SLourdes's Profile

We did this for our wedding in 2004. We borrowed speakers from a friend of my father in law's from church, got ourselves an iPod, and made a playlist. We also polled friends for their favorite songs and it worked out great! The dance floor was packed all night, and all we spent was the $200 on the iPod that we got to keep. :) We also tried to keep the flow of the evening in mind - I did three or four fast songs and then a slow song, mixed popular wedding standards in with our more obscure tunes, and it all worked out great. I do think that my many years of attending school dances and weddings gave me a decent idea of what songs people would dance to. I've been to at least three weddings that have also been DIY DJ'd and they've been a blast. In general, I have found them more fun than the ones with professional DJs, because the music is generally more personal and to the taste of the bride and groom and their guests.

I agree a sectional might be worth looking at. We have a corner fireplace in a much smaller living room, but one that was also hard to deal with as it only had two regular walls, then one wall of windows, then the corner fireplace wall. We never would have thought a sectional would work in that space, but it was the perfect solution for us.

CreativePhx- this is the water table we have.

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3927524&cagpspn=pla&pla=plat

Basically it's a stand up table at toddler height that can be filled with water, sand or whatever other sensory stuff you want, and they can play with toys, buckets, shovels, etc.

Great topic! This is my life. We also bought in 2006 - a condo in a nice neighborhood. We looked at single family homes, but everything was either too expensive, or in a rough neighborhood too far from work. So, we went the condo route... thinking we were being responsible by staying within our budget, and figured we'd move in about 4 or 5 years, when we wanted kids.

Well, almost 7 years later, we're still here with one 3 year old and a baby on the way. Not sure how we're all going to cram into the condo, but we're making it work. Basically, I deal by counting my blessings every day. We live in a fantastic neighborhood, we have wonderful neighbors, it's quiet, and our condo unit is relatively spacious at 1200 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 2 baths. And we can easily afford our payment. We probably pay less to own this place than we would to rent a similarly sized apartment. But I'm not going to lie... when I look at the real estate listings and see a 2100 square foot house with a huge yard 2 blocks away is on the market for the same price we paid, it stings a lot. But, we're making the best of it, and trying to maximize the space the best we can. I blogged about this for awhile a couple years ago at www.underwatercondo.blogspot.com, but petered out when I finally started feeling at peace with where we are now.

I think a yellow might look nice. We painted all the main areas of our condo Butter by Devine paints (at Hirschfield's) and I love this color. In certain lights it's beigey, sometimes cream, sometimes pale yellow. Always very flattering. We have the same dated kitchen cabinets... I painted them white and they look awesome that way! You can see some of the pics on my rarely updated blog: www.underwatercondo.blogspot.com.

Ours take up an entire linen closet. We probably have more than 100 games. My husband has a second weekend job at a game store, so we've amassed a LOT of games. Before the collection grew to that size, we stored them in a kitchen cart like this: http://www.target.com/p/Natural-Wood-Kitchen-Cart-with-Doors/-/A-518502, but it had wire doors so you could see inside. It didn't look too bad and fit probably 30 or so games. We had it along a wall near our entry, and we were able to put framed photos and pottery on top.

Storing and displaying board games is tricky, since all the boxes are different sizes.

When we lost our kitty Nutmeg last summer (at only age 9 to stomach cancer), the vet gave us a clipping of her beautiful dilute calico fur. We placed that in a small wooden box with her collar. I sketched a drawing of a Nutmeg plant on the front. I also want to have a portrait of her done some day to hang in the gallery wall we have in our hallway. It's been almost a year and I still miss her.

Big. Our house is full of color - red kitchen, orange master bedroom, blue bathroom, green living room, and butter yellow hallways. The yellow is the most "neutral" color we have. Our furnishings are pretty neutral, though.

I'd paint them white, and paint the walls a color - green, red, something bolder. Then I'd also swap the stools out for something else.

Gorgeous! Such a St. Paul style home (I have a few friends with similar layouts). I love your colors and your teak furniture, and the art!