Sometimes it's right in your backyard...

I've been searching for several weeks for a large urn to place by the front door. I don't want to cover up our pretty new door with a wreath, but I do want some decorations for people to see as they enter the house. Everything I looked at was a) not the right style, b)ugly, or c)not the right price! I was pretty discouraged, but as I walked into our house one afternooon, I saw this bird bath/planter in our yard that the previous owners left.

Suddenly, my creative brain kicked in: "of course! this is exactly what I am looking for!" So, after a quick trip to Walmart for some spray paint, I began this lovely little urn's transformation. First, I scrubbed it out really good, killing, in the process, a family of spiders that had taken up residence in the urn. (I don't mind, I really hate spiders) Then, I spent about an hour applying coats of paint to the urn, making sure everything was evenly covered. When I finished, it looked like this.

Then, I took a little bottle of black craft paint, and with a wet rag and a dry rag started randomly applying black paint thinned with water to give the urn an aged look. I am delighted with how it turned out! 

P.S. Can you believe this thing is plastic?

Decisions, decisions...

I swear the most difficult part of decorating any room is deciding what color to paint it! This here is a picture of the paint samples we have up in the upstairs hallway... trying to decide which color to paint it! It's so overwhelming... there are soooo many choices! The good news is the we have chosen paint and paint treatments for the living room and also for our bedroom! That's two rooms down, only twelve more to go...

 

 

It really is a lot of fun though, and the possibilities really make you think... besides, it is just paint, and you can always just paint over it, right?

Score at The Christmas Tree Shop

Someday, we will completely remodel the kitchen. We've got it all planned out, we just have to wait for some green :-) We could do things little by little, but we would actually spend more money by doing it in stages then by doing it all at once. The other thing that is holding us up is the fact that we have to remove the chimney that runs through the kitchen. Kind of a big project. :-)

 

Anyways, next to the fridge, on the far side of the wall, there was a cabinet and a portable dishwasher. This is what it looked like.

Yep, pretty awful. We gave the dishwasher to friends, and removed the cabinet because we found this beauty. It fits perfectly in the space where the other cabinet and the dishwasher were. And looks soooo much better. Don't you think?

On vacation...

Yup, we're on vacation. Hence the lack of house posts, as we are not doing anything house-related! Woo hoo! Our latest project is the hideousness above the mantel, and I would say we are about halfway done. I don't have pictures of that yet, but I do have a picture of our wonderful summer harvest.

Mmm, blackberries. They grew right up in our backyard, and boy were they yummy. Juicy, sweet, fresh...

Yup, that's our whole crop. :-)

Oh well...

Home ownership is an adventure that rivals Lord of the Rings, Narnia and whatever else you can think of. It's a blast, even when things don't go right. Case in point, when a hammer is being used for its intended purpose, removing nails, and it breaks. Oh well! That's life I guess!

My Awesome Garage Sale Find

Here is a great little table I found wandering around Greece today looking for productive garage sales. It was only a dollar. Now this is not the best deal I have ever gotten, but it pretty far up there. I bought it thinking I would use it for a nightstand, but now I am thinking maybe an end table. Or, possibly, somewhere down in the spanish room. Or... That's the great thing about little tables, they'll go just about anywhere!

(See my lovely new dining room curtains in the background?)

Culoare Zi!

We had our first official event at our house last weekend. A while back, I think before we had bought our house, we decided to host a yearly color themed party, just for kicks and giggles. So, now that we have a place to hold the party, we decided to go ahead with the plan. We chose blue for this year as the color blue is not really associated with any holiday, and therefore it would be easier to convince people that it would be fun, and also that it was an independent event.

 

 

We decided to go with the idea of celebrating an "ancient cultural holiday" that commemorated the advent of color in the world, with color first coming into the world in 1234 B.C. We talked about how the world only existed in black and white previous to that day, and so the grateful ancestors named the first day of color "Culoare Zi" (which is simply two Romanian words, "color" and "day") We thought it was funny, but crazy enough that everyone would know we were kidding. He he. Not so much. We had to do a lot of explaining, but most people though it was funny.

 

 

The only thing we required of our guests was to wear something blue! (By the way, if you don't get an invite to the yellow party next year, it's almost for sure because you refused to wear blue. Or it may just be because we don't like you anymore.) We planned out a fantastic menu, with foods either containing something blue (Blue Cheese Cheesecake), or having the word blue in the name (Grilled Chicken Cordon Bleu) We played blues in the background, and decorated with blue candles, flowers and balloons. It was blue-ti-ful!

 

 

Overall, in spite of the heat, the party was a smashing success. I put together a montage of the party pics for your viewing pleasure. Here's to a wonderful yellow party for Culoare Zi '09!