From Summer to Winter — Bedding edition ;-)

This is one of the things I did on January first. It was/is so cold this year that even though I adore our two year old Spring & Summer bedding (and didn't do the switch last year because of that very reason), I decided to change it to our heavier winter one and I also swapped the thin comforter we had under the duvet by a down one. I also have winter curtains, so I changed those too.

Pardon my messy bedroom (later that week I cleaned the clutter next to the window. I'm still working on the stuff on the other side (my side of the bed):

The Spring/Summer bed:

When I bought this duvet cover (which I found "accidentally" browsing something on Kohl's website, but then bought it elsewhere because it was cheaper) I already had those decals* on the wall, but don't they match perfectly? I LOVE botanicals and I truly adore this duvet cover. *most of which I got at Target, some from IKEA and online.

The Winter version:

This bedding is the one I purchased (at JC Penney! On clearance!) because the comforter/bedspread we had at the other house (photo here, third photo from the end) didn't match the sage green of the walls -- it is now used inside the "summer" duvet cover!

And... I made a quick time-lapse of the whole thing. The music is the introduction to Ivan Lins' "Formigueiro" (ant-house). I had a lot of fun adding the music. I will start playing more with videos, now that I have a phone that takes great photos and video.
from summer to winter from Mama(e) in Translation on Vimeo.

Goodbye Spring-Summer Look, Hello Fall-Winter! (Living-Room edition)

I wrote most of this post on 10/2, but only managed to upload the photos on 11/23/17 & 1/15/18!
This post is almost two months overdue!
 
I changed some of the pillows in my couches back on October 2nd (here's a post from 2012 showing in detail how I came to finally settle on my "summer" pillows). It is a subtle change for the sofa (the solid ones stay). Maybe I'll buy more pillows to change looks 3 or 4 times a year... we'll see! My oldest son hates the cold season pillows because they are filled with pesky feathers... sigh. What could I do? It would be horribly time consuming to open the seams to remove the inner pillows and replace them. (Cheesy humor ahead: see, this is literally a "fluffy" post) ;-P

 Good-bye Spring-Summer look:

 

Hello Fall-Winter:

A lot of the decorations in my house involve several shades of my most favorite color: aqua green, teal, or turquoise. And also brown because I love brown, and lots of different shades of green because green is my favorite. I need to post more photos of the house sometime! 

Super Productive Day?

Let's see what was accomplished. Maybe a list would be best, but here is the day's chronology:

- put load of laundry to wash;
- drove hubby to work (20 minutes away, to the South);
- went to Costco and bought only what was on my list (good accomplishment!): a pineapple, cat food, and toilet paper;
- returned plastic drawers that didn't fit inside bathroom cabinets I'm trying to organize;
- purchased metal shelving that maybe will fit and cubes for cube storage shelves we already have in the living room and family room;
- went to farmer's market (I'm buying tomatoes like crazy to make sauce and freeze)

- drove back home and hung laundry, put another load to wash;
- picked up oldest child early from school and began arranging the cube storage (metal shelves didn't fit cabinets :( so I put them back in the trunk to return);
- picked up youngest son and took both boys to the dentist (20 mins. North).
- took oldest to store while youngest had teeth cleaned to buy deodorant and acne stuff;
- drove back home, first dropping oldest at school for him to work;
- stopped by the "Main street" hairdresser who was free and had time to quickly cut youngest son's hair;
- at home, hung second load of laundry (it was pretty late, after 4 pm, but the day was hot and windy, so it was ok) -- first load was completely dry;
- picked up oldest and, after a few minutes at home, drove him to another hair salon for his scheduled haircut appointment.
- picked the now dry clothes and drove with youngest son to town (20 mins. South);
- son's glasses were adjusted at the store & I bought a t-shirt and fragrance spray for oldest at popular store with teens (NEVER thought I'd give in and shop there, name begins with H); bought pretzel sticks as reward for patient kid.
- picked up  husband and drove back to the elementary school where son had forgotten homework and nice teacher met us and opened the door.
- finally back home! Only leftovers for everyone, not real dinner today.

I needed to have written emails to students and done other kinds of work, but I guess that in the parenting and house fronts the day was productive! I'll try to add some photos. :)

Pillow Fight, or... buy and return, buy and return...

(extra title "Saved by Target")

I wanted to update the looks of our couch & living room for Spring/Summer, so I went out and bought countless decorative pillows in April and May. OK, I guess they can actually be counted, but it did feel like the buying and the returning of pillows would never end!

