Eclectic

I really love looking at other people's decorating styles, & I admire the Scandanavian style all white clean crisp home, but I think that it would make me crazy. I have always had a love for color & lots of it! When I see something I like for my house, I don't ever worry too much about whether it will match. I like what I like, and sooner or later it will all fit together. I guess that's the eccentric eclectic artist in me talking. (pictured above) Ralphie likes my colorful plaid winter quilt & the tissue paper that was in my Valentine's bag from Jon.


Took this picture with my iPhone, but it is my latest painting I decided to make a fun crazy quilt.

My Romero Britto Coasters make me smile!

This box reminds me of my trip to Europe with pictures from Paris, Rome, & London on it.

These muy fantastico silouette book ends were my latest splurg at Target.
As a little girl Garfield was my FAVORITE cartoon & I was obsessed with him. My mom got these when I was still young & they were always in her kitchen until about a year ago. Now they live on my kitchen countertop.

For some reason I think this little cow creamer is the epitomy of classic kitchen heritage. I don't know why, but the moment I saw this little thing I had to have it.

This little picture has always been a motto of mine... If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change the way you look at it! I'm always changing things up a bit here and there. With the help of a box of butterfly wallies, a bright shower curtain, & shuffling a few things around in the house my bathroom is now a bright butterfly theme.

Hip Hip Horray for Snow Day!

We have been loving this beautiful snow, and I have been enjoying having Jon at home with me & all the pets. We got 7.5 inches of snow yesterday! Yes we were skeptical when we heard the weather forecasters, so no we didn't go all nuts buying groceries. Unfortunately I am the world's worst grocery shopper. Seriously, ask Jon I'm the type of person that ought to live in London because when I do go to the grocery store I don't want to have to get anything other than the BARE Necessities or the exact ingredients of what I'm cooking! Unfortunately this does not make for fun snacks or meals on a snowy day. This morning we were down to yogurt, tomato sauce, cream cheese, and the last of a loaf of banana nut bread so I had no choice but to slip & slide on over to the grocery store. Hope those of you who got snow are staying bundled up & cozy.

The News from Team Trammell

I love Fall! Fresh cool breezes, crunchy leaves, pumpkins, roasting marshmallows at night in the fire pit, candy corn. Maybe I love fall so much because I'm a Halloween baby (it cracks me up when I'm checking out somewhere and the cashier asks to see my driver's license & then says, "Did you know your Birthday's on Halloween?"... Seriously this happens pretty often, and I always say, "Yeah, it's great," but for some reason the inner smart allec wants to say something like, "No??? Really?!?!"). Anyways, I've been doing everything in my power to will the season to change. I don't like summer in Texas, it's hot, it's humid, oh and did I say it's HOT? So a couple days ago I put my fall wreath on the door and changed out my yard flag to one with Labradors & Ducks. My Mom gave me a very early 27th Birthday Present so I could start getting some use out of it, it's a new beautiful quilt for Fall & Winter to put on our bed. I am so in love with the thing, I almost asked Jon if we could sleep in the guest bedroom the first night after I put it on so we wouldn't mess it up. I didn't actually ask, but I thought about it.

If by some chance you notice the shaw wrapped around my bed post it is not there for decoration, I've discovered it is the best way to keep my shoulers & arms warm while I read at night before getting under the covers.

Tonight we watched the new movie Killers. I wasn't really expecting much, but I ended up really enjoying it. It was really cute, and Ashton Kutcher is always funny. It is going on my list of shows that I will watch again. You know how some shows are good, but once is enough, and some you could watch over and over... I've got to watch it again to pick up on some of the funnies.

I gave myself a pedicure tonight & painted my toenails a neon pink called Pink Voltage by China Glaze. I can't tell you how awesome that stuff is, it goes on so smooth and dries super fast! I'm not saying I'll never have another "professional" pedicure, but I really have an issue with giving someone $25 to sit there and hurt me, and talk about me in some other language to the person sitting right beside them... Before I go back to the Pedi Parlor I need to learn how to say "Fine talk all you want, because after the torture you've put me through I don't exactly like you that much either!" in Mandarin.

Our House

When you purchase an older, or perhaps I should call it a "Vintage" home, you should be prepared for a bit of the unexpected. In a lot of ways buying a house is a lot like getting married... You don't really know what you've gotten yourself into until the ink has dried! When we bought our house in April of 2006 we were totally excited, and everything looked like happily ever after, without requiring more than a couple buckets of paint to suit our tastes. Then after 1 month the pipe under the kitchen decided to bust (and of course it was late at night!) I screamed for Jon who was alread in bed, and started grabbing towels and the mop bucket. He had to run out of the house in his underwear, with a flashlight, and a pair of pliers to try to find the shut off valve! I did the totally rational thing, and sat in the floor crying and mopping up water as it sprayed all over me and my night gown.

Then in July 2006, ahh we all "LOVE" July in Texas! The air conditioner completely bit the dust. In case you wonder what a new indoor and outdoor unit run these days that would be 5 big ones, and I'm not talking about Benjamins. I'm talking about $5000!

