Sigh.

I need to work on my blog. It's been forever since I posted anything, and so much has changed. I'll try to fix it soon.

Harvest Gold dilemma

Ok, so the fixtures in our downstairs bathroom are Harvest Gold originals ;) They really aren't that bad without the horrible wallpaper that covered the walls. I was going to paint the bathroom the same neutral color I'd chosen for the rest of the house, but Zach protested and said he wanted something a little different. Once he complained, I realized that there were going to be a lot of walls painted our neutral Valspar Woodrow Wilson Putty. That's when I decided to ask Ann McGuire, with Beehive Studios on the Color Buzz blog (a Valspar supported blog where you can get advice), what I should do. Her suggestion was Cake Batter or Woodlawn Lace. This weekend there will be samples procured and tried out on the walls. It's nice to have professional advice! Thanks, Ann!

Here is the bathroom before, with the horrible wallpaper.


Here are the Harvest Gold fixtures.



This is Cake Batter.


This is Woodlawn Lace.


I can't wait to find out what works best!

Wallpaper, wallpaper, argh

I hate wallpaper, or at least I hate ugly wallpaper that I have to take down or cover up in some way. There are actually some wallpapers that I love with great patterns and fun colors, but all of the wallpaper in my new house is hideous. I honestly would have rather had them throw up on the walls and left it there to dry. That would have been infinitely easier to take down.

One day soon though, the ugly wallpaper will be all gone and my chosen colors will allow my house to attain the beauty potential that has been smothered by ridiculous wallpaper choices.

Here are some swatches of the horrible wallpaper I'm having to deal with. You might not hate it as much as I do, but it is ugly all the same.

This is the wallpaper in the dining room.

Why would anyone use flowers like this, let alone have them in stripes up and down the wall?

The downstairs bathroom, that was the master bath.

This is the worst wallpaper I think I've ever seen. A plaid used in a bathroom that has harvest gold bathroom fixtures - sink, toilet, and tub. Does it seem like this would match?

The wallpaper going up the stairs.

I tend to like fun paisley stuff, but this is dark, making the stairs darker. Definitely not the worst wallpaper in the house, but not a good choice for the location.

The upstairs bathroom.

This isn't actually all that bad. I'm not a fan floral decorating patterns, but I am a huge fan of purple, and I love violets, but I'd rather see this on a decorative pillow, or as an accent for something, not on a bathroom wall.

The kitchen wallpaper.

This was only put above the chair rail molding, with white paneling at the bottom. It's too dark and heavy for that, and looks like prison bars in what should be a great room to spend a lot of time in.

This is the last example, the wallpaper that is in what used to be the master bedroom, but is going to be a guest bedroom instead.

I'm not a big fan of pink except for accents. How did a man live in this room? It had pink carpet to match.

Soon my walls will be covered in the following Valspar colors:

Our basic neutral for all walls that a color wasn't selected for - Woodrow Wilson Putty.


For three of the walls in the converted garage/party room - Sandy Cove.


The accent wall in the party room - Gypsy Teal.

This is the closest color sample I could get to it, although it seems lighter than this one.

The kitchen - Filoli Honey.

This seems so much more yellow in real life.

The dining room - Silver Dusk.

Seems much paler in person.

The library - Savannah Red.

Looks much redder in real life.

Well, what do you think?

Yeah

So I haven't updated my blog in months. However, lots of things have happened. One, I'm getting married in 26 days! Two, I have a new house with my soon-to-be husband in Smithfield. And three, well, there is no three, everything is related to those two things, but lists are always in threes, right?

Here is my ring!









Isn't it beautiful?!? I love it!

Here is what my invitations looked like



And here is a picture of our new house!



We are in the process of painting and removing wallpaper and things like that, and when we are closer to being done, I'll post the before and after photos.

Long overdue...

So, I finished! I finished my triathlon! I was able to swim 750m, bike 17 miles, and run (walk/jog) 3 miles! I wasn't even last, people, and that's a huge accomplishment! There were five other people that finished after me, and one was a 38 year old guy that started almost 12 minutes before me. It was an awesome experience, with other racers giving encouragements at every opportunity. It was something that I'll never forget, and definitely something that I will do again!

Sorry it took me so long to post this, but that's life - busy.

Not lazy

No, I have not been lazy, I've been training for my triathlon and just haven't had the time to think about putting up a new post. My tri is June 15th! Only 9 days away! I'm not exactly prepared for it yet although I know I can do it. I'm still just worried that I won't finish in time. I'm determined, but slow. I guess we'll see what happens.

Free money!

Ok, so the $600 I saw in my bank account this morning from the government is not really free. If anything they owe me 20 times as much for misappropriation of funds, but I'm glad that I got it! Of course, I will not use this money the way that they have planned for me to use it. There will be no beneficial economic investment from me by buying something new that I don't need. On the contrary, I have already put that $600 towards eliminating my past habit of buying something new that I didn't need. As of this morning, I paid off three more credit cards! When I decided to take control of my spending habits and get myself out of credit card debt, I had 18 credit cards. Most of them were store specific like Pier1, JCPenny, and Gap, but now I'm down to only 5! I can't quite believe it myself, but I am rolling down the road towards being credit card debt free!
So, thank you President Bush for helping me along this road, it's not what you expected, but it works for me and that's what counts. I'm not sure what will save the economy, but I don't think this is the answer. Please God, let us have an intelligent President in office next term!