Thursday, September 10, 2009

I Did It....

I finally broke down and did it. I made my very first Ballard Designs order! I have been getting their catalogs for years. As matter of fact my mom use to get them when I lived at home and that was over 8 yrs ago. When the catalog comes in the mail I always drool over it...well not really but I do look at it over 100 times if not more. They always have such wonderful "pretties"...what my boys call all my decorating stuff... and always use color schemes I love. I have never ordered from them because honestly I find them a little pricey on most things. No ordering leads to them no longer sending me the catalogs so I always have to sign back up for um.
I could list several things I love from them but it is late and I need sleep. The in laws will be here tomorrow...aka The Nana and The Papa. They will be here sometime after I pick Oldest up from school. Nothing like a 14 hr drive from good ol' Ga. They break the drive up into two days though. We usually do it in one but now that the boys are old enough to realize they are stuck in a car for 14 hours we may have to do the same.
So I digress. What did I buy you ask? I purchased an indoor/outdoor rug for the dining room. The wood flooring we have I HATE and well we decided after getting a $12,000 estimate to pull out the existing wood and carpet and replacing it with new wood flooring that we would...I would...just deal with it till I go insane or till the boys tear it up. I wanted to cover it up and we needed a rug in the dining room to warm things up. A normal wool rug would so not do. I needed something easily cleanable....not a word I am sure...and hey it says hose and I am all for just hosing it off in the yard if needed! I also purchased a Fleur De Leis rug for the foyer. I am over the leopard one I have and it does not really fit in with this house like it did with the last. It is going up on the local yard sale site as soon as the new one comes in.
Well it is late and I still need a shower. Morning comes along much too quickly these days!

P.s. I received my Kmart Country Living Items and I am impressed! I took pics before I tore everything open. I will post soon!

I purchased this one in black. I think it will be great in the dining room!

I got this one in red. I debated and debated over what color. I actually went back and changed the color like ten times if not more. It was between the red and khaki. I decided red since I was going black and Khaki in the dining room. I hope it was the right choice and does not look too Christmasey....yet again another non word! Ha!

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Keeping Fingers Crossed

So today has been more like a Monday really. So far none of my projects ...well one...have turned out the way I had hoped. I received the valances for the Kitchen that I had ordered a week and half ago from Kmart. They looked so pretty online. Almost had a faux silk look to them in the picture even with the zoom in field. Let me tell ya they came and I did not even take them out of their packaging they were that awful! I guess sometimes ya get what ya pay for and seeing as they were $6.99 each I over estimated their quality. So now instead of saving money I am actually wasting it by having to ship um back . $14 in shipping for $21 curtains. Ummm what is wrong with that picture. I may just sell um on the local yard sale site. So buyer beware! DO NOT purchase the red pouf valance from Kmart!

I am kinda worried because I ordered some of the Country Living line from them as well for our guest bedrom and paid rush shipping so it would be here in time for the in laws visit. Right now all is in their bathroom is a plastic see thru shower curtain and a blow up bed. How inviting uh!? Here is the shower curtain. It looks like it has soo much potential.

Here is the bedding. I ordered the eyelet shams to match as well. Again keeping my fingers crossed since the Country Living name is involved they won't be a complete loss.
Look at yet another wonderful inspiration project by The Nester. I had purchased a door over the weekend at Lowes to make something I saw on another site but instead decided against it since I had no where to put it. I took the other style door back for this style door like The Nesters in hopes of doing the exact same thing. I was so excited and even had purchased a $5 can of Oops paint to paint it and distress it. Got home and I did not even think abt the length of the door just the width. It is to tall. I refuse to return the door and for $19 I can figure out something to do with it in the future.

I did pick up my foyer light this morning and it is out in the garage drying from a few coats of antique bronze. It actually had a brown and blue speckled thing going on. Mind you with it hanging in a two story foyer nobody but me would have known but it still would have driven me crazy! It is HUGE and I have no idea how they ever had it hanging in their dining room. I mean really its gigantic! I will share pics soon.

Look at these pretties! I was inspired by Peanut Petunia and her sconces that she fauxed over the holiday weekend so when I saw these on the local yard sale site...yes I am addicted... I had to snatch um up! They were only $6 for both!


So there ya have my day in a nut shell. Littliest and I did go to Open House and meet his teachers! That was fun and what is more fun is that he starts school TOMORROW! I am throwing a party ya'll! Ya wanna come!?;) I am so counting down the minutes till bedtime. I LOVE my boys more than anything but ever since Oldest started school the afternoons have been rather testing.
Have a good one ya'll!


Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Bringing The Outside In

Hey ya'll! Hope your long holiday weekend was a good one. Ours was great. Got a ton done but did not get back to my painting. I am including a sneak peek at my colors though!The in laws are coming out at the end of the week so I will have some time to hopefully finish. I am having so much fun adding our...uh my ..... style to this home. The Hubster pretty much goes along with anything. He may fuss at first but then when it is actually done he is fine with it. I have been focusing on lighting and in my last post I showed ya'll the dining room chandy that I am waiting on. I hope it comes soon. It has been a week already and I am impatient when it comes to getting new pretties. Well while I have been waiting on that one I found a new wall fixture for the tiny hallway from the kitchen into the in law suite. The Hubster installed it yesterday while I was out getting supplies for Oldest for his homework project.

Here is what the tiny hallway had when we purchased the home. I hate that half moon light and we have since changed the carpet out to match the kitchen tile. Why on earth they put carpet right there I will never know especially seeing as there is an entrance from the garage right there as well to the right.

This is where the bringing the outside in comes to play! I looked and looked at fixtures and knew I did NOT want a dome light. Everything else had the candle look and well since the light sits higher up on the wall that would have looked funny so I needed something that pointed down. While we were at Lowes I saw this pretty little thing in the outside lighting section. The Hubster thought I was insane....just so ya know the in laws do too...but knew better than to tell me no. The Hubster thought abt painting the spot for me but knew I needed to do some touch up and figured I would just want to do it myself. He was right.

It is the perfect size and even though it is not dark you can get a little sense of how beautiful it looks in that alcove at night when it is turned on. I am soo in love with it and The Hubster agreed it was nice as well!;)

Here is the sneek peek I promised ya'll of my painting in progress. The kitchen is SW Camelback. The rest of the common areas in the house are SW Whole Wheat. This is Whole Wheat in our foyer so far. I chose SW Svelte Sage for the accent color and also it will be the laundry room color! I am having issues with dining room color though. I need another color to break up the Camelback and Whole Wheat. Its a LOT of those two colors and since the laundry room and set ins will be Svelte Sage I really want an additional one.
Now see this beauty?! It was listed this morning on the local yard sale website. I was not sure I was going to be lucky enough to respond first. I have missed out on more than several good deals because I did not see them first. It is some 37 inches long and seems large for the dining room so I am thinking Foyer or maybe hanging over our landing to upstairs. I was lucky enough to respond first so Littliest and I will be picking it up tomorrow morning after dropping Oldest off at school. It is a steal at just $25! I tried to talk um down to $20 but they said no and well that is fine because I love it and I know a fixture this size and style would be well above $100 new!
Have a good Monday ya'll!