Unskinny Boppy

New Favorite: Peachy Keen Designs

2012-01-24T07:40:00.000-06:00

I just returned home from a girl's weekend in New Orleans where we surprised my friend Natalie with a baby shower for her 2nd little who is about 29 weeks baked. Five of us descended upon her house- two planned and three a total surprise. We painted some fantastic stripes in her nursery and my friend Kent sewed a pair of AWESOME orange chevron curtain panels. We intended to get more done on the nursery but that pesky Bourbon Street just kept getting in the way. I'll share more on that later.

While Kent had her sewing machine out she made a shirt for Garrett's birthday. I had severe sewing machine envy when I watched her Baby Lock Esante automatically cutting threads and doing all sorts of automated maneuvers all automatically. That machine moved like BUTTAH. Wow. I was impressed! So, Kent is the shop owner over at Peachy Keen Design on etsy. Check out this cutie patootie embroidered t-shirt that she made for Garrett's fourth birthday!

We are going to have a blast with a rocket ship theme this year, so this rocket ship birthday applique that she found was perfect for his shirt. She has the cutest assortment of fonts available on her shop so I couldn't resist getting his name in the "Mister" font.

I am so happy with the way this cute embroidered tee turned out! Can't wait for the rest of the party to come together now!

Better Than Momma's Pancake Breakfast

2012-01-12T23:30:00.001-06:00

Disclaimer: This is not a blog entry about pancakes.

Last week we had dinner with my parents at Cracker Barrel. What can I say? I'm a sucker for Fish Fry Fridays and Garrett likes the peg game. It's a win/win. As we were leaving there was this display of beachy themed stuff and I spotted these pretty driftwood bowls holding a bunch of odds and ends.

Just a few days before I'd seen a similar driftwood basket online selling for around $50.00. I considered purchasing it for a second but couldn't pull the trigger on a $50 bowl. I never in a million years expected to find such pretty little replica out there in the middle of the giant checker sets and pecan logs at the Cracker Barrel.

I emptied out all the Yankee candles and decorative balls and checked for a price tag, expecting to see something a little bit outrageous.

Imagine my surprise when I saw a price tag of $19.99 on this one!

SOLD!

I don't think this is actual driftwood. Although the tag was from a company called Hidden Cove so it sounds kinda beachy. It looks more like whittled down broomsticks in some parts but the overall design of the bowl is really cool so I couldn't turn it down. I've got big plans for it that might involve more succulents. But for now I just wanted to share my happy little find and see how hungry I could make you all in one post.

Mission accomplished.

Aaaaaand now I'm craving pancakes.

The DIYables and the Would-Be-Niceables: my 2012 home goals

2012-01-10T21:30:00.000-06:00

I'll admit it.

2012 isn't shaping up to be my most productive year ever. If these first 10 days are any indication of the rest of the year, I'm not going to get JACK done around here this year. I've barely even taken out the trash this week. I'm not even gonna talk about that whole "get organized with one task a day" thing. Let's hope I can turn things around. I did buy myself a Groupon for a local home organizer to come in for 2 hours and work some magic. That should count for something, right?

Maybe a written list of goals to work toward will hold me accountable. Or at least make me feel guilty when I don't get it all done.

Since the Nester is having a 2012 Home Goals party tomorrow, I'm dedicating this whole post to writing out my goals. I'm using pictures of my most inspirational pins that I'm hoping will jump-start me to do even more around here this coming year. To clarify--none of the pics in the post are my own. I wish. I'm linking to the original blogs if I can find them.

So, here are my 2012 Home Goals In No Particular Order:

THE DIYABLES

Paint my laundry room a happy color and get it organized. Ditto for the pantry and "mud" room area of the house. ORGANIZE and keep it that way. This is my most favorite inspiration photo for the laundry:

Happy Laundry Room via

Remove the wallpaper from the two upstairs bathrooms. I've never shown those bathrooms on the blog. There's a reason for that. The 1990's threw up all over the walls.

Finish the basement with the faux rock like we'd planned. Loving this rock in this pretty basement.

Rock on basement wall via

Repaint the happy blue dresser in my living room. It needs to be toned down some since my walls got painted the Silver Sage color.

Cover the other lamp with burlap in my living room. I completed one but not the other. Yes. I'm lazy.

Make a pretty skirt for my laundry room following this DIY Mudroom Sink Skirt Tutorial by Tracy at Beneath My Heart.

DIY Mudroom Sink Skirt Tutorial via

Cover my master bedroom box springs so it's no longer naked like Kelly at A View Along the Way has done so beautifully on this bed:

DIY Upholstered Platform Bed via

THE WOULD-BE-NICEABLES

Build a big fat rock fireplace. This one from My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia is my absolute favorite attainable one in all of blogland.

Rock Fireplace via

Replace all of my boring interior six panel hollow core doors with something prettier. I'm insanely attracted to these horizontal five panel Mission style doors even though nothing else in my house is Missiony or Craftsmany. Well, except my old blue door at the top of my stairs. I FLOVE these doors that were featured over at Beneath My Heart. Dear Erin in Alabama, We need to be BFFs so I can take a pee inside that beautiful bathroom. -Love, Beth in Alabama

5 panel horizontal Mission doors via

Banish all the brass. This would include light fixtures, plumbing fixtures, hardware, hinges, knobs, shower doors, etc etc etc. Back in the 1990's they were all bout it-bout it when it came to brass. This would be a HUGE undertaking for us. But it would be nice.

Renovate the master bathroom. This would mean much taller vanity cabinets with a ton more drawers and storage and useable space. It might also include ripping out some ugly locker room looking tile and putting in something a little more upgraded. Certainly not DIYable (for us) but it would be nice.

Pottery Barn Newport bathroom via

Outside Goals:

Plant more perennials in the ground. Especially hydrangeas and hostas like these from Southern Living.

Hydrangeas and hostas via

Cover my flowerbeds with pine straw instead of mulch.

Keep the pool sparkling clean all season and USE it.

Organize my gardening tools and create a better potting area in my garage. I would pee in my pants to have this gorgeous potting bench from Country Living at my house. It's so dreamy.

Dream Potting Bench via

So there you go. I'm sure there's plenty more I'm not thinking about right now but that should be enough to keep me busy until... oh... 2062.

What are your goals for this year?

I'm linking up to these parties:
2012 Home Goals party at The Nesting Place
The Pinterest Pinfest at The DIY Showoff

A Shrektacular New Year

2012-01-04T13:52:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year!

Hope your first weekend of 2012 was a good'un. Did you make any resolutions?

Here is my official 2012 resolution list:

Clean off the millions of photos on my camera cards
Get all my photos backed up somewhere safe
Organize my house from top to bottom
Paint my laundry room a happy color
Plant more perennials in the ground around my house

Sounds like a doable list, eh? I hope.

We spent our weekend at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville meeting characters from Garrett's favorite Dreamworks films. I'd never been to the Opryland Hotel before, but I would most definitely go back. Like, in a heartbeat. It was AMAZING. One thing I noticed was that every single hotel employee that we encountered was nice. And not fake nice. Nice in a genuine kind of way that made you feel welcomed and loved. We've been on so many vacations where the workers are rude, so this was a breath of fresh air for us. True southern hospitality. It was GREAT. Plus the hotel is huge, with multiple atriums so almost every hotel room looks out onto a beautiful view. Our room was overlooking the Delta atrium which has a little downtown area with shops and restaurants. There was a river running through it where you could spend the equivalent of a tank of gas for a 15 minute boat ride.

My favorite part of the room was the LIGHT. The diffused light that streamed through our windows made for some incredible photos. I wonder if we could build ourselves an atrium instead of a new shingled roof when the time comes for a replacement? I'd be ecstatic for natural light like this in my house.

At night the whole place was lit up with strings of Christmas lights. Just beautiful.

The Conservatory Atrium had a skywalk where you could look down into the gardens below. Very tropical and lush. Walking through it I kinda expected to see Adam and Eve jump out from behind a palm tree, except wearing a little more than fig leaves since it was pretty chilly.

Speaking of chilly... We toured the Merry Madagascar Ice carvings inside a 9 degree meat locker. Garrett liked seeing all the characters carved from ice but wow, was it cold! They gave everyone parkas to wear but of course, being true Southerners, we didn't have any gloves with us.

After about 2 minutes into it I began to feel like an ice carving myself. At one point I couldn't feel my thumb on my camera snapping hand. To anyone who goes to see this in the future-- wear gloves. Your digits will thank you. At least my son was wearing a hat.

His favorite part was the ice slides at the end. I made J slide down with him while I stood safely at the bottom and took pictures.

I think he felt like one of Mr. Popper's penguins on this thing.

After we exited the meat locker my thumb started to thaw out and my camera defrosted so I got some shots of G meeting the Madagascar penguins. I don't understand how actual penguins do it with their thin little layer of hair. I watched the documentary that Morgan Freeman narrated. I should have listened closer when those little birds were huddled together in -50 degree arctic temps. How the heck do they not all freeze to death? Things that keep me awake at night.

This was the last weekend that this exhibition was open, so they had all the merchandise in the retail shop at 50-75% off. SCORE. We got G an Alex the Lion jacket that had paws, a mane for a hood and a tail. He also wanted a pair of donkey ears. Every other kid we had seen up until this point was walking around with Shrek ears. Or Fiona ears which were just Shrek ears with a tiara between. But my little nonconformist kid insisted on buying the Donkey ears instead. He was the only kid I saw the entire weekend with Donkey ears. Like I've said before, he's never one to do what everyone else is doing.

Our vacation package included a ShrekFeast where we got to meet the characters at our table and drink unlimited amounts of Swamp Juice. There was even a chocolate fountain dripping with goo. It was actually white chocolate they had tinted green, but it looked plenty unappetizing. They also knighted Garrett as we entered the place and gave him a free pair of Shrek ears. When I saw that I was glad we bought Donkey ears the day before!

Puss in Boots made an appearance and batted at Garrett's Dunkey ears.

Other highlights of the weekend included decorating a gingerbread house with Gingy. Garrett was more interested in eating the candy than decorating a house with it. He did help shingle the entire roof in Necco candy and peppermints before he started chowing down on the gumdrops.

Gingy was one of my favorite characters. His backside looked like a real cookie straight off the pan. Loved it.

Every day while we were there they put on three shows where all the characters came out and danced and performed.

I wasn't sure why Fiona only came out for the show and not at any other time during the trip. Was she too good to pose for the camera? Yet another deep thought that keeps me up at night. King Julian wasn't too good for it, Fiona. Don't be such a diva.

And... speaking of divas. Garrett was in rare form on this trip. One minute he was happy and loving, the next he was the spawn of the Devil. He will be turning four in less than a month, and he really is giving me a run for my money with the back-talking and attitude. It's like he's four going on fourteen some days. After the terrible twos ended I sang the praises of age 3, but I have a bad feeling about age four. Lord, give me strength to deal with this mini-me version of myself and my father. The donkey ears were appropriate, given how stubborn this kid is. He's gotten a quadruple dose of stubborn from all sides of his family, so I know he can't help it, given his DNA.

J and I are trying to remember to stick together and be strong and not give into his demands. We are consistent with our discipline, even on this vacation and even when it's not fun for us. On New Years Eve he got into BIG trouble for giving us major attitude after he had already been put in time out more than once. So, we took him back to the room and called it a night at about 5:00 in the afternoon. Our actual NYE consisted of ordering room service pizza and watching the Auburn game. Garrett was so tired, so he took a late nap and felt a little better. Three year olds just can't hang on NYE.

I will say that he was much sweeter after his nap. That part makes all the other parts easier to bear.

I decided to get out of the room alone for a little bit and go see what all celebrations were happening in the hotel. I also figured it would be a good chance to get some night time shots of the lights. There was a fifty foot tall Christmas tree inside this place, which has some serious glow!

As I was wandering around enjoying the lights and music and some whine-free alone time, I stumbled upon a couple standing underneath this beautiful gazebo all alone. As I walked by I saw the man get down on one knee in front of the lady, and I quickly realized that he was proposing to her!! It was like something from a fairy tale, so I couldn't help snapping a few photos of them.

I wondered for a second if it was weird for me to take photos of their private moment, but then I realized that they would never get this moment back so I decided to go for it. I regretted not being quicker on the draw and taking some of him down on one knee.

As they began to walk away I approached them and and congratulated them. Then I told them I had taken a few pictures. I was relieved that they didn't think I was too stalkerish, but instead were happy to hear that I had captured the moment for them. They were thrilled, actually, to have some pictures of the event. I was so honored to have been a part of their special night and thankful that I was in the right place at the right time with the right camera to document the occasion for them. I got them to take one more photo together, then I got her email address so that I could send them all to her when we got back home.

She was so thrilled to receive the pictures the next day that they offered to pay me for my photos! No way could I have ever accepted payment for something so simple. It just reinforces the fact that I love my little photography hobby. I am glad that I'm able to use it for things like this.

It makes all those million photos that I need to clean off my camera cards worth it.

2011 Year in Decorating Review

2011-12-27T21:43:00.000-06:00

Last year I had so much fun going through all of my design projects for the 2010 Year in Home Review to link up over at Rhoda's Southern Hospitality Blog. When I heard she was doing it again this year I knew I had better hop to it because I've been a busy little Boppy this year.

So here we go, a month-by-month review of my top DIY home design projects this year.

In January my first DIY project of the year was a big transformation when I spraypainted the brass dining room light fixture.

In February I posted about moving Garrett from his toddler bed to a new big boy bed. Later I followed that up with a big boy bed take 2, since we had to coax him back into his room after an unfortunate ghost named Lucy apparently moved in.

In March the gardening bug bit me and I started filling hanging baskets with diaper innards and planting all sorts of pretty flowers in the blue pots in the backyard.

April was a big month. I kicked things off by throwing a rustic elegant couples shower for my coworker.

And then, I posted what might be one of my most popular DIY projects of the year- this Pottery Barn inspired ladder turned chandelier with mason jar lanterns over the patio table.

In May I created these monogrammed succulent wreaths. These guys also helped raise money for the Alabama tornado survivors.

At the end of May I showed the reveal of Garrett's beach themed Parrothead playroom mural even though it had been painted earlier in the year.

June began The Great Big Basement Remodel Project, which I kicked off by drawing a remodel concept sketch using Google Sketchup. If only I could slice my house in half right now you'd see that the basement turned out exactly like the Sketchup drawing.

I got crafty with the glue gun and some burlap and gave my lampshade a new look in the post Everyday I'm Rufflin'

Because matboard is boring, I stole this idea on how to hang a photo without any glass in the frame.

And then came the painters. This isn't a DIY project, but choosing the paint color was hard enough so I'm including it here.

First the kitchen was transformed from yellow to blue.

Then we took the dining room from green to smoky blue paint.

And after the paint dried I decided to tramp stamp the china cabinet.

Next up on the blue paint train was the sunroom which we painted Sherwin Williams Seasalt

And last but not least (since it got painted twice) was the living room, foyer and balcony. They were painted Restoration Hardware Silver Sage.

Once the paint was all finished upstairs we moved to the basement and used all those paint samples to give the staircase a facelift. There was also some non-DIY board and batten revealed. For the full reveal make sure to check out my guest post at the DIY Showoff.

And we finally had the big finished basement reveal.

Whew! I'm not going to post all my DIY Christmas decor since it's just a few posts back.

It's great to recap all of these projects and see just how productive we've been this year. I'd like to say a huge "THANK YOU!" to my awesome husband for every single thing he's done to improve the house DIY-style. I'm so blessed to have a handy husband who is willing and able to be my Mr. Fix-It. I didn't even blog about him replacing the pool pump and booster pump over the summer, or all of his lighting and electrical skills. Not to mention all the nightly baths he gives Garrett and the countless loads of laundry he's helped me wash and fold. I love you, J! Couldn't do any of this without you.

And, Thank YOU, blog buddies and internet friends, for reading my blog and sharing your lives with me. I love being a part of this community of creative and talented people who support one another. It's been so much fun getting to know you all this year! I look forward to meeting even more of you next year. Thanks again, for reading and contributing with comments and facebook feedback and twitter mentions. You've helped me stay motivated, because I love blogging about my projects for the feedback you all give me. This blog wouldn't be as much fun without YOU! So thanks. :)

Here's to a safe, happy, prosperous and even MORE productive 2012 for everyone. I am interested to see what it will bring for our household and yours.

Christmas Eve Brunch and other 2011 Holiday Highlights

2011-12-26T20:12:00.001-06:00

Christmas is all packed away at my house, thanks to my husband cracking the whip on me this afternoon to get it all done. No, not really a whip. He just started cleaning up while I was sitting around on my lazy behind, which always cues the guilt trip and spurs a cleaning spree. So I hopped up and helped him and magically all the decorations made it to the attic and the trash outside. We had such a great weekend but I'm glad that the cleaning up part is done!

As usual, we opened gifts in three different places, starting with brunch at my inlaws house on the day before Christmas where we ate bread wrapped in some bread with a side of bread.

Andplusalso some French Toast. Paula Deen's Overnight French Toast Casserole, to be exact. I forgot to make the praline topping but we did have some maple syrup. I substituted Pepperidge Farms Cinnamon Swirl bread for french bread. It was GOOD.

And bready.

Even the sausage was rolled in bread. These cream cheese sausage pinwheels were so easy to make, and pretty, too!

Here is the recipe for these, but there are a lot of variations on pinterest.

Sausage and Cream Cheese Pinwheels
1 lb sausage, cooked and drained
1 block cream cheese, softened
2 cans crescent rolls

Unroll crescent rolls into a big rectangle onto parchment paper. Pinch at all edges so they stay together. Make another rectangle of dough with 2nd can of crescents. Lie them flat in the freezer while you cook the sausage and drain. Mix sausage with softened cream cheese. Spread mixture over chilled crescent rolls rectangles. Roll each rectangle into a log shape. Cut the logs with a serrated knife into 1/2" slices and lie pinwheels flat on baking sheet to cook. Note: If the logs don't cut easily, you can chill in the freezer again until they are easier to cut.

Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes until golden brown.

Variations: Add a can of drained Rotel for some extra spiciness.

After brunch we let Garrett open his gifts from Nonny and PopPop.

He was so excited for his gifts he ran around giving out spontaneous hugs to everyone. Love it.

He got all sorts of new toys, including the most loved gift of them all--a coveted LeapPad Explorer.

One of my favorite parts of the weekend was taking our firepit down to the bottom of the driveway on Christmas Eve and roasting marshmallows while we waited for Santa to drive past on the firetruck. The neighbors all came over to say hello and even roasted a few with us. Garrett LOVED seeing ~~the 16 year old girl dressed as~~ Santa on top of the firetruck with all the sirens wailing.

The next morning he actually slept kind of late (8:00!) and we got up to watch him open more gifts at our house. He was so happy to see all his presents under the tree.

