Moved In

Last Thursday was our first night spent at the new place!  Here's how we celebrated...

(Crystal glasses courtesy of our fantastic Realtor!)  We still don't have cable or internet, which might be a good thing since we need to finish our painting projects and organize our lives.

Chalkboard Fridge

Thanks to Pinterest, I've been obsessing over chalkboard paint for a while.  I've especially been lusting after a chalkboard paint-covered refrigerator, which sadly I could not have in my rental house.  Before we even moved into our new place, we painted the fridge black with chalkboard paint and it was everything I dreamed it would be!  I know, that's a little dramatic, but I was way too excited about this project and surprisingly the bf was too!  The primer wasn't even completely dry before we had the first strokes of chalkboard paint on the fridge, which I don't recommend doing.  You should always make sure your primer is completely dry before you start the next coat of paint.  :)  Here's what we started with:

Here's the almost finished product:

It could be finished, or we could put handles on it.  I'd love to buy some stainless steel or some polished wood handles to replace the boring white ones that were on it.

That's My Hood

Took a walk this morning for the last time in my current but soon-to-be-old (as of 4pm today when the movers arrive) neighborhood .  It sure has been fun and I'll visit you often, Henderson Avenue!  Thanks for the memories! 

Oh- if you're ever in Dallas, drop me a line.  I have some great recos for restaurants in the area!  :)

Lovely Lima

One of the many things I love Dallas is its diversity.  On a daily basis I am surrounded by immigrants from other countries.  One of my besties has a delightful new beau, who is straight up Peruvian (he became naturalized about five years ago).  He recently returned from a visit to Lima, his hometown, and I loved seeing pictures from his trip.  About three years ago on a whim, I visited Lima with some co-workers and after chatting with him I felt inspired to go through my photos.  His family lives in the beautiful neighborhood of Mira Flores, which is where I stayed during my visit...

Rental House Review

The bf and I move into our new (purchased) digs this week!  As I'm sitting in my living room of our rental, it hit me that there will be a few things I'll miss about this house.  Our new place is about 300 square feet smaller and would appraise for less than our rental, but regardless of the size and value, we feel like it's a step up.

The yard at the new place is smaller, so it should be a lot less time-consuming to manage, but I will miss the beautiful kockout roses that surround our lawn....

and our neighbor's pomegranate tree that straddles our property line.

My Midwest Weekend or Debs, Gamers, and Airport Hotels

This weekend the bf and I went to Cincinnati (his home town) for his youngest sister's summer time debutante party.  I mentioned this was a summer time deb party, because there's also a winter party, which I attended as the bf's date in December.  You can read about it here, but all you need to know is it was pretty, pretty fancy.  This is me at the winter deb ball making my fancy face.  This look says, Don't get in my face when it's fancy or you'll get a martini in yours.

I am a total stranger to the world of high society so I have no idea how it works.  All I know is, if you're part of the inner circle you do a lot of hob-nobbing, boozing, and dancing.  I tried my best to participate in all of the above so I wouldn't stand out.  This time that involved dressing the part for the party's Soul Train theme.

Living Room Paint

This week has been completely house-centric.  We only have a few days left to prepare before we move our stuff in, so we're hustling to get as much painting done as possible!  On Saturday we picked out our paint colors at Home Depot, and I was shocked when the bf agreed to go with Tropical Coral for our living room!  We got the paint mixed, and as he was carrying it around in the store a woman approached him to say what a "pretty" color it was!  Her seemingly innocent comment started an avalanche of second thoughts.  The woman working the cash register did not help the situation by telling us the color was "awfully feminine."  Yeah, I was pretty annoyed by that.  Don't judge our paint color!  Just take our money, lady!  Here's a pic of the living room when we saw the house for the first time (and no, we didn't get to keep Bambi's head).

Here's the living room now with one coat of Tropical Coral on the walls...

I'll admit, it looks kiiiind of pink in this pic, but I promise, it works in real life!  We're keeping the trim white and we have dark wood furniture that will contrast nicely with the coral.  Life is too short for white walls, right?