Four natural details in your home

When I was outside trimming some branches I decided to take a photograph of the texture of the tree trunk in our front yard, it called my attention for some reason. Then I took a picture of the leaf of a plant that's in front of the house. I don't like this plant very much, but looking at it in detail I began to see its beauty. I also took a picture of the tree, the tall tree that covers the lawn with its leaves and makes me sweep for an hour (but still is a beautiful tree).

Now, I know that a fence is not a natural element, but is made out of wood. I love how some of the wood looks blue in the picture.

 

(Top left) The fence. (Top right) The plant.

(Bottom left) The tree trunk. (Bottom right) The tree.

These pictures are great inspiration for color, ideas and who knows, maybe one of this could be an artwork to hang in the living room.

So next time you're outside cleaning, gardening or just mowing your lawn take a moment to look around you and you might find beautiful details that maybe you never noticed, right in your back yard.

The laundry room sign

OK friends, today I spent a few hours cleaning that shelf above the washer and dryer. They were DIRTY!!!! Finally I finished that. Yesterday I designed a sign to hang on the wall behind the machines. I came up with this:

I like the fact that I made it myself and its original, but then, today looking at that wall, I realised that I won't be able to hang anything there. It seems that this wall suffered some water damage and is a little fragile. Oh brother! Thanks to one of my readers and best friends, Vanessa, who suggested the idea of using wall decals I finally have the solution!

The lame laundry

Doing laundry is NOT one of my favorite things, but somebody has to do it.

I do laundry in the garage, that's where the washer and dryer are located. As you can see int this picture, that spot is not very inspiring, actually is very depressing. There's poor lighting in the garage, it's dirty (when we moved we missed cleaning it) and there are a couple of things we still have to get rid of, like our old sectional (you can see a picture of it here).

So you can imagine how horrible that garage looks (I didn't put a picture of it because it was too embarrassing, however I put a picture of the laundry area which is embarrassing too).

These are simple and affordable changes I want to do in the laundry area:

The fastest growing grass

Our lawn must be the fastest growing lawn ever! It has to be mowed every week. Investigating on the Internet about what kind of grass we had in our front and backyard I learned a couple of things I didn't know.

You have to choose the right kind of grass for your yard, some like shady places, others need direct sunlight, just like plants.

Don't cut the grass too short, is not good for the lawn.

Don't mow your lawn when its wet, otherwise you might get weeds in your whole yard.

Water the grass frequently (we actually dont need that, the frequent rains and the lack of sunlight are in charge of taking care of our lawn).

Fertilize it when is needed.

Ramon likes

Ramon and I mostly like similar things. We both love photography, movies and music but he has passion for some specific things.

He loves and I mean LOVES going to the movies. He really is passionate for cinematography. He has a long list of favorite movies of different genres but he particularly likes movies about musicians, bands, and about movie making. He also likes documentaries. Reading the critics in movie magazines is one of his favorite pass times.

He loves music, but he still doesn't assimilate MP3 players, downloading music and all that modern stuff. He still likes to listen to Cd's and even cassettes.

Favorite color is blue.

Cathy likes

If I list all the things I love, this post probably would never end, so I'll mention only some of these things. 

My favorite colors are yellow and orange which explains why my favorite flower is the sunflower. I love to use patterns in clothing.

Like many people, one of my favorite band of all times is "The Beatles". They made really good music and even now after decades they're still making news. John Lennon is my favorite Beatle. 

I love music (mostly oldies) and I love to hear and see a good guitarist playing, especially when they're doing a good solo, is hypnotizing.
My favorite movies are usually about reality something like: Drama with a touch of surrealism and magic. 

Ella likes

I wanted to start today giving you the news that the white ottoman is finally sold. I received a call from a person that was interested in buying it and she came to pick it up on Saturday, hooray!!!!

Now, for today I thought it was a good idea to let you guys know a little more about us, so we made a collage of the things we like and we feel that represent each of us.