Then he got down to business and Mr. Concentration Face came out as he unwrapped his presents.

He got his top two gifts, a box of Wuggle Pets....

... and a jump rope!

Here is his first attempt at jumping rope. I think he gets his athletic ability from me. Bless his heart.

After the gift opening thrill wore off this is where he sat in a LeapPad trance until we were ready to head down to J's Granny's house.

He was so entranced that he even let me sneak up behind him and take pics over his shoulder without shying away.

And once we got to Granny's house it entranced her too. That LeapPad is like magic! Thank you, inlaws!

Finally I broke the spell by having an impromptu dance party with J's Uncle Leslie and Garrett. We had SO much fun singing Christmas songs all loud and offkey and taking turns dancing with Leslie. It was a really great, memorable day.

We wrapped things up with our favorite holiday tradition-- the infamous posing for the most horrifying family photo of the year. Here is our best shot this year! This might just be the best one EVAH.

I hope that you all had a wonderful time this Christmas holiday. If you were able to get nice civilized poses of yourselves with your preschoolers, please share them! And consider yourself lucky. And I am totally jealous. But Merry Christmas anyway! Hope y'all had as great of a weekend as we did!

I'm looking forward to an exciting and HAPPY 2012!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas and a Poopy New Year

2011-12-22T18:07:00.002-06:00

In case you aren't on my Christmas card list, here is the beautiful card that my incredible friend Allison at VAMH designed for me this year. Thanks SO much Allison! I love it.

So, is everyone ready for the big day? Shopping done? Gifts wrapped? Gigantic toys ~~cussed~~ assembled?

I hope that Santa delivers everything that you've ever wanted underneath your tree. Garrett's wish list this year includes a jump rope, a Wuggle Pet, and a baby. :blink

Two outta three ain't bad, kid.

Although I am questioning our parenting skills for handing our three year old a length of rope to play with so it might just be a Wuggle Pet after the initial unwrapping surprise.

My wish list this year included a new point and shoot camera and a nicer tripod for my big camera. I know for a fact that I've gotten both of those. There also might have been a little pleading with a certain little boy to bring me some poop in the potty.

AND GUESS WHAT?? After a nice big Miralax cocktail yesterday I finally got that too!

Don't you love how I turned this warm and fuzzy Christmas post into something poop related? Sorry about that. But you should really be thankful for all the TMI-ness that I HAVEN'T shared with you guys lately. Transitioning from an oversharing mommy blogger to a semi-proper design blogger I find that I have to bite my tongue at times and remember that not everyone reading this wants to commiserate with me about potty training. Yes, be very, very thankful. As my gift to you, that's all I'll say about that.

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas from my home to yours!

I Make Them Good Wreaths Go Bad

2011-12-21T18:03:00.000-06:00

Y'all know that song, right? My grammar isn't really that bad in case you don't.

So, do you ever think you have a great craft project idea but then completely fail in the execution?

Back when I was on my wreath-making kick I tried to jazz up an old hydrangea wreath that's been sitting in a box in my garage ever since we moved. The wreath used to hang on my staircase at the old house.

I haven't gotten it out of the box yet since I'm not using much burgundy in the new house. Plus, the weight of the blooms has flattened out the bottom of the wreath, so it's gotten all wonky and weird looking. I thought it would be perfect to use at Christmas, though. I had grand plans to attach the cotton bolls that I gathered in October, along with some reindeer moss and a few glass ornaments. As I was making the wreath I was patting myself on the back for all my creativity.

I was all "Red hydrangea wreath? Good. Snowy white cotton bolls? Good. Green reindeer moss and greenery? Gooooooood. Lookat me being all Martha Stewartish. This project is gonna turn out AWESOME. Reindeer moss? What a great pun for my Christmas wreath."

But then I stepped back from my creation and took in the whole picture....

And I absolutely hated it! It looks like a kindergartener's Santa Claus project with cotton balls and Elmer's glue.

My husband said it looked like a soggy Fruit Loop that's been sitting out and growing mold. He also made a few other comments that probably aren't appropriate here on the old blog.

So... the wreath has been banished back to the garage for now.

I had good intentions, really I did.

But yeah. No.

A Christmas Cookie Swap Party and Holiday Home Tour Wrap up

2011-12-15T23:00:00.000-06:00

I hosted a Cookie Swap Party at my house this past weekend. I've always wanted to host a Cookie Swap, so this year I finally pulled the trigger and made it happen. I am still coming down off that sugar high. Thanks to facebook I got to meet all sorts of brand new friends and see a few really old friends, too. I loved talking to everyone so much that I totally didn't get a single photo of the people or the cookies. I've decided that I truly miss hosting parties. We used to always be the party house, but once I got pregnant I stopped hosting because I was too tired to deal with the things partying involves. After this last party, though, I realized that I need that real life interaction with people. The extrovert in me craves it. So, I'm making myself a promise to have more parties and get togethers at home in 2012. Y'all are all invited over to sit around my house and hang out! Just be sure to let me know when you're coming so I can hide my unmentionables, mmkay?

Even though I didn't get a single photo during the party, I did manage to snap a few shots of the table setups so I wanted to share them here. I moved my blue desk in front of my mantel to serve a few non-cookie appetizers.

There was a lot of cheese. And grapes. And sausage balls. And a few veggies. I tried to find things that would be salty to cut all that sweetness.

Over on the coffee table I had some popcorn and other snacky stuff.

Drinks were on the butlers pantry- I made this recipe for Crockpot Hot Chocolate (yummmm) and bought some hot spiced apple cider for another crockpot. We also had coffee and water.

The dining room table was left open for everyone to put their cookie trays on when they arrived. To get more cookies on my smallish table I added this board on top of upside down flower pots.

The board is actually a big wooden sign I stole from Garrett's bedroom and turned upside down. I used placemats to cover up the metal hangers. Nobody was the wiser.

I had one more folding table set up in the living room for more trays of cookies when they arrived. I'm glad we added this extra one because we filled both tables up with trays of cookies during the party.

I kept the decorating easy with some candy canes and tealights hung on a little Christmas tree and some stockings hung from the staircase with care. That is the extent of my decorating for this party, though. Very simple and easy! That's the name of the game this year.

Now, in all the Christmas posts this season I can't believe I haven't shown y'all where I put the wooden Christmas plaques this year! Even after the big giveaway I still forgot! So, let me throw those pictures in here while I'm at it. The little wooden plaques are sitting on the blue dresser in my living room.

I put a bunch of ornaments inside the birch log planter that I found at the Country Living Fair in Atlanta in October. On top of that went a wooden log slice, then I put out the bobble head Christmas trees.

I hope that the winners of my wooden Christmas plaques are enjoying their signs this year as much as I'm loving mine!

They look happy with the shaved wooden wreath on my tin wall tile.

I'm trying to participate in all the holiday link parties out there in the blog world, so I'm going to make this a multi-purpose post by linking up all of my previous Christmas decor posts here in one spot. Hopefully it isn't too confusing.

To see my Classy & Trashy Christmas Trees, click here.

And here is my glowing tree post this year.

To check out my 2011 Christmas mantel, click on over here.

If you'd like to see my blue kitchen tablescape, follow this link.

Over in this post I showed off my front porch decor and how I tranformed old fake wreaths into new updated wreaths with a few evergreen sprigs.

And I got my craft on in this post by showing off my DIY Scrap Wood Christmas tree.

There you go. All my holiday posts right here under one roof.

We are an anti-elf family around these parts (Bah, humbug) (and by the way, this post about overachieving elf mommies is friggin HILARIOUS). So, instead of me making messes and moving the elf around in the middle of the night we just have the old Avon Advent Mouse that Garrett moves from one pouch to the next every day.

Besides, who needs a sneaky little Elf on a Shelf when we have our own life sized version right here?

Besides, ours is much much cuter.

Happy Holidays, everybody!

Sharing at Funky Junk Donna's Link Party

Classy and Trashy Christmas Trees

2011-12-14T23:04:00.000-06:00

So, y'all have heard of a Classy/Trashy Tree, right? This is a term that I keep hearing about from my friends out there in the blogworld, so I'm joining in this year. I've got my classy tree set up downstairs in the sun room.

Here it is at night, which you might have already seen over in my Chistmas tree photography post.

I used another new night time technique to get sparkling photo of my tree this year. It resulted in a starburst effect on every light. Very cool. I cranked the shutter speed down as loooooow as it would go, set the ISO at 100 and the aperture at f/9 so it would all be in focus. Then I set up the tripod, set the camera on the self timer mode so my shaky finger wouldn't cause a blur, hit the button and stood back and waited for the result. It took a loooong time for the photo to snap, but when it did the result was a starburst pattern on every bulb. Thanks to pinterest for leading me to It Works For Bobbi Blog. It's a great effect on a tree, don't you think?

So now that you've seen the classy tree, let's move upstairs to the trashy tree. This crazy kid is sitting on my balcony. I scored this tree on sale at Old Time Pottery's Black Friday sale for $39.99! Can't get much cheaper than that for a six foot tree.

And I even got this crazy kid to sit in front of it for another photo op! Appropriate that he was wearing his Animal shirt for this pic.

This is where I put all of my kissing fish and other funky fun Christmas ornaments. I have this ginormous collection of Katherine's kissing fish that I've purchased or been gifted since 1999. I'm hovering around the 40ish mark on kissing fish, I believe. It was time for the fish to get their own place.

I even have a pink flamingo on the trashy tree. And of course, no trashy tree is complete with a set of silver bullet trailer string lights.

I like my trees just a little on the trashy side.

So there you go, my classy / trashy tree pics!

Linking up to these great parties:
Thrifty Decor Chick Christmas Tree Party

Showing my Glow, 2011 style

2011-12-12T15:10:00.002-06:00

A Christmas Miracle happened on Friday night. I've been trying to get a good shot of Garrett in front of the Christmas tree since the day after Thanksgiving when we decorated. Every time I try, he runs around and acts like a crazy man and I wind up with blurry hot messes for photos.

But then... on Friday night, you'll never believe what happened.

My son asked me to take his picture in front of the tree.

Unprompted. Without any warning. Out of the blue clear sky.

He just said, "Take my picture in front of the tree, mom!" and you've never seen a big girl scurry around gathering up camera cards and lenses so fast. Without a word my husband followed my cue and ran to turn off the all the lights in the house. And just like that, I finally was able to take some night time shots of him in front of the Christmas tree.

He did so great, and let me snap snap snap all sorts of pictures of him beside the tree. I was so happy to be getting these impromptu shots that I didn't even care that his hand was covered in blue paint from preschool. At least he was not wearing a graphic Disney t-shirt this year!

Then he tried to eat one of my Smores ornaments.

And when I yelped he gave it a kiss instead.

Silly sweet boy.

I even tried to recreate the infamous glowing Christmas tree pinterest picture from last year. Even with the exact same lens and settings from last year this year's image came out a lot different. The only difference is a newer, fancier camera. What a difference it makes. Much better, I think! Not so grainy and blown out and blurry.

For a reference, here is a side by side of 2010 and 2011 tree pictures:

Yeah.

That's a pretty significant difference, right? Like I said, exact same settings, exact same 1.8 50mm lens. Exact same number of lights on the Christmas tree. The ONLY difference is that the 2010 photo was taken with a Canon T1i and the 2011 photo was taken with a Canon 60D.

For the tutorial on how to create photos like this for yourself, ClICK HERE.

To all those professional photographers out there who get offended when people ask you what type camera you own let me say this-- "PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTT."

There is no doubt that taking a good photo involves skill and practice and talent. HOWEVER. From what I've seen as my photography hobby has progressed over the past year, a nice expensive camera sure doesn't hurt matters. There is a marked difference between the amount of editing I feel that I need to do now than I did when I was using my T1i. My pictures are all SO much brighter, and nailing the exposure is not nearly as hard. I was talking with my friend Lucy of LucyInspired about this just yesterday. She downgraded cameras to save some money after her nice Nikon got stolen, and has struggled with picture quality ever since. I knew I wanted to upgrade the day I used my dad's T3i. I took the same photo with the same settings and could tell a remarkable difference in the brightness of the pictures instantly on the LCD screen playbacks!

If you are struggling with dark photos from your camera and you are getting discouraged because your pictures don't turn out like professional photographer's pictures don't beat yourself up and give up on photography. Different cameras produce different images. The better the camera, the better the quality of photo. I'm not saying this to make you feel bad about your camera, either! I just feel the need to throw it out there because I feel like it needed to be said. I'm sure if I went out and bought the most expensive camera Canon makes I would tell an even bigger difference in SOOC image quality. It should also be said that investing in a good quality lens will make a huge difference in your pictures, too. I have noticed that I can't seem to get a good sharp focus on my stock lens that came with the camera. No matter how hard I try they are all a little bit fuzzy. But when I put the Tamron 2.8 28-75mm lens on my camera and hold really still, the focus is incredible. Now I just need to work on my shaky hands. I have the worst problem getting good focus on photos that I take by hand.

So, there's my camera ~~rant~~ tips for this holiday season. :) Again, Disclaimer: I'm NOT a professional photography. Just an average mamarazzi who likes to get good pics of my kid.

And, as a mamarazzi side note... Will you LOOK at how much taller Garrett is beside the tree this year?!?? He's growing up so fast! :sob Somebody hold me.

I'm linking this post up to these fabulous parties:

Blogging Around the Christmas Tree at Five Days Five Ways
Christmas Tree Link Party at Thrifty Decor Chick
The Inspired Room Christmas Home Tours

DIY Painted Staircase Before and After

2011-12-10T14:01:00.001-06:00

I promised to share my DIY painted staircase during the big finished basement reveal post, so here is a sneak peak at the finished result.

For the complete story and the full reveal, go visit The DIY Showoff today!

DIY Scrap Wood Christmas Tree Tutorial

2011-12-06T11:25:00.001-06:00

When we bought the cabinetry for the basement, we discovered a little bonus prize inside one of the base cabinets. There were stacks of wood samples painted and stained in a variety of colors in these sturdy organizer trays.

I called the cabinet shop and asked if they'd like for me to return them, and he said no. And I said "Score!" I knew immediately what I wanted to make from these pretty little wood chips.

And here it is!

I've been eyeing similar salvaged lumber & beadboard Christmas trees for a long time now, but never purchased one before. I love the ones made from barn wood the best, but since I don't have any old barns near me that are at my disposal, I made do with new stuff. It didn't take long to make this guy at all, so I'm glad I waited.

First I laid out the wood pieces in a semi-Christmas tree shape and played around with which wood stains and colors looked best in the tree. Then I realized that it would look a lot better if some of the pieces were cut in half to fill out the shape a little better. So my husband started sawing a few in half with his table saw.

Once I got a pattern that I liked, we flipped all the pieces over and glued them together with strips of old trim board that the previous owners generously left in our basement.

Each row got a backer strip, and then one big one running vertically glued them all together.

We used construction adhesive from a caulk gun to seal the deal.

Then we just let it sit and dry for about 24 hours, and it was ready to hang. I simply wound a length of twine through the back loops a few times to make a hanger for it. Pretty simple. Then I hung it from a clear wreath hanger on the door to nowhere at the top of the steps.

I'm really happy with the way it turned out. I think I might experiment with sanding and distressing some of the wood samples and see what I can come up with next! I love it when a DIY project saves me money and still looks great.

Have you guys been crafty this Christmas?

I'm sharing this project at the following link parties:

Home Stories of A2Z Tips and Tutes
Centsational Girl Christmas Crafts
Tatertots and Jello Handmade Christmas Gifts
Pity Party 67 at Thirty Handmade Days

I'll Have a Blue Christmas

2011-12-05T12:09:00.001-06:00

I seem to be having a blue Christmas this year. My table setting is no exception. A blue berry wreath and blue napkins and placemats really stand out against the dark wood of my kitchen table. I've had this wreath for years. Typically this wreath goes on my front door for springtime, but it got pulled out a little bit early (or late?) this year.

The wreath came from the pre-incarceration Martha Stewart collection at K-mart. Does that tell you how old it is? Is Martha Stewart stuff even AT K-mart anymore? Is K-Mart even at K-mart anymore? All of the ones around me have gone out of business. Man, I miss K-mart.

Every bit of my table setting (down to the napkin ring) came from Pier One many years ago. I used to be a bit obsessed with P1 stuff. Since I don't have any Spode-iopiedopalicious Christmas china I'll just stick with my old standby. Go on and marinate on that for a minute. Outkast, anyone?

The centerpiece is simple- take a wreath, lay it flat in center of table, stack a plate on top, arrange some lanterns in a circle around a little vase, toss on some Christmas ornaments and reindeer moss, call it a day.

I'm in a K.I.S.S. kinda of mood with my decorating this year.

I also seem to have an obsession for wreaths. I'm using them EVERYWHERE right now.

I even put tiny wreaths inside my bigger wreaths.

And hey look! There's some red berries! I guess I do have a little bit of tradition left in me this year after all.

The Inspired Room Christmas Home Tours

The Finished Basement Revealed!

2011-12-04T19:32:00.001-06:00

Six months after it started, the basement remodeling project is DONE! We've added a little mancave area down there with an arcade and a theater room. Who wants to come watch some movies with us? There's even surround sound now!

See?

Ah, I'm getting way ahead of myself. I'll get to that in just a minute. First let me say that we are beyond excited to have it completed and move-in ready! My husband has put in a ton of work down there that has really has saved us a lot of money. I'm so thankful to have a handy husband who is really great at using a hammer and a saw. We are also SO thankful to my father-in-law for all of the crazy amount of hours he's helped with framing and putting up cabinets. We owe him big time. Also a big thank you to my coworker, Shannon and his friend for helping out with some of the wiring work. We have some very generous and helpful family and friends. Thank you all SO much. We really appreciate your help.

So, come on downstairs and let me show you the new basement!

When you headed down the stairs before, this is what you saw:

And here is the view when you come down the stairs now!

I do need to say that you're only getting a sneak peek at the remodeled staircase because I'm guest blogging at The DIY Showoff this week. The full painted staircase reveal will be posted over there so please go check out Roeshel's blog on Saturday, December 10th to see the staircase along with the new board and batten reveal. For now you just get the view from the top because I'm a tease like that. I will be adding more staircase pics after Roeshel's entry posts. Trust me, the view from the bottom looking up is filled with a whole bunch of awesome.

You're gonna wanna see it.

I guess it's wrong to say that the basement is completely finished because obviously the counter tops haven't been installed yet. We are debating between going out all out and getting granite to match the kitchen upstairs or saving some money and doing laminate counter tops from Home Depot. We'll see what happens with that. I'll let you know!

The cabinetry was purchased from my friends at Brewer Cabinets. We got SUCH a steal on them because they were an old display unit from a discontinued brand. They are so beautiful, and amazingly similar to my existing kitchen cabinets. In some ways they are even BETTER than my kitchen cabinets. Check out all this storage in the pantry piece. I love this!

