Red No More

Well my poor blog has been silent since April because during a project I was doing that I planned to post my camera died. Just died. It will take a single picture and turn itself off. I have yet to get another because we'd like to save up for a really nice DRS digital Canon and both my husband and I are of the school of thought that we'd rather put all of our money toward what we really want then to buy something cheaper to hold us over.
I was really disappointed over not being able to do my blog until I realized I had collected hundreds (upon hundreds!) of inspiration photos and I could post to inspire myself.
My design style has evolved since we moved here in 2003. At the time I liked red but always did have a love of whites, blue-grays and neutrals. In the red phase we hung red curtains in our family room and had lots of red accessories. But now I want to move to the more neutral and light, bright design style
Of course, I have a ton of inspiration from other blogs. The one that currently has me obsessing inspired is Megan's home from the blog Honey We're Home.  Her kitchen is exactly what I've been looking for with a mix of white cabinets and dark stained ones.

 I also ADORE her family room and breakfast nook curtains.

Besides Megan's home I am also love, love, loving Ina Garten's (aka Barefeoot Contessa) kitchen featured as the 2009 House Beautiful Kitchen of the Year.

Once again:  LOVE it. And this is where I want to go. White cabinets, lighter curtains, more of a Hampton's beach house type feel.  My curtains are coming down in shortly and with my new camera (which we'll be getting in the next week or so-woo hoo!) I'll do before and after.

Little Paint Project

We have had this bench for years. In our previous home we also had a covered front porch and I always pictured a cute little bench there.  I saw this bench at a local home improvment store and knew it would be perfect and I loved it's design. 
When it came home with us it was a medium wood color.  After we moved to our current home I stained it much darker with a Minwax stain to a mahogany-type color.

Last summer I actually saw an almost identical bench in a movie painted white and LOVED it.  As I've said in the past I'm a huge fan of white and it's clean simple look. So with my boys help I primed and painted it.

Now I ADORE it and think it will stay white for the remainder of it's days.

It looks so fresh and inviting and has inspired me to spruce up my front porch even further.  I think I'll add a little coffee table and maybe a little white chair to match and enjoy cups of coffee or glasses of lemonade out here all summer long.

Tax Time Organizing

We filed our taxes several weeks ago but just this weekend packed up all of our 2010 stuff. We hadn't done this yet because we didn't want to make the mistake again this year of packing everything up only to receive documents in the mail weeks after packing up and having to go to our garage and dig out our box.  
This year we got REALLY serious and I made photo copies of all of our important documents that we need occasionally for things like insurance and sports sign-ups such as birth certificates, marriage license and social security cards to keep in our regular files and kept the originals in our fireproof safe.

 
And then I tackled the owners manuals of which, it seems, we have an endless supply.  You know, everything from the washer and dryer and KitchenAid mixer to my boys' electronic toys and husband's tools.  This is what I came up with:

I wanted to use the Martha Steward idea I saw on a show years ago of putting them all in plastic sleeves in labeled binders but didn't do this because it irritated my husband having to pull them out of the sleeves. I then thought of just hole-punching each one and putting it in a binder but doing that cut off information. So above is what I put together with what I had on hand.  I just recycled old file folders and labeled the categories on both the side of the file and the top for ease of finding what we needed. I put all the manuals behind each divider and stuck them in a bin I already had.
Now, I realize this isn't the loveliest thing to look at, but it stays in the office closet and I have to say it really is functional.   Since I've done this we've had to refer to several manuals and it gave me quite the thrill to go right to it AND my ultra-organized hubby even got a bit excited.  Yes, we're a little lame. But we do love us some organization!

Bright White Kitchen

A week or so ago we completed the painting of the kitchen and I couldn't be happier.  As I stated in the post of the 'during phase' of the painting, I didn't like the beige-pinky color of the kitchen and I have always had a love of white walls, especially for the kitchen.

We haven't had a bit of spring as of yet, in fact it snowed just a couple of days ago, so my light white kitchen is just the thing to brighten up this space that I spend so much time in.   I also just received these two pitchers I ordered from the Martha Stewart White ware line from Macy's and I love them.

We are expecting lots of sunshine this week along with 70 degree temperatures, which I hope will bring out all the of bulbs I planted last fall (over a 100), so I'll be able to add real flowers! Until then though, I am happy to have bright, white walls again.

