I love to Shop + Winner for the Stencil Giveaway

"Thank you" to everyone who entered our awesome give away from Cutting Edge Stencils! We selected a winner, and that winner is Tashma! She selected the Dahlia Allover Stencil - be sure to send us photos of what you did what that beautiful stencil! If you didn't win this give away, don't fear dear friend, we will have plenty more to come. And if you totally fell in love with stencils like we did, keep checking back at MAHAH - we are going to have more stencil fun in our (near) future!

 This weekend was kinda weird, gloomy, gray one. Joey needed some new sneakers, so we went to the mall, something we rarely do. I hate going out in the rain. I hate the parking garage at the mall. I hate the crowds. However, I love to shop. I love it so much, I went with Joey to the mall to pick out some sneaker despite my eternal distain for all the things listed above. 

We didn't find any sneakers, but we did find this...

It's not that we "found" it this weekend, it's that it found us. You may remember us drooling over the Kensington couch over at Restoration Hardware. It's on our 2011 to-do list. Well, this here table is the table that just so happens to be a perfect match for the 118" couch. This here table is 71". This here table will inspire us to buy that couch that makes us happy. This here table was on sale for $800 reduces from $1,900. This makes us happy, very happy! I will stop saying "this here" now. Promise. 

We didn't expect to buy a coffee table this weekend. After all we just needed sneakers. And we just bought this....

It's a console table from Timothy Oulton, ya know the guy who designs a bunch of stuff for Restoration Hardware. The guy I am obsessed with. The guy who make furniture both Joey and I like. Love that guy. I found him at ABC Carpet and Home in NYC, on the second floor where he took out two spots to showcase his work. 

Yea, we thought about buying that Union Jack couch, many many times. We decided however to go with that exact couch, just in a nice cigar leather. More dog/kid/us proof. Boy, I love to shop for home decor. It really makes me happy. But now our shopping has put us in a pickle. We are having another Joey vs. Lana moment. 

Joey wants to add these chairs to the brown leather sofa + new balustrade salvage wood coffee table steal:

Right now we have these bad boys, which are just too oversized with the new couch....

So the question is this. These new chairs Joey wants - too manly? I am scared of our living room turning into a man cave. Right now I do not have a better suggestion to battle against these really cool airplane themed chairs, but I do think it's going to bring this room to the point of 100% masculine. Thoughts? Ideas? Suggestions? Joey won the chandelier battle, help me with this one ladies!

Yea, it's personal

Yesterday was one of those days. I woke up in a haze somewhere between where 4:00am and 5:00am meet to Porkchop choking on a quarter and a penny. I had to stick my finger in his tiny throat to release the coins. I was relieved to have withdrawn the coins, but couldn't help wonder if maybe a dime got through, and where on earth he got this change from. So, yes, that's how my morning started. No wonder I showed up at my clients office with my pajama bottoms still on and didn't even realize it until lunch time. Yes lovely readers - that's the day I had yesterday.

(porkchop seems to be doing fine now. cross fingers)

Today seemed like a dirty little secret day, and I am in the mood to dish anyway. So here we go. We have a few secrets around this house that we keep away from the pretty blog world. Things like our scary basement, the bathroom down there which makes a haunted house look like a jolly time, some messy closets, and  peeling and bruising on a few walls. Things we can fix, and with due time, will fix. But right now I am going to share with you a dirty little secret our house would hang her head in shame if she knew I was telling you.

 Do you see what I see? Complete and total utter pealing paint and rotting wood -ICK?! Not only is it icky, it's an expensive fix. But looking at it everyday makes our hearts sink - so it's time to fix the problem. This is NOT a DIY project we are going to tackle - heck, I won't even let Joey climb up on the ladder to clean the gutters.

Sadly we can't give you a shiny DIY tutorial on how to paint a house on your own, but we can give you tips and pointers on how to pick paint.

Our house wasn't painted that long ago. So whys it peeling so ferociously? It wasn't primed properly. They probably mixed two different types of paints (or three, or four), one on top of the other  as well. This happens when you paint latex over alkyd, and vice versa. If you don't know what kind of paint your house is dressed with now, it's recommended to use alkyd.

Types of Paint:

alkyd (oil based): slow drying, self cleaning/renewing, durable, long lasting, difficult to work with, bad for low rain/too much rain areas

latex (water based): breathable, minimizes moisture problems, lots of options

Types of Finishes:

Flat/Matte Finish: If you have a house with siding, this is a good option for you. Matte hides imperfections well, but is more difficult to clean.

Glossy Finish: Recommended for "finishing details". It's easy to clean, but may be "too much" for walls. Don't want to blind the neighbors!

Satin Finish: This is the porridge that everyone seems to want a bite of. Glossy enough to clean, yet matte enough to not have too much shine. 

What's your color story?

Now picking a color is totally up to you. Our house is kinda this blueish gray right now with neutral stone. It's not our thing, so we are going in a totally new direction. Something like this...

We like the direction of more of a "traditional" English Tudor. Fixing up the wood is going to be a whole other story, because that needs to be fixed before it's painted. There are techniques now where they can repair the wood, so it costs less and is just as durable.

 Even though we will be leaving this project to the pro's, like most things we want to know what's going on and have done a good bit of research. We suggest a good amount of research with any investment like this. It's a good chunk of change - make sure who you hire is doing it right! Have you recently painted your home? Are you planning to? Please share - we aren't know-it-all's after all! Spill the beans and share some comment love!

Thinking about kids rooms a lot lately

Hello lovelies! We hope you had a wonderful and productive weekend! If you haven't gotten around to our give away - don't forget to check it out - it's a good one!

We did a lot of thinking and brainstorming our next moves for the master bedroom and how we "really feel about our new curtains.We also thought about...the kids room. I have been pretty dead set on a Circus Theme, French style. We haven't done a mood board for this room, so we figure it was time now that we have the windows "covered", and the mural moving along. Here's what we are thinkin'....

Source 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.