I could not be more pleased with the way they look and the amount of extra storage they provide. Instead of building a closet for storage we decided the cabinets would be multifunctional - a serving spot for parties and a place to hide all the yards o' Solo cups that we buy from Costco. And maybe some board games as well.

J and his dad installed the cabinets all by themselves, so that also saved us some money. Here is what that area looked like before:

And now with the cabinets installed:

Here is the view looking to the left at the bottom of the staircase.

My painter Francisco and crew did SUCH a beautiful job with all the crown molding and trim details. J and his dad boxed out around the air conditioning ductwork in order to give us a much higher ceiling in this area. The tallest portion of the ceiling is ten feet high, and it drops down to 8.5 feet in other spots.

The main reason that we wanted a tall ceiling in this part of the room is because it's where the staircase comes down. Lowering the ceiling to 8.5 feet here would have made the staircase ceiling impossible to walk under. Since my 6'2" tall husband hates to bend over while walking down stairs and/or bang his head, we kept it high throughout this whole area.

In the spot where the two areas meet, the trim crew worked some magic to make them flow seamlessly. The beige color is Sherwin Williams Latte and the terra cotta color is what I like to call "J's shirt". He literally took one of his pullover shirts into Sherwin Williams and had them match it up in a paint color. Let me know if you'd like the numbers from the can. The trim paint is SW Moderate White.

This is the view looking toward the bathroom where the arcade machines will go. I cannot wait to sit in here and play some Donkey Kong and Ms. Pacman with Garrett.

For reference, here is that area before the wall was constructed:

What a difference! J came up with this idea to work around the hot water heater pipes that are right behind this wall. He added a cabinet door in the wall as an access panel to get to the hot water heater shut off valve.

If for some reason we ever need to get to the pipes, just open the door and there it is!

Pretty cool, huh? I think so.

The flooring that we used throughout is LG Hausys Deco Wood in Distressed Beauty (DAW2741). This stuff is a glue-down luxury vinyl tile that looks like real wood. You'd honestly never know it was VCT by looking at it. You'd probably know it was FAKE, but you wouldn't know it was VCT. When I think VCT I think school cafeteria and nursing home. Blech.

I've never mentioned this on my blog before, but at my full time job (as opposed to my little blogging hobby) I design and sell commercial buildings. This is commercial grade high traffic flooring leftover from a job that we did earlier this year. The advantage of this flooring in a basement is its resistance to moisture. This stuff should be able to withstand a little dampness, unlike laminate flooring that can warp if it gets wet. It's also a glue-down plank material that can easily be repaired by popping up the damaged plank and gluing down a new one. This was another part of the project that we happily paid someone else to do. Being on his knees on a hard concrete floor wasn't J's idea of a good time. Here is the flooring guy with the glue applied to the concrete floor and the first few pieces being lined up straight. Once he got the first few pieces in straight, the rest of the floor went in easily.

Now let's move on over and check out the bathroom. Here is the bathroom before:

And here it is now:

It looks a million times cleaner with the new flooring. And, well, it really IS a lot cleaner than it was the last time I took a picture of it. That before picture is gross.

Hello, peeps!

J traded out the cabinet knobs for some oil rubbed bronze ones and wow, what a difference it made!

He also added a new light fixture above the mirror and a matching towel holder on the wall. And yes, I realize I need to clean the mirror.

Adding a DIY mirror frame was a great touch for not a lot of money.

For about $25 and some paint he added this beautiful molding around the existing cheap mirror to make it look like a custom mirror. He just painted the trim, measured the mirror and mitered the trim at the corners to fit, then glued it directly onto the mirror with construction adhesive.

This DIY project along with new paint, flooring and some oil rubbed bronze stuff -really transformed the look of the room.

Allright. Last but certainly not least, let's check out what will be the theater room of the basement remodel. This is the scary mirrored room that gave me nightmares before.

And here it is AFTER!!

Can you believe the difference??

It is really hard for me to believe that we have transformed this monstrosity of a room:

Into something so spectacular! I just want to whoop and holler! Isn't it just awesome??

Here is another larger picture of the flooring. I love it.

But my favorite part in this room is the ceiling!

When I described to Fransisco what I wanted for the trim he looked at me like I was a 'lilbit loco en la cabeza, but when he finished the project he really agreed the ceilings were a knockout. He took a standard piece of crown molding and affixed it to the wall about 9" below ceiling height. Then he took another skinny trim piece and nailed it to the ceiling about 16" from the wall. Then he simply painted the trim and inside areas white, and the ceiling and walls dark blue. Then J came in behind him and added rope lighting above the crown to light it up. He put the rope lighting on a dimmer switch so when you're watching a movie you can still have an ambient glow that's not messing up the movie theatre mood.

So simple, but so stunning. I have to admit that I stole this idea from a photo I saw on Pinterest. Here is the photo that inspired this whole room:

via Pinterest by SH Interiors from Houzz

Ahhhh, Beloved Pinterest. I love you so.

J wired the surround sound system that I bought for him last Christmas directly into the ceiling. No more wires hanging down the wall! YAY!

Other little touches, like a new switchplate cover and spraypainted dimmer knobs help the necessary parts of a room not standout so much. White switchplate covers will be covered by furniture so they didn't matter too much, but we agreed the light switch, can lights and ceiling fan all needed to be dark. He spraypainted everything but the ceiling fan with our trusty old can of oil rubbed bronze spraypaint.

I'm just truly beyond excited that this basement has been remodeled into a home theater that is not only beautiful, but fun and functional all at the same time. Since there is no natural light down here, we wanted to go with medium toned bold colors that wouldn't be took dark or fall flat in the dimly lit room. I believe we really got it right this time.

Besides, the Auburn fan in me is extremely happy with the paint choice. What better colors to put on the walls of a man cave than orange and blue? I can't think of any at all. :)

Hope you guys enjoyed the big reveal! I can't wait to see it with all the furniture moved in and the smell of popcorn floating up from the floor joists. It's movie time, y'all! What movie should we show first?

If you'd like to see all the basement progress from start to finish, click here.

Help me help you!

2011-12-02T23:28:00.001-06:00

Lately I've been getting so many great comments and questions on my blog, and I really would love to answer them all personally but I'm having noreply-comment@blogger.com woes. I know if I post a comment on a blog I usually forget to go back and check for a followup reply, so I appreciate when a blogger replies back to me via email directly. I'd LOVE to be able to answer your questions via email, but time and time again I hit "send" on a reply only to realize that I've just sent an email out into Neverneverland because the email address is "noreply-comment@blogger.com". And then I say, "Well, booger." This has happened time and time again lately and I'm beginning to think it's the default setting in Blogger or something.

I'm sure that a lot of folks prefer being anonymous on the internet, and that is totally understandable. But I have to think that a lot of you just might not realize that you have your settings this way and simply need to change them in order to get more responses to your blog comments. It's simple to do, and really helps me to interact with you guys better.

Here is how you change your no-reply commenter setting in the new blogger interface.

On your dashboard, you'll see your smiling face in the top right hand corner of the screen. Beside your face is an arrow pointing down indicating a drop down menu is approaching. Click it and you'll see this:

Then click "Blogger Profile".

This might confuse you (because it confused me!) but a NEW WINDOW will open and show your old blogger profile, like this:

Over on the left click Edit Profile, and make sure the box that says "Show My Email Address" is checked.

Then simply scroll down to the very bottom of the page (it's a long way... keep scrolling)and hit "Save Profile".

And that's it. You're no longer a noreply-commenter! Very simple, and you might just notice that you get more feedback from your blog comments now.

Whew, thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

Christmas Mantel 2011: Rustic and weathered

2011-12-01T14:22:00.001-06:00

Guess who else is jumping on the rustic Christmas decor bandwagon? Bring on the burlap, baby! I tried to pull out all the old red and green stuff this year. I truly did. I stripped my mantel barenekkid and started adding red things to it, but the more I added, the uglier it got, so I took it all down and put my blue stuff back up along with a few other pieces to really weather it out. So here is where I landed-- somewhere between Pottery Barn and Country Living with a twist of Vermont.

I don't know why that picture above has such a yellow cast to it that I can't seem to photochop out. Here is a better shot of the actual wall color (but I like the fact that my Christmas tree is showing in the pic above so I'm using it anyway!) Wouldn't you know the shot with the best composition has the worst exposure. Eh well.

I'm glad that I put away the red this year, because this mantel makes me extremely happy. It makes me wish we would get three feet of snow and Christmas carolers a-knocking on the door. But considering where I live, I doubt either of those will ever happen.

Lemme break down this mantel decor for you really quick:

In the middle is the light blue wood and wrought iron piece that I got from Hobby Lobby last year. I used a piece of grey wood paneling leftover from our old lake cabin remodeling project as another layer to hang the boxwood wreath. I never thought this grey paneling would come in handy again, but here it is. Sometimes it pays to be a hoarder. Actually it was being used as a backerboard for one of J's window shadowboxes so it still has some velcro stuck on it around the edges. I'm not too concerned about it. Even though it's as fake as can be, in this small of a dose I think it gives the illusion of being a few old pieces of barnwood.

Layered over that is a DIY Boxwood wreath made from the square thing that holds the garbage bags in the outdoor trash can. No joke!

See?

I just followed the same pattern as all my other DIY evergreen wreaths and wired bundles of boxwoods around it like this:

And once it was all together I gave it a big haircut to give it more of a square shape then added two pieces of burlap and a star hanging in the middle. Very very simple. To dress it up a little I hung a Blair Witch Project type bundle of sticks adorned with a copper reindeer ornament and two jingle bells from last year's Polar Express ride.

In front of it all I stacked two fake birch bark candle holders with tealights inside. `

And on either side are my two pretty little silver compliment jars bought from Rhoda's Biltmore Inspiration's Party. I love these!

On the right are more fake birch bark candles recycled from last year's mantel. Then I found these two double circle thingies (official term) that reminded me of french wire snowmen.

I realize snowmen have three circles, so I guess these are more like decapitated snowmen thingies. Or, one legged stick figures? Anyway, I liked their shape, so I stuck them up there to round things out. I'm thinking I'll put my Christmas cards into the wire part when they start rolling in. Underneath are two fake boxwood topiaries that usually live in my dining room. Mixing fake plants with real plants is one of the simplest ways to trick people into believing you used all real stuff. Hopefully.

On the left is the Alabama Estate Sale blue lantern with the dirt knocked off of it. It's such a pretty blue once I cleaned it up!

So there you go. That's pretty much it. Oh, and underneath it all I stuck the DIY Ruffled burlap garland that I made for my fall mantel.

I hung the two Leland cypress wreaths I made over the weekend on the two doors on either side of the fireplace. For a second I thought about decorating them with something, but then I decided I liked them just as they are. Hang loose, Leland.

And I dumped some gold glittery ornaments in a basket along with some white lights for a little extra glow on the hearth.

And there you have it. My 2011 Christmas mantel all finished. Can't wait to see all the other pretty mantels out there on the link parties this year. Merry Christmas y'all!

Linking up at these great parties!
Southern Hospitality's Christmas Mantel Party
Home Stories of A to Z Christmas Mantel Party
Centsational Girls Holiday Craft Link Party
The Inspired Room Christmas Home Tours

Show your Glow: A Christmas Tree Link Party

2011-11-28T16:23:00.001-06:00

Last night I discovered that my glowing Christmas tree picture was recently featured on the blog over at Fossil.com. You know Fossil? Like the watch people? Yeah, they used my picture. Unbelievable! Thanks Fossil! This picture is the Energizer bunny of Christmas tree photos.

Since the popularity of Garrett under the glowing Christmas tree just keeps growing on pinterest, I keep wondering how many of you have actually followed through with trying out the tips I shared on taking a glowing Christmas tree this year. Then I thought to myself "You'll never know unless you ask!"

So I wanna know-- have you tried snapping a shot of your kid/pet/spouse/random body part in front of your glowing tree yet? How did it turn out? Do you mind sharing your pictures with us? We'd love to see them!

I've decided to host an impromptu link party for all you to show off your treasured Christmas tree photos this year. Please join in the fun!

Link them up here and show off just how Griswoldy your tree can be! If you know someone who pinned this photo, invite them to come over and share their tree pictures with us. I know I'll never be able to get in touch with all 40,000 folks who pinned this sucker, but maybe if YOU pin this link party they'll hear about it and wanna come show off their mad glowy skillz, too.

If you don't know what the heck I'm talking about, go see this post about how to take good glowing Christmas tree photos, then see this post about the power of Pinterest. Then come back here and link up! :)

I'll keep it open until after the holidays in case you need some time to get it posted. I can't wait to see 'em!

And if you don't mind, please add this button to your blog so others can join in the fun, too!

Making My Own Semi-Natural Evergreen Wreaths

2011-11-26T17:47:00.001-06:00

Well... Thanksgiving, Black Friday and the Iron Bowl 2011 are all said and done. Can you believe that? Where has the time gone?

We had a great time with the family on Thanksgiving Day. I spent Black Friday shopping from my sofa and avoiding the biters at Walmart. I did venture out late in the afternoon to go to two stores. I definitely did my share of economy stimulating. We also started pulling out the Christmas decorations. I've got the tree(s) up, and today I started working on making homemade wreaths with evergreen branches from my yard. For years I have been telling myself I was going to make my own wreaths, but I've never gotten around to it. So last night I watched some Youtube tutorials and this morning I started hunting and gathering around my property to get enough material to whip up some fresh wreaths. Turns out they are super easy to make, AND my hedges got trimmed as a bonus!

I started out with simple wire wreath forms and a whole bunch of clippings off of the backside of my Leland Cypress tree.

To hide the wires on the wreath form I covered them with a length of fake garland. I wasn't sure if this step was necessary but I did it anyway before I started just in case.

You could stop here if you're into the Charlie Brown Christmas tree look. I decided to keep going. I bundled up a handful of the cypress and wrapped floral wire around the stems to hold them together.

And just repeated that process over and over until I had about 6-7 bunches.

Then I layered the bunches around the wreath on top of one another until it looked semi-circular. I wrapped each bundle with a long continuous length of floral wire to secure them to the form.

And here is the finished product!

You might notice there is twine tied around it in some parts. I gathered up the scraggly branches and forced them into submission with a few pieces of jute rope.

I will go back later and cover those up with some kind of embellishment. I haven't gotten that far yet with my details because I was too busy moving onto other wreaths! Since I only bought two wreath forms, I started looking all around my house for other things to cover in greenery. I have a ton of these fake fir wreaths in my attic that I've accumulated over the years.

They are pretty just as they are, but I'm kind of tired of the whole green wreath/ red bow predictable thing that I've repeated for the past five years. I have gotten into a rut of pulling these straight from the attic and slapping them onto the windows and calling it done. Plus they are so prim and proper looking, and I'm just not in a prim and proper kind of decorating mood right now. I want something sloppy and wild and organic looking so this year I decided to froof one of them up just a lil bit.

And here you go! This is what I came up with. Pretty wild and sloppy, huh?

I started out by adding big bundles of loropetalum clippings (the purple stuff). In between those I stuck bundles of fragrant tea olive branches (the green stuff that looks like olive branches). Those things smell delicious! Then on top of the inner circle I added three long bunches of Arizona Blue Cypress from the trees lining my driveway.

As a side note: I had no idea what types of evergreen trees were growing in my yard. Thanks to the Grumpy Gardener for IDing them for me on his facebook page. I topped it off with some blue and brown damask ribbon and a little burlap bow that I made from scratch and wired onto the wreath.

This sucker is HEAVY now. I hope my suction cup holds up! Not to mention my storm door. It's so big and lush and full that I can barely open the door. I absolutely love it.

It's been transformed from the original, for sure. It also makes my El Cheapo prelit garland that my husband kindly hung above the door for me look pretty chintzy now. I guess I need to get to adding more evergreens on top of it next!

Here is the whole porch. No, I didn't sweep off the leaves.

Check out these cute red and green polka dotted gift boxes I found on sale at Old Time Pottery on Black Friday. They are made from jute, so they are weatherproof...and they light up at night!

I'll be sure to show you guys the rest of the wreaths I made sometime soon, but here is a quick before and after shot of how I transformed the fake frasier fir wreath into something with a lot more impact.

So, there you have it. My foray into semi-evergreen wreath making. My fingers got pricked and my forearms are burning from all the scratches, but my windows and doors are going to look better and sloppier than ever!

I'm sharing this post at these places around the blogworld:
Made By You Monday at Skip To My Lou
Metamorphosis Monday at BNOTP
Home Stories of A to Z
Best DIY Projects of November at Beneath My Heart
Centsational Girls Holiday Craft Link Party
Biblical Homemaking Wreath Party
The Inspired Room Christmas Home Tours

Quick and easy way to watermark your blog pictures in photoshop

2011-11-23T11:23:00.001-06:00

A few weeks back I promised that I'd show y'all how to create a watermark for your blog photos. The awesome Lori Gordon of Shooting Star Photography showed me how to do this during my last Click Workshop. I've always assumed putting a watermark on my photos was some complicated process that required lots of time consuming layers in Photoshop.

I was wrong.

Once you set up the watermark it's as easy as stamping it onto your photos with one click of a button. Let me show you how! The first thing you'll need to do is decide what you want your watermark to be. It could be something as simple as text with your blog name, or it could be an image like your blog header to give your pictures a "brand". If you have a logo designed for your blog, you could use that as well. You decide.

To keep things simple let me demonstrate how to use your blog header image as your watermark. Simply right click on the header image and click "Save Image As"

Save it to your desktop so you can find it quickly and easily.

Then open your image in Photoshop. This same trick works in PS Elements or full blown Photoshop. I've tried it both ways.After it's opened in PS I want to take out all the swirly stuff around the edges, so I used the crop tool to grab just the name of the blog only.

Here is what it looks like when it's cropped:

Then click Edit --> Define Brush Preset

And this box will pop up. Hit OK.

Congrats! You've just created your watermark! How friggin easy was that?

The steps above were a one-time process. Now that your watermark is set up you won't have to go through all those steps again until you're ready to change your watermark, in which case you'll simply start over from the top. From this point forward, you'll simply need to follow these steps to put your logo onto each photo on your blog:

Start by opening the image you want to watermark in Photoshop and click on the Brush Tool in the Tools Palette.

Next click the brush picker dropdown to change your brush type. Scroll all the way down to the bottom of your brushes, and you should see a dark image that resembles a squished up version of your watermark.

Choose it as your brush.

Now you'll have to adjust the size of your brush so your watermark is the size you'd like for it to be on your image. Some people prefer larger, some prefer smaller. You decide what looks best for your image by sliding the master diameter slider around and seeing what it does to the size of the watermark.

