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.