Present run down '09

We had such a nice Christmas in Casa de la Lowe and hope everyone else did. Here's the run down of my favorite presents:

1- The Elsa Peretti earrings I've wanted for sooo long to match my necklace the hubs gave me last year (hehe-a girl can never have too much Tiffany's!)
2- Our new vacuum from mom (OMG, quick story about the vacuum, while on its maiden voyage around the upstairs of our hizzle, it devoured the rug in the guest bathroom...while I'm yelling "STOOOOP, LET IT GO!" The hubs walks into the doorway, laughs at me and says, "I think its a user-error...") Whatever, that baby can SUCK and its a pretty purple color :)
3- Books, more books and a few more books (13, 14 &15)
4- Gift card to Chili's (yippy! Bring on a chicken quesadilla and the Corona!)
5- Gift card to Home Goods (yippy! Bring on the lamp section!)
6- The Clinique counter (seriously, I clean house each time I stop there, ahhhh- my face feels so loved once I'm gone- quick story about my most recent visit:

So the mil and I walk over, totally thinking we're just going to buy what we came for...until some older lady who worked there with clown-like makeup on says, "sit down honey, I'll try some shadow on you!" EEK!

But, okay, its dark in this mall, so maybe no one will notice. Well, she starts working on my lids and, after I almost DIED because of the amount of lip liner she was using (a terrible shade of pepto-pink) she said, "All done!" and, through one open eye, I looked- half expecting to look like a prop piece from Willy Wonka and BAZAAAAAM- my eyes looked AWESOME! So we bought all the products she used (just not that terrible lip liner, omgaw, it was HORRIBLE looking!)

What were you favorite Christmas presents this year?! Any good drunken stories? (I got one of those too...maybe I'll post it tomorrow, hehe)

Mission accomplished

Oh thank you God, I think I'm finally done.

A funny thing happens when you complete a project after brewing over it for a few months, you relax. Last night, after busting my butt for the past two months (no, that's not a typo) the house is completed.

I crawled into bed at 11.30p.m. (eastern standard time...just in case you were wondering) got all snuggly and waited for the sleepy-sheep to carry me off to la-la land. "Ahhh", I said to myself, "I'm done"....and then I waited.

NOTHING. I laid there. In bed waiting for the damn sheep. They didn't show; apparently they were taking the night off. Assholes.

As I laid there cursing the sleepy-sheep, I thought about how overwhelmed I felt the first day I walked into the house armed with my paint brush.

Craaaaap; there is a lot of trim in our house!

Then how excited I felt when I saw the final product of our master bath (this is the before):And the after:Yeah, do you have goose bumps too?! Haha, I LOVE the way the front of our supah-huge bathtub came out.

So by now you must be wondering what I did yesterday that allows me to say MISSION ACCOMPLISHED?! Lemme start at the beginning of my week:

Monday I tackled the final two rooms that had oak-stained trim in them. The hubs helped me prime the trim, move the furniture and that was that. (In case you were wondering, I slept like a baby Monday night...)

Yesterday I woke up, took Jack to the vet, made a drop into Home Depot grabbed some paint, rolled up my sleeves and sunk my teeth into painting the walls of the two final rooms. Yippy!

First step was to move the remaining pieces of odd furniture to the center of the rooms, then pull down pictures, spackle the holes, pour the paint and we're off! I started painting the back room first when my mil called, "hey, you wanna meet us for lunch around noon?" "yeah!". Painting took a back seat to pizza...

I come back from lunch with a full belly of pizza (seriously, if you looked at my belly, I'm sure you'd be able to see a pepperoni through my skin- yeah, it was awesome) and got back into paint-mode.

In two hours, the room was done. Totally. 100% done. Yippy! (Part of me wanted to stop, run downstairs and pop open a beer to celebrate, but I thought that might throw off my straight line groove...so I moved onto the front room.)

By the time the hubs came home at 6.15 the front room was 98% completed.

Yeah, I'm a beast.

When we sat down to eat dinner at 7 it was completed. Everything was done. I celebrated with a beer and some homemade cookies, hehe.

