31 Days of Kindness...

I feel that life is a continuous journey to self discovery. I try and live my life by the notion that I can never learn too much, can never try too many things, and can never have enough positivity around me. I am always looking for new ways to improve my life and the lives of those around me.

Since moving to PA, I have made it a personal goal to start really living life to the fullest, and not be so afraid to try new things. I have become, in many ways, a "yes" woman. (For example, I am going to try roller derby on Sunday...I'll post details on how that goes)

In this quest, I have also made it my mission to really start living a more virtuous life. In the past, I have a history of doing some not-so-nice things. I am a scorpio to the core, and when my stinger comes out it can be painful to those around me. With growth, maturity, and the ability to swallow my pride, I have made it a mission to right these karmic wrongs, by adopting kindness not only as part of my lifestyle, but as part of my being.

This is not to say that I do not have my moments. Those of you who know me know that when I get mad, I get mad...and when someone cuts me off my finger goes up faster than you can blink. So, for the next 30 days, in addition to performing random acts of kindness, I also plan to drive like a nice person. We will see how that goes...

I was reading this blog recently: http://www.thebridgemaker.com/make-kindness-a-daily-habit/ , and hundreds of people all over the World are making March the "month of kindness". The idea is, for the entire month of March, to do one nice thing each day. I like to think that I do one nice thing each day regardless of the month, but I have never thought about documenting them.

For the next month, I plan to write down my acts of kindess, and the impact that it has on me as a person. My hope is that this will inspire others to do the same, and allow me the opportunity to reflect on the positive impact that a purpose driven life can have.

So, for the 5-10 people who read this blog, please feel free to join me in this challenge. One small act of kindness can make the world of difference to someone who really needs it.

Here is a link to some simple ideas on how to spread kindness in your daily life: http://www.thebridgemaker.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/31-Days-of-Kindness_Manifesto1.pdf

Stay tuned to see my daily acts of kindess, and please post your own to the comments!

George, George, George

Oh, our dog George. The stories I can tell. He melted our hearts the first time we saw him playing with his brothers and sisters. From there on out, it was love...

Looking for a new addition to our little "family", we took him home. Thats when the fun really began! I could start a blog solely devoted to describing all of the adventures and funny/annoying/infuriating things that George has done. Each blog entry could have a title inspired by a Friends episode:

- The One Where George Eats the Floor Tiles

- The One Where George Eats the Mega Package of Paper Towels

- The One Where George Eats the Package of Flour

- The One Where George Eats the Sock

- The One Where George Eats the Glove

- The One Where George Eats the Box of Brownie Mix (and has to have his stomach pumped, where they discover a whole collection of toys, fabric remnants, and spare change)

- The One Where George Eats the Box of Bullets (Yeah, it really happened..)

The list goes on and on..and on...

We thought that we had finally found the answer to our problem when we enrolled George in doggie day care. Some people think its crazy, and, it might be...but for the price of doggie day care, we have saved countless household items from being devoured by our hungry (but lovable) pooch. We could drop him off during the day, let him expend all of his energy with other dogs, and pick him up as a nice, sleepy dog.

Well last week, the unthinkable happened...









George was expelled from Doggie Day Care. :-(



I wont get into the specifics, but basically our little Georgie boy got a bit too comfortable at his day care, and made some other dogs mad in the process. SO, for the past week, he has been home..all...day. At first we thought, okay, he has grown and matured, maybe he won't be destructive...

WRONG!

Day One: George ate a teddy bear. (I didn't even know we had a teddy bear in our house, and at first I freaked out because I thought he had snuck it in somehow..Where would he get a teddy bear?? Then I remembered that we did have one dressed as a Marine that I had gotten )

Day Two: George ate a HOLE in my BRAND NEW LIVING ROOM RUG!

Day Three: George is in the basement.

Needless to say, we are now researching new doggie day cares in the area.

How I Spent My Presidents Day Weekend...

I love four day weekends! (Who doesn't?) This weekend, I decided that I would tackle our guest bedroom. I knew what color I wanted to paint it...

And, after buying the tester, I was sure that this shade of gray would work. So, I took a little trip to Home Depot and purchased a gallon. I knew that if I had the paint in the house, I would have no reason to put it off any further.

