The Yellow House Dining Room

I have our dining room posted on RMS but realized I hadn't put any pictures here. Since posting it, I've moved the table at an angle. We had it this way to make room for the Christmas tree in the corner. After the tree came down, I realized how much easier it was to move around the table with it this way. I'm not sure if it will stay this way but for now....


This room was many weekends of work. Everything was rewired so the chandelier could go in. The floors were refinished, furniture was painted and we painted the walls and trim. I think my husband and dad would say the hardest part was working on the electric (they did the whole house) but I would say it was the floors. Even though tarps were put up, the dust from sanding the floor ended up everywhere! It took forever to clean up.

The mirror on the floor in the background was a steal at Homegoods! It is scratched on the front and was $15! I saw the price and hauled it right up to the register. I think scratches and dents give pieces character so I didn't mind a bit. The mirror has a beveled edge and I just love it. When I got it home I set it here to rest so I could decide where it should go. So far it has stayed here, I like how it reflects the hutch.

The oak table belonged to my parents. They were nice enough to pass it down to us. It opens up nice and big for holiday dinners.

This hutch was a dark wood before. I painted it cottage white, painted the inside blue, added a stencil and changed out the drawer pulls. My husband was ready to put it to the curb before and now he loves it!

Cookies and tea, anyone?

The beadboard ceiling is my favorite part of this room. Our first house had a kitchen ceiling like this and we've copied it since then. I picked out the little corner pieces for a special touch.....okay, okay you caught me, it was really to make installing the crown moulding easier.

We use this room for everything from eating to sewing to scrapbooking, to legos.....

The armoire went with our nursery set. It was a natural color pine and I wasn't sure what to do with it once all our babies grew up into kids! So it ended up in here. I added little decorative wood pieces to the front of the doors, painted it the same cottage white as the hutch and now it holds crayons, paints, coloring books, etc. It's a great place to hide all the art supplies kids seem to accumulate!

Thanks for taking the tour of our dining room!

Searching For Inspiration

I was searching the Better Homes and Gardens website for ideas for our "Everything Room" and came across these pictures. My latest thinking is we need to relocate the computer and have that room function as half mudroom and half extra TV room. I hope I can come up with something as pretty and organized as these spaces!


I'd like some sort of wainscoting like this maybe:


This is a cute idea for messy winter shoes. A cooling rack in an old cookie sheet.

Love the wallpaper and hooks in this space!

Our Everything Room

This is what our family room floor looks like now. Yep, it's concrete. I call it the "everything room" because it serves way too many functions. It's an extra TV room, a computer room and the place we come in to the house from the backyard. It also holds the powder room and a closet. Furniture arrangment is nearly impossible but it is extra square footage in our small home so we try to make use of it!

There was carpet in here before which wasn't working out too well because you would come in from the back door right on the carpet. It was getting dirty faster than I could keep up with it. We planned to get to this room eventually but the entire family has been battling a stomach virus all week and one of the kids ended up sick all on the carpet. Gross, I know! So it sealed the deal, the carpet had to go. No amount of cleaning would have made me feel okay about the carpet staying. So much for our bedroom being first on the list after the New Year!

This room is part of an addition that was put on so it was built on a slab. We're limited for flooring because it has radiant heat in the concrete floors. That requires either a floating floor or a tile.

I'm thinking a laminate like this. It's reasonable in price and we can always change it out later if we want something nicer. For now, with kids and dogs, I think it will be a good, cost effective choice for in here. We may end up doing a spot of tile right in front of the doorway since that is such a high traffic area. That way the laminate isn't exposed to excessive amounts of water from the door.

Chocolate Drizzle Popcorn

Emidio and I made some popcorn to take around to our neighbors. We started off with butter and caramel popcorn, melted some milk chocolate and drizzled it on top. This looks really pretty with some white chocolate on there too.

He had some of his own chocolate on a spoon to eat. He really enjoyed it!

I wanted to make little tags for the popcorn bags. One thing I enjoy is making a crafting mess!

All packaged up pretty and ready to go!

Some decorations around the house

I love a good sale....don't we all? I went to Michaels over the weekend and they had most of their holiday decor at 70% off. I wonder what the after Christmas sales will be?! I bought a few things but my favorite purchase was these little birds on clips. I put a few of them in the tree, aren't they cute?

I also bought this little tree for the kitchen. I love how it sparkles when the sunlight comes in the windows.

A favorite decoration of mine is this Santa. I've had him for a few years now. He always makes me smile when I take him out of his holiday storage box. Usually he ends up moved from one room to another during the season. He's like the "Where's Waldo" of our holiday home.

Here is this years vacation ornament. Whenever we go away, we always bring back an ornament to remember our vacation. We had a little crab ornament from a trip to Ocean City, MD a few years back but it broke. I was heartbroken when he fell and his little legs broke into a million little pieces. This year, at the beach, we took a trip to the Christmas store where I spotted this little Santa being driven around by a crab. I hope the crab can get Santa to all the houses on time this year! The reindeer must be taking a well deserved rest. They are a little heavy so instead of putting him on the tree where he could fall, I'm keeping them safe and sound on the hutch.

Here are a few of my favorite ornaments on the tree. A cranberry star:

I collect chairs so this was a fun find:

And this sweet bird:

Winter Curb Appeal

These photos all come from Cottage Living magazine. When this magazine first came about, I decided to try it out even though Country Home and Country Living were already coming to my mailbox. I was so happy with this magazine, it quickly became my favorite. Here are some pictures from their website on curb appeal. I'm saving these pictures for inspiration for next year. I think I want to do more on my porch next holiday season. I especially love the window boxes filled with snowballs in the third picture!

