All I want for Christmas

Sometimes I wish I had more time. Not money. Not stuff. Just time.

I started this blog because I had (and still have) plenty of plans for my home. I've done a few changes, but there is sooooo much to be done. I wanted to share my inspiration, my projects, my small steps into transforming it into my shelter, in spite of it all.

Well, one of the major challenges I've been facing is the lack of time.

Sometimes this makes me feel so frustrated, because I have lots of ideas, but I simply can't get them done.

And now, this time of year brings me more challenges. My day job is business management and accounting. You should have an idea of what that means this time of year.

My little princess has just recently decided to go and sign up for a sport team, which means hard training daily. That thing alone changed our whole family weekly schedule. And it also gave her little time for homework and other activities. I'm very proud of her, but it's been hard work for all of us.

And then there's this time of year. Which I love. I can see my fellow blogmates blogging about their holiday decorations (which are fabulous, by the way) and I haven't been able to make mine. =(

So all I want for Christmas is time.

Time to share with loved ones.

Time to do the things I enjoy the most.

Time to get organized for next year.

The So Called Foyer

Remember the first room into our house, back in the house tour?

It's supposed to be a foyer of some kind, a little room for us to receive guests into our home. Mmmhhh. We're thinking: do we really need this? ¿Would it be useful?

We didn't quite think so. Our house doesn't even have enough rooms (and all of them are small). We do need a family/tv room, since we don't want a tv in any of our bedrooms (at least not our first tv), nor the living/ dining room.

So once we were settled, and bought the tv, we started making some little changes: we painted one of the walls with a rosy kind of brown. I wasn't sure about the color at the store, especially with so many interesting options, but I absolutely looooved the final result. Then we used a couple of sofas my brother and sister gave us (they're a bit overused and they actually don't fit right in the area, but I have plans for them while we're able to buy new ones). With those changes, the space became this:

We also used a couple of cube drawers we had from my daughter's former nursery for the TV.

That's how it looked until we had enough of it. Of course anything was better than nothing, but it looked very jammed! And the TV seemed to be falling down, all to one side!

Then a week ago we remembered we had an old coffee table waiting to be used. This seemed the perfect spot.

Voilá. A new TV stand in a matter of minutes (of dealing with wires and stuff):

Here's the before and after (after being meanwhile):

Our current family/tv room is a work in progress, I know it's far from what I'm dreaming it to be, but it has come a long way from where it started from! Best of all we didn't spend much on it (except for the paint).

What does your TV room look like? Is it a nice, relaxing space? Do share!

Out of This World

One of the things I enjoy the most since I can recall is painting. It literally takes me out of this world.

I like being able to express and pour my feelings out into a piece of paper.

Here's a little something I want to share with you, I hope you enjoy it. It's a collection of watercolors I've painted recently. Do tell me what you think!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

I'm linking this post to Saturday Nite Special at Funky Junk Interiors.

And Kimba's A Soft Place To Land Do It Yourself Day

Twirly Scarf How To

Hi y'all! As I promised, I've been working on telling you how to make your own twirly scarf for the chilly weather.

Remember these?

Well, here it is:

Twirly Scarf - Instructions

• 
  
  Chain 100 (this length is the actual scarf length, so you can make it as long or short as you wish).
  
  
  
• 
  
  Chain 3, sc in third chain from hook, chain 3, sc every two chains all the way to the end.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Chain 3, tr in first loop. Then work 6 tr in same first loop. Work 8 tr in each loop till the end.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Last loop: 5 tr, 2 dc, 1 hdc
  
  
  
• 
  
  Fasten off. Weave in end. You're done!
  
  
  

This is a very simple scarf, easy enough to play with. You can make it longer or shorter, slightly or very twirly (this depends on the number of tr you insert in each loop). You can also play with the type of yarn and needle you choose to work with. For these ones, I chose a light, acrylic yarn, and used a crochet hook size H (5.0 mm). Remember always to have fun!

I'll be posting the instructions for the heart soon, hope to see you by then!

I'm linking this to Kimba's A Soft Place to Land DIY Day.

http://asoftplace.net/2009/11/diy-day-with-tassels-and-stuff/

The House Tour

I've been delaying this post for a couple of weeks, but I figure it's time for me to give you a house tour. This way we can have a "before" to work our way up and compare with. A starting point.

In order for me to give you a proper starting point, I asked a neighbor of mine who is just moving out of her place if I could take pictures of her empty house (all of the houses here are exactly the same). I wish I had these pictures of my house, that way I could show you the problems we have been dealing with, but then again, remeber I met the bloggosphere just a few months ago?

So, prepare yourself  for some very (and I mean VERY) blah scenes. The first room you walk into is a kind of foyer, and it looks like this:

Ta-dah! Nothing to look at! (Don't say I didn't warn you). If you take a look at the right, you see the street.

And this how it looks like to your left:

I know, let's move forward! The next room is the living / dining room. As you can tell, all of the rooms in the house are tiny! This one is 19 feet long and 10 feet wide. First a look at the dining area, towards the little garden.

Now a look at the living room area, next to the "garage". Again, you see the street.

If you turn around, you face two sets of stairs: the ones going down take you to the powder room, the ones going up take you, well, upstairs.

Upstairs, the rooms are also very small. There are three rooms. The first two have very similar looks: a window and a closet.

The Blank Canvas

We found our house two years ago, and fell in love with it. Brand new house. We knew it was rather small, but apart from that, it was what we were looking for. It was oh so very exciting! Everything seemed perfect.

