Here We Come a Wassail-ing

Growing up my siblings and I enjoyed watching Will Stanton's Claymation Christmas Special at home, and our early-morning Seminary class had a tradition of watching it on the last day of class before Christmas. So, in honor of those traditions, I want to share some of my favorite clips. :)











("Sounds like an old sheep-shearing song.")

Merry Christmas!

Cha-Ching

I keep waiting for it to feel like Christmas. Seems like all the things that made the season special for me growing up aren't going to happen anymore. I was downright depressed last year; I have to figure out a way to make my own cheer.

Meanwhile I discovered yesterday that my favorite twinkle-lit garland doesn't work, I can't get hot water in my washing machine--which Nathan is content to let be since we do pretty much all our laundry in cold water anyway, 'tho I think it'd be nice to at least have the option--and we still have a leak in our roof by the chimney. We had a guy come look at it while Hurricane Ida was blowing through, and he offered two options. We agreed to try the simpler fix first, but I saw yesterday in the torrential downpour that it didn't work, so on to Plan B: reroofing. Right after our new furnace and new hot water tank. Ho Ho Homeownership.

Last night Nathan asked me to scan all his mission pictures over Christmas break for a seminary lesson...

*sigh*

I was hoping to have a few more years to recuperate before starting that one. But, it will be nice to have it done. I finally finished my Blurb photo book of my childhood pictures, and I'm almost done organizing my sister's digital photos as part of her Christmas present. Isn't it amazing how quickly technology overwhelms us, no matter the form?

May your days be Merry and Bright...

New Addition

Meet the latest addition to our household as of Saturday. David named him "Beeper."

Sorry my point-n-shoot camera didn't like focusing on him, no matter how many times I tried. This was the best photo of the bunch.

Pampered Chef personal website

Hello again everyone!  I have set up my personal website for Pampered Chef, and you can now place orders (and pay securely with credit card) online at www.pamperedchef.biz/natalienash. 

Until I reach a certain sales quota I can only receive online orders associated with a show, but it won't be long before I can accept individual orders online, as well as do wedding registries and fundraisers. (I can, of course, help you manually with those things already.)  I'll keep you posted!  Meanwhile, there's a show open in my name, so you can go to my website, enter Natalie Nash as the host, and shop 'til you drop.  Christmas is only 91 days away!

Many thanks to all of you for your fantastic support in this new journey.

Natalie
_________
Independent Pampered Chef Consultant
919.266.6503
pamperedbynatalie@gmail.com
www.pamperedchef.biz/natalienash


"No matter what you've done for yourself or for humanity, if you can't look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished?"
- Elbert Hubbard

On Mon, Sep 21, 2009 at 2:59 PM, Natalie Nash <other2nashes@gmail.com> wrote:

(My apologies if you get this more than once.)

Dear Family and Friends,

As a full-time homemaker interested in doing just a little something extra, both for a creative outlet and for a little discretionary income, I've often pondered work-from-home options, ranging from floral design to medical transcription.  None seemed to fit my personality or my family's needs, until this last week, when I decided to become a Pampered Chef Consultant!  I'm very excited to have found a job that works for busy moms and still allows me to focus on my family.

Whereas most jobs have a 90 day probation period, Pampered Chef has a 90 day promotion period.  The more cooking and catalog shows I do within my first 90 days (through December 25), the more incentives I'll receive, in addition to higher commission.  They also offer an EXTRA free gift to those who host shows with me within my first 30 days (through October 26), just as a way of saying "Thank you for Jump Starting my Business."

So YES......this is my request to all of my family and friends to help me get my business started.  It only takes $150 in orders to qualify for a catalog show (perfect for out of state family and friends).  You will be shocked by how easy it is to get orders if you take a catalog with you to work, school and even to a soccer practice.  But, if you do live near me, I would be thrilled to come to your home and cook for you and your friends.  Let me show you how easy it is to make delicious meals at home for less than $2 a serving!

Want to learn more?  On Tuesday, October 6 at 7:00 PM, I will be hosting a "Kick-Off Party" in my home.  I would love if you could make it.  I will be sending out flyers and emails announcing the party, but I wanted to personally send you an email and let you know what I have decided to do.  I am excited about the opportunities that are ahead of me.

If you are interested in learning more about the business or just have questions about it, please don't hesitate to ask.  I would love to have someone join me and we can embark on this new journey together.  Thank you so much for your support, and I hope to see or talk with you very soon.