After dinner it was time to move all the furniture between the two rooms, vacuum the carpet (because, eww...you think your carpets are clean, but then you move furniture, gross.) and then caulk the base boards...yeah, you'd THINK I would have fell into la-la land before my head even hit the pillow...

Tonight the adventure continues as I shuffle through all the crap that's now homeless until I get my new desk. Just the thought of coming up the stairs and seeing the piles o' stuff waiting for their new home makes me feel ill.

Santa, can I borrow a few of your elves?

I hope the sleepy-sheep get the memo and show up on time tonight.

Because I can...

I just went to mystyle.com and took Jo Frost (Supernanny)'s parental aptitude test- just because I can.

Apparently I can parent "octuplets".

Excuse me while I go throw up...

You trust me with your kid? Cool.

Follow me on this...

I'm in a fun-unique position where my work schedule is now just Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays. (And, since I've picked up a part time jobbie at Pier 1; which I adore! I have a lot of time on my hands...)

We live in an awesome neighborhood where our neighbors have kids. We do not have kids...we have Jack.

There are days that my friends have scheduling conflicts or something comes up and they ask me to help out by watching their precious little ones.

Me, really?

(Before the first time my babysitting duties were put to the test a few years ago, I thought I was like the last person on the backup list of people that you'd ask to watch your kid...) Right.

Enter Sunday night. I'm working on my "me"-tenance (like maintenance...but for me! You know, hot shower...shave your legs, lotion up, pluck the brows- you feel me?) ...and I notice my celly is blowing up with texts!

K: Can you watch Lil' Guy? I know its really short notice...8.30-4.30
Me: I have a hair cut at 9 a.m. do you mind if I take him with me?
K: That's fine, he's really good at entertaining himself.
Me: Cool.

We don't have kids and yet I'm drawn to watching Supernanny with Jo Frost. OMG, she's like my super hero; and I learn a lot watching her. But I don't have my own kids to try her tips out on, enter Lil' Guy yesterday morning.

First thing was first, strap Lil' Guy into his booster seat (btw, my backseat looks so funny with a kid in it, but that's another story)...we were heading to get my haircut when my celly starts chirping at me.

"Sorry, Lindsay is sick today; can you reschedule your appointment?" Awesome. Now I gotta kid in my backseat who I just promised 'anything from the bakery if your good at the hair cut place'...So I do what I do best, drove to the Dunkin.

After ingesting a fair amount of fried dough, we were ready to watch Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas. (Haven't see it? Your missing out...Mickey is the man!) While he was scanning our house, he noticed the huge SpiderMan that sits on the top of a kitchen cabinet. "I play wif dat?" (Enter my supernanny moment) "No buddy, we can't play with him until you eat your lunch..."

So I climb on the counter top, grab Spidey, dust him off and hand him to Lil' Guy. His eyes light up like Christmas morning was just bestowed upon him. (I just totally got the best-baby-sitter-ever award from him!)

While we were watching Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas for the second time (short story about that, I was the one who wanted to watch the whole thing from start to finish, not so much for the Lil' Guy...hehe) I made my grocery list o' things I needed from Tar-jey.

I took a gulp and said, "Hey, wanna go shopping with me?" "Uh hu" "Okay, go grab your coat and shoes"...And in less then 5 minutes we were in Target.

Me: "Do you want to ride in the cart?" (Translation: please ride in the cart so someone doesn't kidnap you...
Lil' Guy: No.
Me: "Are you sure? You can play with your cars if you sit in the cart!" (Translation: if I loose you in Target, I'm going to have a lot of 'splaining to do, please do me a solid and hop in)
Lil' Guy: I hold on.
Me: "As tight as you can" (please!)

Lil' Guy and I walk down the first isle; we needed dishwasher detergent, and as I reached to grab it, I heard Jo Frost give me a tip. She said, "Erin, let him grab it for you and put it in the cart; this way its a game for him...rather that a chore that he'd get bored at"

Me: Hey buddy, can you put one of these boxes in the cart for me?
Lil' Guy: Yup!

