A House Where Love Abides

Our Roses Are Blooming!

2010-04-22T12:32:00.001-07:00

Look at our roses!

I learned from our neighbor that the previous homeowner took lots of pride in her rose bushes, and I'm not at all surprised because they are lovely. I was a little scared during snow season, because I know nothing about taking care of roses and thought they had all been doomed to a disastrous death.... but low and behold, the roses are all blooming and they are absolutely beautiful!

Come and see!

We have some teeny tiny pinkish orange ones...

And the peachy pinky yellowish ones (my favorite)...

And the yellow roses of Texas!

We have one more bush with gorgeous dark red roses, but the neighborhood kids came and picked them all off yesterday, to their parents horror. We got an apologetic visit from the 10 year old next door and her mother, who found all of our roses in their front yard.

Oh well. I'm sure more will bloom soon.

I've never been into gardening, as I have the blackest of black thumbs, but now that we have our own house, with our own yard, I can't wait to plant more. And I definitely want to hunt down a lavender rose bush because I love them.

And, of course, I'll have to buy myself a book on caring for roses so I don't kill any of them next year!

xoxo,

Family Room Furniture!

2010-04-13T11:24:00.000-07:00

Hurray for our tax refund finally coming through! And what did we spend some of our money on?

FURNITURE! (obviously)

We aren't keen on the color I painted the family room walls, so they will most likely change this summer. But in the meantime, here is our current living room set up, with our new sofa, love seat, and new rug.

I love the color of the sofas. It is the same color as the flowers in my floral patterned couch in the living room, so it ties the rooms together.

The patterned pillows came with the couch, and they are okay... but they'll be leaving us soon, replaced with something much cooler (I have ideas... I will share later).

And next on my list of things to do: Something on the walls. In every room. Our walls are bare, despite having moved here back in October. Shameful, I know!

xoxo,

Hey! Where'd I go!

2010-03-14T08:40:00.000-07:00

So, I never had the expectation that this blog would be regularly updated because

1.) We spent all of our moolah buying the house and have to save, save, save in order to have more to decorate.

2.) I'm not one of those people who enjoys wet and cold winter weather... so I'm waiting for spring to get back into the swing of things.

3.) My kids are holy terrors who have wreaked mass destruction on my decorating projects*

*slight exaggeration... my 3 year old did spill an entire can of white paint, which was supposed to go on the dining room walls, but ended up all over our hard wood floors... but other than that, they've been good girls.

But the weather outside is not quite as frightful as it was last month, and in only a few weeks, we'll get our tax money back from the government... and then I'll be back!

Until then, thanks for visiting, and hello to my followers!

xoxo,

I'm Ready For Spring...

2010-02-11T09:22:00.001-08:00

But West Texas obviously has other ideas...

Days like today make me so homesick for California... but I can't deny how happy it makes me to see my girls enjoy the snow so much!

PS, this is Gracie's very first snowman. His name is... are you ready for this?

..

..

..

FROSTY! (bet you didn't see that one coming...)

xoxo,

Its Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

2009-12-19T17:28:00.001-08:00

Our first Christmas in our new house... I love this ornament my Aunt Sharon gave us to celebrate the occasion.

We put our tree up last week, all decked out in tinsel and lights. As far as I'm concerned, tinsel is magic. Forget tacky - nothing says Christmas like glittery tinsel wrapped haphazardly around the tree (the kids did the decorating). Money has been tight for us this year. Besides the economy being on the rotten side, any scrap of savings we had went into buying our new house. But a home to call our own is much better than fancy Christmas decorations!

Here's a little before and after of my living room:

Before.

And also, we aren't done decorating, so please don't judge. Blech, empty walls. I have pictures to hang but I couldn't find the hangers - must still be in an unpacked box somewhere.

And also, check out those curtains... appalling, I know. I didn't measure when I bought them... a leeeettle too short. But that will be okay, as I'll fix them soon!

Its beginning to look a little teensy bit like Christmas!

The kittens helped decorate, too.

Oh wait... that's destroy. The kittens helped destroy the decorations.

And nothing is as sweet as an ornament from a friend... this one is from the lovely Tia and family. Thank you! She made a tutorial showing how to make ornaments like these on her blog here.

Will added the finishing touch - a couple of chocolate Santa pops.

They have since been removed after I caught Gracie and Annelie stuffing empty wrappers and sticks under the coffee tables.

Done!

