House Tour: The Outside

Honestly I hadn't even realized that I hadn't posted any pictures of the outside of the house once it was done.  They literally had to tent and heat the outside of the house in order to finish up the exterior stone.  We had the MOTHER OF ALL WINTERS here in Michigan this year so it was a losing battle.  Like I said, I didn't even realize that I never shared any pictures until my mom pointed it out.  So without further ado, here is the finished product :-)

Annnnddddd there you go, one almost all the way out to the road!  Guess what we're going to start this weekend?!?!?  Planting grass!!  Yikes, hold on to your pocket book!!

Up Next on the Tour: Laundry Room

Now try to contain your excitement my friends but it is time for the laundry room tour.  I know it doesn't seem real exciting but for some weird reason I do love my laundry room!  Come on in.....

Here is the view walking in:

Don't blink because it is tiny but it serves its purpose!

 

Now here is the "full view".

 

 

Here is an up close shot of the sign...LOVE IT!!

I had been eyeing up a couple signs on Joss and Main but never pulled the trigger.  Then I walked into Hobby Lobby one Saturday and fell in love with this sign.  It was $29.99 AND 50% off.  Yep, I could handle $15.00 and I did.  Makes me think of Ryan and the munchkins every time I do laundry!! 

Here is my handy-dandy laundry basket (ahhhh the days of Blue's Clues)

Yep I use a Thirty-One bag for my laundry basket and it is perfect.  Did I mention that my SIL sells Thirty-One???  "Big mistake, huge"(can you name the movie)....because I can't get enough bags.  #hoardermuch

It just so happens that I am using ANOTHER Thirty-One bag to organize my cleaning supplies and laundry detergent in one of my cabinets. 

I'd share the other cabinet but believe you me you do NOT want to see that cabinet.

Finally my washer and dryer.

So I clearly went with very a very basic washer and dryer.  I really wanted to fancy front loaders but in the end decided that I wanted to spend the money on my kitchen appliances and had to dial back my laundry room expectations.  Let's be honest, do I really care?  Nope, because in the end, these do laundry just as well as any other washer and dryer would have (or at least that is what I keep telling myself). 

Thanks again for stopping by.

Now, can you name the movie that I quoted above?  Don't let me down peeps....

Headboard Makover: Before and After!

I spent my Friday night working on refinishing Emma's old headboard and I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. 

This project was pretty quick and painless!  I filled the holes with wood filler (er, Ryan filled the holes) and let it dry for about 6 hours.  Then I hit it with some sand paper to make the holes flush with the rest of the headboard and it was painting time.  I just used a regular satin paint and primer in one and it did the trick!  The color was shopaholic :-)

Here is a little sneak peak at my progress in the guest bedroom/office.....just a little peak for now!!

I've got the bedding but can't share that until I've got the finished product!!  As you can tell there is going to be a little nature/deer them along with my bright colors!

So many ideas, so little time!!

Seriously, my head is so full of ideas that I think it might explode!!  I think it is time to put together my to-do list to keep it all straight.  I really need to put it together so I can prioritize each project.  Let's be honest, honey biscuit will not think it is real cool if I have 6 projects going at once in his man space the garage!!

1)  Emma's Desk -  I have GOT to get this baby done this week.  She has been very patient as she keeps getting bumped lower on the list!!

2) My curio cabinet.  Remember this inspiration picture??  I should be able to get mine done in a day if I can just focus on ONE project!  That is a big IF......

3) Side tables for the sun room.  They are gonna require quite a bit of prep work so these may take a while.  I don't know though, Ryan talked about buying the wood this week to make the new tops!  Could happen this weekend.

4) DIY Decorative Spheres.  I know what ya'll are thinking.  Say what?!?!?!?  Have you seen these things everywhere lately?  Every time I stop at Home Goods, TJ Maxx, and Target I pick a couple up but end up putting them back.  Come on, we don't have grass yet, annndddd that just MIGHT be a little more important than decorative spheres ;)  Here is an example if you've never seem them.  These are from West Elm.

