china shepherdess

Oops, I forgot it was garbage/recycling day. When you're a renter you can just throw things in the giant dumpsters and bins whenever you want to. One of the many things you have to get used to when you buy a house.

A belated, but very merry Christmas.

Promise me you'll never move in between Thanksgiving and Christmas, unless those aren't holidays you celebrate. It just isn't much fun and leaves little to no time for unpacking. That said, one of the first things I did after some good friends helped me schlep a metric ton of crap to my new place, was set up some Christmas decorations. It just wouldn't feel like I was home for the holidays without some sparkly Christmas decor.

The first thing that went up (after my wreath) was a new to me nativity set that I purchased off Etsy. I love it, but shamefully busted Mary's head off a couple of days ago. At least baby Jesus is OK. Here's hoping his mother will feel better after a little Gorilla glue.

This year's decor was a little spartan, but I still made the place feel very Christmas-y.I even had time to watch Miracle on 34th Street in its entirety for the first time ever. It was all very holly and very jolly. Happy holidays to you!

New Year's Resolution List

Hirshfield's asked, "Okay, what's on your New Year's Resolution list for your home?"

Here's my list (so far!)

1. Finish stripping the wallpaper in the kitchen. Then prime and paint the walls a cheery shade of orange.
2. Paint living room and hallway Abalone (Aura - Benjamin Moore - already purchased and hoping 2 gallons will be enough)
3. Paint guest room a dark grey (leaning toward another Benjamin Moore color - Kendall Charcoal).
4. Paint office white.
5. Figure out what the heck to do with the ugly blue bathroom.

That should get me through January at least! 

No, I'm not putting a ruffled canopy bed in here.

I am worn out from packing, work and whatnot, but here's a quick update on the one room where I've made substantial progress -- my bedroom. Painting was a lot more work than I expected. Here's the run-down.

Before

Don't you love that scalloped trim on the closet? It was one of the things that first made me fall in love with the house.

During

The ceiling paint wasn't in terrible shape, but I wanted to freshen it up, so we did that first in a basic ceiling white from Hirshfield's. While painting, it was sort of hard to tell where we had painted and where we didn't. I've since heard of magical paint that goes on pink and dries white. I might have to try that next time around!

Next up, I started to get the Devine Color's Berries & Beans on the walls. The paint is lovely, but I ran into a couple of issues.

1. In the before shot the walls look like they are primed white (by the previous owner). What you don't really see, and what I didn't realize until I started painting, is that the primer is really thin in many places and there's a lot of blue/green paint showing through.
2. The kind folks at the paint store estimated I'd need a gallon for this room. Maybe I'm a sloppy paint waster, but I ran out of paint before the room was completely done.

Luckily, these issues were solved by throwing a bit more money at the problem and buying more paint. I ended up using two coats on most of the room and I think I have most of the problem blue/green spots hidden. It looks great to me, and that's all that really matters.

After-ish

These two photos were taken after the first coat of paint. With the lights on (and a camera flash) you see the "true color" of the paint, or at least the color that most resembles the paint swatch. I really like how the color contrasts with the woodwork. The photos don't really show the lovely sheen this paint has on my plaster walls. After using it in my bedroom, I'm really sold on Devine Colors in the Delicate Finish and, if the Mango Tango Beans isn't too bright, may just end up using it in my kitchen.

This isn't officially an after post because this room isn't done until there's some furniture in it. Right now, I'm just planning on putting my bed (duh) and a chest of drawers in there. I know I also want a nice chair and side table.

After I live in it for awhile, I'll figure out what else I want. It would be great to add a wardrobe or two, but I'm not sure they'll work with the windows and heating vent layout. The vintage light (I know, I know) needs to be swapped out for something a little less twee, but that can wait until I find the perfect fixture. Oh, and I need window treatments. Ugh. Methinks a trip to Ikea is needed pronto.

Vote early and vote often!

Until I started redecorating my house, I never realized how expensive quality paint is. So, I'm shamelessly asking you to vote for me in the Natura Your World contest sponsored by Benjamin Moore Natura paint.

Just look how sad and pathetic this room is in its current state. If I win, I get a dream room makeover. If you vote, you are entered to win $500. You can vote once a day until the cost ends, so please vote for me!

"I do not like the panties drying on the rod."

It's a disease. I simply cannot stop myself from looking at home listings. One of my favorite things about it is when you find photos that are simply hideous or just plain bizarre.

Lovely Listing collects some of the best of the worst real estate listing photos from around the globe and they recently posted one of my finds. I almost looked at this house, but decided against it (not just because of the tighty not so whiteys hanging from the oven.

It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I thought I'd share my first bit of holiday decorating before I venture out into the blizzard to shovel.

I'm looking forward to getting the living room painted so I can put up my tree and other Christmas decorations. I even bought myself a cute little vintage nativity set this year. It's not the Alexander Girard nativity set of my dreams, but I like it.

Now off to fuel up on coffee so I can shovel my very own sidewalks.

Delay of game

Things haven't been moving along quite as quickly as I expected they would, but some progress has been made.

I'm nearly done painting my bedroom. If you recall, I had initially planned to paint it a light grey. Plans changed when I was window shopping in the Oval Room and fell in love with a coat by Sonia Rykiel.

After I became smitten with this gorgeous coat, I just knew I had to use pink in my bedroom.

A more sensible person would have picked up a few sample pots and had at it. However, I was impatient and wanted to go ahead and pick up some paint so I could get started. Benjamin Moore's Color Capture iPhone app gave me a few good suggestions based on the photo of the coat. A light, warm, ballet pink seemed like the perfect choice. I considered the app's excellent suggestions, but I decided Devine Color's Berries and Beans was the perfect color for me.

This scan of the paint chip isn't exactly true to the color, but on the wall it's absolutely gorgeous.I went with the Delicate (eggshell) finish and it has a beautiful, luminous sheen.

Here's a poorly lit before shot of the room. I am in love with that scalloped trim on the closet!

I did all of the cutting in while I waited for CB2 to deliver my bed. My in progress shots are trapped on my camera because I lost the cable, so those will have to wait for now. Yesterday's project was touching up where the pre-primer blue/green was peeking through and rolling the walls. Unfortunately, the walls eat paint and the recommended gallon just wasn't enough, so I'm going to have to head back to the store this week to pick up a bit more. Here's hoping it will match well.

I've decided to ramp up my move-in a bit, so the plan now is to complete my bedroom and potentially complete the kitchen and living room before I move in. I'll do the rest of the rooms after I move in. There's certainly plenty of room for me to put all of my boxes of crap in the other two bedrooms and I'll be able to keep my bedroom as an oasis of calm while all of the work is going on.