Moving to a new neighborhood

So, you move into a new neighborhood. Now you need to set into the new area for a look around. Walking around the neighborhood is always a good way to get to know better your surroundings.

Visiting your neighbors to  introduce yourself is not a bad idea, you don't have to wait for them to give you the welcome, you can visit them, introduce yourself and let them know you're there in case they need you.
TIP: When introducing yourself is always a nice gesture to bring a gift, could be a dish or a bottle of wine, or even something made by yuorself, they will apreciate it.


This is our new neighborhood.

We moved to Valrico which is an area that in general we know pretty well and is not too far from our previous location in Brandon.

And now we present... the curtains

Curtains were necessary on this sliding door, not only for privacy purposes, but also to give some zest to this bare wall.

There's Ella!

Then I found a pair of curtains at Ikea, with illustrations of birds and trees, and immediately fell in love with them. I like that they're fun and graphic. But then we realized we were going to need more color, we wanted something that could make more contrast but we didn't want a very strong color, so we went back and bought a pair of plain green curtains and they went very well with one of the toss pillow on the sofa.

Oh! By the way, those green curtains wrinkle just by looking at them!

Of course, we kept in mind the living room colors when we bought the curtains, we didn't want to have a color carnival.

And there they are, we combined both curtains thanks to my mom's idea supported by Ramon.

Creating the reading habit

I really love the fact that Ella loves books. Since she doesn't know how to read yet, she asks us to read the stories for her. She has learned the different letters sounds and is able to read many words already. We're very proud of her, she just turned four and is already reading words! 

Some books that have helped her are Dr. Seuss books, which are her favorites.

Dr.Seuss is Ella's favorite author.

We go to the library and book stores with her very frequently, we love the environment. And there, surrounded by books we read and read untill we're tired. Is incredible how many words she knows already.

Nature in our home

Last winter we had in our apartment this bowl with rocks and pinecones that Ella and I picked up ourselves, combined with potpourri. I loved the colors!



The best thing is that I only had to buy the potpourri (which wasn't expensive).

Today I wanted to put something in the center of the dining table. I resolved to cut a branch of the bushes of our pathway, they needed triming anyway.

Then I combined the branch with my only fake folwer to give it a little touch of green.

You can use seashells, leaves, sand, branches with no leaves, cut flowers, whatever you can find, and arrange them in any vase or bowl you find at home. Is an unexpensive way to decorate using natural elements.

The dininng room

The dining room is important (like the kitchen) because is related with food, so it was one of the first rooms to be finished. Here's a picture of the dining room before:

Maybe you noticed that the previous owner had the same dining set we have.

We didn't know what to do with that wall nook on the right, but then Ramon's light bulb went on. He had the idea of sticking there the tree wall decal he gave me as a present a long time ago.

The dining room nook.

Here's what we have done so far. But the problem with this huge wall remains. We will have to make an extremely large art or gather a bunch of small ones we have around the house, we'll see what happens. For now it will stay like this.

Things to do when you move to a new house

The first thing we did while the house was still empty (except for a couple of boxes in the living room) was to thoroughly clean up. We cleaned every detail; appliances, walls, closets, those corners everyone forgets about...everything.

I know Ramon looks like he's operating but he's not, he's just cleaning the kitchen cabinets with a surgical mask. He's very allergic to dust.

Then came the arranging furniture part. We had to purchase some things that worked better in this house, not many, just some details like this cute rug for the dining table.

Oh! We also had to get rid of our sectional because it didn't fit in the living room so we purchased a new sofa. Do you remember the sofa battle? Well here is the result.

Tada!!! We both decided to buy this sofa because it work better for the room. We didn't find recliners with nice colors or shapes. This sofa was comfortable enough for Ramon, plus, he bought an ottoman to put his feet up.  

We also have to help Ella adapt to this house, although  for her, settling into the new house has been fast. The first days she was missing the apartment, but she is also excited with her new room and happy that now she has an outdoor space to play.

The strawberry ice cream room

Lately we haven't shared enough of the new house with you guys, but is just that we have been very busy with all this moving and fixing and cleaning and this and that.

After a crazy cleaning rampage, some paint job and moving in our old furniture, the house is finally livable. Of course, there's still much to do and fix. Thank you to our family's help (including my mom, who came from Santo Domingo) we did everything faster than a speeding bullet! 

Of every room there are still things to be done, but the room that we already finished today, when grandpa Ramon put the finishing touch by hanging the curtains, which grandma Amelia made, is Ella's room.



The pink on the walls looks darker now.



It was a challenge to fit all her things in the room but we did it!

We had to use very wisely the closet space to make everything she had in her old room fit in this one.

