the doma diaries: stripes galore.

I've always {ALWAYS} loved stripes...for as long as I can remember. I even have a pinterest board solely dedicated to stripes.  Maybe for another post, I'll document my love for stripes.  BUT, for now, let's get the show on the road with my bedroom at the new house.  

I know i have a before picture somewhere, but can't find it right now. So, this is the closest thing you'll get to a before:

The original walls were a khaki color

A few weeks ago, I started the process of painting them: striped!  I got the trim started around the ceiling and baseboards...and there were quite a few spots that needed some new texture on them too {the white spots on the walls in the pics above}.  

I knew I wanted 5 thick stripes of blue and white.  After I measured out the height of each stripe {18.5"}, I marked some loose lines for the two white stripes that would get painted first.  

window wall

closet/entry wall

Then, I got scared. And didn't touch the walls for a while.  There have been more than a few times that I wanted to throw the towel in on this project and just say forget it.  But, I wanted my stripes.  Badly.  My contractor came to the rescue and helped me get some of the real lines started for the edges of the blue.  

Since this house is over 40 years old, none of the walls are exactly square.  Because of this, it's been quite frustrating to get all of the lines exact.  I finally finished it yesterday though and get to start the fun part today :)

So. Much. Tape.

After I got all of the tape realllllly pushed down, the trick to making sure you have no leaks under the tape is to paint on top of the tape with another coat of white...because then if anything leaks, it will just be the white.  Get it?  It's kind of confusing, but I got all of my info from this blog on how to paint perfect stripes {here}.

Off to get more blue paint now :)  I'm almost out after painting trim and two closets with it.  Happy Thursday!

My extra room...

Today, I decided to bite the bullet and put up my heavy winter coat, smartwool socks, winter snow boots, gloves, hats, heavy winter blanket, etc.  Now, it will be probably be freezing in a few days just because I did that, but I've never understood the idea {and excitement} that comes with putting up your winter gear.  

I get it now.

I did laundry today too and washed my long undies and flannel sheets (thanks, Julia!) that will also be put away as soon as they're dry :)  And since I don't think I've ever shown y'all my extra bedroom/dining room/laundry room/closet, I thought I'd snap a few pics so you could see it in all its glory.  This room is located at the back of my apartment and I honestly don't use it very often.  When I first moved into this apartment, this room was filled with dirty, old, nasty junk.  After a few months of living here, my landlady cleaned it out and allowed me to use the room.  It's nice for hosting a big meal, storing my clothes/shoes, and drying laundry.  Other than that, it rarely gets used.  

The view from the door

some of today's laundry drying...and my Christmas decorations in the window. I don't have anywhere else to put them!

my bookshelf--complete with Russian language books that I haven't opened since last June and the magazines I've collected over the past year.  I only let myself read a new one when I'm having a bad day or need a pick-me-up. 

How I dry sheets :) hung over a chair, bench, and suitcase standing up.  The wood unit behind the sheet is my closet.  The entry to the room is on the right side of this pic.

Inside the wardrobe! The winter boots are now in bags in the bag and I haven't decided yet what I'll do with my sweaters.  This is the only hanging space I have in the apartment.

"Let's get some shoes..." :) the heels Mitchell brought over when he lugged an extra suitcase here and I have yet to wear them.  Sad day.  

Scarf collection

The random assortment of hangers drives my OCD up the wall, but hangers are really expensive here for some reason.  So, gotta make do! :)

The left side of the wardrobe--sheets/pillowcase storage, random make-up bags, make-up, etc.

So, that's all!  I am supposed to a video for Peace Corps showing different people's apartments and living situations here in Ukraine.  Once I do it, I'll of course post it here.  

Gotta end today's post with a double-birthday shout-out to Mr. Parker John Pilkington and Mr. Edward Clay Faison (or Edward Clue Faison, which is how it was announced at high school graduation).  I've known these boys since I moved to Oklahoma in 2001...and I only wish I had some of those pics here with me in Ukraine.  BUT, I did manage to scrounge up a few old ones.  Happy Birthday Parker and Clay!  You only turn a quarter of a century old once, so enjoy it!  

My senior prom date--2005!  Clay doesn't normally smile like that.  He was tired of taking pictures.  However, this does capture the true essence of Clay :)

See, I wasn't kidding.  Lydia, Rose, Nan, Amy, and Clay...who was already done with Baccalaureate and out of his cap and gown!

Lydia, Parker, Rosebud--bbq at Parker's in 2006 

Clay and Lydia--tacky Christmas party 2007

Parker and Lydia at OU/Sexat 2008

Most of the gang at Blake's wedding

Amy, Lydia, Anna, Rose

Parker, Andrew, Bert, Marty, Andy, Clay, Nic, Jarred, Will

Parker and Lydia--Jacey's wedding in 2010

 Happy birthday boys :)  hope it's a great day!