Once you get it the size you prefer you can click on your image and see what your watermark looks like on the image. If you don't like it, simply CTRL-Z to undo the brushmark. Keep playing around with the color and the size until you are satisfied. And remember to change it you'll have to hit CTRL-Z to remove the brush mark that you made. If you make several marks you want to remove you might have to hit ALT-CTRL-Z to go backwards several steps. You can change the color of it by double clicking on the color picker in the tools palette. Then you can either choose the color you'd like manually, or move around the image with the eyedropper and suck up a color you'd like to copy. I like white since it's easy to read on a contrasting color but it's not obtrusive.

You can change the opacity of the watermark if you'd like it to be a bit lighter by sliding the opacity slider around.

And that's it! You can stamp your watermark on every single photo now just by choosing the preset brush, playing around with the size, color and opacity and clicking the photo. Remember that you're not holding and brushing it around like a paintbrush- just one click will do. If you'd like a darker watermark you can click several times in the same spot and it will paint the image over itself, resulting in a darker image. Just don't move the mouse around when you do this or it will smudge.

So, here is the end result:

And here is another I just made with a homemade copyright symbol and my blog name in a funky font called Too Much Paper from Kevin and Amanda's free font site.

Now I just need to figure out if I like a logo or words better. Hmm. Which do y'all prefer? After all that work I am actually leaning toward words. HA! Now do I need to a tutorial to show you how I got the words on there? Can you figure that one out on your own? If not let me know!

I hope this helps you guys like it helped me. I'm amazed that this process was so simple and easy. Let me know if you try it out, or if you have any questions.

A Merry Little Christmas Giveaway WINNERS!

2011-11-16T21:43:00.001-06:00

Allright, y'all.

Times up! The Merry Little Christmas giveaway has ended. I'm blown away by all the sweet comments I received for this thread. You people are so kind. I appreciate all the new facebook friends I gained, as well. I hope to keep you entertained enough to not get the old hover and hide maneuver pulled over on me the minute after you find out who won the contest. Ha!

To be clear, the first winner will receive this set of signs right here:

Let's get down to the fun part-- choosing the winners. I plugged all your comments into random.org, and here is what it spit back out at me:

Congrats to my 37th commenter Marla! Hey Marla, you didn't leave me a single way to get in touch with you. I hope you are reading this or catch it in your facebook feed so you can contact me to claim your prize! To be fair, in the past when I haven't had contact information for folks I held a redraw for the prize after three days. I'll give you a few days to read this, but then I'm going to have to draw again, ok? Sure hope you see it soon!

__________________________________________________________________________

Winner #2 will receive this sets of signs:

And the second winner of the second set of Christmas signs is #126-- Kayla of Breaking Free from Old Ways!

A big congrats to Kayla and Marla! I hope you enjoy these little cheerful wooden plaques in your homes this holiday season.

Please email me at bethcbryan@gmail.com to claim your prizes!

The Power of Pinterest

2011-11-14T01:44:00.001-06:00

Last year I posted a quick tutorial on how to take glowing pictures of your Christmas tree. Here is the photo that I showed off in that post:

This picture has BLOWN UP on pinterest lately. My in-real-life friends are commenting about how they've seen Garrett being repinned all over the place. It's amazing.

Ok, so I guess I should admit that the picture above is not the exact picture that I posted from last year. I edited it tonight in Lightroom after learning how to remove the overexposure and noise during another Click Workshop that I attended this weekend. Beforehand we were asked to submit photos to the class that we wanted to edit. And believe it or not, when the instructor got to mine he said, "Oh, you're famous! I've seen this photo everywhere lately!"

And cue me falling out on the floor.

No, not really. But it made me extremely happy that a prestigious professional photographer like Charlie Pappas would recognize MY picture! After class I asked him where he had seen it and he said it was all over Pinterest.

Well. Yes, yes it is.

This little picture that I snapped by the seat of my pants one night has gone completely viral on Pinterest in the past few months. And just when it seems to slow down for a minute and stop getting pinned so much, another big name blogger with a huge following will repin it and start the ball rolling again. It's like hitting the jackpot over and over in terms of blog hits! Earlier in the weekend I was working on some things on my blog and noticed that my stats were changing before my eyes. My sitemeter literally went from 300 views to 3,500 views in a little under an hour. When I clicked to see where they were coming from, it took me to Sherry @Young House Love's pinterest board. Cha-Ching! So THAT explains the increase in traffic in mere minutes!

Check out the stats on her pin alone as of today: 619 likes 8 comments 4064 repins

And that, friends, is the power of pinterest.

If you are a blogger and haven't joined pinterest yet, you really should! Good photos, ideas, tips and tutorials spread like wildfire around that place, which in turn brings more traffic back to your blog. Talk about free advertising. If you scroll down through my Christmas sign giveaway, notice how many comments were from people who found me via pinterest. I welcome every single one of you guys to my blog! I'm SO happy that you're all here!

Wanna see something even more staggering? Check this out-- Here is a screenshot of my google analytics traffic referrals from pinterest. Now I have no way of tracking which pins leads to my blog, but based on the number of times this Christmas tree photo shows up in my pinterest feed, I'd say the majority of these hits come from it.

There have been 46,180 hits to my blog in the past year from Pinterest. :blink

The next highest referrer (Hi, Dustykins!) is All Things G&D at 2,867. That's just a bit of a spread, no?

I'm in total awe of the popularity of this photo. And I SO appreciate every single one of you who have repinned my photo, especially those of you who took the time to read my tutorial and then peruse my blog while you were here. That really means a lot to me. I love all the comments I've gotten on the post, as well. It sure has been controversial. I promise my settings in the blog entry are correct, even if some of you refuse to believe it. Considering that I was standing all the way across my house to get the shot, it wasn't like I was focused in on one tiny detail. Maybe that had something to do with why it's not blurry around the edges. I honestly don't know how it happened so I can't put in my two cents about it really. I guess I just got lucky with my 1.8 lens that time. I also know that some folks don't like that the original unedited photo was so grainy, and I didn't either. Hence the reason I edited it pretty heavily in Lightroom. This year I plan on trying a whole lot more shots like this. Granted, I might have to make a life-sized cardboard cut out of my son to get him to stand that still ever again. Ha!

SO, here is the moral of this blog entry:

1. Join Pinterest. Today. If you need an invite to Pinterest post your email addy in the comments (or send it to me at bethcbryan@gmail.com) and I will give you an invite, no strings attached! You can follow my boards here if you need a starting point. Then just start pinning your best ideas or tips. Repin other stuff, too, so you don't look like a massive attention whore who only pins their own stuff. But don't be scared to sprinkle some of your best ideas in the mix, as well.

2. Watermark your photos in some way, if only for the name recognition it will give you. I just today added a custom watermark to these pictures. Thanks to the incredible Lori Gordon of Shooting Star Photography for showing me how to do that! I had no clue how to add a watermark to my photos but Lori was kind enough to help me out with that today. It was super easy, and I'm planning to share how she did it with all of you very soon. (UPDATE: CLICK HERE to read how to watermark your photos!) It's something that every blogger needs to do, and up until this point I've just been too lazy to do it. After seeing my photos flying all around the internet without my name on them, I regret not learning this sooner. I'm in the process of watermarking some of my older more popular posts but hopefully they will work their way into the system soon.

Here's a big thanks to Click Workshops for teaching me this trick so that I could pass it along to others. And to everyone in Pinterestville, thanks SO much for all the link love this past year! I hope that every blogger out there gets to experience the power of Pinterest at least once or twice or MORE! It's such an exhilarating feeling to watch your photos and ideas be well received by so many others.

Also thanks to my friend Lisa for introducing me to Pinterest when Pinterest wasn't cool. I'm so glad I received one of her much coveted invites when I did!

Y'all be sure to hit me up if you need an invite, ok? I'm happy to spread the love.

Ebay vs. Pottery Barn

2011-11-12T14:29:00.001-06:00

I think it came as a shock to some people when I announced on facebook earlier this year that I had just made my very first purchase ever from Pottery Barn.

You heard me right. Ever. Ever. I could never get behind spending that much money on their things when I could try to DIY a PB knockoff myself. But there is another thing that you might have heard about me this past year. I can't sew. Well, I can TRY to sew, but when I do I break needles and thread and sewing machine bobbins like a madwoman. Me and sewing machines will likely never get along. So that's why I have turned to Pottery Barn this past year for my pillows and bedding.

Except that I still can't bring myself to pay full price for that stuff, so I either wait for stuff to go on sale, or I buy it on Ebay. Which is where I found this new Nob Hill duvet cover.

It was way past time for a change, since the stuffing of our old comforter had long ago split right in the middle, leaving the bed with all sorts of lumps and bumps around the edges whenever it was made up.

Which was not often, I'll admit.

Another blog reader commented on all my pillows recently. She said her husband says she has a pillow fetish. My husband would give her husband a big high five in empathy.

And guess what babe? I just ordered some more! These pretty medallion pillows will be arriving soon! Yahoo for Veteran's Day sales!

But since the bed is only made up once in a blue moon it's not like we have to drag them all off the bed every night. Most of the time they lie on the floor in a giant heap. Today was a special "take a photo for the blog" day, so the pillows actually got fluffed and onto the bed.

Here is another thing I haven't shown off on the blog even though it's been a part of the landscape for a year now. Whenever we bought the Nadeau bookcase for the living room, we moved the smaller one from it's place into the bedroom for some additional storage. Since the front of it is wide open I tried to get all organized and added a bunch of baskets. They hold Garrett's clothes so that I don't have to run upstairs in a panic in the morning to get him dressed.

I guess it would help if we actually folded clothes and put them away instead of letting them pile up in the corner of the laundry room.

And also the corner of the bedroom, which is just out of sight in all of these photos! HA!! If I waited until all my laundry was folded and put away to blog about my house you'd never ever see photos of it. So I just hide it instead. Just another little bit of home blog trickery of which I am the master.

A Merry Little Christmas Giveaway

2011-11-09T08:04:00.001-06:00

Who else is really excited for Christmas this year? I know some of you are because I've already heard you talking about it and pinning ideas like some Tazmanian devils.

I'm SUPER excited this year, so I'm going to kick things off right with a giveaway! Would you like to win one of these pretty little signs? How about two?

Allrighty, just ~~suffer through~~ ~~skim over~~ enjoy my attention whoring story first, then I'll tell you how you can win!

Earlier this year after the holiday season died down and all the decorations were tucked back in the attic I had an email pop up in my inbox that I never expected to see. It was an editor at BHG.com asking to feature my Christmas mantel on the Better Homes and Gardens website.

And this was me...

No, not really.

But I seriously squee'ed and did a little happy dance in my chair. Apparently there is a person who works for BHG who just scours the internet looking for blogs to feature. Something about my mantel caught her eye when she was sifting through the frajillion other gorgeous mantels at The Lettered Cottage Christmas mantel link party, and I was chosen as one of the lucky few to be featured on the BHG "Real Home Christmas Mantel Decorating" slideshow.

THANK YOU, Better Homes and Gardens for choosing my mantel to be on your website. And THANK YOU to Layla and friends for hosting some seriously popular link parties!

This is the photo I submitted to BHG:

And here is how it looks on their site:

HA!! I've been cropped!

Flipping through the other mantels, I feel like mine is just a Freshman band geek trying to walk the hall with the Senior cheerleaders. Not to mention the fact that the picture is all blurry because my lens pooped out on me after our Vermont vacation last year. Of course my new lens that I ~~asked for~~ bought myself for Christmas hadn't arrived yet. I kinda want to hide from embarrassment and ask for a do-over on that pitiful fuzzy photo. I swear I can do better than that, BHG! Instead I'll just laugh and say Attention all Bloggers, take note! Always post only your very best images on the innerwebs. You never know when your favorite magazine might come a-knocking asking for a copy for their website. Oh, and it might be a good idea to check underneath your furniture for any toys/ socks and random Crocs that might be lying around or your picture might get cropped into oblivion. DOH.

Martha Stewart I ain't, people.

Seriously, though, I cannot tell you how honored I am to be a part of this slideshow. It's exciting and blush-inducing all at the same time.

Maybe I should have submitted this photo instead.

Or this one! Ehwell. Too late now. Fuzzy McCropperson it is.

Fast forward to a few months ago, when the new 2011 BHG Christmas Ideas magazine came out. Have you seen it yet?

Of course I ran to Walmart when I heard it was out and bought a copy for myself. I was so excited to see two of my favorite blogs-- Centsational Girl and The Lettered Cottage-- featured in all their shiny paged glory with some fantastic decorating ideas.

Then, right smack in the middle of Layla's beautiful article I spotted this:

YES! It's like six degrees of Christmas mantel separation! I'm almost famous! This is the closest I've ever been to making it into a magazine before, so I am going to be the big dork who posts just the picture of the link to my picture in the slideshow.. Hey, I might even give my mom an autographed copy.

So, thank you for letting me toot my horn for a minute. And in honor of all that excitement, I'm a-gonna have myself a merry little Christmas giveaway here on the old blog! This week I'm giving away TWO sets of these Christmas signs that you can use to adorn your mantel this year, or regift to your Mother-in-Law. Whatever. You decide.

Giveaway #1: One lucky giveaway winner will get these two signs right here:

Giveaway #2: And a second someone else will win these two signs right here!

I'm excited to see these pretty little pieces of typography bring some holiday cheer to two of your houses this year. They are made by Primitives by Kathy. I like all her stuff!

To enter:

Just post a comment below to be entered to win.

Earn one additional entry by liking Unskinny Boppy on facebook. Don't forget to report back here and leave a comment telling me that you hit me up or be sure to let me know if you're already a facebook friend.

That's it!

I'll let random.org choose two winners for me on Wednesday, November 16th at 8:00 pm CST.

Good luck everyone!

And try not to shat in your pantaloons if you are the winner, mmkay?

More New Living Room Paint- Third Times A Charm!

2011-11-06T14:17:00.001-06:00

So.

We had the living room painted.

Again.

I know y’all think I’m crazy. But at least now I’m happy and crazy! We started out with the dark beige color from the previous owners. There was nothing wrong with this color, it was just very dark, and very beige. Then I made the mistake of going with an almost-white / light beige color (Benjamin Moore Sailcloth). In my head, I wanted to try to pull off the gorgeous white rooms I see all over Pinterest these days. In reality, it looked like a house from the 80’s that had never been updated.

Don’t get me wrong-- I think that white walls are great for small cottages and bungalows that need the rooms to look larger, and it’s great for cavernous rooms that have layers upon layers of moldings and trim. But in big cavernous rooms with nothing but sheetrook and a little bit of trim, I have found that you need some color to pull it off.

Here is a before and during shot of what the foyer has gone through in the past few months:

I never liked the Sailcloth color, even though I really hoped it would grow on me after the painters left. But It didn’t. So, after another coat of paint, here is where we are today:

This is using Restoration Hardware Silver Sage color matched by Sherwin Williams in a satin finish. I loved it so much in my kitchen that I carried it right on into the living room, foyer and balcony. I am much happier with this new paint color. Even though it’s still a light and airy color, it’s really warmed up the room in comparison to the Sailcloth. It’s not as cold and stark in here anymore, which I love.

Here is another before and after to show you the difference:

Before (actually DURING) with the Ben Moore Sailcloth:

And after with RH Silver Sage.

So now it’s time for me to get some stuff on the walls in the staircase. I cannot decide what to put there so I just haven’t put anything because I’m lazy like that.. Another reason I keep putting it off is because in July I ordered two giant Organic Bloom looking photo frames but they have yet to arrive. After multiple emails to the seller I still don’t have a confirmation date on when they will get here. I’m thinking of cancelling my order and trying to DIY these Organic Bloom frame knockoffs.

Now that we have a paint that I’m happy with the fireplace surround is next on my list of things to change in this room.

While I’d really love a big stone fireplace and a rustic mantel, I’m not sure how long it will be before I pull the trigger on that. Somehow, that faux green marble is going to go.

The wall that opens onto the kitchen and dining room is also where the tv armoire sits, so this is the view that gets stared at the most by my family.

I finally figured out what to do with that chicken crate that I scored over the summer!

The back wall décor hasn’t changed too much. I can’t decide if I like the way the robin’s egg blue dresser is looking against this green/gray color. It’s kinda clashing for me. Nothing a little more paint can’t handle, I guess (on the dresser, not the wall!)

I’m 1000% happier with the way my tin tile looks against this paint color. It was so washed out against the other color that you almost couldn’t see it. Now the paint gives it a nice subtle backdrop that I really like.

The Nadeau bookshelf really stands out great on this wall. I love the way it looks against the new paint.

So there you go! It’s done! The fact that I’m dedicating an entire blog entry to it should tell you that I’m extremely happy with this third coat of paint. I didn’t even bother blogging about the Sailcloth color because I was not that into it.

But finally I can say that the paint is done and I am happy!

It’s a good thing, too, since I probably won’t be redoing again until I’m 60ish.

ABC, easy as 123.

2011-11-05T00:25:00.002-05:00

My Father-in-Law tagged me in this video on facebook tonight:

I can't stop watching this thing! I'm in love with my son's cute country accent and his show-stopping performance. But most of all, I'm just shocked that he sang all of this in front of a camera! Somehow, via the magic that is PopPop, Garrett was actually following directions and sang the ABC song ON CUE, ON VIDEO, all while strumming a guitar and putting on quite a little show.

WHATWHAT?

Since my kid is notorious for dodging cameras and not doing a single thing I ask him to do while MY cameras are rolling, I gave this video a standing ovation when I saw it. And I might have shed a few tears.

Because whenever I ask Garrett to do things for my camera, all I get in return are Jersey Shore fist pumps.

Or channeling his inner Adam Sandler.

Then I might get a nice sideways glance shot...

And then a bit of eye contact...

Then some Whatchu talkin bout Willis Duckface...

Oh, look! At least the acorn is in focus.

Then some silliness where he falls off his trike on purpose.

If I'm REALLY lucky, I might snag one quick shot of him laughing at something happening behind the camera with an expression that is a little bit on the Pee-Wee Hermanish side.

And if I bribe him with promises of marshmallows and money and Halloween stash, I get fake grins like these:

Or smirks like this:

Sigh. I guess I'll take whatever I can get.

But PopPop and Nana? They need to share their secret code to unlocking my kids inner performer. Y'all scored some pure Garrett gold tonight! Thanks for bringing out the best in him. You are both hereby appointed to be Garrett's personal photographer and videographer. FOR LIFE.

I'll just stick with shooting subjects who are more easily persuaded by Milkbones and one word commands like Sit. Stay. Look. Wait.

The Josh Effect Needs You!

2011-10-30T20:00:00.000-05:00

Josh Carden is an exuberant 18 year old with cerebral palsy who is confined to a motorized wheelchair. Last year Josh's grandfather (who was also one of his major caretakers) was struck and killed by a car right in front of Josh as he was helping him off the school bus. The community rallied around Josh and helped the family raise money for the funeral expenses. My friend Lori became very involved in helping Josh's family. After realizing that the current trailer where they live is literally falling down around them, Lori and a group of people have joined together to build Josh and his grandmother a new home.

