:

Instead of a long peninsula separating the living room and kitchen, there would be an island perpendicular to the living room and adjacent to the dining room. Could it work? We came home and measured some more and made another 3D mockup--this time using Ikea's kitchen planner.

While we really loved the kitchen on display at Ikea, we used it as inspiration and added elements from other kitchens we love, too. Also, Ikea's kitchen planner (unlike floorplanner.com that we used in our previous kitchen mock up) only has kitchen building blocks, so I couldn't layout our living room, etc.

From the dining room, it would look like this (only much closer):

And from the living room, it would look like this:

Of course the island counter would extend so there would be a small, casual eating area where the two stools now are, much like the photo from Ikea's showroom, but the software was giving us a hard time. We really loved the idea of cleaning off the wall where the window is since we would have an enormous amount of storage. We are even toying with the idea of making our current window much larger. And because we absolutely love having our everyday plates and glasses handy, keeping our open shelving was definitely on our wishlist. By wrapping the counters around the corner, we had the perfect place to put our open shelving and a cool, corner cabinet.

And now for the finishes. We contemplated the medium wood cabinets that we saw in the showroom, but in the end, I feel like white is more classic. So the same style cabinets in white are winning at this point. As for the island, Ikea's super glossy gray fronts have stolen my heart. And if I didn't love them before, this kitchen from Chezerbey has sealed the deal:

White white cabinets and a glossy gray island and stainless steel appliance, the kitchen plans were seriously lacking some warmth--which we are solving by bringing in butcher block counters. Originally, we had never really considered them, but after seeing so many great examples and hearing other's testimonials--we kinda dig them now. We especially love what the folks over at This and That did with theirs:

They stained them a beautiful Walnut and then sealed it--like 12 times with Waterlox and even give a step by step on installing an undermount sink. Where would we be without blogs?! We are definitely going to be following in their footsteps.

So what do you think of the revised plans? Any concerns? Any thoughts? Anything we forgot? You better tell us now. Lots-o-money is on the line.

They are For SALE!

2012-01-17T09:16:00.003-07:00

I have a big surprise for all of you! You know by now that each month I create a new drawing on a 3'x5.5' chalkboard we have in our home. When the new month arrives, the old artwork is erased, never to be duplicated. Some of you are sad to see drawings erased, but it really keeps things fresh, exciting and pushes me to be better each month.

Now for the good news--I have opened an Etsy shop and beginning with January's drawing, I've started selling a limited number of prints of these drawings each month. In order to keep the artwork special, only 25 copies will be printed in the 1st editions. Each print will be numbered and signed by the artist, me. :)

A couple weeks ago, we had a high tech photo shoot with the chalkboard that produced the best print possible (we wanted to keep all of the chalk/chalkboard qualities apparent). The artwork is printed on 11x14 high-quality, archival, 100# card stock. Your art will arrive in a clear protective sleeve inside a rigid mailer via USPS.

They are large enough to make a nice statement on the wall, but small enough and super affordable so you can collect them each month. But--there's only 25--so get on it.

Thank you so much and I can't wait to do it all again next month!! EEEeeee!!

Go HERE to get yours.

Our First Home's Second Video Tour

2012-01-16T13:12:00.003-07:00

We had such a great weekend over here. A solid mix of family time, extended family time (Holla, Marcums!), relaxing, an Ikea trip, Miss America (I thought for SURE Miss Oklahoma was going to win) and a few projects. Chris finished his work's website that he has been working on for 4 months, which means we are back to regular work days, none of this rolling home at 2 am crap--which I am ecstatic about.

We also got some cleaning done (it's not every day that almost the entire house is clean at the same time), so I took the opportunity to shoot another house tour. The last video house tour we did was back in April when we moved in (you can see that here), and yeesh (!) have things changed. Wow. I am so glad we did a video tour before we did anything--it is so interesting and exciting to look back and see where we started--and be glad we aren't at that point anymore. I am sure I will look back on today's video tour in the future and be grateful our home continued to evolve. Whether you have been following along the whole time, are just tuning in or just have trouble figuring out the layout of our house from only photos--today is your lucky day:

Toddler Chore Chart??

2012-01-13T11:56:00.000-07:00

Lately, we have been thinking it might be time for a little chore chart for Greta. She'll be two in exactly one month from today and she has become such a good helper around the house. Granted, the girl, like any toddler definitely loves playing with her toys and can be quite the tornado, but before lunch and dinner she knows she has to "Cean up. Cean up. Cean up" before she eats. (Her version of "Clean up, clean up everybody, everywhere. Clean up, clean up everybody do their share.") Yeah, she just repeats the same words over and over to the tune. We think it is pretty cute.

In addition to cleaning up her toys, she also is really fond of unloading the dishwasher. She first started helping me when we moved into this home in April, and we caught her in action last May:

Truth is, I didn't always like her to help me back then because it took SOOOO much longer. She would hand me things one at a time at snail speed, but I endured and I am so glad I did. Now, she unloads the dishwasher SO fast. Some things like the plates and glasses she hands to me because she knows they go up high, but things like silverware, bowls, cutting boards and pots and pans--she has down and together we can have the whole dishwasher emptied in 2 1/2 minutes...as long as I don't distract her with the video camera:

Recently, I have started letting her help me hand-wash some things that don't fit in the dishwasher and I am right back to last year where I don't prefer it. There is water. Everywhere. She doesn't really get the pans clean, but she loves doing it. I am holding onto that knowing that she will get better and hopefully continue to enjoy little chores like this:

Greta also helps me change the laundry when I feel like doing it (laundry is the worst in my book), but I think it would be fun to start rewarding her for tasks that she does--even if the reward is just putting a sticker on a chart. Anyone out there have success with a toddler chore chart? Any suggestions of simple tasks an almost-two year old can handle? Is not-quite-two too young?

Weigh in, friends!

Just-Because Gifts

2012-01-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

We have had a rough couple months 'round here--especially the last two weeks. You may have noticed a lack of big projects here lately. My handyman and the muscles of the operation, Chris, has been working extremely late at his job launching an entirely new website. Last night he strolled home around 2am and he was out the door this morning at 7. I can tell he is tired. Taking care of Greta by my lonesome 24/7 has also been pretty taxing and throw in some health issues that showed up on my part--we are kind of a wreck.

While my health may take a little bit to get back on track, Chris should be wrapping up his company's new website today. Woot. In the meantime, through all the long days away from each other--we happened to both get each other a little something to let the other know--you're on my mind. Cue the "ahhh"s or maybe you are rolling your eyes. Ha! Either way, you should know that Chris has only given me flowers one other time in our relationship and that was back in '08.

These beauties arrived yesterday via delivery boy. I was so shocked and my exhausted, sad tears quickly turned to beyond-delighted tears. There was a little note that said, "Hope your day gets better." And it did.

Having fresh flowers in the house really livens the place up. My just-because-gift for Chris was a little less traditional. A scalp massager:

It was less than $5 on Amazon and one of those things that when I saw it, I thought, "Chris would love that thing." So I ordered it and it came on the perfect day. Have you ever tried it? Ah. Maze. Zing.

The two are kind of a silly pair, but so are we. Anyone else work like a maniac? How do you balance your relationship? Give any romantic or silly just-because gifts?

Psst. I have been working a special project for all of y-o-u behind the scenes. Look forward to the big reveal real soon.

Things you should know if you decide to Paint your Countertops.

2012-01-10T12:53:00.001-07:00

When we first moved into our home, our kitchen looked like this:

We weren't ready to remodel the kitchen yet (we are strong believers in living in a place and getting to know your home for some time before making any major changes), but we definitely wanted to make a few cheap and quick fixes. So I painted the cabinets, which really improved things but the countertops were definitely a big, PINK elephant in the room. Not wanting to spend a lot of money, I painted them (with Rustoleum's $20 countertop paint called Putty) in August. Some people had trouble finding it, here's what the box looks like.

I got it at Home Depot, but looks like they even sell it on Amazon.

I have had hundreds of emails asking me about the counters. Are they still holding up? How do they look now? Would I do it again? Would I recommend it? And a lot more specific pictures asking my opinion. You guys have so much faith in me. So, here's a little update about the ol' countertops.

The countertops are still holding up just fine. Meaning, they work and we're still happy. However, they definitely have some dings and scratches in them. From a distance, things look dandy:

But, if you were to come closer, you would see the pink countertop showing through in some small areas that are scratched:

And here are a few more examples to show you what you may see on yours:

Am I upset about this? H-no. The paint cost me $20! Really, I still have more than half of the quart left and if it was really bothering me, I could just repaint the countertops. But, in reality, we never meant for these painted countertops to be a permanent fix for our previous pink ones. The plan was always to replace the countertops (and the whole kitchen) in a year or so.

Would I still recommend painting your countertops? To everyone that has sent me pictures of your robin's egg blue counters, or mustard, or pink--and you hate them--Yes, yes and yes. If you really don't like the color of your countertops and can't afford to replace them right now--why not take an hour and change the color? But, and this is a big but, don't expect painted countertops to be your forever-countertop. Look at it as a means to an end. An opportunity to still aesthetically enjoy your space while you save up for a replacement.

That's my round-up on how-things-look-five-months-later. We are currently picking out new countertops for our NEW kitchen plans. And you better believe they aren't going to be pink or painted. That's about as much as we know right now.

Tile Cutters and Cash Catchers

2012-01-08T22:00:00.000-07:00

Friday night, after Greta went to sleep (around 5:30 pm--we know...we knoowwwww), our cute, little babysitter came over and we snuck out. Chris and I hadn't been on a date in a long time and with the Expo Home Show in town, it seemed like the perfect excuse to finally hire a sitter and have a night on the town with our friends (who we happened to also be related to) Brandon and Steph. They are closing on their first home at the end of this month and we are so excited for them...and us--they are moving to our neck of the woods. Double the projects, double the fun--that's my motto.

