Removing wallpaper?!

After moving into our home we realized the white boring walls in the living room and hallway was actually painted over wallpaper?! Ugh we knew that one day soon we would have to tackle removing it.

Wallpaper can be a great way to transform a room, but if it isn't applied correctly it can be a long tedious endeavor to remove it. We had a feeling that we weren't going to be lucky; lo and behold we were right! I went straight to the internet and found this article for reference.

This article was dead on!

"How to Remove Wallpaper: Patience Is a Virture"

Here are the tools you will need; a ladder (I used a chair), a scoring tool (looks like a hockey puck), DIF (I used the gel spray so I didn't have to mix it with water), a puddy or broad knife, rags, a trash bag, a drop cloth and PATIENCE!

First score the wall lightly with your "hockey puck." Make sure not to gouge the drywall.


Spray the scored wall with DIF and wait 10-15 minutes.

Then use your puddy knife and start scraping. Be very patient you do not want to damage the drywall.

Here is what the wall looked like after an hour...


...after 3 hours...


...and this is what Harper was doing while I was hard at work...

Great Etsy find

Etsy is one of my favorite websites. It such a great resource to buy and sell things that are handmade or vintage. Two weeks ago I decided to finally buy something I bookmarked months ago. Guess who it's for?? Yes your right....Harper.

Instead of buying a collar for him at Petco or Petsmart I decided to look for one on Etsy that was handmade. I would rather give the money to an artist over a large business. I came across the shop TheModDog on Etsy and fell in love with their custom pet collars.

Check out Harper in his new "Duck Season" collar...

TheModDog was such a pleasure to work with and I absolutely love the finished product.

Married two years!

Two years ago I got to marry my best friend. Where have these two years gone? I feel like we were just moving into our apartment and painting the walls orange! Since then we have bought a house, welcomed Harper (our dog) into our lives, bought a new car, changed jobs, got laid off and through it all have remained just as strong (if not stronger) as the day we got married.

Here are some pictures to reminisce...

Photos by Richard Barnes Photography

Broad Street Run 2010

Yesterday Shawn and I finished our second annual Broad Street Run!!! This is 10 mile run straight down Broad Street in Philadelphia. We started doing this last year for our one year wedding anniversary (which is May 10) and it only seemed right to do it again for our two year anniversary.

This year 30,000 people registered!


Saturday night we laid out everything so we wouldn't forget something at 5:30 a.m. Thank goodness we didn't forget the suntan lotion!


We also made t-shirts again this year. We used american apparel t-shirts because they are the best!


Yes Harper made it on our shirts; are you surprised?! It only made sense to take him with us since he also did some of the training. ( I think it is so funny how serious Shawn looks in the pictures!)

We trained for 10 weeks but nothing could have got us ready for the heat! 89 degrees, sunny and humid!!!! This was much different than last years rain! Another thing that was different this year was we decided to go without our iPod's (I know can you believe it? Shawn without an iPod or anything Apple on him?!) I have to say it was great without them! We really got to experience the city, cheering, live music, Dj's, cow bells, harmonicas, bag pipes, dogs, kids and we got to run through open fire hydrants!

Well we finished! Slower than last year but we finished healthy and happy :)

Line Drawings

About two years ago my brother-in-law brought me back a wonderful gift from Amsterdam (Thanks Peter!); handmade paper. At first I didn't know what to draw on it or what to use it for, but I knew something had to be created.

First check out this wonderful packaging!



I randomly started to play around with line art using a black Indian ink pen. These lines slowly started to develop a sense movement and shape. The black ink allowed the paper to really stand out and it looked amazing! Once I finished one, I was obsessed and kept on creating until five were finished.

Now what to do with the finished product? I wanted to frame them and arrange them on a wall, but instead they went back in the packaging and into my nightstand. A year later they thankfully they made it to our house unharmed; but where to put them? After painting our bedroom I thought they would look nice hanging above my dresser. Unfortunately I couldn't find the right size frame so I opted for one with a mat that would cut the corners off a bit. I think I like them more!

What do you think?

Of course Harper wanted to be in the pictures as well!

"Hi there!"

Puppy Play Dates

...First I would like to apologize in advance for any grammatical mistakes I make in any and all of my posts...

This past week has been really busy; looking for a job, cleaning, making invitations, pulling tree stumps out of our front yard and oh yeah LOVING this beautiful weather!

We also had our friends Nicole, Garri and their dog Leon over for a BBQ; thanks for coming over guys we had a great time! Did I mention Leon and Harper are half brothers! Those two are just too cute together and definitely look like they are related.

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy...

Smile for the camera :)


Brothers...


Later in the week my sister came down with my parents dog Gus.

Meet Gus...


Harper gets so excited when you say "Uncle" Gus is coming to play; then attacks him as soon as he gets in the yard! It is so funny when they play because Harper weighs 55 pounds and "Uncle" Gus weighs 140 pounds.

Let the blogging begin....

I have been wanting to do this for some time now; so here it is. My husband Shawn and I bought our first house almost a year ago. After looking at many different houses we chose a single fixer-upper with a backyard. Having a backyard was the only thing on our list that was a must because we were getting a dog at the end of the summer.

Meet Harper...



After getting laid off at the end of January I decided to use my time wisely and start projects around the house while looking for a job. Because money was tight we decided to give each other a different kind of gift for Valentine's Day's and paint our bedroom. It honestly was the best decision we made!

Here is a before picture of our bedroom....



I knew I wanted a gray purple colors for the walls and Shawn was all for it. So we went to Home Depot, picked a color and bought two gallons of paint. I loved the color of the sample but once we started putting it on the walls I was a little apprehensive about it. WOW was it purple! Shawn kept on telling me to relax and wait until the whole room was painted. I am so glad I listened to him because I am obsessed with the color of our bedroom!