A Jazzed Up Entryway

When we moved into our house one of the things I utterly did not like was the entryway. 

It was dark gray. 

Dreary, dark, depressing. 

It was the door on the cul-de-sac that girls selling cookies wouldn't want to knock on.

The bottom was chipping badly, frayed and scuffed. The whole thing looked dirty. In fact, the day after we closed on our house the first thing I did was get a stiff scrub brush and scrubbed down the entire entry...with red mud running down the walls. Yuck.

However, since I mostly went in and out through the garage things on the inside of the house were more of a priority to get redone. We put a pretty welcome mat there and called it good.

Last May we finally decided it was time to do something about the entryway. A brand new door was not in the budget, so painting was the obvious choice.

After a lot of paint samples, determining what would look good if we left the rest of the exterior the same (the trim and garage door are gray as well...blah), or if we painted it to our preference (either an almost-white gray or a pale pale dusty blue), we decided on our entry colors.

And we decided to go bold. Hey, it's just a door. We painted it in a day, and if we hated it we could always get a small can of paint and redo it again! Why not take a chance?

So we went with Behr's Jazz Blue for the door and Light French gray for the entry.

Last May, while keeping a weather eye out during a tornado watch, we got the entry painted, and primed the trim on the front door. It was warm, muggy, and definitely not the best painting weather but we took what help we could get! We also changed out the doorbell, peep hole, door knob and deadbolt.

So much brighter! However, summer quickly followed and my outdoor time was taken up by a rapidly growing garden (including out-of-control tomatoes) and not finishing the trim or adding the kick plate.

So FINALLY, over a year and a half after moving into our house, I got the trim done and the kick plate on today. 

Hallelujah!

Now that's an entry I would want to go right up to! 

Just a refresher, and because I love comparisons:

Before                                                                            After

50 Shades of Brown

Yesterday Matt and I rolled up our sleeves and set to work on the swath of mud that is our garden space. First order of business was to get those raised beds into the ground so I can get some plants and seeds in. 

I was going to use landscape timbers to have that rustic look, but after calling Lowe's and learning they don't cut that type of timber for you--and not wanting to hand saw 22 timbers--we decided to go with the pre-made cedar beds from Home Depot.

Putting them together was a breeze, then came the task of making sure it was level. I assigned that to Matt while I marked out the edge of a sunflower border and area where we want an evergreen tree.

After a lot of shifting, mallet-pounding, and more shifting around Matt declared he was finished. I turned to appraise it and saw it wasn't parallel with the fence...and if you're doing squares next to each other they need to be parallel. 

During this time, we decided to put Tatum in an old dress and let her go crazy with sidewalk chalk paint. Sadly, I don't have any pics of her painting the sidewalk, or her feet, or her legs, or her dress...we were all too muddy and messy to handle a camera! But I do have an "after" shot...it looks like Roy was a canvas for the paint as well.

After a lot of shoveling, digging, smoothing, tamping, rinse and repeat, we finally had the bones of our garden up. Sunflower, coreopsis and nasturnium seeds are planted, and a nomadic rosemary has finally found a home. 

Since we are expecting some severe weather early this week, I'm waiting a few days to put my seedlings in as I don't want them pummeled by hail the day after I plant them. 

True, it just looks like a lot of different shades of brown at the moment. And Matt bought a different mulch than we already had so we're way behind on the mulching aspect. But in my mind it is lush and green and brimming with gardeny-goodness!

Water Joy

Yesterday while taking out the trash, I decided to make sure the side gate was locked and squish. My foot sunk into a mud puddle.

Remember this?

Well the place the men fixed is still fine.  This was/is a new location.

Oh joy.

This afternoon, when our backyard was shaded by the house and Tatum was covered in banana and melon, we headed outside to the little splash pool to cool off and have some fun.

Tatum feeling the water coming out of the hose...it was pretty funny.

Then I took the hose and moved it over her head. 

Like the appalled look she's got going on here? 

How could you, Mother???

Here she's rehearsing to play the first female Oliver.

Please, sir, may I have some more?

Roy was close by as usual.

Gettin' a little gray there, dog.

Then Tatum had some more fun with the hose...

And then we moved on to playing with chalk.

Look Mama!

Can I eat it?

I'll just scootch around and get my cute butt really dirty instead...

Tatum has learned to push her truck around and that trucks go "brrrroooooom." So the chalk was a truck, in this scenario.

This is her favorite way to sit...and bounce...