We went to the same home show last year, before we even closed on our home and it was much more exciting this time around. Now, after nearly a year of research, we are rehearsed in good deals for flooring and tile and this time we were actually looking for specific products and ideas. We entered just about every contest they had and watched lots of demonstrations. One of the best demos of the evening was this guy:

He cut tiles, mirrors and glass with one tool and very little effort. Normally you would need a wet saw to cut these things, but with this tool (and a little oil on the blade) he showed that you can cut straight lines or curved lines. My eyes got big. My mouth dropped. And Chris pulled out his wallet. $30 later (he gave us a great deal) it was ours and we can't wait to tile some floors now. Or cut a crazy shape out of a mirror. Ha!

Here's the lovely Stephanie's arm demonstrating the tool. You just score it with the rolling blade.

And gently squeeze:

It is soooooo cool.

We eventually made it over to the cash machine. Surprise, surprise. The person who caught the most cash in 25 seconds got it all. None of us ended up being able to keep the cash but it was still fun to watch the varying methods.

Chris kept his stash against the inside wall:

Steph went all in with both hands:

And I choked under the pressure of a crowd and the timer staring me in the face, and pretty much just ended up moving my arms up and down:

Brandon was only a dollar short of being the highest, but that didn't keep us from celebrating with a bite to eat afterward. It was such a fun night and I can barely wait to use our tile cutter. I guess the Laundry room DOES need some new flooring. :)

A Bradley Christmas Movie

2012-01-08T20:06:00.004-07:00

My little sister, the talented photographer behind Doublclik, just surprised us all with this little movie she put together that captured our Christmas this year. I can't stop watching it. And maybe it is about time you met my family, too. Enjoy!

Inspiring Kitchen Peninsulas

2012-01-06T11:56:00.003-07:00

With our new kitchen layout plans in place, we have turned our attention to materials. My mind is spinning. There are so many options for countertops and cabinets. We know we love the look of black Honed Granite, Richlite, Soapstone and Concrete countertops--but that is still FOUR different choices. We are headed to a home show this weekend to hopefully gather more ideas and see a lot of options all in one place.

In the meantime, we are deeply inspired by the following peninsulas that pull off a clean, contemporary and unique look that add so much to each of their spaces. Take a look:

(source)

(via HOUZZ)

(source)

Yep. My head is spinning.

A Painting Process.

2012-01-05T12:29:00.001-07:00

Originally, I slapped some paint on the taller-than-I-am-canvas for the dining room in colors that I knew I wanted to use and it stayed that way for months. Over the holiday, I finally decided to finish it. ---I got a little carried away in the meantime.

It was a fun couple hours and I ended up about where I wanted to be:

The New Kitchen Plans. Woot!

2012-01-04T12:21:00.000-07:00

Last week, we spilled the news that a major kitchen renovation is on our list this year (read about the other 9 projects we revealed here)--and we are wasting no time getting started on that goal. Even though neither of us have ever embarked on such a task, we already are realizing how long of a process this is going to be. Afterall, we have been trying to decided on a layout for nearly 9 months.

In August, we were sure we had it right when we showed you what we were thinking of doing:

The plan boiled down to the addition of a wall oven and a shortened peninsula. Soon after that post, we went back to the drawing board because it still didn't feel right. It still felt really claustrophobic. Our dining room feels tight with the peninsula in its current location:

And the big separator wall in between the kitchen and dining room traps Chris in a corner while he cooks and our guests are usually hanging out in the living room or the cramped dining room.

That's when we decided the wall had to come down and we began working out a new layout for the kitchen. We are happy and relieved to say, we found one that we are thrilled about and set on.

Removing that wall entirely and replacing it with a peninsula with a slide in gas range incorporated. This not only provides some extra seating for guests, but it also allows Chris to get his cooking on and still be apart of the fun. And when I am making lunch for Greta during the day, I can still keep an eye on her.

The extra counter and workspace allows us to nix the other peninsula entirely and opens up the dining room to the kitchen. We are thinking about replacing our rectangular table with a round one to balance out all the rigid lines, but we'll see where we end up. Of course the corner pantry will come down with the rest of the wall, which means that we needed to add a lot of storage for not only dry pantry items, but also the small appliances we keep in the pantry.

So the entire wall where the fridge will be, will also be floor to ceiling (I couldn't get the cabinets to extend all the way to the ceiling in my mock ups) cabinets, which we think will look awesome and give us tons more storage than we currently have.

So when you walk in our front door, instead of seeing a wall:

Everything will be open--which means I'll have to make sure I always keep the dishes done. Hehe.

Of course, the 3D drawing is far from perfect--I excitedly threw it together pretty quickly last night using floorplanner.com--but the measurements are right on, meaning we are ready for the next step--everything else.

We haven't decided on countertops, cabinet colors, finishes, hardware, lighting--nada. But now that we finally have a layout we are both stoked about--we are ready to move forward. Get excited!

Organize that Junk Counter

2012-01-03T10:19:00.001-07:00

You know that counter in your kitchen that everything seems to fall on? Mail, keys, items that need returned or dropped off to neighbors, nail clippers. Oy vey. Ours is right under the microwave. Because it is concealed on all sides, I sometimes pretend that company can't see it--I'm 98% sure they can.

Besides being unorganized and a black hole for all of our junk, no matter how clean the rest of the kitchen was, it still looked messy because of this counter. So yesterday, on an itty bitty budget--I organized it. I wanted to make sure my solution was something that was realistic--we are always going to have all sorts of papers on this counter to be filed, and some that we just need on hand--I needed something that could easily store these so it wouldn't be inconvenient to keep it tidy all the time, not just for a day.

After returning items to neighbors and getting rid of things on the counter that had no business being in the kitchen in the first place (true story: there was a black shirt rolled up underneath all that junk?!). I headed to the store. For $5 I picked up a vertical paper sorter. Originally, I thought of just using a stacked paper tray, but the counter is pretty small and a vertical one just fit better. While picking up the paper sorter, I also got a small cork board that fit on the back wall so I could pin up and store smaller things (tickets, paint chips we're currently deciding on, and anything else that we would normally hang on the side of the fridge).

The chartreuse pen holder was actually a toothbrush holder I found at Ikea a few months ago for 99 cents. I bought two and have been waiting to use one some place. The framed peacock art cost me zero dollars and zero cents. It was actually a Special K ad I found in a Women's Day magazine!! You know I love me magazine "art".

Cut to size and put in a frame I already had on hand, added something pretty to the counter that serves as extra motivation to keep the rest of the space looking pretty, too. OOOOooo Aaaaahhhhhh.

That's my realistic quick-fix for a junk counter. Do you have one in your home? Please tell me I didn't just share my mess with the world and am now standing alone. Either way, I am so happy with our fresh counter.

Before:

After:

January 2012 Chalkboard Drawing

2012-01-02T08:58:00.000-07:00

While visiting my parents over the holiday, my mom gave me some chalk that she had stored away for decades. It is vibrant and smooth and made this month's drawing even more enjoyable.

Why fish? I felt like it, I guess. I don't remember ever drawing fish before and boy, was it fun to break out almost every color chalk I had. Also I didn't want you to get too used to season/month specific drawings. Here are the goods:

Happy January, friends.

______________________________________

Previous Chalkboard Drawings

New Year. New Look.

2012-01-01T22:15:00.002-07:00

Happy New Year E'rbody!! We are kickin' off 2012 with a fresh look for our blog. Chris spent several hours coding it all with me looking over his shoulder. We now have all of our tabs up top linked to pages filled with more eye candy, along with our social networking links--did you even know that Chris Loves Julia had a facebook page? Mom? No? Welp, we do.

On the sidebar, you'll see a section called "Spotlight:" which is a few posts of yore that we have hand-picked to feature this month--or whenever we get around to switching them up. Besides being more organized and visually appealing, the ol' blog is pretty much the same. We just wanted to give you a little heads up that you are, indeed, in the right place. You can look forward to January's Chalkboard drawing Monday morning. It's my favorite so far!

10 Projects to Look Forward to in 2012

2011-12-30T14:34:00.000-07:00

When we bought our home 8 1/2 months ago, we knew that it would take time to inject our personality and fix it up. So, we have learned to enjoy the process and rejoice in our progress. Some projects and rooms will continue to evolve over time as our taste changes and some spaces need so much work and moo-lah, the projects need to be divided into phases. In 2011, we have repainted nearly every room in our house (with the exception of 4 spaces)--which is the first phase, and we are looking to tackle phase 2 for a lot of rooms in 2012.

Is this a resolutions post? Kinda. It's also a wish list. Goals to keep us going. A break down of some big and small projects you can look forward to seeing here in 2012. There are a lot more than 10 things on our list to-do for our home in 2012, but ten feels like a good place to start--we wouldn't want to give away all of the tricks up our sleeves.

1. The garage. Oy. It has become everything but a place to park our car. We have paint cans and tools scattered everywhere on one side, and the other side is packed with things that used to be in our basement before it flooded earlier this year. We are already making up plans to build (buy?) a workbench and get our tools organized so that we can have a place to work AND park the car.

2. New hardwood flooring in the dining room, kitchen, living room, up the stairs and into the master bedroom (I still haven't sold Chris on the idea of hardwood flooring in the family room). The flooring we have now on the first floor is okay, but it is laminate and it looks cheap and it sounds cheaper. We already have our eyes set on some beautiful, deep mocha floors. Now we just need to save up our pennies a little longer.

3. The Master Bedroom. We have made some progress in our bedroom, but it still needs work. New lighting and window treatments will do wonders--and having hardwood floors in there. Swoon. We're excited.

4. Paint all the trim in the house. This isn't glorious. It's not fun. It probably won't even make a very exciting blog post when it happens, but it will make a big difference in freshening things up around here. And goodness, it needs done.

5. The kitchen. Phase 2. The kitchen has come far since we have moved in, but they have all been quick fixes until we can get new countertops and replace the cabinets and the rest of the appliances.

