Big Impact, No Cost

As you know, I am quarantined at home.  Forever.   I'm pretty sure that I'll never get to leave.  I had to call Aaron this morning just to check and make sure it was actually Friday. Don't laugh, I'm serious.  However, my forced internment does have some positive consequences.  It does force one to become creative and take care of those get-around-to-it projects.  Here is my latest project.  Cost: $0.00.  No, really.  I already had all the paint, paintbrushes, and tape so all it took is a little time which I have plenty of right now!

Here are my two inspirations:

When I first saw this wall, I knew that I needed it in my life.  They have a great tutorial which I followed right here. 

But then I saw this rug that someone had posted on pinterest.  I loved the sophistication of the chevron pattern but I felt like the vertical lines made it somehow more sophisticated and less "in."  I worry that the plain ol' chevron will go out of style quickly but hopefully this design will last a little longer. 

Here is my before picture.  It is a boring wall that connects my living room to the kitchen/dining room.  

After making some measurements and doing some simple math, I had Aaron help me create a chalk-line grid. 

I then drew the design in pencil with the help of a ruler and started taping away.  

After a couple of coats of paint, I had to go back and do a little touch-up.  You could still see some of pencil marks and there were a couple of blots of paint.  

Ta-da!  All done.  I love it. There are a couple minor imperfections but hopefully I'm the only one who will notice them.  I would love to have a chalkboard or something in a giant red frame on this wall.  Hmmm...maybe that can be a project for the next time my child gets sick.  

August 29, 2013

It is day 6 of our quarantine.  We haven't seen another living being in a while.  I'm starting to forgot English...ok so that is probably just a wee bit dramatic.  Kira has been sick for 2 weeks now.  At first we thought it was just a cold or allergies.  Last Saturday, we decided that it was definitely something more and started keeping her at home all the time.  On Monday morning, she went to the doctor and found out that she most definitely has a contagious disease.  The doctor said to keep her quarantined.  One evening, Aaron stayed home with her and I ran out to stock up on groceries and I also went to the library to stock up on books and movies.
So far the antibiotics are finally starting to kick in and Kira is getting some relief.  I'm surviving as well.  I told Aaron that I thought I could last today but that I think I need to the leave the house on Friday.  I'm not sure where I will go but one can only take these four walls for so long.
Speaking of walls, I did something.  I did something a little crazy and wonderful.  Hopefully, I will be able to post pictures tomorrow.  I need to spend a little time today touching up.  Every time I see it out of the corner of my eye, it surprises me and I love it all over again.

The Little Things

Sometimes the smallest things make me really happy.  Such as...

finally getting around to hanging that earring holder a good friend made me,

 Tab-topped chevron red curtains, grey walls, white cabinets, new brushed nickel pulls, oh and the clean dishes.

This is the pre-remodel picture just for reference.  

Birthday Girl!

So my baby officially turned 1 at 2:48 yesterday morning!  In typical terrible parent fashion, we forgot to wrap her gift and never even got to see it.  Though to be honest, she was with me when I bought and it has been in the back of daddy's car for the week so it wasn't available to wrap during the day.  We bought her a little pool and it is too rainy to use today.  Hopefully she won't have to bring this memory up with any psychiatrists in the future.

We did have a little family party for her about a week and a half ago with Aaron's side and we'll have my side over this coming weekend.  Here are some adorable pictures from her party!

She was so messy after the cupcake that she needed a bath and in typical terrible-parent fashion, I had forgotten any clean clothes so she opened her presents in a towel.  She really liked the cards since she loves to play with random scraps of paper.  

At 12 months:

• She weighs approximately 17.5 lbs.  We will go to the doctor in a couple of weeks for actual confirmation. 
• She became mobile a little after 11 months.  She still does not walk, crawl or even push herself up to seated but she does scoot around on her bottom. 
• She just learned a lot of new things in the past couple of weeks such as how to say bird, hi and stop.  She also realized that "daddy" was connected to a person instead of a nice sound.  She now plays peek-a-boo all by herself when I'm changing her diaper.  
• On Friday night, she decided that she was going to be in control of her own food choices.  That first night she decided that she only wanted to eat what we were eating.  So I took her food and put it on my plate and then transferred it to her plate.  The next day she decided that she didn't want to eat broccoli and carrots which fortunately she has since repented of this bad decision.   And then that night, she started stuffing her mouth with food which she had never done before.  What's up with that? 
• She still loves books.
• She also loves her swing and going for walks in her stroller. 
• She only had two teeth for months but in the past month or so, she has gained a bottom tooth right next to her two front teeth and then also either a molar or an eye tooth just popped up all by itself on the side.  She also looks like she is about to get her top teeth through.  
• Her hair is long enough to always be in her eyes.  Ever since 10 months, she pulls out anything that I put in her hair.  I have had some success in getting her to leave small ponytails in as long as she can't see them in the mirror. 

Kira, we love you so much!

Things I Love

We have internet!  I can finally check the weather and the sale fliers.  Life is good.  

Here are some quick snapshots of things that I love!

I love, love, love free summer produce.  We have been given two giant boxes of tomatoes, some corn, cucumbers and squash.  Last night I pureed some cooked down zucchini and threw it in our pesto sauce and then served it on pasta.  Yummy! This is a jar of dried tomatoes.  The free tomatoes were dried in a food dehydrator that I was given as a free hand-me-down and then put in an old spaghetti jar that I had cleaned out and painted the lid with chalkboard paint.  Love it.  I currently have another set of tomatoes drying out in my garage and I also am about to start a batch of homemade ketchup. 

This project is over a year old.  I picked up this adorable shelf from a garage sale for $2.  I then asked Aaron to scrape the rust off and spray paint it black.  I would have done it myself but I was quite pregnant at the time.  It is our bookshelf/china cabinet. I store lots of books and some random items such as an adorable teapot on it.  

This picture is mainly for laughs.  The afternoon after we moved, we were super tired and totally unmotivated to continue packing.  So we just sat in our living room and talked about nothing.  My father-in-law found this amusing and insisted that he take pictures.  

I also love our new deck except for the flies and mosquitoes. I spend as much time as possible out there.  It has been surprising cool in the mornings and is wonderful for drinking coffee on a comfy patio chair.  

Now excuse me as I go make some homemade ketchup.  A girl has to have priorities.