Angel

Monday, August 13, 2012

Exterior Paint {Reveal}

We hired a company to paint our house & after a complete nightmare it is FINALLY over!

This was such a frustrating process & it took over 2 months for them to finish.

We started out with this...

Which I actually loved, but we had some stucco cracks in the back & decided it was time to fill them in & paint.

Then the nightmare began & we went to this...

Not only was the door ruined there was paint over spray EVERYWHERE...on the brick, porch, eves, fence, & the back deck. It was overwhelming. Needless to say, the first crew was fired by the company and we had over $500.00 of reimbursement at the end for the door & the tiles they cracked on my patio furniture.

Here is the AFTER...

The paint was from Kwal Paints & it is a liquid vinyl paint. The color is called Wicket.

It was SO hard to pick a color!

It seems like a lot of them can turn a really purple or green hue...we kept changing our minds right up until the morning they started painting.

We really like how it turned out & were thankful the next crew of painters knew what they were doing & finished it up nicely!

We kept our trim white & painted the shutters and front door black.

They even repainted my deck...

Now that summer is almost over, we feel like we have our house back again!

If you'd like to see some of the changes we've made over the years, you can find it HERE.

I'm sharing with these blogs:

Home Stories A to Z

My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia

Savvy Southern Style

Organize & Decorate Everything

Fireflies & Jellybeans

You Are Talking Too Much

Domestically Speaking

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Birthday Traditions {Recipes}

My daughter is a 4th of July baby!

This year she turned "11"...It's gone WAY too fast!

She is also my "dessert" girl!

She LOVES cheesecake...

We make this fruity cheesecake EVERY year for her birthday, it's her favorite!

It's actually a recipe from Kraft Foods.

It always tastes good & it's serves a large crowd.

You can find the recipe HERE.

The only thing I do differently is DOUBLE the crust!

This year she also requested that I make her "other" favorite dessert for her party!

It's called Eclair Cake & it tastes just like an...Eclair!

Here is the recipe:

CRUST:

1 stick of butter

1 cup water

1 cup flour

4 eggs

Place the butter in a saucepan & melt it on medium heat. Next, whisk in the water & then the flour.

Then add eggs. Mix well. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray & bake at 375 degrees for about 23-25 minutes.

FILLING:

2 small packages instant vanilla pudding

8 ounces cream cheese (softened)

3 cups milk

Mix all the above ingredients together & let it set in the fridge for 30 minutes. Then remove & place on top of the crust. Then top with cool whip.

CHOCOLATE TOPPING:

1/2 cup chocolate chips

3 tablespoons milk

2 tablespoons butter

1 cup powder sugar

Place chocolate chips & butter in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds & stir. Repeat until they are completely melted. Next, stir in the milk & powdered sugar. Once it's all mixed well, drizzle on top of the cool whip. Then place in the fridge for at least an hour before serving.

ENJOY!!!

It's DELICIOUS!!
I'm sharing with these blogs:
The 36th Avenue
At The Picket Fence
Kristen's Creations
Savvy Southern Style
Chic On A Shoestring
Tatertots & Jello
Under The Table & Dreaming
Craftomaniac
Home Stories A to Z
Fireflies & Jellybeans
The Sasse Life

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Cleaning Out The Junk...

How can it already be July??

We've been so busy lately that I haven't blogged for a while!

Can you believe it's almost been a month since they started painting our house & it's still not done!

My last post showed you what they did to the door. They tried for 2 days to fix it, but it still didn't work.

It is driving me crazy....so to deal with my anxiety we have been working on cleaning the inside of our house.

We have a few areas that constantly collect...JUNK!

That would be closets, the basement & our garage. We have conquered 2 out of the 3 this week.

We did the kids' closets & the basement . I am proud of my kids...they were so good to get rid of things they don't use anymore! We filled the WHOLE car full of donation items...there wasn't any space left for passengers!

We started out by emptying the entire closet & separated the stuff into 3 piles:

-Garbage

-Donation

-Keep

Then we organize the "keep" pile where we want it to go.

It's a MESSY process, but it feels so refreshing when you are done!
This is from my 10 year old's room....

There was so much junk it started overflowing into the hallway...

We actually filled 2 bags of just garbage!

It always amazes me how much STUFF can fit in a small space!

We decided to really clean & move her whole room around...this always makes it feel really fresh when you are done! The way we arranged it actually makes it feel more spacious.

My daughter actually has a great sized closet, so we change it into a reading/music/clothing room.

She LOVES it & so does her little sister...can't keep her out of there!

We pulled all of her American Girl posters & toys out. You can see the before HERE. Then we put her chair & bookcase in there. Her clothing hangs on the other side of the closet.

Next, we decided to hang her own artwork & will be displaying more of her art on the wall...she was excited about that!

We just moved her bed, dresser & vanity around. Then we took her "name" letters from above the window & put them going down the wall. It's amazing how just moving around the stuff you already have makes it feel like a new room!

It feels so good to get rid of JUNK!

At least this frustrating painting process motivated me to clean out some of our problem areas!

I hope the painter's finish up this week & I can post pictures soon! They have repainted my deck, the back door & they've removed the paint off of the brick & lights...which I'm thankful for. We did have to order a new door & hardware & have decided not to let them paint it.

I can't wait to have our house back so we can enjoy the rest of our summer!!
I'm sharing with these blogs:
Not Just A Housewife
The 36th Avenue
52 Mantels
At The Picket Fence
Chic On A Shoestring
Thrifty Decor Chick
Organize & Decorate Everything

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Painting Nightmare...

My last post was on front door love...

Unfortunately,

We've encountered a front door

NIGHTMARE!!

This is why we usually just do things ourselves...

Don't you hate it when hire someone to do a project to eliminate the headache of doing it yourself, but then you are left with a much larger problem?
I know every time we start a project there is a good chance of a few problems, but the painters we hired were so MESSY!
It's kind of a nightmare!

They will be back to fix quite a few of the problems, but just to give you an idea of what we are dealing with: They ruined both doors, paint is all over the porch, on my door hardware, on my deck (that I had already stained for the summer), on our light fixtures, they put all of their equipment on our outdoor furniture & cracked the tiles in the table & the list goes on & on...

The paint job itself looks great from the road, it's just a few of the little things that seem to add up to quite a lot when it comes to fixing them!

Here is my house...

Before

After

Not exactly the after I'd hoped for :(

I'll keep you posted & hope this painting nightmare will soon end!

Sharing with these blogs:
The Sasse Life

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Front Door Love...

We will also be getting our front door painted with the rest of our house. I've always had a white door & can't decide if I dare try something new.

Here are a few of my inspirations from Pinterest...

source

I love the color, hardware, & numbers on this door...so cute!

source

This one is so bright & fresh, but I love the molding around it the most!

source

I also LOVE the molding around this door.

I will probably be painting my door black. If I don't like it...I guess I can always paint it again!

The problem I'm having now is that if I don't like my house it's a little harder to fix.

I've had the hardest time picking out paint colors! I hope the one we picked isn't too dark...it's so hard to tell what it will look like on the house.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Decisions...What Color Should I Paint My House?

We are going to be having the exterior of our house painted next month.
A few years ago we painted the trim & added shutters, but now the stucco on the main portion of the house has some cracking, especially on the back of the house & could use some freshening up.

I'm so excited, but also so confused... I don't know what color to pick! We have been driving around looking at different houses & I've been searching the internet for ideas.

When we first moved into our home, this is what it looked like...