Catching Up- Mother's Day, Family Thrifting and End of the School Year

Hey Everyone!

Sorry it's been awhile but we all got sick... again. This time it was just a little virus. No throwing up- which I consider a bonus really- but it was over Mother's Day. Not the greatest Mother's Day ever but I got to spend it with my family and that was awesome. Aleena made me something at school.

Have I ever told you how much I lover her teacher? She is great and has the cutest ideas. She traced the kids' hands, cut it out  and mod podged it onto a tile with felt on the back. It's my own little Aleena coaster and I use it every morning when I drink my coffee. The following week my hardworking hubby had a day off in the middle of the week so we all picked up Aleena from school and hit the thrift store, followed by a local plant nursery and Red Robin for lunch. We had a great time! Thrifting is a little more complicated with 3 kids and a husband tagging along but I did manage to find this.

Which is currently hanging out on the shelves over my sink.

 

It was the best make up Mother's day ever. 

The other thing I wanted to share with you is that Aleena has finished her first year of Preschool. I am so proud of her. We really saw her blossom this year. Here she is on her First day of Preschool.

And here she is on her last day of this year.

 

How my Sweet baby girl has grown! The time is just flying by.

We had a real honest to goodness weekend this weekend for the first time in AGES and were able to start making some more progress around the house. Hopefully I will have lots to share with you soon!!

How about a Sneak Peek

at the fabric for the living room curtains?

This is the Braemore Henry Ikat in Navy which we purchased from fabric.com. This fabric usually retails for $24.99 a yard. Little bit more than we wanted to spend so when I found it at fabric.com for $18.98 a yard, plus 40% off, plus free shipping  I was willing to take the leap.I don't know how often they run their sales but when you are buying 12 yards of fabric 40% off is the way to go. I figure if we paid full price we would have paid $300. Instead we spent $137 on enough fabric to do four ceiling to floor panels in a room with  9 foot ceilings. 

Some of you are probably scratching your head at my fabric choice because this doesn't look like something I would typically pick. With this room makeover I have been pushing more for the Hubby's input (and he has been offering it more even when I don't want it.) We are putting some money into this makeover and I want it to be a room that we both enjoy. That being said- we have VERY different styles. This fabric was one of the few that we agreed on. When the fabric first came and I saw how big the pattern was I got a little nervous. I finally got around to cutting it up so I could start sewing and I couldn't resist "trying it out."

I had to stand on the chair to get it up there and I could barely reach but with this little preview I fell in LOVE! I cannot wait until I can get these made and hung. Guess I had better get that sewing machine warmed up.

Anyone else working on some big sewing projects?

~R

Lilacs and Living Room Progress

Happy Monday! I hope you all enjoyed your weekend! I was fairly busy this weekend trying to get the bigger pieces of the living room in place. Also this weekend our lilacs finally bloomed. They smell SO good. When we bought the house last year the yard was a pretty big mess. Matthew spent a LOT of time last year clearing brush and fighting poison ivy (which resulted in 2 trips to the ER.) We have two lilac bushes but last year the white one was so overgrown with poison ivy that it never flowered.

The white lilac is on the right with just 2 branches which looks funny but it has quite a few blooms. The purple lilac on the left is much bigger but it seems to have fewer blooms this year. This is the view from our back steps. We don't really like staring at our neighbor's wood pile but we don't want to plant anything else back there until we have the poison ivy under control. Sweet Hubs did cut us a few blooms though.

They are brightening up our fireplace mantle.

Since the shiny gold of the fireplace is so distracting, here is a picture of just the mantle.

This is the first time since we moved in that the fireplace mantle is decorated so I love it, plus the lilacs are making the whole living room smell so good!

On the other side of the room we finally have a desk!

I am so happy we finally have a designated desk area! We don't have a  "desk chair." We have the chairs that I refinished that sit right next to the desk so we can turn one and use it whenever we need. If we just need the desk to be a table or a serving area if we have company we just take away the computer and leave the chair facing forward.

We are keeping it real by leaving the cords and paper shredder visible but at least they aren't sitting out in the open which they have been for the 17 months that we have lived here. By visible I mean you would trip on the computer cord walking through the dining room because the cord had to go from the wall over to the table. I am so happy it is tucked away now.

