Wednesday, June 29, 2011

{an exciting arrival}


Hello, Hello!

Guess what showed up on my front porch today...? My Glidden Wood Smoke, two quarts of this fabulous paint! I *think* I'm going to have to get more, but I may not. If I just use a primer, it may be enough for the kitch!



I was so very excited that it arrived, but I'm going to have to wait for another weekend to paint. My family and I are headed to the lake this weekend after a friends wedding on Friday night. There (in my opinion) is not better place to be than the lake for the 4th of July. It just makes me SO happy!! We're going to enjoy some smoked meat, some wonderful much needed family time, and of course the annual fireworks that they do the cove over from our place and about 200 boats are just floating in the water right in front of us.  It's amazing!

I'm going to be spending exactly 3 days in this little number (or something along these lines)...




and enjoying some of this tremendous view from our place...





4th of July LAST year, lake
Mike and I's lake trip summer 2010
I hope you all have a safe and fun 4th of July! USA!

Until next time!

Friday, June 17, 2011

{I Bet You Didn't Know...}

Welcome back and Happy Friday!! Since I'm headed to the lake this weekend for a long weekend (Sat., Sun., & Mon. And yes (!!!) I get to do it again in 2 weeks but then it'll be a 4 day weekend) where there is absolutely NO time for phones or technology, I figured I'd give you my latest blog post now...

In case you didn't know, I have a Pintrest app on my phone.  When I'm bored, I like to browse through and look at the gorgeous photos. A couple of my 'pins' on Pintrest consist of some great ideas that I would have never thought of! I wanted to pass along a few of these tips I've discovered on there to you guys! Ya know, just to make your life a little simpler.

First off a few tips for the bed/sheet situation. (You can click on the photo button under each picture to follow the link & get more information on the topic)

1. Do you know how to fold a fitted sheet? Perfectly? I do! I would post pictures of my sweet linen closet, but you've already seen it! Just picture it with some perfectly folded sheets.


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2. This is a must-read tutorial on how to make your bed.  And you thought you knew how...A well-made bed just makes me smile. Love

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3. How to get grease stains out of your clothes. Chalk as a pre-treat. Brilliant!

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4. Aloe vera ice cubes? Perfect for those summer sunburns.  We try our darnest to wear sunscreen upon sunscreen but the lake always seems to brew up those sunburns!

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5. This is on my list.  If you know anything about us, then you know we loooooove our pancakes.  This would make pancakes AND waffle making so much easier!

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 6. Hang all your cleaning bottles from a tension rod! I love this idea, that way you can get little baskets to organize underneath the sink.
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7. A tab from a soda can as a picture frame/ DIY art hanger.

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and my last one...

8.  What a great solution for a stripped screw, just put a rubber band underneath.  We have no shortage of rubber bands at our house.  My husband has worn at least one on his wrist since I have known him.  I'm trying to shake him of this habit, but it seems there's no end in sight.

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I hope you will use some of these tips! I think they're all wonderful! Stay tuned for some more Pintrest posts.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

{Cute & Cheap Rug Alert}

Well hello again my dear friends! I'm doing this post today with MUCH excitement! Some people probably wouldn't find this very exciting, but my little decorating-obsessed heart is overflowing this Sunday morning'. I was doing my blog stalking the other morning before work, which I rarely do, and came across Decor Chick's website. Not to be confused with 'Thrifty Decor Chick' which is another fav. The blog title was the same (I copied her) as mine. I clicked on it because I love 'cute' & 'cheap' & 'rugs', right? So once I got there I didn't even read the article! All I had to see was 'Lowe's' and '$34' and I was all over it. What!? You're telling me this beautiful 5x7 rug is $34!! It's 50% off so I knew I had to start making my calls...




I first called the Lowe's by our house. No luck, not to mention not very friendly. Note to self, the Gladstone Lowe's does not like prissy girls looking for pretty little rugs. I don't like mean people. So I called the Lowe's in Liberty (I was going to make my Hubby pick it up after work). The forces were against me on this particular morning because he said "we don't need another area rug" I told him my plan to replace the floral one. Then he was OK with it. When I first moved in after we got married, that was the ONE item we fought over. He didn't/doesn't like it. Anyway, Liberty's inventory said 3 and, bless his little heart, the guy at Lowe's tried really hard to find them. No luck. Sad face. I wasn't going to get my precious rug!

I'm not one to give up though. I finally found one 20 minutes away in Roeland Park, KS! (P.S. as of yesterday they had 2 more if you're interested...)Holler! I was so excited! I would like to give a shout out to Jevon in flooring at the Roeland Park Lowe's. He was beyond helpful to me and I was able to get my rug. Now it is just making itself comfortable in its new home underneath our kitchen table. We haven't found a place for the old rug yet, but I'm slightly over the floral thing I had going on for a while. This is the rug if you can't remember/had never seen it.  This picture was taken with my iPhone around Christmas when we got our new kitchen table.


Goodwill might have a cute rug for cheap in the next couple of weeks ;-) Ahh It brings me peace when I look at it. The new one that is. It's the PERFECT size for in here and a much less busy pattern.  I think it will go really well with our new glidden wood smoke paint. I can't wait to see it!

I also FINALLY put up this paper towel holder that I got at HobLob decades ago it seems.  Hubby kept asking, "when is this thing going up on the wall?!" Oh, don't question me lover. And so it did this weekend.  It's supposed to be a paper towel holder but I thought it'd be cute in our bathroom to hold hand towels.  Here it is in all it's glory!

You know what I love even more? Our monogrammed towels.  A wedding gift from a dear family friend. 

Who's sleeping with their windows open tonight? I am! I am!

Until next time!

Sunday, June 5, 2011

{Labor of Love}

Did you guess what my newest project is?

Bueller? Bueller? Anyone??



Probably not (unless you're a Fbook friend) it was sort of a bad hint.  Very vague. Oh well.

It's a.............Chandelier!!


But not a traditional chandelier.  I was getting only slightly sick of the gold 'boob' light in our hallway because I walk under it at least 8 times a day.  I thought I'd test my hand at this little DIY.  I used what I had at home for the most part so the total cost of this project lies in the circle punch at $8 (40% off) at JoAnn's. I'll take it!



I took a hanger and fit it around my blinding gold boob light, twisted it to bind it together and then took thread and attached the top part of a lampshade that I was going to donate to create a lower tier.  That's confusing, I know. It's very strange but strangely WORKS!


I used wax paper and parchment paper to make the "capiz shells". I used 2 long pieces of parchment paper and 3 pieces of wax paper in between.  Got out my little iron and ironing board & ironed the parchment paper/wax paper combo.  The end result was one thick piece of wax paper.  I  then circle punched about 7 sheets of the wax paper and glued 7 circles or "shells" to a piece of thread for the upper tier, and 6 circles for the lower tier. 



A few hot glue gun burns later, I had myself a pretty little chandy.  Bear in mind that this is VERY time consuming, but this particular week my hubs was working late every night and American Idol finals were on, so I had a lot of spare time while watching T.V. I am also really good at multi-tasking.  Cheers to my new light and possibly a mini one downstairs by the garage entry.  There's a cute gold fixture down there too!



The Habitat ReStore is calling both of their names loud and clear.  It'll be OK little lights, I wouldn't want to leave our house either...

Update on the outdoor cushions:  No update. Still can't decide.  Fell in love with some other ones at Pier 1.  Possibly cheating on Ballard with Pier 1.  Going with Mr. HubbyMan today to shop for some. Uh Oh.

Enjoy your beautiful Sunday! I'm going to, it's HOT out there and I love it!