Sebastian Photo Shoot

I wanted to put a picture of this guy on my sidebar and realized I didn't have a good photo on my computer. What a perfect excuse for a photo shoot. This is our Sebastian.....

He's a 5 year old Sheltie, isn't he pretty?

We've had him since he was only 12 weeks old and so small.

Sebastian has some anxiety issues....

Which means his face often looks like this...

But as long as he has a cozy corner to sleep in....

And his kids to give him hugs.....

He is perfectly content.

Powder Room Project

The time has come, we're ready to get moving on the powder room. Back in June I had talked about it and it took us.....oh, only 5 months to actually begin. Let me give you the "Before" tour and then I'll give you an idea of the plan.


Last year I gave it a coat of brown paint that was leftover in the basement. It was a quick fix to cover the purple color it was when we moved in. I didn't want to replace the sink and toilet at that point so I went with the brown/blue theme.


We're lucky to have a window in this room for natural light but it doesn't have moulding around it. We plan to fix that....

Say goodbye to the blue sink! I found a new, white pedestal sink on Craigslist for a steal.

The floor is the worst part I think. It's vinyl and discolored.

The ugly fan...

My husband started taking the baseboards off and I yelled out, "WAIT! I have to take before pictures for the blog first!!" So he tried to put it back. Luckily he's understanding about just how important the before pictures are....

So that's the full tour, now on to the fun part. I definitely want to add some sparkle, love the sconces in this bath....

This mini chandelier was on clearance at Home Depot. You can't beat finding something off the rack and for cheap....

I looooooove the floor in this picture but my powder room is small....

So we ordered an all white 1" hexagon tile. My bathroom won't look this gorgeous (I NEED that chair...and the tub....and the mirror....) but it'll have the same floor.....

Being as it's such a small room, I want to make a big impact with wallpaper. I'm so glad wallpaper is back but honestly, even if it wasn't.....I'd still be wallpapering. This large print damask is gorgeous....

Target online has this paper available. It's one I'm considering but I want to look around some more first. Isn't the color pretty?

Well that's all my powder room ramblings for the day! I'll keep you posted with progress pictures as we move along. I'm looking forward to making this bathroom pretty for our guests.

(P.S. ~ The bathroom photos I used as examples were from my inspiration folder. I believe they all came from Country Living's website but if any belong to you, please let me know so I can give credit.)

Perfect

I think at some point we all try to be perfect at something....the perfect parent, perfect employee, perfect spouse, the perfect homemaker.

We want to do everything right, be everything to everyone and keep our homes sparkling clean all at the same time. And at times we succeed.

I know I fall into this trap....it's easy to do. Until I stop and think about all the reasons why things don't have to be always sparkling and free of flaws. Because it's impossible, and exhausting and not real.

This is the hardwood floor in my daughter's room. We had to get through carpet and about a million staples to get to it. And when we did, it wasn't perfect. There were holes.....lots of holes. And a huge scratch right in the middle. We could have filled it in, tried to make it at least appear perfect. Instead we chose to leave it alone. I don't know how it got there but it's part of our home's history and as long as we live here, it will be left as it is.... flawed.

So when my house looks like this....

full of dust and completely imperfect, I'm going to cut myself a break.

I don't have to be perfect, and neither does my house.

Halloween

I am so sad Halloween is over. It's my favorite holiday and my favorite time of year. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas decorating but there is something about Halloween....no stress, no fuss, just fun!

Here we are at my son's school after his parade. Notice the look on his face? Yeah, that's pretty much how the day went with him. He didn't want to wear his full costume, he didn't want to wait for me while we were trick or treating and he walked right into someone's house. Yup, that's my son. Ring the doorbell and if they take too long, hey, just open the door and go right in.


Candy is serious business you know!



I didn't intend to have this action shot....any tips on how to get a 4 year old to sit still? No?? Oh well, it was worth a shot.



And my girls, who were happy to sit still and smile....

It rained here for us but we still had a great time. The candy is a little damp but the kids don't seem to notice. How was your Halloween? Did you get a lot of trick or treaters? How much candy did you eat? I'll tell if you will....

Halloween was yesterday but the real fright starts today. Nothing could be scarier than today's task.....cleaning up the basement. *dun dun dun* We're going to hopefully get some organizing done down there, it's my goal for this week. If we don't accomplish this I may not be able to find my Christmas decorations when the time comes, it's that bad down there. Wish me luck!

