It feels like ages since I last blogged. Sorry lovelies, I’ve been enjoying hanging at home with Antz & Liv. We had an uneventful 3 day weekend. Saturday Antz and I had a business meeting. Monday, we watched the inauguration concert and hung out in the backyard. We finally had a break in the cold January weather and Antz moved our patio dining table back upstairs. Liv & Antz made homemade lemonade and I picked up Chipotle and we had our first outdoor lunch of the year.
I hope to have many more outdoor meals but our 7 year old grill died so we are looking at replacing it with this guy.
Totally cute and we only need a small grill, nothing fancy. After lunch we took a walk on York Blvd. Antz and I are not pleased that Cafe de Leche is adding a mural to the lovely brick wall. Highland Park has it’s fill of murals; the Virgin Mary is plastered everywhere as well as every party shop has Spongebob, Elmo & Dora *which never seems to look right*
I adore street art but something tells me that this guy isn’t going to bring it in the mural department.
I do love the lovely yarn bombing on York. Highland Park has been coming around. This article came out last week and gave us some hope that our little house could one day bring in the big bucks. Who knows, we’re already being dubbed the next Echo Park. I don’t know if that’s a compliment or not. We’re still debating the big kitchen remodel, go big or go budget?
I have a one-track mind lately, well, actually multi-track mind. Liv being sick for the last 3 days is super lame. I’m just getting over my cold, we are both sad faces.
Matching chins, only her double chin is cute and mine is horrible!
This amazing song is constantly playing in my head from putting together Liv’s birthday party playlist.
Last night Antz and I had our first Wii workout last night *I’ve gained 2 lbs since Halloween* I did 36 minutes of boxing, step, hula hoops and kung fu *my favorite* I’m not the least bit sore today! So when I’m not preoccupied with those things, my mind is daydreaming of our new kitchen. It’s hard to stick to our tight budget, especially when our 10 year old toaster dies and I have been wanting this handsome guy for ages.
Knowing my luck when I’m ready to buy accessories, they will be sold out *they are sold online only* I am so excited to actually have counter space for lovely things. I am constantly looking at white subway tile kitchens on Pinterest. I’m a little cautious of buying any cute stuff now since I still haven’t gotten a final plumbing quote and I’m expecting a ton of unexpected costs when Ikea installs our cabinets. We didn’t budget for professional demolition. We’re going to attempt to do it ourselves and see if we don’t ruin our house before we have to hire professionals. I have toWILL stay on budget!
My batteries are all charged and I’ve got a skip in my step towards making my resolutions into reality. I’ve got my first scheduled Wii workout tonight. My plan is to get 3 workouts and 2 walks a week. I had to postpone last week’s workout since I was sicky. Now my lovely Liv has what appears to be a light flu. She’s sneezy, coughy, fevery, stuffy, achy, runny nose and has a serious case of the sleepys. I’ve been giving her liquids, soup and toast. So far toast and fruit is all she eats but she’s not barfing which is good news, I suppose. Unfortunately, I don’t think she’ll go to school tomorrow. I’m sure by Thursday she’ll be back to her bright and cheery self.
Here’s a sneak peek!
I have made progress in the Great Birthday Plans. I found the perfect venue, within a reasonable budget and accommodates most of our needs. Antz is going to take a day off this month so we can check it out since it’s closed for private parties on weekends. I hope all is well and I can book it so we can secure our date *June is a very popular birthday month* I was going to order Party Packs from Hot Dog on a Stick but the new venue includes pizza and who doesn’t like pizza? That takes a great load off my plate since I no longer have to find someone to pick up the food and all the expense of keeping it warm, and the condiments involved with hot dogs. I’m going to make lemonade myself and use my new lemonade dispenser. The adults will be happy to know I can serve beer and wine at her party. It’s all coming together and before I know it, June will be here. This morning I found the perfect 3rd birthday party outfit for Liv but I have to hold off ordering any clothes for her since she grows like a weed and everything I’ve bought so far she’s on the verge of outgrowing. It is ridiculously cute in an edgy-but-sweet way *not your typical tutu with a shirt that says I’m 3* I’m super excited for her party!!
So tomorrow I will meet with our plumber, Martin, to get his feedback on the faucet I bought. Our existing sink is only 29 inches wide and the new sink will be 36 inches so we are going to reconfigure all the cabinets layout. In March we’re having Ikea come to our house to measure our crooked walls. I’m so happy we aren’t installing those cabinets ourselves because we have the slanty-iest house in the world. I call it my Pop-up book house. We’ll attempt to do the backsplash ourselves since we have experience installing waterproof drywall and tile, so I’m pretty confident. My Mom has a hardwood floor guy to refer to us and all we need to find now is an electrician *who doesn’t charge $200 per hour*
I’m pretty geeked out for Antz & my date night in a few weeks. We’re gonna see Life of Pi. I wasn’t gonna see it until I read the book *which I hear is pretty awesome* but life with a toddler makes reading a rare occurrence. My friend Nic said it was visually stunning.
