Updated Home List

Just to make me feel better :)

 

2 items crossed - 19 items to go. 

Free Fabric!

Jeremy and I have been helping my mother-in-law clean out her home. She's planning on selling the house and moving to a new home but until we can get to that point, there's lots of cleaning up and organizing to do. 

A couple of weekends ago, we went over to her house to help her rearrange and organize her sewing room. She has tons of stuff. It's a DREAM!

In the process of cleaning out, guess who got tons of free fabric?! =D

Yay!  After we got home that day, I laid out all the fabric on the hallway... It looks busy since they are on top of the rug, but you can get an idea right?

That little horse my mom gave to me after she visited Thailand (I think). I love that horse. I'm just having a difficult time figuring out where to put it.

So with all this new, FREE, fabric I got I've been working on a little project! :) Should finish all the other ones I have, but I couldn't resist.

Guest Bedroom

Oh wow, I haven't updated this in ages!!

So school has started and I have been a busy bee with all the homework, quizzes and group projects! To top if off, I found out I had one more English class to take before I can graduate, so in addition to everything else, I now also have papers to write. Ugh... 

But on to happier news =) It's only 3 months until graduation and I CAN'T WAIT!! 

A few weeks ago, I was finally able to cross some items off of my list. That was a nice feeling.  I got around to finishing the curtain tie backs for the guest bedroom and sewing closed these white pillows my mom had helped me make. 

Here are the pillows laid on the bed =) That middle pillow was a gift my mother-in-law gave us to match our curtains.

 

 

And here are some pictures of the curtains and a close-up of the tie-backs! I LOVE this curtain. Some might think it's old-fashioned with the floral pattern but I think it's lovely and so romantic! 

And I love the little beads on the trim. Just a nice addition. =)

Finally, here are some pictures of the whole room. This guest bedroom has to be one of my favorite rooms in the house. There are a few things I still want to do with it such as add a new mirror (I think the one I have there is too small), change the knobs on the dresser, get another lamp, add a nicer lamp/fan and maybe add some small sized pictures.

Also, whenever we finally get our rocking chair done, I think it's going to go in this room as well on the right side of the dresser by the wall.

Hope you enjoy!

Don't know what those white spots on the photo are about. Could be our camera is getting old.

 

2010 Home Resolutions

Since 2009 is officially over, I decided to write down 'Home Resolutions' for 2010. I made a list of items that I would like to do/finish at home this year. Much like the reason I chose to begin blogging, I'm hoping that this list will keep me motivated throughout the year.

I'm also planning on creating a cleaning schedule with to-do items. I need to get better about cleaning the house on time and just doing a better job at keeping up with the laundry... Ai.

Here's my 2010 Home To Do List. 21 ITEMS!! That should keep me busy for a while.

Tonight I'm taking down our Christmas decorations. I was trying to wait until January 6th but I don't think I can make it any longer. This weekend the hubby and I just hung out and didn't get much done. But starting tonight, I will make myself a busy bee.

I'm hoping for a very productive 2010!

Happy New Year

Wishing everybody a 2010 filled with love, happiness and prosperity!

Santa's Goodies

This year Santa was very good to me and I am very appreciative of all the gifts I received. =)

One of my favorite smells ever is vanilla.  I love how it smells warm and sweet at the same time. Bath and Body works used to carry a Fresh Vanilla scent, which they now have discontinued. One time while visiting my sister, we stopped at a Bath and Body works store when they were having a sale. There I saw THREE bottles of my Fresh Vanilla scent which I love so much. I asked the sales lady again if it was really true that they were discontinuing this fragrance and she said "Yes". I bought all three bottles and have managed to make it last close to three years. Recently, I used up the last drop of my spray bottle. It was a sad day.

But this year, Santa got me a replacement =) My very own Vanilla Noir   body spray and body lotion.

I absolutely love this smell now. It's perfect. It is not as sweet as the Fresh Vanilla.  And hopefully Bath and Body works will continue this fragrance as long as they exist. I don't know how I will handle finding out another favorite fragrance was discontinued.

In addition, to my new favorite smell, Santa also gave me the 1995 version of... Pride and Prejudice.

:D YAY!!!

I LOVE Pride and Prejudice.  It is one of my favorite books. This version of the book is perfect because it follows the book much more closely than the newer version with Keira Knightly. In fact, this version pretty much follows the book word per word. =) It's wonderful! =) It's like I get to read the book all over again - no parts are skipped or combined.