All my love,
Natalie Nash

Independent Pampered Chef Consultant

pamperedbynatalie@gmail.com (for Pampered Chef-related stuff)
www.pamperedchef.com

P.S. In a few weeks I will have my own personal web site and will be able to offer wedding registries and fundraisers.  You will also be able to order products online anytime!

"No matter what you've done for yourself or for humanity, if you can't look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished?"
- Elbert Hubbard

Pampered Chef Email

I set up an email just for Pampered Chef stuff...

pamperedbynatalie@gmail.com

May I Have Your Attention Please...

After some pondering, mulling, weighing, and debating (and, for my brother's sake, I'll add musing, cogitating, brooding, ruminating, deliberating and meditating :), I decided to become an Independent Consultant for The Pampered Chef.

I love Pampered Chef's products, and feel like this will be an opportunity for me to earn a little extra money doing what I do already--share my opinion about consumer products--while still focusing my energies as a full-time homemaker. I'm also excited to learn more kitchen skills!

I'm still working on getting a website, but drop me a line at pamperedbynatalie@gmail.com if you're interested in hosting a show or purchasing any products! Another option for those far, far, away is to do a catalog show, which does not involve any demonstrations. Then I just send you a bunch of catalogs and you and your friends peruse them together.

Some of you may be excited to learn that September's Guest Special is 20% off select Stoneware and metal bakeware. With no quantity limits, here's an opportunity not to be missed!

July Trip: New England

ROAD TRIP!

In July we went to visit my brother Sean's family in Connecticut...via Niagara Falls. We set the destination in the GPS, hit "Go!" and off we went, on a very scenic route. (We later realized the GPS was set to avoid toll roads, so we were all over those back roads, lol.) We had planned to drive all the way up to the falls in one day and sightsee the next, but about 9 hours into our 12-hour drive Daniel started throwing up--a lot. After the fourth round in half as many minutes, and I only managed to catch the last with a plastic bag, we pulled over to change his clothes and wipe out his carseat. I implored Nathan to stop for the day even though we were short of our goal. We were in the middle of NOWHERE. GPS saved the day! It was so nice to hit "nearest hotel" and get directed to a town just east of us with a hotel, a Wendy's, and a Walmart. Thankfully Daniel didn't have any more episodes, but he did have a high fever that night (yay Walmart for a Tylenol run!).

The next day we headed out again, and just as we crossed the New York border, Daniel started fussing again. Fearful of vomit round two, we pulled over, and a nice man stopped to check on us. When we told him we thought the kids were just tired of being cooped up, he offered to show us the way to a local playground. The boys loved that.

After about 30-45 minutes we headed back on the road and arrived at Niagara Falls mid-morning. We didn't bring documentation to cross the border, but we did go on Maid of the Mist, which I think was way more fun than crossing over.

After we toured the Falls we drove to Lockport, NY to see the Erie Canal. We also did a tour of Lockport Caves, which was pretty cool.

We spent the night in Rochester, NY in preparation for our stop in Palmyra. In the morning as we were eating breakfast, the hotel's fire alarm went off. We evacuated the hotel and the boys watched in awe as two firetrucks pulled in, firemen hopped out in all their uniformed glory, tossed axes and other tools to each other and hoofed into the hotel. We don't know what the problem was, but one of the firemen gave each of the boys a Junior Fire Chief sticker afterwards.

In Palmyra we visited Hill Cumorah, the Martin Harris Farm, and Joseph Smith's homestead, including the Sacred Grove. It was the first day of the Hill Cumorah Pageant, so between that mess and our eagerness to get to Sean's we didn't spend a lot of time in Palmyra.

We finally arrived in Hamden, CT that night. While visiting Sean and Jenny we got to ride an authentic steam locomotive in Essex, CT. That train had been used in the latest Indiana Jones movie, "The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", in the scene where Shia Labeouf rides his motorcycle onto the train platform and calls out to Harrison Ford on the train. Take note that Harrison Ford was sitting in car 503 as you look at the pictures...

We also visited Watch Hill, RI, one of Einstein's favorite haunts. The kids rode the country's oldest merry-go-round, made with surplus rocking horses! Then we headed to the overcast & chilly beach. David had never been in the ocean before that time. He had a blast.