However I stumbled upon a new blog this weekend and she had an awesome CHEAP do-it-yourself version.  Soooo if you wanna give this little project a whirl with me stop on over to Hill Country Homebody and check out her GENIUS idea.  Now come on, who is going to try this with me????

Look what I scored for FOUR BUCKS!!

I had to run to Tecumseh on Friday to pick up some field tile and as I passed through Deerfield these little gems caught my eye.  I locked up the breaks flipped a U-turn and went back to the garage sale.

I picked up two side tables for.....four bucks!  Now you need to use a little imagination here.  I know you all may not see the potential in these now but I have BIG plans.  Drum roll please.....

Oh did I forget to mention that they both need some sort of tops???  Oops ;)  However I have Ryan and Jarod on the mission to whittle me some wood to fit the top since I am painting them anyhow.

Whittle some wood???

Well what do you think?  Do you see the potential or do you think that I'm crazy???  These are next on the list after I refinish Emma's desk.  Can't wait!!

Let's start with the kitchen tour!!

As we slowly get settled in I've decided to start your tour.  I still have plenty of decorating to do but figured it was time to start sharing some pictures.  I know many of you have seen it in person and are thinking yeah, yeah I was just there last weekend and saw it.  HOWEVER believe it or not I do have followers that I don't have to pay are actually not friends or family but people that actually come here because they want to ;) 

Soooooo let's get down to business and start this house tour with the kitchen.  It really is hard to decide but this really is one of my favorite spots in the house.  When I say kitchen, I also mean the breakfast nook and sunroom.  They are just so open and cozy and can fit a ton of people when having parties (like surprise baby showers).

Here is the view when coming in from the garage.  The breakfast nook is off to the left and the sunroom is on the right!  Wow that is a sunny background!

This is where all the (cooking) magic happens.   As you can see there is a ton of counter space to the left of the stove.  We had that baby STOCKED full of yummy treats on Super Bowl Sunday.  If there is one thing you need to know about my BFF's and me......we can make some killer party food!!

The island, oh how I heart the island!!  I really do.  This is where we eat dinner as a family every night and where we all sit and lean when we're having a party.  Did I mention I love it?

Here is our little breakfast work-station.  In my original layout this was going to be another full wall of granite with uppers and lowers for cabinets.  However I decided to go with the full length pantries on each side and go with the small slab in the middle.  We store the toaster below and just pull it out in the morning and plug it in and voila!!  Also comes in handy when using the microwave....just pull out you dish, stir it up and pop it back in.

The view from the sunroom.

This the chest that I scored on Craigslist that we are now using as our bar.  I just got that lamp last weekend at Home Goods for $39....couldn't pass it up!!

Our little breakfast nook with a view out onto the patio!!! 

So that's it for now.  I'll share some pictures of the sunroom once I can get some better shots.  I was fighting with the lighting and decided to throw in the towel.  Whew, that was a whole lotta pictures!  Hope you didn't fall asleep.  Thanks for stopping by!

My Friday Night Project

I am soooooo wild and crazy in my old age!  You know what I'm doing tonight?  I'm refinishing Emma's old headboard to match the nightstand in our guest bedroom!  Yep, I am THAT wild and crazy. 

Here are the befores:

Awwwww brings a tear to my eye!  If you look a little closer you'll see that Emma was rather tough on her headboard as a little one ;)

Boo Boo Kitty helped me out by taking the letters off and filling the holes with wood filler.  He really is the best.  So here is where I start tonight!!

I am hoping to have it done tonight and let it dry so Ryan can do his magic on Sunday :-)

What are YOU doing on YOUR Friday night???

Guest Room Nightstand: The Before and After

If you follow me on Facebook you saw my latest furniture project.  I had this really old, blah light wood nightstand that used to be in our master bedroom.  Honestly, I almost just threw this out when we moved into the house because it just "wasn't my style".  Wellllll with a little paint and a super cute AND CHEAP new pull I loooovvvveeeee this nightstand.

Here is the before:

And here is the glorious after:

Be prepared because you are about to be bombarded with a ton of angles of the after product!!

