march

curtains for audrey. 

i had found this pin on pinterest and thought it was such a simple but cute idea for curtains in a little girl's room.  i recently bought audrey a yellow comforter from target.  not big on disney princesses and other themed rooms, i thought yellow would be a good replacement for the green accents i've been moving into the nursery.  a few botanical flower and butterfly prints and wall mounted bookshelves will follow someday, in the future.

maybe my mom or my sister can shed some light on where this shelf came from.  i can remember it since forever.

this buffet used to sit in my inlaw's dining room, then michael's dorm room, then our closet in our first apartment, then our guestroom and now audrey's room.  it needs some love don't you think?  i'm thinking a few coats of white paint and replacing the knobs with an anthropologie cutie.  that foxy lamp is moving to the nursery. 

meanwhile, in babyland... this is the nursery so far.  yes xenia, we decided to keep the bed for now and shoved it to the side.  :)  the colors will be aqua, orange and green but for now it's just a mess.  the old green curtains from audrey's room are on the dresser and everything is quite empty.  it's a work in progress but at least there is progress!

baby boy jammies.  my heart is exploding!

audrey's aviary?

i'm pretty obsessed with audrey's room lately. even before she was born i've been fiddling with accessories, moving furniture, "window" shopping online and yes, even fogging up joann's with my indecisive pacing. i've very nearly decided on what i want for her comforter on her big-girl bed.... big. fuzzy. oh yes, it's all up in my brainstems. gotta get in here to see the vision. i find i have to get an idea, tell everyone i know what i'm going to do and then back out and go with another idea in the end. i have half an idea to paint a giant tree on the wall in the corner with fabric leaves but let's not get too crazy here.

so instead, i decided to paint some mini birdhouses. i was in joann's, pacing foggly, and saw these wooden birdhouses for $1.00. boom! bam! i slapped my husband's hard earned money on the table and drove home with a plan. i bought some sheets from target a few months ago and wanted to carry that feeling elsewhere in the room.

golly, it was sure nice of audrey to take a longer nap today :)

target sheets. i'll add more photos of the room later.

my kitchen

i decided to redo my kitchen a month ago and i'm still getting ideas for it. i repainted the grassy green a calm cream color and am very happy with the change. (thanks lacey for the color!!!) i've begun a collection of nicknacks, that have so far cluttered up my countertops and sill, and soon plan on sweetening up my husband to build some shelves on the empty wall above the stove for display. husbands are such great tools for housewives to have :) maybe some apple cobbler will do the trick?

here's some of my clutter. the new paint color is to the left. i'm always on the look out for colorful pots for plants, fyi!

my sister got me these measuring cups last year and they became part of my inspiration for the kitchen.

i've also decided to start an herb garden. these are taking residence in a south facing window in the den, basil and sage respectively. i'd also like to get rosemary because lately i've been using it on everything!

bathroom redo for under $200!

i apologize for not posting in two weeks, but i have a good excuse. :)

craigslist ad to cockroach...

you: asleep in my medicine cabinet.

me: tired and preparing for bed.

you: surprised and annoyed, escaped behind the sink.

me: surprised and annoyed (& totally grossed out!) called for reinforcements from the den.

you: probably forgot all about our encounter.

me: wants revenge.

you: will think you totally made bank with a sweet smelling "roach-haus"

me: is going after your family next.

sour & sweet.

michael is leaving tomorrow for four days to go to a national high school journalism convention in phoenix. he's taking over his school's award winning journalism class (yeah, no pressure) next year, and i'm so proud of him!

however, four days??? ugh, i'm going to die! jeez, that sounds a little pathetic doesn't it? this would be the longest separation for us in nearly three years though. i cannot sleep alone anymore, i get too scared of old house noises. :( but i can do this, right? i mean, i used to live by myself in my own apartment for years. i was independent! (que destiny's child "survivor" song) he'll also be gone on pascha, but will be looking for a midnight service while he's there. oh well, thankfully my in-laws are taking me in for a few nights. they're such sweet people and don't judge their wimpy daughter-in-law too harshly.

in other news, we got our house painted! we added the shutters around the front window and would like to add more bright flowers to the porch, the reds and oranges really pop with the soft green color. we also painted the mailbox black and added fancy black address numbers on the eve above the garage after this photo was taken. that side of the house needed a little black to balance the chairs. i want to raise the front flower beds with faux slate blocks for a more permanent look, but may wait a little while to do that.





...oh yeah, and re-seed the lawn. it has five different types of grass and as many (or more!) types of dandelions.