Cutting down the tree!

Every year we really enjoy going and cutting down our Christmas tree. This year was COLD! We had fun anyway though. This year we tried out a different place. They take you on a hayride out to the trees which was neat. I've never been on a hayride on December before! You pick your tree, cut it down and they wrap it up and take it back for you. We picked out a nice, full tree that wasn't very tall. I was worried about sap on the ceiling since it was going in the dining room, we just redid that ceiling! My parents came along with us to join in the fun and we all went out to dinner afterwards. It was a really nice day!


Ella next to our tree!

My dad and the girls on the hayride. You can see the new pup in his coat, he was trying to keep Tucker warm!

Picture Ornaments!

Thanks to a blog post by My Sweet Savannah, we made a fun project here this week! She had posted a decoupaged picture of a house and it gave me an idea for ornaments. I made one for my son and one each for the boys I babysit. Their mom loved them! They also decorated their own gift bags to put the ornaments in. It was a big hit. And so easy too. I started with unfinished wooden mittens. First, I painted the side and backs black and did a light distressing. Then, I took pictures on the computer and changed them over to black and white and printed them out on plain paper. Cut to size and decoupaged them to the mittens. I did another bit of distressing on the edges of the paper. There were already holes cut in the wood so I just used a nail to poke through the picture, then added a bit of ribbon.

I used clear decoupage but you could do an antique or sepia finish as well. Or you could use the clear and then rub a bit of antiquing medium over the top. Try your own, they are easy and fun! I may save this idea for gifts next Christmas! Thanks My Sweet Savannah for the great inspiration!

The Little Blue Dresser

Have you ever had a piece of furniture that was so versatile, you used it all over the house? We have something like that. It's a small, blue dresser we found at a junk shop years ago. My husband and I often checked this shop out and sometimes we would leave with a find, sometimes empty handed. I was very upset when it closed a couple years ago. One day we went there looking for something to hold a TV in the playroom of our cape cod home. I had already made a blue floral cushion for the wicker sofa in the room so when I saw this dresser, I knew it would be perfect! We paid $65 for it and took it home. Nothing had to be done to it, the paint was a perfect color and it had an aged look to it. I'm sure it has a few new scratches on it these days but you would never know it.

Here it is in the room:

When we moved, it ended up holding clothes in our son's room. I loved this room, we did light blue stripes on the walls and the dresser was the perfect color for a nursery. The drawers were a little stubborn opening and closing so I rubbed the bottoms of the drawers with the side of a candle. A little wax does wonders!

Then we moved again (I know, we move too much!) and it stayed with him for a little while. We knew another home would have to be found for it because he had a "big boy" dresser waiting for him.....

....so it ended up in the dining room! When we remodeled the dining room, I knew it would work great in there with my blue transferware. Now it holds games and puzzles for the kids. I've been considering relocating the games and using it for my scrapbooking supplies. We'll see! You never know where it will end up next. It is still one of my favorite "junk" finds.

A Little Bit of Christmas

With a three year old and a new puppy running around here, the theme this year is "Simplicity." We haven't gotten our real tree yet but we have our artificial one up in the living room.

Master Bedroom Planning!

I'm so excited to finally have bedding picked out! I've been looking at bedding for a year now trying to find just the right one. Originally I found a blue and brown set I really liked but decided to go a little different with brown and this nice green. It's a little different than I normally would go for, it's good to try new things right?! The bolster pillow above is one I ordered in the green. Crossing fingers it matches in person!

And here is the bedding I chose. My parents are buying it for us as a Christmas gift. I got to pick it out so it will be wrapped up for my husband. I can't wait to see his face when he opens......bedding. Should be funny.

The picture is really small so I put a link to the site where you can view it larger. The green is really fun, definitely a change from the neutral, calm colors I usually pick out.

I'm thinking of doing a chair rail in the bedroom and painting the above a matching green and the bottom an off white. Mouldings would also be white. I was going to do picture moulding but the room is very small so you wouldn't really notice it. Think I can get away with just a chair rail and the bottom painted without the extra moulding? I'm thinking about making euro shams in a green textured fabric, as well as a throw for the bottom of the bed. Hopefully I can bring a pillow to the store and find a coordinating green.

http://www.thebonton.com/product/bed+&+bath/quilts+&+bedspreads/shelley+quilt+livingquarters.do

This is what our bedroom looks like now. Yes, it is really that blue in person! It was painted this way when we moved in and was a teenager's bedroom. This house is a three bedroom home but the master had its own dressing room with closet and bath. We decided to give the girls the "master suite" and we took another bedroom. Hailey has the bedroom and Ella has the dressing/sitting room. It's a great set up for them, their rooms are connected and they share the bathroom. The hall bath is larger so we are happy using that one.

The furniture is hand me downs from my parents. We painted it to make it work and I like the armoire and dresser that goes with it. I'm thinking of getting rid of this headboard and finding an old door to hang behind the bed on its side. And doing a glaze on the furniture to give it more of an aged look. There is carpet in there now we will rip up and refinish the original pine floors underneath.

I haven't decided on curtains yet and will have to do some shopping for accessories (fun!) but having the bedding is half the battle! What do you think of wall mounted lamps for next to the bed instead of lamps? I may do that and opt for smaller tables next to the bed. These nightstands are on the bulky side.

Our master bedroom is small but I'm not going to let that stop me from making it a restful, beautiful place for us. This will most likely be the first project started after the New Year. I can't wait!