When we got our house that April, part of the deal was that the previous owners had to put a new roof on it, and to our great "delight" August 2006 we had a horrendous hail storm which resulted in new roof #2. I think Jon and I are trying for a world record on roofs because in the 4 years we have lived here, we have gotten 3 new roofs. Gotta LOVE those Texas hail storms!

Then we had our enormous beloved dogwood in the backyard to fall on the roof of our screened in porch during yet another storm.

We've changed out all of the flooring, redone all of the landscaping, all of the light fixtures, got a new dishwasher, replaced every single cabinet handle, both of the toilets, bathroom fixtures, epoxy grit painted the garage floor, blown in new insulation, and tiled the front and back porch. I would have never thought we would have done so much to this place, but in the end it has been worth it. Jon and I have so many memories that we can look back on, and laugh about. We've added our own personal touches to everything, and every room has a story.

There is one thing that we had planned on changing, but decided to leave the same... the oven and stove. When we first looked at the house, we both looked at eachother and said, "Those are going to have to GO!" Now neither of us would want to trade them in if Lowe's promised to give us new ones for free (unless of course we're talking about a new free beautiful Viking range, and then we'll talk). I love my olive green General Electric oven and stove! There, I said it. They are 50 years old, and they still work like the day they were made. I don't know anyone else who still has their retro appliances, so that makes them unique. I just hope they keep on working another 50 years. Wouldn't that be something? Yes there are 3 doggie gates stacked up because it is the only way to keep our wild & crazy Zipper cat out of the formal dining room, and we don't want to loose the light that comes in from there.

Oh, and I have to share with you guys a blog that I am loving. There's No Place Like Home! I got her cute little tag with the red shoes, so you can just click on it, and go straight to it. Dina, who write it, has got the coolest decorating ideas I've ever seen! Her old house had an all colored rainbow checker board painted back deck... Gasp! Who would have ever thought to do such a thing... for me it was Love at First Sight! Here is a picture of her kitchen... I showed it to Jon tonight, and gave him the fair warning. "Honey I'm thinking about painting the kitchen cabinets." He simply laughed and said, "Just tell me what color."

If you Need an Idea go to IKEA

I went to the IKEA in Frisco for the first time last weekend. That place has everything you could ever need to organize and decorate. Plus the best part is it is cheap, and they have a lot of really cool stuff that looks like Pottery Barn. It isn't just for girls either, Jon spotted lots of cool stuff that would be great in his shop & our garage. I had to have the tray above. It was just too cute to pass up. They also had some of the cutest office organizer things. Now my Victoria magazines are all organized instead of laying in stacks in an old trunk. The only thing they have that isn't so awesome is their mattresses, and they are beyond terrible. You should never be able to roll up a mattress, that is if you have any plans on sleeping on it! A few years ago, I would have never even thought to look at their mattresses, but now that it's what puts the butter on my bread I have a whole new appreciation. You can go to IKEA for everything else, but when you want a great mattress you've got to go to Mattresses USA! ;)

3 Cheers for the White Fireplace!

In my recent Pupitre you can catch a glimpse of the fireplace in its former brickiness. We've lived in our house for a little over 4 years, and it has nagged me, "Should I paint it, Should I leave it alone?" Saturday before Jon came home I decided "This is it, no turning back, I'm painting it."

I didn't tell Jon that I was about to start on this venture. I'm fiercely independant, and I love being able to do "Man" things around the house. I single handedly tiled and grouted our formal dining room, I laid the tile in the kitchen and laundry room, I broke out the old tile in the bathroom on my own, I ripped the carpet up in several rooms, and hauled it to the street. So Jon is no stranger to walking in on me in the midst of an extreme home makeover. I was a little worried about this project because in the past Jon had been a real advocate for leaving it alone, so I was happy when he walked in and said, "That's going to look good!"

I'm happy, now I'm just trying to decide what color I want to repaint the living room. Word to the wise- "a lovely buttery yellow" will wear you out! I promise for some reason everyone I know that has painted a room or two yellow agrees it's just not a color that you want to be stuck looking at for the rest of your life.

Isn't that a cute skinny couple in our picture of Jon proposing to me? I thought we were going out to Timothy's for a nice dinner, so Mom was taking pictures, I had no idea he was about to pop the question, and I'm so glad he'd told Mom so she could be there to take pictures as it happened! Mom also painted the rose I have over the fireplace. She's so talented!

Caio for Now!

Pupitre

Pupitre- if you were in Senor Houff's Spanish class at PG, then you know what it is without me telling you, but for the no habla espanol group out there it means "a student desk." I bought this baby for a whopping $5 at the Salvation Army one day. At the time I really had no idea what in the world I would do with it, but I thought... When I was a kid I would have killed for one of these things to play with because I was one of those kids that wanted to play with the real stuff (I swiped countless syringes (needle less of course), tongue blades, and band aids from Dad's office to play doctor) I had a real typewriter to play office (which is actually what I first learned to type on), and of course there was everything in the kitchen to play grocery store. I'm almost certain that the one thing missing that would have made my childhood fantasies come true would be a real school desk. For $5 how could I pass it up? At the very least I could keep it for when we have kids one day. However, this week I have found a spot in the corner of the living room, and have set it up for me to be able to do art and watch TV at the same time. As with any new piece of furniture it has created quite a stir among the feline/canine members of the family.