Would You Like Fries With That?

I am HORRIFIED at our new yellow kitchen! Next to our red walls, it looks like Ronald McDonald's house. I've ALWAYS wanted a yellow kitchen... but it probably will not be in this house... Today, I raided Home Depot of their paint swatches, determined to remedy our house of this mustard and ketchup business.

The dining room is half painted ("desert camel" and "mesa") and the dining table is still in the garage (I need to RE-refinish it!)... And all this needs to be done by THURSDAY, because we just agreed to have Thanksgiving at our place!

... I feel like I'm on my own HGTV show–"Design on a Deadline"!

p.s. AND I need to learn how to make a turkey!

lollipops and gumdrops

I was excited to find out that gmail has new themes. Right now, I have this one. Cute, huh? A little TOO cute, probably, but I thought I'd give it a whirl.

painting the town red...

... starting with our living room!

Here's a sneak peak mid-project:

I'm so excited!!!

unfinished project

Today's project was to refinish the dining room table, which looks like this:



... and I was all ready to tackle this table, until I hit some roadblocks. The goop-off that our neighbor suggested I get wasn't bubbling and getting the goop off, like she said it would. I tried sanding it, but I don't even know how much to sand... so I did some research on the internet and am dismayed at the amount of work I have ahead of me. While refinishing a table is fairly straight-forward, I learned that I need all this stuff that I don't have... like semi-paste paint stripper (the goop-off stuff isn't strong enough) and liquid stripper and laquer remover and steel wool and polyurethane sealant... etc, etc.

bah! Now I have to go to Home Depot again... but my momentum has already been crushed.
... haven't I learned by now??? I really need to do adequate research BEFORE starting a project, instead of DURING, when I hit a roadblock.

I'm sooo tempted to just leave my half-sanded, half-gooped off table in the garage, turn on some Food Network, and bake another batch of giant chunky chip cookies.

chunky chip cookies

poladroid

ack!!! this is soooo cool! I just discovered Poladroid, thanks to Serena's mention on her blog of this new application for Macs that turns any digital photo into a polaroid image by simply dragging your file into the polaroid camera icon! I just downloaded the application, and I can't stop playing with it! ... except... I accidentally downloaded the French version and while I am making lots of fun polaroids, I don't know how to save them as jpegs... and I can't read how to do so either.

Okay, time for bed. I will figure out Poladroid tomorrow!

In the meantime, you can download Poladroid, too, at www.poladroid.net.

ta-da!

finally! pictures of all our hard work!

before:


after:

Becoming a Bag Lady

Along with my "As Seen on TV" products, I've also been eying the Envirosax Eco-chic tote bags (aka cute reusable grocery bags). Not only are they functional AND fashionable, they also fold up to almost nothing, so you can stash them in your purse or bag. I am ALWAYS meaning to bring my own tote bags to grocery stores, but I never remember to actually take them with me out the door. With Envirosax, I would have one on me at all times in my purse!

My favorite is the Flora series:

This morning, I was watching "At Home with Giada" on Food Network, and she was sporting the green tote!

I love Mikado, as well.


And who can resist these super fun and quirky kids' totes?!


I want them all!!! (But don't worry, Wayne. I won't really buy 16 reusable bags... no matter how cute they are).

our neighbor Barbara

I love physical labor and working with my hands! The last two days, I've been doing a lot of house and yard work, and I've been happy as a clam. On Thursday, I spent all day (FINALLY) finishing the trim on the house (which is why I haven't posted pictures yet), and Friday afternoon was spent raking and gathering all the leaves in our yard. It sounds like an easy enough task, but it took MUCH longer than I expected! Barbara, our next door neighbor, even lent me her leaf blower! I learned that it actually takes some skill to "herd" all the leaves into one place, so as a leaf-blowing newb, I spent 2 hours blowing leaves all over the place, but finally was able to get them into two neat mounds by our curb. I also found out why those people you see using leaf blowers wear ear plugs!

Barbara and her husband, Patrick, are our neighbors in the other half of our duplex (yup, we live in a duplex, but it's on a corner and shaped like and "L", so you can't really tell). We always hear her tending to her backyard, which I was SO excited to see for the first time on Friday! It is SOOO cute, like her own secret garden! The interior of her house is also very homey and warm, with richly colored walls and other home projects that she did herself. Seeing her house reconfirms how much potential our little home has as well!

Barbara is such a do-it-yourselfer, and she does it well (unlike my slipshod door)! Later that evening, she came over and did a color consultation with me to help me figure out which walls to paint what color. Then, she took me to Home Depot, where we got paint swatches and also supplies to refinish our dining table!!! I am soooo excited for my new projects! I couldn't stop looking at my paint swatches last night. I even took them to bed with me, so I could look at them one last time before going to sleep. :)

On my agenda:
Monday, I am going to refinish our dining table.
Next weekend, I'm hoping to start painting our dining room and maybe even our family room!
Soon, I'd like to repaint our kitchen cabinets and find handles to go on the doors!

Barbara is such a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the home and garden! How fortunate for us that we live right next to her!

As Seen on TV

I can be such a sucker when it comes to infomercials. Lately, I've been intrigued by two particular wonder products:

1. Titan Peeler
This dual action (can be used up and down) stainless steel peeler can be used to slice, julienne, grate, and shave veggies, cheeses, and even wood (!), as demonstrated on the commercial. It is durable and dishwasher safe. And it's only $14.99... but that's not all! If I purchase during the month of November, I can get another set of Titan Peelers, plus the slicing board and julienne slicer!

It looks like such a handy little tool... anyone want in with me? :)

2. Point 'n Paint
I've been doing a lot of painting (exterior trim and door), and still have bigger, grander projects in mind... so this painting tool really caught my attention. I'm not sure how, exactly, but it claims that it can:

• Paint an entire room in less than one hour
• Holds 5x more paint than a conventional roller head
• Same paint pad works great on any surface, textured or smooth
• Revolutionary no-drip design keeps paint off floors
• Design requires no taping or paint prepping
• Perfect, professional results each time

Again, I'm tempted, but the Point 'n Paint seems too good to be true... What do you think?

proud to have served his civic duty.

notice the election-day appropriate outfit he chose himself, and the sample ballot tucked under his arm. :)

(oh, and also notice our new orange door in the background!)