There ya have it.  Sometimes all you need is a little elbow grease to bring a piece of furniture back to life!!  I'll have some more pictures once I get it placed in its new home and accessorized!

This is how lazy our society has become.

When I get home from work at night I am usually a wee bit worn out from the day.  I often dread making dinner and all the other domesticated duties that I know are waiting for me when I get home. 

HOWEVER, never have I driven home thinking OMG I am making spaghetti tonight and there is ABSOLUTELY no way that I have the energy to break the spaghetti noodles in half.  Nope never had that thought role through my head.  Soooooo if you've ever had that panic run through your head, you're in luck. 

Half length pasta!!  No need to break

I have to admit that I did buy 6 boxes of it this week! That was only because they were on sale and I had coupons so I scored them for 24 cents!!  Bottom line?  If I over do it at work I don't need to worry about coming home and dealing with the daunting task of breaking the pasta ;)

I'll be sharing the after pictures of my Pier 1 Sunburst Mirror makeover next! 

Tequila makes her clothes fall off!!

Hahahaa I bet that title caught your attention didn't it?  Ok, ok so I was thinking of the Joe Nichols song and the line where he sings about "bridal showers with Bacardi punch".  Weeellll our baby shower had pink champagne punch and I had to share the recipe with you.....

I found this wine at the Milan Market and thought the pink bottles would be cute amongst all the green and blue.  Oh and maybe I thought that sparkling pink champagne sounded delish.  Yep, they were also 50% off ;)  So I picked up four bottles of this.

Once again I left our fate in the hands of the World Wide Web.  I found this simple but DELICIOUS recipe:

1 bottle sparkling pink moscato

1 2 liter of Vernors

1 can frozen lemonade concentrate

1 container of raspberries to garnish

It was sooooooo easy and soooooo good!  You've gotta try it. Did I mention it was really good?

Do you have any good champagne punch recipes to share?  I mean, come on, can you EVER have too many?  I think not.....

SURPRISE!!

Two of my BFF's are pregnant with their third babies (yep we asked them if they knew how it kept happening) and they are both having sweet baby boys.  Sooooooo I got together with my other BFF's and we decided to throw them a little surprise baby shower.  We told them that we were going to have a girls brunch at my house and then the plotting began.

I decided to take to the interweb and do some searching for baby shower ideas and that is when I made the biggest mistake ever.  I gave in and went to the dark side started searching Pinterest.  I will be the first to admit that I am NOT the most crafty and/or artistic person on earth.  Let me tell you that I've had plenty failed attempts at cute pre-school treats for my angels (ahem, rice krispie treat snowmen).  So, seeing all of these adorable ideas, I decided I was not going to be a Pinterest fail statistic.  I then proceeded to infiltrate my SIL's email with all of the things we "needed" to do for the shower. 

The one thing I was bound and determined to make were the tissue paper poms that were EVERYWHERE when I googled baby shower ideas.  Annnddddd believe it or not here they are...

I loooovvvveeee these little things!!  Why?  I have absolutely no idea, but they make me smile.  Confession?  I still haven't taken them down yet!!

My next plan was big fluffy glorious cupcakes all over the dining room table.  Annndddd I was going to make homemade frosting and bust out the decorating bag and some decorating tips.  YIKES!!  As I said, I jacked up rice krispie treats shaped like snowmen many years ago so I wasn't feeling overly confident.

However before I get to the cupcakes my sister-in-law found her own little project that she wanted for the table.  Her first attempt at the cupcake rattles wasn't exactly successful but she regrouped and this is her finished product!!!

Yep marshmallow baby rattles!!  Aren't they adorable???  The marshmallows were dipped in white chocolate and rolled in sprinkles.  Love them.....and so did the kids!!!  They were all running around with little blue lips and blue teeth. 

Now for the cupcakes.  Johnna and Jamie came over Saturday night so we could get the cupcake conveyor belt going and here they are.

I must admit that I am rather proud of our mad cupcake skills!!

And what would a spring table be without tulips?  In the blue throwback mason jars.  LOVE THEM!

Here is the finished product....