Chris and I are most excited about this project for 2012. We discussed a few ideas of what we wanted to do with the kitchen back in August, and after more brainstorming and mapping out plans--we have scratched those plans and have decided on something even bigger, better and more functional for our family. We'll be sure to break down the full layout for you in a future post, but as a teaser--the wall between the living room and kitchen is coming down!! Wooooooot!

6. Plant an edible garden. Both Chris and I grew up with fresh produce growing in our backyards and in 2012 we have plans to build raised beds for our own garden. Which means the lonely, unused dog kennel will officially have to go. Thank goodness.

7. Tackle the third bedroom upstairs. This is definitely a room in our home that has gone from bad to worse since we moved in. It has become a storage room for decor, art, greta's clothes that no longer fit her and most recently, boxes that Christmas presents arrived in. We definitely hope to add another Marcum to the mix soon, and I can't wait to decorate another nursery--but I'll settle for a playroom until then.

8. Build a storage solution for Greta's toys and books in her room. The girl has toys stored in so many places in our home except her own room. Yeesh! Time to remedy that. Especially since her toys and books quadrupled over Christmas.

9. Re-do the laundry room floors. When we did our quick overhaul of the laundry room earlier this year, we knew we wanted to replace the floors but didn't have time. The blue tile is dingy, cracked and...blue. We're not sure where we will end up on flooring (pennies?) but we can all look forward to saying goodbye to the blue tiles in the upcoming year.

10. Panel and beam the vaulted ceiling on the first floor. It is such a massive surface that is so plain and boring. With the wall coming down dividing the space, we think that adding more interest up top will unify the space and make it extra special. I am giddy about it.

The inspiration picture:

Our current ceiling:

So there you have it. Ten glimpses of what you can expect from us in 2012. Of course we have a slew of other projects we hope to get done, too, but it is safe to say this blog will be hoppin' in the new year. Any project you are particularly excited for?

A Morning Art Project: Falling Blocks

2011-12-29T10:52:00.000-07:00

With all of my sisters in the same place for the past few days, we decided to have a craft/art time. We are all creative in different ways, so it was fun to see one of the sisters go for the pastels, while another grabbed the stamps and ink and another the watercolors.

With all of my sisters: Andi, Patty, Krissy, Vicky, Me.

Me? I decided to go for the tissue paper. I drew and cut out a hexagon out of construction paper and used it as a template for a slew of multi-colored tissue paper.

Tissue paper is prime for this project. When I started layering them on top of one another, it started creating a very cool falling block pattern:

I just kept layering and layering until I liked what I saw, glueing each piece down with a glue stick. Unfortunately, my original hexagon out of construction paper wasn't perfect. Not nearly. I should have taken time to measure each side to make them even. So there are some parts that don't line up. But, eh--I still like the way it turned out.

Although I originally did the project with the page horizontal, I kinda prefer it better vertical. But the way it hangs on the wall will be up to my sister, Victoria.

That's right. We all traded our art projects when we were done so we could have something special from another sister in our home. It made for a fun morning activity. Anyone else bust out the craft paper and paints when they get together with their family?? Are you team vertical or horizontal??

Returning the Love

2011-12-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I counted down the top five most popular posts of the year, and today I wanted to recognize a few people that really helped our little blog be seen/read this year. While we do get a fair amount of traffic from our own sources (Subscribers, Facebook, Networked blogs, heck--we were even Googled nearly 5000 times this year), a lot of our readership comes from referrals--specifically these top 5 sites and people:

5. Lindsey from Better After. This girl posts incredible before and afters multiple times a day. She has featured two of our projects this year which was a huge honor. You should definitely check out this blog. I am astounded and inspired at the things people can do with junk.

4. Meagan from Meagan Tells All. Meagan is one of my very best friends and is my blogging cheerleader--which, btw, every blogger needs one of those. Her husband is in Law School, they have the cutest little girl, she is at the tail end of a molar pregnancy and she can do amazing things with some fabric and her sewing machine. Fortunately for us, she is also a blogger.

3. Beckie at Knock Off Decor. The entire blog is dedicated to showcasing the amazing work of some seriously talented designers while giving those with less of a budget a chance to mimic them. Definitely something to check out before forking out loads of cash at the stores for something you can DIY. We successfully landed a few spots among those featured on her blog.

2. Pinterest. I am in awe at the traffic source Pinterest has been for us. It is the most rewarding/humbling/crazy thing to see your work pinned. We all love Pinterest. 'Nough said.

1. John and Sherry from Young House Love. Definitely my favorite blog ever and a huge inspiration to Chris and I as we tackle our own home renovations. I pretty much consider them celebrities, so the fact that they referred around 10,000 readers to our blog this year, makes me blush. Read their blog and be hooked. You won't regret it.

Scenes from Christmas Morning 2011

2011-12-26T10:13:00.002-07:00

The day got even merrier when we surprised my parents with my sister, Andi's secret arrival from her home in Mexico:

Which means my entire family will be in one place this week (it's rare that all five of the sisters can coordinate locations and schedules) and we'll be partying. I hope you are having a happy holiday, too. I already have posts lined up for you for the rest of the week to end this year. See you tomorrow!!

Give Yourself some Art.

2011-12-23T11:45:00.000-07:00

In my home, I have around 35 pieces of art hanging on the walls right now. Before you start whispering about the obscene amount of money we must spend on our art collection, you should know that thirty of the thirty-five are originals done by me. Art in any home is a way to add individuality, personality and warmth. It is extremely subjective, so I don't expect everyone that we have over to love every painting, print or drawings I have done--but they always comment on all the art--or maybe just that we have art. I am here to share with you that any home can be outfitted with art no matter the budget or talent skill. Here's a few tips I can give you to amp up your walls:

1. Go big ~~or go~~ in your home. Don't be shy. Why not do something HUGE for that big, bare wall? One of my favorite gifts (and one that keeps giving) was 6 yards of primed canvas from my husband. In case you aren't quick with math that is 18 FEET of canvas. The good news is it will cost you less than $60 here. I still have a lot of the canvas left, but so far I have made two giant works of art out of it. One is a Robert Frost poem that I wrote out with a brush and black paint:

And the other is a large abstract that is hanging in our dining room. I used all house paint for this painting. A combination of paint colors that are on our walls and 50 cent "oops" paint samples you can find at your local hardware store in the mistinted section. That, my friends, is my favorite little secret.

2. Makeover an old canvas. So maybe building a canvas frame and stretching your own canvas isn't your thing. Hit up the thrift store and hunt for something that you can makeover. Last year, I found a canvas that had a great mat and frame on it. It didn't look pretty, but I looked passed that and checked out the $5 price tag. Score. I took it home and painted right over it.

3. Anything looks better framed. In college, I busted out multiple pieces of week which has made for a great stockpile of rotating art in our home. One project in particular that I wanted to display in our living room was a set of fifteen prints I did in my printmaking class. The only problem was, at this point in our lives, we can't afford 15 frames. Even $5 frames would end up costing us $75. So, I went to the dollar store and bought 15 gold document frames. It did the trick and looks great! The large tree photo with a bridge leading to it is from Ikea. It runs about $150 and it is huge and we LOVE it.

If you don't have a bunch of prints lying around from your college days, frame something sentimental. We have framed an envelope from a letter that was written (my husband and I fell in love through letters). We framed the "M" from my daughter's foam letter puzzle mat as a monogram for us. Heck, I have even framed a great page from a magazine:

4. If you're afraid of doing something big and not liking it, do something big that can be changed and get the whole family in on the fun. Chris recently built me a large (5'6"x3') chalkboard in our laundry room so I could have fun with art and change it on a monthly basis.

October's drawing:

November's drawing:

December's Drawing:

Building the chalkboard cost about $25--including the chalkboard paint--completely affordable, unique and a great way to constantly have new art in your home.

Make it a goal, or dare I say, New Year's Resolution, to inject some art into your home. You can do it!

Psst...I originally wrote this post back in November for Cat at Budget Blonde, but I couldn't resist sharing it with you guys, as well.

Greta's Gifts

2011-12-22T11:27:00.001-07:00

I did every bit of my Christmas shopping online. For Chris. For family. For Greta. Our Christmas cards. All of it. And I have been done for weeks...until last night. Chris and I decided on popcorn for our snack and I couldn't resist giving him his Stir-Crazy Popcorn popper that I ordered back in November (which we LOVE, by the way). So, this morning I woke up feeling the burden of not having my shopping done...again--I needed another gift for Chris and I definitely didn't want to face the crowds. Luckily, Amazon had one-day shipping for $3.99. !!! So now, I can peacefully say, I am ready once again.

When it came to what to get Greta, we followed the gift guide for kids: give something they want, need, wear and read (and we threw in one extra because she has been such a good girl):

1. Something to Read: 10 classic hardcover books to add to her little collection. Taste of Home was selling all ten of these books for $14.99 last month and I snatched them up.

2. Something they Want: If Greta could form sentences a little better, I am sure she would say she desperately wanted a puppy. Alas, she can't and isn't ready for that responsibility anyway. Fortunately, we are pretty sure she is going to love the Prince Lionheart Cow Wheely Bug. I can't wait to see her scootin' around on it.

3. Something they Need: Some may argue that Greta doesn't need Melissa & Doug's 60-piece standard wooden blocks--but the girl is a stacking/building fanatic and I am tired of putting away all of the bowls and hearing the pots and pans come crashing down. Plus, we are certain these blocks will be the kind of toy that we will have forever.

4. The Extra: Crayola has really gone all out in the past couple years and the artist in me gets giddy when Greta wants to color. Getting these mess-free, I repeat--mess free--paint markers and paper were a no-brainer.

5. Something to Wear: This Platinum Purple snowsuit could also fall under the "need" category. She is going to look adorable romping around in the snow for our family snowman building contest this holiday.

Now it is time for the fun part--wrapping!!

How We Like to say, "Merry Christmas" Over Here.

