"Put a bird on it"

Apparently that is what Portlanders do. 

I never realized just how well I am fitting in down here.  Because on the front door post, my sweet Seattelite -turned-Phoenician friend, Ali, suggested a door knocker from Anthropologie which she has on her door and I fell in love with it.  That same day I ordered the little thing and up it went. 

Super cute.  It may too cute for some but I guess I'm into cute.  Aaron actually likes it too, so it can't be all that "cute."

The yellow really looks washed out.  It actually is much more vivid in real life, but I just could not get the balance right. 

I also found a rug from TJMaxx.  An extra large rug that I needed to balance out the large entryway.  I had almost bought a plain coir rug and painted something on it myself. When I say "painted" I mean stencil.  I don't do free hand stuff.  Not where my talent lies.

Anyway, I like the color and design, perfect for summer.  If summer ever really gets here.  I am getting a little agitated, to put it nicely, that we haven't had much sun yet. 

Anyway, front door is coming along.  I'm still looking for pots or something else to fill up/balance the space. 

But I have to find plants that can grow without any sun. Seriously, they wouldn't get any direct sunlight., I just haven't researched it at all since I am the opposite of a green thumb. Any suggestions?



Tag, you're it

One Saturday afternoon in May, Uncle Brant & crew came over to play.   He had gotten a new toy and we all wanted a turn.  Per our house rule, we normally don't "shoot" people, but for the day I of course had to suspend it so we could play.  :)    I mean, who could pass up a game of Lazer Tag?!     It's shooting and running and screaming and laughing and even I have to admit, a blast.

Everone got suited up and we ran around crazy until we were all sweaty and tired and smiling.

Too fun.  I love these people!

A chip off the ol' block

Jonah takes after his dad in many ways. One I love best is their ability to make friends anywhere.  They are genuine and have an innate talent of talking to anyone and making people feel comfortable.  Jonah has no fear.  We went to Luke's tennis tournament and within 60 seconds he went up to a 10 year old girl and started the stream-of-consciousness conversation.

"Hi!  I'm Jonah.  What's your name?"

 "I'm 'free.'  What old are you?"

"That's great.  This is my mom.  Is that your mom?  What old is she?"

"I have brown hair.  And brown eyes.  You have blue eyes."

"There are cre-e-epy dinosaurs in the forest.  I am wearing a pull-up."

"This is my shirt.  Do you like it?"

"This is Lukey's transformer, Bumblebee.  Do you want to play with me?"

And off they went.  Easy as pie, new friends.

His two front teeth look better. Months ago he fell in the church gym and damaged the nerves, so his teeth have been grey. :(
There's nothing to really do until they fall out in a few years. But for whatever reason, they've been getting lighter.

They played tag, ring around the rosie, fought monsters in the forest, stalked dinosaurs in the bushes and laid in the grass watching the clouds.

Ali was so sweet with him.

I needed to write this post this morning.  I was woken up by his yelling in my face to get out of bed. (For years I woke up to Lucas snuggling up in bed with me for 20 minutes before we got up.  Jonah, not so much.)   He then proceeded to throw 45 minutes worth of tantrums because I was making him carry his own stuffed dog down stairs, then because I asked him to calm down before I would get him some milk and then a melt down because we were having family scripture study and he wanted to watch a show.  He is one stubborn little dude.  And loud.

Luckily this is not normal behavior and once we got some breakfast into him, he felt much better.  I think his blood sugar gets low and he hulks-out.  Nothing a cracker can't fix.

He's my buddy.  And gives the best pucker fish kisses this side of the Mississippi.

They call me mellow yellow

Yellow is a weird color when it comes to paint.   Most colors you can trust the small paint chip to give you a pretty good idea of how it will look on the wall. Or this case, door.  But yellow is deceiving, cunning, and will brightly lead you down the path to frustration.  I should have learned my lesson with yellow. I wrote about my experience HERE.

Yet I I still love yellow and was so sure I knew what I was doing now.  And I wanted a yellow door. So I was going have a yellow door.  And all I had to invest was $5 for a paint sample.

Here's the before...

Good, classic red. 

I have a paint chip thingy of all the colors and so carefully scanned them all to find just the right yellow.  I had narrowed it down to two and decided on "Quilted Joy" because it had a little more gold in it. (When picking any paint, you always choose a color little darker and a little greyer than what you really want because all paint looks brighter on a bigger surface.)  So, I continued to think that ruled applied with yellow.

Not so.   Warning: Colors are brighter in real life than they appear in film.  My "Quilted Gold" turned into "Florescent Sunshine" once on the door.  What the what?!

How does that happen? It looks completely different than what I had imagined.

So I went back to Sherwin Williams to ask an expert. (I've said this before but I love the smaller stores because they have more time to walk me through my ignorance and actually teach me something.  I'm sure it just depends on the person who helps you, but I personally found them more helpful because I need a lot of help.)

Anyway, I asked what I did wrong.  Why is it so dang different?  First when I told him our house is a light olive grey, he suggested painting it classic red because that is it's complementary color.  But I didn't want red.  I wanted yellow. :)  So the guy schooled me in yellow.  What I had in mind had a LOT more gold and brown in it.  Yellow changes immensely depending on what color it is next to. More so than other colors. 

So I picked another color, "Anjou Pear." It had a lot more gold but was still bright like I thought I wanted.

Sign in window reads "Don't look at the door.  I know it's way to bright."  And yes, I know I am dork.

See, how much yellow changes depending on the light?!  It's the same color as above.   I left it for a few days but realized I wanted a more mellow yellow.

So back to the store I went.  Below is my Yellow Journey.  I had started with #1 thinking it was a beautiful yellow.   Then went to #2 because it had a little more gold.  My third trip to the store had me going for #3 and then maybe #4.  But I decided to be even more conservative and went with "Restrained Gold."  See how incredibly BROWN it looks compared to my first choice?!   I didn't want brown.

See how brown it looks?

But here's the final result.  And I love it.  All computers are different so who knows exactly what you see on your screen, but in real life it is definitely yellow and it fits me perfectly.  Not too bright, not too grey, not too brown.

I also painted the door frame white which makes it stand out quite a bit.  I want to add a door knocker, a kick plate, some plants and a colorful, new mat.  I'll add those as I shop sales and figure out exactly what I want.

You can see the yellow and olive together.

Before....

After...

Why do my posts always end up a novel?  I've realized I just wrote quite the diatribe on how I just painted my door.  I know.  It's much more interesting to me than to most people.  And I guess it always takes a while to get through all of my mishaps.  Oh well.  That's my life, folks.