This is where Josh currently lives:

And here is the new home that is being built for Josh:

It's called The Josh Effect, and I'm hoping you can help me pay it forward this holiday season.

I wanted to personally ask that you "like" the facebook page for Josh's Project here at http://www.facebook.com/joshproject.

I've been asked to come in and help with the final interior design of the home. I would be so appreciative if any of you are willing to join me in gathering items to decorate the house so that it is ready for Josh and his family to move in on December 6th. We would like to have a big "MOVE THAT BUS" type moment for him so that he can take a tour of the home on Dec. 6th which is the 1 year anniversary of his grandfather's death. We are under 6 weeks to get this house completed, so please consider joining me in the effort to get Josh moved into a new safe and ADA accessible home for him. This is such a worthy cause.

The team has built a truly beautiful and well-designed home for Josh. Currently the home is halfway completed but there are still some major items that must be finished before it is ready for move-in.

Currently those needs are:

Concrete for driveway and patios donated and poured
Bricklayers to lay brick and mortar wash (bricks were donated and don't all match so will need to be mortar washed)
Flooring and floor layers
Painters and trim carpenters
General interior cleanup after construction is finished
Furnishings and Decor

There are many more things that need to be completed, but all of this requires MONEY. So, the easiest way to help is to donate funds. All amounts are welcomed.

Monetary Donations can be made at The Josh Carden Project Homepage.

We've set up a housewarming registry for Josh at Bed Bath and Beyond. Please consider checking it out and making a purchase to make his new home a comfortable place to live. We are also accepting donations of gently used household items, furniture and appliances. If you are local to Alabaster and would like to make a donations of goods, please contact me and I will arrange to pick them up.

Please feel free to forward this info to anyone you know who might want to help with this project. It's going to take a big team effort to get it all completed, and I would appreciate any help that you are willing to give. Again, if you would like to make a monetary donation, you can donate at The Josh Carden Project Homepage.

If you are able or if you know of anyone who is available to help with the immediate needs, please send them my way. You can email me at bethcbryan@gmail.com.

Thanks so much, friends.

My Country Living Fair Finds

2011-10-27T19:39:00.000-05:00

I snapped these quick photos of what all I bought at the Country Living Fair this year. Like I said in my previous post, I went for the last 3 hours of the Fair and scored some last minute sales that were pretty sweet deals.

I got these frames for half price! One became a thank you gift to my inlaws for feeding and crating our dogs instead of having to board them. THANK YOU Nana and PopPop. Lifesavers, you are.

This birch bark planter had a $65 price tag on it and I got it for $35. I am a sucker for pretty much anything birch bark. Since it’s not something that we see a lot of in the South it is to me what cotton fields are to you Northerners. Plus it reminds me of Vermont. So, yeah, I loved this planter. It'll make a great Christmas decoration. too.

I got these two fabric pumpkins for a steal at $15 for the pair. You don’t even want to know the original price tags. I love the red mattress ticking one.

And last but not least, I got these two pumpkins made from peach pits! These came from the same vendor as my wood shaving wreath from last year. I thought these were so unique that I just couldn’t pass them up. They were only 20% off, but that’s better than full price!

I can't say that I was as blown away by my Fair purchases this year as I was last year, but I do love my stuff!

What all did you score at the Fair this year?

I’d love to see your wares!

Basement Remodel Update: We’re almost there

2011-10-26T22:25:00.001-05:00

Oh how I wish this were the big reveal of the finished basement, but it’s not.

We are so, so close, though. Hopefully this will be the very last unfinished update before the Big Reveal. Fingers crossed.

The walls still look like a patchwork quilt (and look! More colors!) and the floor is now covered with giant globs of sheetrock mud.

But, we are getting there. Slow and steady wins the race.

We still have a ways to go. BUT, we have lots and lotsa ideas and also some trim!

Now you might be scratching your chin while looking at this photo, wondering why we placed the trim so low on the wall and so far in on the ceiling. Well, lemme show you the inspiration photos and maybe it will make more sense.

Check it out! Here is what I hope to accomplish by putting the trim up like this.

Photo via Pinterest

Trim painted white plus a little rope lighting above the crown should give us a really cool effect on the ceiling in the theater room. At least that is the plan. We’ll see how it pans out soon enough.

Photo via Pinterest

Today the guys finished installing all the crown molding, the door trim and…. drum roll please….

Yep, it’s BOARD AND BATTEN! Whoop whoop!

I finally climbed aboard the B&B train. I figured since it was in the basement stairwell that I could just keep the door shut if I hate it in a few years when it becomes dated like an avocado green refrigerator. But for now? I LOVE IT! I think it looks OUT-FREAKING-STANDING! I’m very very excited about this basement remodel. It’s gonna be gorgeous when it’s done. I can’t wait to reveal the final finished product.

Wish us luck!

To see the basement remodel project from start to finish, click here.

In them old cotton fields back home

2011-10-26T07:00:00.000-05:00

On my way home from the Country Living Fair I exited I-20 at Talladega to avoid all the Nascar race day traffic. As I was coming into Childersburg I spotted this huge field of cotton looking all snowy and showy and Southern, so I decided to snap some pictures of it. Cotton fields like this make me proud to be from the Dixieland. It's such a beautiful crop. Northerners have snow, southerners have fields of cotton.

I can remember my dad stopping the car on the side of the road and picking a few cotton bolls for me to ooh and ahh over when I was a kid.

I will admit that I snagged myself a few and brought them home to Garrett. He was amazed by all the cotton balls on a stick.

I might have a few other plans for my little cotton bolls. My friend Kent talked about decorating with them, and that got my wheels a-turnin. I'll see what I can come up with.

In the mean time let's all put our hand over our hearts, curl our upper lips all Elvislike and sing together....

Oh I wish I was in the land of cotton
Old times there are not forgotten
Look away, look away, look away Dixieland

ATLANTA COUNTRY LIVING FAIR 2011

2011-10-25T08:55:00.001-05:00

I’m settling back in at home after a week in Orlando. My husband attended a conference so G and I tagged along for a fun trip to see Mickey Mouse and friends. We got back home on Saturday night, and Sunday morning I decided on a whim to drive over to Atlanta for the very last day of the Country Living Fair. It was also race day at Talladega, which is right on my way to Atlanta. Even that couldn’t keep me away from the Mothership. I knew I couldn’t stay away this year. I took the backroads to avoid traffic and arrived at Stone Mountain Park at 2:00 on Sunday.

The Fair ended at 5:00. Talk about just in the knick of time.

You know that saying about the early bird getting the worm? Well guess what? He also pays full price for it. The late bird gets the SALES! Those vendors were so tired by that point that most of them were ready to wheel and deal with me just so they wouldn’t have to pack up their stuff. It was great! Everything I bought was at least 25% off, some was 50%.

I love a good deal.

So, here is a little collage of my photos from the day. No explanation needed, except for maybe that potato/popcorn/boxwood combo displayed in the tray. What was that about? Certainly an odd pairing, but I kinda liked it! Gotta love the CL Fair!

Did you go? What did you buy? I’ll share my purchases later after I get everything unpacked from a week in Mouseketeerville.

Potat-o-Lantern

2011-10-19T17:40:00.003-05:00

Do you have a curious little guy or gal? Do you want to participate in a Halloween activity but don't want to risk sawing off a finger while pumpkin carving?

Are you completely and utterly lazy?

Do you have a drill with a drill bit?

Yes?

Then this post is for you! Read ahead!

J saw this Mr. Potato Head pumpkin decorating kit at Target a few weeks back, and decided this was the easiest way ever to "carve" a jack-o-lantern with a three year old.

He picked a nice warty pumpkin so our cowboy looked authentic. After that the most strenuous part was drilling holes for the potato head pieces.

First J tried to punch a hole with a regular screwdriver. Yeah, not happening.

So he broke out the drill bit. Sorry Mr. Potato Head.

That worked great. Then it was just as simple as popping the parts and pieces into the holes.

Garrett loved this part!

He was all boutit boutit.

The final touch was the tater lasso and our Potat-o-Lantern Cowboy was all ready to go. .

Highly recommend this one! Happy almost Halloween everybody.

No. 34

2011-10-14T11:49:00.002-05:00

Last month I turned 34 years old. I spent the weekend in Fort Myers Beach with my sisters from another mister. It’s so much easier to face the Dirty 30 birthdays when I am surrounded by a group of my best friends in a tropical destination.

I couldn't have asked for a better birthday weekend.

Standing from left to right: Kelly, Steph, Dusty, Marcia, Kent, Allison, Me
Down below: Emily and Aly

Since meeting them all online many years ago it’s become an annual tradition for us to get together on my birthday weekend in September. I like to think it's because I'm THAT special, but usually it just happens to work out to be the best weekend when everyone can travel freely without husbands and children. You can read more about our past GTGs in Columbus, Dallas, Birmingham, Minneapolis, a few times in Atlanta and Ft Myers.

We all still talk online everyday, but it’s so much different to be together in person. In person they can actually see when they make me laugh so hard I pee in my pants. I never laugh as much as I do when I’m with these girls. They make me so happy. We have a blast wherever we go.

As usual, there was lots of this…

and some of this…

and plenty of sunshine all weekend.

Dusty was our hostess with the mostess all weekend. She was also the life of the party, just like always. You can count on this chick to spread sunshine everywhere she walks. I'd like to send out a HUGE thank you to her wonderful inlaws for letting us stay in their beautiful condo in paradise. I don't know if we can ever thank them enough for giving us the chance to return year after year to a place where so many great memories are made.

Now that we're living in Back To The Future days with Skype we were able to talk to my travel buddy Natalie who wasn't able to make it this trip. Natalie is pregnant with number two (!!!) so hopefully we will get her back next year. We also Skyped with Mandy really late one night after too many cocktails. Her poor husband had to suffer through all the squeals and laughter. I wondered if he might have their internet cut off the next day. Thankfully that didn't happen. I was also able to see Garrett and J on my birthday. Garrett loved seeing me inside the computer. Skyping with a 3 year old is awesome. I appreciate every precious minute I get to spend face to face with these beautiful ladies. If you don’t have friends who live inside the internet, I highly recommend you get you some. They are the best.

The weekend was perfect, and I can’t wait to get back down there next year for the No. 35.

Yep, it’s much easier to get older in paradise.

Basement Updates: Electrical & Sheetrock... Check

2011-10-11T19:48:00.001-05:00

The basement remodel is getting SO close to being completed that I can smell it.

Like, literally.

Sheetrock dust and cans of paint samples are everywhere down there. Andplusalso we decided to rip up the carpet on the stairs so sheetrock dust is now creeping upstairs into the living room via our feet.

Here is the corner wall at the bottom of the stairs where the cabinets will be going. Sheetrock, glorious sheetrock!

And this is the part where you all go, DANG, Beth! Think you've got enough paint samples on that wall? No, no I don't. Because even with all those samples I still cannot decide what I like.

So instead of talking about that I'm gonna tell you what I DO like which is basically EVERYTHING! I especially love seeing all of Garrett's artwork that he created when we asked him to help us paint samples.

My favorite part is the ceiling. We made this area just about as high as our basement ceiling is gonna get. The center area is ten foot high with five can lights added in for extra light in that dark corner. I wanted the ceiling as high as possible down there so this was what we came up with. J and his dad boxed in a firred down area around the ductwork to create a tray ceiling effect.

The plan is to do some double crown molding. I think this might accentuate the ceiling line where it drops down to eight and a half feet, but I'm very happy with this raised ceiling effect. It really helps open that narrow area up.

This is the nook that we are calling the arcade room. Light fixture not yet hooked up.

Here is the view from the back of the arcade wall toward the theater room.

This room is the room that used to be the scary mirror room:

In case you forgot and want to be horrified, here is what it looked like before.

It's already an improvement!

Here are the top three paint contenders for the room. From left to right, SW Denim, BM Spellbound and BM Brittania Blue. If you've been around this old blog very long you'll know that I absolutely despise picking paint colors. I can't make a good solid paint picking decision on the first try to save my life. This project is no different. I'm right back in paint picking hell this week. Blurg. If anyone has an opinion please feel free to share it!

I'm open to opinions.

I'm very excited to see how this is going to shape up in a few days after Francisco and crew get finished with the mud, tape, sanding and paint. I have big plans for the staircase. There have been lots of surprises around here lately. Here's a sneak peak at what J surprised me with this week.

I CAN'T WAIT!!!!

An Alabama Estate Sale

2011-10-07T15:07:00.000-05:00

Last Friday afternoon I turned off of Real Life Drive and went riding around the backroads of Alabama with the sunroof back on a perfect cloudless day. I met a customer for a site visit and then took the long route back home through the woods. My friends Jamey Johnson and Eric Church and Colt Ford came along for the ride.

It was like my soul rejoiced.

Being alone in the car with freedom to crank up the radio with my own music? Heaven. Do you other moms miss just riding alone? Man, I miss it some days.

When I was single my favorite escape was to drive to the lake and get lost out in the woods. In the days before GPS and cell phones with 3G coverage there was something much more exciting about that. But these days I don't get to do that at all. I drive to school and work and back home, then to the grocery story on the weekends. Excitement, huh? Plus I always seem to have a 3 year old in the backseat who demands things like stopping for potty breaks and taking pictures of the back of my head with my iphone. Y'all wouldn't believe all the photos I find of myself on my phone these days. Most are scary, some are hilarious, all are blurry. It is my greatest fear that one day he will figure out how to upload them to facebook.

Here is an example of one I found today.

He caught me in the act of cleaning out his backpack while driving down the road. I'm a multitasker like that. Also notice I have no hands on the wheel (my knee likes to drive) and no eyes on the road. A 10&2er I am not. But hey, at least I wasn't texting and driving, right? I hope G wasn't collecting evidence to email to CPS.

Anyway, back to my story. Along my drive I saw a bunch of handmade signs on neon poster board pointing to an estate sale. I was in the mood, so I followed that rabbit trail down to a house that was out in the middle of nowhere across the road from Lake Neely Henry.

Here is what I saw when I pulled up.

The house was overgrown and the back half of the barns had been hit by one of the April tornadoes. I was PUMPED to see inside this house. And it did not disappoint. Between the huge house and the outbuildings it was jam packed full of all sorts of treasures that would have made have made the Picker Sisters jizz in their pants. And then their were some things that would have made the Margo and Todd couple that we saw on our Lake Placid vacation pass out on the floor.

$75 bobcat anyone? Lacquered rattlesnake skin? Mallard duck? Deer mount? Rebel flag? Neon sign? Anyone? No?

The dude that owned this house wasn't just whistlin' Dixie. He had it plastered all over his man cave walls. I wish I had taken more pictures around the place, especially the wall full of empty George Dickel bottles. It was pretty amazing. I love Alabama and the people who live in it. With all my heart.

I brought home a few treasures, including this fishing creel-esque basket. Perfect condition!

I tied it onto my staircase with some pretty ribbon. Somehow I feel like I'm betraying the original owner of this basket by doing this. Maybe I shoulda dug out a frayed old trotline rope to tie it up with instead.

In the falling-down barn I found a bunch of brown and white striped turkey feathers that came home with me for free. I also spotted this old blue Dietz #8 Air Pilot lantern in his barn, still full of kerosene and a dirt dauber nest. I knew it was coming home with me as soon as I laid eyes on it. When I picked it up an old farmer who was sifting through the tools beside me asked me if I was planning on going coon hunting with it. He said he had hunted many a coon with a lantern just like that one.

I'm going to see how much of the dirt I can knock off of it but for now I liked the way it looked all dirty and beat up sitting next to my gigantor mums and blue pumpkins in the whiskey barrel.

And if I ever get a hankering to take Gus and Woodrow out in the woods to hunt down the varmint that tries to break into their dog food container I'll know what to grab first.

Fall MailBox=Failbox

2011-10-05T21:50:00.001-05:00

So I put out these gigantor mums by my mailbox earlier this week…

I was so excited about them. They are orange and yellow and ready to burst out in color.

I stacked these pretty blue and white pumpkins up in front. All the neighbors rejoiced that I finally put some color in the barren landscape that I call flower beds.

And two days later as I drove Garrett to school I saw that my gigantor chrysanthemums were wilted and all the little buds were starting to shrivel up and die.

Sunuva!

Needless to say, without a hosepipe in sight, my mailbox will not be adorned with fall flowers. Last night I hauled all the mums up to my patio and gave them a tall drink of water. They will survive, but I nearly killed them.

Maybe next I’ll try a scarecrow or hay bale or something more subtle... like this.

Via

But for now? Fall mums by my mailbox = FAILBOX. At least they were pretty while I snapped these pics!

Poll time! square or diagonal?

2011-10-05T21:01:00.001-05:00

Ok, I need y’alls help with something.

I wanna hang my big blue beadboard beauty from Southern Accents on my staircase wall.

But before this big honker beast gets hung I need to know…

Square?

Or diagonal?

Whatchya think?

And the Succulent Wreath Auction goes to...

2011-10-02T15:35:00.001-05:00

Remember back in May when I auctioned off a monogrammed succulent wreath to benefit Alabama tornado relief efforts? The winner of that wreath was the lovely Kim over at NewlyWoodwards. Thank you SO much, Kim for all of your generosity, and thanks so much to everyone who bid on the wreath. Guess what Kim {finally} has coming to her this week?

And yes, I realize this auction happened, um, five months ago now.

I am SO sorry to Kim for making her wait this long on her wreath. I'd like to blame it on the fact that Urban Outfitters had the "W" wire form on backorder until nearly August. But then I have to blame the rest of the time on my pure laziness and lack of motivation.

But, finally it's finished. Yahoo!! Sorry it's so late arriving to you, Kim! Thanks for being so patient with me. :) Hope you enjoy your wreath for a long time!

Lanterns and Pumpkins on the Porch

2011-09-28T16:16:00.001-05:00

My ode to Fall

Fall is great, Fall is good
But it's still green around my 'hood.
While I wait on leaves the color of hay
I can still decorate with pumpkins. YAY!"

I know that the calender says it's officially fall, but it's still as green as Kermit's ass at my house. There are a few leaves starting to drift down, and the temperature is really nice these days, so I have hope that it's right around the corner. The mums and pumpkins are all over the garden centers right now, so I've still got that Fall feelin' whenever I step outside.

I should say that in actuality, I will never see these decorations because I never go out the front door of my house. I always use the garage door so my first view of my house is the junky pantry and laundry room. I should decorate in those rooms instead! Seriously, the only people who might see my front porch are the Jehovah's Witnesses and the pizza delivery men. We don't even get trick-or-treaters at our house because of our long and winding driveway.