2011-12-20T13:01:00.000-07:00

Send a card (we wish we had enough cards to send to each of you!):

And do a dance:

/div>

The Lazy Man's Braise

2011-12-18T21:48:00.002-07:00

So I promised Jules I would write about the Sunday dinner I made this past weekend. I guess it was awesome or something (I say that in a way that's trying to be humble, while knowing deep inside that it was indeed awesome). I'll try to remember everything that was in it; partly for ya'll, and partly because I would like to make it again sometime.

So, who doesn't love cooking in the crock pot? I don't know who invented the crock pot, but I'd like to give them a hug. One of my favorite winter time cooking techniques is braising (cooking something with a small amount of liquid for a long time). Braising is basically what the crock pot is trying to imitate, and I think it does a good enough job in most circumstances. Plus, braising requires a few extra steps and a mildly watchful eye, so the low maintenance aspect of the crock pot is too attractive to disregard, especially for Sunday dinner.

Ok, so I don't have step-by-step pictures, so I'm just going to show you the final product, then tell you how I did it. Check it.

The first thing I want to say is, if you ever want to make a meal feel special, plate it yourself. And I'm not talking about the 3-point landing plating (a 3-point landing is when you have your protein, starch and vegetable on a plate in 3 different sections, often avoiding any contact from one to another). When you plate food, try stacking. Lean things against each other. Even if it ends up looking ridiculous, it still sends the message that you took the time to make it look unique and people will appreciate it.

For my purposes today, though, you don't need to pay any attention to the plating. It's actually quite "culinary school," and a little amateur. But I want to focus on the food. Pork spare ribs, mashed potatoes and gravy, and green beans (to add the illusion of caring about balancing the meal). Groundbreaking, don't you think? No? Perhaps not, at face value. But the flavor was something special, and the key to a good slow cooked meal is to use fresh ingredients and your braising liquid in a way that they complement each other. Let me tell you about my braising liquid (or crock pot liquid, I guess). Here's about how it went. I didn't measure anything, so I'm totally guessing with the amounts.

2 cups Martinelli's sparkling cider

1 Tbsp horseradish

1/2 cup crushed tomatoes (tomato sauce would work, or a small amount of tomato paste mixed with water)

1 cup water mixed with 1/2 tsp chicken base

maybe 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

Pinch of salt

maybe 1 tsp green Tobasco sauce (or any hot sauce you want to use. I like green because it's mild and a little sweet)

Dash of chipotle powder

Dash of ancho chile powder

1 Tbsp of bbq sauce

You may be thinking, "How did you come up with this? It all seems so random." Well, it is pretty random, but it started with a few ingredients that pair really well with pork; apples and horseradish. If you aren't a horseradish fan, you don't need to worry. Cooking horseradish in a crock pot for a long time gets rid of the sharp, harsh flavor (which I actually love, but I realize it's not for everyone) and leaves you with a smooth taste that I'm confident you'll love. As far as the other ingredients in the liquid go, it was all about finding a balance of sweet and spicy, also taking into consideration the fresh ingredients I was going to add to the mix. Speaking of…

1 onion, sliced

1 apple, peeled, sliced

1 large carrot, peeled, sliced

1/3 jalapeno, seeds and ribs removed, sliced

Even though most of the heat from a jalapeno is in the seeds and ribs, when you put them in the slow cooker, all of the oils that are locked up in the green will marry into the rest of the liquid and actually intensify. So it's a delicate balance. If you aren't a fan of spicy foods, I would say leave the fresh jalapeno out, because it's hard to predict, since some jalapenos can be mild, and some really spicy, and there's no real way to tell beforehand.

When I cook in a crock pot, I like to layer. I put down 1/3 of my fresh ingredients, then 3 spare ribs, another 1/3 of the fresh ingredients, 3 more spare ribs, and the rest of the fresh ingredients. Then I added the liquid, set the cooker to high for 7 hours and went about my day. When we came home from church, the entire house smelled like happiness and a quick inspection of the crock pot solidified my confidence that this meal was going to be good. I made some quick garlic mashed potatoes and a gravy from some of the cooking liquid (oh yeah, and the green beans) and we were set to go.

I sometimes feel like I get caught in routines, and dinner is no exception. But every meal is a chance to try something you haven't done before, and I'm glad I took advantage of that this weekend. Feel free to give this "recipe" a try or, better yet, come up with a new mix of your own to try. Sure, it could turn out horrible. But it could turn out pretty awesome, too.

The Mudroom Nook--Part II..errr the Final Chapter.

2011-12-16T11:35:00.000-07:00

Well, that was quick! My plan was for this project to take three days. A day for prepping and painting the walls, another day for painting all of the dingy and dirty trim and doors and then a little shopping and putting things back together on the third day. My three day plan became a two day plan when we got word that Chris's parents are arriving Saturday morning, which meant I had to work double time to get this project done last night/in the wee hours of this morning, so today I could get other things ready (read: the house cleaned and the fridge stocked).

In other words, lucky you! I have "after" pictures for ya. But first, catch a glimpse at these dysfunctional "befores.":

That little mudroom nook was a black hole. So much stuff was crammed into a 30" wide space (more on that here) and even when I emptied it all out, hanging things so low on both sides just didn't make sense for us. Here's what I came up with:

Chris cut trimmed down a shelf with hooks that used to be hanging in an upstairs bathroom to fit in the space perfectly. We hung it much higher than the previous coat racks because 1.) We're tall. 2.) It heightens the space and makes it feel bigger and 3.) We wanted to make sure we would have room for extra storage underneath.

Enter leather storage ottoman:

This was the only thing I bought for the whole makeover (besides some gold spray paint, but I'll get there). I knew I wanted an ottoman that had storage and fit the width of the nook for $50 or less. Even though the space is 30" wide, with baseboards on either side, we needed something around the 28" mark for storage. After lots of online searching with no luck, I almost asked for a budget extension--but decided to check Ross first with tape measure in hand. This 28" tufted, dark brown, leather storage ottoman was $49. (!!!) Huzzah! We have our yoga mats, exercise bands, camera bag, tripod and even some blankets for the adjacent family room stored in there. Love that thing.

With the bold paint and the dark ottoman, I did worry it would start feeling too dark back there, so I decided to hang a simple full length mirror we've had since we got married to bounce off some light, not to mention a mirror kinda belongs by a house exit, right? The only problem was--it was dark, too:

And dirty. Oops. I taped off the glass and spray-painted it with Valspar's Metallic Gold. Once the mirror was hung, the whole space really began to evolve and make sense. Grab your purse, check yourself and head out the door.

The gold mirror also made way for more little touches of gold. Like the gold in the throw pillow that I got during my college days, pre-Chris. The little frame on top of the shelf that holds a family picture and will most likely be joined on the shelf by keys and sunglasses.

With gold accents quickly coming to play, I grabbed this oil painting I did in high school (it was previously in our guest room/office) and hung it in the hallway, too:

Hard to believe it looked like this on Wednesday:

And the other side looked like this:

And now looks like this:

As much as I really don't like painting trim and doors, I have to admit it makes such a beautiful difference. All of the trim in our house is beige-y cream and looks dirty and dated. The extra effort to give everything a fresh coat of white paint really finished this space off.

And if you are wondering where all of our coats and jackets went, I finally cleaned out the mini closet by the dining room and hung them in there. Why did I wait so long?!

There you have it, friends. A quick little revamp that turned a dysfunctional mudroom/black hole into a smashing organized nook:

The Mudroom Nook--Part I

2011-12-15T12:46:00.000-07:00

Make it blue! The little hallway and nook is right off of our "Modern Family Blue" family room wall and with more that half of the can left, it took me about 3 seconds to decide to paint it the same blue.

I also removed the halfway-up-the-wall coat hooks from both walls in the nook and patched the holes before giving it a coat of Behr's Waterscape as well.

Are you surprised by the blue? Didn't think so. ;) Part II of this little revamp tomorrow.

Our Messy little Secret

2011-12-14T11:41:00.002-07:00

It's 11 days before Christmas and it seems every other blog is serving up all of the details on DIYing your own tree skirt, making ornaments, and gift guides galore. Our simple decorations are up. Our neighbors have been gifted. My Christmas shopping is done and I have the itch to do a little makeover to a very neglected part of our house. So color me crazy, but 11 days before Christmas, I think I'll revamp our little back hallway/mudroom area.

I'm not even sure we have ever showed this space on our blog--did I mention it is neglected? It is the hallway to the garage, basement and laundry room--right off of the family room:

It forms a nice little "L" shape to allow for a mud~~room~~ nook, but we have basically been stuffing everything we own back there.

Coats, jackets, purses, diaper bags...

hats, yoga mats, carpet remnants from Greta's room...

... and shoes all over the ground atop a mat that was there when we moved in and any jackets that have fallen off of the 7 hooks we are currently working with.

What. A. Mess. Today was the day that I decided I couldn't take it any longer. I cleared all the junk out and started making a plan for the space.

We have a small closet with a rod for hanging coats in it, so I am going to move all of our coats to the closet. No brainer. Because the nook is only 30 inches wide, I think that having things hanging on both sides just makes the whole space feel claustrophobic. I have some simple plans to turn this space into a place where we can still hang a few things like bags and hats, store items like our yoga mats and still look organized.

First things first, it needs a fresh coat of paint on the walls and trim. :)

Gallery Wall Additions.

2011-12-13T12:18:00.001-07:00

Back in August, we traded in our art gallery wall for a photo gallery wall. We have art all over our home and barely any photos, so the idea of filling the entire staircase wall with snapshots of our family made us giddy--even if it meant patching all of those holes. We started out with just three pictures:

One of us dancing at our wedding, a photo of our home, and an impromptu snapshot of our little family of three taken earlier in the summer (you can see close-ups in this post). Chris and I both agreed it is time to add more. We decided to do all black and white photos, but I don't think I am going to be able to find the same frame as I used before (I found those at Ross), so there will probably end up being a slew of different sized photos and frames as we add to it over the years--which feels so right for us and what we are trying to achieve with this wall of memories.

