HGTV Anonymous

Silence is Golden… I was shocked at first, I couldn’t believe that for the first time the entire award show season that there was going to be an award show without any nasty jokes made about Trump. That was until about three and a-half minutes into it when they started, and sadly it never ended.

To be honest, I did not watch the entire show. I did however flip back and fourth several times to see what was going on. Hey, I'm an actor and being that the Oscars used to be the equivalent of what the Superbowl is to football… it is only natural to want to see what films and performances take the top honors. (BTW Hacksaw Ridge was robbed!)

I say, “used to be” because over the past several years Hollywood or shall I say Hollyweird seems to have forgotten that they are supposed to be in the business of entertainment and not politics. 

It's just not as fun as it used to be to keep up with it all. Honestly the only things we watch in our house are HGTV, Animal Planet, and sometimes Fox News. Most of the time I have Classical or CCM Music on the Music Choice channel going on the TV in the background. Why? Because Classical Music makes you smart, and in my opinion it is just more fun to watch than a bunch of junk set to program my noggin with boatloads of gobbledygook.

This my friends is how it all started… My decision to tune out the junk, and tune into other things. I’m seriously starting to wonder if I need to check myself into “HGTV Anonymous”. You see I wanted a new bedroom suit. I had fallen in love with a set at Restoration Hardware called the St. James collection in antique white. The catch, I didn’t particularly care for the almost six thousand dollar price tag it came with. Ov vey!

So I did what any thrifty person in this situation would do. You guessed it, I hit Craigslist. After a few weeks I found a set just a few miles away from our house. It was perfect! Solid wood, unlike most of the furniture on the market today, which is, manufactured wood and pressed board. I made an appointment to see it, got the Mr. and boom we were off. It was just as perfect in person as in the ad. So we made arrangements to pick it up the following day.

Then, it was off to the Home Depot for Chalk Paint. What is chalk paint you might wonder? It is a fantastic way to make furniture look antique. It can be used to do so many crafts and it looks amazing! There are lots of colors to choose from as well. The best part you don’t have to strip the previous finish. Just paint right over it, then do the topcoat.

It took about three weeks to get two coats on everything, and then let it dry and do the top coat matte clear. I found amazing knobs on lowes.com and viola’ our new bedroom set was complete.

However, after getting it into the bedroom and set up was when I started to notice every little knick and scratch on every bit of paint it seems in the entire house. Could it have something to do with watching too much, Flip or Flop, Love it or List it, or House Hunters? Probably…

I then told the Mr. we needed to finally finish painting the ceiling that we never finished a few years ago. Then it was the hallway, it was too dark and too tan, that we needed to brighten it up. Then it was the entryway by the front door. Now it has moved onto the woodwork. Yes all the white woodwork in the entire main level of the house “needs” to be painted.

So after several trips to Home Depot, Lowes (and to Dunkins for fuel to do the job) we have the house upside down and covered under plastic. Blue tape everywhere and I’m thinking that I might think twice before I tune into HGTV again… because after all this is how it all starts (no wonder I’m behind on getting my new music out).

Add to the chaos the fact that not only are my own four dogs and one cat in the house while this is going on, we are currently pet sitting my moms two dogs as well. This makes for a whole barrel of monkeys or shall I say fur babies who want to see what their fur and paws look like with paint on them.

Here are some signs you might be watching too much HGTV:

- The employees at Home Depot know you by name.

- The employees at Lowes know you by name.

- The employees at both stores know what projects you are working on.

- The employees at both stores ask to see photos of the finished projects. 

If this sounds familiar, it may be a good idea to reduce ones HGTV viewing. Oh who am I kidding? I’ll never stop watching and why should I? There’s nothing wrong with Spring-cleaning any time of the year. Hey it’s a surefire way to keep oneself from ending up like another TV show that no one in the world ever wants to find themselves on… hoarders. ;o) Happy HGTV-ing!

Blessings, Love & Music!
Ava xo
www.avaaston.com

Flu Shots

Just one reason why I don't get a flu shot.

There is nothing more embarrassing than watching not one but three "love scenes" in a movie knowing that your mother is only seats away from you... Yeah, tell me about it.

