Weekend Wrap Up

Here are a few moments from our last weekend in 2012.

Don't be scared of my mermaid harbor; it's going to be beautiful.

Jeff was none too happy about my interrupting his wallpaper removing nightmare extravaganza on Saturday.

You have to understand that Jeff considers himself a wallpaper-removing-champion, so this dining room has been an emotional and physical challenge - to say the least. 

The steamer was no match for this wallpaper, so we had to buy one of the dreaded wallpaper scorers.

This project is going to continue well into 2013, so you can look forward to that. In other sad news, Christmas is over.

Everything is all packed up; and today, the tree is coming down. I am only slightly depressed, but I can genuinely say that I'm looking forward to the new year.

Oh yeah, Dad gave me his camera tripod (from back in his hipster-camera-carrying-days) -- so, you can definitely look forward to a lot more staged shots in the coming months. Thanks, Dad! Here's our first test shoot on Christmas.

Happy New Years, all. See you in 2013!

Ryan

Weekend Wrap-Up

Our weekend started off with this little gal's first birthday party. Look how pumped she was about that cake. I can't say that I blame her; I dream of eating cake by the fist full.

With the holidays quickly approaching, we are trying to finish up some projects that have been lingering since we moved in -- that way, come January, we will be ready to tackle our normal-every-day-resolutions, like go for a jog, eat a vegetable, read a book, etc.

For now, here are a few moments from this weekend that are worthy of note.

We have been bare-bulbing-it in the master bedroom for almost 12 weeks. However, I'm happy to report, we finally have lamp shades on either side of the bed.

My office lamp now has a shade as well. I know this doesn't seem like a major improvement, but I've been glaring directly into 40 watts for the better half of three months, so it's a big deal.

Our breakfast room is officially without fruit. I stripped the wallpaper to find primed paneling underneath.

Now, understand that I did this room when Jeff wasn't home -- and besides setting off the fire alarm because of all the steam (true story), I managed fairly well. So, feeling over-confident and super accomplished, I decided to tackle the dining room as well.

Never again.

This wallpaper literally disintegrated under the heat of the steam. I was crushed, so I decided to move on to something I knew I would enjoy -- holiday cards.

We also made a great deal of progress on the master bedroom this weekend.

Updates on our bedroom to come soon. Right now, I have to get to work on this disaster zone:

That's the guest bedroom, a.k.a. the dumping ground. Honestly, it's starting to rival our formal living room, which currently looks like this:

How about that holiday-inspired table cloth window treatment on the left? I am sure the neighbors are pleased...

Anyhow, like I said, I'm going to lock myself in the guest bedroom to try to organize the pile of things we don't know what else to do with. For now, here are some shots of random moments from this weekend that ... er ... I don't know what else to do with:

This guy has an appointment with Santa "Claws" next Sunday. This was the look he gave me when I told him the news.

Happy Monday, all.

Ryan