They took us to Boston and we walked the freedom trail. We also visited the New England Aquarium. Oddly enough, as we were wrapping up our visit, the fire alarm went off there, too. We quickly grabbed our strollers (which we had checked at the front desk for easier maneuverability) and ducked out so we didn't have to wait an hour just to get our strollers back.

We finished the day in Boston's Little Italy with dinner at a cute little restaurant and pastries from Mike's Pastry!! Yum-O. Thanks for hosting us Sean and Jenny!

Who's idea was this, anyway?

We bought Daniel's current car seat about 4 years ago. I have a confession: I’ve only washed the seat cover twice. Once between kids and again a couple days ago, after Daniel vomited on it 5 times during our road trip. Yesterday evening I tried to reassemble the car seat, and the experience reminded me why I’ve only washed it twice. That thing is so daggum hard to get on and off! While spending an hour trying to rethread the straps and elastics into a very hard-to-reach crevice with a flashlight, wire hanger and tweezers, I drew several conclusions about the brilliant designer of said seat:

1. This designer did not personally assemble the prototype to know how hard it is to get the cover on and off.
2. This designer was a man, who never considered washing the cover.
3. This man has no children.
4. If this man had children, they never vomited, had blowouts, or spilled milkshakes on the car seat.
5. If this man’s kids ever did the above mentioned things in the carseat—or anything similarly wet, foul, and/or sticky—he never bothered to take it off and wash it.
6. If he did bother to take it off and wash it, he ignored the washing directions and threw it in the dryer instead of letting it line dry—which, by the way, takes a good 36 hours.

At the conclusion of my think session, I had just one more question:

Where's his wife in all this?!

Daniel at the Zoo

We went to the zoo on July 2. We got lucky and hit feeding time for the sea lions, seals, giraffes, and gorillas. We were so busy enjoying our outing that the camera pretty much stayed in the bag, but we did get one video of Daniel reacting to the Sea Lion as he swam by. Look for it at the 15 second mark...

Ere you judge...

...he's enjoying an IBC Rootbeer. But the picture was too perfect not to take!

What might have been...

This Spring we planted a garden. We chose a spot in our back yard, cleared it, added garden soil, planted seeds and starters, and got really excited as things started to grow. Then the trees got leaves. And our garden got nil sun. Nope. None. Pretty shady back there! Some plants grew, some didn't. Some flowered, some didn't even get that far. Our tomato plant probably would have grown six feet tall if we hadn't topped it to encourage the one flower to come to fruition. So while my friends roll up their sleeves for canning and post pictures of the fantastic fruits of their labors, I'm going to post pictures of what might have been...

And now some close-ups of the particularly pathetic:

Romaine Lettuce

Watermelon

Cantaloupe Supreme (the weed is bigger than the vine)

Not quite what I pictured with Petite Corn

And the winner...our one and only, $60 tomato. Now that's value!

Taylor Reunion 2009

My sister-in-law Suzy was the official photographer of our family reunion last week. Good thing, because my camera was rarely handy. Here's a slide show she made at Scrapblog.com



As an explanation for what you're looking at in the slideshow: Friday night we had bounce houses set up in my sister DeeAnn's back yard. Big hit. Especially when someone "accidentally" shut the blower off and one of the bounce houses started to collapse on everyone in it. Uncle Nate played nice and rough with the little kids in one of the bouncies and ended up with a black eye to prove it!

Saturday was rainy so we went to see UP in 3-D (David's first movie theater experience!), and between storms the guys played football and Ultimate Frisbee.



Sunday afternoon we played a Father's Day game. Each wife wrote 5 clues about her husband, and we mixed them all up in a "fish pond" (paperclips and a magnetic pole). We had the Dad's sit in a row (I sat in for Nathan since he didn't attend), and when we read each clue we had the kids line up behind who they thought it described. It was a lot of fun.

Monday morning we did a service project for my parents, who just bought the house next door to my sister the week before, weeding their very overgrown beds and digging out their basement window wells. The clay and gravel was right up to the sill down there, so when it rained, all the water ran under the windows into their basement.

