It's Summer!

...therefore, there have not been many projects going on at the house. We had cousins come stay for a family wedding in June, went to Colorado in July (and saw some more cousins!), and have been swimming somewhere every weekend in August. It's been a busy summer! But there have been a few things happening:

1. We got engaged! These are not chronological because obviously this one is the most important. Nick proposed on the very top of Mount Crested Butte and thanks to a random man at the top, I'm going to use this picture in ALL the wedding things. No matter how awkward the way I'm holding Nick's hands looks.

2. We grouted! Somehow this never got coverage on the blog, but it definitely happened months ago, before any family came to visit! We expected the color to be a little darker, but it's grown on us. It gives more definition to the tiles themselves, which I kinda dig. There is still paint to touch up from smearing grout everywhere, but the tiles look amaaaaaazing. And I'm super happy we got grouting and sealing done when we did, because there was a puppy accident a few days ago (not our puppy!) and that would have been disgusssssting.

3. As you can see in the photo above, baseboards have started! Anyone who's been to our house since the end of May has seen the primed baseboards sitting in the entry hall sadly, just waiting to be installed, and in August we've finally started! We're only about halfway done cutting and a quarter done nailing them up, and caulking/patching hasn't even been on our radar yet, but we have started. And it looks amazing. I'm really happy with the size we got. It's a few inches taller and barely more decorative than we had before and it looks really good so far! P.S. the nail gun we got is battery-powered and fantastic.

See you in another three months! Maybe the baseboards will be done by then?

Air Plants

I've been wanting to put plants in the entryway since I first painted in here. For Christmas this year, Nick's mom gave me this candle holder, and I thought it would be the perfect home for some cute plants eventually! We did light the candles a few times, but usually we forgot to replace the burnt-out tealights until we wanted to light them again, and it just ended up not getting used as much as I wanted to. I thought about tiny succulents, but I didn't want to try to cram them into too small of a space and not give them any room to grow. I came across an article with links to these air plants on Amazon, and I haven't seen any in my local nurseries, so it seemed like a good way to get some cool plants for cheap. (I also found the same seller on Etsy and they have a good selection there too!)

Air plants are really cool! If you haven't heard about them, they require no soil, just water and sun, so you can put them anywhere that gets good light. I filled our glass votive holders with pebbles and just have my air plants sitting on top of them. I mist them once or twice a week and soak them for half an hour every few weeks and them seem to be very happy!

They were shipped in individually labeled paper bags and were all in great condition. At least one of these is supposed to turn red when it's about to bloom, so I'm excited for that to happen! I love new plants, especially new kinds of plants.

Spring is Here Again!

Springtime means new plants! We went to two different events at the Zilker Botanical Garden in the past several weeks and got some really fun things.

First, Zilker Garden Fest! We've grown one pepper plant and lots of herbs before, but we finally picked up some fat pepper and tomato seedlings for the first time. We're waiting until we put up a fence on the back of the property so we can take down the chain link and use that space for a raised bed since that gets the best light, but we don't want to take up the only space puppies can play without supervision with a bunch of garden beds, so we just opted for large containers until the fencing situation changes. Every single plant now has flowers so they are definitely happy on the deck in pots!

Our ZGF haul - three peppers, two tomatoes, a succulent, and basil from the Travis County Master Gardener Association (TCMGA)

From left to right: Garden Salsa Hybrid pepper, Cubanelle pepper, & Big Bertha pepper

The chicken wire cages prevent the squirrels from bothering our cute little plants. Here are the Celebrity Hybrid and Black Cherry Heirloom tomatoes right after planting as well.

Here they are today! Very happy!

 

Donkey's Tail from the TCMGA. I split off one of its pups into its own tiny pot to get two out of this one!

East Austin Succulents was at the fest as well, so I was able to replace the poor Desert Rose that I killed a few weeks ago :( I think I know how to not kill this one...

Along with basil, I also picked up some sage and mint plants for our herb planters. The mint has exploded! I've been making mojitos and mint juleps for weeks and it's only growing stronger, so I'm gonna have to have a few mint parties.

 The weekend after the ZGF was the Cactus & Succulent Show & Sale, also at the botanical garden.

The near box is Angela's haul (Clockwise from the top: perhaps a Black Prince Echeveria, Echinocerus chloranthus, Panda kalanchoe, Tiger Jaws, Anacampseros rufescens). She got some really good ones! $16 for all of these I believe. We only got a few for ourselves that are in the far box (Pencil cactus, Big Needle Cactus, Elkhorn succulent) because we already seem to have a succulent problem... but of course now I'm jealous of the cool ones Angela got. 

This Pencil Cactus was the weirdest we got by far. It had a flower on it when we got it and we'll see if it ever flowers again.

I looove the way they all looked on this windowsill together. I will have no choice but to add more to my collection now that Angela took hers away because they just look so cool in a group!