The world’s hardest to pronounce kitchen faucet is now all mine. The Hjuvik Faucet is sold at every Ikea and for some unknown reason they are discontinuing it so after checking online it turned out to be ONE in stock at the Burbank Ikea. Aimee and I went there today and I made my first official purchase for our kitchen remodel. This is a pretty amazing faucet! It has an industrial sleek look that will modernize our classic white kitchen design.
I also love that I will be able to rinse dishes quickly and then pop them in our dishwasher. Oh man, when I think of how wonderful having a dishwasher will be after 6 years of hand-washing dishes, I hear Angels sing. I think it will look amazing with our new sink.
Antz spent all day today working in Santa’s workshop building a little girl’s present. I can’t wait to see her face when she sees it tomorrow morning *it’s much to big to wrap* Since she doesn’t follow my blog yet, I think it’s safe to share a few pics here.
We couldn’t find a refrigerator that was under $100 with shipping so I asked Antz to use his magic and find something we could easily convert. He found the perfect cabinet the next day for $10. We bought a $7.99 set of cabinet handles from Ikea and he added some chalkboard paint and voila! A fridge for all her goodies. Tonight I’m going to add a faux window and curtain and we will let her open all the food/cooking sets tomorrow morning. I can not wait for her to see them in the morning!!
I thought it would be smart to add the tap light under the cabinets
This is an acronym that my Mommy thought me at a young age. It stands for “Keep It Simple Silly” *or Stupid if I was being an idiot* this is how I’m feeling about my new year’s resolutions. This was a crazy year. I feels like we did less than previous years but I know we had some crazy busy months. My focus for 2013 will be our house. I can’t believe it will be 7 years already. So many people I know own houses now, the usual party conversation used to be “Oh, so you bought your first house.” Now a days it’s “Oh, you’ve completely renovated your house and you have a brand new $50,000 kitchen.” Out of our friends we’ve owned our house longer but have done the least amount of work to it. I blame myself, I have a problem with trying to do everything all at once. I wanted Liv to go to an expensive preschool, I am constantly shopping, our trip to Paris in 2014 keeps increasing in budget and when it comes to our house my heart isn’t into it. I have an attitude of we’re going to sell it and move so why put money into it we won’t get back. A few weeks ago, Matt from Extraordinary Real Estate came over I was sure he would be somewhat impressed with our views, and the tiny bit of work we have done, or at least say how cute Liv’s nursery is but if you click the link to his website, you can see the stunning properties he deals with all the time. He was really helpful and gave us insight on what we could do to sell our house *way in the future, like 5 – 8 years* but he was also realistic. The current state of our house won’t sell for what we need it to so it needs major work. He also said it has potential. It really made me open my eyes to how much I’ve been neglecting our home. I can’t continue to detach myself emotionally here and its time to put as much energy into it as I do other aspects of my life. So resolution number one:
Improve our house!
Antz added these tiles to the front steps but they are already moving from the damaged foundation
We have a plan to spend $6,000 in the kitchen but I’m sure it’s going to be closer to $8,000 once we get new Ikea cabinets. It can’t be that difficult to upgrade the kitchen on a budget. I watch so many design on a dime HGTV shows and they just add some paint, add some new cabinet knobs and buy a new light fixture and it seems to magically add $20,000 value to their house. I think I’ll feel much more motivated once we get the plumbing fixed once and for all. I don’t know if any of you lovelies have ever dealt with bad plumbing but it’s a nightmare. I have added how much we’ve spent on having a plumber come out to fix broken pipes, clogged toilet and sinks and it’s double what it would cost to just have the galvanized pipes replaced. Do you know it takes me 8 hours to do a load of laundry? I start it before bed and hope it’s finished by morning. The rinse cycle literally trickles water no faster than a drip. Most of the time I’m too impatient so I use the hot setting since it’s faster which shrinks/fades/ruins most of our clothes. Taking a shower at our house sucks. We have two temperatures in the shower, luke warm and cold. The hot water hardly comes out so if you want water pressure, you have to use cold water. I long for strong water pressure, I spend double the time in there since it takes ages to wash the shampoo out of my hair. Liv’s thick curly hair takes an eternity. Things like that most people take for granted but when we stay at a hotel I stay in the shower for hours appreciating the strong water pressure. Matt also said we would have to fix our foundation. DUH! This is an issue I’ve ignored since our inspection. I can hear my Mother’s voice in the back of my mind saying “Never buy a house with a bad foundation!” Every few months Antz has to pull out the spackle and fill in the huge gap in our living room crown molding. Our doors stick, the front stairs have gaps in them and new cracks in the wall corners appear when it rains. It’s gonna be disappointing if we can’t take our trip to Paris but I know it will come down to Paris or getting our foundation repaired. I’m working with a mortgage broker and keeping my fingers crossed he can somehow refinance our loan so we can take out some *non existent* equity so we can pay the $25,000 – $35,000 to fix the foundation, bolt the house and replace the chimney. It would be amazing to be able to have a fire in our fireplace. Our old neighbors took out $100k in equity and fixed their foundation, built a new chimney, and replaced their retaining wall. It ended up costing them $71,000 but they bought their house for $258,000. They still ended up short selling for $371,000. This is why I have a love/hate feeling about this house. It feels like we have to put all this money into it but we still have 883 square feet. When we bought our house it felt huge compared to our 600 sq ft apartment but not having a second bathroom really sucks. I would much rather spend $20,000 for a master bathroom. Well, we know we’ll be living here much longer than I planned.
