Posts from — September 2011

Now that we finished painting the living room it’s time to head back to our new apartment to-do list and try to tackle another big item project.  Since -aside from selecting a color- painting the living was actually a pretty easy project, we decided to also paint our bathroom.  The color choice was somewhat daunting for me, but only because I’m obviously good at picking the wrong color.  But I knew I wanted the bathroom to be somewhere in the blue-green family so that helped me narrow down choices, kind of.

At first I went to the local hardware store and grabbed handfuls of paint swatches.  Literally, handfuls. We taped them all up to the bathroom wall.  Taped them to multiple walls, every wall.  Looked in the morning, at night, with natural light, with the lights on, with no light.  And in the end, we realized that it’s pretty hard to differentiate between different blues and greens and blue-greens.  There were obviously no-ways, so we removed those, but we still had at least 12 colors in the running.

Here’s a look at a few of the paint colors that we considered for the bathroom:

Stay tuned for the after.

Earlier this week I shared with you my top living room color choices for our living room painting project.  In case you missed it, here’s a reminder.

So the boyfriend and I painted the whole living room  2 coats of flat paint in Sherwin Williams Versatile Gray.  I made the final call as far as paint color and unfortunately I think I called wrong.  Is it too soon to regret the new color in the living room? Ideally, I would have recognized the mistake after we painted the first section of the first wall.  Well, these things don’t always happen ideally.  And if we’re really speaking ideally, then let’s just say it together: I should have painted samples on the wall before buying 2 gallons and painting 2 coats on every, single wall.

Oh well.  Here’s a before and after look at two of our main living room walls.

I actually really, really like the color.  But it’s gray.  And our couch is a greenish, brownish, sage-ish color with tan-beigey piping.  I wanted to match the wall color to the piping, but I picked a gray.  I didn’t pick anything from the tan-beige-sand family.  So I messed up, and I’m mad about it, but the boyfriend and the parents and one of my best girlfriends all love it and they think I’m crazy so I’m trying to just shut up and deal with it.  For now at least.

It literally makes me want to cry.  I hate the way the wall looks behind the couch.  I can’t think how I’m ever going to match furniture and a rug and reading chairs or just anything to it.  It all stinks. But like I said, I’m going to try to live with it for a while – at least while we buy some more furniture and start matching accessories to it, so … here’s to waiting.  And trying not to cry every night when I get home from work and stare at our green-brown couch in front of our gray walls.

It’s Friday night in Boston.  For most of my ‘adult’ life, Friday night in the city has been synonymous with short skirts and high heels.  Makeup, hairspray, cocktails and clubs.  But this Friday night feels different.  Yes I’m going out.  I’m going out with the boyfriend and his friends.  We’ll go to a bar, we’ll drink, we’ll dance.  But tonight fall is in the air and I’m feeling old.

I know. I’m not old.  But I’m older.  And I’m no longer concerned with trying to be the prettiest, trying to win the looks of the guys at the bar. I’m older and I live with my lovely boyfriend.  Maybe that’s it.  Tonight is the first time we’re going out since the move.  Aww.

I’m wearing my tall boots and a sweater.  I feel pretty and loved and cozy.  I’m wearing a warm and cozy sweater on a Friday night in the city and I couldn’t be happier.  Suddenly, with just a change in the weather and a change of outfit, Boston feels a bit more like home.  Going out tonight feels more like going out in Portland.

Relaxed, carefree, comfortable.

It was just yesterday that I shared with you our ‘big item’ to-do list for the new apartment. The first projects that we’re going to tackle will likely include painting.  It’s hard to buy new rugs, furniture and accessories when you haven’t settled on a wall color, right?

First up on our new apartment to-do list is painting the living room walls. The landlord didn’t paint the living room after the old tenant moved out and while the color isn’t stark white, it’s not exactly warm and inviting.  It’s a oddly pink, peachy, beige that barely stands apart from the white trim.  I hate it.

So now we have the challenge of picking the perfect neutral for our oversized living room.  I want something in the tan-beige-sand-coffee-gray family.  We’re also trying to match the piping on our couch (kindly donated to us by the boyfriend’s mother).

I’m stuck.  Terribly, absolutely stuck.  I’m queen of picking colors that I think look great on a swatch but are far too overpowering and dark when on the walls.  I’m also queen of not really giving painting projects the time they deserve. I never buy samples.  I never test out or compare colors by painting small squares all over the room.  At most, I may tape up a paint swatch to the wall for a day or two.

In the end.  I normally do something similar to closing my eyes and waving my finger and pointing aimlessly at one of the colors.  Yup.  That’s how thorough and careful I am.

Here’s where my head’s at so far:

Online, I liked the Cape May Cobblestone most.  However, looking at it next to the others makes it glaringly obvious just how dark it might be.  It also is also noticeably darker than the piping of our couch, and it’s even getting close e to the actual color of the couch.  Not what I want.

And while I love Benjamin Moore’s Moonshine in all of Young House Love’s rooms, it may be a tad too light for our living room.   This leaves me somewhere between Popular Gray and Balanced Beige. Balanced Beige is a bit too… tan, and I’m afraid Popular Gray just won’t pop.

So did I just talk through all of my problems?  Perhaps.  And guess what? I learned about Sherwin William’s Versatile Gray in the mall because it’s the color on the walls at our Banana Republic.  If they think the color makes the cut, well I guess it must be a good color.

