living room painting

It's amazing what a little color can do to transform a room.  When Joe and I bought our house, we only intended to live here for 3-5 years. We were hoping to buy when prices were low, make some payments and sell for enough to help out a little with the downpayment on our next home. We decided to leave as much of the paint and general condition of our house as close to original as possible so we wouldn't be too bold for a potential buyer. 

We have lived in our house for four years now and it looks like we will be here a while so time to settle in I guess. Besides, we couldn't match the current paint color so the walls were getting pretty dirty. 

Here's a look at our living room last week:

I bought that picture from World Market during a 50% off sale and thought it looked much bigger in the store and I haven't loved it at home. I used to have 8-10 black and white photos covering the wall and got tired of it. Once I took them down, everything looked overly simple so I ignored my instincts that it looked plain and let it be. 

Rufus, AKA "my shadow" made it into most of the pics ... he's such a ham. 

And now... the new color and layout!!

I am completely obsessed with this color. I didn't edit these photos in any way but I would say that the color is slightly more blue in real life. The color is Benjamin Moore "coventry gray". I was at bunco last week and a friend had this color in her dining room. She casually mentioned the color and when I was in the store looking at colors it happened to be on the swatch I pulled = FATE! I promised Joe that I would only paint small places so we could live with the colors and do the actual work next weekend.

I don't think he was all that surprised when I decided to go ahead and finish the whole project that day. I never leave something unfinished for long, I can't stand it!

The artwork featured behind the couch is by a local artist, Mary Margaret Brinkley. My mom bought this for me for my birthday. I was completely obsessed with this picture from Ballard Designs. And by obsessed, I mean that it is my iphone background so I look at it all day, every day. It's pricey for a giclee print though. And the one my mom bought is even bigger and more importantly... it's an original so there's not another one like it anywhere. 

I love to sit in my chair sipping my earl grey and dreaming of diving into the serene lake. Alas, Joe has the news on and relaxation is over.  

See the little bowl with fruit in it? That's some of our Pepper Place farmer's market bounty. I woke Joe up Saturday morning with the promise of a fun day. He didn't want to go to the market but I begged and begged until he gave in. Emmy was in a slightly better mood and we all really enjoyed walking around and checking out local produce. Joe thought it would be expensive and brought a "budget" of $40... but it was actually cheaper than the grocery store! We got 1 pound of local honey for $7 and 6 tomatoes, 7 peaches, 5 zucchini and a bunch of okra for $13. That left us with $20 for going back next week!

The painting was so much more work than we anticipated. It always is. We knew we would hate it but Emmy spent so much of the day just whining and crying that it made the work so much more frustrating. We didn't blame her for getting bored with us but somedays we just can't accommodate her and Joe and I handled it pretty well seeing as not long ago a nuisance like that would send us over the top with each other.

There is another piece of artwork in our home that I don't think gets nearly enough credit. It's also a local artist's work. I picked it up in Homewood as a gift for Joe. The artist signed it right there and explained to me how he got into art and what all is in each picture. He is really wonderful and I wanted to get a good frame for Joe. DAMN, MICHAELS... 50% off is a joke! I remember this one costing $50 for the signed print and $200 for the frame. But, it is beautiful. We had Joe's sword from Scotland hanging next to it but decided Emmy is getting too curious for medieval decor to be safe. We moved it upstairs where Joe's "man cave/movie room" is getting a makeover. That's his birthday present from me, I purchased some poster from Etsy and can't wait to post pictures!

You can buy this one here. 

I received the most amazing birthday present from Joe and my dad. I finally got a big girl camera!! It's a Canon Rebel EOS Ti3. So far, it's extremely easy to use and takes AMAZING pictures. I plan to do a post about it and take some fun pictures of Emmy. I just need to stop spending my weekend on so many other projects!

personalized project

I am exhausted from a weekend of projects. We painted the whole living room and moved around furniture and pictures. Everything looks amazing. It's perfect.

Except for this one wall. It's lonely and plain. I started obsessing over finding a "family rules" canvas picture at Home Goods or Target that I liked enough to hang in the prime spot next to our kitchen table. Most of the ones I saw were too small or the wrong colors. So I looked on Etsy where I found them for $130 - yikes- not in the budget after everything else! 

I decided to play around on my photoshop and design one myself. FOUR hours later, it's been ordered from shutterfly and thanks to two coupon codes, it was $68 including shipping and tax!

I definitely know why they charge so much on Etsy but I love that this one is so personal. Who knows... maybe some friends and family members will be getting one for Christmas!!

