Birthdays, Dirty Looks and Tornados

Today's my birthday........ahhhh, no longer an even number. Now I'm 43 - an odd number. Anybody else prefer even numbers? Next year, I'll be a double number, so I will probably be content again when I'm 46. I'm just quirky like that. lol

Hubby and youngest son took me to my favorite restaurant lately - Spaghetti Warehouse. I thought I liked the pasta, but I finally figured it out - I go simply for the bread and butter. I LOVE that butter!! Oh man, I have to make some for myself. Apparently it's just roasted garlic and butter........seems easy enough. lol

Isn't this a lovely look? Wait 'til you gals have teenagers........it's a joy! lol Apparently, my offense today was taking photos. I showed him this one and asked if he wanted me to get another photo and he said, no, he liked this one.

Tonight, hubby and I will go see a movie, and NO kids are invited. lol We think we will go see "The Proposal" with Sandra Bullock.

In other news.... This is the photo on the front page of the paper today.


Yesterday was SCARY!! A massive storm blew through here with 70 to 102 mph winds and sirens went off for 45 minutes. I was the only one home with the dogs, who both have storm anxiety. Got them sedated an hour ahead of time, the TV broke through with only news for 3 hours.......words like "Life and death.......take cover" went on for the entire time!!

I grabbed pillows and the smallest dog and got in the laundry closet in the middle of the house. Couldn't get Sage, our large dog, as she had wedged her way into another closet in the house and I couldn't pull her out. So Sweety and I hunkered down in the closet, texting Andy the entire time.

Come to find out, the tornado was less than 1/2 mile from our house!!! It had been all stormy and scary and then it got really quiet. I knew that wasn't good. Our neighbor just told us that when she came home yesterday in the middle of it, she saw the funnel cloud above our neighborhood. ACK!!!!!

There are thousands without power and trees and utility poles down everywhere. They said the number of utility poles down resembles when Hurricane Elvis blew through here.

Today, the sun is out and no threat of storms. Thank goodness.

Photo from ConcertLivewire.com

Oh my, totally forgot to add that Andy took me to see Sugarland last night!! They opened for Keith Urban, but we went to see Sugarland - love that band! Jennifer Nettles is an amazing singer and songwriter. It was fun! My favorite song of theirs is Stay. Click on that link to see a video of the performance.

Have a great day!

Cheri

Show Us Where You Live Friday - Bathrooms

Kelly at Kelly's Korner Blog has her Friday meme - this week Bathrooms! These photos are actually of our current rent house - they had just painted it this dark taupe before they decided to buy another house.

Right off the bat, I knew I wanted to make a huge floral arrangement, and I chose to use these burnt orange colors. I really like how it turned out. I especially love the ceramic pot - all florals and pot purchased at Hobby Lobby at the 50% off sale, of course!

This is one of my all-time favorite iron pieces, and thought it looked lovely over the tub.

One view of the room.

I'm into big pictures in small spaces, and loved this in the toilet area. The cabinet to the left is one my husband made in high school, and it holds our towels.



Were this my personal house, those light fixtures would be gone in about 2 minutes, replaced with something oil-rubbed bronze!

Here's a photo from our previous home - it already had the wallpaper. We added the new lights and I made those window treatments. I purchased the cream metal squares at TJMaxx, ordered bronze glass buttons off Ebay, glued them on, and then made that shear curtain with tabs at the top. I think my Mom actually did the sewing on the curtains. When we moved in, there was navy carpet in the bathroom, and we replaced it with that tile. Looked much better!


This shows the shower and the toilet room door (one with the tassel) and entry to the master bedroom once it had been neutralized with the paint and carpet. This post HERE shows the color it used to be. Raspberry Truffle with Pittsburgh Paints (and it had the navy carpet as well). lol

And finally, the little toilet room in the master bath. This photo still shows the navy carpet. That room had it's own door, so hubby was happy. lol


This was our bathroom in the basement. It already had the wallpaper, so we just went with it.

This was our powder room on the main floor. I loved the red walls and black accent pieces.

And just for fun, I am showing you the ONLY room in that entire house that was not painted nor had wallpaper. The 2nd bathroom. I struggled wanting to paint it, but we thought we should leave one room untouched. lol

To see the photos from previous weeks, click HERE.

Thanks for visiting!



Cheri

Paint Party!

320 Sycamore is having a Paint Party and I just found it! After you peruse my blog, you will see I am a crazy paint girl - color rocks my world. I am very bold and not afraid of color. If I don't like it, I (or someone I hire!) can always repaint. Color simply calls to me, makes my world go 'round.

So, first up, EVERY girl needs one of these - a Paint Deck!!


I'm a licensed real estate agent (in referral due to disability) and a former Accredited Home Stager, and I LOVED using these paint decks. Just go in to your favorite paint store and ask to buy one - at Pittsburgh Paint, they were $10 a few years ago. So worth it!

OK, my favorite color of all time - Carob Chip from Pittsburgh Paint.


Here is the room in different lighting when we staged the home for sale and made this room a formal dining room, and added a chandelier. This home had TONS of natural light and I do recommend that your paint poster board and put them around your home to see what looks good in your home and your lighting. When we were selling our home, we neutralized it (except for changing the paint in this room - most recommended we leave one room bold. Notice the neutral carpet? lol)

When we moved in, the room was blue:

I never liked it, and tried this beige. Just didn't make me happy, so we then tried the Carob Chip. Love!!

