Still Painting: Saturday, Day Two :)

Phew! Thanks to Chris, we've gotten SO much done today! Nearly all of the Great Room is painted, the kitchen has been touched up & is totally finished, and Chris even moved the refridgerator to paint the appropriate color(s) behind it! (There is an imaginary transition between hallway and kitchen wall behind there.)

Here's the overhead area I couldn't reach on Thursday. Yay Chris! :)

The kitchen has these wall transitions in place of tradition doorways and they required a unique plan in my opinion. So, here's what we did! We painted the "in between" part of the wall in the Sea Salt color from the hallway. A nice neutral color, but an actual color, to make each bold color -Scandia in Great Room and New Bamboo in Kitchen- work together. :)

The vertical wall. To the right of the clock.

A bit washed out, but the contrast entryway 

Like the name implied, the Great Room, has lots of wall space! But, what slowed ME down was all the windows & doors- most very close together. No space for quick mini rollers or handy edging tools. 

For Chris, he had to spent most of the day perched at the top of the ladder painting the very highest sections of the walls. Even on a ladder and using a roller extension, there are areas too high! Tomorrow, when today's paint is dry, he'll be able to lean the tallest ladder on the wall and finish the job.

Ok! Here's photos from today! :)

Mess!

The start of my work- edging doors & windows.

More mess! Chris working on the kitchen.

Tippy Top!

Great Room is almost finished! I had a little fun putting up a splash of blue in the Den. :) We'll get to painting the Den soon, because the flooring isn't being updated in there- good ol' comfy carpet :)- we don't have to rush. :)

Brave Guy!! :)

Crazy Guy!

The hallway is all dry and put back together! Love it!

You can view a small slice of the hallway from the kitchen.

Same photo I know, but good example of the kitchen onto the dining area & bay window. It's in lower light.

More Great Room against the Kitchen. In full artificial light. See the big pile of out new flooring? ;)

Yay, yay! Oh I hope my back will allow me to get out of bed tomorrow!

Ready, Set, Make a Mess!! :)

Welcome to the weekend! This weekend, me and dutiful Chris are slapping all our beautiful new paint up on the wall in a race before our new flooring hits the perverbial deck Monday morning. :) 

Let's see some photos! So far we've tackled the kitchen & hallway. The kitchen I knocked out myself -less cutting in & where I'm simply too short!- Thursday night (9pm ish!) because Chris had a little bit of a virus. :( 

Our flooring was delivered today (Friday)! It's it awesome!

Looots of boxes. There's another pile too!

Ooh! PREETY! :)

On to the hall! Friday we knocked out the hall! It's called Sea Salt -a white with a soft grey blue touch- and it's WONDERFUL! When it's dry & in natural light, the color isn't as blue like in these photos. I used a weird little tool for edging & cutting and Chris weilded the roller brush. :)

Workin' hard!

My plans are coming together! Here's where my schemes hatching. :)

Master Bedroom against Hallway

Master Bath against Master Bed

New kitchen color against the new -still wet!- hall color! :) 

How cool? Saturday I hope to cover as much of our giant Great Room with our last color. :) We will see how much Chris will put up with. ;)

Nite Nite.

Color Experiments!

After driving myself batty over color choices, I finally threw up my hands! I stormed over to Home Depot, bought some of those awesome sample sized paint jars. At home I wasted no time slapping up some test swatches. My mind is now at peace! Except now I'm not sure I can wait for it all to be finished!!

First, Scandia. Great Room & Den. This will be the color for most of the house in actuality. I love how beautiful my mother-in-law's watercolor oranges painting is against the blue. :) *You'll notice a pale color, Sea Salt, painted on the wall transition. More below.

Next, New Bamboo. For the Kitchen. Yes, crazy bold! But, the space can handle it. The kitchen has very little in "true" unbroken wall space. Plus, I've always planned on & love a bright apple or lime green.

And finally, my not so neutral neutral-Sea Salt- to tie everything together. :) For the hallway and kitchen entry transitions. The contrast against our existing shows off the blue undertones perfectly.

So? Cool huh?

Tastes of Summer: Tomatoes! Tomato & Caper Salad

I  love tomatoes- good tomatoes- tomatoes that TASTE like tomatoes! It's a bit of a passion/pet peeve of mine. Any way to get more tomatoes in my diet, I'm on it! My good friend Dixie E. gave me this recipes recently and I may be addicted! 

One cool part of this salad is the use of cherry tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes are generally your best bet to get good tomato flavor out of season. Also, the rest of the ingredients are either pantry or long life refridgerator staples. For me at least. :) 

The original recipe calls for fresh basil, but I use Gourmet Garden Basil Paste. Actually, I use all their herb pastes a lot. I love being able to have "fresh" herbs on hand- very versital, easy to utilize, and longer shelf life. :) You can pick them up at just about any grocery store. Yum. :) 

I worked this it suit my liking and used a 10 oz pkg of cherry tomatoes. But, this would be fun and pretty to mix up using those containers of mixed variety tomatoes. Sometimes their called "jewel box" tomato mixes.

I like mine to have a lot of "juice", but if you find you enjoy less just cut down the oil & vinegar. Plus, depending on your affinity for capers you can dial it up or down. I seriously LOVE capers. :) No shock there as I'm also obsessed with any form of olive or pickles. :) I omited the black pepper, but sprinkled the salad lightly with cracked black pepper at the end.

Cherry Tomato Caper Salad

2 Tbs Drained small capers

2 Tbs balsamic vinegar

4 tsp. olive oil (1 Tbs & 1 tsp)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

10 oz  cherry tomatoes,halved

3 fresh basil leaves, shredded

*or 1 Tbs Basil paste

Stir together all ingredients, less tomatoes.  Add tomatoes and toss to coat.  Chill at least 15 minutes or up to 1 hour. Best if serving within a day. (Tomatoes begin to wilt.)

This is so yummy I ate about 2/3 of it myself with supper last night! :) 

Enjoy! Please share how you enjoyed it & especially how you made it your own! :)