Can you believe this? They are at it again! Tearing things up, stinky paint, noisy equipment, long discussions over color, why? What is the point?

They took the toilet out and tore up the carpet. Again, why? Just because it was white carpet and stained . . . whatever.

Like painting it all white and clean is so important. And, you want to know what? They aren’t even done with it. White isn’t enough . . . they are painting it green over the white. Does that make sense to you?

And, the name of the color . . . Reptilian. Seriously, paint should be named something beautiful like Lark’s Meadow not Reptilian . . . creepy!

So, all the nice soft carpet is gone now and instead, hard, nasty tile. How weird is that?

Remember the noisy equipment I mentioned . . . here’s the latest noisy equipment they felt we needed to have around. A tile saw. You can’t imagine the noise. I’m sure the golfers liked it. I now it drove the squirrels away and who do I chase when the squirrels stay away?

They say they still aren’t done. Something about grout after the tile adhesive dries. Will this nightmare never end?

I hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving this year!  I had one of the best, I made White Enchiladas from thepioneerwoman.com and they couldn’t have been better.  We had leftovers but those were quickly gone! I made some great sides and we had a giant meal.  I can’t remember liking Thanksgiving food as much as I did this year and it only took about two hours from start to finish to cook for the two of us.

This great picture of interior designer Charlotte Moss outside of her home in Aspen is a huge inspiration to me right now.  We’re thinking ahead to next year and what we want to do with the yard and deck.  Unfortunately we didn’t get to use our deck that much this year, and it needs some new railing since the old railing has rotted.  I’d love to be able to use it year-round, but to that we’ve got a long list of improvements we will need to make, not the least of which is getting some seating out there for us to use!

On the planning side, we also started thinking about a way to use the basement more effectively.  Right now it’s a storage place for boxes and whatever the previous home owners left for us.  We’d really like to make it comfortable down there, even if it just winds up being used for storage.

This week at the Gingerbread house we did more than just plan and stuff ourselves full of food.  James and I took advantage of the long weekend to clean up and take some of the still considerable number of boxes down into the basement for storage.  My office is coming along nicely, we’ve got it a bit more organized and my corkboard has been hung on the wall.  There’s still some painting to do in there and we have to figure out what to do with the floor since the lino underneath the carpet is cracked and coming out.

The kitchen got a surprise coat of paint yesterday.  I had some paint out in the right color and I found these nifty little rollers I got when I ordered some paint samples – they even came with a little tray!  So using that I was able to do some edge and detail work in the kitchen that I have been putting off.

My paint samples are back from when I painted my living room coffee table last year and I had just enough of the purple accent color I used to paint the doorway in the upstairs bathroom.  It’s a welcome splash of color since that bathroom was all white.  The color makes an impact but isn’t overwhelming.

Our Christmas tree is up with lights on but not decorated.  My mom said she would send us a box of her old ornaments, so I’ve been waiting on that box instead of trying to find my own ornaments right away.  The living room is so festive, even with our almost nude tree that it feels like Christmas time in there before you even see the tree.  This weekend stockings got hung and some decorations were put out.  I can’t wait to get that box from my mom!

Here’s to a great week!

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i actually put in a lot of effort to memorize whatever stupid things bbs said today but at the end of the day, it seems i’ve forgotten it all. the only thing i remember is

me : i’m so tired. i think i’m gg to dedicate the whole of tmr to studying.
stuart : i think tmr… i’m going to dedicate … a song.

ohhh and ben made cookies today. he followed nigella’s recipe. they were really good. he’s gg to create a new cooking show cause he wants to copy martha stewart and name it

“if ben can cook, so can you”

there’s gg to be an “ask ben” corner so be sure to prepare sm stupid questions for him to solve.

anyway i’m super tired from laughing and going out so much. and i’m making myself more cranky watching big bang live performances because i wanted to give them another chance, since i used to be crazy about them 2 years ago. damn. i just can’t seem to like them anymore. the quality of their live performances scream “mediocre” to me and pale in comparison to dbsk’s. seungri can barely sing, and his dancing is less than stellar compared to yunho’s. daesung is better but he screws up a lot and its very clear when he makes mistakes. taeyang’s the best singer out of the 3 but he (just like the other 2) like to cheat while they’re singing and make the crowd sing their lines for them. freaking cheapo please. i would give praise to gdragon because his rapping is unique, he’s cute, and his live performance is good. i don’t understand why everyone thinks t.o.p’s hot when he looks like an ape. and his voice gets so hoarse i don’t even know what thefuck he’s rapping about. and some people say, he’s the best rapper in korea. wow my ass please. epik high owns them hands them. check out the special stage big bang shared with epik high and t.o.p couldn’t even keep up with epik high’s rapping speed. how zzzz.

anyway i wannasleep. im really tired~

We’ve done a lot of work on the house so far. I am currently getting together pictures to share it with you.  So come on in and take a look.