It all started when I was taking a shower, (get your head out of the gutter) and I began to feel woozy.  I couldn't quite breathe when next thing you know I was on the bed soaking wet.  I started seeing spots when all of a sudden everything went black.  I passed out.  Not exactly what I call a fun way to start your weekend.  My hero sweetheart who was in the other room came running in to catch me and drag me out of the shower and bring me back to reality.  (true story).

That's when I realized I wasn't doing so well.  The Greek-Girl was not doing so well, I had  the flu. The flu for those of you don't know is not a fun thing to have.  You end up sick, dizzy, hot and cold, achy and shakey.  Let's just say when they were handing out the free flu shots at all those clinics and even in the mall, I was too busy updating my Twitter and Facebook status.  Too bad I wasn't too busy because Mr. Bricks had me booked out on a world-tour, just sayin'.  Regardless, I missed out and now it was too late.

That was when my mom decided it was time to get in the car and come over to care for her baby-girl.  Yep, she did.  She loves me that much.  But the problem is as I mentioned in previous blogs whenever she comes over, she finds something to fix.  Well this wasn't one of those times.  This time it was having to "paint" the sill of my half-walls in the entrance of my home.  "So, when are you guys gonna ever paint these things? They look terrible" she said.  Then without skipping a beat the same hero who saved me, my sweetheart dropped his chin, breathed in his pride and disappeared only to return with a can of paint and a brush.  I said I don't think it's a good idea to do that now.  They didn't listen, but my mommy did make me some chicken and rice soup (Campbell's of course).

Well, after the paint was applied that was when my mom decided to lean on the wall and press her arm into the paint.  Shocked I just looked at her and said, "see, I told you it wasn't a good idea!"  Then a new coat of paint was applied only to be ruined by, "me" who unfortunately was drugged up and woozy and hardly knew what day it was.  So now, one of my favorite sweatshirts was ruined.  Thanks mom!  Now, not only is my half-wall mucked up and I am out a sweatshirt but I am so sick I can't even tell you what day it is.

Another hour goes by.  We are all quiet when suddenly a loud yell, "Dang-it!" comes from the other room.  Yep, my sweetheart just set his hand right onto the wet paint.  So now we are three coats into this debacle and it looks worse than before.  Finally, the following day of this weekend of bonding, and after deciding I'm feeling somewhat okay, I tell my mom we have to get out of the house.  I can't take this anymore.  "So, what do you want to do?" she asks me.  I told her I was dying to see the movie, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."

A kick-butt movie that is not intended to be watched with your mom however.

So there I was just feet from my mom in a dark theater when out of nowhere the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo disrobes and proceeds to get it on with Daniel Craig.  HELLO!!!  That was when I suddenly felt my fever break as a cold shock hit my heart and I suddenly  swallowed my tongue.  This was not your family flick to say the least.  Needless to say, the drive home was delightful as we all tried to justify how good the film was despite the various love scenes.

Once we were home and all of us were trying to get over the awkward feeling of silence when we turned on the TV and found the Republican Debate on ABC was on.  Ahhh... now we can use some intellectual television to scrub the mind of any memory of what we just experienced.  Okay, not exactly the college championship football game that I know Mr. Bricks would be watching to see any cheerleaders at half-time, but it was still like watching a sport sorta. All I care is that it scrubbed the awkward moment from the night.

The Political Sporting Arena...

So, lets just say, this is one of those moments where I have to chalk it up and say, 'not again'.  The next time I see a sign that says, 'Get your Free Flu Shot' (I don't care if it's $250) I am getting one.  The last thing I need is to share an awkward moment in the dark with my mom and my sweetie by my side again.  Let alone pass out in the shower and have my mom come over only to being a gorrilla episode of HGTV's DIY or Kitchen Crashers.  Mom, I love you, but... I may have to have a restraining order on you or call Time Warner Cable and have HGTV removed from your TV, (that is of course after I win the HGTV Dream-home that is in Utah.)

Blessings, Love & Music~
Ava xox :D
www.avaaston.com
PS: I already claimed ownership of the HGTV Dream-home so don't waste your time entering the contest, just download my music instead... :o)

Craigslist: Why I should be banned from using it

This website should be banned at my house.

So my mom came over the other day to visit.  Sounds great I know but here is what always happens when she comes around.  Yes,  we eat great food and laugh a lot, but what you don't know is my mom is like a walking episode of HGTV.  All she ever does is find out what has to be fixed or improved at my house.  But what's worse is every-time she comes over she finds something wrong in my house.  She finds something that should be painted, replaced or upgraded.  No matter what it never fails with her.

