New Coats of Paint vol.4

Downstairs Paint

As you can tell, I really went after it when it came to the paint. The downstairs was all manner of different colors. So I went to Benjamin Moore and got several cans of Shaker Beige. It is a) really quality paint and b) an incredible color. Y'all. This paint looks different in every room in which it's painted. I painted it in the downstairs foyer, reading room, living room, and upstairs hallway. Eventually it will also be in the stairwell, but remember about my not wanting to take on treacherous activities with the upstairs shutters. The light in the house makes it look like different colors in every room, but it also provides a really nice flow throughout the house. Unfortunately I only documented one downstairs wall. But this is the color. 

Special thanks to Daniel who was so helpful with the painting. And also who was extremely patient when he came home to our house in shambles every day when I changed the colors so often!

New Coats of Paint vol.3

Green Shutters to Black Shutters

The shutters on our house were dark green to match the door. When I painted the door red and the metal on the glass door black, I decided the shutters needed a coat of paint too. I used Rust-o-leum Satin Black spray paint. It was a cinch! I popped the shutters off of the brick, hosed them down, and then (after they dried in the sun) I painted them. It took a couple of coats on each shutter, but it couldn't have been easier. I did it all in the span of about 1 nap time! Can you believe it? I still need to put the shutters back up on the upstairs windows, but as that seems a little treacherous, I'll wait until we can use a giant ladder outside.

New Coats of Paint vol.2

Tan Dining Room becomes Nautical

When we were house hunting we saw a dining room in one house that was navy and white and while we knew we weren't interested in that house we were definitely interested in that color scheme. Our dining room is not very large, so we didn't know if it would overwhelm the space to have such a bold color choice. After awhile I decided to go for it. There is a lot of natural light which really helps. The blue coat was super easy and only took about 2 coats. The color is Paddle by Eddie Bauer. Originally we had planned on more of a cream below the chair rail, but it looked dingy so I went over it with Berh Ultra White untainted high gloss paint. It took about 3 or 4 coats but it looks so crisp and wipes clean easily. (Which really helps with little hands around!)

Finished product!

New Coats of Paint vol.1

I wanted to spruce up our home a bit more. After living in it for over a year I'd had a chance to discover some things I wanted to change. A lot of what I wanted to change was the colors in our home. So I jumped right in. First the outside.

Green Door becomes a Red Door.

After more than 6 coats I stopped counting and taking photos. Moral: it takes a lot of paint to get a red front door. But it is so inviting. The red is actually leftover red paint that I had from painting the kitchen. It's interior paint, but with the glass door in front of it, I figured we'd be ok. It's been a few months now and it seems to be holding up ok. The color is Red Delicious by Glidden. It looks great in the kitchen and on the door. Win/win. The metal on the glass door in front of the red door was dark green and so I painted that black with flat exterior paint.

Stay tuned for more chronicles in my painting saga!

The Yard

The advent of warmer weather around the South has brought with it household repair season at Patterson Place.

There have been projects we've been wanting to do since we moved in but we felt it was good to live in our new home for awhile to decide what order we'd like to do our projects.

First on the list for safety reasons was the giant 30 foot maple in our front yard. It had to come down. It was such a gorgeous tree--especially in the fall. It bloomed the rosiest red. The tree trunk split into two about 5 feet up and then we found out from some tree experts that the split actually went all the way down. It was overhanging some power lines and had the potential to fall back onto our home. So,  inevitably we had to have it cut down. The silver lining is that before you couldn't even see our home because the tree was so large it totally blocked the view but now you can!

Emma playing last fall by the beautiful maple tree

Emma was enthralled and frightened by the men who came to remove the tree. (There was literally a guy climbing the tree with a chain saw hanging from his belt!) We found out when they were here that the tree was actually diseased and rotten in the middle, so it ended up being a blessing that we took it down before it did any serious damage to our home or the surrounding area.

We are sad to lose such a gorgeous gem but so grateful for the extra sunshine on our lawn to grow some grass! In fact, we are working on growing the grass with some seeds now! And I have removed a couple of bushes from the front that were dying. I was SORE for days but it was worth it because now they aren't overcrowding the growing ones. I planted some white azaleas and a peony bush (my favorites!), and some day lilies to grow by the mailbox. Since I took the picture below I have also trimmed the Japanese Maple (on the left side of the photo) back a bit so it's not quite so overpowering.

Sweet girl the day the tree came down. (The bush beside her is one of the ones I removed)

The first peony that bloomed in our garden!

Lots of new growth in our front yard--I'll post again to give more updates on what's going on inside the house! Lots of updates!

Toddler Time

At some point our tiny Emma turned into a toddler. I have no idea when this happened. Sometimes I feel like she's still a tiny baby (this is usually right after bath time when she's snuggly in her jammies). Lately she's started to seem so grown up. She's getting so tall and can communicate so much. Granted, as her mom I feel like I understand her communication better than others. (Cue...Emma whines and I say "she's trying to say she wants her milk". Ha!) I fall in love with her more at each new stage, but I just can't believe how big she's getting!