And maybe I have way too many pictures, but I don't want to forget the sweet shape of her head,  the fullness of her cheeks, or the way her fine hair curls at the nape of her neck.

After splashing and squirting and dunking and playing in water for nearly an hour, we headed inside for a warm bath.

Later on, I filled a few bottles and the sun tea jar with water to get us through the water going off while my and Matt fixed the pipe again.

Only its a different pipe. And they (and the guys at Lowe's) don't know how to fix it.

And when Matt left to take a shower at my parents I walked into the garage to discover a pool of water coming from under the base of the inside AC unit. It might be a slab leak, and we put in a call to our home warranty...but we won't know anything until tomorrow.

And so we're still without water.

Thinking back to earlier today I'm grateful I bathed Tatum when I did, left the pool full since Roy's drinking out of that, and I'm thankful that on a regular basis we do have running water. I've turned the faucet on so many times by force of habit...I don't realize how often I do it to clean something sticky off my hands or rinse the toothpaste down the drain or get a glass of water before bed. 

So if you think of it, say a little prayer our plumbing issues will be resolved quickly and as painlessly (financially speaking) as possible. By tomorrow I will be very, very thankful for water.

Stop This Train

Stop this train

I want to get off and go home again

I can't take the speed it's moving in

I know I can't

But honestly, won't someone stop this train?

In case you don't recognize it, this is a John Mayer song that mirrors how I feel life is right now. 

Last week I swear I was playing with my dolls in my upstairs room, then all of the sudden I was living in a dorm and taking off on overseas adventures. Last Friday I met this great guy and got married. And yesterday we had a baby.

Sometimes, like I think we all do, I wish I could close my eyes for a few hours and go back to that idyllic childhood time of make believe and adventures stored up in our heads.

But then I open my eyes and find different adventures.

I'm the dragon growling and crawling on my hands and knees chasing the princess instead of fighting the dragon (I was never waiting to be rescued in my daydreams). We explore new and exciting places like...under the bed! And splitting a shrimp platter with the love of my life in an empty Red Robin is a perfect date.

I know everyone feels like this at some point. All I can do is take massive amounts of pictures and write these thoughts down and try to treasure them as much as possible.

Two weeks ago Matt's parents drove out here from Northern California and got to spend almost two weeks with us (and Tatum. OK, mostly Tatum).  We so enjoyed them being here, and Tatum recognized them instantly and was so comfortable with them quickly from all the Skype dates.

We went to the zoo the day before Father's Day...and what may be the last cloudy day in awhile!

Tatum was definitely a Daddy's girl that weekend...

Much to Daddy's delight...

On Father's Day we managed to get one picture where we were all looking at the camera and smiling at the same time. We headed to church...but Tatum only made it through worship in the nursery and then her name flashed on the big screen to the right of the stage. I think she's only made it through two church services without having a meltdown in the nursery...

After getting kicked out of nursery we girls headed home and let the rest enjoy the service. We had work to do. I whipped out some blank cards and ink and after a lot of trial and error (and blue ink EVERYWHERE) we managed to finish our Father's Day cards for Daddy, Poppie and Grandpa.

Yes I stole the idea from Pinterest.

Grandma did bath duty while she was here. (I don't think she minded)

Tatum and Grandpa were basically wrapped around each other's little fingers.

And I thought I'd show you were we are with the living room by now.

Here's the BEFORE

What these pictures fail to convey is the pink undertone of the room. It used to be...wait for it...burnt sienna. Yup, durn near ORANGE. We could see bits of it behind outlet covers and the like. So I think the last owners wanted to go tan...but maybe only did one coat. So the whole think has this pinkish muddy hue that was quite depressing.

A little work...

Okay, a LOT of work...

And it finally started feeling light and airy and homey.

Things are still in progress. I snagged the two gold chairs for $50 (for both) from a thrift store, the top of the bookcases is still a holding ground for unused decor, and there's a healthy amount of toys usually strewn about the place.

My birthday present this year is Matt got the picture he gave me last year right before Tatum's birth framed. I'm so excited to get it back and put it in its rightful place over the fireplace!

All the news for now, I've got to stop dilly-daddling and get to work!

Peacock Blue

Y'all may remember I'm Not a Neutral Gal...and here's the proof.

One room I haven't talked about much yet is the office/guest room.

When we bought the house it was dingy and dark. A teeny dim light in the middle of the room barely made a dent. The color was a green painted over bright purple, giving it a dark muddy appearance. Even the ceiling was painted green!!!

Now y'all might have seen pics of our laundry room, which is painted peacock blue.