I got the drawer front sanded and stained and got to put on the pretty pull. It makes me smile.

I wanted to show you a picture of at least this half of the room all painted. It's hard to photograph with the way the sun comes in. There really isn't a good time of day to take pictures but I will show you my attempt.

 

It feels so light and airy in here to me now. We have come a long way in just a few weeks and with minor changes.

 

If you go back to how it looked when we looked at the house the first time I think we have come an even longer way! Before...

And After...

Yay!!!  All the big pieces are in place so I can start tackling smaller things now like curtains and hanging things on the walls.  I actually think I am fairly close to feeling like it is "done." What do you think?

The fireplace is going to have to stay an eye sore until we can come up with a plan or win the lottery (just kidding.) Anyone have some suggestions?

~Rosemary

In Search of the Perfect Desk

Happy Friday! I am not sure how it is May already! Time has just been flying by this year. I have been working on my "Company is Coming" list. I refinished a leaf for the dining room table and I have been searching for the perfect desk for out living room.

The original plan is that we were going to build the desk. Nothing too fancy but I have totally been crushing on this pictured since I showed it to you a few months ago.

 

(I would love to find the original source for this picture but I have had no luck.)

 I have several pictures pinned on Pinterest with similar tables to this. We even found plans so we could build one of our own. The poor hubs has been working a TON of overtime and there are just too many other more pressing projects that we decided to buy a desk instead. This was not an easy undertaking. I knew I wanted it to be wood and in fairly good shape because I didn't want to paint it. I wanted to have the original finish since most of the furniture on that end of the living room is painted and I wanted it to have some contrast. I also was setting our budget at $100. Even that was a little more than what I wanted to spend but I didn't want to bring home a piece of junk either. My other must-have was that it had to have pretty legs. I am a sucker for some nice turned legs on a piece of furniture!

I started scouring Craigslist and came up empty handed. I even searched ebay in hopes that I could find something local. I did find this...

Which fit all my requirements and it made my heart pound. But it was seven and a half hours away. Which would have made it's $75 price tag a lot more than that to go and get it. I have always wanted a barley twist table but I had to let this one go. No one bought it- which makes me sad! I headed back to Craigslist and found this...

Which fit all the requirements except for the fact that it cost $235. Ouch. I was ready to give up. Which is when I (finally!) found it!

 It was listed on Craigslist for $95. The top was in sad shape along with the inside of the drawer so I got it for $80.  I didn't want to have to put a lot of work into it- there are just too many projects going on right now. But the top definitely needed some love.

It took a little bit more elbow grease than I had thought it would. I had to go down to a 40 grit sandpaper just to smooth out the top. After one coat of stain though it matched the rest of the desk.

I put three coats of the acrylacq on the top and I was ready to go other than changing out the pull.

I have to say this is the first time I have ever seen a pull attached from the outside with a screw. It was so very not attractive and had absolutely no intention of being removed.  We tried 3 different screw drivers and once the top started to strip my sweet but exhausted hubby took it to the basement to  try and get it out. Which he did. Shhh- there was some minor damage to the drawer. I can fix it so I am not worried and without his help that screw was not going anywhere!

I have to show you the pretty little pull I picked out!

I got this one at Hobby Lobby. We don't have one that is close enough to just drop in and look at things but they were having a special with two dollar shipping . I can't wait to actually put it on the desk!

My goal was to at least have the desk finished to show you today. The difficulty with the drawer pull made that not possible but next week I should be able to show you it all finished and in it's new home- which will also give you a look at how the living room looks all painted!

Yay for progress!! I also looked at some paint samples for the kitchen. I will let you know if I actually pick something. Now that the weather is nice I need to set up somewhere outside so I can paint the cabinet doors. We will get there eventually. I am feeling the need to purge things we aren't using so in between projects I am piling things up for a yard sale and donating. Anyone else cleaning out or getting organized??

~R

Where has the time gone?

It's been a MONTH since my last post?! Wow. It has definitely been a crazy couple of weeks. Right after I posted we had two of the craziest, busiest weeks we have had in a long time. Then is was Easter and then my kids got the week long nasty stomach bug (over my birthday!) that, between them, took us almost 2 weeks to get over. I am in NO hurry to do that again. I am STILL playing catch up trying to get everything cleaned!

  Last time I posted I had set some goals for myself.