Which means nobody will get to see my pretty pumpkin luminarias on the steps. Boo.

So you people out there in blogland better be appreciating my decorations, dangit, because you're the only folks who will ever see them. And hopefully you won't care that I couldn't find anything exciting around my house to put inside my door bucket so I just tied a ribbon to it and left it empty.

And maybe, you won't care that I didn't trim my scraggly tea olive bushes back beside my front steps. They may be ugly, but they smell delicious right now!

Here, lemme crop them in just a bit so you don't see them as much. Ahhh... that's a little better.

Seeing these pictures all in a row really, REALLY makes me want to paint my front door a different color. Black, perhaps.

Do they make a mahogany veneer I can just slap up there? Cause that'd be excellent. I truly miss my old front door.

Everyday I'm Rufflin'

2011-09-26T21:13:00.000-05:00

Another project has been completed around here. Watch out, I'm on a roll. I'm so happy to present to you my new lampshade! I bedazzled it with burlap (burlazzled?), just like my fall mantel.

Remember my Pottery Barn knockoff lamps that I scored at Homegoods a few months ago? I finally got around to recovering the ugly lampshades that came with them. Let me say that I came very very close to spending $60 on a pair of new burlap shades on several different occasions just to mark that off my to-do list. But now I'm glad that I waited. Last night I got out the burlap, scissors and hot glue gun and just went to town recovering the lampshades. And they turned out AWESOME, if I do say so myself.

Here is the before:

And here is the after:

I didn't have an exact plan for this project, I just winged it and snapped photos along the way. Here is where I started by hot gluing several pieces of burlap onto the shade. Nothing hard about that, right? Cut burlap, hot glue around edges.

Pretty straightforward.

Just make sure to leave some excess to wrap around the bottom of the shade.

Once I got it wrapped up most of the way I had this gap left over because of the shape of my shade. I was going to just slap another piece of burlap on top and call it done, but that seemed kinda plain to me.

I wanted something else, so I decided to make a burlap ruffle to cover up the unfinished part. I will show you how to make the ruffle in just a second, but I wanna show the finished lamp first. Once I got the ruffle made I just simple hot glued it onto the shade. So easy, and so fun. It really dressed up this lampshade a lot. I'm so happy with the end result.

Much better than a $30 plain-jane burlap shade from Pottery Barn, dontcha think?

It's so imperfect and rustic but girly and pretty all at the same time. I have to say I didn't come up with the idea for burlap ruffles on my own. A few months ago I bought a pillow made by Jaime at Home and Soul Redemption from the Alabama Goods store in Homewood.

The pillow had a beautiful burlap ruffle on it that I just fell in love with instantly.

I knew I could make something like it myself, but I didn't realize just how easy it would be.

Let me show you how to do it!

First, cut a long strip of burlap about 6" wide.

Take your scissors and snip one single strand of the twine about 2" from one side of the edge.

Then just start pulling and gathering the burlap along that one strand so that it starts bunching up on itself along one side.

Keep pulling...

...Until you have the entire length of the burlap strip gathered up.

To hold your gather in place I put a single dot of hot glue on the pulled strand. (BTW- Please tell me your glue gun is as ugly and well-used as mine! Look how gross that sucker is!)

This is also a good thing to do if your string breaks along the way. Glue down the part that is gathered, then just grab another strand beside that one and start pulling again. You'll eventually get it all gathered up. It doesn't have to be perfect.

Once you finish one side, do the other side the same way.

You're gonna have all sorts of fuzz and strings hanging off the ruffle, so just give it a quick haircut before you use it. Warning: The front of my shirt was COVERED in burlap lint during this craft night, so be sure to wear an old shirt for this project.

Once you have several strips ruffled up, you can just hot glue them end to end to create a long runner or garland out of them. The hot glue doesn't show up on the burlap so just glob it on there really good. Nobody will notice. If you don't have a hot glue gun then you can just tie a knot in the two threads once you get to the end of a run. Or, if you're a perfectionist you could always sew them end to end with a needle and thread. I'm not a perfectionist.

And that's it! You've got yourself a ruffled burlap garland all ready for your lampshade or fall mantel or Thanksgiving table. Here it is weaving in and out of my fall mantel this year...

Heck you could even make yourself a really itchy scarf or camera strap outta this stuff! Be creative!

I was really amazed by how easy--and kinda fun, for all you sweater string pullers out there--this project turned out to be.

Happy Fall, ya'll!

Linking at Home Stories of A to Z

Fall Mantel with ruffled burlap garland

2011-09-25T17:04:00.002-05:00

Ever since I decorated for my coworker's rustic elegant bridal shower, I've had in mind to use those similar decorations for my fall mantel.

Rather than using the traditional orange/yellow/burgundy colors of autumn I wanted to use more muted tones with blues and greens to coordinate with my house.

Here is my best attempt at interpreting the shower decorations on a 6" x 72" ledge.

I found this muted blue wrought iron piece at Homegoods. It's been all over my house but for now it found a spot on the mantel. I flanked it with my new Biltmore Inspirations vase, acorns and compliment jars.

On the right is a wheat bundle I bought at Homegoods and two scrolly tealight lanterns that were used as centerpieces at my fall themed wedding in October 2004.

On the left side of the mantel is my leaf vase from Alewine Pottery in Gatlinburg and my cheapo birch bark candles from the Target clearance section. I added a log slice to the back for some layers of texture and my little silver leaf from our honeymoon trip to the Biltmore.

On the far left is my Willow House Galveston Hurricane with all types of colored corn inside. The corn reminds me of my trips to Vermont in the Fall. Man, I love this time of year. Lots of memories on this mantel!

I DIY'ed the ruffled burlap garland that is weaving in and out of the mantel. I absolutely love how it turned out!

I'll save the post on how I made it for Centsational Girl's Fall Craft Themed Link Party in a few weeks. Check back soon for more burlaped goodness!

Down below I stacked up some pumpkins on an urn.

I tucked in reindeer moss underneath the Cinderella pumpkin to soften up the edges. Looking at that picture reminds me I need to tuck some more into the holes. :)

Here is the other side- just a few real pumpkins mixed in with a fake Funkin, fake pears and a ceramic pumpkin. I like to mix real and fake pumpkins together to get more bang for my buck.

Wishing all of you a very happy Fall season! How do you dress up your mantel for Fall?

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Sunroom Updates, finally

2011-09-25T00:32:00.002-05:00

HELLO FRIENDS!!!

Long time, no post. I'm trying to get back in the swing of things here on the old blog. I lost my mojo there for a while, but it's slowly returning, so thanks for sticking around. I realized that I never updated here with a finished picture of the new paint color in the sunroom. So, let me FINALLY get around to posting some pictures of it!

The color on the walls is Sherwin Williams Sea Salt. It's oh so light and airy and pretty in the room. It's a total transformation from the dark muddy paint that was in this room when we bought the house.

When you last saw the sunroom I was asking for you to vote on a paint color. Sea Salt wasn't the winner, but the North Star turned super periwinkle on me so I decided to go with Sea Salt. Here are a few "Before" pictures, just to see how far it's come since we first moved in. Those valances are long gone now.

It was so dark.

And kinda dreary.

But, with a fresh coat of paint it brightened right up! I love this color.

That room was in limbo for a while after the paint was finished because I was trying to find the perfect chair or loveseat for the space. The sofa that we had was way too big, but I loved having a place to lounge in there. I kept my eyes peeled and finally found a steal of a deal on this Pottery Barn-esque Nantucket loveseat from At Home Furnishings in Homewood. I snagged this sucker for just $399.00 on a facebook special! WOOT!

It's got a removable slipcover so that was a huge plus for me. It's also the perfect size for the small space. Over behind it is the curio shelf that J bought for me many years ago, filled with all my gardening books.

I am still using this little blue table from the lake cabin as a side table. I like it because it fits right below the windowsill so it doesn't obstruct anything.

I did strategically place the loveseat in that spot to hide the ugly pool pump and HVAC unit condo complex we've got going out in the backyard. This view is not something I want to see out the window.

Across the room I angled my blue desk and chair to balance things out. I wanted all the seats in the room to be facing towards the pool (and away from the pool PUMP) since that is where some of the best views are in the house.

I had this white shelf from my old house that I never could figure out what to do with. It's supposed to hang on the wall, but I never got around to it. Finally I just laid it on it's side and used it as a platform for my favorite photo frames. Works pretty well I think.

The pumpkins will go away once Fall leaves us, but for now they are cute in that room.

The new paisley rug came from Home Depot. I have a thing for paisley rugs. This one is a nice silvery-gray color so it really brightens it up in there. Plus it's an indoor/outdoor rug so hopefully it will be a little more resistant to the fading from the sun.

EDIT: I just found out on the HD website that this rug is for indoor use, not outdoor. It is resistant to fading, though. I couldn't remember the name of it last night but thankfully my husband did this morning!

It's called Forte Rug by Mohawk in Taupe/Flesh/Ivory. Why they felt the need to include the word flesh as a rug color I don't really know. That kinda heebs me out. But I can promise that there is nothing fleshy about it in person. :) You'll have to call or check your local store to see if it's in stock.

So, there you go! Finally after, um, two short months of waiting, you get the big sunroom reveal. I love it! I'm really happy we chose to lighten up the paint in our house. It makes me so happy.

I heart soup.

2011-09-05T19:37:00.001-05:00

It's raining hard this weekend as Tropical Storm Lee creeps his way across the Southeast. We spent the weekend at the beach and never saw the sunshine once while we were there. Talk about a tropical depression. We did see 40 mph sustained winds blow the lawn chairs around the condo patio and nearly blow my family off a bridge as they were crossing it. We finally made it home and the winds and rain followed us here. I will say that 40 mph sustained winds at the beach are NOTHING compared to the 45 mph gusts that are whipping my giant oak trees sideways outside my window right now.

All this rain makes me wanna curl up and take a nap.

It also makes me crave soup. We had taco soup this weekend at the beach and I had Panera bread tomato soup for lunch today. When I'm in a hurry, my favorite soup mix is Bear Creek. Have you tried it yet? I rarely eat soup from a can anymore after trying this stuff. It's simple and easy and GOOD. And BPA free, if you're worried about that.

Here is a big bowl of Bear Creek Broccoli Cheddar soup that I mixed up a few weeks back when Garrett and I made apple cinnamon muffins.

I shredded a little bit of Cabot pepperjack on top for some spiciness. Mmm Mmm good.

They also have a darn good chili mix. :)

What's your favorite soup recipe? This Cream of Chicken and Wild Rice soup will always be at the very top of my list. A giant pot of it will likely make an appearance at my house soon if this weather holds out.

Hope you've had a great three day weekend, everyone. My prayers are with everyone in Texas right now facing giant wildfires and drought. I wish I could send some of this rain over to you tonight to help fight the fires.

Featured Friend: LisatheLamb's Nursery

2011-08-20T13:19:00.005-05:00

8/23/2011: TWO EXCITING UPDATES!

Lisa's nursery was featured at OhDeeDoh!

AND... Mister Pants is here! Introducing Barrett William! CONGRATS LISA!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My good friend Lisa is having a baby! Less than a year ago we were having a blast at our girl's weekend in Florida and wandering through the Country Living fair together in Atlanta. And now? She's about two weeks away from the due date of her little miracle! She calls him Mister Pants. :)

Lisa has recently finished decorating the nursery and today she's letting me show off her INCREDIBLE designs here on my blog. I'm so honored by this. Lisa's taste is impeccable and her personality is outgoing, witty and fun. She is just as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. Take a look at her maternity photos. I mean really, have you ever seen such a lovely mama-to-be? And as a side note, she has Rapunzel hair that is just to DIE for. So jealous of those long, thick, flowing locks of perfection.

Her style is evident throughout every inch of her life and her beautiful Texas home, but this nursery really shows her talent and eye for interior design.

So without further ado, welcome to Mister Pant's nursery!

This entire space makes me grin from ear to ear. She started with a soft grey/blue on the walls to create a neutral background. Perfect wall color choice.

And the rest of the room just POPS with color. Isn't it fun?? Lisa wanted it to be bright, cheerful and colorful but still masculine for her baby boy. I watched her ideas unfold on her pinterest boards and as she bounced ideas off of our group of friends. Then BAM! Suddenly one day she showed us these finished photos of the room and my jaw about hit the floor. She totally followed through by bringing all the best ideas to life in her own nursery.

The white Jenny Lind style crib with a combination of patterns on the bedding is perfect for the fun, funky vibe. That yellow and white chevron with orange polka dots on the crib bumper just screams HAPPY!! to me.

The bumper is reversible with colorful birds on a bright blue background on the other side. The finishing touch for the bedding is a faux bois woodgrained patterned fabric on the bedskirt that is neutral, masculine and modern all at the same time. Perfection. AND? Her mom made the bedskirt and fitted sheets for her. How cool is that?

I have to take a second to say something about that lamb rocker. I first met Lisa on the Nest boards where her nest name was LisaTheLamb. Over the years that turned into us calling her everything from LTL, Elle and Lambykins. That rocking sheep is perfect in her nursery.

And can we talk about this awesome custom mobile? I am in LOVE with this mobile. She took three different shaped chicken wire type wire baskets, hung them upside down, and DIY'ed these colorful yarn balls to hang from them. Yep, you heard me right. YARN BALLS! I love saying that.

WOW. Just wow. The pictures speak for themselves.

Another favorite thing of mine in this room is the "You're getting very sleepy" poster over the crib. This just cracks me up. It was also the inspiration for my non-matted photo frame.

I hope the subliminal suggestions work for you, Lisa! Sleepy babies are a great thing.

The other big pieces of furniture in the room are from the Edland line at Ikea. This corner is so perfect. Love the shelf above the changing table. Love the mirror, love the framed albums, love the hanging lantern, love the table and chair. LOVE that orange striped rug. Love it all.

Lisa wanted to incorporate some of her husband's style into the room as well. Since he loves music she took four vintage record album covers and had them framed to hang above the dresser. They work perfectly.

She picked up the vintage mirror at an antique store. She said she literally yelled "SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!" when she spied it because it was exactly what she'd been searching for in the space. It's got the patina of age on the mirror part, but she painted the frame a bright red color to bring it up to date.

Do you spy a cute yellow dog in the mirror? This wiener dog lamp is just adorable.

Over the door is a 3-D cardboard deer head and another little lamb on the doorknob.

She found this fun green rocker for just $85.00! What a steal! But then she had it gutted and recovered in a vibrant green micro-suede so it was not such a steal and there was much indecision over the color, but in the end Team Green won out. Doesn't it look super cool in this space? It really does rock! Both literally and figuratively. She paired it with a cute little mid century modern end table that she painted school bus yellow, and it just works so well. I'm tell ya, her eye for design is amazing.

I love that the pillow fabrics match the bedding fabrics. Also made my her mom! This makes me so happy.

She strung this set of vintage flashcards that she found at the Country Living Fair on a piece of twine and hung them over the back of the chair. It's such a unique addition to a reading area for baby.

Above the flashcards is this fun paper mache trophy mount made from pages of a book. Somebody is gonna have to help me out with what kind of African animal this is? Antelope maybe? I dunno! It's cute though!

This Edland glass front linen cabinet looks perfect with pops of yellow peeking through. And do you spy those hangers over on the wall?

PUPPY BUTTS!!!! LOVE!

There are just so many fun touches incorporated throughout this room it's hard to show them all. This framed print might be another of my favorites. "You are the high in my noon, the flap in my jack, the jelly in my bean, the hop in my scotch"??? Love this saying for a nursery!

I could not be any happier for Lisa right now. She's knocked up AND she totally knocked it outta the park with this nursery. I cannot WAIT to meet her little man, her Mister Pants. Thanks so much for sharing your pictures, babe! I wish you all the best with mama-hood. You'll rock it out, I have no doubt.

Room Specs:

Wall color: Behr "Porpoise"

Rug: Dwell Studios

Crib: yup! Jenny Lind!

Bedding and "b" pillow as well as changing pad: Lisa picked fabrics, her Mom made sheets, bed skirt and pillow. Bumper was made by a local seamstress.

Armoire and dresser: Ikea Edland line

Green chair: Local San Antonio store recovered in green micro-suede fabric

Yellow Side Table: $25 vintage find painted by Lisa's husband

Shelf: DIY stained board

Sheep Rocker: Discontinued from Baby Style

Mirror: Another vintage find spraypainted by Lisa's husband

Changing pad box: made by Lisa's husband, directions found at this fab site: http://laybabylay.com/project-changing-pad-tray/

Puppy booty hooks: Ikea!

You're getting very sleepy sign: Sycamore Street Press

Rug: Dwell Studio Note from Lisa: That thing is constantly sold out. Best way to get it is to call, ask when they will get it in just to get an idea and go buy it at Designpublic.com and your PO will be one of the first to get filled as soon as they get a new shipment in. Within hours of it being back in stock when I got mine, it was sold out again. We wouldn't have gotten w/o our PO in line.

Mobile: DIY'ed by Lisa

Drum Light fixture: CB2

Gazelle (THERE'S the word I was looking for!) Mount: Anthropologie

Deer Mount above door: Bucky, Jr but Urban Outfitters has similar ones

A look back at the old house and old Nest Bio

2011-08-17T07:43:00.003-05:00

I ran across some flickr photos of my old Nest bio recently, and had a little walk down memory lane. I also had a few big realizations about myself and how my style has changed over the past couple of years.

From 2004-2008 I was a very active member of the Decorating and Renovating board at The Nest and before that the Your New Home board on The Knot. My nest name was TheBryansWeBe (aka TBWB). Back then we didn't blog about our houses... we created bios and directed other Nesties to them when we need to show something to someone. Just say PIB! (pic in bio!)

My Knot and Nest bios were HTML 101 classes for me. I learned how to write very basic code and create page layouts on the web. From there I progressed to using Photoshop to create my bio pages. When I look at them now it makes me smile remembering all the laughter and fun times I had on that board. I met some of my very best friends through the Nest, and I'm so thankful to have been a part of that. I'm also grateful to have a lot of those girls still in my life today. I'll be seeing a bunch of them again in just a few weeks and I'm pee-in-my-pants excited about it!

But when I look at my old house nest bio pages, I seriously feel like Uncle Knitknots from Imagination Movers. Beige was my signature color. It was everywhere. Walls, cabinets, furniture, floor.

All around.

All beige. I even used dark beige for the background on the page layouts!

And I LOVED it.

I absolutely adored my house at the time. It was a very beautiful house, no doubt. I bought furniture to match the style of the house- lots of scrolly wrought iron and distressed French Country pieces. I had a lot of hand-me-down things that I worked in and around. I adored every inch of our home.

But HOLY MOLY it was dark in there! AND SO BEIGE!! And my photography on the old point and shoot left a lot to be desired. Wheeewww what terrible pictures I took.

Somebody turn on the lights! Oh wait. They're already on. Nevermind.