And I love it.

Here's a quick before (blah)

And midway through (okay...)

And after (yay!)

We still need to paint that door to make the transformation complete (and touch up the ceiling), but I can definitely live with this.

I actually wanted to paint our master bedroom this color, but after the laundry room Matt thought it might be overwhelming. 

So we had two extra gallons of peacock blue.

The office Matt wanted to paint a lighter green, called "cool cucumber" or something like that.  After a coat of primer to cover the dingy green, and a coat of cucumber...it looked exactly the same.

Exactly.

So I proposed we make use of those peacock gallons!

My parents were skeptical.

My mom made a fish face and acted like she was swimming every time she walked into it.

Matt claimed he liked it.

We installed a ceiling fan (thank you Jason!) and painted the ceiling white.

The way it was left for awhile it just looked like an awkward blue room...but I had a vision.

All our funky pictures, our bright and bold accents would find a suitably funky room to live in and make the transformation complete.

With Matt's parents coming for a visit I decided it was time to get things done (or at least rolling) in this room.

A bit of rearranging, a few hours assembling the futon Matt's parents got us (they claim it was selfishly so they could sleep better, but it was very generous and all future guests can thank them!), and a bit of sewing and the room is much closer to being complete than it was.

The orange board is actually magnetic, and those are words for some creative poetry on the go. The chevron fabric I got with my Hobby Lobby coupon and just used a tension rod to hang it after hemming the edges. Jerry and Elaine were a thrift store find I couldn't live without, and they finally don't look so out of place.

It may be loud and not your style but I definitely love it. Love the graphic prints and the bold pops and the mod feel of the whole thing.

So if you're headed through OKC sometime, drop us a line--we've got a room ready for you!

Mobility, Mamas and Mud

After too long a hiatus here is the return of the weekly pic!

41 Weeks old!!!

This picture was before this face:

She is so mobile now! She gets where she want to FAST! And she's standing for 5-6 seconds at a time and lowering herself to sitting from there...it won't be long before she's walking!

We here in Okie Homie had a great Mother's Day.  I was assured Matt would be on baby duty so I could sleep, but he thought I'd want to greet Tatum first thing in the morning...it being Mother's Day and all...

We went to the zoo and enjoyed the baby elephant and the tiger cubs and each other.

And yesterday...oh, yesterday was a D.A.Y.  Well let me back up...last week while driving to work Matt's tire tread peeled off on the freeway, and we ended up having to get him all four new tires.

Two weeks ago we backed into an old, beat up parked car and made a 2" dent.  We could have driven away, but we stopped, knocked on their door, gave them our info and prayed they wouldn't worry about it. 

Not so much.

That, plus our address change (we moved 4 miles!) raised our insurance $30 a month.

Then yesterday morning, Matt noticed a small stream coming from our side yard. 

I called the City's emergency dispatch at noon, explained where the leak was, and waited.

I also called our Home Warranty, and found out that because the  leak was outside the walls of the home, they didn't cover it. 

Fast forward to 7 and Matt and my Dad are starting to dig to find the leak.  The City shows up at EIGHT (after 3 more phone calls), looks at it and basically says its not their problem since its above the water meter.

Thanks.

We can't shut the water off inside the house because the inspector forgot to put that on his report and it's rusted tight, so my Dad and Matt open the water main and shut off the water (without telling me...while I was making dinner...and kneading bread...).

So we're stuck with this leak that is in this small area that neither the city nor our warranty covers...it's up to us.

So Matt digs, and my brother digs a bit and my dad digs a bit and our neighbors show up and dig a bit.

And I'm making focaccia bread inside, thinking I'll give the loaves to my parents and neighbors as a thank you.

Right before I pop the bread in the oven I feed Roy and step outside to check the progress. Coming back inside...BOTH loaves are gone.

That dog ate both of them.

Don't worry, he's paying for it today (as am I) with uncontrollable flatulence.

BUT...

the men fixed it.

It was a muddy, wet, dirty, stinky job but they did it and saved us $400!!! I am so proud of my hubby!!! 

And that night we got to take showers and run our dishwasher, thankful for the gift of flowing hot water.

Dave Ramsey says Murphy comes in threes...insurance, tires, water main busting...I hope we're done!!!

OH, and did I mention that I was stressed and all I wanted was a warm cookie but didn't want to do the dishes from it, and talked myself out of going to the store for them...only to get home and find our neighbors had brought us a plate of the BEST chocolate cookies I have EVER tasted. WARM.

God is good...all the time.