And he tossed the dish soap into the cart, and hopped onto the back of the cart. "Okay, hold on!"

I made my way through the list with his help, pointing out what I needed from the shelf and him grabbing and putting it in the cart. Each time he'd throw something into the cart he'd yell, "CANNON BALL!" and hop back onto the cart.

What made me laugh was while he and I were 'cannon balling' the groceries into the cart, the other moms with kids kept looking at us like, "How do you have energy to play with him?" or "Can we trade kids?".

So, until we have our own kids, I'll continue to play/corrupt the neighborhood children...and while in public I get to be 'that' mom- you know, the cool mom.

Katrina Cottage

I was poking around Cai's site, flutterbutter.com, and came across a post that interested me.

Since I work as an interior designer in an architects office, we talk a lot about home construction, home prices, the economy, politics (yaddy yaddy).... Fast forward in the article to the part where you can buy a house at Lowe's.

Excuse me? Say whaaa?

I remember hearing a while ago that you could buy a home-in-a-box at Sears & Roebuck (you know, back "in the day"...) So I was really intrigued when I saw you could buy a house at Lowe's! Check it out here. They totally don't mention that your only buying the plans for $700, but whatever.

Next up, the family room!

Here's a lil' reminder of the mantel in the family room:The hubs is a photographer so I made a little collage with 'em on this wall:One afternoon I sketched what I wanted the family room to look like...where I wanted pics hung and stuff:Ok and now, the NEWWWW: (notice that Operation: Honey to White is complete in this room!)We had all these candlesticks in the house that were empty- shocking, I know. So I thought, what if I put 'em all on the mantel, rather than photos and shiz. Keep it clean, simple. I went to Hobby Lobby and found three different candles (in three different sizes and colors) waited for them to go on sale (because everything that's not on sale one week in H.L. will be 50% off the next...) and taaaadah!
I realized though that if I didn't have our family pictures up on the mantel, where would I put 'em?! Enter the ladder bookcase. Found it at Hobby Lobby for $99 - 30%. Seriously?! It was mine...went to Pier 1 picked up that super cute little brushed nickle lamp (looove the huge white shade on it) and had a place to put our cute pics!
So you'll notice that the valance for over the blinds is missing. Little story about that: I tore it off. Haha. (I told you it was a little story!) So I decided against hanging all the photographs again (hubs said the wall looked like swiss cheese because there were so many holes in it...hehe- opps!)And that's that. I don't know why I didn't think to take photos from the other side of the room...but I will once all the Christmas decorations are down!

Oh Christmas wreath, Oh Christmas wreath

A while ago I received the Pottery Barn catalog and got all warm and fuzzy when I saw their front porch all decked out for Christmas. I tore out the page and hung it on our refrigerator so I could do my best to mimic it...because even though I 10% off in that store...10% off a million dollars is still a whole helluva lotta money!

The wreaths and things I saw in the catalog were all silver and red...so I took matters into my own hands:- plain-Jane wreath at Walmart for $4
- tree-shaped ornament box with silver ornaments, $5
- star-shaped ornament box with red ornaments, $4
- ornament hangers, .69
- over the door wreath hanger, $1.99
- the thrill I got when I hung it up, priceless...hehe

Okay, so I started by laying the wreath on the table, fluffing all the pieces and then hooked my first ornament. I realized pretty early on that the typical ornament hanger-hookey-things were too long, so I trimmed about 1/2" off one end.

When I got to the fourth or so ornament, I realized that I couldn't get a good idea of how things were going to look, once it was hung on the door, so I hung it up on one of the kitchen cabinets...here it is before I put on the red ornaments:I actually wondered if I should stop there and not add the red balls, but then I thought, "why not put 'em on the wreath, I really don't want to go back to Target..." so here's the finished project:Originally I wanted to hang it on the outside of the door, so it looked like the Pottery Barn scene, but then I realized, we never walk thru our front door (we only use the garage door...) so I put on my thinking hat and hung it on the inside of the door!Operation: Make a cute wreath is now completed!