Here are the next four pictures we can't wait to hang:

Chris and I at a little food competition he competed in. The competition wasn't monumental or anything, but photos of just the two of us are sparse and I bet one day we'll look back and gawk at how young we were.

This photo was taken with Chris's iphone a couple weeks ago. It captures daily life too perfectly to not frame:

Our little Greta girl. She has since had her hair cut into a little bob and has all of her teeth in, but this photo melts our hearts and belongs on the wall:

Lastly, Chris and his little girl:

We can't wait to find frames and hang them up. We'll keep you posted on how the arrangement transforms. Any other photo walls in the works??

Outtakes from the Reveal.

2011-12-12T12:27:00.001-07:00

Even though we have been in a little online mini series for the past few months, we are no movie stars--unless you count Chris's painfully late (the movie came out it 2008!) and overdone (not by Chris, but by everyone) impression of Heath Ledger's Joker in our outtake reel. Basically we are grateful for digital film, editing software and a good sense of humor.

Here's hoping you can laugh with us as we laugh at ourselves--otherwise this is going to be REALLY embarrassing for me. And now, the outtakes from our last session of filming:

Oh, and in case you missed our final reveal video--you can still check that out on True Value's page, or for the silent (aka just words and pictures) version, click over to Friday's reveal blog post.

Guest Room/Office Reveal. It's HERE!!!

2011-12-08T20:54:00.001-07:00

Back in September, we started turning this former tortured teen's room into a guest room and office. Last week, we put the finishing touches on it and today--we're turning it loose to all of you. Of course, we are still dreaming of a bookcase and some cozy desk chairs (right now we are just using the spare dining chairs we had on hand) and the room will continue to evolve over time, but for now--we are loving the way it all turned out. So here it is. Be kind. We've worked hard.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Huzzah! On the office side of things, we scored a gorgeous glass-topped desk in the Ikea as-is section. Originally we planned to build a desk the length of the entire wall, but when we saw this desk, we both loved it--and the idea of sitting closer sealed the deal for me.

We moved the shelf and letters, that were in our bedroom, above the desk. It was a better fit for this room. A bulletin board and/or calendar will hopefully find its way to the space between the desk and the shelf eventually.

The prints above the bed from A Vintage Poster really set the tone for the color scheme of the room. I found that huge, green bolster pillow at Ross for $8. The curtains are actually a dark, velvet, navy blue. They look really luxurious in real life and the bamboo blinds (50% off from JCPenney) bring the warmth of the stained concrete floor up to the windows...plus, we are total suckers for bamboo blinds.

Speaking of warmth on the floor, the graphic, 100% wool rug from Rugs USA fits in perfectly with the clean-lined look we were going for. And the extra, faux sheep skin is a little added softness on the ol' feet when our guests get out of bed.

There it is. All of our hard work over the past few months. Starting with the worst room in our entire house:

Sanding, retexturing and painting the walls:

Staining the concrete floor under the gross carpet:

Replacing the old lighting with 5 dimmable pot lights (with the help of Black Diamond Electric) :

Installing tall, modern baseboards:

And finally, putting in the furniture and accessories that make it a guest room and office:

Now accepting overnight guests. :)

For the live action version, check out our last video on True Value's facebook page. We'll be back next week with outtakes.

The Tangerine Tango

2011-12-08T11:53:00.001-07:00

Dried navy beans and my Sharpies playing nice.

Here's a little glimpse at my side of the desk as we're all waiting patiently for the big reveal tomorrow (Me? Not-so-patiently) In other news, another big reveal has been made. Pantone announced the color of the year for 2012:

Tangerine Tango. Which fits in pretty nicely with my new fruit bowl. Maybe I'll add a few more pops of this punchy color in home accessories over the year. Definitely doable. I failed miserably at incorporating 2011's Honeysuckle, but I am still very much into 2010's Turquoise. Who isn't?

Do you see Tangerine Tango working its way into your home this year? Is anyone else mildly obsessed with sharpies? Just looking at that photo makes me want to wrap presents in kraft paper and then decorate it with colorful doodles.

What we're Gifting our Neighbors

2011-12-07T13:10:00.001-07:00

We already have received a few little gifts from our neighbors and they are cute! Just the other day there was a knock at the door, and a neighbor boy handed us a roll of wrapping paper with a sweet note attached from his family. Wrapping paper! How practical. How timely. I love it. Chris and I have been brainstorming what to gift our neighbors for the past few days and I finally came up with something that I hope they like. I wanted to give them a little piece of "art" (I use that term loosely) without it being intimidating.

The first thing I did was format a page on my computer to 3"x5" (the size of the opening of my mat..wait for it...) and typed their house number. I made it super, super light and printed it out on thick cardstock:

I bought a gold, metallic marker at Walmart (2 for $.94) and outlined each number with the pen. I chose to use a marker instead of the gold paint and a brush I had on hand because I knew I could have more control with the marker. Choosing gold was a no-brainer:

And then filled it in using a swirling motion to create more of a hammered metal effect. I tried coloring it in with lines on my practice sheet and it screamed "marker!" The circular motion is a lot more refined:

Then I cut it down to size and framed it.

The silvery frame and mat were found at Walmart for $2.96. The wrong frame could really make this project go from chic to cheap fast, so look around until you find a nice frame that would really complement your project without breaking the bank.

1 down. 10 to go. Well, 11 to go...I want one for us, too!

Blog Spotlight: Can You Stay For Dinner

2011-12-06T12:39:00.001-07:00

We'll get back to paint colors, kitchen plans and art work tomorrow. In fact, I had every intention to write a gift guide for a 22 month old today. But then this morning, during Greta's nap, I came across a blog so inspiring I have to (HAVE to) share it with you.

I haven't ever really battled with weight, but I have had moments of insecurities. Who hasn't? I have uttered the words "pre-baby" and "post-baby" too many times. I cling on to pictures of myself from years and years ago when I was working out hard for 90 minutes a day, promising myself I'll get there again even though I know that's not true. I found this blog through Pinterest (surprise) and she has lost 135 lbs, but even more importantly, she talks about the feelings she has about herself. She talks about loving herself and how she stopped working out because it became an abusive relationship with herself. She talks about loving life and even the things she misses about pushing 300 pounds. The whole message is about peace.

She is gorgeous. She is eloquent. And I can't stop reading. For your reading pleasure:

http://www.canyoustayfordinner.com/

(There is a menu on the left side all about her story. I started there.)

An Excerpt:

When you’re big for twenty years, the only twenty you’ve ever known, you’ll kindly not frown upon two decades. You’ll know that who you are was formed in there, and that’s beautiful.

Hear me.

Beautiful.

I hear accounts of those who’ve lost a tremendous amount of weight. Maybe they were on the Biggest Loser; maybe the cover of People. Most often, they speak about their former selves, the bigger ones, in a very detached way. As if the here and now is infinitely better and more lovely than the past. And maybe it is in lots of ways. But here’s the thing: it was you all along.

I don’t think back on my past and want to redo it. I don’t flip pages of my baby book and think, ‘dear, what cankles you had.’ I don’t see my adolescent self, my teenage self, and wish those pictures, scrapbooked and framed, would disappear. Mom, really, with the Glamour Shots? Really? My life, big, was always all I knew. And that is perfect in its own right.

Yes, I know now that with 135 extra pounds, something more was wrong than my weight. The scales I tipped should have tipped me off to emotional suffering. But not all of it was sad, or scared.

Some of the weight was happy and as well rounded as it came across.

Some of it meant that I developed a personality first.

A sense of humor before a sense of entitlement.

Empathy before ego.

Decked Out.

2011-12-05T09:10:00.001-07:00

This weekend, we took some time and finished getting up all of our Christmas decor. I would describe our Christmas decor style as ...simple. Our home's decor is pretty clean-lined, so it makes sense that when we put up our Christmas decorations, they are no-fuss, too. But also, we don't have a ton of Christmas decorations so that makes things extra simple 'round here. Here's hoping we can add a little more every year.

You have seen our five wreaths lining our banister. We put these up a couple weeks ago:

I used the same red ribbon around a couple of decorative pillows on the couch to make them more festive:

We went with navy blue and light blue ornaments this year. At the last minute, I added our orange ones from previous years because they were shatterproof and I felt like we needed more ornaments, even though there are 75 blue ones. If the orange ones were red, it would have been perfect--but we still think our tree is pretty charming. The tree "skirt" is a $9.99 faux sheepskin from Ikea.

Here's the aerial view at night:

And a close up of the ornaments. There are a lot of great details on them. We added some sparkly pine cones and some of those swirly things too. Technical term.

Since we had so many glass ornaments from previous years that weren't getting used, I gathered all of our gold ones and put them in my new favorite bowl. Placed on top of a little faux fur I DIYed for last yea r's centerpiece, it makes a festive centerpiece on our dining table:

On top of the piano is where our nativity landed. My parents got it for us last year and the piano is the only out-of-Greta's-reach place in our home it seems. I wrapped some of the glittery red ribbon that seems to be a theme this year around a canvas box and teamed it with a vase of pussy willows to add some height to our little sacred scene.

Chris spent hours and hours outside putting up our Christmas lights:

We decided on LED lights because they are 98% more energy efficient. Unfortunately, they aren't very bright. They look a little pathetic. Chris said that he thinks if he tweaks the way the bulbs are facing it would look more bright--but maybe next year. Hahaha. Poor guy. Overall, we are just so excited to be in our first home this Christmas.

Anyone else all decked out? Feel free to leave a link in the comments so we can all catch a glimpse.

What set the Tone.

2011-12-02T12:31:00.001-07:00

Wow. We are done with the guest room and office. We are done. We are done. We are done! We had a very late night last night furnishing and decorating our basement, that would have been a whole lot later without Brandon and Stephanie's help (thanks x infinity, guys!). It pangs me to not be able to share every last detail of the room with you today. ... ... Like the long, luscious velvet curtains. I meaaaannn.... *wink* We are under contract not to divulge full pictures until our final video goes live next Friday on True Value's facebook page (where you can see the previous 4 videos of our reno journey).

