My Song to E

Sometimes you hear a beautiful song and just know it is YOUR song. I love my iPhone Pandora and always listen to it while working. My Edith Pilaf station is my absolute fav that gives me many smiles throughout the day. But I digress.

Melody Gardot has an absolutely enchanting song that somehow puts all my wishes for E in a beautiful, melodic song. This really is one of those songs you wish to put a bow around and give as a gift. Here's a link to the song, courtesy of YouTube

Here are the lyrics:

IF THE STARS WERE MINE
by Melody Gardot

If the stars were mine
I'd give them all to you
I'd pluck them down right from the sky
And leave it only blue

I would never let the sun forget
To shine upon your face
So when others would have rain clouds
You'd have only sunny days

If the stars were mine
I'd tell you what I'd do
I'd put the stars right in a jar
And give 'em all to you

If the birds were mine
I'd tell them when to sing
I'd make them sing a sonnet
When your telephone would ring

I would put them there inside the square
Whenever you went out
So there'd always be sweet music
Whenever you walk about

If the birds were mine
I'd tell you what I'd do
I'd teach the birds such lovely words
And make 'em sing for you
I'd teach the birds such lovely words
And make 'em sing for you

If the world was mine
I'd paint it gold and green
I'd make the oceans orange
For a brilliant color scheme

I would color all the mountains
Make the sky forever blue
So the world would be a painting
And I'd live inside with you

If the world was mine
I'd tell you what I'd do
I'd wrap the world in ribbons
And then give it all to you

I'd teach the birds such lovely words
And make 'em sing for you
I'd put those stars right in a jar and
Give them all to you

Whoo, He's throwing rocks tonight

We went bowling yesterday afternoon with some friends. It was E's first time to go bowling. D and I have explained earlier that day what bowling is, how to do it,etc. We even put on the Bowling on Wii Sports for her to get a sneak peak. By the end of the 2 hours E was lovingly referred to as D's "Lucky Charm" As the video shows below, everytime she helped out, D got a strike! Though to be fair to D, he got lots of strikes yesterday (he is good at bowling).

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I hope you had a awesome day like we did. I had to stay at work late, but when I got home Dax had made pizza and pasta. it was so delish! Eppe loved the day with all the Green Festivities. Speaking of green, we started a garden behind our garage. The seeds had been germinating in the kitchen for a few weeks and they were finally transported outside to grow. Tomatoes, jalapenos and cilantro were planted. That combination should make for a feisty summer!

Stills - Before and After

Here are the photograph stills of the living room. The prior post has the how-to video for staining concrete floors.

Before with nada and a bunch of disgusting.

And afterwards with our walls painted "Plateau" by Behr, our floors with Kemiko products, and of course all of our original artwork by Dax. ALL of our furniture is hand me downs from our parents, mixed with a few craigslist finds.

The best part is my absolutely favorite painting "Leslie" returned from City Hall after being on display for over a year for the public.

How to Stain Concrete Floors

After months of promising I would do it, I have finally uploaded my How-To Guide to Staining Concrete Floors.

When we purchased the house in October, it was in disarray. Granted we knew that when we purchased a short-sale home. The previous owner had moved out six months prior, plus appeared to have never done any upkeep in the home. So Sad. This house is a charmer.

The carpeting was absolutely disgusting in the living room and master bedroom. There were these huge, scary stains everywhere. We have our theories of what caused the stains (hehe), but just knew the carpeting had to go. Even in the appraisal of the home it clearly stated the flooring reduced the overall value. Anyways, when we lived in Florida we rented a home that had concrete flooring. I had never heard of this flooring option, and quickly fell in love with it. The ease of cleaning was remarkable. Because no dirt or dust can hide anywhere, it did become an addiction to always clean the floor. Mostly because the dirt had no where to go! I would swiffer it at least every other day (knowing now to NOT use swiffer cleaning agents on my floor due to the chemicals breaking down and eventually wearing out the wax and sealant)

This flooring always stayed in my head as we moved to California and then back to Texas. When we purchased our home, updating the flooring was an easy decision: Concrete! We did start looking at professionals coming in to stain for us, but after talking to a few people they said doing it ourself wouldn't be difficult. I started researching on the internet and realized it would be a manageable task for us. Mostly the cost was the deal maker. Contractors were quoting $4.00 - $4.50/square foot, and we came in around $1.10/square foot. Can't beat that.

D and I did almost all of the labor. My father-in-law had sealed floors in year's past, and really did an extraordinary job putting the sealant and wax on.

Check out the video below. I made this video the way I would have wanted to see the process explained to me. Watch the video in its entirety, it has lots of information from beginning to end. Please ask any questions you may have.

Happy 2011

It's been near forever since I last blogged. November and December quickly approached with so many activities that I nearly forgot about ye little blog. Here's a quick wrap up of the end of 2010.

Christmas was a very fun time this year. Miss E was well into the holiday spirit and loved all of the gifts. At my parents house she opened everyone's gift for them. Watching her unwrap gifts was a gift in itself. Absolutely adorable.

Here's a picture we took of her the week of Christmas...

Her little pig tails are sooo cute. She has started to finally let me add bling to her hair.

Actually the next day after this photo was taken, D and I flew to New York for a 2-day extravaganza. Several of his animations have been playing on a 30-foot screen in Manhattan since October, so we seized the opportunity to view his animations in action. His work is shown all over the world, but we rarely get to it in action.

The evening we flew in went to dinner with Amid. He is a huge mover and shaker in the animation biz. We had an absolutely wonderful time getting to share an evening with him.

The next day we did some sight-seeing. We walked around Rockefeller Center, watched the Today Show and visited the MOMA (Modern Museum of Art). The 6th floor of the museum held more pieces of artwork than so many museums we have visited. Every wall had a "known" image. It was extraordinary. No surprise we spent over 2 hours just on the top floor.

Here's some pics

Terrible picture of the "Today Show" studio

Van Gogh's "Olive Tree"

Halloweeeeen!

Yay!  Sunday we celebrated our first Halloween at our new house.  We had so much fun preparing for the day.  For dinner I made chili (a small tradition we started last year).  We eat a lot of chili in our house, but for special occasions I bring out the 1988 Chilympiad winning recipe to make.  It is sooo delicious!
Anyways, we had chili and prepared to pass out candy.  Our family themed costume was "The Wizard of Oz" starring us!  Dax was the Tin Man, E was Dorothy, Roxy was Toto and I was the Scarecrow.  We made our costumes (a requirement in our household!) and went outside.  Well...not too many people showed up at the house, and even less homes had their light on.  I was really excited to meet all the neighbors, when in actuality, I only met 3 households.
Anyways, we really enjoyed the evening and already planning our costumes for 2011.  What is it you may ask???  Hah! Like I am going to share that with you now!  You wouldn't come back to read in twelve months if I did that.