18 months

I've said it before, I know... but I'll say it again: I cannot believe how fast Emmy is growing. Emmy is one and a half!

She is walking, talking, and expressing her thoughts in many ways. Sometimes she is sweet, sharing her toys and giving us kisses and hugs. Other times she is frustrated, stomping her feet or running to a corner to cry. She is always an entertainer though. She is making silly faces, sounds and dancing all the time to get Joe and I to watch her and laugh. It is so much fun to be around her most of the time. 

Emmy's favorites are so personal that I decided to just take a picture of all of them to capture not only what she likes but the actual items. The current condition of those things are important since some may get "well loved" in the future years. 

She loves her white fluffy pottery barn chair. It is her spot to read her books, eat a little snack and draw on her magnadoodle. It was a little pricy for a child's toy but still totally worth it. Once she gets settled, she'll hold up her blanket for me to cover her legs only to kick it off moments later. She gets hot like all the Bascom women before her!

She still loves "Beary" but her bunnies have moved in to her heart. She isn't attached to any one particular animal but these three are her top picks.  

The little hard books are great. There aren't too many words and she is able to flip the pages without causing damage. Occasionally we will pull out a big book but getting her to sit for a full story is tough. 

Her biggest love, though, is her shoes. 

"Shoes" might as well have been her first word. She is never found without at least one on and we have to hide the ones that don't fit because she will have a complete meltdown if we can't squish her foot in a shoe. She tried to bring me one of my own shoes while I was in the shower. She stood there, my shoe pressed against the glass, and cried because I wouldn't put it on. 

>>><<<

Another big milestone for her this week is that she moved up at daycare again. The adjustment has been a little rough. I really loved her teacher and Emmy did too. I don't know why they moved her up exactly, but they thought she was capable of handling the more mature classroom. Instead of free play all day, she is expected to sit for reading time and to sit around a table for learning. In her old classroom, those were options and she was not required to participate if she got bored. 

Don't get me wrong, I think that's great. I want her to learn, it's why I picked her daycare. They focus on teaching kids as early as possible and if they challenge Emmy, I know she will be better for it. The only problem is that she started biting every other kid in her class. I can just imagine her getting frustrated with her inability to communicate or her struggle to adjust and just literally biting a kid. 

I am so thankful that her teacher is understanding and hasn't asked me to do something about the biting. I have offered to help but I never see her or catch her in action so I'm not sure what to do. Today was the first day she didn't have an incident.

I braved Target with her again and she only had a few minor meltdowns. I was able to break them by telling her a joke about Rufus. The joke, in case you are curious, is to tell her that Rufus (Rooroo) says "meow". Gets her every time. 
 Joe said that she had a meltdown last night and just walked herself to a wall and cried. When she is acting out at school, they send her to a corner to calm down so she is carrying that over to home (yay!). 

The other day Joe told me that he could see why people only have one kid. Not because she is difficult but because she is awesome. Being part of her life is a treat that I don't intend to take for-granted so I'll treasure these moments and I'll find a way to laugh through the tantrums. 

pinterest project

I was on pinterest again.

I see some ideas and I think - BRILLIANT! I must do this! I found this link on pinterest with "Easy DIY wall art". As soon as I saw the canvas with lights I decided I knew how to do it and only needed to buy lights so it would be super cheap. 

The thing is, it's not Christmas so the only quantity of lights Target had was 100. Not a big deal, though, so I bought them. 

A while back I purchased several Martha Stewart paints from Home Depot for $1 each. I picked a light pink and mango pink and did an ombre effect. I *almost* stopped there because it occurred to me that I could put pictures of our family all over it and make a really cool collage but I felt bold so I went on with the project.

I got to work poking holes randomly in a sort of circle fashion. Towards the end I realized I should test the holes to make sure I could get the bulb in. The bulb nearly doubled the size of the hole so all of a sudden my designs were too narrow. I didn't leave any room for all the cords and boy, 100 lights are really bright. 

I somehow managed to jam all the lights in and only had to use a little tape to keep them in place on the back. I ran up to Emmy's room, plugged up my art project and WOW. It was bright. Like way too bright to use as a night light. I tried to cover up some of the lights with a picture but 100 is too many. I had hoped to be able to leave this on but I also feared that it might catch on fire with all those lights so close together. 

Emmy loves it though. I let her sit up there and touch the lights for a while and I leave it on while we read books and she plays in her house. I'm not a very patient person but if I were, I might have actually checked on the source link for the project and read the tips on the size canvas you need (mine is way too small) and how to space and design your pattern so that it doesn't look like a glob. Oh well, not too much time or money wasted so I'll just call it a win.