I refused to leave you hanging for a whole week, so I here's a little sneak peak of the art above the platform bed. I meaaaannnn.... *wink*

Above the glass-topped desk on the office side of the room features a few original pieces by me, but I fell in love with the clean-lined, fresh look of these prints from A Vintage Poster. After I picked out three pieces that, in my mind, would work well in a guest room (a stack of suitcases, an old-fashioned camera, and a Beetles quote that I live by) I was able to choose from 25 colors for each print.

We chose "Almond" for the quote, "Lime" for the camera and "Watercress" for the suitcases. As you can see, the photo taken in our guest room is not a true depiction of the colors represented in person (especially the quote that turned a brownish color in the photo--eeks), the guide above is much more accurate to the colors in the prints.

When I knew which posters I wanted, I went back to our original basement game plan that we posted about all the way back in September, to choose colors.

And wouldn't you know it, A Vintage Poster had exact matches to what we were looking for. Woot! I ordered an 11x14 of each and put them in a 16x20 frame with cardstock to serve as a mat to cheat the size up a bit. They really did set the tone for the entire room.

And now, Chris and I are ready for a long winter's nap. Or some hot chocolate, a good movie and a few nights off. ;)

December 2011 Chalkboard Drawing

2011-12-01T18:46:00.001-07:00

This month I was inspired by chalkboard lettering artist, Dana Tanamachi. She is incredible and inspiring. This was my first try at chalkboard lettering. It was challenging. It took me a long time, but I am happy with the results and I definitely will try again in future months.

I chose a quote from a wonderful Christmas message from Jeffrey R. Holland:

"Only when we see that sacred, unadorned child of our devotion—the Babe of Bethlehem—will we know why the giving of gifts is so appropriate."

You can read the whole, wonderful message here.

November's Drawing

October's Drawing

----------------

Happy December, friends.

Shopping Day!

2011-11-30T11:23:00.001-07:00

Today is a pretty monumental day here at Casa Marcum. It is the day where we finally get to (and have to--because our deadline is Friday morning) buy all of the furniture, bedding, art and accessories to make our guest bedroom and office more than just an empty room. The swell people at True Value gave us a hefty chunk of change to spend at their store getting the room to where it is now and then gave us an additional $500 to spend in the form of an American Express gift card. $500 isn't a whole lot when trying to outfit an entire room, but I like a challenge. I have been scouring the online classifieds and found an amazing bedframe from Pier 1 circa 2006 for $75 and we scored a free mattress as well.

Our good friends at Rugs USA also came through and provided us with an area rug to soften things up (stained concrete floors aren't exactly cozy). 100% wool. Dark charcoal. Modern and graphic. It took me a full 48 hours (Chris was about to lose it with how much I changed my mind) to decide on this baby:

And now I am just holding my breath, hoping it arrives on time. We still need a desk and chairs and I am dreaming of a leaning floor mirror with a colorful ottoman cozied up together. Punchy, bold curtains and neutral bedding with fabulous pillows. All for around $400? Probably not. Most likely this room will take time to evolve just like every other room in our home, but it is exciting to finally get some furniture in there.

Is it weird that I am nervous to go shopping? I have butterflies.

Baseboards. BOOM!

2011-11-29T10:01:00.001-07:00

Last night with the help of Chris's brother, Cam, and his wife Kasey (yes, the one that's 9 months pregnant--check out the baby shower we threw for them a couple weeks ago here) we got a LOT done in our guest room. We are so grateful for their help! Before our work party--"party" because there was pizza--I had trouble fathoming getting this room finished by our Friday morning deadline. But now, our list is so short, the end is definitely in clear sight.

In the before photo below, you can see the old carpet that went up the walls--meaning, there were no baseboards. Note the hole in the pillar where the water valve for the house is, too.

The lack of baseboards became very obvious after we ripped out that carpet and stained the concrete floors. There was a nice blue border of paint around the entire room:

Last night, we painted and installed all the baseboards, painted the trim and doors to the room and the closet a fresh white and made a door to cover the water valve in about 2 1/2 hours!!

Cam and Chris busted out the baseboards in no time thanks to our finish nailer and air compressor we got at True Value and the miter saw--it was borderline "fun" for them. While they were busy measuring, cutting and installing, Kasey and I did all of the painting.

And we took turns documenting the whole thing via camera for you:

This morning, the room looks like this:

Baseboards and fresh paint make such a big difference! I can't believe my eyes. When choosing baseboards, we wanted something tall and clean-lined to add a contemporary element. We ordered them through True Value and they delivered 4-16 foot baseboards. We have leftovers.

When it came to creating a little door for the water valve, Chris scoured Home Depot and found a pre-cut piece of wood that fit our space for $2. He also bought two hinges that would go inside so they wouldn't be seen.

Now, I just gotta prime and paint that sucker the same color as the wall for a seamless look--which will probably happen today during Greta's nap. Our list is getting shorter and shorter and the room is transforming quite nicely. Don't you think?:

Eight Candles

2011-11-28T12:41:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, I blew out eight candles because I turned 26 and 2+6 is eight. I have had the same Cinnamon-Pistachio Bundt Cake for my birthday since I can remember and I just scarfed down the last slice right after snapping a picture:

It tasted just as good as previous years and twenty-six feels just as good, too. 25 was a kind of a tough year. I have had many blessings come my way in the last year--hi, first home! And lots of trials, too--a whole year of trying to get pregnant with no success can really get you down. Now I am 26. I have learned in my 26th year, there will always be someone older and wiser. Lots of people may never take me seriously. Someone will always be married longer than me with more children than I have. Someone will always start a sentence with "Just you wait...." But in my 27th year, it's going to slide right off of me. This year I am content with who I am and what I have. I am going to enjoy my little girl who is getting older each day just like I am. I am going to keep being madly in love with Chris--and there are no "Just you wait's" that will change that. I am going to keep doing what I love doing and re-trying the things I don't (read: laundry and anything that involves heights). I am going to keep smiling and sharing and having people in our home. Twenty-six is going to be a great year. Can't wait to continue sharing all of my trials and triumphs with you.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Cinnamon Pistachio Bundt Cake

1 box yellow cake mix (I like Duncan Hines Butter Recipe)
1 box instant pistachio pudding mix
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water

cinnamon mixture:
6 T sugar
2 T cinnamon

Grease bundt pan with butter and dust with a little bit of the cinnamon mixture. Mix first six ingredients and pour half of the batter in dusted bundt pan. Layer the cinnamon mixture on top of the batter and add remaining cake batter. Dust with any remaining cinnamon mixture. Bake at 325 for 50-55 minutes.

You are gonna wish your birthday was every day.

Injecting Art in your Home

2011-11-25T10:48:00.001-07:00

We are enjoying all the food, family and late night board games that are associated with Thanksgiving. But I wanted to stop in and let you know how grateful we are for the opportunity to virtually meet so many new people this year. Chris, Greta and I have had a jam-packed year and it has been nothing short of a pleasure sharing our successes and failures with you just about every day.

I don't think I have ever done a guest post. I honestly don't know how bloggers find the time. But when Cat over at Budget Blonde asked me to talk about affordable art for your home--I couldn't type fast enough. So if your home is suffering from big blank walls, or photo overload, or you are just intrigued about how I did some of the art in my home--head on over here.

"That's what we in the biz like to call 'crunch time.'"

2011-11-22T13:45:00.001-07:00

It's crunch time over here. Yesterday, I received a friendly reminder email from the people in charge of this True Value series we are in:

"Happy Monday – hope you had a nice weekend!

Realizing that it is (somehow) already Thanksgiving (where does the time go?!), we wanted to reach out to all of our talented DIY True Stories Contest winners as you’re working on your fifth and final video, due on 12/2.

Overall, we’d like this final video to serve as the big reveal of the final, updated basement. It should showcase the transformation your hard work and DIY smarts have created. Some ideas of potential items to include are:
· Overview of the completed room
· Quick mentions/features of each individual project completed to get the overall job done
· Before and after comparison to show what the basement previously looked like and how you’ve revamped it
· DIY tips/advice you’ve learned through the process"

Eeeeks. We have made a lot of progress, but we are no where near a "big reveal." Chris and I panicked for a good 2 hours (mostly me) and then put together a list of things we still need to do:

Install baseboard.
Patch the ceiling.
Paint the doors and trim.
Stain floor in closet.
Make cover for water valve.
Build a desk.
Possibly build a bed.
Scrape all of the stickers off of the window.
Furnish and decorate.

Wednesday through Sunday we are taking off from the grind to be with family for Thanksgiving and my birthday. Lucky for us, we have some family in the area that are willing to lend a helping hand next week, but it will definitely be no picnic. We are currently gathering supplies for all the dirty work and I am making a mood board so that we can furnish and decorate the entire room in 2 days. Stay tuned for lots of excitement over here!

Office Eye Candy:

If you want in on the office/guest room extravaganza next week, we wouldn't say boo if you popped on over.

Cones Own

2011-11-21T10:38:00.001-07:00

Friday afternoon, Greta and I took a quick trip to Ikea just because. I promised myself I would stick to the As-Is section and see how many deals I could score. The answer is a lot. But then I also splurged on this $30 bowl:

I have been wanting it for awhile and I could never bring myself to spend the $30. And then Friday, I just went for it. I plan on using it as our fruit bowl year round, but the bright red color makes it extra perfect for this time of year--even as a centerpiece!

Saturday, while we were getting our photos taken, we were surrounded by these big, glorious pine cones:

We didn't have an extra bag or box to take them home with us, but I just couldn't forget about them. I really loved the idea of filling my new red bowl with mounds of pine cones. Chris suggested just buying pine cones. "Yeah, but these ones are big! And free!" Not to mention, I get a tremendous amount of satisfaction out of doing things myself. Another 24 hours goes by.

