Moving Soon!

Yes, the blog post title is correct...we're moving soon! My daughter, got accepted as a freshman at UC Davis, which is about an hour and 15 minutes away from where we live here in Oakley, CA. Since she prefers not to live on campus, originally, we looked at possibly renting in or near Davis, CA.  The long drive can be brutal for a college student, especially since she doesn't "technically" drive yet. She's also going to have a rigorous major-- taking premed majoring in Genetics. So, commuting is out of the question.

We looked at Davis and the prices, even for a small apartment, are quite staggering. Then, we looked at nearby cities and towns, which include Dixon, Sacramento (North Natomas), Woodland, and Vacaville, CA. Since she's still an underage when she enters college, we cannot leave her on her own. It was a conscious decision for our family to move along with her. So, we shifted gears to buying a second home instead of just renting one.

If the market is not as it is right now, which is down, we would have been contemplating on selling our current home; however, we may rent it out so we can pay its mortgage. If you or anyone you know may be interested in a 5-bedroom, 4.5 baths, with 3-car garage, two-story home, please contact me. It's quite spacious with over 4,200 sqft. The lot size is over 10,000 sq ft. Lots of room to sprawl. The house has a huge kitchen with stainless steel appliances. There's a huge island at the center where you can concoct your next gourmet meal. There is a formal living/dining room combo with high (22-foot) ceilings. We'll leave the built-in speakers in the family room. The laundry area is on the second floor. There's a guest room/office downstairs. This is available for rent in mid July to early August.

As for our new home, all I can tell you for now is that it's going to be in Vacaville, CA. The location is highly desirable, near all conveniences, and easy access to the freeway. The commute to UC Davis is only 18 minutes each way off of I-80. I'll be starting a new blog for the new home to chronicle the building of the home from the ground up. Yes, we are getting a brand new home. We tried for a while to look at resale homes-- regular sale, shortsale, and foreclosures, but we've been outbidded way to many times on the homes within our price range (upto $350K max) because there's plenty of competition. I think the market is picking up. FHA still offers a very competitive price and interest rate, which is much lower than conventional loan. Furthermore, at 3.5% down and lots of credits from the builder, we're able to afford a new home at the location that is highly sought after.

So, watch out for the link to the new blog. I will keep this blog going. I know that I had been so busy that I haven't been able to blog here lately. I promise to at least update once a month.

2012 Color of the Year - Tangerine Tango

Every year I write about Pantone's color of the year. This year is another vibrant color with an orange-red hue. If you want to learn about how to decorate using tangerine tango, read all about it in my Yahoo article.

Feel free to like it and share. Happy reading!

Below are some photos of flowers and our dessert tray that are in tangerine tango. 

Winter 2011 Decorations- Simple and Serene

I've been so busy with my other blog-- JessiCakes Project, our bake for a cause project, which is my daughter- Jessica's brainchild, hence the name. My daughter and I had been busing baking and raising funds to help her favorite charities all year that I had been unable to post here as much as I loved to. Anyhoo, just like before, I'm only updating this probably for the season.

Year 2011 came and went, and not a whole lot of home improvement projects, but the subtle changes I made to decorate our home made some impact in improving on what we already have. As per my previous posts, I'm a cheapskate; however, that does not mean that I do not have great taste. I find bargains everywhere I go. My favorite places to shop are HomeGoods, Ross, and Walmart. Sometimes, I try to buy something from Michaels,Walmart, or Target.

As for decorating during the winter, I stuck to my favorite cool color-- blue. I used some of last years decorations sparingly without looking like a repetition of last year's look. This time, I used winter blue with white, brown, emerald, silver, and gold. What I was able to accomplish is a simple, but dazzling design for our home. I like to say our home is decorated simply and serenely. Here are the photos, enjoy!

The 22-foot high ceilings was the reason for us buying this home since it gave the home an airy feel and also good with acoustic since my daughter plays the piano and violin.

The brown wooden spheres add a rustic and textured contrast to the smooth and shiny capiz blue spheres.

This wall votive candle holder hangs on our hallway wall near the dining room and kitchen area all year long.

Blue, silver, and white decorative balls made from polystyrene were purchased from Michaels.Price- $2.99 after 50% off.

We have been using these silver-blue curly sticks and peacock feathers almost every winter, but they were never in the same vase. So, this year, we simply bunched them up together and placed in a simple brown ceramic vase. We placed it on top of the piano.

Another bargain find-- this dancer figurine in our color theme was purchased from Ross for $7.99. It looks like it's made of bronze. It's the only piece at the store, so happy that I snagged it! The sand timer has been with us since last year also from Ross for a measly $3.99.