Come on into the living room and have a seat.  We’ve got plenty of books and this is the most comfortable (and closest to complete) room in the house.

Oh  here’s the door to my office.  It’s not ready yet – still some carpet to take out and lots of boxes to unpack.

Here are some before shots of my house to put it in perspective.

This is the wall where the couch is now.  These are the listing photos.

This is the back wall of the living room where we have the shelves for our books.

More to come soon!

“deck the halls with
boughs of holly…
’tis the season to be jolly.”

Drayton Hall (front)

Drayton Hall (inside)

Drayton Hall (back)

I am very excited to get the proof for this card back from the printer tomorrow.  These cards were completed upon special request from Drayton Hall in Charleston, SC and will be sold in the gift shop there.  If you are not familiar with Drayton Hall, you can learn more about it here.  The house is considered to be one of the finest examples of Georgian-Palladian Architecture in the United States while the plantation and grounds embody one of the most undisturbed historic landscapes in the country.  I highly encourage the history and architecture buffs among you to visit when you are in the Charleston area.

Driving out to Drayton Hall and riding around the plantation grounds last week reminded me of my own historic research of the Rosewell Plantation in Gloucester, Viriginia.  I always found it incredibly interesting to read through the old letters and journals of the family who lived at Rosewell and learn of their activities years ago on the plantation.  I love to think and wonder about the hundreds of years of holiday seasonal activities and traditions that took place throughout this South Carolina property and am pleased to offer the staff and friends of this National Historic Site a tribute to yet another well-preserved holiday season at Drayton Hall.

This is an example of a much more tasteful version of a Griswold Family Holiday Card that we can create from a photo of your home if you are interested.

If you have not visited our ONLINE PRINTSHOP, please do.  Thanksgiving Cards (that can also double as nice everyday or thank-you notes) and of course Santa’s “Nice and Naughty Lists” Custom Letter Cards are still available.

Drayton Hall (detail)

Oh, I see you’re still sleeping on white sheets beneath a white duvet. Interesting choice. Who do you think you are, Kelly Hoppen? I have seen the future and it is…. Mismatched bedlinen. So rustic, so thrifty, so boho. I love it. These candy-stripe pillows are from Toast, and I covet them.

I myself, in the past, was a white-only linen nut, but I bought some floral pillowcases from Toast last Christmas. And then, when at home, spied some duck-egg coloured cotton sheets (probably pre-war) in my mother’s mighty linen closet, which I knew would just go so perfectly…. Now I revel in my tastefully tonal pillows and sheets.  Matching white linen is so boutique hotel. So WAG. Instead I’m pouring over the Toast brochure and referencing log cabins and slightly creaky old bedsteads.

Here is a sample from my room, complete with a candy stripe cushion I just made from a remnant – get me! Note the less than excited face of the cat – AKA the anti-stylist – who wasn’t moving just for a photo. The whole look is now accessorised with a large patch of black fur. Oh relax. Like I said, it’s boho.

OK, so it’s a huge trend – still. Printed posters of slogans with a retro, self-improving feel in pretty colours. But is it just me or are these posters more than a little bossy in tone? I can see it looks beautiful – no one is more obsessed with mustard yellow accessories than me – but isn’t there something up with the logic of this Bold and Noble ‘Live Off The Land’ print? It’s £38, which if you actually were trying to live off the land, Good Life style, might seem a bit steep. You could buy twenty bags of mulch for that. (I made that up.)

Not to mention the now ubiquitous Keep Calm, the 21^st century equivalent of a FCUK t-shirt. Whenever I see one I feel like I’m moments from being hectored into cooking with powdered egg by a member of the local WI.

There’s something a bit creepy about having words put in your mouth. Much better to get yourself something unique to you, as I demonstrate in my own word poster below. A headline taken from a paper that amused me at the time, I stuck it in a cheap frame and left it in a cupboard, until I stumbled on it years later and laughed for half an hour. It says ‘Police to monitor Notting Hill Carnival dressed as Rastafarians’. Maybe I should get it printed on a tea towel…

Home decorating is definitely not one of my strengths.  I have lived in my house for 3 1/2 years, and for most of it have been trying to figure out what to do with my living room.  It has really high ceilings, so it feels too open and not cozy enough to me.  After lots of thinking and color swatches, I have finally decided on a shade of green that I love.  This week I had more open time with my new work schedule and actually managed to paint two walls, the wall by my stairs and behind my piano.  I also got back the family pictures we had taken by Rachel O’Neil, which I love and am really excited about.  I’ll post them when I get the digital copies, but I’ve already hung the boys pictures up the stairs and just that and the paint already makes the living room feel more homey.