Here's to the beginning of spring!

Happy Birthday Colby

Today is our middle son's 9th birthday.

As I did with my other boys, I'm recounting the story of his birth which, just as with the other boys, fits his personality to a T.
Because with my first pregnancy, my labor happened so quickly we were very concerned that the same thing would happen with my second. So on a Saturday evening, I had been having a little back ache but thought nothing of it. As every mother knows backaches at 9 months pregnant is nothing new and I had almost 2 weeks to go until my due date.
But I had just fallen asleep when I felt something odd, like nothing I'd ever felt before. My water broke. My husband had been at a friends house and I called him pronto. I was shook up because my water never broke with my first and I was afraid that doing so meant that this baby was coming RIGHT NOW. My husband was home in probably less than three minutes. He was a nervous wreck as having to deliver a baby was pretty much his idea of his worst nightmare.
In the car, he was making me a nervous wreck because he was speeding and driving like a mad man. 
We made the 20 minute drive to the hospital in just over 10.  We rushed in thinking this baby would be here any minute.
Apparently, that evening every other mother was going into labor as well because I had to wait in the waiting room for a delivery room for nearly two hours.  The nurses told me to come get them right away if I felt the urge to push. I thought, "Are you kidding me?" 
I was finally in a room and thought, "This is it! I'm going to have this baby now."  And then.....nothing.
Hours passed. More hours passed.  Finally 10 hours later, he decided to make his appearance. I'm sure the whole labor he was thinking, "I'll get there eventually.  No worries. La-de-da."
This is Colby completely. He just takes his time.  He never gets hurried or flustered.  Good for him.
Thing we love about you, Colb:
1. You ARE so laid back.  You don't get stressed or bogged down in details.  You take it all as it comes.  You'll probably live to be 100.
2.  You LOVE life.  You get so excited for anything fun in life.  You enjoy and are present in every minute and always find things to do to that make you happy.

3.  You'll try nearly anything which means you have made so many interests for yourself.  The standard stuff like sports and skiing to things like cooking and gardening.
We hope you have a wonderful 9th birthday and many, many more.  We love you.

White Orchids and White Kitchen

When we moved into our home a few years ago, the current trend was that if walls were white the room wasn't complete and having white walls was a complete waste of design potential.  Our previous home had white walls in every room except our boys' room, which we had painted a light blue. I've always, always loved white but after moving to our newly built home let myself get caught up in painting every room. Well, I have now gotten back to my roots so to speak. A couple of weeks ago I painted our breakfast nook it's original white and this weekend my husband and I tackled the rest of the kitchen-until we ran out of paint.  Even only partially complete I absolutely love it and am so very happy we did it.  The beige we had painted it turned out too peachy but even if it hadn't I would have wanted to go back to white.  It feels so fresh and crisp (and matches all the snow outside!)

 It is a Behr color, Swiss coffee, color-matched to Sherwin Williams No-VOC line.

 And it celebration of our white-again kitchen and to bring a little spring in since our latest snow storm and single-digit temperatures put the nix on our budding plants and plans to plant spring bulbs, I bought this lovely little orchid.

And placed it on our living room mantel.  I've had orchids in the past and have failed miserably in keeping them alive and/or reblooming.  But I've read up this time and with the proper light and fertilizer hope to keep this one for a long time. 

 Happy Spring!

Nevada Weather

Our home is at an elevation of 5000. This usually means February is a cold, cold month. This year, however, seemed to be a rare treat with last weekend temperatures in the high 60s. We worked in our yard, cleaning out winter debris, cutting back the plants that are cut back in spring and general tidying up.  I was incredibly excited to see our maple and flowering pear trees with tiny buds and my roses with new growth.  My boys even found their first ladybug of the season.
Then yesterday we woke up to this:

That picture above shows what's on the horizon.  Usually you can see all of the Sierra's from our front yard, but that is a storm rolling in.  All of this is, of course, nothing compared to what other areas of the country are experiencing and would not be post-worthy except that this means that all my budding trees, shrubs, bulbs and bushes are now frozen.  Ugh.  Last year, a storm just like this, after a warm period like we just had stunted my rose garden all summer long. But, I've lived here all my life, and I know that is Nevada weather.