Purple is a very tricky color. This color chip looks almost black and has a deep brown tone to it. I would never have picked it had someone not recommended it - and had I not, I would have been trying A LOT of different plum colors until I finally found this one - it was just what I wanted.


Have you ever painted a room using the darkest color on a swatch? Ack - it can be scary!

My second favorite color of all time is Raspberry Truffle, also from Pittsburgh Paint. It is the 2nd from the bottom of the next swatch -

We used it in several rooms, but here was our Master Bedroom. The navy carpet was already there, so we just considered a neutral until we could change it. lol

I prefer the gold bedspread - thought it warmed the room perfectly.


Oh, and here's another house we used this color in:


We hadn't gotten the new trim up, yet. My preference is white trim, as you can go bold easily with color.


Also, I LOVE that color swatch from Sherwin Williams that includes Ivoire and Blonde. If you have oak cabinets and really want to set them off perfectly, that is THE color to use. Here was one house we used it in:



And finally, our current rent home. Lucky us, it had color too! Here are some photos, although I do not know the paint names on these.


It has been said that perhaps I need a color intervention, but until then, I will continue to let color bring joy to my life and spur creativity within me!! Be bold - give paint a try!

Thanks for visiting!

Cheri

Show Us Where You Live Friday - Home Offices

Kelly over at Kelly's Corner Blog is having her meme "Show Us Where You Live Friday" and it's Home Office week.

Now, I will admit I LOVE paint, but as you shall see in the following photos, sometimes a girl just doesn't know what she wants!! This was my all-time favorite room and I LOVED that desk.

When we first moved into this house, this room was navy blue and the carpet was hunter green. I never bonded with this blue color, but this picture shows the desk the best, I think.

The desk has granite on the top and was beautifully carved. I was a real estate agent, and sometimes had clients run by my home to fill out contracts. Hence, the extra chair in the corner.

Behind the desk was a beautiful console table, but this is the best picture I could find of it and you can't see much. It was obviously Christmas time and I just loved decorating that home!!


I finally decided to lighten this room, and with the carpet color, decided to go with a nice neutral. While the photo looks great, I just could not handle this color. It was too bland and blah - my creative juices just did not flow. lol But here are some photos:


The black "blob" you see on the floor in multiple photos is our solid black Pekingese dog. lol Looks like a wig on the floor since you can't see her eyes or anything else.

This is the only photo I have that shows the top of the desk - the granite.

This room was the first room on the right as you entered the home.



Although this beige color was probably the best color from a staging perspective, I just hated it. One day, it hit me that I needed to paint my office a color I loved, a color that made me smile every single time I saw it. After all, it was my office.......where I was supposed to dream big dreams. Color is a happy part of my life. So..........I took the plunge, asked my husband to trust me and painted it the most gorgeous color of all times.....Carob Chip from Pittsburgh Paints!!

Honestly, this might be one of those colors you have to experience in person, but you have to trust me - it was the perfect shade of plum with brown undertones. None of that regal purple shock effect or anything.

We eventually neutralized the home when we knew we were moving, but left this paint color because everyone who came loved it. The carpet went neutral and we turned this room into a proper formal dining room.

My biggest decorating advice? Do not be afraid of color!! Particularly with paint, you can always paint over it if you get tired of it or don't like it.

To see my former entries from the past 5 weeks, click HERE.

Thanks for visiting!!




Cheri

Found the Utility Box Photo!

In last week's Show Us Where You Live post regarding Children's Bedrooms, I referenced how Holt slept in some utility boxes for weeks until I begged my husband to build him something. Found the photo:

And here is what hubby built him - we called it "The Condo":

For the whole story with photos, click HERE.

Have a great day!

Cheri

Green Smoothie Challenge

On another site, someone started a Green Smoothie Challenge. I LOVE smoothies and juicing, but don't always keep my eating healthy. I was all for this challenge and thought I'd document as I go.


So here we go! The recipe I am using is the following:

2 bananas
1 orange
1 white peach
1/3 English Cucumber (seedless)
1 cup water (or more)
2 cups greens (most people use spinach, I used green leaf lettuce)
2 TBS. honey or to taste - local honey is best (for allergies, etc.)

Peel bananas, orange, and cucumber. Chop greens very small. Blend until extremely smooth. I have a regular blender. The best overall is the Vitamix - on my wish list! I use only 1 cup water, but the original recipe called for 2 cups. Chill and serve. Enjoy!



Look how much it makes! I drink 8 oz in the morning, and the rest later throughout the day. It really does taste very good and sweet! Hardest thing for me is actually the color. lol


Results so far: I usually drink at least one glass of sweet tea each day. For the last 2 days, that tea hasn't been as appetizing, as if I don't really want it. Yahoo!

Have a great day!

Cheri

Doggies and Haircuts plus some drama

Both doggies had beauty appointments this week and got their summer do's. Sage was a breeze, no problem at all.

Sweety, however, wouldn't let anyone near her and was deemed an aggressive dog. Since each time she is groomed it is quite a challenge, the vet recommended we bring her back a few days later to be sedated while groomed. Did that, and brought her home. She was acting weird, so I kept an eye on her. In half an hour, her face started swelling. Turns out, they also gave her vaccinations and she was having a reaction. This was her second reaction in her life to vaccinations. We ran her back up to the vet where they kept her the rest of the day, gave her a shot to halt the allergic reaction. We brought her home after dinner and she was good as new. Both dogs appear to love their new summer hair do's!


Have a great day!

Cheri