Its in the air

For the last few years at Christmas our office has taken part in a Christmas fundraiser called Tales of Christmas Past at the historical society's fancy-schmancy mansion. Each year, a group of designers get together, select which room they will make over (using a Christmas theme) and then the public can come and check out ideas...drop some moo-lah and grab a few business cards.

In 2006 we decorated the upstairs hallway of the Simon Perkins Mansion:Our theme was "Christmas Morning"...the packages on the staircase were to block guests from going to the third floor...clever, aren't we?!
Then in 2007 we got a ROOM at the mansion...although I cannot find photos of it right now (go figure...I've been looking for the last 20 minutes to no avail- oh well...)

Last year, 2008 as an office, we decided not to take part in the Tales of Christmas Past. Which meant we had all these decorations in the basement of the office, but nowhere to put 'em!

While driving into work one morning, the radio station I listen to was talking about how their studios weren't festive, and they wanted Christmas to come visit their office. I called right away and said, "I'm a designer! I got decorations!" and so I drove up to their Cleveland studios bright and early last December and decorated their studio. (Of course, I don't have the photos now...but when I find 'em, I'll post 'em, I promise!)

Okay, so enter last Thursday. I was thinking, "gosh, our office is really sad looking..." and then it hit me like a ton o' bricks, THE DECORATIONS ARE IN THE BASEMENT! Yippy! Although, this meant I had to go into the basement.

Lemme run it down for you like this, our basement at work is "that" basement that you see in photos under the headings "Worst basement ever: too much water not enough room"...its gross. Our office (which is an old farm house) was built in like 1890-something and the basement shows the age. Its dark, damp and someplace you never want to find yourself on Halloween (or any other day to be honest).

When you descend the stairs into the icky space, there's a plant that greets you. No, we didn't put the plant there. No, we didn't plant a seed and it grew. This is some kind of mutant plant that found a weak spot in the foundation and forged ahead to make its new home on the staircase. No lie.

So I wiggled around the plant-from-hell, jumped over the Nile, and avoided spiders and found the fun decorations from Christmas past.

Although I could have setup the big tree, I decided it was best to have room to WALK in our office, so I setup the tiny Charlie Brown Christmas tree I found...and I stuffed it with so many decorations, I had to keep angling it stand up straight :) hehe...
Close up of the fancy decorations:
...and one of my favorite decorations I put together in 2007 was the red carnation tree...(upon completion of the tree, all the craft stores in two counties hadn't a red carnation in site...)
Ahhh, I love decorating for Christmas; it just makes me happy!!

Aloha!

So I was thinking which room to post next on the great house reveal of '09 and I was stumped. Its rainy, cloudy, gray and just one of those mornings that you don't want to get out of bed for anything. (Except maybe to use the bathroom, because seriously, everyone has to use the bathroom...)

Looking out the windows made sad, so I started to think of a happy place, Hawai'i. The hubs and I went there for our honeymoon in '06 and had the best trip ever! We decided that we liked the Hawai'ian lifestyle so much that when we bought our house (after only being married a few short months) we'd have a Hawai'i themed room.

Enter the guest bathroom.

When we moved in it was Easter-purple. (You know the color, that pastel-y purple...ok, I guess it was lavender?) Anyway, it worked for a while, but I always knew I wanted something more bold in there...but I really liked the idea of a purple bathroom. Since we don't have kids, and this would one day be their bathroom, I didn't want it to be too adult-ish or too kid-ish...just 'right'...kinda like Goldilocks. While looking through my colorwaves from Sherwin Williams, I came across the best deep, rich purple ever. Results:Hunting for a shower curtain worried me at first because I didn't want one that had too much pattern on it (because what if I grew tired of monkeys sitting on palm trees?) and then, I heard the church choir rejoice when I saw the hula skirt shower curtain. Without a second thought, it was ours!!The surf boards on the wall are appliques from Joann's (like these). They came in a pack of three, and with my 40% coupon came to about $20...awesome!I used all white frames for the pictures in here so they really stood out...like the white shelves over the toilet- they can't hold anything practical, but they are so cute!! Check out the aloha frame on the bottom shelf, hehe. Oh, and if you were wondering why there are little Stitch characters on the top shelf...we got a soft spot for Experiment 626 (and, he lives in Hawai'i with Lilo, so it makes perfect sense!)

