Silver & Sage Living Space

Most of my creative energy these last few weeks has been dedicated to our basement (sorry Blog). Between road trips to Ikea and consulting with my gays, I have been feeling pretty excited about getting this freaking thing done!

Bathroom tile is ready for grout. Our final light (the bathroom vanity) arrived on our doorstep yesterday. AND I just ordered a new dining room chandelier for good measure. I know this has nothing to do with our basement, but now that our 100-year-old wiring has been updated, we feel more confident about upgrading things like this...so we don't get shocked even after we turn off the breaker...which happened when we updated the kitchen light.

Anyway, the most challenging decision for me to make in this whole basement project has been paint color. I had all these ideas in mind, and my head was spinning from the stress of it. To top it off, we could only afford two color choices, which totally doesn't jive with my paint-your-house-as-many-shades-as-possible ways! Shades of gray seem to be the most fetch trend right now, so I tried finding a shade that made me feel warm and fuzzy inside, and that coordinated with the spa color we chose for the bathroom. Oh, and it also had to match our bedding. However, every shade I tried seemed too cold, too beige, too purple, or too dingy for the space. I love the gray look, but what looked great with the bedding made the laundry room feel like a dungeon. I had visions of us re-painting everything in 6 months if it wasn't perfectly perfect.

After losing sleep for 2 nights, I decided to start from scratch.

• How can I make the basement a cohesive space? 
• What would I be using this space for? 
• What shades make me feel warm and fuzzy inside?

To answer the first question, I made an executive decision: the bedroom and bathroom were going to be the same color, and everything else would be painted the coordinating shade. I loved the idea of laying in bed, looking through the bathroom door, and seeing the same shade of wall color in a different room (like this and this). Bedroom/bathroom color choice took precedence! Otherwise, we would be spending another few hundred dollars on new bedding - not what we wanted. So we picked a color! (Reveal to come soon.)

Next, I had to develop a long-term plan for the living space. I stood in the empty, white living room imagining what I would spend most of my time doing there besides watching TV. The answer was laundry. Then, I had to ask what color I wanted my laundry room to be. It certainly wasn't a variation on the theme of gray. I needed a bright, happy, and clean color that would inspire me to actually fold my clothes.

My next largest activity in this space will hopefully be knitting and sewing. There isn't a great place to sew in our house while watching TV, so I am very excited to make a little station for myself, with the Ikea Fintorp system to hold some of my crafting supplies. We were getting closer to narrowing down our choice when I decided that colors I associate with crafts, and that give me a warm and fuzzy feeling, AND that I had Pinned most frequently - are shades of greens and blues! And sometimes these shades were disguised as "grays" on Pinterest.

So there you have it! We picked out a few paint samples that matched our criteria, painted them on paper and hung the paper around the basement. The minute I saw Benjamin Moore's Silver Sage paint hung in the laundry room doorway, I knew it was THE ONE. It still shades a little gray, but has a happy, relaxing tint. And I love it.

Color: Benjamin Moore Silver Sage - it shades a soft gray-green/silver-sage (haha! duh!) on the actual walls

Light: Ikea

Washer/Dryer: Samsung  - not what I would choose if I had to do it again, but that's what we have

Laundry Print: Etsy

Storage: Ikea 

Sewing Machine: Brother

Flooring: Vinyl PVC (resistant to wear, moisture, and extremely durable - perfect for basement spaces)  

We still need to find a couch for the space, so I am keeping my eyes peeled for good deals. I also need to pick out carpeting for the staircase, as wood flooring is out of our budget for now. I cannot wait to share actual pictures when it is all put together!

Sod Rolling Party 2014! {and other various happenings}

This weekend was cray-cray! And yet for the first time in months, I sat down during Everett's nap yesterday and had spare time to read. Usually nap time means chore time in our household, so this was a special treat.

My favorite part of the weekend was getting to witness baby Blaine's baptism. How awesome is it that he got baptized on Pentecost?

And I certainly can't be mad about the progress happening in our basement.

Floors are in progress, tub is assembled and waiting to be installed, walls are painted, lights are ordered. Bam!

And now I know why people have a million kids. It is because when they are older, they do manual labor for their elders. This weekend my siblings and I got together to roll sod and put in a fire pit for my mom.

The grandchildren loved playing in the new grass.

Here's a Before picture from an earlier post...

A huge improvement! As per usual, Baby Ceci slept like her angelic self for most of the day...

 And Everett got to partake in his favorite activity: playing with the hose.

His least favorite activity? Well, on Saturday it was running in a race. The Bloomsday Road Runners Club puts on a race called The Festival of Miles every year. They have races for all ages, BBQ for families, free throw competitions, and door prizes. So fun right?! Yes, at least for everyone but Everett. The nugget was whining the whole time while the kid to his left was getting psyched up by his dad. The pep talk must have worked because that kid definitely won.

And then there's my kid. At least he didn't come in last.

He still got a medal for his minimal efforts...

Then he decided he was fine for about 5 minutes until a meltdown told us it was time to go. Next year, WE ARE GOING TO WIN THIS THING!

Weekness

This week...what a week. Well, let's start the story of this week from the beginning.

I ran my first half marathon since before I was pregnant!

I had been running pretty regularly for a few months, and trained with my dear friend (also an Emily), who is super fast. I ran my best Bloomsday time and felt stronger than ever. Then the week after Bloomsday, I was walking at work and felt my pelvis crack. My body is still recovering from pregnancy/childbirth, and I felt a little discouraged this was happening 17 months later. It was hard for me to walk after this, let alone run, and I had huge amount of anxiety about running a half marathon in this condition - but I paid $90 to run it, so I wasn't about ready to give up!

Since I didn't get a chance to train further than 8 miles, I started the half marathon slow and steady, and I ended with a decent time. I have mixed emotions about this accomplishment. The day was hot, the course was obnoxious, it was lonely running all by myself, and although my official finish time was not my worst time, it was my second worst. However, I am happy to report that my pelvis stayed in one piece, and my dad finished his first half marathon that day!

Tuesday morning I brought Everett to his 18 month checkup. He jumped up so high on the charts that the nurse had to measure him twice to make sure it wasn't a mistake! Any mother of a small baby knows the feeling of accomplishment when this happens! 

Remember how I word vomited my thoughts on parenting a toddler? I asked the doctor for any professional advice she was willing to share, and this was her response, "I've been watching the way you interact with him, and you are doing a perfect job! You are already doing everything I would recommend."

I'm not slowly killing my child! Of course, I felt elated and rewarded myself with a pint of ice cream from the Scoop. Then...

If you follow me on Instagram you know what happened the next morning. I was laying down while playing with Everett. He was standing over me horsing around and I remember thinking, "How the heck did he get that?" Famous last words.

Everett was holding one of these...

He looked at it closely, decided he didn't care, then dropped it like an uninteresting toy. Unfortunately it landed on my head. I didn't curse, I didn't scream, but I did cry. Then I started bleeding everywhere, so I rushed myself to Urgent Care to get stitches. Jeff stayed home with Everett because he was so upset, and I knew watching me bleed at the doctor would be even more traumatic.

Later that night, for the first time Everett said, "I love you Mommy."

And that, my friends, is parenting in a nutshell. You feel like a failure, you feel the bliss of success, your child gives you a concussion, and then he does something so sweet that your heart is bursting with joy!