Music boxes

Music boxes
Music boxes have within melodies they carry in them, once they're open music feels the air;
Every person you have known has a song of their own, once they open up you'll hear whats there;
Every person longs to find who they are deep inside, every person yearns to know their place..."

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Paint job

I have painted just about every room in every home we ever lived in. It has been almost three years since we bought this home, and I did some painting then, but our bedroom has been the one thing that I kept saying, I'll do it soon... and we all know what happens when we say that.... it won't get done. Well, I finally got to it. Love the color and the feeling of the room. Only have to hang the curtains on the other window, and it will be perfect. I'm kinda proud of myself. :)

Here are three things you need to know, if you are planning on painting a room in your home.

1. When you get down to paint near the trim, or near the door and underneath the windows, you will see that the last person that painted that room did a horrible job. You'll wonder why you never noticed how sloppy the last paint job was. The trim is splashed with paint from the wall; the walls didn't get a second coat everywhere. You wonder who in the world did such a thing.

2. When you take the plates from the outlets out, you will always see a little bit of the color that the room used to be, before it was painted so sloppyly (I know that's not a word, but it should be). And yes, the room used to be the exact color you are painting it now. I don't know how this happens, but it does. "Hey honey, guess what color this room used to be!" Yup. The same one I got. It's kind of fun actually.

3. No one can do it as well and perfectly as you. Kick everyone out. Close the door and open the windows for fresh air. Don't let anyone get near a brush or the roller. YOU are the best painter in the world. yes you are. Don't need any help. Take your time. Put on some happy music, and sing along with ABBA. It's a super relaxing job. And you will do it all by yourself.

Here's how you do it. Start with the trim. I like white, always white. One coat. Then use the brush to paint corners and close to the trim. Nice and slow. After that, comes the roller, and do all the walls. Then another coat near the trim and corners, another coat with the roller. Take breaks as you need. And the comes the funner(is that a word?) part : The trim's second coat. The paint from the wall splashed a bit on the white that you used for the first coat. So now you'll get down on the floor and go with a small brush and give it a second coat. It needs to be perfect. If you ever sell the house, you want the new owners to say, wow, what a nice paint job!. Chances are, no one will notice the perfectly painted trim. It's like when you clean the bathroom and clean behind the toilet. No one notices it. But you know it's clean, and it's awesome.
The trick for a perfectly painted white trim. Use a small angled brush. Don't rush. Have the wall paint close by, because the white will get on the wall. Oops. Let it dry and paint the little bit of the wall that got some white from the trim. Then the wall paint gets on the white. Just a little bit, but you can't leave it like that. Remember, perfection. Let dry, use the white on the trim. Long story short... you'll go around the room scooting, with two brushes on your hands. Fix the white. Fix the green. Repeat a dozen times. Or two dozen. It's fun, you'll see. "Super trooper". That's you. The trim and the wall will look fabulous.
OR
Do like the professionals do, and buy painter's tape. The job will get done in half the time.
Your choice.
I like the little battle between green brush and white brush. But if you don't want to be a Super Trooper, go ahead and get the tape.
I always choose the harder way. Who knows why. I like the feeling I get in the end, I guess.
I want to go sit in my bedroom and look at the walls all day, now. The rest of the house is boring. I'm weird. But that's old news.


Before.




During...


and after.








Next project, kitchen cabinets to be painted white. I'll let you know how that goes. Hopefully it won't take me another three years. :)

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

New year's resolutions bug me.

Maybe because they tend to be the same every year. I'm not sure what happens in the begining of a new year... we think we become super heros overnight. So we make a list of things that "I'm starting to do everyday". Hmmm. We wake up new year's morning and we are the same people. No super powers. We work hard to reach our goals, but by the end of January we forget all about them.
A new year doesn't bring us super powers. If anything , it should bring us motivation. That's the only thing I'm expecting from myself this year. If I have that, I might acomplish something good every day...or once in a while. :)
I finally got my room painted. I have been in this house almost three years; I have painted the kids rooms, bathroom, kitchen... everything right when we moved here. Why is our bedroom always the last thing to organize? Anyway.... it feels good to do something you've been wanting to do for years. I'm thankful for motivation. I'm going to ask for it and gain it every day and not only on new year's.
Man, what a boring post.
Pictures will follow tomorrow or Friday.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Let's try this again.

I need to go back to blogging. Especially since I've been horrible at journaling, scrapbooking and other things I used to do to keep memories alive for my kids. Facebook doesn't quite cut it, but unfortunatly has replaced lots of cool things. Like blogging. So, I'm trying this again. One day I'll print my blog entries; because let's face it, old school paper has no substitute.
I guess I should have done this earlier in the day though. One o'clock in the morning is not the time to pick up after over two years. Oh well. Better than nothing I guess.
Nicolas turned 12 last November. Suzana will be 16 in less than a month. No, I'm not ready to face that reality, so I won't talk much about it. Today I cried listening to ABBA's " slipping through my fingers". That one always gets to me.
I'll be 40 in April. No comment here. Hmmm. Maybe I should come back tomorrow. Yep. Great idea.