Sunday, January 30, 2011

Colour Relief

Hi All, I have been away on business travel  and now back to summer...while I was gone Ian made huge progress on things at the House.  There is still heaps to do and get done before we can move in at end of February.  But on my return, Ian let me know we are ready to paint !

I bought most of the paint before leaving, And Ian has started first on the Lounge (Living) Room.  The pale pink ceiling had to be done over in a ceiling white, which I had tinted to warm up the standard stark white of ceiling paints.  It looked great and was a relief to have a white ceiling instead of pink.

Then Ian started cutting in and rolling on the wall paint.  Icelandic Stone, (Porter's Paints, in a flat finish) and it looks fabulous !

Yesterday I did the first of two coats on the trims which are Antique White USA (Dulux Aquanamel, gloss finish).


Wow, what a relief.  The liver pink is painted over and gone.  Baby pink ceilings are gone.  The horrible peach trim is mostly gone (a few baseboards need sanding first).  See a bit of before vs after here !  Our work this week is slowed a bit by very hot weather.  But when it cools down next week we will be working to get the painting done faster.  Ian has to do the rooms with high ceilings and walls.  I will be able to do the rest.

The house looks very nice in its new colour scheme.  Stay tuned for more.

Monday, January 3, 2011

Bright Happy Box

I have fond cheerful memories of bright boxes of animal crackers, Barnum's Animal Crackers to be precise. Occasionally when traveling in the USA, I will buy a small box, with its cute string handle and that will be a nice snack.  I haven't done this in a few trips now, so when in a supermarket the past week, I just had to have one.  Imagine my surprise to see two types of animal cracker boxes there !  The usual traditional red circus carton and then also a bright blue one, featuring mother and baby polar bears in a snow globe !!




You can see a great shot of this also on Jason Liebig's photostream on flickr   Apparently it is a 2010 Holiday Limited Edition design.  Nice....  :)

I did buy the cute blue snow globe animal crackers box and after we ate it (I shared it), I kept the box.  Then out of the blue, today I got the idea to make some unique luggage tags with it.  Snow globe inspiration ?  Don't think I will see these luggage tags coming or going !



After the snowglobe-snowstorm-brainstorm idea about the tags, today I went back to the Sparks, Nevada Safeway to get another box (or two).  Hoping to make a set for all my bags.  To my dismay, there were none on the shelf, just red circus pattern ones.  Well eventually, after a bit of a search in my disbelief, I found Just One Left, hiding way behind the next over rows of bright blue Oreo packages, to right of the supply on offer of the traditional red circus animal cracker boxes.  I snapped up two of the red boxes and the last blue one too.

In contemplation of today's post, I have looked online (light research !) and learned that Barnum's Animal Crackers have been around in this bright circus box with the string since 1902.  I had no idea.  I just know that I love the box, and find it a cheerful and bright thing to have, a real treat (one I was allowed to have as a small child).  I love the boxes and patterns to this day.  A few more than 10 years ago, I bought a tin with the same design as the little boxes.  This week I was just as delighted with the blue polar bear snow globe pattern as the usual circus one. Such a simple thing, bright, colourful, bringing back happy memories and present day cheer too.  It pleases my inner child.

I hope you find something that pleases your inner child.  Enjoy :)