Just a Door Mat

We finally got door mats. It's been about 10 months or so but we finally got them. Hooray for Target.

Front entry:




Back entry:




Does it look more welcoming? Welcome, but not too welcome. Like, hey welcome, but you have to have a key to get in? No? Anyway... I also picked up a soap dispenser. Exciting for me. Jordan thinks I'm crazy.


I also found a set of pillow cases, place mats, a basket to hold place mats and other junk, and a decorative pillow for our room. Too bad it's only the size of my face and we have a king-sized bed. It looks stupid so it will be returned.



It's like doll-sized. Why?!

I don't have much else to give an update on. We had our trees trimmed the other weekend and the guys did some rearranging of our apple tree, cherry tree, and a fig tree that we think a squirrel must have planted. We have a plan to get rid of most of the rose bushes in our backyard. Unfortunately (well fortunately for us, because yuck), the bushes are so old that when we take them out they cannot be replanted. There are a few that are newer that can be moved to a different location. They just are little too "old" for us. We want something fresh. In the meantime say hello to one of our elderly roses:



I have a plan to get started on priming our kitchen cabinet doors tomorrow. This has been a long drawn out project. It's going to make the kitchen look great!! Jordan promised to take me out for dessert. I'm out of here!

Sneak Peek: Dining Room + Porch

While trying to figure out how to begin this post Jordan said this: "Jordy painted the walls. While I took a nap. And we didn't finish the rest of the room because there's too much crap over there."

So, anyway, yes, Jordan painted the majority of our living/dining room. It's looking pretty awesome. Once that is done we can get started on painting the trim while and it's going to look so crisp, I can't wait! Here's a little sneak at the color:

There is a set of built in shelves to the right of the fireplace that we are going to probably paint a yellow-ish color, keeping the shelves white. It should look pretty neat next to the grey color of the walls. And then eventually the front door will be yellow. Even if it's 10 years from now. YELLOW!

We've also updated our porch. We can now enjoy our street by sitting outside on our new Adirondack chairs! I've been scouring Craigslist for over a month and finally found a pretty good deal. Now, we just have to decide if we want to paint them, stain them, leave them as is, etc. Although, we should probably seal them, right? Anybody know?

I hope to be back soon with a more complete living/dining room update. Due to some RLS (real life shit), I now have more free time during the day. I'll see what I can tackle by myself... and then whine to Jordan, later on, about how much my back hurts. Ha! Goodnight!

P.S. Have you seen how awesome my plant was doing until we were gone one long weekend? Anyway, keep up with my plant saga here: Grow.

Porch Beginnings

I'm sweating. I drove home from work and couldn't believe that it was 101 degrees out. Well, yes I can. This is the valley.

Aside from not feeling too great and having to cancel dinner with a friend, I also am so exhausted. I put my car in park, gather the mail while peeking around to the side of my house to check if our hornets/wasps have come back to haunt the person that killed their friends and destroyed their houses. That would be my dad, my last Saturday's hero. Nope, no wasp-like creatures were flying around! I did see something moving on the ground. I walked up closer and it was a tiny lizard! But not like the other lizards I'm used to seeing here. So, instead of going inside, putting on comfy clothes and landing on my bed, I hurry Jordan off the phone, grab my camera and run outside to try and snap a few photos. I wish I could give you all a size reference but since I hate being too close to creepy crawlies I'll just inform you that this little guy was about the size of my ring finger, which is small. It's color was really interesting. He was a nude color with accents of random hues. Didn't come out in the pictures too well.

I left the little guy alone when he jumped (um, that's why I don't like creepy crawlies, sometimes they can jump!) into the dry soil pit in front of my porch. If he stays, I hope he doesn't turn into a ginormous lizard like that weirdo in the latest Spiderman. That'd be bad news. If you look closely, you can see it looks like the tip of his tail is missing. Just pointing that out...

About a week and a half ago I brought out an old table of mine to put on the porch. The tiles used to have images of cats. I used to be obsessed with cats, so my parents bought me a cat table. Weird. We bought regular white tiles and replaced the cats. Perfect for putting potted plants on! Here is my attempt at making our porch look welcoming for now.

The succulent pot was given to us as a house-warming gift. We actually received a second one that can be hung. He's hanging out in the backyard for now. The 2 little green pots are from a recent baby shower that I went to. I think they painted the pots green and put a plastic bag of soil inside along with a packet of seeds for various flowers. I took home two (another girl gave me hers) and planted them! I've been watering them every night and a few days ago Jordan asked, "Did you know you have some sprouts out here?" It was exciting. I fail at so many things... yet I had succeeded at growing a plant! Well, almost. We'll see what happens.

Meanwhile, inside... I decided I couldn't stand the paint splatter that I caused when I painted our master bathroom. Thank god for Rich at Sherwin Williams. He threw in a free razor blade when I bought some more paint & supplies. This is the lamest before and after but I am proudish.

Tada!

Oh, and can we discuss how I sprayed mildew cleaner on my sink and the glass shelf and before I could wipe it off, noticed that my new blue paint had turned neon?!

Oh well. It's time for bed for me. Stay tuned for more porch and bathroom updates. Things I want to do include:

1. Paint front door yellow.
2. Get two chairs for front porch.
3. Plant some prettiness in front of the front porch.
4. Hang mirror in bathroom.
5. Paint bathroom cabinet.

*No lizards were harmed in the posting of this blog.