Poor Man's Custom Framing

Okay, so I'm not a man and I'm not poor but I am a gal that likes to save a buck or two. Knowing how much I like birds, my mom hand embroidered me three adorable birds on white muslin for my living room. I was so excited when they were done and went searching for frames. Ummm...wow. Priced framing lately? Not what I wanted to spend. The fact that I needed three of them only made it worse.


So I thought, who needs matching frames?? Not me, no sir. Off to the thrift store I went and found this beautiful picture for $2.98. The picture is pretty bad but the frame was large and solid wood.

I knew I could make the matting out of the ugly print...





I took the backing off, pulled out the print (which was attached to a heavy cardboard, score!) and measured how big I wanted my opening to be. A few pencil lines and I was ready to cut.




This went quickly with a razor blade and the straight edge ruler. HINT: Be careful not to press too much, forcing the razor through the cardboard so hard the end of it hits your dining room table. Nope, please don't do that.







I decided to cover my mat with fabric. I had a neutral fabric that I had purchased when I was deciding on what to use for my rocking chair and it was the loser. There was plenty for this purpose though. Isn't that great when you have something you can reuse in a way you didn't think of when you bought it?





Iron your fabric first so it is nice and smooth, then place your mat over the back of the fabric....

Get out your trusty glue gun......

And start folding over the edges, gluing them to the back of the mat. I used a fabric scissor to cut the fabric toward the corner, making it easier to fold. When you get to the inside, trim the fabric so that you have an empty square in the middle.

Be careful when you cut toward the inside corner not to go too far. You don't want to see the mat at all from the front of the picture. I cut almost to the inside corner, leaving a bit so when it is folded, you have a slightly rounded edge of fabric and the cut does not show.

After this was done I put it into the frame, placed my embroidery over it and tucked it all in. It looked unfinished on the back and I was concerned about dust getting in so I made a backing for it.

I had this wallpaper left over in the basement so I cut a piece and glued it around the frame. Not the best job but you won't see it anyway.

And here is the finished product!! Wasn't that easy?

It's not a perfect, professional framing job but I'm happy with how it turned out. And the best part is that it only cost me $2.98!! This frame is 17x20. Try finding a new, solid wood frame in that size for that price.

Now I need to search for two more so I can get the others framed up. After that I'll decide what color to paint them. Since I'll be buying mismatched frames, I plan on painting them all up the same color for unity. White or black, I haven't decided yet.

I'm sharing this project today at these great blogs! Be sure to check them out!

http://asoftplacetoland-kimba.blogspot.com/

There's still time!

I know it's getting close to Halloween but you still have time for some great projects. Check out this pumpkin topiary by Kimm over at Reinvented . Isn't it cute?! She gives step by step instructions on her blog.

The best thing about it is you can put it out year after year. No rotting pumpkin topiaries at Kimm's house. Phew!

Kelly from Rose Vine Cottage also made one. She used all white pumpkins and I love the urn she put them in. You can view her completed project here.

Not a topiary but an easy and fun fall idea.....

white crackle pumpkins by Lisa at Fern Creek Cottage.

The tutorial for these is here .

Have you been over to Hooked On Houses today? There is a fall home tour going on so be sure to check it out this weekend!

Procrastination Project Completed!

I got the project done this time around, phew! Here's the chair before when I was trying fabric out on it:
You can sort of see it in this picture with the green fabric it originally had. I wish I had taken a better before picture but in my hurry to get started, I forgot. Do you do that too?



And here it is now after a coat of Heirloom White paint and a new, pretty fabric for the seat....

(I had a couple comments about the blanket when I posted about this party. It was handmade and was my baby blanket. I'm so glad to have it, it's held up beautifully and I just love it. The embroidered blanket behind it was purchased at my very first auction. I went with a friend who was also a rookie and we were so nervous but it was fun. We both left with some goodies and feel a bit more confident for the next one. There are some serious auction goers out there, let me tell you!)

My hubby helped me recover it. Okay, so we didn't do a professional job but it looks nice and more importantly, it's done after procrastinating for more than 5 months!

I took the blankets off so you can see the back of it. This rocker was bought at a yard sale for $10. The woman selling it told me it had belonged to her mother in law and that many babies were rocked in this chair. And now I sit in it with my "babies." How special!

I also wanted to say thank you to all who came to visit Rue and her sweet home. I was so glad to have her here and for the opportunity to show off her talents. It's always fun to meet new bloggers and have a new one to stalk...errrr.....read. I hope you found a new blogging friend in Rue.