My second resolution is to sew more.
My first sewing lesson
It seems like I lost my crafting enthusiasm. Last time I sewed was our Halloween costumes. I would like to make some dresses for Liv and me. Aimee has requested me to make things for her but I just say I don’t know how when I could totally learn. I haven’t even finished her macrame plant holder I said I’d make as a housewarming gift. I’m really wanting to take some classes at Sew LA next year. Redesign my Blog
I’ve been saying all year how much I’d like to give my blog a makeover. My lovely husband drew a mock up of what I’d like it to look like but I need a programmer to make it happen. I have no budget for this so it’s a matter of finding the right person who I can either barter with or will do it pro bono *FREE!* I still very much want to attend a Blogshop class so I can learn how to code and format my photos. I find it so annoying that my photos and videos get cut off or I have horrible gaps in between them. Please understand when I drag my photos from my flickr photostream, they have a mind of their own. I am at their mercy since I have no idea how to code HTML. I really hope I can save enough *from where, I have no idea since I’m already over budget on our kitchen remodel, paying Liv’s tuition and trying to save our tiny Etsy profits for Paris* Plus it’s not just the price of the class I would need to save, I also have to purchase the full version of Photoshop CS6 and that’s only $1,899!! I would love to switch over to WordPress but that site confuses me to know end. Plus it seems pricey and I’m happy with the amount I’m spending her at Blogger $0! I feel like an old lady on the internet, typing with two fingers and completely lost about how the interwebs work.
That’s all I’m focusing on for now. I know I usually have tons of resolutions that I never complete but this year I really want to keep it simple and actually make these happen. I am so grateful for all that I have, mostly my incredible family and friends, having a nice house to live in and our health. These things are most important so all this other shit is petty in the scheme of things. After reading about the tragedy in Connecticut yesterday I was feeling so sad for the victims. It incenses me that young lives were lost in such a random act of violence in a place that is supposed to be safe. Life can be taken away so quickly, I want to enjoy the one I have been given. I’m not sweating the small stuff anymore. I can’t believe how fortunate I am to have Anthony and Olivia to share my life with. They are the most valuable part of my life and I hope to spend everyday making them laugh.
I cannot wait to read this 66 page book by Girls neophyte Lena Dunham. She may be getting tons of haters but I get her. Have you seen Tiny Furniture? It’s on instant Netflix. Also follow her on Instagram, you’ll feel like you’ve made a new friend.
Will you believe me when I tell you how tired I am from a busy, productive and fun day I’ve had? Ikea was a success, we got Liv’s kitchen and accessories, we also met with a kitchen specialist, a lovely girl named Nicole, and created an online kitchen planner. We decided we must hire professionals to install everything except the backsplash. No matter how many HGTV shows I’ve claimed to have turned me into a professional carpenter, no one is buying it so we’ll pony up the *gulp* $800 bucks for installation. The good news is we found the perfect cabinets *perfect meaning affordable and nice to look at*. I just may get my farmhouse sink after all. We are getting our dishwasher from heaven and even some lovely open shelves for my cookbooks that have sadly been squeezed on our rolling cart, seldomly used.
We’re still on the fence about keeping the rolling cart or replacing it
It’s been years since I’ve been excited about a trip to Ikea but those Swedes have won me back. Now I need to find someone awesome to refinish our hardwood floors.
We spent our afternoon preparing for tomorrow’s Winter Solstice. Moving boxes, setting up the craft tables and listening to Ella Fitzgerald sing Christmas songs was a delight. I am feeling like a part of Liv’s school’s family. Antz is Mr. Popular showcasing his artistic talents. As leary as I was about the Build-a-buddy craft, these samples are pretty cool.
