Getting ready for Christmas.

That's right.

I harvested three batches of lavender this year and haven't quite decided what I am going to do with it yet.

Soap? Scrub? Tea? Sachets?

We'll see.

Any suggestions?

his first

setting up

lemon or lime?

would you like a sunny lemon butter cookie too?

ummm, this wasn't exactly a get rich scheme but we still had fun.

even though this was our first lemonade stand I don't imagine it will be our last.

for Mother's Day

i was given a perfect gift -

a handmade flowerpot, the seed is a surprise.

Finishing up

A few weeks ago I showed you some pictures of my newly whitened basement. I am loving the empty, spare feeling that the walls evoke and it has caused me to start cleaning out my house in whirlwind fashion. For any readers feeling stressed or frantic by their every day life having less to look at & less to clean is a very peaceful feeling. Not that my house is totally empty........ don't get me wrong. But there is less around and my kitchen is next on the list. How many napkin rings can one person use? Why do I have so many sets of dishes? Really - wine glasses for the different seasons? Two punch bowls?

Anyway, last weekend I finished painting the downstairs ceiling and I also painted the stairs so my work here is done. Done! What a nice feeling that is too!

For the last few years we had and adorable striped runner on our light yellow stairs and i had a major love/hate relationship with the stairs. Cute - yes. Practical - no. Footprints, dust, coffee, food, tracking, more dust - keeping those stairs clean was a battle I was constantly losing but not anymore!

I haven't swept them since I painted them one week ago and you would never know. (For that matter I haven't vacuumed the carpet either but again, you would never know.)

They do look a little rustic, and I think I may need to distress them a little bit. (Or send Aidan up and down them all day with a bag of rocks.)

In the meantime, if any reader is in need of a punch bowl or some extra wine glasses I am your girl.

I didn't mean to stay away so long. i just was caught up in the busyness of life - lots of weekends away, weekends with company and projects. I know I am seem like I am a little over-the-top with the projects right now but once spring comes I want to be outside so I am trying to finish up my indoor projects while it is still cold and snowy out. (because, yes, as my local friends can attest, it did snow this weekend!)

However, right now the sun is shining and I want to get outside and clean out some of my gardens.

I had planned to catch up on blogging/emails/photo editing today but our internet was down for a few hours and I lost my opportunity. Hopefully the stars will align and I will have time again later this week, but in the meantime I will leave you with a funny story.

My parents came last weekend to celebrate Aidan's birthday and my Dad also taught me how to change light fixtures. In typical fashion I decided to go hog-wild and change out all the lights in our downstairs. (You can buy them uber-cheap at IKEA.)

I even changed out the lights in the bedroom closet, and I thought I was pretty smart to install a track-type lighting that had adjustable beams that could be directed right at the clothes. However I failed to take into account the fact that the light fixture is rather close to the bathroom door and so...... yeah........ you can no longer open the door. (or iron, as our ironing board is on the back of the door.)

So I guess I am not done. I need to make another little trip to IKEA and pick up a few smaller lights.

And if you are ever in the area and you need a place to stay..... I also upgraded the lighting in my guest bedroom - it even has a dimmer switch.

Finishing up

So I have finished the bedroom, the downstairs, (minus the ceiling, I tweaked my shoulder cross-country skiing and I can't quite paint the ceiling in the downstairs yet,) the bathroom and closet. I just have to finish the stairs now. I was over at a friends house this evening and they recently refinished their stairs......... they looked so pretty I may just decide to copy them.

In the meantime, here are some finished pics of the bathroom and downstairs. I did like the teal I previously had in the bathroom but the light expanse is very calming to me right now.

Next week is spring break. Not sure if I am going to tackle projects or what I might do. But before the week starts i have a sewing date with this sweet lady. I am excited to have a good reason to sit and work through the pile of almost-finished lap quilts/baby quilts that I started a few months ago. (but have since lost steam.) I am hoping to put them in my Etsy shop.

Enjoy the pics!

The previous bathroom and closet view. I loved all the color and now in pictures it just looks so garish!

Had to show a picture of my Hunt & Gather treasure (the mirror.) Love it!

Just for fun. spring!

Painting in progress. See what a mess I have been making???

