Jamestown

Last Saturday we visited Jamestown Settlement.

Upon going through the visitor center you cross a bridge over the marshes that lead you to the site of the settlement. The monument commemorated the 300th anniversary of the settlement. And now 407 years.

Immediately to the right is the settlement. The only building still standing in the fort is the church. Ironic is it not? Just a reminder that God will always prevail. Here's the front of the chuch from inside the fort walls.

From this picture you can see the lay out of the fort and how small it was. We did not really know what to expect before coming, but were astonished at how small the settlement was. 104 men came over from England, and spent the first winter without leaving these walls. If you remember from the story of Pocohantus and John Smith, the Indian Chief threatened to kill any man who left. Becuase of this they could not go out to hunt for food and with horrible winter conidtions many died. They ate anything they could to survive. Including their leather shoes!

This photo is taken standing on the outside of the fence. That is all there is to this small settlement that is the beginning of the New World and birth of our country.

Who loves history? Hannah loves history!

Back to the Drawing Table

My slipcover came todayand I was so excited to get it on the couch. Opened it up and quickly noticed the directions were for a different slipcover, but figured maybe they use a generic directions. That's exactly what they were, but too generic. After trying to put it on, looking online for better directions (which a few people complained about in the reviews I noticed), and trying to put it on again I finally got it on. Sadly though I just don't like it. It's too big for this loveseat. Notice all the extra fabric gathered on the arms.

I'm sure with some ironing and starch the pleats would look great. Overall though it just wasn't working for us. So back to the drawing board on this one.

Here are a few other purchases to share.

In a past blog I mentioned I found a couple sale items at Joann's Fabric. I found this bird and tray 60% off there. The bird was black, but I painted it white and will be doing the same to the tray.

Still need to finish upholstering the ottoman top. And here's some orchids I found at TJ Maxx for my pot that I painted back at Christmas time.

Tailored Slipcover

So instead of posting pictures when the living room is complete I'm going to blog as I go. I decided to go with a slipcover for our love seat. First I went to Target and found this one (but for a love seat not an arm chair) for $50.

I knew I wasn't crazy about the style but a) wanted to see if I even wanted a slipcover, b) if the color worked, and c) it's a great price for slipcovers so thought maybe it'll work if I can save some buckos. As I suspected the style just doesn't work for me, not to mention it doesn't even fit the love seat very well. Imagine the picture above but super baggy. A ragamuffin love seat you can say. Still I do like the color, and feel a more tailored slipcover will do the trick. So instead I ordered this one from Pottery Barn.

I got it on sale for $109 plus shipping. Even after shipping it is still cheaper than the original price. Not ideally what I wanted to pay, but after lots of online shopping I found it to be the best price for style and durability. And with a toddler durability and MACHINE WASHABLE is priceless. Not to mention the savings in comparison to buying new furniture. Even if we craigslisted our love seat, it's still a more costly route. And get this, when I went back to get the stock photo to share on here, they are now sold out of that color. Literally 20 minutes later. I must have bought the last one. So happy I did. Now just have to wait for it to arrive.

I also found some great accessory buys at JoAnn's yesterday. Will post those soon.

Defining Time

Last night I went out to dinner with a couple of my girlfriends. We were talking about PCS (for you non military people that's permanent change of station, but nothing permanent about it) selections that will be coming up in late March. Which led me to think about time today. We should know in about 2 months if we are moving to San Diego, Japan, or staying here. We are all getting anxious for those 2 months to go by and feel like time isn't going fast enough. The thought that crossed my mind today is once selections come April will only be about a week away. Once April is here there's only a month till Hannah's 2nd birthday. That thought made time feel like it's moving too fast. We can't change time, it's consistent, but it's funny how we can define the speed of time simply by our anticipations. So for now I'm happy for time to slow down, and my little girl to not grow up so fast.

Warm to Cool

Sorry for tons of posts in one day, but if you haven't already figured out I'm in the process of making decor changes. As I find things I like I post them before I lose them and have to google search all over again. I came across this blogpost, http://www.thenester.com/2010/09/how-to-change-the-theme-of-your-decor-without-breaking-the-bank.html, about going from warm colors to cool. In my mind from dreary to light! If you've read my old posts you already know this house is too dark with the lack of natural lighting and oak wood work. Back to that blog post...From the red, brown, black room to adding some blue, to just wait till we move and get a more bright house, to enjoying the warm colors with my Christmas decor, and now that Christmas is over I'm so ready for that light, this post sums me up in the last 4 or so months (apologize for the run on sentence). Happy to know I'm not the only one who needs a change.