Now, you'll see some rather funny photos. Like DeeAnn holding her 12-year-old son, Taylor, down and forcing his mouth open. See, Taylor thought it would be funny to throw a worm at his cousin Madison, who in the process of flailing to get it out of her hair, had it land in her mouth. The boys were rolling in laughter at her ensuing screaming (I admit, we all were chuckling when we found out what happened). But to discourage further pranks, DeeAnn pegged Taylor and put a worm in his mouth. That started a whole round of the boys thinking it was cool to lick slugs and put worms in their mouths, and a couple of them even swallowed some. Yuck.

The Reunion officially ended Monday afternoon and the Nevada families went home. Monday night Preston's family went up to Nate's farm and rode their ponies. Tuesday we were all left to do our own things. I went to Farmington and visited Nathan's Aunt Jeannie. The boys enjoyed seeing their horses and goats, and catching a fish in her pond with a mini-marshmallow as bait!



Wednesday morning those remaining celebrated two birthdays and a baptism. Then the boys and I flew home Wednesday evening.

heart wrench

So a few minutes ago I was milling around the house tidying up, getting dinner ready, etc.  Basically going in a lot of directions, and David was right on my heels the whole time.  After almost tripping on him several times as he followed me upstairs, into several different rooms to drop stuff off and back downstairs again,  I turned around and said, "David, please go find something else to do."  To which he replied, "But you're setting a good example for me; that's why I'm following you."

Amazon's Universal Wish List

I posted this on my Rants and Raves blog, but this was too good to hide behind a link:

In Short:

In Depth:

I'll let Amazon describe it for me. These are screenshots from their website:

Click here for the Universal Wish List button link shown above

All I have to say is, I love it. It's super convenient for when I stumble upon something cool online, or even to browse for items of interest when I get a catalog in the mail, hop onto the catalog's website, and add stuff to my Amazon wish list. Later when I'm ready to buy, I have one-stop shopping. No more catalogs kicking around for that day I might decide to splurge. No more trying to remember where I saw that nifty item online.

Thank you Amazon!

Natals Rants and Raves

I've been ranting and raving again.  This month's topic: potty chairs.  (Can you believe Daniel has started potty training?  I can't!)  So anyway, that milestone reminded me that I had some things to say about our variety of potty seats.

Check out my reviews of Safety 1st seats here, BabyBjörn seats here, and updated comments on The Family Seat here.

http://natalsrantsandraves.blogspot.com/

New York, New York

At the beginning of this week I got back from 5 days in New York City with Nathan's mom and sisters.  Just the girls; no kids or husbands.  We had so much fun!!  Here's the rundown of our trip:

Tuesday:  Gathering.  The western Nashites flew all day to arrive in New York in the late afternoon.  My flight from Raleigh arrived about 6:00, and my shuttle pulled into the hotel in Midtown/Manhattan just in time for our dinner reservations at San Martin, a fantastic little Italian Restaurant our concierge recommended.  It was a late meal, so afterwards we just went back to the hotel and turned in for the night.

Wednesday:  In the morning we acquainted ourselves with the subway system on our way to the Manhattan LDS temple, where we spent pretty much all morning.  Then we wandered down to Times Square for lunch and our first show, Blithe Spirit, starring Angela Lansbury and Rupert Everett.  It was a fun and witty show; we really enjoyed it.

  

After the show we did a little shopping before our dinner reservations at the French Restaurant Bistro Moderne.  It was like something off of the Food Network.  We were glad we were in dresses when we walked in.  Off to the next and my favorite show: Wicked.  Wow.  

  

Thursday: We got up VERY early to make the 8:30 ferry to Liberty and Ellis Islands.  We went to Liberty Island first.  It was cool to go up in the statue; we were excited when we heard on the news the next morning that visitors can go all the way up to the crown starting July 4 this summer.  

  

That night we went to Bobby Van's Steakhouse.  Waiter was very friendly.  Perhaps a bit too much, truth be told.  It was a bit weird.  He tried to warn me away from my selected entree, which I didn't hear but wish I had.  Mine wasn't very good, but everyone else enjoyed theirs.  Dessert made up for my disappointment, however.  Our show for the evening was The Little Mermaid (YouTube highlights here).  I thought it was cute, and I was totally blown away by Flounder and highly entertained by Scuttle, Flotsam and Jetsam.  I think I enjoy it more in hindsight than I did at the performance.