It's Sunday and we have had a few things go wrong already. Greta throwing up all over the living room--any tips on getting THAT smell out of shag carpet and an armchair?? Also we forgot to get ornament hooks on Saturday so we have to postpone decorating the tree. Wah Wah. To try to keep spirits up, bags in hand, we went for a little drive to pick pine cones. I was so happy. It took no time to gather enough cones to fill 2 grocery bags. They were covered in sap, but we had read that you could bake them for 30 minutes at 200 degrees and it would de-sap them. When we got home, I put the bags on the counter and I noticed tons of little black spiders crawling all over in the bags!

I panicked. I couldn't move. Chris was preparing dinner and instructing me to get the bags outside. Ahhh! I had to touch those bags! I grabbed them, opened the front door and threw them on the porch and slammed the door in record time.

This morning, I really wasn't ready to face those spiders but I desperately wanted my pine cones. I quickly dumped out the grocery bags on the front porch and sprayed them with spider killer.

An hour later, I wanted to go admire/day dream about my pine cones (am I pathetic or what?) and I noticed a few little dead spiders on the concrete and one pretty big dead spider:

The verdict is still out whether or not I can get enough courage to bake these to de-sap them and make them into a fabulous centerpiece. I worry I will always think of spiders when I see them. Buying pine cones is sounding pretty good right now.

Christmas Pics--Take Two.

2011-11-19T19:08:00.001-07:00

Because our last try at Christmas pictures via the camera timer were such a bust, we decided to recruit somebody to work the camera this time around. Our nephew was the lucky guy (Chris is the youngest of eight siblings so our nephew is a whopping 22--just 4 years younger than me). He stayed at our house last night. And although not a photographer, he had held a camera before--all reasons which made him the perfect candidate.

He took 134 pictures. We tried not to take ourselves too seriously. We know that with a toddler--especially a toddler like Greta--we weren't going to get a photo with everyone looking at the camera and smiling perfectly. We weren't even expecting a smile from her. Instead we got a lot of very real faces, expressions and poses that scream each of our names. We'll let you see our Christmas card and photo closer to Christmas time, but we couldn't wait to share a few of our favorites from today that didn't make the cut:

Near the end of our little shoot, things were spiraling downward. We even considered a few of these very real life-with-a-toddler photos for our card.

This one cracked us up. We were so tempted to have a speech bubble coming out of Chris's mouth with a big ol' "Merry Christmas.":

This photo was actually in our top two for our card. It sums up our last year almost too perfectly:

Another similar photo:

And this last picture is one of my favorite pictures of Greta ever. She is just learning to form words (she has a problem with her hearing, so her speech is behind) and every word, she concentrates so hard on forming and saying. This depicts that in action:

DIY True Stories Video #4

2011-11-18T11:26:00.001-07:00

Woot hoot. Our next video in our online mini series went live this morning. And this time we are spilling all the details on how we installed recessed lighting in our guest room (we teased before and after pictures in this post). Watch the video here (Greta makes a cute little appearance in a onesie at the end).

With four videos done, we only have one left to shoot. We are busy, overwhelmed, exhausted and excited. We can't wait to see this room finally come together.

The Decking has Begun

2011-11-17T11:42:00.001-07:00

Last night we took a family trip to get new shatterproof ornaments and some more Christmas decor to outfit our first home for the season. When our shopping spree ended we came home with outdoor lights, around 75 new ornaments, a tree topper (we never had one!), some red ribbon and 5 wreaths to go up our banister.

We knew we didn't have time to get the tree up, but we couldn't wait to hang the wreaths. Chris hammered 5 small finishing nails into the crease on the banister and we had them all hung within 20 minutes:

At just $2.48 a wreath, plus $2.44 for a spool of red sparkly ribbon at Walmart--these trimmings came nowhere near breaking the bank. For less than $15, we have officially started decking the halls over here.

A Co-Ed Baby Shower. You should try it.

2011-11-16T09:53:00.001-07:00

I am not a party planner, but I do like to party--so putting on a baby shower for Chris's brother Cam and his wife, Kasey was a no-brainer. We had to do it. Yes, we. Cam was way too excited to have his first child that I couldn't fathom leaving him out of the baby shower. So, Chris suggested we make it co-ed, or maybe I suggested it, either way--the decision was made--Chris and I were doing this thing together.

Back to the first sentence, I am not a party planner. There are a bijillion fantastic baby shower themes out there and beautiful tutorials. I failed miserably at this part. We ended up hanging a cluster of 15 white balloons over a blue-draped table filled with food. I think if it wasn't co-ed, I wouldn't have been able to pass on the lack of decorations, but the guys definitely didn't notice and the food and game made up for it.

We had tortellini soup, butternut squash soup, three different breads, and two different autumn-y salads. For drinks, we served Martinelli's and I kept dessert simple with homemade chocolate chip cookies. Everyone ate and mingled first. And I didn't take one picture. In fact, all of the pictures I did take were after the shower was over and some people had already left. I panicked and made the remaining guests group together.

Once it seemed like everyone was winding down with their lunch, we started getting the game going. Chris and I brainstormed a lot about what game to play. Because it was a co-ed shower, and the first baby shower for every man there, we knew that crafts or any game involving guessing what type of candy bar poop was in a diaper was out. We wanted to get everyone involved, and make sure the guys and girls had a fun time.

So we came up with "The Newly-Parents Game" which follows the same rules as "The Newlywed Game." The tough part was thinking of questions that were appropriate, could spark some laughs, and didn't leave anyone crying or feeling like a bad parent. Asking trivia questions about how to raise a child were not a good idea. We didn't want anyone feeling bad or getting upset. So, to keep things light, we kept the questions light. First, the ladies and gents went to opposite sides of the room and were each given 5 pieces of cardstock with 5 questions typed on top. The men and women had different questions. We passed out markers for everyone to answer the questions large enough to be read by everyone.

The questions we came up for the girls to answer were:

-What was your biggest craving while pregnant?
-How many pounds did you gain during pregnancy?
-What's the first thing your husband said when he found out you were pregnant?
-How many pounds did your husband gain during your pregnancy?
-What nursery rhyme does your husband know all the words to?

The questions we had the guys answer were:

-What scares you the most about a newborn?
-What's your first pick for a girl's name?
-What is the best brand of diaper?
-How long does a newborn sleep in your room?
-Besides diapers and wipes, what is a must-have in the diaper bag?

Once everyone had their questions answered, the fun began. In "The Newlywed Game" fashion, we verbally asked the men the questions we had the women answer and visa versa. There were lots of laughs and some "ah-hah" moments. In the end, there was a tie--so we gave each couple a Tai Pan Trading gift card. And then it was onto gifts.

Everyone seemed to have a great time. I would definitely be down with more co-ed baby showers. And from the looks of Chris and a couple of his brothers--I think they would be down, too:

We can't wait to meet the newest Marcum addition. He couldn't be coming to two sweeter people. We love you Cam and Kasey!

Psst. If you want to see a real party planner in action, my friend, Lexy, spilled all of the details on the cutest bird-themed baby shower over on her blog today. It almost made me not publish this post. You won't want to miss it.

I rearranged.

2011-11-15T12:00:00.001-07:00

We have talked about having a few friends over for a holiday kick-off at the beginning of December, which would fit in nicely with our decorate-the-day-after-Thanksgiving tradition. Except, we have a deadline for our basement project just a couple days after Thanksgiving. So now, it's about finding any smidgen of time to squeeze in and enjoy decorating our home. Whenever that may be. We were so close to decorating for Christmas on Sunday. Thhhiisssss close. What stopped us? Our lack of Greta-proof ornaments. Tonight, we hope to be able to do some fun ornament shopping and a few basement painting projects and *crossing our fingers* put up our tree within the week.

Which brings me to the title. I rearranged. Of course we wanted our main Christmas tree (we will probably have a small one on top of the piano in the family room) in the living room because that is the room you walk into when entering our home. The problem was there was no room for the tree the room's current layout:

Our initial plan was to put the tree in front of the picture window. I tried putting the two armchairs next to each other underneath the 15-frame grid, but they looked so crammed. Furthermore, because the picture window isn't centered on the wall, the tree would be a little snug by the white couch. Next, I tried putting the two armchairs under the large rope bridge photo and the white couch under the 15-frame grid. I thought this would give the tree a little more breathing room by the window. And it would have. Except now the couch looked squeezed in behind the chairs. I started exploring other options as to where the tree could go, and that's when I came up with this solution:

The tree can go in front of the 15 frames! Looking in the window, you can still see the tree and coming in the front door, it will be among the first things you see. I moved the ottomans (that are filled with Greta's toys) underneath the window to serve as additional seating for the season. With the chairs facing the couch, although admittedly not as open as the previous layout, is much more conducive to chatting.

In an aerial view, you can see the space that is left for the tree on the right. :) !!!

This layout may be a more permanent solution in the future, when we tear down the wall between the kitchen and the living room (!!!), but those details are for a different post.

Anyone else rearrange for the holidays??

DIY Dud

2011-11-14T09:17:00.001-07:00

We have found another thing we probably shouldn't attempt to DIY: Our family Christmas photo. We took over 70 pictures with the self-timer on our camera against a wall in our home and only one we were all clear and looking at the camera. One. Unfortunately, that one also left a lot to be desired. I quickly sent a copy via e-mail to my photographer sister, Andi (who is also a photoshop master), down in Mexico to see if she could rescue our one shot. There was more wrong with the photo than I thought.:

"Andi!

We tried self timer for our christmas card picture. Disaster! Lol. Greta looks possessed. My hair is over my forehead. Is this picture rescue-able? Maybe there is a way you can replace greta's mouth/face with a smile from a different picture????

-Jules"

Merry Christmas???

"Jules,
Just take another picture, lol. I can't take an expression of another picture and put it on this one, especially if her head is in a different position here, more laid back. Also with a self timer, Greta is always going to look clueless, because I'm guessing a light is blinking? Is that what she's transfixed on. Instead of rushing it, I would ask someone else to take it for you, maybe Chris' brother, even with your camera, and have another entertaining Greta. And I don't mean to be beating a dead horse, but your clothes are clashing.... Ok, I'm done. Sorry. lol
Wish I could photograph it for you! --Andi"

We do, too, Andi! If you haven't checked out her stellar magazine-ready photography--you can here.
In the meantime, I need a fashion blogger to style our shoot, a photographer, and a Greta-entertainer, stat!

