Hey! Where'd I go!

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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,