Since I'm writing this I might as well unveil my own work in progress.

Original room:

With blue touches added (pictures between back door and window, candle on mantel, and pillows) along with some other decor changes:

This little corner I do love.

Ideally I'd get new couches, and have some favorites in mind. But being that these couches are only 2 and 3 years old, that's not ideal. So to work with them I must. So now the new color pallete is this ottoman:

Ignore the couches in the back because I have a lot of changes coming. And my ottoman is not done. I need to do the top still. I took a brown double ottoman and made it into a single. The top is the original top, but I don't like the way it sits inside. So I will be making the top to be flush with the bottom. You'll see :)

If you're curious as to what I'd do if we owned this home and obviously would not be moving, ooh. First the fireplace, bye-bye brick and wood stove thing. The fireplace is way too big for this room. I'd probably make the fireplace and mantel area itself about the perimeter of the stove thing. I'd frame it with white. Then I'd paint the walls a soft blue with a grey undertone. Paint all the wood trim in the house white. Knock down the walls between the office and living room to fully open the space (permitting they are not supporting walls). Change the carpet to wood floors. There you have it.

Living Room Inspiration

Love this living room! Light, chic and eclectic.

(found here by Samantha Pynn http://www.samanthapynn.com/interiors/)

Office Desk

Our next home we move to we're getting new office furniture and a dining room. So in the mean time I'm dreaming of all the possibilities. I do know I'll be combining the office and play area. Even if our next home has the space for separate areas, it just works better combined. So I'd like to make it still fun for Hannah, but still mature for my work space. So far I know I want this desk.

Large working surface, but not bulky. And will flow perfectly with Hannah's playroom furniture.

For the walls I'd like to showcase some of our photos on canvas. Probably do the pottery barn style of propping them on a shelf instead of hanging them. And lucky me, I already have a couple black shelves to prop them on. I do want to keep touches of black in the room, because Hannah's table, which is the center piece of her play room, is white, pink, and black with a Paris drawing on the table top.

Happy New Year

This year was our first New Year's with just our little family.  Sergio and I were never really big on going out for New Year's Eve.  We went a couple times, nothing crazy though.  Last year we attempted to go have a romantic dinner over looking the San Diego Harbor and make it home in time to share the countdown with Hannah.  Except I got sick, so we stayed in with my parents and Hannah.  Turned out to be wonderful.  So as this New Year's Eve approached I decided I wanted to start some new traditions while keeping old ones.

First, I love staying home as a family.  Although Hannah was only 7 months last year, she was well aware something special was happening as we brought in the new year.  The excitement in her eyes and the smile on her face is was just special.

I remembered in our pictures last year, we were all in our pjs, so I decided to make it an official tradition.  And of course added some festivity to them with party hats, leis, and various noise makers.  Hannah had a blast with all the favors.

We usually have a marathon of movies if we stay home.  Then we tune into the countdown for the last 15-30 minutes.  This year was the return to kid friendly movies, so we watched Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and Astroboy.    

Next I decided we should have a New Year's Eve meal.  My family has traditional foods for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, 4th of July.  Why not start a New Year's Eve meal?  We decided on Chinese food.  Turned out the wait was an hour.  When Sergio got the food home, and I started eating, I suddenly lost the appetite for Chinese.  It tasted no different than it usually does.  We ordered our favorite dishes.  But I just couldn't stomach the smell, texture, or thought of eating it.  Then Sergio over ate so not to waste it, and well lets just say the food didn't stay down.  Hannah, however, thoroughly enjoyed her dinner and a movie.

While searching online for some traditions, I came across the idea of writing fortunes for each other.  Since we were having Chinese food, we decided we'd wait till after the count down to open our fortune cookies.  Which I wanted to share but cannot find them now.  They were both very similar, basically saying we make our own fortunes in the choices we make.  Ironic in that it's a fortune cookie, but very true.  A reminder that it is our responsibility to cherish and use God's blessings wisely.

And of course we brought in the new year with a toast of sparkling cider.  Hannah enjoyed her first sips, I mean couple glasses, of it.

I guess that was some good stuff!

May you all have a blessed 2011!!!