But hmmmm.... I think we're missing something...

Ah, now were done!
Doesn't a lit up Christmas tree at night just look like magic?

Our decorations aren't fancy, but they are pretty darned cozy. We don't have a fire place so I thought the stockings could be hung with care over the couch instead. Hey, whatever works, right?

I wish you all the merriest of Christmases, the happiest of Hanukkahs, and the most wonderful holiday season of all!

xoxo,

Getting Ready for White

2009-12-19T09:28:00.000-08:00

Hmm... what to choose, what to choose...
nothing quite like an art collection of paint chips on the wall!

Wow, its been a while since I've updated, but let me just tell ya, you haven't missed anything. Our kitchen cabinet's are still a rotten mess, as I haven't been able to use the paint stripper on the cabinets since the weather turned cold (it just gels up on the cabinets and doesn't strip anything). So, my kitchen is going to have to be finished in the Spring. I hate that. I really wanted the cabinets done - the half lime green, half white, half paint-stripped look isn't one I love... but as there isn't really anything I can do about that now, Will and I have decided to tackle a different room -- The Dining Room.

Okay, so I had planned on painting my dining room a camel color but after collecting paint chips for ages, the perfect color just could not be found. So I thought, well, maybe white - a lovely creamy warm white - wouldn't be bad after all.

I'm not ordinarily a white paint kinda gal, but with the front room being so full of color (painted yellow and all that) and the dining area coming straight off the living room, I figured the white just might bring out the cute and coziness of the living room.

The lighting in this room is awful... very dark, doesn't get much sun. My camera doesn't know what to do with it, so I often get weird polka dots on my photos!

Okay, what you see here is the original color of the walls. The previous owners did a neat stripe treatment in the dining area, using a gloss paint and a matte paint in the same color. I really like it, but the cold grey color just wasn't for me... so the paint had to go!

Nothing is more annoying than setting up to paint.

Oh wait... I change that - Nothing is more annoying than your two year old stepping on the nearly full paint can and spilling the entire thing all over the hard wood floors.

Yep, nothing is more annoying than that.

I nearly had the room done before Annelie spilled all the paint. Only trim work along the ceiling and one more quick coat of paint in some areas.

So have I finished the room yet? Uh, nope. After spending all we could of our allotted house-improvement $$, we have to wait another month or so before we get more paint and supplies to finish. Thanks a lot, Annelie!

But do I love the white so far? You better believe it. I was afraid the white would be so stark, but it really is bright and creamy and looks lovely next to the yellow living room. Stay tuned for more photos as we finish and decorate!

xoxo,

The Most Delicious Tree

2009-11-09T14:07:00.001-08:00

I'd like to introduce to a little somethin' special: My pecan tree. That's right - I have a pecan tree! Mine, all mine!

I've never had a tree before and I'm pretty excited about it, if you can't tell. Unfortunately, I didn't know I had a nut tree until after buckets full of pecan pods were tossed in the trash - didn't want to break the lawn mower on those darned alien pods littering the lawn.

Luckily my new neighbor across the street saw everything and came over to chat. Our conversation went something like this:

My new neighbor: So have you eaten any pa-cawns yet?

Me: Uh... what?

My new neighbor: Pa-cawns. From your tree. Right there. See? There's tons of pa-cawns all over your lawn.

Me: Pecans? I have a pecan tree?

My new neighbor: A what?

Me: A pecan tree. You just said I had one.

My new neighbor: A what? A Peeee-can?

Me: Yeah. A pecan.

My new neighbor: You mean a pa-cawn.

Oh. Right. A pa-cawn. Silly me. When in Texas, right? So we all stood out there on my front path, stamping the pecan shells and eating while we talked. They are goooood!

And after that, I grabbed my little helper monkeys and we started scooping and saving our pecans in a bucket in the kitchen, like little squirrels (who, by the way, are pissed that we've moved in and invaded their winter nut stash).

Next on my list of things to do: Learn how to make a pecan pie!

xoxo,

Paint Scraping: Not My Idea of a Good Time

2009-10-29T10:54:00.001-07:00

I'd love to report that my kitchen cabinets are finally finished and looking gorgeous... but I can't. Because they aren't. With this whole oil/water paint debacle, I feel like I've taken two steps forward and twenty steps back.

I googled how to remove the latex paint from an oil painted surface and got the recommendation to give them a hard sanding down through the layers of paint.

