Fall in Full Force!

After closing five escrows last week, I've found my schedule just a wee bit slower this week. (Thank God!) For a couple months, I thought I would seriously lose it with all the chaos. With time to breathe a little bit, I'm at a loss for what to fill my time with. While I was driving to an appointment the other week, I heard a radio commercial for Rosetta Stone, and decided to give them a call. I've always wanted to take Mandarin language lessons, but at $600 a pop, buying the 5 cds have always been difficult for me to splurge on. (Kicking myself in the butt now for not listening to the p-unit growing up. SHOULDVE stayed in Chinese school. ugh!) Anyway, there was a great promotion going on, and I just happened to nail it in the last day of September. The whole Chinese language course....for $299!! I got super excited and called Daniel right away, and he ended up ordering the Spanish course. Between the two of us, we're pretty much tri-nternational-lingual. ;)

I've already started the first lesson, and having to pronounce words out loud is surprising. (I can't believe I never knew how to say "sandwich" in Chinese. Weird.)

Since I've had extra hours in the day to fill my time, I've gotten started on some fall baking and decorating. (I love, love, love Fall time, Christmas time...basically the next 3 months straight.) The other night I was craving pumpkin pie, so I had Daniel pick me up some pumpkin puree. He came back with about 4 cans of puree, pumpkin pop tarts, and pumpkin butter. (It's a good thing we share the same appreciation for errrrrrthing pumpkin!) Oh, and the first pumpkin pie and macarons baked this season---success!

Not to mention the Fall decor I've already started working on: 

 

 

Oh, and one last non-seasonal item that I found while shopping at the mall that literally made me laugh out loud:

 

 

Well, the countdown officially begins down to our trip to Thailand. I'm so excited you wouldn't believe. Cannot wait! I'm off to get started on healthy dinner planning for tonight (since Daniel's gotten his wife back) so until we meet again, au revoir, and happy Fall!!!!

 

 

 

 

 



SONOS Soundbar and Then Some

The home improvement continues.

Remodel kitchen-check!
Change out floors-check!
Reposition tv-check!

Change decor, clean up family living space, decorate walls, check..check! check!

They say once you start remodeling your home, it never ends. There's always more, and more, and more, and it just keeps going and going. The hubby and I had the intention of just resurfacing the cabinet doors to our kitchen which lead to demo'ing a whole wall. We ended up doing that and then some. (reflooring, getting a new tv, ahhh, its endless!!!)

Next up---we've ended up rewiring our tv to the wall above our fireplace, added a Sonos wifi HIFI soundbar system which is all controllable by bluetooth on an app from our PHONES. Oh em gee. Mind blown.

http://www.sonos.com/shop/products/playbar

I'm definitely loving the ability to cook in the kitchen and seeing the tv so I'm not entirely excluded from whatever conversation is happening in the family room. (or likewise on nights where Daniel cooks!)

Our awesome p-unit decided to hand down a chaise that fits perfectly in our family room. We ended up selling the Restoration Hardware parisian media console since our tv is now mounted above our mantle. (Someone super scored on that one since we just purchased it brand new in February, but there was simply no room left for it, so out it went!) Now that the wall above it was completely empty, I naturally had to fill it with something incredibly oversized for how large the wall sits. (Found a really cool wall piece that now sits handsomely. Thrilled!)

Before (the RH Media Console we had to sell. Sad.)

THAT wall now. Murrrrica! (Dont mind the cords. Eek!)

SONOS Soundbar!

Now that we finally took care of all this, we're working on our backyard landscaping next. Three bids, and a few drawings later, we should be rolling into action on our new yard space!

Woo woo. Stay tuned!

Tying Up Loose Ends

As summer draws near to an end, Daniel and I are tying up the loose ends with our home. We've finally finished painting and installing our new chandelier (hired a crew to help us since we can't seem to paint within the lines...EVER.)

We've had our kitchen for a few weeks now, and what seemed like a never ending project, has turned out rather successful. It's all about the compromise! Who thought we'd have subway tile at the end of the day! (That was my compromise with Daniel to de-feminize our kitchen for letting us have white cabinets and countertops.) And honestly? I love it--absolutely love it.

The paint color we chose was supposed to be some shade of grey. In a quick hurry to pick one out, we never bothered to 'practice' on the walls. When I first came home to see how it turned out, I was in for a little bit of shock. (Daniel had also seen some of the paint go on the walls before heading out to work in the morning.) I gave Daniel a call mid-day, and our conversation went a little something to this effect:

Me: Daniel........our walls.....
Daniel: I KNOW. BABY BLUE?
Me: It looks like a shade of pastel PURPLE!!!! <insert gut wrenching, heart pains here>
Daniel: I know, I know. Let's just try to live with it for a while and see how it turns out. If you absolutely hate it, we'll repaint it again.

Le sigh.

Thankfully, after the paint had completely dried, it toned down a bit. I think we both agreed that it looks like more of  a 'periwinkle' color. In different angles and lights, though, it definitely looks grey. phew.

Love our new chandelier!! 

Doesn't it look entirely different from different rooms and angles? The lighting changes it significantly. Anyway, we're happy with the way it turned out, and Mickey even got a new bed to match the paint!

Well, real estate has been insane with deals and listings closing right and left. I hardly get any days off, so this Labor Day weekend I intend on getting some much needed r&r time with the hubby. We're planning a much needed vacation to Thailand in November with some other friends! CANT WAIT. 

Have a great week, folks. Au revoir!