The bathroom is now a very light grey/purple. I had originally purchased a Martha Stewart color called "Frost." However, it turned a bright purple color in my bathroom so after one coat I had to cut it with white and grey. The color is still more purple than I would like but at this point I am willing to live with it. ( At least for now, right? )

So that is a little snap-shot of what I have been doing. I also have been cooking up a storm for a dinner at work..... I will share some yummy recipes later.

the color upstairs

So while I am busy eliminating the color from my downstairs I am still adding color to my upstairs. (Or at least I was. My Dad kindly came this weekend and he is helping me come up with a solid, reasonably priced option for my kitchen.)

A few weeks ago I met the lovely Jessica for some coffee and then we went to Hunt & Gather. Side note - meeting blog friends is a great idea. I have met a few over the past year and I now have real friends, not just imaginary computer friends.

Anyway, no sooner had I met her than I put her to work carrying chairs out to my car and playing the "puzzle game." (for all my thrift-store shopping, estate sale-loving-friends you know this is the game you play when you try and fit your treasures into your vehicle and hope there is still room for you.)

I found the cutest chairs that are perfect for my kitchen. They also don't creak and groan when you sit on them. (My other chairs were borderline unsafe. Cute - but unsafe and I had glued them and re-screwed them multiple times.)

Anyway - back to the chairs. They are the best color green, that kind of color you could never replicate, and they look darling with my seat cushions and decor. The only problem is that they don't fit under my kitchen table. So they make my already small kitchen seem even smaller........ I could paint them white and then they would take up less space visually, I could keep my eye out for a pedestal table on Craigslist, or I can sell them again. I am still undecided so they still are crowding my table. Any opinions? (oh - and if you have a pedestal table with a leaf you are trying to get rid of I may be your girl. It just needs to have 28 inches clearance for the chairs.)

How cute is that?

Are mom's always right?

Well, mine has that tendency. I like to think I do too.

Today I am home with a sick kid. That's okay, I can work on a bunch of blog posts and put some items on Craigslist. I wanted to work on slipcovering my other chair but our furnace is out so I prefer to huddle under the blankets with my feverish little heat source.

Did you catch the use of the word "other" in my previous paragraph? That's right. Keep reading.

So my mom thought I could slipcover a chair. I didn't agree and priced custom slipcovers. Yeah. They cost more than buying a new chair. I really am trying to save my money for my kitchen, so I thought I'd better try sewing my own. Last night I whipped this one up in about 2 hours for the cost of a $10.00 paint tarp. really. If you ever come over I just ask that you don't look too closely as it is far from perfect. It also is kind of in "pieces," three to be exact. That allowed me to really tuck in some areas tightly and I think I like it that way. And then if I ever need to wash it I can just wash the piece that needs it, right?

So hopefully tonight I will finish slipcover #2. Or if we are still waiting for the part for our furnace you may find my on the couch with Aidan, buried under a pile of blankets with my laptop battery strategically placed under our feet. (it generates some major heat!)

i haven't been blogging........

because I have been a busy lady. Somehow the month of February passed me by and I only had four blog - posts! Yes - I am way behind but I think if you keep reading you might understand why.

This is my downstairs. Or rather it used to be. If you look closely at the photo above you can see the stud lines shadowed through the paint. (I have done a lot of reading and it is caused by candles......... so no more candles in my house. My whole downstairs has those lines and my kitchen is starting to get them as well. I also learned that faux silver frames leave horrid marks on the wall.)

The color of our lower level is a combination of eight years of painting. I really did love our downstairs, although now looking at the pictures it looks really intense!

The stud-lines in our bedroom were really showing and I started the transformation there. This is a picture mid paint job. The room is now deep cleaned, (even the blinds) the mattress flipped and the entire room and ceiling are coated in a fresh white.

The decor in this room was already white - I just painted the rest of the furniture white and got rid of a lot of the "trinkets."

Our downstairs....... trying to pick the perfect white sample. I ended up with the same color as the bedroom. ( Which means I will have less cans of paint to keep on hand.) (Oh - and the rug is Cutting Garden by Capel if any one is looking for a rug. It is going on Craigslist. It has been featured in many a BHG magazine article........) (Insert smiley face here.)

And now drumroll please ..........

some junk on my wall from Hunt & Gather.