Look, here's a room that isn't beige! It's dark olive green with brown accents. Earth tones were my thing, obviously.

Man room? More brown! We even bought a brown slip cover to match the walls.

Even the nursery was beige, beige, beige with some red thrown in.

I even listed out a handy dandy paint chart for anyone wishing to emulate my beige/brown style.

But the only room in the house that I painted myself that I felt represented the true ME, was this one:

My girl crafty room.

I loved being in that room. It was a total mood lifter.

It was painted Behr Celery Sprig- a bright green color. My husband built the desk himself and I spray painted the two little file cabinets to go underneath. I used periwinkle accents and a little bit of black. I loved this room so much. It was a very happy room. Then I got pregnant, and it all got ripped out to make room for a guest bed so I could sleep upstairs next to Garrett.

Such is life, huh?

But here is what I have learned about myself from looking back on these old photos.

I am no longer a beige person. I crave light. I am in love with all those white rooms I keep pinning. Blue is my signature color. I've always loved blue and always will. I need lots of windows thrown open and the sun streaming in. Heavy curtains make me depressed. I am tempted to paint every room in my house in high or semi-gloss paint to reflect the light better. I miss having periwinkle blue and green and clear, non-muddy paint colors in my life. I want a much more relaxed and laid back style in my house instead of being so formal and stuffy.

So, slowly but surely, I'm trying my best to make the transition in the new house from boring dark beige to something lighter and brighter and airy-er. Exactly where I'm going, I'm not really sure. Somewhere between coastal cottage and rustic cabin and normal everyday home. I just know that I want to move as far away from overdoses of beige as possible.

I realize there's a big chance that in another five to ten years I'll be ready for another change. But that's the beauty of interior designs. They are constantly changing, ever-evolving, always keeping us on our toes.

It's fun to take a little stroll down memory lane every now and then. You have to know where you've been to figure out where you want to be.

See you at Haven 2012 in Atlanta?

2011-08-15T07:47:00.002-05:00

Hey guys!

Guess what?

I just bought my tickets to Haven 2012!

And I'm SO frin-diggin excited!!

I can't wait to meet some of you fellow home and design bloggers in Atlanta next year. Some of the most inspiring ladies will be hosting this event-- Rhoda of Southern Hospitality, Kate of Centsational Girl, Beth or Home Stories of A to Z and Sarah aka Thrifty Decor Chick plus SO MANY MORE! I cannot wait to meet you all in person!

All of these talented women under one roof in Atlanta reminds me of something else I've seen before.

Hold up.

I think I'm having a case of deja vu...

I knew I had seen this somewhere before! And for the record I am JONESIN' for these ladies to show up for the first day of the conference all dressed up like southern belles.

All we need is for Mr. Goodwill Hunting to join the cast as Anthony and I think we've got a new hit tv show on our hands!

If you want more info or are ready to register be sure to go check out the Haven Conference website. Tickets just went on sale this morning!

See you there!

NOTE: I stole all these images without any permission. This post is just for fun. I hope that you all think this is hilarious as I do. I love all of you. Please don't shun me at the conference.

If you Give a Garrett a Muffin

2011-08-14T10:48:00.002-05:00

I stumbled across this blog called Our Family Eats last night. I spent a few hours reading what she had to say about chemicals in our food and the affect they have on some children's behavior. It was an interesting read. Definitely worth considering. And, in a very Small World moment I realized she lives just a town over from me.

I'll be honest and say that I'm not a huge stickler about what Garrett eats. In fact, I relate more to Clark Griswold and his non-nutritive cereal varnish and non-caloric silicon-based kitchen lubricant than I do to organic and chemical-free lifestyles. When G was a baby I was much more militant about his first foods and what all he was eating. Now that the preschool years are here I have really slacked off on trying to control his diet 100%. Partly because he spends a good portion of time at babysitter/Grandma/Nana houses where I don't have any control, and partly because I just don't recipe plan like I should. Also? Tossing prepackaged easy-for-him-to-eat foods like Go-gurts and Lunchables in his lunch box are way too easy when we are running late for school in the mornings.

Now that preschool is starting back I really want to get into a steady routine of life. Lazy summertime days are over, so it's time to suck it up and get back in our groove. I am making myself and Garrett a pledge this school year-- NO MORE LUNCHABLES. I got so bad about buying them last year for his lunch, and those things are crazy full of sodium and nitrates and other bad stuff. So, this is me saying no more for this year.

Since he LOVES helping me in the kitchen I have been getting him more involved in making and preparing his food. It's so much fun to watch him get excited about baking things. Plus if he helps to make something he will usually eat it. One thing we've always loved to make together is muffins. Ever since we started reading If you Give A Moose a Muffin last year, Garrett has been a little bit obsessed with making muffins.

Today I wanted to make something from scratch, so I googled around and found a blog called "How to Make the Best Muffins Ever".

Allrighty then. Sounds good to me.

So I took the recipe for oatmeal muffins and tweaked it just a little bit. I traded out half the flour for whole wheat, added some wheat germ, flax seeds and two small jars baby food prunes and some strawberry applesauce from a Motts fruit cup.(Can you tell I cleaned out the pantry today!). I also chopped up and added about 3/4 cups Cracker Barrel Fried Apples.

Here's our muffins after we got them all mixed up and in the tin.

And Garrett licking the inside of the strawberry applesauce cup.

And here's the result!

I'm not sure I'd label them The Best Muffins Ever, but they were good, they were healthy and Garrett chowed down on them.

Do you cook with your kids? I'd love to see what all you've baked lately!

Growing pains

2011-08-13T12:54:00.002-05:00

When Garrett was born I wrote monthly updates of his life, milestones, and growth. I really tried to hit the highlights of what he was doing each month. My blog was his baby book. I'm so thankful to have all those moments written down now because my blog is also serving as my memory for a lot of those earlier days. I just don't remember some parts of the newborn stage. I'm astonished by the holes in my memory over the past few years. Lack of sleep will do that to a person.

Recently I have steered this blog down a one-lane path about home design peppered with a few gardening posts. In turn, my readership has grown, but my Garrett updates have gone completely silent. I am worried that I will regret not updating more about these preschool years. They are an amazing time. I wonder sometimes if I should start a new blog specifically for family updates, like Objectivity Rach has done with her B-sides blog. But then I don't want to have another blog to update. I've considered compartmentalizing my blog into home/garden/life a la Pioneer Woman but let's face it... my blog ain't all that special. Plus I'm way too lazy for the upkeep on something like that. So I have given up on those ideas and decided to just keep my updates here under one roof. It is my blog, after all. I can do whatever I want, right? :)

The preschool years are too precious to not remember. I need to write all this down before I forget about it. I'm sure all you mamas out there understand.

As my brain seems to be shrinking, his is exploding with knowledge. It's a fine trade off. He is talking in long logical paragraphs and negotiating with me about everything. He still loves playing on my cell phone. My parents both have iPads so he gets to play with them on occasion. Yesterday he found an old black clipboard in my dad's office. He flipped it over a few times, then he took it over to my dad's desk and said "Granddaddy, can you turn on this iPad for me?" I haven't heard my dad laugh so hard in a long time. This kid will never know a world without smart phones.

He loves Super World Adventures which is a direct knockoff of the original Super Mario Brothers that we all played on the very first Nintendo. Other favorites include Doodle Grub, Angry Birds and Coin Dozer but his absolute favorite is the talking Tomcat app. That cat drives me up the WALL but Garrett loves it so much I can't bring myself to delete it. I think he considers that cat a true friend.

Speaking of imaginary friends, we have welcomed quite a few into our house recently. First there was Camel, who is not exactly imaginary since he's actually my tan colored chenille throw. Garrett has to sleep with Camel every night, and sometimes he likes to put Pullups on him. I tell him that Camel has excellent bladder control so he doesn't need diapers. G has designated our bedroom carpeting and "the desert" and camel lives there sometimes. The living room is "the jungle" where we have to watch out for wild creatures. The end of our bed is the cliff over the ocean where he goes "SPLOOSH!" into the big laundry pile that is the ocean. It's a very adventurous place here in UBville. There are a host of other imaginary friends that come and go. Every night he asks me to pray for apple peel, banana peel, orange peel, coconut peel and the whole team. I'm not sure who this team is or where they came from but they sound really healthy.

The newest imaginary friends are named Sneaky, Snakey and Wormy. Apparently they are worms who follow us around and come out to play sometimes. I don't question these friends, I just play along and invite them over to eat dinner with us.

Recently he's learned how to take photos and videos of himself with my phone. There are days I flip through my photo album to find 65 photos that look very similar to this one:

School is starting back in less than a week. My baby who started in this preschool at 6 months old is now entering the 3k class. At the end of last school year he had already learned so much. He was tracing his letters and numbers and learning to write his name. He was connecting the dots and drawing circles and kinda sorta coloring inside the lines.

He had a big first this summer-- First trip to the dentist!

He did SO good! He got his teeth cleaned and learned how to brush and floss and even got X-rays done to check out how his big teeth were progressing below the surface. Looks like they are coming along just fine!

Look, Ma! No cavities!

This summer he attended swim lessons at the YMCA. I was so impressed at how far he advanced in just a week of lessons. By the end of the week he was no longer wearing his floats at all. One day during a rainstorm they taught the kids safety information instead of swimming. G learned how to dial 9-1-1 on the special phone that asks "What's your emergency?" He had to tell them his name, where he was located and what emergency was happening. We talk about it sometimes to keep him refreshed on it, but hopefully we will never have to actually utilize that knowledge.

As a reward for finishing the class he got to go down the big water slide.

COWABUNGA! He loved it so much that I might have to build a water slide into our swimming pool one day.

Like last summer, we've spent a lot of time outside exploring the yard and all the critters that we have in these woods. We also have spent a lot of time indoors enjoying the air conditioning since it's been hot out there. We just replaced our old air conditioners in our house with a new system. While J and I are hot natured, poor little G has been saying "I FREEZING!" all summer. So J bought him his very own Snuggie to wrap up in while we are sweating it out. His cold little bones are happier. Now if someone could just flip to MTV and teach him how to Dougie he'd be all set.

One day driving home I spied a box turtle crawling across the road. I stopped and picked him up and showed him to Garrett. We took him home and played with him for a little while.

He was disappointed that he could get him to come out of his shell. I think he thought all turtles are like Franklin.

First he tried to SQUEEEEEEZE him to get him to come out.

Then he was worried that he would come out of his shell and bite him.

So we set the turtle free in the front yard and he wandered into the woods eventually. Garrett was looking at that last picture one night on my phone and he decided to re-enact the event using his favorite Franklin book as the impromptu turtle stand-in. Check out the look in his eyes when he saw how he made me laugh. Imagination, this kid's got it.

Bubble blowing is another summertime must-do activity. We've graduated to the giant bubble wands which are a huge hit. And like my friend Natalie-- it seems like every summertime event turns into a photography session around here. Thank goodness for that, though or else this whole post would be nothing but blurry cell phone pics.

Pretty bubbles!

And of course, no summer would be complete without some sprinkler action. Our pool pump is broken right now so there hasn't been any swimming for a few weeks. The sprinklers make a good substitute. In the late afternoons the sunlight filters through the trees and casts some crazy lights on the sprinklers. I told Garrett to go stand inside the light and captured some magical photos that have become my favorites.

I loved this quote that I found. It seemed like the perfect description to a very fun summer.

After all the playing and swimming and sprinklering is over he is one tired little dude. Bedtime routine is still the same- bathtime, read 2 books, prayers and lights out. One night I checked on him to find that he had fallen asleep with the booklight that came free with his Snuggie. He loves these Dad and Piggy books.

Other nights he doesn't even make it upstairs before he passes out asleep. Some nights he falls asleep during the commute home from work and doesn't wake up until the next morning. One time he crawled into my lap and asked me to scratch his back. As I sat there rocking and scratching his back I realized he had passed out asleep on my chest.

Sweetest moment ever.

I love being this kid's mama. We were meant to be.

Basement Progress!

2011-08-08T07:15:00.004-05:00

The basement remodel is coming along! J and his dad have put in a lot of hard work over the past few weekends getting the studs and the ceiling joists in place. Here are a few shots of the progress that has been made so far:

The mirrored room is no longer! WHOOOHOO!!

Since these two walls are completely underground, J applied rigid insulation board as a bit of a moisture barrier, then they built the frame for the wall studs in front of that.

Outside the mirrored room is an alcove area that leads to the bathroom and has exit doors to the parking areas of the garage.

They had to work around the water heater and the air handler. J got the wooden cabinet to install into the wall as an access panel for knobs and spigot on the back of the water heater. It will make more sense once it's installed.

This little area is where the cabinetry will be installed.

Because we wanted the ceiling height to be as high as possible, we had to get creative with the ceiling build-out. The ceilings will have a box beam around the ductwork that will accommodate the height differences in the room. It also helps keep the ceiling at the bottom of the staircase from being so low my 6'2" husband won't whack his head on it when he walks down the stairs. Very important things to consider in a tall household.

The center of the room will be 10' high and drop down to 8'-6" around the perimeter. J plans to trim out the ceilings with some crown molding and lighting. I can't wait to see what he does with it.

Next up:
Surround sound wiring
Sheetrock
Mud/tape/paint
Lighting @ electrical stuff
Flooring
Decorating!

I'm excited to see how it turns out! So proud of my husband and my father-in-law for DIYing this huge job. They are really knocking it out of the park down there.

Stay tuned for more updates!

The old door coffee table

2011-08-07T17:40:00.002-05:00

Remember the exterior door turned coffee table that J built a few years ago? We've been using it in our living room ever since we moved into the new house.

(Check out the new paint!?)

I love the table because it's sturdy and durable, and it can handle all sorts of feet-propping and abuse from my 3 year old. And the best part? The door was completely FREE! My neighbor had this old door lying in a trash pile beside the road. When I spotted it I knew I needed it, so I whipped into his driveway and asked if we could have it. He even delivered it for me because it was so heavy. Talk about a great deal.

The door is still weathered to perfection, and now it has Play-doh wedged into the crevices for added character.

The raised area around the panels have been used for many a train and Hot Wheel drag race. Most recently he's gotten into these medieval knights and dragons from Papo toys so now we have horse races and jousting on the table.

I keep two metal buckets underneath it where I can dump all of G's toys so they are hidden when company comes over. Out of sight, out of mind.

This has been one of the best repurposed pieces in my whole house. I absolutely love this table.

It once again proves that one man's trash really is another (wo)man's treasure.

Linking up at Southern Hospitality's August Thrifty Treasures.

My new Biltmore Inspirations Loot!

2011-08-07T09:11:00.004-05:00

My Biltmore Inspirations stuff is here and I'm so happy to show it off to you guys. Within just three days of closing out my party all of my beautiful new stuff began arriving on my doorstep. I was really surprised by the fast shipping time. Good job on the quick turnaround, BI!

It's hard to choose a favorite, but I really love this white vineyard vase. I have had my eye out for something in this shape for a while, and the fact that it's white and distressed made it more appealing to me.

The two compliment jars are so cute! The finish is similar to mercury glass, which was a pleasant surprise. I love their shape, too. They are petite, and the lids come off so you can put flowers inside. I ordered one and got the second one with my free $25.00 for hosting a party over $250! Yay for free stuff!!

I might move them into my bathroom to hold some cotton balls and q-tips on my countertop. They could be used for a million different things around the house. Possibly a jewelry holder? Maybe when I get old I'll put my dentures inside them. Fancy!

I got the Vineyard Serving Dish as my half price item. Love the vivid green color in my kitchen. For now it's used as a fruit bowl (you know.... when I actually go to the store and buy some fresh fruit), but I can definitely see this being a part of my Christmas decorations this year.

I know it's only August but I can't resist displaying these woodland acorns around in my dining room.

I'm channeling my inner squirrel and sticking these cute nuts all around my house getting prepared for Fall. I put a few underneath my new Willow House tall dome that I scored in the big July sale.

I like that they also distract from the fact that I haven't polished that tarnished silver candlestick in approximately 6.5 years.

Thanks to Rhoda at Southern Hospitality for being such a great consultant. She was very easy to work with and answered all of my questions about the products. I hope you'll check out her website for more info on hosting your own show!

Photographing lightning bugs

2011-08-06T00:00:00.001-05:00

The lightning bugs are out in full force at my house right now.

Wait--do you call them fireflies or lightning bugs where you come from?

Here in the South we call 'em lightning bugs. Just wanted to be clear about that.

Tonight before Garrett went to bed we ran around our yard like crazy people pawing at the air trying our best to catch them. It's not as easy as I remember when I was a kid. I'm not quite as agile or quick as I used to be.

I decided to try to get a picture of them instead.

I ran (ok, walked) inside and got my camera and my new $3.00 yard sale tripod.

In manual mode I cranked my ISO up to 6400. I set the aperture as low as it would go, which was f3.5. I cranked my shutter speed down as low as it would go. I know it doesn't look like it, but it was pitch black outside when I took these photos. There was just a little bit of light in the sky and a few inside my house to light up the yard.

Here is what it really looked like outside.

Very dark!

I metered on the light from the window of my house to give the camera something to focus on but I didn't push the button down all the way. Once I heard the beep that it was focused, I moved the camera so it was pointed toward the dark woods, all the while holding the button down just halfway. Once it was pointed in the right direction toward the bug flashes I pushed the button all the way. The exposure time on these photos was 30 seconds. That means the camera sat there gathering any light inside the frame for a full 30 seconds after the click of the camera snap before it actually exposed the picture. The tripod was important for this part because there's no way my Shaky McGee self could hold the camera steady for that long!

Here is an outtake photo what NOT to do. If you happen to snap the photo too soon then you'll wind up with a really blurry crazy picture like this. That's why it's important to 1.) Only push the button halfway until you're pointed at exactly what you want to shoot and 2.) Be very still.

Although I might need to fool around with this a little more for some creepy ghostly Halloween shots, huh?

But yeah, for the fireflies? Don't do that.

Do this.

The resulting pictures are pretty cool! They are nothing show-stopping, but considering how tiny those bug's butts are, I think these pictures are a fun way to capture the essence of a muggy summertime evening.

G was already asleep when I was taking these pictures. I might try again later to capture a shot of him out in the yard with the lightning bugs. But tonight I settled for a photo of the newest member of our family-- my new Acadia! Say cheese!

I hope you are having a great summer! It's almost over. Don't blink or you'll miss it.

Pottery Barn for my Potty Barn

2011-07-28T17:59:00.002-05:00

My bathtub faucet broke off in my hand over the weekend. I was running a bath for Garrett and PLOP, off it came. It took me a few seconds to realize that water was running all over the side of the tub before I shut it off and tried to screw it back on. Except the screw was missing so we need to find a tee-tiny replacement screw.