So while sitting in the living room and thinking, I had an idea.  I could put crown molding around the room at the height of a normal ceiling and just paint the green below it.  That would make the room feel cozier and more grounded I think.  It also makes my painting job feel much more manageable when I’m not thinking about going all the way up to the ceiling yet, though I’d eventually want to paint that part too, in maybe a light tan or something.  But until I can manage to get crown molding put in, I’m thinking of just painting anyway and stopping on a straight line.  The trick is where to put the line (and eventually the crown molding).  I made a few videos showing how my walls are and why I’m a little stumped on what to do.  I repeat myself a little bit, but hopefully it makes sense.  Hopefully someone can help me figure this out so I can finally get something done in there after all this time.  (Some of you know how long this project has been in the works, ha ha.)  Or feel free to tell me that my whole idea won’t work or any potential problems you see!

Last years was was 3.5 hours this was an improvement.

***
I can’t wait til my new camera comes – I want to post more good quality pictures of Sally

“Been there, Done that”

Alpha Phi Omega Service Fraternity (Theta Chapter)

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I always feel like I’m a sucker for making big decisions.

Say for example, choosing the right course for me in college. I was still in Letran Calamba but my mind was set for BA Philosophy in UP Diliman. Sadly, we might have some difficulties financially if I were to study in the  Metropolis so I opted for UP Los Baños. I filled my form and wrote UPLB as my first (and only) choice. Philosophy was not yet offered then at UPLB. It was later offered but it didn’t quite make good reviews so it was later slashed. So sad. Diliman, they believe, is the better venue for Philosophy.

Since I was Editor-in-Chief in our school paper (I transferred school in Fourth Year, business was really bad for us then), one of my three aunts in UPLB suggested BS Development Communication, a course offered in the College of Agriculture. There were four Majors to choose from : Journalism, Broadcasting, Educational Communication, and the newly offered Science Communication-Journalism (later the Journalism part was slashed). The Institute of Development Communication was later promoted to the College of Development Communication.

It was really funny because there were talks then that BS DevCom would supposedly be tied with BA Communication Arts, which is under the College of Arts and Sciences, to create a new College. The new College would  supposedly be named the College of Communication. Everyone was mum about it and it didn’t push through. I think it was for the best since the students of the said courses didn’t quite get along with each other.

Problem was, I overlooked BA Sociology when I was browsing the list of courses in UPLB. My aunt was so sure I would do well in DevCom that my hesitations were never heard nor noticed. I regret that. People should speak up if they feel that they’re not comfortable with something. Being polite is far different from being stupid.

So it came to pass that I opted to apply for UP Los Baños as my first (and only choice) and BS DevCom as my first (and only choice) for my degree.

Did I regret my decision? Not really. We learn from our mistakes and I would not meet the wonderful people I know if I opted to take another road.

I believe that people should try to be optimistic in life. I can’t believe that most people tend not to look at the bright side and always focus on things that make life such a bitch.

I really suck in making choices and doing big decisions, but who cares, I don’t. I just tell myself that I would do great things and leave myself a great mark in history. Whatever that is. hahaha

Moral of the story? Nothing much  really.

Just live with your mistakes and hope (plus act) for the best.

Finally got around to installing my new blinds, solo style. Quite the improvement, wouldn’t you say?

$1200 to repair my fireplace. Guess who is getting an electric insert?

It really isn’t fair. I was looking forward to burning some wood. But oh well, I’ll get by. An electric insert looks pretty much real anyway. Could be worse I suppose… it could be leaking!

We haven’t come to a complete stop on our work at the Gingerbread House, but compared to the frenzied work of before, it almost feels like it.  It’s a welcome break – to just be able to go at your own pace without danger of tripping over something or not being able to find anything.

Last week we worked on a lot of smaller projects, some unpacking went on, bits of painting here and there, carpenters came out to look at our poor first floor bathroom which needs a huge amount of work since our trubbles.  Our basement has been professionally cleaned since the waste water went into it and the first floor bathroom was disinfected and it’s looking pretty good now.  If we get a chance this would be the perfect time to go down into the basement and prime the floor and lay down some tile.  If we get a chance.

Winter is coming.  You can feel it even now as we have some of the most beautiful weather ever.  It will be cold and snowy eventually and I don’t know where we will be in terms of projects.  We have a list of projects so that James and I can remember what we’ve discussed and which projects we need to tackle next.  I’m sure this list will take us well into next year and that sounds pretty good to me.

My picture today is from Metropolitan Home.  I liked how this room felt and was open to the outside.  Sometimes the most comfortable rooms aren’t any one kind of decor.

I finally found it! After searching for years for the perfect rug for my living room, I found it. It is ”Dash and Albert’s” new pattern called Circle Fret Wool Tufted. It is the perfect combination of a soft, taupy grey and a neutral cream. I love then pattern because it is not to modern and not to traditional. Oh, and it is so soft!!

It will get me energized to post all my fun Halloween pictures from the super fun party I had tonight

This is my Home .. see the Satellite map below:

Satellite Map Location of My Home

Click on the map to enlarge

Thank you

See you later

Bye