This picture has pretty bad lighting but you can see I repainted my buffet and the lampshade in white, and then I also covered the lampshade with some linen. (well...... not really linen. Paint tarps which feel and look a lot like linen, for the same cost as a yard of good linen. I bought two huge tarps and I am planning to slipcover my robin-egg blue chairs. My Mom thinks I can do it. I am not entirely convinced. ) My next project will be the stairs which you see on the left. The runner is from Dash & Albert and I haven't decided if I am going to sell it or keep it to sew into bags like this one. I just don't know if my machine can handle sewing through the heavy layers of cotton. But wouldn't it make a perfect beach bag?

I did find some junk at Hunt and Gather, but all this "junk" was already in my house, I just did some rearranging.

As was all this "junk."

The only real money I spent was on my $100 IKEA rug and some paint. (And a little "junk" at H & G.) Otherwise, I just rounded up items from around my house and put them to work. I am already in love with this room for one reason: the rug doesn't track dirt so I have gone the whole week without vacuuming it. I also cleared out a lot of the little items that took up floorspace so I have less to clean around as well.

This week I need to finish painting the ceiling in this room and then we will see what comes next..........

we started with some old magazines.....

we cut lots and lots of hearts out. Aidan started cutting some in bright construction paper and I said, "Oh, I really like the magazine ones....." but he convinced me the colors were a good idea so he kept cutting and cutting construction paper and I kept cutting up magazines.

Soon we had lots of heart-strings to hang in the window.

And as you saw on my banner, we had lots of fun with the construction paper hearts.

Lesson learned - let your kid make his art project any way he wants to.

Happy Valentines!

no more snow

Well, at least in our front window. Rumor has it we are getting a few more inches tomorrow.

I am going to miss the shadows the snowflakes created on our walls.

But I think the hearts look charming. More pics to come.

a new project

last week a co-worker asked me to decorate for her daughter's wedding. i am pretty excited - i love projects like this and i must admit that every time i take something like this on i have a secret hope that someday one of these "projects" will blossom into a new career.

the wedding colors i have to work with are deep turquoise and black. she has very simple, elegent taste but as of yet doesn't have a whole lot of direction. this weekend we talked about the possibility of damask table runners and a mixture of clear glass and milk-glass vases and votives on the table. i love the idea of peacock feathers as well.......

i staged a few "table-scapes" for her today. she is still debating over flowers but knows she wants lots and lots of candles. i picked up a bouquet of gerbera daisies and white roses today to play with. i don't know about you but i think i like the pictures with less flowers rather than more. and don't you think a peacock feather would look perfect on the table?

Pardon the "goodwill tags" on the tableware. We are still in the debating process so I might need to return everything. I will post some inspiration photos later........... and I would love any ideas!

a few of my thoughts after taking the pictures:

I thought I liked the white/black fabric more than the black/white fabric but i think the black will provide better contrast in her photos.

I also think that perhaps only one or two flowers are all we need at each table. I think white ranunculus would be perfect, and all my hydrangeas will be in bloom then as well............

I have lots of vintage turquoise glass. would it be too much to have a few pieces scattered throughout the room? I think if it were on every table it would be a little much.

Any thoughts?

p.s. one of the picture frames I spray-painted dried so i am updating this post with another photo. i think we are going to put the table numbers in black frames. sadly my printer isn't working so i had to draw this "1" but you get the idea, right?

(a candlelit view)

Crafternoon

Last Sunday the lovely Jessica invited some ladies over for a "Crafternoon." I was a little tentative. I had met Bethany before - which was a good meeting - but you never know what you are in for....... what if I am the only one who doesn't know anybody? What if I am the least talented of all? What if????

I don't know why I was worried. Jessica is even better in real life than she is on her blog- can you imagine that?????? Her house is adorable, her crafts were perfect for crafters of all abilities. She had thought of everything, including bags for you to take your crafts home in. I didn't bring my camera because her and her husband are professionals, so I thought I would just wait and enjoy their pictures. So rather than listening to me drone on about the afternoon, I will direct you to Jessica's blog and let you see/read for yourself!!!!!! You can click here, here or here, on Liv's blog)

I did make this yarn wreath that afternoon. I love it -and I could seriously get addicted to making more. So many color combos to try.... but what would I do with all of them??????

So thank you Jessica for taking a chance and opening up your home to a bunch of bloggers you had never really met! I had so much fun and I would love to do something like that again in the future! I also learned (twice now) that meeting fellow bloggers is fun. (And it usually works out -isn't that how life usually goes?)

Thanks again!