Thursday, July 28, 2011

Too Hot for Me and the Puppy

It's hot and the posts I want to write seem like a lot of effort.  I don't like to sweat. Instead I thought I'd show you some strategies the Puppy is using to beat the heat.

1. Stay in bed until noon:

Still in bed at noon on a Thursday

2. No reason to be bored, have someone to keep you company:

The Puppy's not the only one

3. At a certain point you just have to brave the outdoors to inspect how the once lush but now crunchy/bare lawn is fairing - try not to cry:

Relax

4. Maybe try a little sunbathing.  Nothing like the feel of sun on bare puppy-tummy:

Sunbathing

5. Of course, full on panting never hurts either:

After the Walk


I have been having so much fun with Instagram lately.  I know I've talked about it before but it really is so much fun and it's free!  If you have an iphone check it out.  My username is reslusaimee if you'd like to follow the adventures of the Puppy as well as anything else that grabs my interest.  I'd love to see what some of you are shooting too.  Stay cool!

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Two Friends

I know this is random but it makes me happy and I want to share.  Here's a photo that I snapped with my iphone while walking in the park with the Husband & the Puppy on Sunday evening. 

Two Friends

These two little friends made me smile.  Maybe they will make you smile too.

Monday, July 18, 2011

A Kitchen & Family Room After

On Friday I got to stop by a project that's wrapping up.  It's always so exciting to see a room finished.  I snapped a few pictures.  I'm kicking myself that I didn't take a few extra minutes to style everything properly.  This may be the push I need to get a few projects photographed properly.  I had given a sneak peak of the project a few months ago which you can check out here. But I'll also remind you where we started.


And here's the view on Friday.
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Here's the before from the kitchen into the family room.  The stone fireplace was the only thing we were not allowed to touch.


And the oh-so-warm and cozy after

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Happy Monday everyone!

I've linked up with Brooklyn Limestone for Real Room Makeovers, and the Mustard Ceiling (see below) Check it out!  



Tuesday, July 12, 2011

In Progress: Our Office Is Starting to Come Together

I said come back tomorrow and by tomorrow I meant a week later!  The office still has a long way to go but here's a look at where we are now.  We have a place to sit which is amazing progress for us.

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 It's so nice that everyone has his or her place.  Having lots of storage and more ways to keep myself organized is great.  I tend to have piles of things about me so I'm looking forward to using these handy dandy labeled storage boxes to keep my clutter in check.

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My Great Grandmother's dresser (also my changing table as a baby) fits perfectly into the dormer to house my GINORMOUS printer.  We also managed to get a few things hung on the wall to make it feel more like a finished room.  

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We still have quite a few things left on the to-do list:
  • finish organizing the shelving
  • install a new closet system and move the file cabinets from the old office (downstairs) into the new, highly functional, closet. 
  • find new knobs for the closet doors and maybe paint them black.  I LOVE black doors but I'm also digging the seamless all-white look of that wall.  What do you think? Paint them black or leave them white?
  • make a decision about window treatments.  I have a swatch or too but I haven't seriously started the hunt for fabric yet.  I keep hoping a magical deal will fall into my lap.
  • find a rug - I've already started looking and I like this one, but I'm not quite ready to commit
  • find a new work table - we're using a drop leaf table that belonged to the Husband's grandfather but it's not quite big enough.  It will work though until I stumble across one that will be perfect.  I can be patient.
So we've been able to take the room from this


to this

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We've still got a ways to go but I am very excited about the journey!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Moving: working on a room to work in

As you may recall, in an effort to make our home more functional for us, the Husband and I have been working on a plan to re-arrange half the rooms in our house (you can get the details here.)  We still have a lot of work to do but I thought it was time for an update.  I'll start with the new office.


 Here's a peak at the room from the hall when it was still partially the music room.  The Husband's workbench was still assembled and the picture of Louis was still hanging on the wall.


Things were still being boxed up and instruments were still being carried down stairs.  The drop leaf table had just been added to the room to function as our temporary desk.
The next task was to give everything a nice coat of fresh white paint.  But first I had to remove glue spots from the ceiling where stars had once been stuck by the previous owners.  Here's an up close few of what I was working with:




After a little google search I came up with a couple of remedies that I thought I would try.  First up, Goo Gone.  That stuff takes off anything sticky.....or maybe not.  Next, Murphy's Oil Soap.  Even with a lot of elbow grease it still wasn't working.  I had  also read something about heating a putty knife with a hair dryer and scraping it off.  I wasn't quite up for that so I decided to try a few more things.  Magic Eraser came next and failed like the rest.  Then I called in the big guns, I called my Mom!  She is amazing and knows how to solve problems so after some discussion about my options I finally decided to try acetone (nail polish remover).  Winner, winner, chicken dinner!!  It actually worked.  It also took the paint off but that was okay because I would be repainting too.  It worked best when I used a cotton ball - just like I was removing polish from my toes.  I was so happy!!  Now, we could really start painting.

  
We also finished up the hall which was WAY overdue.  It's a soft gray (Gliddon Ruffled Feathers) like the living room and stairs.  In our family the Husband is the roller and I'm the trimmer/cutter-inner.  It makes for quicker work when you know your job. 

I thought a lot about what shade of white to paint the office.  (I know that sounds ridiculous.) I wanted it to be white because I work with color all the time and it's so nice to be surrounded by something clean and neutral that isn't competing with the project at hand.  I also wanted white because the room has lots of angles and weird ceilings.  It's nice to have everything painted out so that everything looks less cluttered.  Benjamin Moore's White Dove (OC-17) is my all-time favorite go-to white but it was a lot easier just to send the Husband around the corner to the Home Depot to pick up a few gallons.  I could have had them color match it for me but in the end we were lured by a name, Martha Stewart's Popcorn (in honor of my in-law's dog).  It turned out to be a really great clean white.

 

We then assembled the giant stack of boxes that became our new Epedit shelving.  I can't tell you how excited this made me.  This is when the room really started to look like our new office. 

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Here's a little tease.  Come back tomorrow and I'll show you what it looks like!

Monday, July 4, 2011

Happy Birthday America!



I hope everyone is having a happy day celebrating the 4th with their family and friends!!  The Husband and I have been hard at work on our big project and I can't wait to show you the what's been going on!  In the meantime, grill something and come back tomorrow for a progress report.

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