keep your quarters

say goodbye to my old washer that didn't even work. well, i take that back, it did work if you stood right next to it and opened and shut the top every 30 seconds. literally. and even then who knows if the entire washing cycle would have EVER been completed.

and say hello to my new washer, delivered by the nice home depot delivery dudes today. unfortunately i can't try it out because of the ongoing plumbing issues in my condo (like..umm...hmmm...maybe the fact that my place flooded yesterday). oh well, maybe some day...

a tiny seedling

it's been almost an entire year now since my dream of having my own garden came to be...

it all started with a little windowsill garden; comprised of oregano, parsley, chives and cilantro. next i bought a few succulent plants from ikea. then i planted a few more seedlings from the home depot, and before i knew it, summer was here. i moved the lil fellas outside, hoping to be able to use them for salsa with my hanging topsy turvy tomato plant.

and all along my jalapenos have been just stems and leaves. but look what just sprouted...a tiny jalapeno! and there are more budding!

a hanging garden

i've had a topsy turvy sitting quietly in it's box since winter, and six months later i finally got around to purchasing the remaining ingredients: a few small tomato plants, a giant bag of soil, a few hours of my mom's time, and a cleverly chosen rainy afternoon.

word to the wise: don't try to plant anything that you have to awkwardly hold multiple feet above the floor while simultaneously pouring in soil while carefully keeping the tomato plants unharmed and above the floor so they don't get crushed, all while in your bedroom.

but no matter how my hanging garden began, one month later it's alive and kickin. tiny yellow blossoms are flowering (which i hope is a good sign...?) and i've been watering it religiously, praying for the day that i wake up to a baby tomato...that will one day make delicious salsa.

speaking of, does anyone know any good homemade salsa recipes?

the philosophy behind paint color

now i know that most people spend hours, days, months even when choosing their paint colors. they go to the store, grab swatches, use online color planners, paint test patches, investigate under different lighting, and repeat until they think they are happy with what the outcome will be.

not me. my philosophy is to go for it, and if it doesn't work, just repaint it. actually that's a total lie, my real philosophy is that i have no patience and im never going to get around to repainting. so whatever i decide upon is going to be there for the long haul. i didn't even decide where each color would go until in my dining room until we were already painting.

i guess i just depend on my designer instincts and tune out what everyone else says,* since all along people have been skeptical of my decisions (until they see the final product of course). case in point:

• black hardwood floors
• lawn chairs in my living room
• faux cobblestone laminate flooring, indoors

so without furth ado, here are my four wall colors:

very berry by glidden. for my largest wall i chose a really deep fuchsia hue. it might be dark, but i like it. and who says your rooms need to be light anyways? i want it to feel more of a lounge than a room anyways.

pink salmon by glidden. the name says it all, and as you know, this color has been up for a while, today we just went over it with a second coat. i originally ordered it as a sample and ended up keeping it after my dad surprised me by painting my bedroom-side wall one day while i was at work.

realm by behr. this is a rich turquoise blue. i decided to paint it on my bathroom-side wall as a gateway into the tranquility of my bathroom. even though it is probably last on my to-do list, i anticipate it being very serene and ocean inspired, so i thought this color would help set the mood.

home song by behr. if you've been a fan of my blog since the very beginning, you might remember back to my first paint task, the living room. i chose a very muted, pale green to compliment my dark hardwood floors. so we used more of that to finish off the walls flowing from the two rooms.

check out how it looks finished.


*and yes mom, i know you have always been very supportive of my choices

my windowsill garden

i ordered some herbies online in january...

...then i wished them luck as i buried them in soil. hoping they would grow big and tall...

a week or so later, they were already beginning to sprout :)

 and here they are today! i've already had to re-pot a few of them. and of course some of their plant friends from ikea and home depot have joined them too.

let there be light

the other day i picked out some pendant lights from ikea. but apparently they only sell plug-in pendant lighting (see above). what?!

but it didn't matter, because my amazing boyfriend turned to me and said he would hook it all up. so i bought two simple looking pendants and then went over to the home depot for two canopy kits.

finally chad had time to come over and do a little free labor :)

and after about an hour or so of work...VOILA! my bar lights are up and shining bright!

THAT took you three hours?

since the parents are on vaca, me and matthew decided we could put up my bedroom fan (that chad scored me an awesome deal on from the HD). anyways, it looked pretty simple. but like everything that me and matthew attempt to do, it takes an insane amount longer than it should.

case in point: three hours later and this is as far as we got.

and we had to re-do most of it since the electrical wasn't hooked up right. bummer.

glitter and pink paint

memorial day. thank goodness stores are open! me and mom spent quite a while at the home depot narrowing down light green paint for the living room wall. i ended up choosing "home song" by behr for the walls....i hope it looks good!

oh, and we decided to get ceiling paint that goes on pink and dries white -- so we can see where we have already painted. im just a little skeptical about putting pink paint on the ceiling, let's hope the pink fades away like they claim it does!

so we headed over to the condo to get started on the living room ceiling. dad rolled on the pink paint while i followed behind him throwing glitter up into the wet paint for a sparkly ceiling! who would have guess i would get sore from throwing glitter into the air.

next we ripped down the big closet between the living room and dining room. we found a sewer pipe running through the edge of the wall, so that beam will have to stay, but other than that, the demo went really well. and meanwhile, mom was priming the walls and ceiling in my bedroom.

we finished up around 5:45 and headed home for a few hours for a yummy memorial day bbq of burgers, corn on the cob, and fruit salad. then me, chad, and dad were back at the condo moving in the fridge and dryer until 10pm. phew! what a day! but so much fun!