My Aspiration List

Now that Olivia is flourishing in her French school and we have taken our dream vacation, I'm ready to set some new goals for myself for the new year. I have a long list of rad things I'd like to accomplish but it always seems like there are dumb obstacles like money, poor timing, or being afraid of failure. I am no longer going to make excuses for not reaching for my goals.

My Aspiration List
Practicing / French every Thursday with my tutor Fanny and the art of PATIENCE!
Mastering / icing a cake and being on time
Eating / more fresh fruit, less fast food and I really want to eat at Ba restaurant
Drinking / spa water, no more soda for me
Learning / to listen more than I speak, drive a stick shift and to stop procrastinating
Trying / to make my big, amazing dream come true next year (fingers crossed!)
Playing / Nintendo Wii with Olivia
Finishing / all the projects I start and Liv's baby book (ahem, stop procrastinating!!)
Reading / Not That Kind of Girl and Pride & Prejudice & Zombies
Watching / American Horror Story: Freakshow, Broad City and this Banksy documentary
Listening / Sia's Chandelier and Phantogram
Remembering / to water our plants

our fig fiddle plant is doing so well

Wearing / white dresses, my new shoes and French braids in my hair
Cooking / everything in my crock pot
Working / on getting Olivia more modeling jobs and joining Pop Physique
Traveling / our next road trip to Portland and hopefully we'll visit Evelyn & Dion in New York
Wanting / to say yes to new things, color my hair and to get Invisalign braces
Shopping / for new bedroom curtains, this print and a new camera (bought one on sale last week!)

On Thanksgiving we participated in a secret confetti fight

What are your goals/dreams/aspirations? You have any big New Year plans? I have a huge one but I going to wait to share it. Bonne Chance!

I'm gonna miss my floors

Boo, yesterday was my last night with my beautiful unfinished kitchen floors. This morning they will be sanded and stained a darker color. Just how dark we'll go, we're not sure yet. Antz has a strong opinion and he's an artist so I'll go with what he says. He already knew best when choosing our wall paint *We finally picked a darn color after weeks of deliberating* Is there such a thing as loving floors too much?

I have spent more time on the floor in the last week than I have in seven years.

I almost slept in the kitchen last night, but it was too hot!

It's gonna be about 4 days until we can walk on the floors while they dry, so I had to reschedule the cabinet installation. So that is pushing our project up another week. *we're looking at a six weeks timeline now*

The good news is rad Rene hooked up our washer and dryer yesterday and now we can do laundry in 18 minutes! You may be used to such luxuries but for seven years we have been dealing with a washing machine that takes hours to fill up. I've already done 4 loads of clothes in the past 2 hours. *STELLAR!* Now if only they can create a machine that folds and puts the clothes away. I used some good ole elbow grease and some bleach to spiff up the old set to sparkle like new.

Don't mind that old vent, we got a new one properly vented and secured

Yesterday was my BFF date day. We finally reunited with our other bestie after a whole month, la Tarjey! Aimee and I stocked up on tons of lipchap *Mint Eos is my fave* I was giddy to find 3 new books that I had on my wishlist to add to our library.

1. Fifty Shades of Chicken *just when you thought it was over* 2. Pantone Colors *for Liv but really for Mom* 3. Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls *by my man David Sedaris*

So may I geek out over my friend's beautiful wedding invites for a moment?

Their personalized stamps, and return address are lovely!

I love the wax seal

Loving their color palette! So glad I dragged Jess to the Cream to help her find some wedding inspiration.

I looooooooove weddings!! Happy Friday!!

 

Happy Kitchen Renovation Day!

Well not quite, but Sunday we went to Home Depot *after waiting 48 hours for a guy to come over to give us a quote but never showed up, why is it so hard to get a quote?* and did some pre-reno shopping.

Sheesh, could this kitchen look anymore dark and depressing?

I wanted to find out about renting tools *tile wet saw, floor sanders, etc*. We went to our local Home Depot only to find out we had to go to another one because they didn't rent tools from there, D'oh! Turns out I like the second HD much better. It's a bigger store, really well stocked, not crowded at all *due it the store being practically hidden* and the salespeople were actually helpful and knowledgeable! Hooray!

We got a price list of the tools for rent. It's pricier than I expected, but it's cheaper than having a professional do the work. I am really bummed that Home Depot no longer carries my Goddess Martha Stewart paint. The paint guy suggested we try Glidden as a substitute so we bought some samples to test out on the walls this weekend.