Not quite. Home builders around here are not very responsible people. I'm not saying it was terrible, but it definitely wasn't what we expected. There were some details (both minor and major) to take care of.

Since we weren't getting married just yet, we decided to place it for rent (wisely adviced by family members).

While we were busy with the wedding preps, a wonderful, small family lived here. We're very thankful at them for taking care of it (and patiently dealing with the issues that kept arousing). Lucky for us, the construction company was around at that time, and somehow managed to solve some of the problems.

Time passed by and the nice family left for some other place. This gave us two months to get our house ready to welcome us, but then again, those couple months were the busiest for us (remember the wedding?). Anyhow, we were at least able to bring in the fridge. And our bed. That was it, that was all we had!

We were also able to paint the whole place white.

Our blank canvas, awaiting.

Two months later we got married, and voilá! The small and not-so-perfect house became our home.

I love the sound of it:

OUR home.

Before we move ahead

This is us.

Rocio and Joaquin.

We make a wonderful team.

This man here makes my dreams come true. Actually, he is my dream come true. I could have never found a better person for me.

We've been married for over a year (same time we moved to this house, our very first house). It's been such a year! We've been basically getting organized with everything: time, household chores, jobs, money, among others (you know it). AND we've been trying to make it all work for our lovely eight-year-old daughter. Our goal list is long, and we love to be together making it happen, one at a time.

After getting settled, I started looking for inspiration to take our little house and tranform it into our refuge. And, as I've said before, you won't believe the tons of inspiration out there (or out here, should I say?). Internet and the bloggosphere have been huge for me. I've got my head filled with ideas, and I've met wonderful people, house-obsessed like me! I really don't know which is better.

Having a blank canvas for a house is, I believe, a great start, and I want to share the whole transformation process with you. Though, I must warn you, this process may take a while (remember time and money are issues here), I promise to make it fun. I also want to share and catalog my finds and inspiration, as well as my daily thoughts and ideas. A journal of some sort, if you wish.

So join me in this chronicle, and let me know what you think. Comments are always welcome!

Eye Candy

Happy Friday!

Here's a little something for you to enjoy.

Living room image by Candice Olson

Have a wonderful and inspiring weekend!

Scarves

I heart scarves. REALLY love them.

Now that the chilly weather seems to finally have arrived to town, these long friends of mine help me feel cozy without adding too much clothes on. I guess I fancy feeling my neck warm.

I want to share with you some really easy-to-do scarves to try this winter. When I say easy I actually mean ridiculously easy. Believe it. I'm a crochet beginner.

I got the inspiration for this scarf last year as I was glancing things at a store. I suddenly saw a beautiful, curly scarf, and thought to myself: "This should be very easy to do. Even for myself". So I tried to figure out how it was actually made. I'm not sure if it was very accurate, but I least I was able to translate it into a beautiful, curly scarf of my own.

I like it! Of course it helps that I love the colors (they even look like the colors on the blog!).

This is how it looks like on:

After realizing I was indeed able to crochet it, I felt like I wanted to make another one for my daughter. I liked red, since she can wear it for school.

I like how it looks like a red rose in bloom. I actually figured how to crochet the little hearts in the ends, to give it a fun twist for her.

Lovely, huh? ( AND it's also very easy)

I love wearing it myself.

Now I do have to apologize for not giving you any tutorials. As I said, I made these last year, when I hadn't met the bloggosphere. I didn't take pictures of the process either.

BUT, I promise I'll tell you how I made them. They're so easy I can remember and explain. Just give me time to sit and write it all down. It's a promise.

Casa Roja: The Red House

Hi friends! Hope you had a wonderful and relaxing weekend. Mine was a pretty busy one, but that's a good thing, for I have goodies to share with you!

I was invited Saturday morning to visit a house, and got the camera rolling. I like calling it Casa Roja, or The Red House (you'll see why in a moment). But before introducing her to you, let me show you where it is located.

Isn't it breathtaking?

This is El Cielo or Heaven, in other words. And it truly is heaven. It's located on top of a hill, next to a forest in Guadalajara's surrounding area. Dreamy, don't you think?

Ok, so off to Casa Roja. Casa Roja's lovely owners are into modern design. They had the wonderful opportunity to work hand in hand with the architect, choosing every detail and finishing touches. But without much further ado, meet The Red House:

You might be wondering where the name came from, but remember: it's not what's on the outside, but in the inside that counts:

This is the lovely and functional, red kitchen.

I know. It got me drooling all over. Notice how everything is organized and in place. Even the apples color coordinate.

The open dining / living room area, with red highlights on the wall and furniture.

Let me give you another look:

A closer look at the living room. Notice the fun details on the coffee table.

Upstairs, the looks are as exquisite. This is the master bedroom. The picture doesn't do justice for the wonderful view from the window.

This is the master bathroom. Please notice me concentrating to get the best shot.

I would so love to take a long bath here.

Actually, that's where I should have stayed all weekend long. In the bathtub. Nothing more.

So what do you think? What did you enjoy the most out of Casa Roja? Or should I say Heaven House?

Before I leave, I'm sharing exciting news. Centsational girl is having a Lisa Leonard jewelry giveaway! Giveaway ends Tuesday November 10th, so you'd better hurry! You tell the wonderful CG I said hi. In case you don't know her, I invite you to visit her blog. She's got great ideas and is just an amazing girl.