Friday:  After three early mornings and late nights, plus everyone else being on Pacific time, we were all pretty wiped out.  So we slept in...because we could.  Sometimes that's the best part of vacation.  Later we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Our favorite part was the recreated rooms of a Baroque French hotel. I also really liked this fella:

   

Just down the street from the Met were a bunch of street artists/vendors.  Sarah stopped to look at one particular artist's work and she, Bethany, and I ended up each buying one of his paintings.  We even turned around halfway through Central Park and went back to get second prints.  I can't wait to get mine framed and hung.  That afternoon we enjoyed more down time.  Bethany exercised, Sarah napped, I think Marianne read, and I decided to take advantage of a Washington Mutual across the street.  We still bank with WaMu/Chase, but I'm in the process of switching banks because neither WaMu nor Chase has any branches in North Carolina.  It's been a pain.  So I took care of closing a bunch of accounts and switching stuff to our new bank.  (When the teller asked why I was closing accounts and I told her there wasn't a branch within 1000 miles of where I lived, she kinda raised an eyebrow with a look that said "What do you think this is?"  Ah, New Yorkers.)  Meanwhile I also learned through email that my gym had closed overnight, so I was on the phone with one of my friends who was also a member trying to figure out recourses for my prepaid membership and training contracts.  Later in the afternoon, Bethany, Sarah, and I wandered uptown a few blocks to explore Bloomingdales and Dylan's Candy Bar before dinner.  That night we ate at another little Italian restaurant.  Sorry--I don't remember the name at all.  At first glance on the menu we weren't particularly impressed, but upon closer inspection--and taste--it redeemed itself well.  Then on to our next show: Guys and Dolls.  What a fun surprise to get there and see that it starred Oliver Platt and Lauren Graham!  I've never seen any rendition of Guys and Dolls before, theater or film.  It was an enjoyable performance. 

 

Saturday:  We met up with my brother Sean, his wife Jenny and daughter Anne Elyse, who live in Connecticut, and my childhood next-door neighbor/practically sister Keely, who lives in Queens/Astoria, for brunch at a little restaurant called Good Enough to Eat.  Yum!  Then we all headed over to the American Museum of Natural History.  That museum is the setting for the movie Night at the Museum.  I must say it looks totally different inside.  But we still had fun.  Then we headed over to 5th Avenue to explore some famous stores.  In truth, our objective was to get Jenny into Tiffany's so Sean could surprise her with a bracelet he'd bought as her graduation gift (graduating Memorial Day with a Masters in Nursing at Yale).  She was certainly surprised!  From Tiffany's our group split up; Mom Nash, Sarah, and Bethany went off to do their own exploring while I stayed with Sean, Jenny, and Keely.  They took me past St. Patrick's and Rockefeller Center. 

    

We also stopped by American Girl Place for Anne Elyse.  Sean thought one of the dresses might look good on him, LOL.

Everyone met up again back at the hotel.  Keely had to go grade term papers, but Sean, Jenny, and Annie joined us for our last New York dinner.  We decided to revisit San Martin because we liked it so much the first night.  Then we said farewell to them and headed off to our final show: 9 to 5.  Marianne had seen the movie and thought it was really cute, but the show had a lot of raw content, so we opted to leave at intermission and did some more shopping around Times Square.  Then we had our final big bang in the Big Apple: dessert at Serendipity3.  MMMMMMMM, yummy!  I'm so bummed that we didn't think about taking a picture in front of this famous restaurant.  We were so tired by this point!  I thought I was going to fall asleep just waiting for the guy to come take our order.  So you get internet pictures.  Sorry.

 

We thought we might swing by the next morning to take a picture in front of the restaurant but...

Sunday: Another morning to sleep in, very, VERY late (10:00!!!).  We then had to hustle to get packed, check out of our hotel, and catch our shuttle to the airport.  Once there we had to wait around for hours.  And I had to wait even longer because my plane was under maintenance.  Then an hour on the tarmac.  I was originally scheduled to land at 7 pm, so Nathan was going to keep the boys up and bring them to come get me, but with my delays he put them to bed and asked my friend to stay at our house while he picked me up (thanks Jennifer).  

So there's my trip.  Fun as it was, I was glad to get home!  Many thanks to Mom Nash for sponsoring such a fun trip, and to Mom Taylor for watching my boys!!

Natalie


"No matter what you've done for yourself or for humanity, if you can't look back on having given love and attention to your own family, what have you really accomplished?"
- Elbert Hubbard

Fax Fun

About a week after we moved into our house, we started getting calls from a fax machine. And not just one call a day...no... they have it set to auto-redial something like 5 times. Just about every week. It drives. me. NUTS!!! So when it's a fax day I turn off my ringer. We didn't have Caller ID so I had no way to know who was trying to send us a fax.