This pair of connected white doves are in the dried flower sections of Michaels. They cost only $1.99. The glass rocks and golden votive candle holders had been with us for years and we have used them to decorate during the winter. The silver-plated cake stand was from HomeGoods, which is the only high ticket item at $29.99. Compared to $59.99 and higher elsewhere, it's still a bargain.

These green orchids and white bulbs in a white vase is a permanent fixture all year long. Adding a pair of blue butterflies and white sparkly branch from Michaels made it look wintery.

Close up of the sparkly butterfly. It has a clip that allows it to perch on a branch.

The other blue sparkly butterfly.

A simple arrangement of a single garland wrapped around the base of the chandelier, then added a fake white bird to depict wintry theme made this simple chandelier look more elegant.

Hanging a single blue ornament at the center of the bottom of the chandelier made a big statement with very little effort.

The blue and white vase was kept last year during the winter, but this year it was used to arrange the silk magnolias, hydrangea, and two emerald/gold butterflies that we already own. We added fillers of blue and silver leaves and branches to give a fuller look.

A bargain find from HomeGoods is this mercury glass bird trophy, which added sparkles. The best part is that it only cost $5.99.

Here's how our dining room look like with the lights on at night.

Understated elegance-- simple and serene.

Dining table-scape.

Added sparkles with blue, green, and white marbles. The votive candle behind the doves light up with fake flickering light that's battery operated is a gift from my sister-in-law. I also added fake votive candles that flicker to add lighting drama.

Simple, clean, and serene.

I replaced the dark blue sparkly butterfly with this turquoise poinsettia.

The dark butterfly now perches on the curly sticks that are on top of the piano. 

Quick 2011 Fall Decorations

Wow...it's been almost three months since my last post. Time flies by so quickly. 'Tis the season again for decorating as the season changes. I've been planning on blogging about Fall decorations, but a quick two weeks had passed and I see homes around me already decorating for the winter holidays.

Some people refer to Fall decorations as forgotten decorations maybe due to the quick switch-over after they take down their summer decorations, they decorate for Halloween, leaving only a couple of weeks for the Fall decorations. Although, some people can easily change their Halloween decorations by leaving the pumpkins and gourds while replacing the ghoulish items with Thanksgiving theme decorations.

My family doesn't celebrate Halloween nor we celebrate Christmas, but we do celebrate Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. So for us, we just decorate for the season-- Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter!

Actually, I've already started transforming our dining room into a Winter theme, which I hope to complete this week. However, since I love Fall so much that I had the Fall decorations up from the first day of Fall, so it's time I change it as the weather is becoming winter-like lately. 

This year, I'm using hand-blown glass pumpkins in my Fall decorations. I got the trio from HomeGoods. If you want to know more about hand-blown glass pumpkins and how you can use to decorate them, read my article "Add Elegance to Your Fall Decorations with Hand-Blown Glass Pumpkins," which I wrote for Yahoo.

In addition to the hand-blown glass pumpkins, I used dessert platters/stands as part of my decorations for Fall. As I blogged in September, in January of this year my daughter and I started a charity-- JessiCakes Project. We bake and sell goodies and donate profits to our favorite charities. Since then, we have been buying cake stands and cupcake stands to hold our baked goodies. Using them to decorate helps in the storage shortage that we're experiencing recently since we started baking. I wrote "How to Decorate with Cake and Cupcake Stands" for tips and sample photos.

Dining Room- artificial flowers in a glass vase, the orange lillies came with a glass, then I added two sprays of orange flowers with beaded buds and at the center a branch with green foliage.

These dessert platters/stands (green and orange) look great and complement the hues found on the hand-blown glass pumpkins.  Both the stands and the pumpkins are from HomeGoods.

Another view of the dessert platters/stands.

The blue and white vase that I use year-round was an item I got from HomeGoods in 2010. I use it with or without flowers. I added three silk flowers from HomeGoods as well.

Year 3 and Counting

Since January, we have been very busy. My daughter and I started our own charity called JessiCakes Project. My daughter came up with the idea of selling our baked goods and donate majority of the proceeds (after expenses) to her favorite charities. Now that we're 9 months into baking for charities, we have decided that we can turn JessiCakes Project into a business, but still continue to donate to charities. There's a mountain of paperwork that we still need to complete, but that's another topic for another blog site.

We have been enjoying our home for more than 3 years now. There are still a lot of work to do. We're hoping to ramp up the backyard improvement again in 2012. By that time, one of the two cars would have been fully paid, so we can spend a little for landscaping. I hate looking at the overgrown weeds every year after the rainy season. I also hate spending $150 to get them cleaned up  year after year. I do hope we can make progress by April of 2012. Wish me luck!!!

Is it Spring Yet?