Um, no. DON'T DO THAT. It is a waste of time, as you can't sand off the peeling paint. It just won't work.

So, I googled it again, and found the majority vote for removing the paint was washing it off with soapy water and a sponge. Seriously, I found that answer in so many forums I figured it had to be the best way.

After about 20 minutes of soapy scrubbing....

Same cabinet door. Time lapse: 45 minutes.
(Not even making that up)

Soapy scrubbing with a sponge: DON'T DO THAT. You'll waste the rest of your life, getting that paint off.

In complete exasperation, I posted how much I was hating life on my Facebook page... and got a reply from my awesome pal Michele, who said: "Get yourself a paint stripper and then just scrape it all off."

Never in a million years would that have occurred to me. Hurray for social networking! I went out right then and there and bought myself a container of paint stripper, some protective eye-wear (so hot) and a scraper. Now, I'm in paint-scraping mode. I didn't want to use the chemical stripper in the house, because of the kids (okay, and also because I couldn't figure out how to remove the child-proof cap) so I'm going to leave the cabinets doors and drawers for later... but in the meantime, I'm just peeling the paint off strip by strip.

Yes, it absolutely sucks. But at least it is working! Hopefully soon, I'll have the whole finished kitchen to show off!

xoxo,

A Kitchen Cabinet Revamp... Gone Wrong

2009-10-22T06:56:00.000-07:00

I had a post all ready to go for today. It was going to be about my kitchen cabinet revamp... about my process start to finish, as I prepped and primed and painted my cabinets. It was going to be about my hard work for four days straight, as I busted my behind to get my kitchen in shape... It was going to be filled with butterflies and unicorns and whimsical songs about lovely kitchen cabinets and the joy of working hard to turn something not-so-fabulous into something FABULOUS...

But then, last night as I was unloading the dishwasher, a large chunk of paint peeled straight off of the cabinet door and I froze in horror...

What. The. HECK?

So, I scraped the chunk with my finger, and even more peeled away.

I called my grandma in a panic, and what did she tell me?

"Your cabinets were painted with an oil based paint, and you painted them with a water based paint."

Oh. Right.

You know, the annoying thing is that I knew that oil and water paints react to each other like, well, like oil and water, obviously. I knew it. I shouldn't have been surprised. And truthfully, I wasn't surprised. Nope, I was pissed. Because the guy at Lowes who picked out my primer for me, said that the primer I was paying top dollar for was so good, that the walls/cabinets didn't even need to be sanded first.

And I fell for it because I'm Marisa: The Most Trusting Girl in the Universe.

So. Now I have to take down all of my cabinets and spend another four days prepping and priming and painting them. No, make that FIVE days, because it will probably take me an extra day to sand it all back down. And as for a post laced with butterflies and unicorns and sweet little songs about the joys of painting cabinets... that will have to be reserved for a day when I'm not stomping my feet and crying my eyes out in frustration.

xoxo,

Color Inspirations

2009-10-19T08:13:00.001-07:00

I love color. Love it. And, as wall color in a home really effects a person's moods, picking the right color scheme for my house was very important to me.

In my last post (click here to see), I shared my wall colors, before and after, from when I moved in, to the colors I ended up painting them. In this post, I want to share my color inspiration for my major living spaces (living room, dining area, kitchen, family room, studio), as well as share the most awesome room color resource ever.

My mom bought me the book Color Schemes Made Easy which is a Better Homes and Gardens book, to help me figure out the color scheme for my house. I wanted all of my main living spaces to flow from one room to the next, while still having their own wall colors and decor. This book majorly helped me out. It has you pick your one inspiration piece for the room/house (fabric, paint color, accessory...) and then choose your wall colors and accent colors from that inspiration piece.

I had a problem from the start, in that I had 2 inspiration pieces. Pieces that did NOT match.

The first: Fabric from my living room couch.

This floral corduroy sofa is HUGE and a major focal point for the living room.

The second: The wall color of my studio which sits directly off the family room (the doors to my studio are glass-paned).

Yikes, right?

So... you can see that my color inspirations are very, very different. Using the book, and with the help of my mom, I was able to choose a color palette for my entire house, so that each room flows while keeping their individual colors and style (my style is very eclectic, so each room will have a mix of contemporary, traditional and whimsical elements, pulled together through art and accessories).

This page has many of the colors in my house.