Turtle-dog, bunny-frog, Plex with Ernie’s body and elephant-Monkey
They aren’t as creepy as I envisioned when I was decapitating Plex and Ernie. Good Night! I’ve got an early morning tomorrow, I hope my poms are a hit.
Antz and I have been talking about our kitchen renovation we’re planning this spring and yesterday we asked a realtor to come over to give us a professional assessment. He told us it only makes sense that we replace the cabinets with new Ikea ones. The price is about $2000 but our 89 year old cabinets will look horrible, even with a new paint job and fancy new handles and knobs. I’ve been checking out the catalog and we are thinking of going with the Akurum/Applad series.
Here’s an example of the cabinets from Pinterest
This is similar to our layout with an L-Shape. I want an apron front double sink and a dishwasher. I keep going back and forth between wanting to stay on a under $6,000 budget and wanting a really nice kitchen for more. We’re gonna bite the bullet and pay Ikea to install them since, A. our house is so darn crooked it would be impossible for us to figure out how to install them properly and B. we are handy but not that handy. I feel more comfortable doing the subway tile backsplash and painting ourselves.
I’m hoping we end up with a kitchen pretty close to this one.
I’m increasing our budget to $8,000 but for a brand new kitchen, having our plumbing repaired and getting the floors refinished, that’s a bargain. Speaking of bargains, I found the steal of century online tonight but it’s a Christmas gift so I’ll share it next month. Since we are getting a new kitchen, I thought Liv would like one too. We’re buying her a mini kitchen set but I plan to add a personal crafty touch. I am still waiting for the Melissa & Doug food sets to go on sale on Amazon but so far the price has only increased and decreased by a few dollars.
We had such a fun weekend. We caught up with family and friends and ate so much.
Bleu & Bacon burger and sweet potato fries from lunch at Granville Cafe
We’ve been so busy we never had a chance to watch Moonrise Kingdom but Liv did watch Cinderella. She liked it, particularly the mice. I have Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter from Netflix but I heard it’s pretty lame. Thank goodness next week isn’t super booked. Antz is taking Friday off so we can have a consultation at Ikea about the kitchen and we can get started on Liv’s kitchen. Oh! Antz put up the Holiday decorations in the house this morning. We’ll put up the outdoor decorations next weekend.
My Grandma’s 65 year old Porcelain Christmas tree is holding up well.
Have you started holiday shopping and decorating yet? Here’s how the bedding looks, I love it!
Thank Goodness our bed is all built because I was running out of bed-puns. It ‘twurn’t easy I’ll say that. Antz started building the bed at 9, I fell asleep pretty late since I was laying on the couch. Next thing I know he is telling me he is missing a piece and it’s almost 3am! Yikes! Those 4 drawers took forever to build *note to Ikea, some pre-assembly would be great* So this morning I had to go to Ikea to pick up the missing piece and voila!
Me and my lovely testing it out!!! Freaking SWEET!
We have to run and take a flying leap to get up there
Our bed was ready to go. Antz even moved the furniture around so we can access all four drawers. No more window side for us!!
I need to buy a bed skirt now, our old bed frame hid our box spring
Isn’t it awesome how lumpy our featherbed is? Wheeeee!
Sexy drawer action
We plan on relocating the printer soon.
It feels so different to have a bed that doesn’t squeak, OR stab us in the freaking shins OR has wood that we have to tape down. Tonight will be our first test drive if you know what I mean…wait, ew! Don’t be gross!
This morning we set up the table for our pop up dinner to get a visual of how the settings would look for a party of 10. Holy Balls, I LOVE how gorgeous the Rifle Paper Co tablecloth turned out!!! We went to the Flowermart in downtown LA yesterday on a hunt for white peonies. Sadly, they are out of season *bums me out they are only available for such a short time* so we had to choose from white hydrangeas or white mums. I considered the hydrangeas but they were already wilting and I don’t think they would have held up well in the heat.
these Dahlias were pretty too but I fell in love with
Mums for the win!
I also found a gorgeous piece of driftwood that looks awesome as a candleholder.
I can’t wait to see how it all looks on the beach!! I am so giddy with excitement.
Told you my tablecloth was too short, we rented linens in ivory.
I got the placemats, dishes, wine glasses and forks from Ikea for super cheap
We folded the placemats in half so the table doesn’t look overcrowded
The candles are fake since we can’t have open flames on the beach
I am obsessed with my lovely driftwood piece, this color palette makes me so happy!
I can’t wait to see the chuppah over the table. My lovely made this chalkboard sign for me.
I did I say I was mega stoked??!! More photos coming soon. Bon anniversaire!
