Thursday, September 30, 2010

Living ... around some boxes

We are still getting there. I don't think you ever realize how much stuff you have until you have to pack and unpack it all. Little things have been making me smile around here. The living room is coming together, with things starting to go on the freshly painted walls.


I love how the light streams into the living room. What is the first thing that you unpack or decorate with? We started with curtains. The first two days we were here I didn't have the curtains up and hated looking out the windows into pitch black. I'm sure the one neighbor across the street already has cable and isn't interested in our family sitcom.


The choice for the living room curtains was a sheer white swiss dot. When I first saw these, their original purpose was Aries room, but once moved in I realize how perfect they are for the living room. They hang at just the right height for the kids to run underneath them or for a gentle breeze to make them billow.


So as we slowly (trust me sometimes I feel like we are crawling) making our way unpacking, I hope to keep updating my blog more often. This weekend we are going to try to finish painting the kitchen. My yellow wasn't yellow enough and ended up just looking dirty, luckily we only painted one wall with old color. I hope to put out fall decorations when it's still fall but for now we are enjoying the new sandbox, the extra space, our new floors, and the space where we can all sit together and have a family meal.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

We are here, We are here, We are here!

We are here in the new place. It's been a very LONG weekend! Boxes are everywhere but it's a great feeling. I don't mind that my kitchen is half finished (I know we will get to it), that we didn't have hot water for a day or two, or the fact I got a horrible cold on the second day of the move. I know what is important and what makes a home... it's your family!


So today to celebrate everyones hard work and to say a big THANK YOU, I made a chocolate cake. Nothing fancy, just a regular boxed chocolate cake with store bought frosting. The kids said thank you with smiles. My mom and uncle said thank you with silly pictures on Facebook. My husband said thank you in person.


I know that I am saying thank you right now to the person who invented the dishwasher. I have never lived in a place that has had a dishwasher. Rob and I agree it has been the best thing we bought for our new place. Seriously, this invention saved me a good hour today - with 5 people in the house dishes really pile up fast.


Tomorrow I am hanging up curtains in the kids room and working on more boxes. I do have one question for all my blogging friends ... What color should I paint my new studio/craft room? It is right off the kitchen, that once painted is going to be light yellow with white cabinets - the floor will be white and jade green and as you can see from the chair in the first picture have hints of turquoise and red (also that large glass cabinet in the background holds all my fabric in my studio). So what color will be inspiring but work with my cottage vintage kitchen?

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

A Night View

For anyone who is wondering ... Did she really get gobbled up by paint? The answer would be YES! We are still working on it but mostly just the kitchen now.


I am packing at the old place since hubby made a deal. He said " You pack and I will move!" Sounds like I got the better half of that deal! Crossing fingers that we will be in the new place this weekend - unpacking. Then I can show you all, really GREAT decorated before and after pics :)

I will leave you with more inspiration photos ♥

(photos from Flickr, Country Living, and DKNY)

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Childhood Home

The day my grandfather's house sold a piece of me knew that I would soon need to say goodbye not only to the house but to the man who made me laugh, gave to so many, and was the best father role model a child could have. His house was something I can look back on with fond memories.

I can only quote him on certain details of the house but I remember his stories quite well. He often told me of the condition of the home when he bought it, floors that had holes in them and walls that needed to replaced. Despite all this my grandfather and grandmother could see past this and see the dream home they were going to create. My favorite story is that my grandmother, a woman I knew for a short time in my life but I feel like she gave me so much, wanted her flooring replaced right away. She sent her brother and her husband (my grandfather) to the store to get hot dog buns and upon their return found my grandmother with the floor half ripped up. She knew that they would have to do something about it then. She was determined.

I can remember the small kitchen where my grandmother would ask me what bread animal we would make today. It was usually a bear or a turtle with raisin eyes, sometimes we would add cinnamon. The smell of fresh baked bread, still to this day, makes me remember this. Later in life the kitchen would become a bathroom for my grandfathers handicapped twin brother, with whom my grandfather welcomed with open arms.

Several rooms in that home were my bedroom at one time. The small bedroom next to the kitchen, that was my aunt's bedroom, my grandmother's sewing room and later my grandfather's twin brothers room. This room is where I hid in an over sized chair from my mom and grandmother, where I swore I saw the Easter bunny (he is purple), and was my bedroom while my mother and father were building their house.

The dining room was more like the living room. There was a large wooden table that if you wrote on a piece of paper hard enough you would leave an imprint for people to see. Often you would see random words in an horizontal or vertical fashion from my grandfather's crossword addiction. This is where I solved my math homework when I was in middle school while my grandfather played "oldies" or some form of blue grass music. I remember my grandmothers white hobnail milk glass chandelier that hung in this room and how many foreheads it hit. The ceiling in that house was so low you could stand, raise your hand, and touch the ceiling.

The house had steep stairs that led to a bathroom and three bedrooms. On the side of the stairs was faux brick paneling that I remember knocking on as a kid, hearing the hollow noise, and whispering of treasure that hid behind the "bricks". Walking down those stairs was too easy, you needed to sit and scoot your butt all the way down. As I sit here now I wonder how many children before me did this in this house?


As time went by the house aged with my grandfather. When we weren't looking, things began to stop working. Living rooms were turned into wood working rooms, an in ground pool got filled with sand, and the barn began to sag. The day my grandfather had a heart attack I stopped everything. My husband raced home from work to watch our son (we only had Damien at the time) so I could be with him in the hospital. The man that came to our house every Sunday to play with my son, eat breakfast, and play scrabble was a fighter and didn't give up the race for a couple more years.

After the heart attack my grandfather wasn't really himself and neither was the house. The house so use to the noise of children and everyday life was put on the market. A younger couple purchased it and saw the potential. What some may describe as worn someone else will describe as loved and what some describe as new someone will describe as lacking character, for a house is not a home without the people in it. The house had moved on and we were going to have to do the same. It wasn't the structure that I remember the most it's the memories it gave and we will always remember my grandfather.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

August Book A Month Giveaway Winner

And the winner of the August Book A Month Giveaway is .............

Rachel C comment number # 10 
Thank you to everyone who entered and make sure you follow so you can enter the September Book A Month Giveaway!