Here is the first finished room in our new house. It was a blank slate before.
All it takes is a little color to make a big difference.
The pink was a little brighter than I thought it would be so I decided to paint a flower silhouette to break it up some.
We’re going to get her a little table to go with the two chairs.
Hopefully the second finished room will be up soon!
We are moved in! New Jersey is not what I expected. I thought it would be more city like, it never occurred to me that it’s called the Garden State for a reason. It’s not too bad though. I’ve been really busy unpacking boxes and trying to figure out where to put things. I only have one room that I can say is completely finished. I hate to say that though because I never know when I’m going to walk in there and decide I don’t like where that is or this needs to be changed. It’s my second daughter’s bedroom so it will need to be changed a little when she moves out of her crib. Check back tomorrow for the pictures. I need to get back to work. I’m off to Wal-Mart to get some bath rugs and organizing bins!
Well, we found out we'll be moving to New Jersey next month so all my projects have to stop and I’ll be spending the next (not quite) month packing up and getting the house ready to rent out.
I’m sad and excited at the same time. This is the first house we’ve owned and it’s been fun to work on it and get it to where I love it. I just wish I had time to finish. I’m also sad for my kids, they won’t be able to see the grammies and grandpas very often like they do now.
I’m excited because the house we’re moving into is bigger and brand new (they won’t be finished building it until about October 1st so we’ll have to spend about 2 lovely weeks in a hotel of some sort) but it won’t be “mine” so no painting walls or big changes. I’m already looking at ways to change things but not really change them.
Any good thrift/consignment/antique stores in NJ?
I was in pier 1 this weekend and saw these awesome jars and glasses with little chalkboards on them.
I decided to create my own with a jar I already had…Project cost: free!
I just taped off where I wanted the chalk board paint…
Then just spray your chalkboard paint…
Then when you take the tape off you get this…
Here is Zoe’s new treat container…
Love it!
I’ve been having trouble keeping up with Crafty Wednesday so I decided to change it to Wow Wednesday. Every Wednesday I’m going to feature an Etsy that I’ve found and love.
This week, in honor of my new pup, I’m featuring Sugar Plum Collars. She makes collars and with awesome fabrics and hand stamped tags. She can do matching leashes too. As soon as Zoe is full grown I’m going to order one.
All photos from Sugar Plum Collars
She has a contest going on right now…If you become a fan on Facebook and send in a pic of your pup you’ll be entered to win a collar.
If you want your Etsy shop featured or you have a favorite you want me to share send me an email or leave it in the comments and I’ll check it out.
We added this little girl to our family last weekend. Her name is Zoe and she’s a Puggle. The girls love her!
The second new addition arrived this weekend….My new Canon Digital Rebel T1i! I’m so happy to finally have a camera again!
Here’s one of the pictures I took with it…
I went to a Martini bar a few weeks ago and had the best drink! I’ve been searching for the recipe ever since so I can make them at home instead of paying $9 a piece. I am so excited I finally found it so I have to share it with everyone!
Pink Lemonade Martini
2 1/2 oz Bacardi Limon
1 oz Cointreau
1/2 oz Freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 oz Cranberry juice
1/2 Lemon slice, for garnish
Granulated sugar to coat rim of glass
Moisten the rim of a cocktail glass with some of the Bacardi Limon; sprinkle lightly but evenly with the sugar.
Fill a large shaker glass 2/3 full of ice cubes.
Add Bacardi Limon, Cointreau, lemon juice and cranberry juice; shake until well-blended and chilled.
Strain into prepared glass; garnish with lemon slice and serve at once.
Hey Everyone! I’m back from Virginia…
The 8 hour car ride was actually 12 with traffic and stopping time. My kids were awesome! My 3 year old didn’t even sleep in the car and still did great.
I would have liked to have a camera with me but here are a couple I took with my phone.
Madison was the flower girl
McKenna, my other princess
The wedding was amazing. 2 Maid of Honors, 2 Best Men, 8 Bridesmaids, 8 Groomsmen. A beautiful church, a gorgeous country club for the reception, surf and turf for dinner (salmon and filet mignon), a beautiful cake, an open bar and a great DJ. The girls were a big hit especially on the dance floor. Madison would not leave willingly even when it was well past her bed time.
I’m heading out on an 8 hour car ride to Virginia for a family wedding with my kids, my mother-in-law and brother-in-law. Wish me luck! I’ll be back next week….
This is the second of my new favorite stores. It’s right across the parking lot of Red Chair Antiques in Peterborough, NH. Things were also a little pricey for me but a lot of things were added to my wish list!
Errr CURTAINS! I’ve been having such an issue trying to decide on dining room curtains. Since I got new chairs I thought my old curtains didn’t go anymore, the competing patterns were really bothering me. First I bought some plain red panels to try to get more of my red in the room (I’m trying to make each room downstairs flow by putting red in each room) but that looked awful. Then I tried some white tie up shades I had. That didn’t work either so I tried tea staining the fabric. They came out good but still didn’t work. So I decided to make some. I went to Joann’s and looked through pattern books to pick out ones I liked and found some fabric that would coordinate well with the pattern on my new chairs. The pattern also matches a lampshade I have in the room so it all ties together. This is how the turned out…
I like them but I need more curtain for the dining room, a valance just doesn’t cut it. So finally I found these panels at Big Lots for $12 a pair and I’m happy.
