Operation Redecoration: Living Room (Part Two)

I painted the wall behind the red couches! It's dark gray now!

I used Valspar Drizzling Mist in satin sheen. I think it made the living room appear super-cozy and it doesn't look SUPER-BORING anymore. I am so sick and tired of staring at the white walls.

Here are the before and after pictures.

BEFORE: Boring white walls. *YAWN*

AFTER: New wall paint and the new pillows from Target!
One wall down, whoknowshowmanymore to go!

Hmmmmm, I swear it looks a lot darker in person.

I said "Part Two" in the title because we haven't decided on what kind of wall art we're going to put up on the wall behind the couch. Technically, it's not quite finished yet. I'm pretty sure there's going to be at least two more parts to this because I still need to work on the fireplace area and the other side of the living room where the TV is located. We're planning on putting two tall black bookshelves on each side of the TV.

I can't figure out what to do with the fireplace area yet. It's another boring and yawn-inducing area. We'll see how everything goes, I guess.

Anyway, I really want to kick myself for starting late on the condo redecorating projects I have in mind but at the same time, I thought we were moving out so I didn't do anything. Now, I'm not sure if I'll be able to do much anymore because I start on my new job next Monday! I'm kinda freaked out!

Anyway, this is it for now. I have some pictures to upload and I'll get on that as soon as I can. Thanks for reading!

Hottie of the Week: Torrance Coombs

Okay, more like the "Hottie of the Month".

I haven't done one of these "celebrity crush" posts for awhile. I just finished watching all the seasons of "The Tudors" and spent a lot of time swooning and sighing over Henry Cavill (my god, he's one of the most beautiful men I have ever seen in my whole life!) while watching the episodes of the first, second and third season.

Then, I started watching the fourth season and OMG, I saw this guy, forgot about Henry Cavill for a second and nearly died (Okay, not really but you know what I mean.).

(Blah, I wish I took these pictures. He makes a beautiful subject!
Pictures courtesy of Google. )

He's really cute huh?

His name is Torrance Coombs. He played Thomas Culpepper (King Henry VIII's favorite groom who effed Katherine Howard).

Oh and he has a Twitter account where he talks about kittens all the time and pretty much tweeted a play-by-play of his cat giving birth to kittens.

Yeah, just check it out. Ha ha.

Operation Redecoration: Living Room (Part One)

Part One for now because I know this is going to take awhile. *sighs*

I'm sick and tired of the white walls. The reason why we never painted the walls is because we thought we're going to be moving to a bigger place so why do anything to the place right? Well, since we're not interested in purchasing a bigger place anytime soon so I think it's time to make changes and I am starting with the living room.

I mentioned before that we have red couches. Something really needs to be done with the darn couch. I am SUPER bored with the red, white, and black color combination too.

So, we went to Target yesterday. We weren't really planning on buying anything but we saw this aqua blue suede pillows and black and cream floral pillows on sale.

So here they are. I'm so tired of the red, black and white and
I think adding some aqua blue looks pretty awesome.

I didn't take a picture of the whole couch because it needs to be vacuumed and the living room is a mess as of the moment. I'll post pictures as soon as I finished the entire living room.

I'm also thinking about painting the wall behind the red couch. I really like the dark gray color.


Now I just need to buy pillows for the loveseat and maybe a couple of accent chairs so we can have more seating in the living room.

Anyway, that's all for now. I should try to finish as much as I can before I start working. I definitely don't want to be doing all this redecorating stuff on my sunny summer weekends.

Random Picture Friday!

Oh and by the way, I got a call from HR and I finally got a starting date for the Seattle job! I'm starting on the 20th of June. Woot! (This also means I get to shop for new clothes and shoes!)

It's probably going to be a bit harder for me to update this blog because who knows how crazy- busy I'll be. I'm not sure if I can travel as much anymore either so no travel pictures for awhile. I don't know if I'll have the time to take pictures either. Oh man.

It's kinda bittersweet because I love having all the free time in the world but at the same time, me having a job = more money going to our savings. More money to get photography stuff too. Oh and yeah, we can get a waaaaaaaay better (and bigger) house now.

Anyway, here's some random pictures for now.

Hermione's Paws.
It's so much easier to take a picture of her when she's passed out.

My Sophie-baby and her Baby Blues.
I love taking pictures of her because her eyes.

Ketchup Anyone?
I think I was a little bit drunk when I took this.

Peonies in Waiting
Just some random peony buds growing outside our building.

Please excuse the overload of cat pictures in my blog lately. I just love taking pictures of cats waaaaaaay too much.

Anyway, that's all for now. The weather here in Western Washington is super awesome as of the moment and it will stay like this all weekend. I am freaking excited!

I hope you guys have a great weekend!

Peonies in Black and White

I actually took this pictures in color but I love the how the images look in black and white.

I freaking love black and white photographs. I miss working in the darkroom. I miss the smell and the sound of flowing water. Seriously, a photo darkroom is one of the most relaxing places in the entire planet. Everyone should get the chance to work inside a photo darkroom.

Now, my "darkroom" consists of a laptop sitting on a coffee table in the living room. That's pretty much it. Hah.





So yeah, our new cat Hermione is settling in pretty well. Sophie still hates her, hisses at her and eats her food. They can coexist as long as Hermione stays out of Sophie's way and leaves her alone. Hopefully, they'll be good friends in a month or two.

Oh and yeah, I haven't even started on painting the living room wall. I really suck at finishing (or getting started on) projects sometimes.

Anyway, that's all for now. Thank you so much for reading, looking at the pretty (and not-so-pretty) pictures and giving a damn about my boring life. (HA HA HA!).

Shooting with Macro (Kinda)

Okay, I don't really shoot with an actual macro lens.

Those things are sooooo freaking expensive and honestly, I would rather save my money and buy a faster zoom lens. I want one with a 2.5 aperture and the one I want cost more than $1,000. I know, YIKES.

Anyway, I actually shot the images below using my Canon Powershot SX120 IS. I switch back and forth between the SX120 and the Canon S5. The Canon S5 has a supermacro setting but I haven't compared the two so I'm not exactly sure if there's any difference as of the moment. I'll let you guys know when I figure it all out though.

I don't think they look bad at all. I'm actually pretty happy with the results.

A white peony from a peony bush (or tree?) outside our building.


Some random stalk(?) or stem (?) of a rhododendron bush outside our building.


Another peony, up close (and personal). I love peonies!


Rhododendron up close.

Well, that's all for now.

It would be nice to own a macro lens someday but I'm not so sure if I really need one. I do photography for the love of the art and for fun; I don't earn any money from doing it.

So yeah, no money = no funds to buy EXPENSIVE stuff I don't need, ha ha.

Well, that's all for now. I hope you have/had a good day today. Thanks for reading and looking!