We chose Natural Wicker for the walls and Toasted Mashmallow for the trim.

We also found the subway tile for the backsplash for only a fraction of the estimated cost I budgeted. Sweet!

I budgeted $350 for the backsplash tile, now we only going to spend about $50 for everything!

The store's display wasn't impressive. I wanted larger tiles but since it's a Do-it-ourselves-on-a-budget project, I'll take it.

I shopped the knobs and drawer pulls section since Ikea doesn't have what I'm looking for.

The price is perfect but Goddess Martha is bumming me out with the dated nipple knob. I am over the brushed nickel style so I'm still on the hunt. I practically bought every style of knob to bring home to test out on the cabinets. I almost like these antique glass ones but Antz is not a fan.

Nah, these knobs are too dainty for the doors

It's understandably difficult to imagine the new knobs on such fugly cabinets. You like that paint job?? I can't even begin to think of how much work it will take to sand away years of poor paint jobs on those upper cabinets. My biggest concern is the brand new lower cabinets will make the old uppers look horrible. Oh well, if need be maybe next year we can get the uppers replaced, after we get the foundation fixed and the house painted, and the....and the....headache!

On a happier note, I picked up some strawberries to plant since the bugs ate our old patch.

My assistant gardener

The wildflower seeds we planted last year have finally filled in nicely

She's wearing her new adorable Misha Lulu skirt

 Then we headed to the park

And so begins the new life of DIY kitchen renovators!!

Anthropologie Dishware Sale

Today, which happens to be Saint Patrick's Day...

My new Hello sweater arrived just in time

...is also was the last day for Anthropologie's 15% dishware sale. Since I received an additional 15% discount coupon for my birthday, we decided to take advantage of the 30% savings to get some lovely kitchen pieces.

Liv found the cutest friend and followed her around the store

Words were never truer

I want this watch BAD!

Liv kills me with her faces

Trying out the aprons, twinsies

I totally want this delicate and pretty glassware

That distressed floor is stellar!

whenever I go to Anthro, I just want to slide into bed and take a nap

I'm keeping my new dishes secret for now *in case they don't work out* but I will share with you the steal of the century rug we found for $199!!

Isn't she pretty?

I found it in the sale section without a tag. It took quite some time to find the sku number for it but I was totally expecting it to be at least $499, come on, it's Anthropologie $$$! I had no plans to buy a rug today but a 6 x 6 wool rug with that perfect color palette for under $200...along my 15% discount?! Shoot, I bought that sucker so quickly! Too bad I couldn't find any curtains for our bedroom but FOCUS LIZ! My new kitchen goodies are inspiring me to paint everything bright white. I couldn't stop staring at the hardwood floor.

With some heavy duty sanding our floors could look like this

I pointed out to Antz that maybe just leaving the kitchen floors unstained after sanding them, we could leave them "distressed" which is pretty much how they look now, and we wouldn't have to worry about the upkeep with a perfect darker finish. Anything that requires less maintenance on my part gets a thumbs up from me. #lazyforlife

Anywho...we stopped by Design Within Reach to check out their Tolix stools which happen to be on sale. They are really comfy and come in white but the Marais stools with the wood top from Industry West are $100 less and come in bright, fun colors. It's a real shame this place is in Florida and shipping cost $70. These chairs are on the secondary list, after plumbing, cabinets, countertops, new sink/faucet, dishwasher, floors refinished and an electrician. I may not even get them this year, but one day.

I'm crossing my fingers we can start the kitchen work next week while Liv is on Spring Break. We are going to start sanding the upper cabinets. We still don't know if we are going to keep the existing cabinet doors or leave them off. Here's a close up the hinges so once we take them off, you can see why it will be difficult to put them back up.

The previous owners annoy the heck out of me! How could someone voluntarily chose such an ugly color? Then proceed to paint the cabinets in such a haphazard, sloppy way!!

This is what it would look like if we took the doors off.

Not terribly pretty

Our food stash would have to move to our pantry and I would display my new Anthro pretties in there. I am considering painting the inside of the cabinets blue like this.

A Beautiful Mess

We have so much work to do, I'm half excited and half bummed that we can't just hire someone to do it all. Any of you lovelies tackle a big home improvement project? I'll take some photos with my toolbelt on.