So you're probably wondering, "what was it this time?" Well aside from the 20 trees in the yard she thinks should be cut down, she said I have to buy a "grownup dresser". Here's the problem.  The one I have is from Ikea and has been moved probably 20 times and refinished at least four times.  Now, in the other room, my sweetie is using a repurposed TV armoire for his clothes (it's not even an actual dresser).  So, the prospect of buying just a dresser wasn't enough.  So this turned into a whole bedroom set.

Now what a lot of you know about me is that I am Greek.  Well what you might not also know is that being Greek means I don't like to spend more money than I have to on the things that I want. (unless of course we are talking about sneakers) ;D - So I turned to... Craigslist.  Big mistake.  This is where it all began going wrong. Not only are you setting yourself up to be possibly murdered and turned into someone's dinner or inviting a thief to mug you but you could get bedbugs from the crap you buy from these people.

Well... here is how this went down.  After about 3 hours of searching on two computers and a couple trips to about 20 garage sales, the Goodwill store, Ikea and every furniture store within a 20 mile radius I found - nothing.  Nothing that would at least match my Pottery Barn/Restoration Hardware standards on a Target Budget.

So now my mom gets going on this kick of finding me the perfect set and when she sets out on a mission, it never ends.  So, she starts calling me and emailing me all day while she's supposed to be at work until she finds one.  It's great looking.  But here's the thing, I am in NYC at an audition and my mom calls and leaves me 2 voicemails and about 5 texts saying "Did you get my emails"? I text back, "what email"? She replies "I found you two beautiful bedroom sets on craigslist" then tells me I have to go to Danbury Connecticut to see the first one.  Danbury? (This is a 60+ mile drive). Yep, I did it.  I drove me and my sweetie all the way to Danbury to see some furniture that I would never come to buy.  Then raced all the way up to Poughkeepsie NY another 40 miles away.  There I found what would be my wonderful new set of "grown up" furniture.

The problem with all of this, it's over 50 miles from my house and I forgot to stop at the ATM before we got to the middle of nowhere on a windy road - let alone I had to be the chiropractor in 60 minutes back down where I live just outside the city and Jillian Jetta won't carry it all.  So, I had to go home and turn around to go back and buy it the next day.  The problem with that is I didn't have a vehicle big enough.  So we rented a van from Enterprise for $59.  Did I mention that we paid $15 for insurance + tax.  So now we have spent about $25 in gas and had to spend another $50 in gas for the van.  So we drove up through 2 tolls 2 times and had to pay about $10 in tolls.

Well we finally got there.  We loaded up the truck and paid the man his $500.  Yep, the Greek Girl bought a used set of furniture for $500.  Great deal!  But wait! It gets better.  I figured since we were on our way home we should stop at the local GoodWill Super Store.  Yes they have one in Poughkeepsie.  There I would hope to find my new "vanity". By now, my Sweetie is about to have his head come loose.  He said, "Vanity? What are you talking about?  Since when do you want a new vanity?"  Well... we ended up stopping.  No they didn't have any, but I did find a brand new purse for only $16.

Okay, now we get back home and unload all the furniture into the garage.  We race back to the rental place to return the van.  Then we get back home to look at our very own Craigslist special furniture set.  (BTW we didn't get a mattress that would be just disgusting, and already have a new amazing mattress).  We then realized the furniture matched the bedroom floor.  Ut oh.... Now we have a problem.  Ava, someone's got some splaining to do.

So we go to Home Depot and Lowe's and figure out we need some stripper, paint brushes, rubber gloves and new knobs.  All together our purchase was over $98.  So now since my mom decided I needed a new dresser that would not have cost more than $150 has now turned into a 5 piece bedroom set that needs to be refinished for a grand total of $794 and I still don't have my vanity.

Tune in next time to learn about my vanity and how that came out.  It's still a work in progress.  Oh and did I forget to mention all this is taking place while I'm recording a new project, working on a music video, and new "Ava The Diva Cartoon" episode... Good gravy I really need to get Mr. Bricks back in the salt mines so he can get me my record deal so I won't be buying furniture off of craigslist.  just sayin.

Blessings, Love & Music ~
Ava xo
www.avaaston.com