Like many of you know, Ella loves Dr. Seuss' books, especially "The cat in the hat". She collects those fun and creative rhyme books that even we love.

She loves Jigsaw puzzles, painting, sowing, and like all the children in the world, she loves Disney characters and movies. 

Some stay, some go

We were done with Ella's room a long time ago, but there's still something to do. We have to select the toys she won't be using anymore. When we were in the apartment, before moving I got rid of some things, but now I realize that there are many more to put in the donation box.

Some of Ella's toys.

I also took the opportunity to arrange all her art supplies in boxes.

I kept the broken crayons for other kinds of crafts. Like melting crayons!

TIP: Obviously your child will stop playing with some toys at a certain age, get rid of the old ones and keep the new ones unless is something you know she still loves or if is one of her favorites. Also get rid of the ones that are broken or stained (but don't throw away the dirty ones, you can always wash them). Another thing is, if your child receives a bunch of gifts from relatives and friends, keep some of these new toys in storage so you can give it to your child later he or she will feel it as something new and at the same time you don't fill his or her room with more toys.

We had to get rid of some of her costumes too. She is growing so fast that many of them don't fit her anymore.

Outside but still inside

I remember when we came to see the house and I saw this space. I thought "it has a lot of potential".

I don't know how to call it really, is it sunroom, porch, lanai, I don't really know. What I know is that is a part of the house where you can feel a little outdoorsy.

This is what we have done so far. Just put our old dining table on one side and in the other an easel that Abu gave to Ella as a gift.



Now there is still a lot to do in this space. Here is my list:

-Paint the walls lighter (and the ceiling)

-Probably tile the floors

-Hang art

-Hang string lights (always loved the look of those)

-Fix the screen (is broken so bugs can come inside the house)

SO....

On Monday we made a mysterious post with only one clue... a letter. Our initial plan was to make a letter out of plywood and hang it on a wall. But then I found this...

A letter that was already made! So our plans changed, we bought it because it was less work and less probability of bad results.

What we did was buy a small spray paint and paint it to hang it on the office wall, next to the clock to spell the word SO. So beautiful, so yellow, so colorful, so happy, so so so!

Improvising

Remember when I posted clustering art. I was grouping different black and white pictures we took in the past and that big one with the flower in color. Well, that day one of the frames was still empty and I didn't have time to take a picture, retouch it and print it. So, I improvised, I was ready to hang them and didn't want to wait!

I just wrote on a sheet, with my own handwriting in order to save time, the lyrics of one of the songs that represent our love for me and and Ramon.

Now, guess what we are up to

This post is only a sneak peek of what I might be doing next. OK, I will give a hint with this picture but I won't tell what it is until the project fails or succeeds. Why do I say this? This is a craft project and since we are not very crafty we want to wait for the project's results.

Well, this doesn't say much so I will give you another clue...... A LETTER.

With a little help from my friends

When youre hanging pictures you have to arrange, measure, mark, hammer, fit in, is not an easy task. Of course you can do it yourself but is always good to get a little help from someone else. In this case I got help from my sister. 

Is good to have someone there so you can step away from the wall and see if the pictures are perfectly aligned.

Thanks sis.

Clustering art

How do you make a grand statement on a wall using your photos and artwork? Well... mural always comes to my mind when we talk about big statement. But another thing to try is to place a bunch of photographs or artwork using similar frames to keep it cohesive. This is another way to give impact to the room.



Photo by Laura Angelina



TIP: Always sketch before hanging your artwork and lay them on the floor the way you want to hang it on the wall, try different options until you come up with the right one.

The mushroom of course!

This is a mini artwork I made for Ella. The mushroom. To make it is very simple. I just needed:

-A teeny tiny canvas

-Some fabric leftovers

-Black paint

-And tacky glue

Cut the fabric in any shape you like and stick it on the canvas, combine it with paint and done. This is just a small proprtion experiment, and not so finished but I believe this project has potential.