Paint the living room- check (almost) there is one little spot above the molding where I can't reach. Hubby's Turn!

Paint the dining room table- ehh- not exactly. I did paint but it needs another coat.

Get the old dining room table on craigslist- CHECK! It sold in a day! Such a relief to have that much less furniture in the house.

The living room is SO much brighter now that it is painted. I will have update pictures soon! We haven't been up to much in the last 4 weeks.

One thing I have accomplished in this last week in between all the cleaning is that I FINALLY made our neighbor's baby quilt. They had a little boy at the end of January and I finally just finished it this week! They did not find out what they were having so they did their nursery in a neutral woodland theme. Which gave me this idea.

 

 

I am in LOVE with this quilt. Aleena told me it was "awesome." That is very high praise from her indeed! I needed to figure out how to do it (Pinterest!) and I basically followed this tutorial (which is actually for a pillow) but turned it into a baby quilt instead.  I purchased some simple white cotton fabric and some cute flannel from Joann's. I wanted to do the leaves in a bunch of different fabrics so I wracked my brain and ended up on Etsy buying someones scraps that they were selling in color bundles. I bought their brown and green. One of the green fabrics had the larger size birds so I used one of those and the same material I used for making the tree "hollow" I used for the bird's nest. I learned that Heat n Bond is not really my friend. But it was a good learning experience. I did not use batting in this quilt but the flannel back still makes it pretty cozy. The sewing that I did to secure the leaves was my quilting action so there wasn't any extra sewing and then I just used the flannel backing and wrapped it around and used it to edge the quilt. I just think this quilt is SO fun! It was a lot more work than I anticipated though!

 I also did get to do a little shopping. Remember when I talked about shopping the house? I had had my heart set on a striped basket like the one Miss Mustard Seed had found at Home Goods.

Well my parents checked their Home Goods (the closest one to us is an hour away) and all the ones they found were $50. So I had decided to use my olive basket- when I got a liner made- instead. Well guess what! I was at TJ Maxx with Aleena and the very same baskets that my parents found for $50- I found one for $20! I can do $20. And it holds all our blankets fabulously.

Plus it's too tall for the kids to sit in. You may be wondering what that has to do with it but imagine a vintage wicker laundry basket(what we were using) that 3 kids like to lay in because it's the perfect height for them... yeah it's going to get destroyed pretty fast. That was part of the reason the old one had to go. And I have other plans for the olive basket! My other find was a clock for our eventual desk area in the living room.

I am loving adding pops of red into our living room! This guy was only $12 at TJ Maxx. Now TJ Maxx isn't as good as Home Goods but they have been doing ok for me!

I am working on a desk area for our living room for a couple of reasons.

1. Everything needs to have a place. We have been here a year and I feel like I am JUST starting to get organized.
2. I want my dining room table to be a dining room table and not a desk. This is a lot like reason number one but our disorganization is starting to drive both the Hubs and I crazy. So I have been really focused on trying to sort through things and purge and organize. I am 100% certain there is another yard sale in our future.



I think I mentioned that my lovely MIL is coming to visit us at the end of June. (Yay!) We are so excited she is coming to visit! The kids are excited to see Grandma Jill  (and we are too!)  plus the fact that she is an amazing artist and she is going to make some things beautiful while she is here. Wait until you see!!! We also have the hubs best friends coming for a visit in August.  So I am feeling the pressure (only the kind I put on myself) so have things much further progressed than they are now. Here is what I would LIKE to have accomplished before June 20th.

1. Curtains in the Living Room. I have our old dining room curtains in there now but WAIT until you see the fabric we picked out. I just have to sew them. Trip to Joann's is in my future.
2. Kitchen Cabinets. If you are thinking , "Didn't you already paint the kitchen cabinets?"  Check out that link and notice there are no doors. We are going to leave the cabinets to the sides of the sink as open shelving. I wood puttied holes and everything when I painted them back in November. The other cabinets need their doors so we don't have to look at all the not so pretty stuff. However those are still blue. So some paint is needed!
3. Kitchen Hardware- still have no drawer pulls and if we put the doors back on we will need handles for sure.
4. Finish the empire dresser.You can read about that here
5. Refinish another leaf or two for the dining room table. Our table came with 3 leaves but I haven't touched any of them and more people means we need more room!
6. Maybe paint the kitchen?