Living Room: the buttery yellow color.
Dining Area (which sits directly off the living room): the camel color, which is the top most color block
Kitchen: the mustard color (I'm going with a lighter shade) The kitchen also has white cabinets and appliances, so the color wont be overpowering.
The Family Room: color not featured in above picture... I found a light green that looks beautiful with the other room colors
The Studio: the blue
The Laundry Room: same blue as my studio, on the opposite side of the house

As I'm almost starting from scratch with my house, not having had more than small apartments with institutional white walls to decorate, I'll have a lot to add to each room as I decorate.

For my studio, here is a sample of the illustrations which will be on the wall:The blue going around these garden gnome illustrations is the exact color of my studio wall. I designed these illustrations specifically to go in my creative space and am thrilled to finally have a place to put them!

For my mustard and white kitchen, which will flow off the living room and dining room colors, I love this print:

Salt Meet Pepper

by Emily Martin of The Black Apple

Look! The blue is the perfect match with my studio and laundry room!

The pillows I'm going to have in my family room:

Pillows by lindylou
(who is actually my mom)

The green that is in the center, behind the bird in the above pillow is almost the exact shade of my family room walls.

So this is just a start. I'll be able to show more as I pull the rooms together.

If you are looking at my color choices and eclectic inspirations and thinking, "Marisa, you will NEVER pull off the flow from one room to the next with those choices..."

Well, all I can say is: stay tuned!

xoxo,

Painting, Painting, and Painting Some More

2009-10-17T13:19:00.000-07:00

Let me tell you a little something about me... I don't like painting rooms. In fact, I don't like painting at all. I'm a colored pencil lover for a reason: Anything that takes longer than .5 seconds to dry is not my friend.

But my new house needed a major paint job, so for the last few days, we've been painting, painting, painting. I was lucky that my mom came up from Austin to help me out (thanks, Mom!). She is my complete opposite when it comes to painting. She loves to slap new color on a wall; I am happy taping a room off so I don't have to touch the paint. In the case of my new house... I had to touch the paint. For four days straight. My poor arms... so tired!

We did a pretty good job, considering that the power and the water was turned off in the house. That didn't make things easy, but the companies couldn't get them on any sooner for us and I wanted to get the walls done before our truck load of furniture and boxes came in.

You're going to have to wait to see how it is decorated. A long time. The exciting thing about moving into a house double the size of your tiny apartment is having double the space to decorate and buy new furniture. The sad thing: spending all your money on the down payment, moving expenses and apartment lease-breaking, and not being able to decorate or buy new furniture right away. Oh well, I've got time.

Wanna see what has been done so far?

My Studio:

Priming and painting bead board walls is probably one of the most annoying things EVER. But worth it in the end! Look how cute:

My Living Room:

A cold (and dull) light grey.

I really, really, really wanted green walls... but I couldn't find a green I liked.

A bright and buttery yellow.

I like how cheerful it is with the yellow, but I'm a little unsure of the color as my furniture for this room is in Austin at my mom's, so I can't see how it looks. We haven't had a space big enough for the furniture since we moved from California and I'm so excited to finally have space for it again! Once I see how my furniture looks in here, I'll decide whether to try a different color or not. In the meantime... it is cheerful!

My Family Room:

Here is my green room!

It is actually much lovelier than this picture shows. And all molding and trim will be a bright white (they are mostly light yellow in this picture). And look: no Texas stars going around the ceiling! Man, those things were terrible to remove. I have slices in all of my fingers. Boo.

Annelie (age 2) didn't even get into the paint. Or touch a wet wall. My little girl is growing up!

There is a lot more to do. Tons. But I'm going to take a nice break for a few days. My mother-in-law comes into town next week... she doesn't yet know that I'm putting her to work as I get the rest of my house finished! Surprise!

xoxo,

"This is the Inspector!"

2009-10-17T13:17:00.001-07:00

My husband Will picked out our very first house accessory the other day. We knew we needed a fridge, a microwave, and other assorted necessities... but we figured our first house purchase needed to be something fun and frivolous.

Our house has a phone stand built into the wall in the hallway, so naturally that frivolous purchase needed to be an antique rotary phone. Because how else are we supposed to pretend we are in an old British inspector film if we don't have a phone that we can pick up and declare (in our poshest accents) "This is the Inspector!"

Will really does that every time he walks down the hall, and he's got me doing that, too - although, my British accent is terrible and I tend to sound Indian. Don't know why. He is more convincing.

But seriously, isn't this phone the best? It works and has the cutest ring EVER and Will picked it up for only $20 at a nearby antique store.