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Busy Days

This week has been extra busy for me and Emma. Usually we have a few obligations here and there but this week it has been crazy! And we feel so blessed! On Thursday we went to tour a local Mother's Day Out. And it was so so fun! Here's Emma right before we went in.

After our wonderful tour we went to the Brentwood Library for a play group with some families from our church. I was in total awe. Their children's library is absolutely beautiful! I only took some pictures of Emma running around in the story time room. The entire back wall is beautiful stained glass.

We had lunch with our wonderful friend Jennifer. I'm so sorry I didn't take any pictures, but Emma had a wonderful time with Aunt Jennifer and I did too! As always, I ate too much at Cracker Barrel, but it's just so delicious! 

We spent our afternoon at home Facetiming with our family afar and playing in Emma's room with her toys and books. We had a wonderful and very busy day! (I also made Emma a bow holder for her closet out of ribbons and a wood plaque with her name on it. I'll have to snap a photo soon.)

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Allergies, Birthdays, and Lunch Dates

With the weather constantly changing I feel like we are in for a crazy Spring. There are a few Pattersons around here that suffer from seasonal allergies. This little lady is one of them. I've been chasing her around with tissues, but I think she'll survive. She looks just miserable here, doesn't she? :)

As the few people who read this know, my brother and sister-in-law and their kiddos live in Ecuador. Their littlest girl just had her very first birthday a few days ago. It was so hard being away and not being able to celebrate her with a big party. We did get to FaceTime and sing to the birthday girl which was so very special. I love that Emma can connect with her cousins in this way. After Emma went to bed (we're so cruel) Daniel and I had a little bit of cake and ice cream to celebrate our sweet niece's first birthday!

I love getting to see my handsome husband during the day. It's such a treat because we usually don't get to. It's hard for us to go meet him at work because Emma usually falls asleep in the car right before nap time. But when we do get to have a lunch date with Daniel, it's just the best! Emma adores her daddy (and I'm a pretty big fan too!). Before he left for work Daniel invited us to go downtown to meet him for lunch and I was so excited! What a nice treat! And he even let me pick the restaurant! What a gem! We had the best time and I feel so blessed!

World's Best Lunchdates! (Sorry it's a little blurry)

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February Summer

We've had a bit of a warm spell lately. As a survivor of the Union University tornado on February 5, 2008, I realize the danger of warm weather in February. Thankfully the past couple of times it's been followed by cold fronts without the danger of tornadoes. This past one was a doozy and we spent some time with Emma in the bathroom to wait out the storm. Daniel is such a good leader and kept us all in good spirits! The plus side was that the next day was so, so beautiful! Emma and I went to the park and played on the playground. It has been months since we've been able to and it was a blast!

Louisville was Frozen

A few weekends ago Daniel had to head out of town for a bit so Emma and I took the opportunity to load up and head to visit Louisville! My dad travels pretty frequently so we love to keep Mom company when we can! And Emma adores her Nana! We FaceTime almost every day so they can chat! We had all kinds of fun! I was a little nervous about the drive because it was supposed to be snowy and icy. It did snow a lot of the way--but I just pretended we were in Narnia (which was easy because we were listening to Narnia audiobooks--we're cool like that!).

Snowy Drive

Bananas at Nana's

 One day my Mom had to teach so Emma and I had a special Mommy/Emma day! We went out to McAlister's for lunch and then we went to see the Frozen Sing-a-long. This was Emma's very first trip to the movie theater! I tried to make it special so we bought some snacks and it was so fun! Especially because it was snowy outside, so it made it seem more "real". There were only a few other people in the theater which was so wonderful because I was worried Emma would disrupt everyone. A little girl about 3 years old made friends with Emma and the girls shared snacks and danced around the theater together. It was darling!

Lunch date!

Hello Kitty Treats

So excited about the movie!

We headed to Ikea for a visit on Friday and I got some cute things for Emma's second birthday (which I can't believe is coming up in 4 months!!!).  Poor Emma got worn out during the shopping but on the plus side she slept on our way home!

Shopping wore this girl out!

We had the best weekend and were missing Nana the second we pulled out of her driveway! It was so wonderful to come to our home and be reunited with Daniel. Emma is a total Daddy's girl and I love that! Thanks for letting us come to visit, Nana!!!

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Mommy and Me

Recently we enrolled Emma (and Mommy) in a Mommy and Me gymnastics class. We found the best and most fun place in Franklin that is a Christian gymnastics place. Here's their link in case you're in the area and interested. I took Emma for a lesson as a test to see if she'd like it and she LOVED it! I will say it was pretty fun (and a pretty good workout for moms too!) Here are a few photos of her enjoying class. (I haven't taken too many because it's a hands-on experience for the parents too.)

This was on her first day of gymnastics! I'll use these photos when she is an Olympian and we'll make everyone cry on a commercial or something. Ha! Just kidding. I'm sure she'll grow out of enjoying gymnastics at some point and that's fine. We are loving being social with the other kiddos and moms in the class and having some fun bonding time together too! 

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