Labors of Love: These days.

Life has been vacillating between hectic and subdued these last few weeks. We have been very happy, and very grateful for this balance. It keeps us on our toes, and gives us a moment to breathe.

Over the course of three naps, Jeff and I managed to paint our living room. It took two coats of good paint, patience, and lots of tip-toeing around on our squeaky floorboards.

I took this picture before the painting over the mantle was hung because I was too short to hang it, even while standing on a chair. The ceilings are higher than you'd expect for a little bungalow.

We painted the ceiling using Benjamin Moore's ceiling paint in Simply White (FYI, Simply White should actually be called Simply Off-White - don't be fooled by the name). The trim is in Valspar's high gloss Ultra White (which is actually white). Finally, we painted the walls in Benjamin Moore (Natura) Camouflage, which is on the same color card as Simply White; I saw this color on the swatch and knew I wanted to use it. I still have a bit of touch-up work to do on the trim and crown molding, and we would love to tear out the old tiles in front of the fireplace and replace them with something more modern and bright.

Here is the before picture. It sure feels good not to have that accent wall anymore. My house was starting to feel like an Easter egg with all the colorful toys littering the ground.

You can see that we have also purchased a new blind for the front window. The old roman shade wasn't working for us...plus it broke.

I've mentioned before how much I love cleaning with vinegar. There was some soot stuck to the bricks of the fireplace, so I decided to scrub a few of them with a 50/50 vinegar and water solution.

Before

After

Everett and I have also been experimenting with different fruit smoothie blends. It's a great way to sneak healthy things into his diet. I swear, this kid will eat/drink anything that can be slurped through a straw.