Coloring Our World

Color. It's used to evoke emotion, feeling and memory.

I want to use color throughout my house in a way that makes it feel warm and inviting, happy and friendly, glamorous and stylish, and unique and original. That's quite a laundry list, huh? I've spent my evenings at home scouring HGTV.com and countless decorating blogs (please see new column of home and decorating blogs to the left). I leave feeling inspired and excited...only to feel confused and unsure 10 minutes later. How do I make my home a true representation of me? Of me AND my husband? Of our life together?

These complex thoughts that really should not exist are the sole reason why I have 289045 different paint samples of the color green on my office wall. "Jalapeno Jelly" is too yellow, "Organic Green" is too grassy. "Asparagus" is too brown. "Pea Pod" looks too much like an Easter Egg. "Paris Mint" and "Celery" have yet to be slathered on to the collection. I have a good feeling about "Paris Mint," although I think I will convince myself to like it just because it has "Paris" in the title.

So, while I mull over my green paint choices, we've moved onto the dining room. Thank goodness for that because I picked ONE color and have never wavered. Bobby and I spent one weekend very close to a saw. There was lots of saw dust, sanding, Spackle and caulk involved, but the majority of the project is complete. The details are left to my husband to obsess over. He is quite the carpenter and it shows with every project!

Here's our step-by-step progress of the 2-day dining room project, if you weren't already following along with my Facebook or Twitter updates!

The clean slate.

The first board on the wall - yikes!

The first wall complete!

Window framed out

Carpentry almost done

New baseboards installed.


PAINT!

The final reveal will be up... whenever we finish. There are some finishing touches left to complete.

In other news... It's tough being a princess.

We celebrated Ellie, Grampa and Mary Claire's birthdays this weekend in Raleigh, NC!

Baby Wise will be arriving in April. Another Baby Barrick (not ours, Bobby's brother) will be arriving in late March, and a good friend (Baby K) will be arriving in about 10 days! Babies galore! Stay tuned for chubby cheeks as they arrive here shortly!

From Mexico, With Love

We went for our honeymoon and now, almost 3 years later, we're going back.

To Mexico, that is.

In only a few short weeks, we'll be looking at this:



And we'll hopefully be laying in one of these:



Drinking lots of these:




And spending lots of quality time with this guy:



After all the snow we've been having, a trip to Mexico will be a nice, warm and sandy remedy to cabin fever. And, of course, a nice celebration to our three years together, too :)

FAIL

While trying to hang a new mirror in our powder room on Saturday, we proceeded to drill a nail through one of the pipes behind the wall. Yes, through the pipe.

FAIL.

Thankfully, the pipe was not full of water.
Thankfully we had pictures prior to when the drywall was hung to be able to verify that we indeed hit a pipe.
Thankfully, my husband works quickly with caulk and was able to patch the hole. And the large square of drywall he had pulled away to check it out.
Unfortunately, Bobby wouldn't let me take a picture to document the experience.

Thankfully we had this: Minus the arrow to show us where we should NOT drive a nail.



Oh well. Live and Learn.