I have watched the first DVD. That's right, there were TWO DVDs that came with it. =)

I plan on finishing the second one this week. 

I must have been a very good girl this year, because not only did I get a new body spray and body lotion, the Pride and Prejudice  DVDs, but Santa also got me a Mill Hill cross-stitch pattern of Rudolph, the Red Nose Reindeer.  =)

Yesterday I most of the embroidery floss I need for the pattern and started working on it straight away. I can't wait to finish it. And then next year during Christmas I will be able to take it out and have it as part of our Christmas decorations. 

I have discovered, Santa also pays lots of attention. A few weeks ago when walking around the mall, Jeremy and I came across this little kiosk selling little toy animals that did all kinds of tricks. They walked, made noises and flipped!! That's right, a full, 360 degrees flip. I was amazed and smitten by the cute little toy puppies they had at the kiosk. And guess what Santa also got me?  A flip-over puppy!! =D  I have it sitting on my night stand now. It's sooo cute.

Lastly, but not least, Santa visited us a little early. Two weeks ago we received a package from The Popcorn Factory with the most wonderful Christmas tin inside, filled with flavored popcorn!

The tin we received had a snowmen design. I love holiday popcorn tins! What a better gift then one that is yummy and useful at the same time? My favorite popcorn flavor: Jalapeno! Yummy.

I am very grateful for all the wonderful gifts I received this year. I certainly was not expecting this much generosity, but I feel very blessed for it.

Merry Christmas

Wishing everybody a Merry Christmas!!! =)

May we count our blessings and enjoy the company of family and friends.

 And here's to hoping Santa brings us all lots of gifts.

Christmas Tree

A picture of our Christmas Tree. =) No presents were there on the day we took this picture, but today we have a couple. Jeremy and I decided to do something very small, so we each just got each other a little something.

The picture is not of the best quality, but you can get an idea.

My plan for the Christmas Tree next year, is to build our little village, make a new  tree skirt, and maybe some do some ribbons around the tree?  I really love Shanty2Chic's idea of a tree skirt. I might try it out next year in white cloth.

I love coming home from work and having the tree lit up. It just makes the house feel so cozy and it helps with the holiday spirit. =)

Ornament Making Part II

Another idea I got from the wonderful Martha Stewart was to make Christmas ornaments out of old greeting cards. Every year, I save the greeting cards we receive during Christmas in a file folder I keep in our filing cabinet. So this was a perfect idea because I knew we had plenty of cards.

First, I selected the greeting cards I thought would make the best ornaments. I chose the ones with lots of color and glitter. Then, following Martha's directions I traced circles onto the back of the greeting cards (I improvised and used the top of a candle jar to trace the circles). After that, I drew a triangle onto cardboard, cut it out and traced the triangle inside the circle, centered as much as possible.

I cut out the circles and folded along the edges of the triangles. Once you are done cutting and folding, you simply glue the folded edges together making two halves of an ornament. It took me four circles to make each half. You then glue the bottom and top folded edges of halves together to make one ornament! =) I pierced a hole on the top and ran a piece of ribbon through and tied the edges in a knot.  In total, I traced 16 circles. Each ornament used 8 circle cutouts, so I had a total of 2 ornaments finished. Also, if you want your ornaments to look more round, use 5 circle cutouts for each half.

This was a super simple and easy project and I think the ornaments turned out great! It's personal and you get to use all those greeting cards you accumulate over the years.

Ornament Making Part I

I always grew up with "themed" Christmas trees. Each year, my mom would have a new theme: a white Christmas, a wild west Christmas, a pink Christmas, etc... While I think having a theme for Christmas decorations is great and very pretty, when Jeremy and I were getting ready for our first Christmas together we decided we wanted to just create a theme of our own memories.

We want to have ornaments that reflect our lives and our history and we want to build up our ornament collection so that one day each ornament we have has a personal meaning to us.  So this particular weekend, we got busy with ornament making! =)

My first project was making a ornament that reflected the fact that I play the piano. So I chose to make a Clave de Sol  - no idea how to say it in English, but that's what it looks like. I first practiced drawing it on cardboard to get the shape and size correctly and how I wanted it. I cut that up and transferred the profile onto a foamboard. The foamboard is much better than a corrugated cardboard. It is solid and much easier to cut.

After cutting around the profile, I covered one side at a time with glue and glued on a cutout of sheet music I had at the house. After it dried, I put glue around the edges and covered it with glitter. We then made a "1" the same way to represent our one year wedding anniversary, which Jeremy and I just celebrated this past weekend :)  We used our wedding dinner menu, and it turned out really great I think. You can even see our wedding date on the bottom of the "1" which was totally not planned, but I love that it came out that way.

