A Seussical Baby shower!

I am about to be an aunt to a little girl, so we took time off from the house to put together a baby shower.  Here are some pictures of the, "Oh, the Places You'll Go" Dr. Seuss baby shower, including lots of appearances from the Lorax. 

 

"Oh, the Places You'll Go" colored cake.  This is a classic petal cake, which there are tons of tutorials for online if you want to make one. The stand is made from an old chandelier, and around the cake are multi-colored homemade butter mints.

This is the Mommy seat, so she could be comfortable while opening gifts.  Yes, I made the hat.  :)

Amy behind her gift table wearing her fancy new hat.

Drink and plate table.

Here are all the food tables.

Here is a close up of the balloons that we hung from the ceiling.  They were made from construction paper, ribbons, and the baskets were mini cupcake liners.  Also, yes, those are multi-colored table cloths from the Dollar Tree.

Picture corner with Mom-to-be.

And a lovely young lady showing off the Lorax mustaches.

Here was the invitation.

My orange and white library!

A few of our rooms are coming together nicely.  We finished painting the library (thank you all my helpers) and I have my curtains all picked out.  I wanted an orange and white library, and it is incredibly hard to find orange and white curtains, but I lucked across exactly what I was looking for at the fabric store and bought enough yards for two windows and some throw pillows.  Here is what it looks like so far:

Here is the fabric that started it all.  It is a bright mandarin orange color on a linen type white fabric.

The color looks great in person, I promise.  I am not usually a fan of extremely neutral walls, but the plan is to paint all the trim work bright white (it is a light beige now), add the bright curtains, change out the light fixture for something more contemporary, bright white book shelves, sitting chairs, and lots of map art.

Coming soon, pictures of the process of changing out the columns in the front of the house.  Hopefully, they will be finished by the end of this weekend!  Wish us luck!

Playing Outside

We have been really excited to watch as things have started to blossom so we can learn what we have growing in our yard.  Here are a few of our discoveries:

Small Azalea Bushes in front of the front porch.

Pink Dogwoods as you enter the drive way.

3 Fig trees...

...that are starting to have tiny figs on them.

And last but not least, apparently this is a fruit baring olive tree.  I can try my hand at canning olives and even make my own olive oil!

On to other things, there are a few spots of rotten wood outside of our house, so that has been a priority project.   Since my husband works a lot but I don't feel 100% comfortable up a ladder and such, so it is coming along slowly but surely.  Here are a few pictures of the rotten wood on the side of the house and the progress we have made on replacing it:

Rotting under eave of carport.

David pulling it down.  In parts it just fell apart when he grabbed it.

He is a good sport.

Here it is when he has a large section torn down.  Luckily, it looks worse than it was.  From here, he replaced what he could of the 2x6s, pulled out any of the rotten wood, and put a new facing up.

Almost finished!!!  Before and after pics will come when it is complete.

Fixing the walls!

The people who lived here before us must have been the most picture hangin'est people that ever lived, because there were those little holes everywhere.  We dusted the walls, used that wonderful putty that starts pink and dries white, sanded like crazy people, and have started to paint the walls with primer.  This is when things start to get exciting because I can start picking wall colors!

In the living room looking into the library.

One of the walls in the living room...

In the library looking out into the living room. (Shelves to come later).

Looking into the library.  Most walls are flat, but one little wall is textured.  I kinda like it... :)

Coating the library with primer.

Back in the living room, looking at the outside wall of the library and the entrance way to the right.

Our house, in the middle of our street.

So, here is our little fixer upper!  I use the word little very lightly, because the house is huge.  It was born in 1946 and has been dubbed "Murder House," by our friend Brittnie because of the multiple huge closets that twist and turn and crazy big hidden rooms, like the walk in laundry room with the large sink in it and the big work shop with a drain in the floor.  It is much bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside, which is crazy because it looks big on the outside.  This is going to be a big change for me, coming from apartment or townhouse living over the last decade, but I am looking forward to the challenge, and the closet space!

Anyhoo... Here is the highlights tour!  Plenty of pictures will follow, but here is a good start. First, the picture taken from the real estate listing, taken when the yard is green and nice:

And here is when we went to look at it, in the dead of winter...

Mother in law suite

 

Livingroom

Kitchen

Den

And, of course, the sink in the laundry room.

The beginning of renovating a 1940s house...

So... we bought a house!

My husband and I have been wanting to buy a house now for quite some time, but finding THE house has taken quite a lot of time.  Though you can’t always get absolutely everything you want, our perfect house would have lots of storage, parking, a great big kitchen, privacy from neighbors, a place for the dogs to run, a nice sized guest room, and a walk in laundry room.  Then again, who doesn’t want all that?  On top of everything else, we wanted somewhere that was interesting and unique.

Who would have ever thought we could, but we found it!  It is definitely a fixer upper, but the coolest house ever.  It has 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths, a large kitchen, and a walk in laundry room, and a carport, and on the other side of the carport is a guest house with another full bedroom and another full kitchen.  It was built in the 1940s and still has an old house feel, with pillars and lots of old house quirk, but in the way we really love. 

So, here it is… a way to keep up with us as we update our new home.  I have always boasted that I can build or fix anything as long as I have access to a glue gun, so now is the time to prove it.  Pictures and projects will follow.