A couple months ago I talked Nathan into upgrading our phone service to include Caller ID. It was only a dollar more! I was very happy when the next fax day rolled around to be able to get the number so I could do something about it. Unfortunately, it's unlisted so I have no way to find a phone number to talk to a human.

Today is another fax day. And I suddenly realized, I don't have a phone number for them to tell them to stop calling, but I could send them a fax back. Yes, I know you're all saying "du-uhh," but it was a moment of insight for me. I asked Nathan send them a fax from work. He just IM'ed me and said he sent the fax, but no answer. So he set it to auto-redial 15 times. Take that!!! Mua-hahah!

Super Troopers

This morning we participated in a 5K for Lengthen Your Stride, a service project throughout the Southeast that also involved a food and clothing drive. I walked with the boys in the stroller, but they got out and walked at the end. Daniel got an award for the youngest participant! There were other little ones in strollers, but I guess he's the only one who walked part of the way--or at least the youngest one the awards committee saw. :P The boys were troopers and fairly patient, although their enthusiasm waned considerably by the end. But we finished!! Yay! 

Muchos Gracias to my friend Christy for sending me the above photo.  We had all kinds of cameras pointed at us this morning, but none were my own!  I'm told event photos will be posted on the web. I'll post them when I see some.

More Paint & Carpet pictures

Fireplace with its accoutrements.  :)  This painting completely influenced our choice of green paint.  It had to work with the mat.

We had the painter repaint the built-in cabinets, too, so they matched the rest of the trim.  Before they were kind of grayish-white and started to look rather green with the green walls.

Nathan's cousin Ben and family were on Spring Break from OSU and stayed the night on their way home from Myrtle Beach (we had so much fun!!).  The kids quickly discovered our stairs were a fantastic perch from which to watch the carpet installation without being in the way.

Dining room with new paint and new carpet.  I'm still debating if I like this new orientation of the table, though.  To its credit, it saves our walls from all the dinks of kids knocking chairs backwards. :)  Now to figure out what to hang in here...

Since I couldn't get a picture of the "during painting" process for the dining room, and since many have said they can't see a difference, here's a picture of the old and new paint cans.  Can you see how the old paint (left) looks faded, or even pink, compared to the new paint?

David showcasing the new living room!  He really likes the new recliners.  So do I, hehe.  I'm still trying to decide how I want to dress the windows.  I don't want anything too frou-frou, but I do want to soften them up.  Maybe just some sheer swags?  Eventually I'd love to replace the mini-blinds with faux wood ones.  Or perhaps kill two birds with one stone and do roman shades, except then I couldn't control light and privacy as easily.  Ponder, ponder, ponder.  With limitless funds, I'd replace the windows with those fancy Pella windows that have blinds built in between the panes ($$$!!!).  Riiiiight...

Old vs. new carpet.  We liked the basic shade of the old, obviously, minus the stains we inherited.  Old carpet (top left) is short looped pile, new (bottom right) is softer, deeper frieze (sp?) pile, plus you can see that it's speckled in order to better hide dirt and stains.

Next on the agenda: replace ivory switches and outlets with white ones, and replace brass light fixtures with brushed nickel.  Hoping that will help update the home. My sister-in-law informed me that in their recent house hunt, she observed all the new homes have oil-rubbed bronze fixtures now.  A great tip. I think that would be very pretty with what I've got, but it's too pricey for my dwindling reno budget.  I guess my "update" will just have to be passé from the start. :)

Pictures of Paint Job!

Here are the pictures of our recent paint job. Please pardon the clutter. We were in a state of chaos relocating stuff during the paint process, and will remain so until the paint cures over the next few days and carpet installation is completed on Thursday (wahoo!).

living room before:

living room during:

dining room before:

dining & living rooms after:

(yes, both red, but a more potent one.  The old paint looked pink as he was applying the new paint)

kitchen before:

kitchen after:

computer nook before:

computer nook after:  

(notice how the different colors work with the vinyl.  The blue has bugged me since we moved in)

family room before:

family room after:

I know you didn't get a great look at the living room or the family room.  When I get pictures etc. back up and clutter put away, I'll post better pics.