These trio of vases I bought separately from Ross last year. They were on top of the console table adjacent to the dining table in the dining room. This year, I decided to lessen the amount of flowers on the tallest vase to give that minimalist, clean look. They now proudly sit on top of a glass console table in the hallway adjacent to the kitchen's eating area and dining room.

I decided not to change our color scheme.  The turquoise-and-brown combination is still very appealing. I decided to cover the table with pure brown tablecloth to protect its top from scratches and burn. There are ring marks from hot bowls of soup my nieces and nephew were eating back in our former home. I never got around to removing those. Maybe this year, I would be able to.

The centerpiece is a vase I bought from Home Goods last year that I used on top of our living room's coffee table. I stowed it the past winter. Now it holds silk flowers (2 magnolias and 1 white hydrangea). The soup bowls match the colors well, so I kept them, minus the chargers. Then, I placed the napkin rings on top and inserted turquoise napkins in each ring. I will take photos and upload them soon.

The console top had items from my previous posts, but I added a clear bowl with wooden fruits.

Updates on Blue Winter Decorations

Winter 2010 is all about blue, blue and more blue!

Blue...calm, cool, peacfeful. Something old...something new... I love blue.

The glass bowl has been with us since 2000. I used it for dried potpourri many winters ago. During Spring, I replace the potpourri with wooden spheres and place the bowl in the family room. Now it contains assorted blue, gold, copper, silver and white ornament balls and now sits on top of the red-and-blue storage chest in our living room.

The huge plate on the side table was a hand-me-down from my mother-in-law in 2006. She bought it from Pier1. All year, I took the plate off the rack and placed the plate on the dining table. The white glass vase on the side table was purchased from Pier1 in 2006 with a larger identical piece. It has been a centerpiece in Winter 2006. Now, I added the silk magnolia and hydrangea flowers that I purchased from Beverly's in 2006.

The table runner (matching the one on the dining table) was purchased from Tuesday Morning in Spring 2010. The two runners sat inside the storage closet until Winter 2010.

The table settings have been around for so many years. The blue glass plates and glasses were purchased from Walmart back in 2005. I used them to stage our patio table when we were selling our home in Antioch. Each piece cost about $2. I got them all on mark down sale.

The soup bowls were part of a complete set, which we use every Thanksgiving dinner. I bought them in Winter 2001 from Mervynns as a gift to my mother-in-law, but she returned the set to us in 2003 because she decided blue was not her favorite anymore. They work well because of the turquoise and green vines with small purple grape fruits that decorate the rim of plates and cups. The set fits our vineyard home perfectly.

The four pieces of napkins were $0.50 each from Burlington Coat Factory, purchased in 2006. I purchased the blue and jaded napkin rings from Pier1 a few days ago for $3.49 each. Yep, I splurged on those rings, but you have to agree, they added the much needed bling!

The capiz placemats were purchased by my mother-in-law when she traveled to the Philippines in 2004. The set was her gift to us.

The two vases were purchased in 2004 from the 99 cents store in South San Francisco, CA. Yes, they cost $0.99 each, believe it or not. They used to hold the red and green berry ball for 4 years, until I decided they needed a face lift this year. I added the feather "nests", which were actually ornaments purchased for $1.49 each at K-Mart just last night. I bought four (the last four pieces), the two are under the peacock ornaments, which I purchased in 2006 from Target for $7 for both. (I used to hang each peacock on top of our paintings. The peacocks were in storage for 2 years since we moved to this new place. Now, I finally got to use them.

I added glittery blue sticks on each vase. I bought 2 bunches for $2.49 each at K-Mart last night along with the feather ornaments. I also added silver thistles with strands and stars; they were part of our New Year's decor in 2007.

The two golden votive candle holders were purchased in 2008, which I use every Winter since then.

I placed glass marbles and rocks of blue, green and white on the table runner and placed one strand of glittery chain. These were part of previous decorations many years ago. My daughter used to play with the marbles when she was 7 years old. Now that she is a teen, I decided to add them as decorations. The glass marbles and rocks make the table sparkle, like ice.

The glass snowflakes (2 blue on dining table and 2 clear on side table) were purchased from K-Mart for $1.49 each.

I hung a 12-piece set of icicles (K-Mart $1.49) on our dining room chandelier. They came in grayish blue, baby pink and silver.

The hurricane lamp on the side table was from HomeGoods, purchased in Spring 2010. I bought a votive with blue-green candle for $1 from Dollar Store back in Summer of 2010. I put the lamp together in Fall 2010 and placed it on our kitchen counter. Now, Winter 2010, the lamp decorated our side table in the formal living room.

By reinventing what we already have and giving them a different look by adding some bargain finds and re-arranging things made the decor looking fresh and new without breaking the bank!