Make a list for everything

I love to make list for just about everything. To do lists, to buy lists, grocery list, extremely urgent stuff to do lists, all kinds of lists. I sometimes use a note pad (and always take it with me everywhere). I also use the bamboo butler I had at the entryway of the apartment (still have to find a new place for it in the new house), and a magnetic board that's in the kitchen, a great spot, so I can see it all the time.

I make lists in pieces of papers, everywhere. Is kind of obsessive, but it really helps you keep track of what you have to do or remember, (and I have a terrible memory). It's also very satisfying when I strike through something that finally has been done.

Choosing color for a girl's room

Is so hard to choose a paint color, especially with so many color options in the market. Well, our little girl made it easy for us, she said what she wanted and, even though is not our favorite color, we knew that we had to please her, after all, her bedroom is her special place in the house where she imagines and daydreams.

At the age of four a girl's bedroom color scheme is kind of predictable, so I guess you already know she wanted PINK, which (for now) is her favorite color. So, we went to the store and looked for a very light shade of pink and this is the one we chose:

TIP: Is preferred to paint a bedroom with a light color since this is the place where you sleep.

I know it might look too white but once you put it on the wall it looks darker. I will show you soon more of what we have done with Ella's room.

My little camera

We own two digital cameras, the nikon D40 and nikon D90. We also have a Canon AE-1, this analog camera was a gift. We love them all but the apple of my eye is my Diana Mini! I LOVE the nostalgic look of the pictures. 





Here she is all pretty and tiny.

   The Diana Mini is great for Lomography which is a kind of artistic photography where the rules of traditional photography don't really matter. So your photos could be overexposed, red or yellow, you can cut a persons head, anything you want. The point is to transmit a feeling, or what the artist wants to express through the photograph.

Here I posted a collage of 19 photographs taken with Diana.

 

 

TIP: Experiment with photography, even if you feel that the photograph you've taken is not "correct" it always has certain beauty. You can also play with photo editing programs like photoshop. There are also websites where you can upload your photos and retouch them for free, like picnik.com.

These are my favorites.

Make your own art

I love the fact that we decided to have original art made by ourselves throughout the house. We mostly have photographs but, I also made these.

And they were so easy to make. I made them in the computer using Illustrator to draw the them. Then I put them in small frames, (which only cost a dollar each) to display them on the shelf with the books, I love them and love the fact that I made them myself.

Create yourself a logo

If you had a company you would have certain things that identify you. You will need to create an image for it. And definitely you must have a logo, that is a graphic that helps people identify your business. 
So I thought a long time ago, why not, create a logo of myself, an image that represents me. I also created the used the nick name CathyCat when I was in school. Some people called me like that, others used my other ID, Catherine, which I have since I was born.

This is my logo.



Basically I made a drawing of myself with the feature that stands out the most, (not my nose) my hair. I have big-curly-freeze hair and you can notice that in most of my pictures.

TIP: You can take your feature or trait that stands out the most and make a logo of it. You can also make a logo of a word or motto you made up or something you like.

Say thank you with a note

When someone offers me a service and I feel very satisfied with their work I want to express my gratitude for their help. I think the best way to say thank you is with a note.

In our case, we really appreciated the efforts of our lender and realtor in the process of buying our first home, they really made it easy for us, guiding us, since we didn't know much about this. So we made them this card with an illustration of our house and a sign that says SOLD.  





If you don't remember our house this is what it looks like:

Recliner versus sofa

Ramon and I realized that our old sectional wasn't going to fit in our new house so we decided to buy a new seat. The problem is that we can't make up our minds because we both want different things. Ramon wants the comfort of a recliner, since he loves to watch movies comfortably, while I prefer the look and variety of colors of modern sofas. 

Top: (The least ugly recliner we found in the store). Bottom: (A gorgeous leather sofa which I still find very comfortable).

 Ramon also likes the orange-reddish sofa, he thinks it looks good but it seems he doesn't want to compromise comfort. Uhhmm.. I see a little of indecision here and I like it. He really wants to be comfortable but yet he wants a nice looking seat. Let's see what happens. You will know!

TIP: If you want a happy marriage you have to learn how to compromise, otherwise you'll always argue for everything (I still have a lot to learn, friends).

Lucky I saved this!

Since the day I learned that probably we were moving soon I started saving all the shipping material of anything we bought those days, thinking that soon we would have to start packing for moving and that material could be useful. Well, even though we had a messy corner in the living room for almost four months I don't regret it, it was worth it. I can't believe all the things I've saved and how useful they have been.

These are some of the things I've recollected with time and the best thing is that I didn't have to spend a dime:

- Huge plastic bag for mattress.

- Some cardboard boxes.

- Styrofoam.
- A huge brown paper (great for wrapping glass and ceramic).
- Air cushions.
- Foam pads.



One of my Geisha dolls stares at her twin while waits for her turn to be wrapped in foam.

We also got boxes from my father in law, who recollected a bunch of them and saved some for us. All of this packing supplies for free!!