...TA-DA!

our baby grass seed was put to bed yesterday and we were finally able to bring out our new patio furniture (sans umbrella) and firepit! yes i know that the concrete needs sweeping, it still needs happy sunflowers, the grapefruit tree needs pruning, and the shed and house both need painting... but isn't it beautiful???

around the house.

this is michael's new love; his new phillips stereo. he ordered this bookcase from target because we didn't have anything long enough for the stereo to rest on. he did his research and found the perfect bookcase that was tall enough to file his records in, wide enough for the stereo and the right stain to match our other wood furniture. i admit, i sometimes tease him for always taking a long time to decide things, but at least he's not an emotional buyer like me!


yesterday as i was reading on the front porch, i was surprised to find these cute blossom buds popping out all over my peach tree. the tree has been dormant looking since november and i didn't expect any blossoms until april. after talking with my grandma van corbach, who confirmed that they were peach blossoms, i googled them and found out we have a red baron peach tree which blooms early in warm climates. the picture doesn't do them a lot of justice, but they're a dark pink (almost red) color that contrasts beautifully against the greyish bark of the tree. i can't wait until july when the peaches are ready to pick!

saturday.

i started my morning reading on the front porch with a cup of coffee, listening to the birds greet each other. an hour later i was watering my flowerbeds and picking out the leaves as i listened to the whistles and cheers at the soccer match going on at the park. an hour after that i was on the lawn repotting plants and sipping iced tea, listening to joey quietly growl at the mailman who was dropping off some bills. two hours later i was following michael on my bike as we rode to subway for lunch, listening to the cars as they passed us. a few minutes from now i'm going to give joey a bath in my farmhouse sink, listening to michael nail the new baseboards into the kitchen walls. an hour from now i'm going to sweep the floors and dust the tables as i listen to creedence clearwater revival on the record player... i could go on and on... but i won't. :D

wind brings change.

it's supposed to be a breezy 82 degrees today. normally i would be pretty annoyed of such an unusually warm winter, but this year i've been looking forward to the spring. i can't wait for all the bright poppies to pop out in the most odd and unexpected places, i want to open my windows and smell the sweet alyssums in the air. i've already planted a few lavender plants and boxwood in the front yard and can't wait to get my hands on those creeping sun roses and make room for more.

michael and i have decided it's time to clear out the backyard and till the soil in preparation of new grass seed. i hope to start setting the boundaries on my vegetable garden and flower beds and oh man i can't wait to start pruning those citrus trees! we also hope we can recruit some of our friends and family and paint the exterior of the house next month. the warm santa ana winds seemed to have started early this year, but the spring just cannot come soon enough. :(

ooh? sour? or SWEET?

behold the perks of having a backyard...! (lemon and grapefruits respectively) somewhere between the indian summers and clogged freeways i seem to forget, but living in so cal is pretty awesome.

merry christmas!

here are some new house pictures for you to enjoy on your vacation. :D there is still a lot to do (especially in the kitchen) but at least it's starting to look cozy.

a home, for the holidays.

i spent several hours last night on the kitchen floor deglossing cabinets and stripping away three layers of tacky wallpaper. tonight we are ripping out the vinyl floor and starting the first coat of paint. my back aches, several of my fingernails are either chipped or broken, my spare pair of jeans are now my "work jeans" and everytime i walk in my house there's another project waiting for me.

it has been a pretty awesome week so far, and we've really only just started. :D

finally...

...we're home. :)

shirt

this is my favorite shirt. i probably wear it about 2-3 times a week. if you've seen me recently, then you've probably seen me wearing this shirt. it's comfortable, soft and does a good job of hiding my "food baby" after lunch. :)

in actual news: wonderful things are happening! we finished signing the papers with our realtor and our loan documents are being drawn up. we hope to sign our loan, do our final walk-thru (either tomorrow or monday) and be ready to move in next week. sweeeeet!

also, my brother's wedding is this saturday and the rehearsal dinner is tomorrow. a hearty (and early) congratulations to them!

updates!

first update??? we finally got approval on our home! our projected move-in date is november 28, (my mom-in-love's birthday) so we could be there in time for christmas! we're meeting with our home loan officer today to get our paperwork in order and hope to schedule a home inspection next week. this picture is the original picture i found on the internet months ago, i hope to post my own pictures very soon. :) whoo!


my second update is that joey turned 6 years old on tuesday! now that's he's considered a middle aged dog, (although papillons have been known to live until 18+ years) i bought him some old man treats with glucosamine to help with that aging. happy birthday joey!


update number three is my new phone. it's pink! i don't know why having a pink phone is so incredibly enjoyable for me, but it is. i've never had anything other than the cheap flip phones you get with a new phone plan and i'm not a very "girly" girl, so i've sorta hit two birds with the same stone with this one. also, it plays music! (another completely new concept for me.)

oh, and happy halloween everyone!

my (hopeful) thanksgiving ideas.

