Five months

It's hard to believe it's been five months since this important date. Time flies! But what a wonderful five months it's been!

Toilet bombs…pressure sensors…whatever he call the things!

I call them automatic toilet bowl cleaners. Luke calls them pressure sensor toilet bombs. Whatever they are....I have LOTS of them!!

Several weeks ago, I bought this Scrubbing Bubbles One Step Automatic toilet bowl cleaner. It was an excellent sale, so I bought four boxes. I was out of toilet bowl cleaner and needed some anyway. I installed it the next day. It's a metal can that sits on the floor behind the toilet with a little foot petal. Then a cord runs to the thing that sits inside the rim of the toilet. Press on the foot petal and the cleaning fluid runs up the cord and sprays into the toilet to clean it. Works rather well!

I installed it in one of our three bathrooms and a couple days later Luke comes into the kitchen and asks me, "So....what is the pressure sensor doing in the bathroom???" At first, I looked at him like what in the world are you talking about??? Then it dawned on me!! The toilet bowl cleaner!! And I started laughing! And laughing! And laughing some more!

Then he said, "So it's triggered to go off if you're in there too long?" And I started laughing some more and managed to get out a "yes" among all that laughing! Oh my! It was hilarious!

Fast forward about a month. Luke was shopping at Walmart with me and as we passed the Scrubbing Bubbles section, I mentioned that those same kits were going to be free next week and then I would buy some more. And he responded with, "More of those pressure sensor toilet bombs?" I just about died laughing right then and there in the cleaning asile. Little did he realize just HOW many I was planning to buy. ;)

Next week came. And when Luke came home from work Monday afternoon, there were 14 new boxes sitting in the kitchen (I had yet to "hide" them downstairs!). You can imagine the look on his face as he said, "That many of those things?"

And now? Every Monday morning as I'm cleaning the bathrooms, I can't help but smile when I see that "pressure sensor toilet bomb". And there will be PLENTY of Monday mornings with those sitting in my bathroom in the future!

Just remember not to panic when you come to my house and visit my bathroom and spot that "bomb" hiding behind the toilet! It's nothing to worry about. Really. :)

Oh.....one more thing. Just in case you're in doubt as how to install and use the thing, there's a youtube video here explaining just how it works. Honestly? It requires a youtube how-to video? It seems as though there's a youtube video for ANYTHING and EVERYTHING!

Double duty painting

This is how to really get efficient while painting! ;)

It's called "CREATIVITY"

We have a tall wall. Yes, TALL!

When we were painting this tall wall, we had a ladder.

But, it wasn't quite tall enough, so we used my metal sewing table. (that thing is heavy duty!)

But we discovered that we STILL needed more height! (You can see where this is going, right?!)

So we had to invent some new methods that truly reach new heights of achievement! A ladder. A metal table. And four kitchen chairs. PERFECT!!!!

Where there's a will, there's a way! ;)

The front living room: green and brown

Ok, this room has changed colors multiple times in my mind before we actually bought paint for it. What we finally ended up doing I LOVE to pieces, but if you would have told me that's what I'd end up with, I wouldn't have guessed it!

In my pre-wedding/pre-home color scheme planning, this was an added room I hadn't planned on, until of course, we bought this house. So I really didn't have any ideas for colors or furnishing that room. Red is so, so popular and at first that's what I was planning. It's easy to decorate in red and find accent ANYTHING with that color scheme. And the walls are tan, so it would blend well.

But, I painted a swatch of red (believe me, I had paint swatches in many places in this house before I've made a decision and we painted over them) and it just wasn't catching my eye for anything. Knowing that I had purple in the other room and then seeing red.....well, it just wasn't making much progress in my mind.

So, my mind turned to one of my favorite color schemes--purple and green. Our family room was purple; I've used that color. I turned to the color green. Not really an olive green or hunter green, but more of a sage green (kinda like my wedding accent color). And yes, after several color swatches looking for the right color and then playing with different ideas for the right faux technique, it just came together. I was sitting on the stairs, staring at the wall, notebook in hand, drawing out a sketch, and said, "Luke, I've got an idea!"

 To which he looks at me with this "oh dear, what are you going to make me do next?"

It's simple. ( I think he starts inwardly groaning when he hears those words! ;)) A base coat of a light green solid. Then do the faux suede technique in a little darker sage green. This gives it some texture and still allows the light green to show through. Basically creating two colors mixed together. Then (this is the REALLY fun part), stencil branches in three strategically placed ares on the wall. And one step beyond that I even have planned--I want to put three tall, skinny wall frames in the center of the room in stair step fashion (still hunting for those!)

Paint the light green (btw, that tan spot? it's covering up the red paint swatch! ;)) And yes, that is green....but it's a LIGHT green!

Then take the mixed faux sage green paint and do strokes with a brush like this. (During this process, you have to do sections at a time and work FAST to make it look right!)

With bunched up fabric, swirl/swish the paint to make it look like suede fabric!

And it looks like THIS!!! YAY!!! I totally love the results! I would be totally happy with this wall like this, but let's move on...cause it gets even better!

I ordered a branch stencil and we taped it to the wall for area A. It's hard to see because it's clear plastic.

The first branch color is the solid green. At this point, we were both thrilled how it was looking!

Beautiful, huh?!?!?!

Then we painted a tan branch over the green (which we ended up redoing in brown--the tan just looked ugh!). And then did dark brown. Are you seeing it?!?! Green and dark brown?!?!

Luke had to paint with some pressure over the stencil, let it dry and then carefully peel it away from the wall. Then let that dry and move onto the next branch.

But JUST LOOK at the beautifulness!!!!! YAY!!!

Then moving onto the other side of the wall where I wanted a group of two branches in area B and then a group of five branches in area C.

Painting green branches. This wall is SO hard to paint cause of it's height! Good thing I have a tall husband who's willing to hang over ledges and paint with one hand!

And see??? It's wonderful! I think it's my favorite room we've painted as of yet!

Does this color scheme and design remind you of something you're looking at? Yep, I loved it so much, I designed my blog with the same theme! ;)

Go see it - Courageous!

Yesterday Luke and I saw Courageous. Totally awesome movie! Sherwood Pictures produced this film; the same makers of Fireproof and Facing the Giants. Their newest movie is just as great as the other two. There are hilarious parts (yep, don't laugh too hard when you meet the snake gang member! ;)) and some very sad sections. And then the Biblical viewpoint is so woven throughout the movie that it's one movie you can't miss watching.

I LOVED it and can't wait to see it again!