I wanted "aqua" colored pillows, but they were nearly impossible to find. First, I got these green/brown pillows at Ross (they were so cheap! I couldn't resist), but they were too bland & blah...

...So I returned them and thought that these inexpensive and nicely colored outdoor pillows from Costco (including one to sit on the ground) were nice, but changed my mind in a few days (rougher fabric, definitely looks like it's for outdoors):

I returned them and stopped by Tuesday Morning, where I thought that the color of these was just the perfect aqua green that I wanted. They were pricey, though, 15-20 each! 

I went back to Ross and found these other pillows, more blue than green, for half the price of the green (two for 15):

... but the fringe of the cheap blue ones were not as pretty as the green's, with black in there (in addition to the blue, brown and beiges):

K settled my indecision because he couldn't stand the taffeta fabric of both pillows -- he thought it was super scratchy! So I returned all of them, together with this cheap (6.99!), but bland oblong pillow from Ross: 

Finally, Target to the rescue! I was overjoyed to find these true aqua pillows @ Target. The solid ones were 2 for 14, but the striped ones were 14 each (not very cheap), but they were so perfect, so I didn't mind!

So... 16 pillows later (12 of which were returned), I now had the four cheery ones that I wanted for our couch!

P.S. Last week I bought one more of the stripped pillow on the right ($2 off!) and now there are two pillows on the love-seat and three on the couch.

First Anniversary! (with photos!)

One year ago, we moved into our house! It was raining A LOT, just like it was today! The closing had been the easiest, fastest closing ever, and our dear friends drove all the way from PA to help us, together with my parents who were already here with us.

We love our house and we're happy to be homeowners again, our tenth year. It's a relatively small house (1700 sq ft), but it's perfect for us. It's even more perfect because it was extremely well taken care of and we didn't have to do any work (well, except for the roof in the shed). The wall colors were mostly great, except for the dining room's red wall which we painted right away, the master bedroom's bathroom -- see below, and the hall bathroom, which we still need to paint.

On Friday, we rearranged the living room furniture and even some of the pictures on the wall. It made such a big difference in the feel of the room (which probably won't be conveyed by these photos).

Before:

After:

This is our dining room, it's fairly small, but I love it!

I was going to share photos of our bathroom, the other painting project my dad tackled for us soon after we moved (he painted the dining room too, I miss my dad, he helps so much around the house! And my mom too, of course!), but I think I'll share that in another post!

Let's end with the kitchen, then, this picture is a little too dark, but you get the idea. I really want a round IKEA table there, but I need to pay for the rest of the furniture first (living room set, cabinet and sideboard for dining room). 

OK, one last photo, the family room downstairs (by now you will have realized how much I love brown, right? Good thing it's very much in fashion right now):

Happy Anniversary to us and our house!

Couched

Look at what we bought yesterday morning (these, including the ottoman below, which has four drawers):

I think I'm happy with our choice, although I never in my life thought we'd be buying leather furniture (I don't really like it at all, except perhaps when mixed with fabric like that). OK, my son wants to use the computer, so I have to be off. I want to come back and blog more later, though.

Did I tell you that I "killed" my laptop? (not really, but it doesn't do anything, even when turned on, it was after a glitch when I was doing a search online on google chrome). After trying to use K's netbook, I gave up and started using the desktop upstairs. Trouble is, this is also the guest bedroom and we'll have guests this weekend, starting tomorrow. So... not much blogging for me coming up :(

The One I Wanted

OK, so here's another "fluff" post brought to you by three hours wasted watching Magnolia, a film that was highly recommended by a friend but which, in the end, K and I thought was a huge waste of our time. Sigh. It is slightly similar to Crash, but without the incredibly gripping racial and ethnic conflicts. It's mostly a very long film that explains how certain people got mixed up because of their parents' awful mistakes. Blah. We were just thinking that this whole "crazy" type plot thing might have been a typical feature of later 90s film (Magnolia is from 1999).

anyway... over a week ago I posted that we'd decided to buy a rug for our living room; however, the one I posted about wasn't the one I had originally chosen and wanted, but one I'd found online that very night. The next day, when we went to the store, K ended up agreeing with me that the one I wanted would probably match our color scheme better! YAY! He didn't want botanical motifs, only geometric or abstract ones, but in the end, he agreed and we brought it home. Isn't it just so pretty?

The coffee table was moved so the boys could play Wii with their cousins, so I took the opportunity to take the photo. I LOVE LOVE LOVE our new rug! Too bad it needs lots of vacuuming since it's so dark that any dirt shows easily. (K keeps saying "I told you so!" but at least he likes it too).