we've been waiting to hear about whether or not our offer has been accepted on our dream home since april, (APRIL!?!) and we now hear that we may be getting a call any day now with the news. (humpf, scoff scoff) i had planned to host a halloween party with friends, caramel apples and costumes, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen this year. :(

so instead, i'm going to focus all my creative thoughts on thanksgiving. :) with my grandparents, in-laws and brother and sister (with respective spouses!) planning on coming over, i have a few ideas to make it our first thanksgiving in the new house memorable.



okay, technically my thanksgiving ideas are actually martha stewart's ideas, but oh how i love to drool over her magazines. hehe. so far my menu ideas include green bean casserole, fresh cranberry sauce (my specialty), my grandma's delicious mashed potatoes, gravy, pumpkin and dutch apple pies, stuffing, and of course, turkey. a fairly traditional fare actually, but i'm not sure what my mom-in-love might have in mind. i'm sure i'll have some more dishes to add later. mmmm!


i love this idea of carving notches out of the tops of apples and putting tea lights inside. i think it would be very cute to line them down the table, or set one at each place setting. it's very easy, all you need is a melon-baller.










these pumpkin yarn balls are adorable, and easy! i love that you can use them all season long and store them away for next year.



are there special traditions or dishes that anyone wants to share?

;)

the very hungry caterpillar(s)

maybe i should blog complaints about my plants more often, if these are the sort of results i get. :) you're so right lauren, it smells amazing!

we got a call from our realtor yesterday to tell us the bank has sent the offer to freddie mac for approval and that he hopes the morgage insurance will go through at the same time. hmm, i really have no idea what that all means to us, but i did get the part about freddie mac giving us a forty-five day window to hear back. things are moving along slowly, but the good news is that things are moving. i'm optimistic that they will approve us for the house, eventually. i don't think the bank would want to spend all the time and effort on a new buyer, especially since they have so many other houses they need to sell but i think it's going to be a quiet july.

last night michael and i were enjoying the warm evening on the porch and as i was watering my plants, i found two green caterpillars on my geranium. i had noticed that something had been nibbling on my leaves lately, i just couldn't figure out what. i guess i'm not quite a "master gardener" yet because instead of killing them on the spot i couldn't help but think about how adorable they were! they were just munching, munching away with their little heads inside my pre-formed geranium buds. although i was i little tiffed that they targeted my BUDS, i am flattered that they picked my plant to munch on. when i was younger, every season my brother and sister and i would always try and save the caterpillars from crossing the road. we had a lot of the "wooly bear" types there and i don't know what it was, but they would always cross the road and get smashed. (they must have been suicidal) i remember one time when i was about twelve, i was taking a walk down the road, looking for caterpillars and i noticed a car coming. at the same time i saw a little caterpillar lopping along in the lane. the car moved to the left as a courtesy for me and ran right over the little caterpillar. all that was left was a tiny greasy spot on the road. i felt so terrible! if i hadn't been there the car would have missed the caterpillar completely! i was done trying to save the caterpillars after that.

i spent a good hour last night googling "green caterpillars" to find out what they were going to turn into. i thought maybe something exotic because they ALWAYS use green caterpillars in children's stories and they ALWAYS have them turn into something beautiful. they're such a brilliant shade of green too, sort of a dark lime color. oh well turns out they're just the brown moth types that get stuck inside your house and annoy your dog. whatever. our children are being taught lies.

the price i pay for mercy...

this and that.

as you can tell by the lack of posts about our new house, nothing much as happened lately. we're still in escrow and we're still waiting on the bank that owns the house to do their end. meanwhile, we've been approved for a loan and at some point need to sign the paperwork with our agent and our realtor checks in with us every week so we don't feel too forgotten. we did hear last week that the bank has moved ahead with their appraisal and our realtor should call us sometime this week about that. hopefully the appraisal will kick start something and escrow will move a little faster and we can finally do our inspection. lets hope so.

also, my dear maria taught me how to crochet the granny square stitch. i always wanted to learn to do granny squares because i think they make the cutest afghans. here's my little dark brown afghan i'm making out of some extra yarn i had. i hope to make it 2 foot by 3 foot, just large enough to wrap around my legs when it's chilly. i also want to make fuzzy tassels and add them around the edge to make it more "granny." :)


and just for fun, here are some things i'm currently just absolutely crazy about:

lacey's new blog: her garden pictures are too cute!

grapefruit - so refreshing during the summer. i like them best either peeled like an orange or in juice form.

romantic comedy movie/craft nights with maria: well, i've always been a big fan of these actually. :)

double dates with michael's parents: always a good time!

smell of chlorine: okay i don't bend down and inhale it or anything, but when i walk by the pools in our apartment complex and it waifs over, it's so nostalgic.

the cossacks by leo tolstoy: surprisingly romantic.

the sun shining until 8 o'clock at night: i seem to get so much more done when it's still bright outside and the nights seem to last forever!

bees: they are just so busy! unfortuantely i mostly find wasps instead, or rather they find me...