We technically moved into our new apartment September 1st, but with our trip to Mexico followed by a busy weekend in Maine and of course work every day all day, it’s been hard to settle into the new digs.  We’ve unpacked (most) of our clothes, but there’s still a lot to do.  There are a million little projects that will reveal themselves to us over time as well as a ton of things to buy, but for now, some of our biggest to-do items are:

Living Room

• Paint living room walls
• Buy area rug for ‘living’ area
• Buy new coffee table and TV/media stand

Bathroom

• Paint bathroom
• Buy bath mat, towels and toliet cover
• Re-frame wall art

Bedroom

• Paint bedroom
• Install new shelving system in bedroom closet
• Buy new duvet cover and pillow/sham cases

Other areas

• Paint kitchen
• Buy kitchen island/rolling cart for empty wall
• Paint entryway
• Organize hall closet for tools, cleaning, trash and recyclables
• Organize linen closet for laundry, medicine/first-aid items and well, linens

Late last week I posted a few of my favorite pictures from my recent trip to Mexico.  We spent 4 nights and 5 days at an all inclusive Iberostar resort on the beach outside of Playa del Carmen, Mexico.  On Saturday of our vacation, we attended a close friend’s wedding.  It was small, and quaint and just classic Mexico.

Overall, the vacation was a hit.  The foot was mediocre at best, and the weather was too hot and too humid, but a tropical vacation was exactly what the doctor ordered for us.  Much needed vacation.

This weekend was filled with celebrations.   Family and friends coming together to cheers life and longevity one day and a new chapter to my best friend’s relationship another day.

My grandmother turns 80 this week, so she and my grandfather traveled south to Portland to join my parents, sister and brother in law and boyfriend for a fabulous dinner at Grace.  Grace was the venue for my sister’s wedding ceremony and reception in January, and it broke my family’s heart that my grandmother couldn’t attend.  She was recovering from a string of illnesses and wasn’t well enough to travel.  Because of her absence in January, we did our best to relive the wedding on Saturday night.  We watched the wedding video, sat at the table where our head table was placed, even drank the same wine.

Mom, Dad, sister and grandmother celebrating 80 rich years of life on Saturday.

My sister, grandmother and myself at Abbey’s bridal shower.

Also taking place this weekend was a surprise engagement.  I suppose all engagements are a surprise though, huh?  Well anyways.  My best friend in the entire world -best friends since kindergarten- was proposed to this weekend.  Her boyfriend of 3 years informed all of us girls of the occasion about a month ago, so that we could coordinate a little surprise party for when they returned back to the house after he popped the question.  Following the afternoon get together, there was an engagement dinner at Salt Water Grille (same location as my sister’s bridal shower, ironically) and a night out on the town.

Today was a day meant for reflection, for remembering, for being both mournful and thankful, saddened and hopeful.  I appreciate those optimists who argue that on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we should be looking forward.  I also understand (somewhat) the point of view of those who argue we shouldn’t be mulling over an event that happened 10 years ago, when there are other world crises, like the African famine.  I try to understand those people, but I struggle to agree.

10 years ago I was sitting in 10th grade math class.  Mrs. Soloman was the teacher.  I had walked to the main office to turn in  paperwork and found the administrative staff standing frozen, paralyzed by shock and disbelief, around a TV that had been rolled in from other class.  I was standing in the main office, standing amongst a half dozen adults, when the second plane hit the World Trade Center towers.  The staff saw me in the office and told me to go back to class. Immediately.  Our school offered no explanation.  No time to discuss what might be happening.  No opportunity to listen to or watch the news.

It just so happened that also on September 11, 2001, a crazed man was roaming around downtown Portland waving a gun.  Our school went into lockdown around 10am.  We were eventually sent home, sent back to our parents, wondering if somehow, Portland was connected to the other events of 9/11.

The next few days, weeks and months were spent with my family, watching the news for hours.  Every morning, every night.  All that I can remember of the months that followed is watching the news.  I’ll never forget watching George Bush announce that our country was officially at war.  My mind rushed to images of war.  The only kind of war that I had ever seen.  War on TV, in the movies, and in the history books.

10 years ago all of our lives as Americans changed forever.  I was 15.  A sophomore.  And I was scared.  The world changed, and it will forever be different because of the attacks on 9/11. Today I will take time to reflect on the past 10 years, all that has changed, and all that has stayed the same.  I will take time to remember how I felt 10 years ago, and I will remember the lives of those that were lost.  Today I’ll remember… everything.

Moving out of an apartment, living from a suitcase, traveling to Mexico, returning to work after being gone for 7 days all while trying to move into a new apartment and adjust to living with your boyfriend is apparently quite exhausting.  And rather tolling on your body.  The boyfriend is sick. I’m stressed.  And as a result my to-do list at work is too long, our new apartment is still empty and I haven’t even posted pictures from our gorgeous trip to Playa del Carmen.

What?  Yea.

So while I’m not about to share a minute by minute recap of our trip, I will share with you a few of my favorite photos.

White sand and hibachi dinner on our last night

Before dinner and the bold resort colors

Dinner outfit and jungle greenery

Blue water and our wedding ceremony attire

Today, for the first time in my entire life, I ordered a bowl of French onion soup for myself.  Never, in my 25 years of existence have I ordered this soup for myself, bought this soup for myself, chosen to eat this soup.

What the heck was I always thinking?

Today is a rainy, cold day.  It’s been raining and overcast for days in Boston, but for some reason the building management doesn’t quite get it.  So the AC is still on.  And we’re all cold.

Lunch time rolled around and what was in the cafeteria screaming my name?

French onion soup. Warm, delicious, cheesy, French onion soup.