We are enjoying these last few days of school vacation – we recently went up to a local park and rode on the train, it was wonderful. The day had cooled down and my three men were having a lot of fun together:
In a few days my sons are back in school. Is it just me or did this summer just fly by?
Month: August 2011
Featured at Beneath my Heart
Holy painted tables, Batman! The wonderful Traci from Beneath My Heart featured my little green table as one of the best DIY in July projects! Yayness!
You really couldn’t find a sweeter lady than Traci out there in blogland, and she’s crazy talented, too, so I am very psyched to have been featured on her blog.
I got a new project my husband and I (and my oldest) worked on these past few days, so I’ll tell you all about it soon – have a great Tuesday!
My house colors
We’re in the middle of a little living room project:
and I had to look up my living room wall color. I did a post about my house paint colors in my last blog so I thought it better to list them here for future reference.
Our master bedroom has a sponge-finish treatment on the wall combining the 2 shades of tan. The wall where the lovely mirrored closet doors got the dark burgundy but lord knows I regret that decision. My plan is to do away with the closet doors completely and paint the wall to match the rest of the bedroom.
Our living room has a similar warm palette but instead of the burgundy we’ve added a dark chocolate brown accent color in the form of our new IKEA TV console and the project we are currently working on, which will be painted to match the console.
My little man’s room has two shades of light blue, and we seriously need to upgrade his bedroom soon. Aside from a few Mickey-themed items, there’s nothing else there and he outgrew Mickey a couple of years ago.
My kitchen/dining room colors are super warm and cozy, I talked about the changes we made 8 years ago in this post.
My bathroom got a cheerful coat of bright, warm yellow paint, which I continue to love, and it’s going to get remodeled in the next couple of months (fingers crossed) – I’m debating tile choices.
The paint color is Ralph Lauren’s Chamois. The cabinets were painted dark brown, echoing the living room console.
I will be updating the progress on our living room project in a few days!
Feline royalty: update
After I posted about my Egyptian Mau, I was asked in a comment how Willie-Boo had come to lose his eye.
When we adopted him, we were told by the shelter staff that they had found him with one eye in such bad condition that the only recourse was to take it out. He had, apparently, been in a fight, and the eye was pretty much hanging out. Poor guy. Willie was definitely someone’s lap cat who ended up getting lost or was abandoned or something, because he is the most loving, cuddly cat ever. The shelter doctors did the appropriate surgery and he has no problem getting around with just one eye. He jumps on and off tables and sofas with no problem, and as I said in my last post, he RULES Bernie. They get along really well but just like my human kids, they love to play and fight sometimes. But they are each other’s BFF and companion.
At this point, Bernie is 11 and Willie somewhere around 10 years old.
One more thing – I am terribly allergic to Willie! True. I had never any problem with Bernie, but the night Willie came home with us I had to go back on inhalers. Call me crazy, but I chose to take my medication instead of taking him back. I am allergic to some cats and dogs; for example, I can’t be in my mother-in-law’s house or in my friend Kathie’s house for more than ten minutes without having a major allergy attack. What does that mean? I start having difficulty breathing – I can feel my lungs getting heavy inside my chest – coughing starts soon after, and at that point even if I take my emergency inhaler the only solution is to remove myself from the place or I would die from being unable to breathe. And this is why we now host Thanksgiving and Christmas 😀 My husband’s parents used to host but I just couldn’t make it through the entire thing.
If you have any further questions, just let me know! ;D
Garden update – August 2011
We haven’t had as many of these as we have in years past:
But just a few are definitely welcome! I hate buying them at the store, I always get ones that are half-rotted inside.
We’ve had so many delicious salads thanks to our cherry tomatoes
I like to keep it simple and refreshing with some mozzarella cheese and fresh basil.
Some impatiens joined our front yard and this little screen in the backyard
Lots of pumpkins are making their appearances!
And lots of bigger tomatoes to be harvested in the next couple of days
And the kids’ favorites – strawberries!
We keep getting corn, onions, and a small zucchini is making its appearance – hope it is ready to harvest soon!
Are you on Polyvore?
It’s such a good tool for planning your outfits and wardrobe and finding new ways of wear stuff you have – check it out!
Garage saleing . . .
Our neighborhood has a garage sale that we’ve never been to – until this past Saturday. We went with my mother-in-law and her two sisters, and I have to say, my boys scored big time. Gran bought them eight – EIGHT! – Godzilla videos, assorted toys, a book, etc. I left with some cute Halloween candle holders (4 for $2) and this hose hanger ($1):
Later the same day my husband went to Lowe’s and found the same hanger for $24.97 – score!
We had a lovely breakfast and on the way home we stopped at another garage sale down the street. This was just one family, but they had a great punch bowl set, which I brought home with me for $5. We don’t have one and since we host holiday gatherings, I figured it would be so nice for serving hot apple cider or some other festive drink:
Then we came home and my oldest watched about 9 hours straight of Godzilla movies 😀
Feline royalty
A couple of years after I got my first cat, Bernie, my then-boyfriend and I decided to get another cat. To put it mildly, Bernie wanted some company. He’d stand outside our bedroom door all night, meowing as loudly as he could because he was lonely. This is when we started to use earplugs.
I browsed through our local shelter’s website and found an adorable kitty, about 18 months old or so, named Jake. The one thing that stood out, so to speak, was that Jake only had one eye. He was described as loving and cuddly, but when I called the shelter they told me no one wanted to adopt him because he was missing an eye.
What??? Honestly, I’d rather take a sweet kitty missing an eye than a two-eyed cat that is mean or aloof. He came home with us a couple of days later and has been the most loving and snuggly cat I have ever met. 
This is our new kitty the night he came home with us. We gave him a new name – Willie (point if you get the reference), or as I call him, Willie Boo.
He rules the house, or rather, he rules Bernie, who is bigger but definitely not braver. He greets all our visitors with a quick sniff and then plops on the floor so he can be petted. 
He is also very good at being comfortable 😀
Recently, we had some animal show in the background and they began talking about the Egyptian Mau – Mau being the Egyptian word for Cat. Turns out our little Willie-Boo here belongs to a race over 3,000 years old, celebrated in artwork and worshiped by pharaohs. Then we found out that our friends’ cat is also an Egyptian Mau, signaled by the extra flap of skin under their bellies, an M marking on their forehead and a bird-like vocalization. Willie has chirped for years without us knowing it was a clue to his prestigious lineage.
On the downside, Willie is a licker with a sandpapery tongue, so if you come by, please don’t let him lick you for too long. My husband took a nap while Willie was licking his arm and woke up to dots of blood where his skin had worn off – yikes!
Here’s a really good shot of Willie that our friend took a few days ago:
Last photo courtesy of Hyperfocal Studios
July 2011
Here are some of my favorite moments in the past month:
My handsome men worked on projects around the house, we saw friends and family and celebrated the Peruvian team’s victory in the America Cup, were happy to have family always nearby, and my youngest turned 5.
Happy birthday, Alex!
My youngest turned 5 on Sunday – I can’t believe it, it seems just yesterday I had my sweet new little bundle in my arms, so tiny and pink, peeking out into his new world:
Now he’s going into kindergarten and is such a joy in our household:
He adores his big brother, whatever he likes, Alex will like, it’s so sweet.
I wish for my sweet Alexander a life full of joy, may he always wake up smiling and go to bed gently like he does now, and may we be blessed with many years to see him grow and learn much more. I love you, Alexander!!!
Casa de Berry 