Also I never posted about our most recent trip to East Austin Succulents! This is the trip that started Angela's plant obsession. I think I've created a monster. Muahaha.

Really though, look how cute they all are even before they are potted! Angela has good taste in plants and I'm always jealous of the ones she picks! I need to get some of those for myself too, especially the tiny Portulaca in the bottom row. It's like the tiniest tree and it's totally adorable.

Echeveria harmsii

Lizard Lips Aloe

I thought this was a Hobbit Jade but it turns out it's a Gollum Jade. Who names these things???

Little Spikey Aloe. I love the glass container for this one and I'll have to use more glass containers in the future because it's really cool looking.

The last few plants are from various stores & events, but I didn't want to leave them out because I love them! Plants are so awesome you guys. Not pictured is a string of pearls that got badly infested with gnats. I wanted one for so long and it died almost as soon as I got it :(

I love asparagus ferns, so I got a tiny one that I'm going to grow big and strong in my hanging pot right outside the back door. So far the squirrels don't seem to care about this one, which is good, because this spot was hell for a couple of others and they almost killed my Heart Leaf Ice Plant for good when it was here!

We got this cool echeveria (secunda perhaps?) in a terrarium from the Renegade Craft Fair that was here in Austin.

I didn't know this air plant would look so cool when it bloomed! We got this one for free when we bought the echeveria.

Living Room Ceiling Updates, Part II

The last living room update left us here:

It looked way better than before, but the obnoxiously shiny brass fan was sort of taking away from the feeling we were going for in here. It's a great fan, and new, but not very pretty. It buzzed when only the light was on and not the fan because the switch it was on wasn't intended for use with low-power bulbs like we were using. We could have changed just the switch, but we also knew that at some point we would want to replace it with something lower profile without dangling pulls so that when we install a projector in here we wouldn't have anything in the way. We weren't really intending to replace it now, but then Home Depot was running a sale on ceiling fans, and one thing led to another, and we bought a new fan! We installed it Wednesday night! 

There is still spray insulation to be finished and to be trimmed, but I wanted to show a pretty close-up because this fan is awesome!

   

It also came with this super snazzy control panel to use instead of the pull chains, so we are officially ready for that projector! The fan works awesomely and I love the buttons! I will never buy another fan with pull chains ever again. You'll also notice we installed a fancy dimmer switch on the right of this panel, too. That controls something "new" as well... More to come soon!

Living Room Ceiling Updates, Part I

Add installing crown molding on a ceiling beam to the already long list of weird stuff our house's previous owner did. This is what the beam in our living room looked like after we took the crown molding down:

After the molding was removed you could see that it wasn't particularly nice wood but it wasn't bad enough to deserve to be painted beige (but really, nothing deserves to be painted beige). There wasn't really any value in trying to strip the paint and sand it to get it back to its natural state, so I painted it chocolate brown to make it look more like real wood from afar. Really you could argue that it looks like real wood from pretty close, too, since I think I picked a color very similar to the one that was uncovered, and the wood was never sanded so it had a really rough grain texture to it still. See how much better it looks already?

Obviously I couldn't wait to get a picture first but I have already started filling in the cracks that were previously covered by the molding with foam insulation so we'll have one less place for air to leak into the attic. Since I intend to put up paneling on the ceiling (as I mentioned previously) it should cover what little of the insulation might still be visible after I trim it. Anyway, painting this beam made a HUGE difference in the feeling of the room and it feels so much more cozy already.

Paint color is Sherwin Williams French Roast

Painting Party

First, gallery wall updates! We had another painting party with friends where we grilled a lot of delicious food, drank a lot of delicious beer, and made a lot of delicious beautiful art. Our gallery wall is expanding! Another few painting parties and I think we could have this wall filled entirely from top to bottom, which is really the goal for the entire house I would say! I love this wall so much.

Nick painted a few new ones for the wall. The circles are interesting but the octosquid is my favorite!

I only contributed one to this wall this time: a tiny little one.

Also I don't know if I ever showed off my very first Pinterest-inspired project: Texas!

P.S. Look! Grouted tiles!!! Baseboards are on the schedule for this spring!

Where I contributed more is in the guest room. I painted a couple of cute cacti with brightly colored edges and a colorful abstract. For a room made up of leftover bedding from college, a crocheted throw from grandma, and a borrowed bed I think it's starting to look not terrible!

Finally, we bought a few original paintings on canvas from a man at a fair when we went to Portland last November. I finally found some frames that would work for them and hung them in the bathroom. This is also a preview of what's happening in the guest bath right now! I only bought a paint sample in case I hated it so I didn't get to finish the room, but I was way too excited to hang some ART to wait for a whole room to be painted. Besides, how the heck do you paint behind a toilet??

Paint colors:
Hallway: Sherwin Williams Extra White
Guest Room: Sherwin Williams Nifty Turquoise
Bathroom: Sherwin Williams Tricorn Black