NumberNineteen

The Royal Wedding

Sigh.  It was so lovely, wasn't it? 

I've been an avid royal watcher since a young age and think that the new Princess Catherine is exactly what the British monarchy needs.  She is lovely, stylish, modern, classy but not uptight. 

I have been congradulating myself all day, as her dress is what I was thinking/hoping it would be.  Since she had to have her shoulders & arms covered, I was thinking that the prettiest and most stylish way to work around it would be to have lace sleeves or a jacket.  And, the lace on the dress is so beautiful!  Did you hear that the lace embroidery on her veil was hand done?  Stunning.

I'll be riding the wave of royal wedding happiness all weekend!

Another Easter Project

So, um, yeah...I was supposed to post an Easter project every day, wasn't I?  Well, here is how it went...we colored eggs & I couldn't get any good photos.  And then we did another project & it didn't turn out well.  BUT!  We did one project that turned out well AND I got good photos.  Without further ado, the Paint Chip Easter Egg Garland project:

I found this awesome project in typical "six degrees of blog separation"style...saw it on Pinterest, tracked it to TatertotsandJello and found the original idea at ModernParentsMessyKids (written by Steph, who took the photo above & came up with the project).

Hope and I went to the home improvement store and picked out a selection of paint chips:

I had to have a Lowe's employee assure Hope that it was OK to just take them.  She was convinced that we were stealing. :)

Got out my handy Creative Memories cutting system:

I normally use a cutting mat but it, like most things, is currently packed. Steph used a egg shaped template that she traced on the back of the paint chips & then cut out with scissors.  Since I had the cutting system, I went ahead & used it to save time.

Strung the "eggs" together & Ta Da:

I love it! Super cute, super easy & super inexpensive.  Thank you, Steph, for sharing this awesome project!

A Week of Easter Projects

It's spring break and Hope and I have a week's worth of projects lined up, all centered around an Easter theme.  Our first project was making Easter candy.

We got our pretty colored melts and a mold.

Melted them in the microwave & got ready to go.  To get the pretty spring green, we melted dark green & white melts together.

My original idea was to "paint" the swirled details of the mold and then fill in the rest in a contrasting color.  To any of you who can do this & make it look nice, my hat goes off to you.  My attempts were a mess, so we stuck to simpler candy.

Hope, very seriously working on one of her candies.

 

They turned out so pretty!

 

The State of Our Lives

This picture pretty much sums it up. Packing, moving prep, packing, cleaning, packing, repeat.  Incidentally, we got a lot of free boxes from the local liquor store, so no, we did not consume all of that alcohol.  However, the events of the past 2 months could very well have led me down that path....!

We've found a townhouse to rent while the house is being built, right here in our neighborhood.  It was a challenge to find a place that would rent to us for six months.  And, most of what we saw was appalling.  Dirty, holes in the walls (!), stains on the carpet, and cigarette smells.  When we found this place, which is clean, has new carpet, new paint and is willing to rent to us short term, we jumped for joy.  And, as a bonus, it's right here in our neighborhood, so we can still have playdates with Hope's friends this summer.

I've been avidly reading blogs these past few weeks and enviously soaking up everyone's creative projects and makeovers.  I can't wait until the time that we are settled in the new place, my supplies are unpacked and I can start to get creative again.

More *Very* Exciting News

I've had a project under wraps for several months now and I'm excited that I can now share it with you.  I'm going back to school to get my master's degree in library science!  I'll be attending Catholic University in Washington DC starting this summer  and hope to have my degree completed in 2 years. 

I'm probably going to concentrate in school librarianship (librarianship??  did I just make up that word??), but I'm open to the other possibilities that are available.

I'm absolutely thrilled to be going on this new adventure and to be able to pursue a career in an area that I truly love. 

PS--Thanks for your input on the cabinets.  We are still wavering...I'll let you know what we decide!

The New House

source: mls

Ta Da!  Finally, after a great deal of stress, negotiations and tears I can finally tell you that we are building a house!  We are so excited!

After finding that everything that we were looking at was expensive for what it was & needed a lot of work, we came to the conclusion that for a similar price, we could have a house built the way that we liked from the start.  The new house is in a builder's community (ie, not a custom home), but we have quite a few choices so that we can make it our own.

OK, folks, I need your input!  We are deciding on kitchen cabinet colors and I'm wavering between these two:

The one on the right is not as dark in person, but it is definitely cream. Our original plan was to go with the pure white cabinets & black granite counters.  I've been searching for photos of a similarly colored kitchen & found this on a random house on the MLS :

source:mls

I'm concerned that the pure white with the black looks too stark.  And, it's a fine line between nice white cabinets & cheap looking white cabinets.

Here is a photo of the actual white cabinets that the builder offers, shown in a bathroom in a model home:

Here is a photo of the creamy colored cabinets with black granite, taken at another model home.: 

source: stanley martin via facebook

I can't decide.  I'm not sure about the pure white cabinets and if we go with those, if we should do a black counter or one that is more beige-y, similar to what we currently have:

Our current cabinets are a light cream color.

Please leave a comment with your opinion!  I need help -- thanks so much!!!