My inital inspiration for this room was to create a warm, welcoming environment. Since most of our guests will be coming from Massachusetts to PA, I wanted them to feel like they stepped into a hotel-- but still comfortable and fun enough that it feels like a home. The color scheme I had in mind was gray, yellow and white. Something a little like this:



http://audreysdesignblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/gray-and-yellow-decor.html

Or this...


http://www.aestheticoiseau.com/2010/09/yellow-and-gray-bedroom.html

So, I got out the paint, and went to work. Just for fun, here is the BEFORE of our guest room.

(Sorry for the blurry picture..My camera phone is not the greatest)

 .

After finishing the first coat of paint, I knew that we would need to do a second coat to cover all of the white underneath the walls. While it dried, I began to think about how the room would look when it was finished. I knew that I wanted to get a new bed-- a nice, crisp white headboard, and something dramatic over the headboard. 

Then I remembered that I had purchased white spray paint for another project I was working on, and I got an idea-- I would SPRAY PAINT the bed white! If it came out good, awesome! If it came out bad, I'd be getting another one anyways. So, while the paint upstairs dried, I went to town...

NOTE: It is a terrible, terrible idea to spray paint indoors. I am a complete idiot, and thought that, seeing it was freezing out, I could spray paint the bed in our basement. BAD, BAD IDEA! After using about 4 cans of spray paint to cover all of the dark wood, I began to feel light headed...so of course, I came upstairs to google all of the effects of using spray paint indoors. Then I convinced myself that I was dying, grabbed George and evacuated the house. I was not dying, and I was fine after a drive through scenic PA with the windows down. Lesson learned- don't spraypaint inside!

Anyhoo, the bed turned out better than I would have expected! You'll see it soon in the pictures below. 

I awoke the next day, put a second coat of paint on the guest room walls, and decided to do some more PA exploring. So, with my trusty sidekick George in the backseat, we headed out on an adventure.

As I was driving, I randomly stumbled upon a store called QVC Outlet. Let me backtrack by saying that my grandmother (affectionately called Grammy) is my favorite person in the world. And she LOVES QVC. So, I said to myself, I have to stop and see what they have.

I walked into the store and, lo and behold, all of a sudden I saw the PERFECT comforter for the guest bedroom. Everything was coming together so nicely! It was yellow, black and gray...and, best of all, 50% off! So what that the only size they had was King size and the bed is a double..I'd make it work.

I got home, brought my newly spraypainted white bed up from the basement, added a light and rug that I had purchased at Ikea last weekend, and my guest room is well on its way to completion! So, without further adieu-- the semi-final product:

I Loooovveee that bedspread!

So, the room still isn't 100% complete. Not even 60% complete. But, its getting there. I have some ideas for behind the bed, and for some artwork/storage solutions around the room. As Ryan keeps reminding me though, not everything needs to happen over night!

I hope you enjoyed your holiday weekend, and that you enjoyed seeing how I spent mine :-)

Look for more posts soon on changes to the rest of the house.

Home...

This blog started as a way of keeping friends and family updated on our daily life. You know the story- boyfriend of 6 years got his dream job, faithful girlfriend said "sure, lets move!", and next thing ya know we're packing up our life (and our dog, George) and moving to the outskirts of Philadelphia! We were fortunate enough to score an amazing deal on our first home, and bought the ugliest house in the nicest neighborhood we could afford.

Here we are!

Being in a new state, with no friends, and not really knowing of anything to do, I (Erin) became obsessed with the idea of decorating our new home. And I mean, OBSESSED. Home Goods and Ikea became my first PA friends, and I spent the majority of free time shopping for items to decorate my home with. When I wasn't shopping or decorating, I was thinking about decorating. Needless to say, making our house a home has turned into one of my favorite things to do.

Throughout the past couple of months, I've had the opportunity to read some amazing home decorating blogs. Its really where I got the majority of my inspiration. So I thought that I may as well start one of my own! I'm putting the energy and money into decorating, cooking, and living...I may as well chronicle it. So, consider this the first of my many musings. I hope you enjoy!