My master bathroom is on the giant to-do list of home projects, but since it is one of those "guests never see it" rooms it's way down at the bottom of the list It did get a coat of dark green paint when we first moved in, which I am now kind of regretting. Unless it is high noon without a cloud in the sky, the room is SO dark. Even with two windows it is just a really dark room.

Here is a high noon photo back before the faucet broke off:

And the other side:

I know that I shouldn't complain because it's a good sized bathroom in good condition. But I'm gonna complain anyway.

Ready? Here I go.

There is not an overheard light, and the tiny wall sconces give off less light than Abe Lincoln had to study by. Putting on makeup is fun, especially if it's dark outside. The layout of the bathroom is really wonky, too. The toilet is hidden behind a short wall next to the bathtub. I miss the potty room at our old house. Privacy in the privvy should be a minimum requirement of any master bathroom, in my opinion. And also the toilet is small! It's a cheap standard sized toilet that sits way down low with no elongated bowl or anything. Nearly every time I use it I want to yell "CURSE YOU TINY TOILET!" On the plus side, it's great for potty training G. It's the perfect height for a preschooler.

I wish that I could rip it all out and start over with a new design. It's just not arranged very well, and the 30ish inch high laminate vanity feels like it was created for the cast of Little People, Big World. I need taller sinks and definitely a taller toilet.

I really want a total bath overhaul, so when I saw this picture on facebook I let out an audible gasp. I'm completely and utterly in LOVE with this photo from the Fall 2011 Pottery Barn catalog.

There is nothing in this photo that I don't love. Ok, maybe some bigger wall sconces because those don't look much better than what I currently have. I would do white paneling or beadboard instead of subway tiles. I know a lot of folks go buck wild over subway tile but it doesn't do much for me.

Yeah. The wheels are a-turning. Watch out, babe. Our house projects are far from complete.

Learn something new everyday

2011-07-27T23:06:00.004-05:00

So if you look over in my sidebar you will see something new that looks like this:

My husband is the greatest.

It's so useful being married to a CIS major. Tonight he taught me how to make this nifty little nested table for my sidebar! It wasn't hard to do, and I've always envied the cute images that other bloggers have for their links. So, I created the images in Photoshop and he rattled off the HTML to put it all together in a nice package and it worked!

I know some of you are probably rolling your eyes right now, but hey! It's really satisfying for me and my amateur web-techy self to DIY something new for my blog and have it turn out just right the first time.

Oh, and guess what?

I'm officially on facebook! Woohoo!

Welcome to 2002, huh?

Well, actually I've had a personal facebook page ever since I ran screaming away from myspace a few years back. But now my BLOG has a facebook page, so will y'all come on over and like me? Pretty please?

I have been getting a lot more emails and direct messages recently about some of my projects so I think facebook is the best way to interact with you guys! Post your questions on my wall and I'll be happy to try to answer it or just clutter up your facebook wall with my posts. I will try my best not to click on any of those super-pervy like-virus scams that seem to be an epidemic these days.

Here you go, just click here to find me on facebook!

See you there!

PS--Let me know if you need the code for my new nested tables and I'll hit you up in a facebook message! I'm happy to share my {limited} knowledge.

"Rusty" table spraypaint makeover

2011-07-25T21:49:00.003-05:00

I bought this little end table one day from The Foundary. I sure do buy a LOT from that place, huh!? I can't help myself, Willard.

They have good deals.

When the table arrived I loved the shape of the base but I hated the finish. The finish was supposed to look like rust? I think? But it was man-made rust, so it just looked kind of gross and diseased instead.

Plus I've never seen pink colored rust. Yick.

So... I tackled this table with my trusty Rust-O-leum oil rubbed bronze spray paint. (I love the trigger on this stuff, btw. My fingers thank Rust-O-leum.)

Check out the new finish on this little side table!

Now I love the shape AND the color. It fits perfectly beside my favorite chair in my living room.

Thank goodness for spray paint.

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Don't it make my brown cabinet blue.

2011-07-24T09:23:00.010-05:00

Crystal Gayle, anyone? No? Allrightythen.

Alternate title: Tramp Stamping the China Cabinet.

Notice anything different about my china cabinet?

While the painters were painting the dining room, I had to unload my entire china cabinet so that they could move it without fear of breaking anything. Check out my dining table loaded down with all it's contents. Oy vey at all the glassware I have!

While it was empty I decided to finally slap a coat of paint on the ugly brown wood backerboard. It has been bugging me ever since we moved into this house! I never even noticed it at the old house because our dining room walls were brown, and the back of the china cabinet blended right in with the wall.

See? Blends right in.

It was no big deal until we moved here and suddenly all I could see when I looked at my pretty china cabinet was the fugly brown back.

So this week that changed. First went a coat of white paint as a primer. I used one of the numerous Sherwin Williams paint samples that I had lying around. I wasn't sure what color I wanted to go with, but I knew something was better than nothing so I started with white.

I could tell that was not going to be the final answer just by looking at the first coat. I compared some paint samples to the wall color and it was very similar to SW Foggy Day. So then I remembered that somewhere in my paint sample stash I had a little quart of Sherwin Williams Foggy Day! It's like it was meant to be. I had considered using it on my bedroom walls when we first moved in, but it didn't really do much for me in that room so I nixed it. I knew it was a nice slate blue grey color that would go well with the new dining room color. I wanted it to blend into the background again like it did before, so I slapped up two coats of paint on the back and let that dry.

This was looking a lot better already, but I still wasn't 100% happy with it. Too blah.

It needed something else.

So I headed to Hobby Lobby one night after work and found a big paisley wall stencil.

I also grabbed some "dazzling metallic elegance" craft paint in an assortment of silvery green colors and some sponges.

Then late one night I did some of this:

And a whole lot of this:

Which gave me this:

And I just kept rotating it around in some kind of randomness until it looked like this:

Much better.

I loved it so much I just kept going all the way down on the shelves, too.

Then I loaded it back up with all my stuff.

I love the way it looks peeking out from behind my Grandma's plates.

I don't own any real china, by the way. I never saw the point in it.

But I do love my china cabinet, even though it should just be called a "sentimental cabinet". I have a lot of inherited things along with my wedding stuff inside of it.

I like to mix all my old stuff like the Libbey glasses that I inherited from my Grandma in with my newer stuff from Willow House and my Wilton serving stuff. It's not so stuffy and formal that way.

J says it looks like the china cabinet has been tattooed.

But the paisley pattern makes it more of a "drank too many Bartles & James in college and got this girly tattoo" kind of tattoo, so I guess you could say I have officially tramp stamped my china cabinet.

Keepin it klassy, y'all.

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New Blue Dining Room Paint

2011-07-23T19:01:00.003-05:00

The next room on the new blue paint train is the dining room.

The dining room was a moss green color before we painted. It wasn't a terrible color, just very... green. Here it is before the paint.

Somewhere deep in my memory could hear my college interior design professor saying "Only use appetizing colors in a place where people will be eating". Green is the color of quite a few unappetizing things so I knew I wanted something different in the dining room. Remember in the late 90's when everyone painted their dining rooms deep red because red is supposed to be an appetizing color?

And then obesity rates skyrockted in the US?

Coincidence? I think not. hehehe

I'm thinking that maybe being surrounded by all this calm blue in the 2010's will help us all lose weight. Now that's a trend I could get behind! With that logic, though, I'd actually have be all formal and actually sit down to eat in the dining room for each meal instead of grazing my way through the pantry at night.

Maybe my idea needs a little bit of work.

At first I considered going with Sherwin Williams North Star, but when the painters got the first coat up it wasn't jiving with me at all. I was right to be worried that it would look like a baby nursery. It really did.

Then I considered SW Seasalt for a minute, but since I was pretty freaked out about the Sailcloth color being SO light in the living room and foyer I decided to have them repaint it again a darker color.

Instead of driving to the paint store yet again I went to my closet and pulled out the custom manual matched paint that I bought for my Craigslist desk and photo collage on a column.

And it was perfect.

The paint looks completely different than it does on that column, but I can promise you that it's the exact same stuff. Another chameleon paint color.

Here is a pretty good representation of the actual color in the room. It's kind of a slate/ steel/ cartoon elephant blue / gray color.

Here is the paint can in case anyone wants to try to get it matched up.

It is VERY similar to SW Foggy Day if you want something really close.

It looks great with the existing rug I had in that room. I think it pulls a lot more blue out of it than the green that was there before.

Besides the paint, not much else has changed in the room. My dough bowl is still decorating the center of my table. I love this dough bowl.

My Grandma's china cabinet is still over in the corner begging me for a coat of paint. I've seen so many similar pieces on pinterest these days with Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint on them. Hmmmm...

In the meantime to dress it up I added this cute little hand made ornament that is the shape of Alabama. I got it at the Alabama Goods store in Homewood.

You might have noticed that my beautiful black china cabinet did get a little updating, but I'll show you that in another post. ;-)

I like my black and brown accents together. I know it's supposed to be a no-no but I think it looks just fine. This little table came from Bombay and Company. I'm still sad about that store closing.

I love all my Willow House stuff, too, obviously since it's all over my house.

I am pretty doggone pleased with the way it turned out in this room. Now if I can just convince myself that blue paint will help me lose weight I'd have to change my blog name to Skinny Boppy in no time.

New(ish) Favorite: Connor Claire frames

2011-07-20T09:44:00.002-05:00

I am such a sucker for unique picture frames, especially if they are hand made by a fellow Alabamian. That's why I adore Connor Claire Frames! They are local to Shelby County, and I've seen them at several different craft fairs around town, including the Helena Buck Creek Festival, the Moss Rock Festival and the Town of Mt Laurel Spring/Fall Festivals. They are a husband and wife team that named their business after their two children. So sweet!

Their frames are just amazing.

In 2008 I posted about this pretty frame I bought to go in the living room of my old house.

This was my very first Connor Claire photo frame.

That frame made the move from our old house and landed a coveted spot right in the nook of the staircase in our living room. I love the way it looks above my little kidney shaped table.

Here is my second Connor Claire frame:

This one is a turquoise distressed beauty with brown accents behind the three photo spots. I needed something long and skinny for this spot on my wall, and this frame fit perfectly.

Now I am the proud owner of a third piece from Connor Claire. I won this awesome clipboard frame during the Restore Alabama auction. Since it's a clipboard you could actually put anything on it, not just a photo. A fancy place for your grocery list, perhaps? Or maybe a to-do list? Nah, it would need to be MUCH bigger for that. That's what my iPhone is for.

Plus I have way too many photos of Garrett that need a spot to be displayed.

They have totally nailed the distressing technique on these frames. I love it. They are custom crafted all the way.

The biggest problem I have with these guys is choosing which frame I want to come home with me whenever I happen upon their booth! They have so many beautiful pieces it's hard to decide.

If you are interested in purchasing a frame or placing a custom order, please email Taylor at taylor@connorclaireframes.com or call him at 205.902.3478. You can also "Like" Connor Claire Frames on facebook to keep up with their current events and inventory.

I hope you will check these guys out and show them some love! Tell them Beth at Unskinny Boppy sent you! :)

The Basement

2011-07-19T08:00:00.003-05:00

How many of you have remodeled your basement? I'm betting quite a few. My awesome husband has decided to DIY a basement remodel project with the help of his father. Two weekends into it and things are really starting to shape up! I'm super impressed by their progress, so I wanted to show off all their hard work! I'll be posting the progress photos here on the blog as they continue to get it looking like a completed space.

If you remember my Sketchup concept drawing of the area, we are enclosing about 550 square feet of space down there.

Come, let me show you my basement.

These half finished stairs lead the way.

Once you get to the bottom you see a ton of concrete blocks, just like any other unfinished basement.

Here is a view looking toward the garage doors. About 1/4 of this area will be enclosed very soon so you won't see all of our junk! Yay for junk-blockage!

The good news is, there are already some parts that have been finished by the previous owners! Inside these walls is a full bath complete with a bathtub and everything.

It's where I spent a few nights huddled under some couch cushions with Garrett waiting for tornadoes to blow on by. It's not much to look at, but it's functional and spacious!

There is a six foot wide hallway between the bathroom and the other finished room.

At the end of this hallway (which is actually the bottom of the stairs) is where they will be installing the new cabinetry that I bought.

The other finished room in the basement is special.

We call it The Mirror Room. It was used as a workout room by the previous peeps, and two of the walls are completely covered in mirrors from floor to ceiling. When I first walked in I was like, "WOW! There's me in every direction! Scary!"

I try to avoid this room at all costs.

J put tape on all the mirrors because at one point we had considered trying to remove them all. We decided against that plan after having a professional glass installer come out and give us an estimate and he refused to even do the job. He said he didn't want to end up in the ER with a severed artery. That was enough for us to say "COVER THEM UP!" The plan is to sheetrock over the two mirror walls. Luckily the other two walls are already sheetrock.

This room had some cheap 2'x4' acoustical tiles installed for a ceiling. J wants to put in sheetrock ceilings throughout so all of this will be removed.

So there you have it. The initial walk-through of our basement. I will post soon with all the progress that they have made so far! It's coming together!

To be continued...

Because matboard is boring

2011-07-18T07:21:00.004-05:00

I finally got around to hanging this photo of Garrett from last winter in this super funky and rustic beadboard picture frame that I bought from Southern Accents last year.

Why did it take me so long you ask?

Well, here was the hold up.

This frame had no hardware and no glass in it. It was custom made by the guys at Southern Accents in Cullman so it wasn't hang-ready when I bought it. So my lazy self never got around to adding hardware and hanging it. Secondly, it has 10" x 10" sized hole, so it's not exactly a standard size. I ordered an 8 x 8 photo for it with intentions of buying a matboard and doing it the "right" way.

Well, the right way was boring, so I never did it. I just leaned this frame in random spots around my house because it's cool enough to stand alone as a work of art!

But last week one of my good friends gave me the best idea for using this frame without ~~exerting too much effort~~ waiting on the right size mat. Lisa at York Designs (who really needs to blog a lot more often because her style is out of this world FABULOUS!) showed off her nursery pictures to our group of friends recently. She had bought a unique old picture frame, too. Instead of matting it, she had strung a piece of artwork on a wire with a clip.

And bingo! Light bulb went off! That was how I would work around my empty frame dilemma!

So here is my interpretation of that idea:

I didn't have any clips lying around so I used a key ring. I thought it looks pretty good!

I used one wire to hang it and another wire as a guideline to string the photo, and that's it!

Mark this one off the to-do list.

Steubenville pottery and a camera tripod - my Thifty Treasures!

2011-07-17T17:41:00.002-05:00

Like I mentioned in my blue paint kitchen reveal post, I scored some great little pieces of pottery at a yard sale last week.

I found these beautiful vintage Woodfield leaf plates (saucers?) by Steubenville for $3.00 each.

They were in great condition!

I bought the {w}hole bag for $5.00 so I got them for $2.50 each.

Not bad considering these are selling on etsy for $18.00 for a set of three!

I love the way this one looks in the herb crate next to my fridge.

And the green one looks good layered in between my Willow House Villa Stoneware in the other crate!

Yahoo for a great find!

I stopped at another yardsale that same day and ran across this camera tripod for $5.00. I wasn't sure if it would fit my camera so I asked the girl if she would take $3.00 and she agreed! Turns out the camera fits perfectly on it, and I used it today to take a bunch of nice level, non-shaky photos of my kitchen with it!

Like this!

I have come so close to buying one of these at Best Buy over the years but for my needs I'm glad I waited and found this one. My husband isn't thrilled at the thought of me using my expensive new camera on a $3.00 used tripod, but I feel ok about it. :)

From Yellow to Blue: a Kitchen Transformation

2011-07-17T16:29:00.004-05:00

To say that I'm happy with the way that the new kitchen paint turned out would be the understatement of the year.

I am ecstatic! Overjoyed! Thrilled! Just completely in love with the results.

I chose Restoration Hardware Silver Sage for the paint on the walls, and we also chose to add an extra few inches to the crown molding by using picture molding about 3" beneath the existing crown and painting it all one color to match. Great decision there.

This paint changes with the light. When it's bright outside, it's a light blue/grey color. When it's cloudy outside, it's a warm green/ grey color. When it's dark outside, it's a cool silvery grey color. It's the chameleon of paints, I tell you.

That column really needs to scoot over so I can get a clear shot of the whole room!

Since everyone loves a good B&A let me show you how it looked before with the yellow paint from the previous owners:

And today with the new fresh coat of light blue/gray/green goodness on it and what appears to be some sort of alien spacecraft blasting off outside the window....

The Restoration Hardware Silver Sage paint color looks great with the cabinetry and the countertop and the kitchen table and the rug and the floors! You can't ask for much better than that.

The breakfast nook is about 50 jillion times better in blue than the old yellow paint.

Garrett jumped into one of my shots and I just have to show y'all his cute face. He makes me laugh.

Here is the before with the previous owners salmon colored curtains that I agonized over taking down. Um. Yeah. Now I don't know what took me so long.

And the after with the valances removed and new blue paint.

Ahhhhhhh... It's like my Paula Deen table went to the spa and came back all rejuvenated instead of jaundiced.

The herb crates even got decorated after they went back up on the wall this time!

The top one got a vintage Steubenville Woodfield blue leaf plate that I picked up at a yardsale last week for $2.00!

The middle one got a bundle of green grassy stuff that I've had for years (originally from Homegoods, I believe?) NOT rosemary, obviously.

The bottom one got an assortment of my favorite Willow House Villa Stoneware plates.

Here's a good B&A of the herb crates on the yellow wall versus the blue:

Before:

After:

Here is a shot looking towards the butler's pantry and dining room. I traded out the little slate topped telephone table that I had in this corner for a grey slatted table that I bought from The Foundary a few months ago.

I put a small chicken wire basket there in hopes of taming the clutter that is our junk mail. In the past this little area has turned into paper stacking central, but I'm giving myself a pep talk and making it pretty in an effort to keep it from piling up again.

I'm loving the rustic little display on the bottom. That cloche is actual the top from a cheese dome I bought from the Pier One Outlet in 2004. Love a multipurpose piece with longevity. I'm combining my love of the mountains and the ocean with a weird little combo of birch bark candles and seashells but I think it works! We'll see how long it will last with a 3 year old running around.

I love the quatrefoil design on this Willow House Keepsake card and photo display thingie. It's so pretty! I need to find a new spot to hang my keys, though.

My encaustic photo frame is super happy sitting on this new blue wall!

I could just not be any happier with the way the kitchen turned out. I'm SO happy I chose this paint color in here! I was so worried about choosing a paint that would make my glazed kitchen cabinets look really dingy or dirty but this paint doesn't do that at all. If anything it makes them look LESS dirty than the yellow. More vanilla and less lemon. I can dig it.

It's perfect. This paint makes me so happy. Total mood lifter.

Hooray for blue! I love you, Restoration Hardware for creating the perfect grey/blue paint!

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