Ta DAAAAAAAAAAAH!

Last night I got home from work and realized a few things:

a- I should probably take some photos of the house and post 'em here...even if things aren't 'picture perfect'
b- World hunger will really never be resolved, no matter how much money Sally Suthers asks for
c- The older our dog gets, the more trained I become
d- My Thanksgiving decorations should really be taken down
e- The lady on the radio who got "turkey-dumped" (dumped on Thanksgiving) probably had the worst holiday ever, while I had one of the best ever...

Okay, enough random crap, I now present to you, the half bath. As a refresher, here's the before:Yup, it was red. Not blood red, more like a strawberry red. Anyway, here are the afters:Its blue! I decided to keep the frog theme because, hey, I like it! When we first moved into the house, my brother-in-law bought us all the frog pieces we wanted...trash can, rug, outlet cover and soap dispenser...so I kept it because of that, because I liked it and because the whole bathroom just reminds me of my dad.

The frog sitting on the left side of the faucet used to sit on my dad's night stand...
And this picture frame (with the four holes) is actually the artist sketches of my dads frog tattoo! (The frog represents my mom; the ladybug is for me, the caterpillar is for my sister and the grass the frog is standing on forms an A for my brother!) The single frog frame, above the tattoo sketches is a note my dad wrote me, and I liked it so much I hung it up!

I'm such a slacker

Even the best laid plans have some speed bumps. My speed bump comes in the form of being too busy to take photos of our house since I redid it. There, I said it. I cannot feel guilty about this any longer. I'm a slacker.

(The picture above, of our dog, Jack, is as CLOSE as I've come to taking photos of the new paint colors and trim...it looks really nice- just wait. I promise I'll take some....)

I did, however, have a wonderful time enjoying my friends and family this weekend. Not only did I get the opportunity to spend quality time with each of my nephews and niece, but time with my mom!

Yes, she lives in the same town as me. Yes, she just moved into a house that's 1.01 miles down the road. HOWEVER, she's a supa busy woman. Seriously y'all, if your considering being a school principal (or assistant princ.) you best not wanna spend time with your family, 'cause we never get to see the woman!

Enter Thanksgiving. She was off work starting Wednesday until yesterday, Monday. I haven't been able to spend that much quality time with my mom in like, er, a year or so? NO LIE!My brother and his family rolled into town Wednesday late morning (making a pit stop at my office to say hi and stretch, which was just fantastic, I love seeing the munchkins)...my bestie Caitlin (you can read about her over at FlutterButter) came into town- the hubs and I drove up to grab her...and then last but not least, my sister came in (early!) on Wednesday evening. (Oh, see in this photo you can see the new paint color in the kitchen!)

My sister, Jessica, wasn't supposed to land in Cleveland until 8.05 (which meant we didn't need to leave the house until like, 8.04p) so you can imagine our terror (I mean, surprise) when my celly rang at 7.35p proclaiming her arrival and "where are you?" Oh shizzzz!

My brother, bestie and I hopped into my car and we high tailed it up to the airport. Seriously, I'm thankful I didn't have anything to drink, 'cause sitting in jail isn't my idea of a good time. She calls us as we're mid-way there. "Uhm, I don't see you" "oh, we're sitting in traffic...we're on our way! Be there in like, 5!" click.

When we roll up to the Continental doors, BLASTING Britney Spears (seriously, a holiday without Britney? I don't think so) she opens the door, starts laughing and yells, "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" I simply answered, "ITS BRITNEY BITCH, GET IN!" hehe. When she was strapped in, I turned down the music and assured her that all the people loitering wanted to be in our car (we're funny, y'all!)

So, while I'm not excusing my slacker-idious, I am giving good reasons why there are no pictures...except for some family ones. Here's my mom with her girls!