Sweet!

xoxo,

Our Home Sweet Home

2009-10-17T11:54:00.000-07:00

A new, charcoal-colored roof was put on since this picture was taken. Cute!

Our house keys are jingling from my key chain and I can't help grinning from ear to ear. Why? you may be asking yourself. Because....

WE BOUGHT OUR HOUSE!

Not just any house... our very FIRST house. Goodbye rented apartment. Goodbye crashing at my mom's house between moves... we are finally, officially home.

I have some photos to show you all. I took them on the day we first went to see it, so the family before us was still moving out... don't mind the mess! Also, I'm missing photos of the bathrooms (one finished, and one unfinished - needs a toilet and sink), the laundry room, the dining area, and one of the bedrooms, but I'll show those as I decorate them.

It will take us a while - a long while - to set up, decorate, buy new furniture for our larger space, but all that will come in time, so come on in for the grand tour!

I need to take a picture of the living room ceiling... it is awesome. Its an ornate, white textured plaster (the house is from the '40's, after all). My husband Will and I love older houses with tons of character, and this house definitely has character!

See the silver Texas stars going around the ceiling? Our realtor (a Texan) loved them and was happy to tell us that they come with the house. The stars at night, are big and bright, deep in the heart of Texas! I'll be removing them, but seriously... they crack me up.

My studio... the best room in the house. It is actually supposed to be the master bedroom as it is the biggest room, but we figured since this will be the most used room, where all the drawing, crafting, and computer working will be, the large space is necessary as a studio! The window looks out over the backyard, so I can work while the kids play. Also, the doors going into the room have clear glass windows, so I'll be able to see into the family room and the hall, even with the doors shut.

I can not wait to decorate this room!

Gracie (age 4) wanted the room with the window seat, so this one is hers. She also fell in love with the clouds on the ceiling, so I'll be keeping that up. But those shiny wood walls... I'll be painting those a soft pink (her request) next week!

Annelie (age 2) wanted the room with the chalk board walls. YAY, she can finally have a room she is allowed to scribble all over!

The half-finished train table is staying, so I'm pretty excited to turn that into a double sided play surface for their train set and fairy dolls.

The previous homeowners were very happy we have kids... they left a whole bunch of things behind, including this little playhouse, which Gracie decided to call Strawberry Cottage. We plan on giving Strawberry Cottage a couple coats of paint, moving the big shed next to it over to the corner of the yard, and planting a children's butterfly garden in its place. Gracie can't wait to have her own garden of flowers.

Big backyard! This picture doesn't even show how great it is. The previous family left us all sorts of stuff. In addition to Strawberry Cottage, we have a pirate ship swing set and slide, a metal arbor, a garden swing, a tricycle (Annelie's favorite) and a soccer/football goal (Wills favorite). Can I just tell you how much I love the previous homeowners?

I love them. Very much.

And here is our street! Will and I were so excited to find a house we loved, at a price we could afford, in such a great neighborhood! The girls will be going to an award-winning elementary school, and there is a huge neighborhood park and skate park just two blocks away.

So what do you think of our new house? I can hardly believe it is ours!

xoxo,

Who Am I?

2009-10-16T13:25:00.000-07:00

Hello and nice to meet you! Just a little bit about me... I'm Marisa, a 29 year old wife, mother of 2 little girls, and all around artsy/craftsy kinda gal.

My husband and I just bought our very first house and, not only are we thrilled to be done with renting apartments, but we are finally setting down some roots and couldn't be happier to build a home for our daughters. In the last 5 years, we have moved 8 times. Now, we can let those moving boxes collect some dust while we begin to enjoy life as a family in a sweet West Texas neighborhood.

I'm excited to share this blog with you all, sharing my decorating style, favorites, ideas and creative projects. I hope you love it as much as I do.

A Home Where Love Abides blog may be a new venture for me, but I'm not new to blogging at all... Interested in learning a little more about me?

Come on by Elegant Bloggery, where I share my life as a mom of two zany and creative girls, and as an illustrator with my own cottage-industry illustration business.

I'm also a contributor for The Mama Dramalogues, a one-stop spot for humorous anecdotes about being a mom and life with kids - hair pulling, kicking and screaming included - awesome family-friendly recipes, pampering DIY projects and crafty tutorials.

Thanks for popping by and I hope you love my little corner of the world.

Enjoy!

xoxo,