Lite Brite.

2011-11-11T13:21:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a pretty monumental day for our guest room and office space in the basement. We replaced the two outdated lights (that left a lot of dark spots in the room) with five pot lights. It has made such a difference:

Don't mind our dusty floor--lots of ceiling debris that still needs to get swept up. As a refresher, here's what the room looked like less than two months ago:

The lighting was as harsh as the black splattered paint on the walls. We'll be sharing all of the details of our new lighting next week on True Value's facebook page in our ongoing mini series, but we did want to let you know that we had some help with this project. A LOT of help.

As DIYers, we are always up for a new challenge, but when it comes to electrical work (I would say plumbing, too) it's just not worth the risk for us. We couldn't be happier with the work that Black Diamond Electric did. They fished wire through our ceiling without making any unnecessary holes which we were told would have to happen. They also noticed there was something in our breaker box that was loose, so they fixed that, too. And replaced all the plug and light sockets in the room because they still had black paint splattered on them. !!! So thorough! We went with their recommendation and had the lights put on a dimmer which is nice (and intimate as Chris would say).

When we do work with a product or person that is exceptional, we like to pass their information along, so if anyone in Utah is looking for an electrician--we highly recommend Black Diamond Electric.

Stay tuned for more details on the whole lighting process next week. Happy Weekend, friends!

Cool Find: Pear Tree Greetings.

2011-11-10T08:45:00.000-07:00

According to our poll yesterday, most of our readers wait until after Thanksgiving to decorate for Christmas (currently around 72% of you!)--but surely you think about Christmas cards before then. Right? I know I do. In my jumble of junk emails this morning, I came across a deal for Pear Tree Greetings that I couldn't pass up. $20 for $40 worth of holiday cards. Adorable cards. Unique and memorable. Luckily, Chris agreed and neither of us could say "boo" about the 50% off price. So now, it is just a matter of picking one that is right for our family. Here are just a few I am eyeing:

Gah! My mind is racing. So many great options. We'll for sure let you know where we end up. If you are drooling over Pear Tree's cards, here's the link where you can get 50% off too: $20 for $40 of the goods.

Psst. Just to be transparent, we weren't paid or perk'd to write about Pear Tree Greetings, we just got a little misty-eyed at their cards and had to share the sa-weet deal to go along with it.

Decking the Halls?

2011-11-09T12:11:00.000-07:00

My bff, Meagan, announced on her blog that she is decorating for Christmas this weekend. My oldest sister, Krissy, has already started to slowly decorate her house to enjoy the process and relieve stress of getting it all up quickly. There are Christmas decoration ideas floating around everywhere and the music of the season has creeped onto the radio stations...okay, into our home, too.

We generally hold off decorating until after Thanksgiving, but this year, I am having trouble waiting. Maybe it is the thought of seeing Greta's face light up when she sees the tree. Maybe it is the fact that this is our first Christmas in our new home and we have a large window in the front of our home perfect for showcasing our tree. Perhaps it is that I am already planning a little intimate gathering we're calling a Christmas kick-off for the beginning of December and I want a head-start at getting the house ready. Either way, we're dying to know your thoughts on the subject:

DIY a Photo Strip without Leaving the House

2011-11-08T12:27:00.000-07:00

Three years ago today, Chris and I got married. We pretty much celebrate our marriage every day, but today is extra special. He did have to work from home this morning, but this afternoon and evening we are hitting the tizown. Because his birthday was last month, mine is later this month and next month is Christmas--we opted out of getting each other presents this year and decided to just do something together. Make a memory. I think it is a tradition that might stick. First thing we did to remember today--DIY a photo strip:

It was impromptu actually, which is best in our book.

1. We found ourselves all at the dining room table. Chris was working and I was keeping Greta busy snapping photos in Photo Booth. Chris stuck his head in some and then Greta retreated and we decided to get a couple shots of just us.

2. I picked my favorite four shots and put them in a column in photoshop.

3. I downloaded a cool free photoshop brush that makes several different kinds of photo strips here: http://www.coolestbrushes.com/brush/photo-booth-strip

With one click of the brush, I had my photo strip layer over my photos.

4. Because I lined up all of our heads in the strip, the photo widths were all over the place so I cropped the whole thing the width of the photo strip.

5. I added a few filters using Pioneer Woman's Photoshop Actions until I liked the look of the photos. Free photoshop actions downloaded here: http://thepioneerwoman.com/photography/2010/03/actions-update-2/

Done....I think it would make a cute Christmas card, don't you?

Back to the Bedroom

2011-11-07T12:29:00.000-07:00

Our bedroom projects have been on hold for a month (I can't believe it has been a whole month) while we met deadlines for our basement project and hosted our first annual Costume party--which lead to revamping the laundry room. And now that all of that dust has cleared, we are back to putting our mark on other areas of the house--namely our bedroom. And when I say "mark", I mean initial.

Last time you saw our bedroom, it was when I refinished our lamps and it looked like this:

The area above our bed was a little bare, so I dug deep into my art that hasn't found a home in our home yet (there is literally an entire room dedicated to this stash) and found my oversized letters that I had made when we were still apartment dwellers. Since it is our bedroom, and they ARE our initials--it seemed fitting for them to go above our bed. We also had an Ikea lack shelf that we weren't using anywhere which became the perfect solution for the leaning look--plus, we had a very similar set-up in our apartment, so I knew we liked it:

I could easily get some velcro or even a nail and hang them on the wall, but I love the way that they lean on each other for support. It looks less perfect, more natural and a lot more us. Also, kinda metaphorical, don't you think? I also chose not to center them right on the middle of the shelf for a couple reasons.

1. That would be, again, a little too perfect for our taste.
2. I plan on adding one or more things to that shelf.
3. With so much symmetry happening in the room with the pillows, nightstands, almost the lamps (they aren't exactly the same) it feels good to have something a little quirky.

Although I closed my Etsy shop that sold these letters (I just couldn't keep up with the orders. Sorry!) they are super simple and cheap to make if you are eyeing them for yourself--full tutorial here. We are loving the height that it adds to the room, not to mention the personal touch. And just for the record: the C & J are opposite of where Chis and I sleep. ;)

Anyone else adding personal art to their rooms? We are toying with the idea of adding a cuddly picture of us--maybe one that you can't quite see our faces--to the shelf. What are other ways to add "you" into your bedroom?

At the Piano on Sunday Morning.

2011-11-06T11:54:00.001-07:00

/remember this moment/

Photos from October that You Haven't Seen

2011-11-04T12:19:00.001-06:00

When our basement flooded, we ended up renting (and filling!) a U-haul to bring all of the stuff that got wet, moldy and ruined to the dump:

Chris (far right) throwing around a football with some neighborhood children. Greta is on the farthest left playing around, too. We love our neighborhood:

During our laundry room revamp, when we attempted to shift our laundry to the back wall and it left a lot more wires and tubes exposed than we wanted. Wah wahhhhhh:

Greta snuggling up to her daddy at the airport:

When we spotted hot air balloons on a Sunday drive. FOUR! I had never seen them so close before and so many at once. It might make for a painting sometime soon:

Chris loves Julia

Our Plans to Disguise the Pesky Foundation

My First Go at Demolition.

Tabula Rasa

Greta's Birthday: What we Gifted Our Two-year Old.

Friday Night.

The Family Room Mood Board

"Violet, You're Turning Violet!"

Saying Goodbye to Robert Frost

The Family Room Reno.

The Dog Kennel from Hell. It's gone.

Striped Nurseries.

February 2012 Chalkboard Drawing + Buy Your Print!

Messes, Couches and Ottomans that bug.

Now we're Fan Fans.

A Guilt-Free Sweet Treat: Coconut Almond Macaroon Cookies

Falling Block Art For Sale!

Commenting: The Good, Bad and Rude.

Ikea Latt Hack

Open Shelving Evolution.

Reason #76 to ALWAYS pick up the Mistinted Test Pots

Takin' it To the Mattresses.

What's For Lunch.

Third Time's a Charm

They are For SALE!

Our First Home's Second Video Tour

Toddler Chore Chart??

Just-Because Gifts

Things you should know if you decide to Paint your Countertops.

Tile Cutters and Cash Catchers

A Bradley Christmas Movie

Inspiring Kitchen Peninsulas

A Painting Process.

The New Kitchen Plans. Woot!

Organize that Junk Counter

January 2012 Chalkboard Drawing

New Year. New Look.

10 Projects to Look Forward to in 2012

A Morning Art Project: Falling Blocks

Returning the Love

Top FIVE Reads of 2011

Scenes from Christmas Morning 2011

Give Yourself some Art.

Greta's Gifts

How We Like to say, "Merry Christmas" Over Here.

The Lazy Man's Braise

The Mudroom Nook--Part II..errr the Final Chapter.

The Mudroom Nook--Part I

Our Messy little Secret

Gallery Wall Additions.

Outtakes from the Reveal.

Guest Room/Office Reveal. It's HERE!!!

The Tangerine Tango

What we're Gifting our Neighbors

Blog Spotlight: Can You Stay For Dinner

Decked Out.

What set the Tone.

December 2011 Chalkboard Drawing

Shopping Day!

Baseboards. BOOM!

Eight Candles

Injecting Art in your Home

"That's what we in the biz like to call 'crunch time.'"

Cones Own

Christmas Pics--Take Two.

DIY True Stories Video #4

The Decking has Begun

A Co-Ed Baby Shower. You should try it.

I rearranged.

DIY Dud

Lite Brite.

Cool Find: Pear Tree Greetings.

Decking the Halls?

DIY a Photo Strip without Leaving the House

Back to the Bedroom

At the Piano on Sunday Morning.

Photos from October that You Haven't Seen