Here you can see the ornaments hanging on our tree.

Let It Snow, Let it Snow!

A couple of weeks ago in Houston, we were blessed with some snow! =) The grass and roofs of houses were covered in white Too bad we were at work to take some pictures of what the house looked like during the day. But here are some pictures of what was left of it at night.

Too bad we don't get enough snow to have a white Christmas. Nevertheless, this was enough snow to put us all in they holiday spirit! :)

Dinner Table

The dinner table you see on the post below was originally a cherry-stained, drop-leaf table.

Jeremy and I bought it at an auction for $90.00! =) We thought it was great deal. Being a drop-leaf, the table was a little awkward for sitting. The legs came out at an angle so that they sat diagonally and you couldn't properly fit 6 chairs around it.

Our plan was always to remove the legs, and re-attach them straight. So with plans to have Thanksgiving at our home, we finally got around to work on it. I actually, Jeremy did all the work - I just picked out the colors!

Here it is, primed and with four legs reattached at right angles.

And here it is at our dining room the night before Thanksgiving. :)  Unfortunately, we didn't take a picture before we set the table, but you can kind of see the legs and top of the table. We chose to paint it two different colors. The legs are painted a shade of grayish brown, and the top ivory.

I love how the table turned out. =)

It's Been a While

Since I have updated the blog.  With school and work, I haven't found the time to sit down and write. But now with only two finals away from being free until next semester, I can finally catch up on all that's been happening.

First, Thanksgiving. Yeah, I know... It's almost Christmas but I will talk about it anyway :)

We spent Thanksgiving at our house. My mother-in-law and brother-in-law came over. My brother spent Thanksgiving with his girlfriend's family, so in all there were only four of us.

Jeremy was in charge of the turkey. We also had dressing, broccoli and parsnips, bread rolls and of course, sweet mashed potatoes with marshmallows on top.  Here's what our table looked like:

For desert, we were a bit untraditional and didn't make any pies. Instead I made a pavet. It's a Brazilian recipe I have. Jeremy swears it tastes just like tiramisu. One thing we agree on, it's really, really good. =)

I'm very proud of our first Thanksgiving at home. It was simple and we managed to have everything ready on time. But most importantly, it was delicious. :-)

Create Your Own Font!

The things you do when you're bored at work...

I found this really cook website: fontcapture.com that allows you to create your own font and download it to your computer.

It's super easy and fast, I think it only took me 10 minutes max to do it all and now I have my own font downloaded into my computer that mimics my own handwriting.

Isn't it neat? Now, I wish I knew how to make it available to write on the blog with it. It's pretty similar. If you're bored, you should definitely give it a try.

 

Anything BUT School

There are 6 weeks left until this semester is over. I can not wait!!! One more semester after that and I am finished with college. Oh the sweet relief when it's all over and I don't have to worry about exams, homework, quizzes or projects. A lot of people tell me "You will miss college. Once you are out into the "real world" you will want to be back in school." 

What does that mean anyway, the "real world"? As far as I'm concerned I've been living in the real work since I was 17, working and going to school. So yes, to be done with school will be a relief and I can not ever picture myself missing the tedious hours in the classrooms, or the awful professors and the endless busy work. Burnt out much?! Yes. 

So here I am 6 weeks from finishing my second to last semester in school and I can not concentrate. Two exams, a project, three homeworks and quiz due this week and all I want to do is crawl into bed and read a book. This one in particular:

I LOVE Jane Austen's novels. And Pride and Prejudice is my favorite. I started to read it again this weekend. :) It's wonderful and I just get lost in it. 

Now, I wish I hadn't started to read it again, because it is all I want to do.  

My project to do list is not getting any smaller, the list of things to do at the house just keep piling up AND I have exams to study for!!! Pride and Prejudice should be the last thing on my mind right now. Alas, all I can think about is Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth! 

Oh what do you do when you can't concentrate?!?! I was almost tempted to bring the book to work today but thought that would not be very professional and left it at home. Tonight I will have to study for my exam - I will have to set Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth aside again :(  In all actuality, that's what I should do until school is out.  So I will try my best! 

On a more productive note, I have to post pictures of my cross-stitch "project" I finished! :) Well, I should clarify. The cross-stitching part of it is finished but I'm not yet sure what to do with it... More on that later.