Year: 2010

Dining Room: Updated

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Over the weekend, we decided to repaint our dining room, completing the transformation.  We used the same color as the basement, which extends up the staircase and is visible from the living room, dining room, and kitchen. 

I cleared the room and taped off the trim while Ben was at work.  After removing the curtains, I decided that I liked how open the window looked.  So, I took the outer curtain supports down, patched the holes and sanded it smooth. 

I don’t have much time to paint with a three-year old and four-month old.  Fortunately, Ben is a quick painter and the area is small.  It literally took about eighteen minutes to repaint.  Here he is, hard at work.

We had to do two coats.  One on Saturday afternoon.

And another on Sunday morning.

Ben hung the curtain brackets about 5 inches from where they were.  It’s really amazing how much more open the window seems now.  I love it.

I did love the old, dark blue color (Benjamin Moore’s Hale Navy), but this definitely fits in with the rest of the house.  The curtains are more fitting with the wall color, too.  Sure, the plates don’t pop as much against the new wall color, but the dark table top was just too dark with the old wall color. 

The room has come a long way in the past few years.  Now it’s exactly as I had imagined.  The plate rack is a nice feature, serving as art and storage. 

We have some touch up paint to do, especially on the white, but it’s good enough for now.  I’m a happy camper.  Touch up paint can wait.  Let’s take a trip down memory lane, shall we? 

Here was the dining room as I received it, thanks to Ben’s decorating.

Then we added trim, a plate rack and repainted.  We also bought a new rug and I made curtains.  Then we had this:

We recently installed a new light fixture and Ben built an ah.maz.ing table for us, bringing us to this point:

And here we are today!

Do you have any projects to take on this weekend?

Window Shopping: Cute or Kitschy?

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Do you ever see an item that is so ugly it’s cute?  Or wonder if something is cute and endeering or kitschy and ugly?  I know I do.  I think a few personal kitschy/cute items are fine, so long as it is only a few.  I’ve gathered some of the items I can’t quite decide which way I lean toward more. 

These little guys could be cute in the right setting, especially becuase they are made to look like your family. 

I would like to buy a plain set to make my own, but you get the idea…

This print is simply adorable, not even a hint of kitsch. 

It’s similar to my Love Tree print, too. 

Maybe that’s why I like it?

If only I had a place to put something like this. 

Which reminds me, I still need to figure out how to make a terrarium (or two or three) for my house.  Of course, with my love of all things miniature, I would need something like these and these.

I have been loving faux bois lately, so these coasters would be a great fix.

Although, so wood (ha!) these.  In the right setting, of course.  Maybe the boys’ room?  Hmmm…  Of course, I would have to make my own.  You know I’m too cheap to spend $45.00 on pillows!

I actually made a pillow for my boys becuase I was inspired by this little monkey.

So, that’s that.  What are your opinions?  Cute or kitsch?

IKEA Finds

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Every time I visit my family in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area of Minnesota, I get a much-needed IKEA trip!  Unfortunately, my camera battery died, so I couldn’t take any photos in the store.  Instead, here is what I went home with.

I bought two Lack Side Tables with hopes I can make minor adjustments to the tables to make something perfect for the boys’ room. 

We need to join the two tables together from the under side, but they are a great place for V to sit to look out the window.

IKEA definitely has a great selection of picture frames and even better prices, so I picked up two 20 inch square Ribba frames (with mats!) for our hallway.  I need to update the family trees (the brown canvases in the hall) I made a few years ago, but I want to recreate it in Photoshop, to make the text neat and clean. 

I opted to buy the silver frames for $10.99 and add a few coats of spray paint, and not buy the white frames for $19.99 each.  In fact, all the silver Ribba frames were on sale, so I picked up a few other sizes, just to have some extra cheap frames on hand. 

I’ll post pictures of the redesigned family trees once they’re framed and ready.

I don’t need more vases, but I couldn’t resist the clean lines of the Persika vase. 

The $3.99 price tag wasn’t too bad, either.  The Farm vase is cute too, so I got one of those.

The smaller vase was actually a reed diffuser from Target I picked up around the holidays.  And, because everything looks better in an odd grouping, I placed a small ceramic bird to keep the vases company.

I really like IKEA’s selection of rugs.  So much in fact, that I bought a new rug for our front door. 

The natural fibers seem durable, but if it’s not, I only lost $10.00.  I do love the neutral colors and the herringbone pattern.

Throw a few white cloth napkins, plastic cutting boards, hanging shoe organizers, mousepads and Kassett storage boxes in my big blue tarp bag and that’s what I picked up on my latest IKEA trip.

Gimme A Giveaway: Customized Stationary

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*This giveaway is no longer accepting entries, Thank You!*

We’re back with another giveaway!  I wanted to give one lucky reader one customized 8 inch by 10 inch print OR one set of 12 folded notecards from my shop, Customized Stationary.

Here are some print options: 

Carved Initials:

Bird Family:

I Love You This Much:

Love Math:

Love Tree:

And here are some stationery options:

Carved Tree Stationery:

Stump Stationery:

Anemone Stationery:

Want a chance to win?  Here’s how it works:

To Enter:  Comment on this post to tell which print or stationery set you prefer and the colors you’d like.

Bonus:  Blog, Twitter or Facebook with the giveaway link.  Then, leave another comment including your blog post, Tweet or Facebook link.

Contest Closes:  Wednesday,  August 4, 2010 at 9:00 pm, central time.

Number of Winners:  One!

Ships:  Anywhere in the US of A.

Other Info:  The winner can customize their print with colors, text such as names, family names, dates, and initials, and quantity of birds in the Bird Family print.  Only one entry per e-mail address.  The winner will be selected using random.org and announced on Thursday, August 5th.  Good luck!!

Gettin’ Thrifty With It

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When I was in Minnesota visiting my family, my sister and I went to a local thrift store.  I didn’t find much, but I did get a small lidded apothecary style jar for $1.49.  Last week, I went to one of our thrift stores and found a larger version for $2.99 but received 25% off, making it $2.25.  Not too shabby.

I also snagged a solid marble covered jar.  The price was originally $11.99, but was 50% off, making the final price $6.00. 

Here they are after reuniting with a long-lost brother from Minnesota:

One big happy family again.  The jars look great and add some interest, but I didn’t think they were great deals.  I bought 13 books in the same trip.  Again, not great deals, but definitely better than Barnes and Noble.  I am most proud of the deal I received for a new rug.

This is a 6 foot by 9 foot jute rug with rubber backing.  It originally was sold at Pier 1, so I should try to find what it sold for.  I didn’t see a price on the rug, but there was a $49.99 sticker on the floor, near the rug.  I saw there was some damage to an area and decided to ask for a price. 

The thrift store worker checked and came back to me with a good price of $25.00.  I asked if I could get a discount because of the damage.  She asked if I meant it was stained and said they couldn’t discount for that.  I explained the wear and she left to get her manager.  In the mean time, I brought the rug up and un rolled it to show the damaged area.

The manager saw it and agreed that the damage was worth a discount.  So, I got a 50% discount, making the price for my 6 by 9 rug $12.50!  I would say that is a great deal.