I found two new stores to shop at (see the second next week)… As soon as I walked in this one became one of my favorites.
The only issue is things are a little pricey for me. The only thing I bought was my starfish for my wall art project but I added a lot to my wish list. Check out their website here.
After looking at kid’s room on HGTV’s Rate My Space I saw quite a few rooms with tree or flower silhouettes on their walls. I really wanted to copy the idea for Madison’s wall to break up some of the purple. I found a tree picture online, printed it out and sketched it onto the wall in pencil. It took awhile because I kept going back and changing a little here and adding a little there. When I thought I was happy I started painting it in with leftover white paint. Well the idea looked better in my head than it did on the wall. After one coat of paint I wasn’t sure if I wanted add a second probably third coat in hopes it would look better or scrap the whole idea and repaint the purple.
Then I saw this post on It’s the Little Things That Make a House A Home.
LOOK at that tree! The whiteboard idea is great but for my tree I’ll stick with regular white paint since the tree is behind her bed and just for decorate purposes. This would be a much easier idea and much easier to paint. And it was…
I cut leaves and a bird out of leftover fabric from when I made her crib bedding and ragamuffin garland and curtains (which are now in McKenna’s room) then I stiffened them with “Stiffy” and glued them on the wall. I love how it’s 3D (although kinda hard to tell from the picture)
When I saw some starfish in one of my new favorite stores (check that post out later this week) I knew I wanted to use some in my new/future bedroom. They were $1.75 a piece. While I was visiting my parents house I saw a bunch of frames they had bought on clearance at Michael’s. They were just my style, black with a distressed finish so I bought them from her. The smaller ones (holds an 8x8 piece of paper) were $4.99 and the bigger one (holds an 11x14 piece of paper) was $6.99! So I decided to frame the starfish in them but instead of just using a blank piece of paper I printed out a few of my favorite quotes on cardstock then just cut the paper to size and glued on the starfish.
“Each day when you awake know that you have one more day to make a difference in someone’s life.”
- James Mann
"Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning how to dance in the rain."
- Anonymous
“It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.”
- Ursula K. Le Guin
I have my priorities straight…I made art for a wall in my bedroom before I even started tearing off the wallpaper! So this is the direction I’m going in modern coastal….Is that a style?
We went strawberry picking yesterday so I’ve been looking up things to do with them.
Pictures sadly courtesy of my phone
Two of my favorite things are Strawberry Shortcake (I cheat and use Bisquick to make the biscuits) and just plain strawberries sprinkled with sugar. Someone told me this weekend to add a little Sambuca to the sugared strawberries and it’s supposed to be fantastic.
Erin over at Rare and Beautiful Treasures posted this recipe for a cooked Strawberry Pie. I have made it twice since she posted it. Sooo yummy!!
Here are a few others I’ve found on Allrecipes.com. I haven’t tried any of them so if you do let me know how they are.
Here’s one for the 4th…Wave Your Flag Cheesecake
Grilled Chicken Breasts with Strawberry Salsa
and of course you can’t forget chocolate covered strawberries…I like to use Ghirardelli chocolate. Just melt and dip. Yummy!
Enjoy!
The new Anthropologie catalog came. These two things really caught my eye.
Love this wire shelf but at $168 it’s a little too pricey for me.
This would go very nicely in my kitchen. I’m going to make a trip to the store and pick one up.The website says available July 2nd. Err, I hate waiting.
I found these Zinc letters while looking on the website. I’ll have to think about where one could go.
Here are some before pictures of my bedroom. This is how it looked the day of the home inspection. I didn’t take any pictures after we moved the furniture in.
You can’t get the true effect of the wallpaper unless you touch it…it’s textured people! Other than that it doesn’t look bad in these pictures. It is bad though. I have two dressers that I bought to be painted to match the bed so right now they are still brown with ugly knobs. I bought new nightstands so those are good and the bed is too. I’ll have to try to get my hands on a camera to take some other before pictures.
Ok, so I have a million unfinished projects around here and I’m thinking of starting another….
Our bedroom is the only room we haven’t touched since moving in and it’s been killing me everyday to look at the ugly wallpaper. Hubby is out of town for 4 more weeks so I was thinking about starting AND finishing the bedroom while he’s gone. You think I should take on the task??? It involves taking down the wall paper, patching the walls and sanding, painting the walls and I really want to do the board and batten technique.
Our Suburban Cottage
Then there is furniture to redo and accessorizing…Hmm, when you put it all out there I’m not so sure 4 weeks is enough time.
P.S…Camera update: I tried the troubleshooting I found online and the outcome is I need to send it in to be serviced. :-( Now the question is do I send it in and spend probably at least $200 or buy a new body of an updated version? My rebel is over 4 years old.
