Our Taco Fiesta

Our last party at home was our bebe shower four years ago!! I have been wanting to have friends over for a BBQ before our trip. The more I planned, the more I got overwhelmed with the idea of cooking and then I remembered how great the food was at our friend's party. So I called their caterer and was surprised at how affordable hiring a taco caterer was. I made fresh lemonade and cucumber spa water, put up some decorations and voila, our party was ready.

For the last few days I've been searching locally for peonies but I guess they are late this season so this morning I headed to the downtown flowermart. Bad idea, the day before Mother's day is the worst time to be shopping for flowers. The roads were closed, traffic was at a stand still and this was at 8am! I lucked upon a parking spot and stepped over the dude sleeping on the sidewalk to walk the three blocks to the flowermart. I have never seen that place so crowded before. You would think they were giving away flowers but everything seemed to be double the price. Horrible tacky roses were everywhere. The good news was I found peonies, the bad news was the same bunch I would normally pay $6 from Trader Joe's was now $20. Oh well, I shopped around and found a pretty bunch for $15 *all the pros know how to find the flowers at a discount* I fell in love with a bunch of mini daisies and was in and out in under a half an hour. 

New bedding makes me so happy *I love my Alexandra Ferguson pillow I received as a gift from Leslie*

Thank you Fancy!

A giant balloon and a giant Ban.do pouf are a girls best friend

Thank goodness the weather cooperated. It was sunny enough without being too hot. Everyone relaxed and ate tons of tacos.

I enjoyed myself so much I hardly took any photos, I did manage this shot of the peppers cooking, which no one was able to handle their hot.

Liv was a party animal

I bought my lemonade dispenser two years ago, so happy to finally use it

I made this banner out of scraps of fabric and Liv's old baby clothes

Tomorrow I'll take a better shot of my Oh Joy for Target vases

Chris just cannot keep his clothes on! Nice Cthulhu dude.

Veda stole the show with her adorableness

I tried my best to catch a Veda smile

Merci to Letty for taking care of all the cooking. Contact me for her number, she's wonderful! Big hugs and kisses to all my lovely guests, your presence was a pleasure and I am so happy to have such rad people in my life. What a perfect way to start Mother's Day.

*Special thanks to Kim for making the tastiest sangria, everyone loved it!

Great photos Ana!!

Change it Up!

My goodness, what a difference furniture placement can make in a room. For the past eight years we have kept the "dining room" side of our living room in a state of boring. We used the corners to stash things behind furniture we aren't using everyday like bags of fabric, our broken Bose speakers *I don't know whether to have them repaired or just buy new ones* and miscellaneous junk *Nintendo Wii accessories/bags of stuff we can't decide to keep or donate and our vote for Obama 2008 sign too* We've had the same modular bookcase from Target sitting in the corner somewhat collecting dust. Our bar hasn't really been used since our Halloween party ages ago. Well, this Saturday Liv and I went to dance class solo....pause for obligatory photos

Liv has two dance personas

So we could allow Antz to sleep in *he deserves it* When we came home I was so surprised!

My new fiddle fig leaf plant looks so awesome on the bookshelf

The room looked like this before

Yawn!

I'm so happy to have a new home for my beautiful record player. I am super stoked about my new craft space.

Being able to stare at my world map makes me so happy

Antz is so sweet, he put my clock on Paris time because he knows that's where my heart is.

As for all the junk that was buried in the corners, it all got pushed into another corner!

Dirty little secret stash

We are pretty stumped for where to store this necessary junk. I would love to condense our filing cabinet into this pretty one.

TPS Pink file cabinet

Problem is, this guy is 27" tall with caster wheels and it wouldn't fit under any of our desks. If I took off the casters, it still would be such a tight squeeze that I wouldn't be able to open the top drawer and I doubt all of our paperwork would fit in just one drawer. I'm still searching for the right solution. I am ready to get rid of that old, bulky printer for this slim version but Antz is feeling like, the one we have works and we still need to find a dedicated space for it. Where do most folks keep things like this? Don't say under the bed or in a closet because our closets are ridiculously stuffed and our bed has storage drawers crammed with bedding and computer supplies.

Oh, I do love the room! I am feeling inspired to paint the walls white, bring in new curtains and finally get a dining table and chairs. We shall see...

Want/Make/Do for our Home

Since we are almost coming up on our Eight year house anniversary and the one year anniversary of our kitchen remodel, it seems time to plan our next project.

I don't have any major renovations happening this year. We would love to do a ton of things in the living room/dining room but we have to have our foundation repaired before we begin work in there. I am hoping to get a few cosmetic fixes done in the next few months with my piggy bank savings.

Want

New curtains in the living room. The hazards of having a cat and a toddler is having your lovely curtains ruined from their shenanigans. I loved our orange poppy curtains but they are sold out so these would make a nice replacement.

Plum & Bow Sketch Floral Curtain

Replace our old Ikea chair with this one. We bought the chair on a whim and have lived with it for the longest. It's not particularly comfortable and the design isn't my fave. I like the structure and color of this guy but I hope the low arms aren't a problem. It might be too mid-century modern for our style but Antz vetoed my pink chair. We'll see if I can squeeze this into our budget.

Madeline Chair

I think this pillow would look quite regal in our new chair. I fucking love Bill Murray!

Bill Murray throw pillow

Every spring I long for new bedding. I am ready to shed our heavy winter blankets *which are very unattractive but keep us warm* I am liking this set from West Elm but the Target price looks perfect!

Threshold Pinched Pleat Comforter Set

I think these would look great holding up Antz art books and they are on sale!

Toy Soldier bookends

Make

I am always surprised with how long we live with embarrassing things that are such easy fixes in our house. For example, *besides our terrible plumbing we lived with for seven years* our front door lace curtain. I was reluctant to get rid of it since it felt like an antique in our house. But who am I kidding, that guy was a mess! I really hoped to find lace with peacocks but that was impossible on our budget. We almost gave up since most of the lace at the fabric store looked too Grannyish for me.

The lace has seen better days

We found this lovely dot lace from the fabric store on sale for only $12

My Mom-in-law *with a broken arm* helped me hem the curtains

Voilà! I think the new curtain looks terrific

Do

Our house loves to surprise us with headache-inducing problems. For the longest our plumbing was a nightmare but now our electrical wiring is being a brat. So instead of buying a new dining table and chairs set I've been wanting forever, I'll be forking over cash to have the wiring repaired. Once I get an estimate, we'll see if I can afford my pretty new chair or not. Wheee!

I am actually glad to pay someone to glaze our bathroom tub and wall in white. It will complete the bathroom makeover and I'll be happy to finally say "au revoir" to the dusty rose bathroom.

So Gross!

I hope to get started in March. I am so happy to say our Zillow zestimate for the value of our house has increased to $434,962! Last year it was only $350k. Only $54k more to get to what we paid in 2006. So what's the prize for killing ourselves to pay our two mortgages, put all our pennies into improving our house and attempt to live the American dream? Our property taxes are going up!!