Way Back Wednesday #12: Deck the Halls

To get you in the mood for Christmas today, I need you to click on the link below.  I couldn't get the correct video to load if I actually paste the video here on the blog.  Oh well.

Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra Ra Ra Ra Ra

That part of the video has been quoted in the Frost Family around Christmas time for as many years as I can remember.  Probably since my brother and I were about...this big?

The video is always played for 24 hours the day before Christmas {if my memory serves me correct}, and we always had to have it on in the background to be able to quote some of our other Frost Family favorites.  But, that's not the point of the post today!  We're talking about Decking the Halls today...SomethingFrosty style!

I loved decorating for Christmas...even though it required many boxes of stuff, which first had to be dusted and de-spider webbed.  That is one of the strangest things for me this year...not having boxes of things to drag out and decorate with!   The first pics are from the handy dandy iphone...so they're a little grainy :/  the pics after are from my SLR camera.

Some of the loot waiting to be put up...

The tree...minus ornaments!  Making sure the lights worked!

Pottery barn starbursts with vintage Frost Family ornaments

Sparkle.

A little Bama houndstooth (even though I am still 100% OU)

Oh, Christmas Tree...

More vintage Frost Family ornaments...if you look in the crackled ornament, you can see my reflection!

Polka dots.

Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland...

Thank you for enjoying my walk down memory lane :)  hope you enjoyed it!  BTW, yesterday in my 3rd grade English club, I nearly pulled my hair out.  Once again, a new found respect goes out to every one of my friends and family who teaches those adorable little brats.  The kids are currently still stumbling through the ABCs song, in addition to B-I-N-G-O (which they love to scream at the top of their lungs).  I think they all forgot to take their ADD medicine today (joking) because they have never been this rambunctious.  Nothing I did could make them calm down.  And I normally love working with them because they are so cute and are so excited to be there...but today I had to send numerous boys out to the hall for five minute time outs.  Then it became a game to see who could get in 'time out' next.  The crowning glory came when one kid raised their hand to go to the bathroom.  Within five minutes EVERY KID IN THE 17 person class was asking to go to the bathroom.  And by asking, I mean doing the "ohmygoshIreallyhavetopee" dance.  It was unbelievable.  The class size has grown continually every week, which is great...however, I can't keep up with 17 eight year olds in a foreign language.  I told them that their teacher has to come next week.  We'll see how they react with her in the room.  Phew.  Sorry for that rant fest.  I'll have to video the kids singing B-I-N-G-O.  It really is one of the funniest things ever.  Have a blessed Wednesday :)

a reader request...

Greetings from NEW ENGLAND!!

A request has been made for a post devoted to wall ideas, so folks, today is the day! I am actually killing two birds with one stone in this posting because a) Rosemary and Kristen (I believe it was y'all!) requested some ideas for walls and b) I am currently at my brother's house in New Hampshire where I am "playing" (as I like to call it, aka decorating) in their living room. We are currently in the process of ordering some wall shelves/ledges for the space, so without further ado...

I absolutely adore anything that is symmetrical as I've said before...so obviously I would love this picture. However, numerous things made me go bonkers:

1) the brick wall behind the pictures (adding a subtle texture)

2) the black and white pictures in the photographs

3) the simplicity of the vertical pictures rather than horizontal (I believe that most people have trouble finding vertical pictures to place in frames...is this true?)

This picture does the opposite of the one before: by taking horizontal images, it allows you to take up a lot of wall space but in a very clean-lined way.

I have seen this done before (there are tons of options for the large background image that is cut up into the smaller pieces for frames) and must say it is a cheap way to take up a LOT of space. You can go buy unpainted frames at Michaels or Hobby Lobby (these typically run around $5)...paint them whatever color you want (1 can of spray paint for $4)...and grab a poster, map, fabric, large print, etc. (a lot of times these items can be free! You just have to know where to shop around)...and VOILA! You have an incredibly strong piece of wall art that looks like it came from a designer store.

Chalkboard paint...inexpensive but makes a huge impact. And the most important part: it's fun! If you paint a layer of magnetic paint underneath the chalkboard paint, then you can also hang up pictures and notes to yourself, or let kids put up their artwork without making holes in the wall with thumbtacks.

Wallpaper behind shelves is a BEAUTIFUL touch. Even painting a different color behind the shelves makes a big impact for not a lot of money.

These last three pics are what we are gearing up to do at my brother's house (ignore the little girls room colors and look at the items on the shelves!). Since they will be getting married in November, we wanted to leave a space for some wedding pictures to go, without just placing a collage of pictures on the wall. We're still deciding about what picture ledges to order because they don't have 10' ceilings and there is a chair rail in the living room, which limits the available space above the chair rail for the shelves (which ideally I would love to see three of them!). I hope that these ideas help in some way, shape, or form for how you can fill up your walls! Please let me know other requests for blog topics if you have any!