This list could get really long. So I will have to keep you updated and from what is on it already I had better get to work!

~Rosemary

Setting Goals

We have been LOVING the changes we made in the living room!!

It was a simple change but our living room definitely feels more cozy and deliberate. I know deliberate may seem like an odd word choice but it is the most accurate one I can think of and it actually inspired this blog post.

It has been all too easy for the 15 months that we have lived in this house to live with everything where it got thrown when we moved in. We had to make quick choices while the movers were here and things have just stayed that way. I think that our frequent moves since we have been married is partially to blame for that mindset. But it is time to change that.We aren't going anywhere for a while and we have a lot of people who still haven't seen our house- one of them being my MIL who will be coming to visit in June. Trust me she puts no pressure on us to have the perfect place for her to stay but we want to give her a nice place! So I am going to be setting weekly goals for myself of things to accomplish so that MAYBE by the end of June this house will be at least a fraction of what we dreamed it could be when we bought it.

This week's goals are to finish painting the living room and the new-to-us dining room table. I also need to get the old table and chairs on Craiglist. That may not seem like a long list and even to me it's not- but getting that done while wrangling my three little angels makes that list a realistic and not over-ambitious one. If I am kicking out more projects it is more I can share with you- Right?

1st Misson is to finish painting the dining room table.

Off to do that now!!!! Wait until you see it! It's looking awesome!

~R

Birthdays, Haircuts, Painting and Musical Furniture

I didn't realize how long it has been since I posted! Yikes! We have been super busy. There was a certain little girl who turned 4.

I did a big post for her 3rd birthday last year and it's crazy how fast this year has gone by and how much she has grown up. She also had her first parent teacher conference since my last post. She is doing really well and the teacher's only complaint is that she talks too much when she is supposed to be listening. The girl does  LOVE to talk! We have seen HUGE strides in her development since she started school and she only goes 2 days a week. We are very pleased at how this year has been going! Next year she will go 3 days a week. My little girl is growing up!

Most of you probably already saw that I also decided to donate my hair again (for the 5th time) which resulted in 9 inches getting cut off.

I had forgotten how much adjustment time I need to get used to my hair being so short. Luckily it grows fast and I should be able to put it in a ponytail again soon!

I started painting the living room. Finally!- I know I am Sloooow. I am only half way done but painting was put on hold to play musical furniture which will actually make it easier to finish painting. I also found the *perfect* TV stand for the living room. Aleena and I took a drive up to a used furniture store in Kutztown to look around just see what they had. Well they had this...

That has a lovely marble top.

And it was only $45. Crazy right?

Normally an Eastlake dresser like this one is something I would love to strip and show the original wood. Especially since someone took some orange stain to this one and left it on there to dry without wiping it off. But there were too many spots like these.

So I went against every instinct I had and painted it.

Yes there is a pull missing. I found the back plate and the handle for it in one of the drawers but I have to find two of the parts that are bolts but also hold the handle. Anyone know what they are called? I also cleaned up the marble by using a baking soda and water paste. I covered the top with the paste and let it dry and then wiped it off with a damp rag. I didn't take pictures because I had no idea what a difference it would make. I was just trying to see if I could get some of the stains out. After we played some musical furniture today this is where we are.

 Since we just moved everything this morning I haven't finished reloading the bookshelves. The two bookshelves and the dresser JUST fit. I mean just barely. I totally lucked out because I didn't measure I only guessed.  Here is the before picture of that corner.

The small bookshelf/TV stand you see in this picture moved up to Aleena's room and the taller one that was up there came down to flank the TV. Aleena told me that it was the best surprise ever- because now she can reach to turn her lamp on by herself. She is so stinkin' sweet. The other bookshelf was the one in this corner.

 We have a plan for this corner and it's something we will have to build. I will let you know how that goes! Back to the bottom right of this picture. See all those wires at the bottom of the shelf?

 All those wires that were all over the place before, are now all tucked away behind everything. Well except for this.

I now wish I had more of an opinion when they installed it. But at least it doesn't stick out too far. Also now we don't have the love seat sticking out into the room. The room feels so much bigger and we have a ton more storage! So I promise we are making progress! Slow progress but I am feeling good about everything so far and so is the Hubs which I think is the most important thing of all!