playdate choo-choo

when you come to our house for playtime, you always have to play choo-choo train.  both my kids are obsessed with them. 

lucky for betsy, she got to drive. i don't often have that privilege...

dining room redo

this room was definitely something we wanted to revamp as soon as we looked at the house.  even before we seriously considered making an offer.   

the patterns and colors were the pick of the elderly couple who lived here, and we have NOTHING red, or fake-fruit-baskety.  not that we mind red, but we didn't really want to add it to the mix, either.  didn't help that the wallpaper was already starting to peel off waaaaaaaaaaaay at the top...  so, before we had any of our boxes delivered, we ALL (as you can see) set to work tearing off paper.

we were also in the middle of painting the bedrooms at this time, since they were first on the paint-before-stuff-is-delivered list.  so, some of us would work on painting, and some of us would work on kid entertainment/tearing off wallpaper.  as it turns out, the process in this room was quite lengthy.  various people got a turn helping tear off paper, and we finally finished it up during the paint process below.



as we started to unpack, this became our "undecided" room and was piled HIGH.  we had a table in the kitchen area, so no need to be concerned, right?  eventually, though, we got sick of the mess as it was directly in view from the kitchen and living room.

so, we FINALLY cleaned it out, and tried to find homes for everything.  there's still a small pile here, but we're working on that too.

a little backwards (or upside down), you might say, but we painted the bottom part first.  we knew that we wanted just solid brown and had things on hand for it.  when the painting bug bites, you gotta get to work or the moment will pass...

being still undecided on what to do with top, we set to work on cleaning off the last of the wallpaper and glue on the top section.  we eventually decided to just paint it a color similar to the rest of the house's tan walls, and then figure out some accent(s) to add later.

and (insert drum roll please!)... we decided to try stencils.  the walls are textured, so we weren't quite sure how they'd turn out.  but, the plain tan was tooooooo boring.  i found some stencils here that i really liked, and the rug has paisleys... but, i'm a cheapie, and didn't want to wait for shipping time.  so, i found some DIY stuff at Michael's and set to work.

the base coat is a flat finish, and this stencil we did in the same color glossy finish.  interesting result, and still not quite sure if we like the look.  quite a mess of wallpaper junk on the floor!

the other stencil in progress...

 

the mostly finished wall, and what shapes show up depends on lighting as you can tell from the pictures above and below.

we added some green circles on the sides of the cream shapes, and added brown swirlies on the glossy tan ones.  like it a bit better with things put back together, and some pictures up!

now, when will we get that light fixture painted or changed?  :)

happy holidays!

2 little things enjoying their snowman cookies on christmas eve

pumpkin spice bagels w/honey nut cream cheese

those MIL's!  they'll get you hooked on yummy stuff!

last time we were at her house, she had these bagels and this cream cheese.  since then, we've made several trips to the grocery store with these in mind.  and, there's only one store that carries the bagels, we've found.

anyone else ever get totally taken by the marketing on a package?  i think the "limited" message means i have to buy them on every trip because they might not have them the next time! 

we've really been enjoying our little breakfast treat - kiddos included.