deck the halls...


Between our busy schedules of working, chauffering children around, home keeping & remodeling there has to be time to deck the halls...

This is my kids advent calender. My sister & I worked on this together 6 or 7 years ago.
I got the idea from a pottery barn catalog. 



My kids look forward to waking up each morning & open their little goodies.



Each pocket is 4X5 inches.
Sometimes, I will combine the gift-a game they can play together-actually  for this year they will get a gingerbread house kit to work on together.
For larger prizes I put a note in the pocket and keep the prize hidden elsewhere. 



Bye bye backsplash! Yeah!

Between decorating for the holidays, I'm removing the faux brick backsplash.
This has to be finished for Wednesday-countertops will be installed!

Here is the vintage holiday box with "port oxford cedar" trimmings.

Love this vintage looking holiday sign I bought years ago.
I have it hanging over my kitchen window.
Are you noticing the wall color?

Love these wispy greens!

Anyone that knows me well knows that I like things to be simetrical :)

Another simple idea I found and loved!

My mom gave me this old coal bin.
I actually filled the bottom with bubble wrap then placed ornaments on top-totally appears to be filled with ornaments!

What is really cool about this fireplace is that there is an outlet above the mantle. I highly recommend this for anyone building a house! It's one of those little things we probably wouldn't think of. This is a simple garland with some pine cones, gold painted leaves & few gold berries. I added these pine cone covered lights to add warmth and ambiance. Very cozy looking at night.

Oh, and here is my Thomas Kinkade village. Where my daughter and I dream about living in a small town like this.

'tis the Season...

My house is getting decorated very s-l-o-w-l-y this year. I think I'm going to have to do minimal this year-way too much going on. The holiday is creeping up so fast. I just went out Christmas shopping for the 1st time this morning. I finished painting our kitchen, it looks great! I'll post pictures after the countertop is put in (9days!) We got our tree yesterday but it's still naked...


I used a tube of Kwik Seal Plus to seal up the gaps in the kitchen molding.




What a huge difference it made!




I found this great pie case at the Ole Carousel Antique Center in Stanfordville, Ny.
I always wanted one of these, we needed a bookshelf-it was meant to be!



catch'in up

We have a ton of projects in "the works". Let me fill you in...



My daughter's room-a huge designer dilemma
Extremely difficult to remove this wallpaper without damaging the walls. I used DIFF, then rented a steamer.
NOTHING was going to remove this paper nicely.  The walls were an uneven mess, ripped sheetrock & peeled paint. It took forever to repair one wall, so I decided to try and paint over the rest of the wallpapered room...





I took a couple of times to decide on the right color. We first picked a bright turquoise (on right), then decided on a calmer "carribean blue" color (on left).



As I began painting, "Oh no, bubbles!" I panicked and took a break. Came back an hour later and bubbles were gone!
The room looks great! It's all painted-what a HUGE relief. We're going to put the mural up tomorrow.





Finally decided on a kitchen color
Very exciting kitchen updates!
We have a few new appliances and ordered our granite countertops today-
more details to come...





Our kids new bathroom countertop & fixtures are in!
This is an acrylic countertop from home depot

  



Just a reminder of what the countertop looked like before :(


I


I'm looking forward to decorating for Christmas. I bought this vintage holiday box at our school's craft fair.
I'll have to find something good to fill it with.
We're decorating the outside of our house this weekend so hopefully I'll have something good to post in a couple of days, along with the rest of the project updates!




Oh, how could I forget to introduce our new addition to the family-little miss "Liberty".
Liberty is a labrador retriever, 3 months old. Ours kids have been begging us for a dog, they're very excited.
 We're enjoying her company, she's lots of fun!



been a long time...

Well, between losing power, a busy Halloween, the kids having many days home from school and working, I've been getting little done. As my husband says, I'm a little all over the place and he's right.

Here's our cozy family room

Our fireplace
Great for when we lost power!

A sneak peak of my son's room-
I'll share details soon.

Well, everyone knows what leaves look like but I had to show you that we've been working hard on this too.
Unfortunately, we're not rich, so we have to clean it up ourselves!

Oh my...

Also, the countertop for our kids bathroom came in. We were so excited-this bathroom needs a serious makeover. My husband removed the existing formica countertop, opened up the new one and it was damaged :-( We had to reorder it. Hopefully it will be in soon, I can't wait to share this bathroom makeover with you!

ahhh Fall...



Sorry, I could not get this shot to come out any brighter
My "witches broom" hanging up above
says "Flying lessons by appointment only"



Things we changed:
Took down wallpaper, painted wood molding white, changed hardware on cabinets & painted the backsplash
Simple changes all for under $100 that made a huge difference! 



Our house is looking less like a construction zone and more like a home everyday!

I love the Fall. I haven't found all of our Fall decor yet. Probably going to keep it simple this year and put a few things around. There was a request to see my kitchen by someone who lives too far to see it in person :) Keep in mind-the kitchen is primed white and if you look closely you can see it is still taped off waiting to be painted.

what I've been up to...



Original faux brick backsplash



Wanted to brighten it up
Sponge painted each brick using 4 different colors
Did not like the dark grout! Too modern looking for this traditional style kitchen.



Ahhhh! So much better!
Had to break out the spray paint
Used Rustoleum double cover in heritage white glossy finish

relieved-

I finished painting the family room! I'll post more pics as I get the room back together. Still have to hang curtain rods and take down old blinds...

Benjamin Moore paint
Wall in Seattle Mist
Bar in Dragon"s Breath

I also continued to attack the walls of wallpaper in my son's bedroom. This will be the next project to complete, check in for updates on this very exciting bedroom we have planned!

P-A-I-N-T-I-N-G

Green Paneling

My family room is taking FOREVER to paint! Not only is it a large room (23'x 23'), it has dark green paneling. Lesson I learned: I love painting with Benjamin Moore BUT Benjamin Moore does not make a paint & primer in one. Yes, you have to prime paneling. I tried to save time, painted one section without primer-paint will peel off easily. I've now discovered (a little too late) many companies make paint & primer in one, would've worked perfect for this room. Love the color though! Hopefully I will have this project completed by the end of this weekend and I will post before & after pics.




busy busy...

I've been very busy working on making this house our home. Extremely overwhelming. I have projects going on all over the place! Check out my "future projects" page...

only the beginning...

Hello everyone! I would love to share with you some simple (some maybe not so simple) ways to make huge changes at home. I will learn as I go along and share my experiences with you. Stay tuned for updates as it will take me sometime to get started on projects and enter info into this blog.