WhooHoo Wednesday

Edited Note 9/24/10: I am linking up to Inspiration Fridays over at Vanessa's. I do not have a current project but this is one of my fave that I am still working on.I figure some of my new pals may not have seen it before.  I am still working on curtains and working on finding an old china cabinet and working on finding a yellow blanket that does not cost $50 for the foot of the bed. It takes me a lil' while to finish whole projects due to my jumping from one to the next. Am I the only one who does this!? They need a support group for this.
Also linking up to Featherd Nest Fridays over at French Country Cottage! Thanx for the invite Courtney!
Okay the boys are upstairs playing so I have a moment to get this post done. It is not like I do not have anything else on my huge list to be doing but I wanted to participate in the last Whoo Hoo Wednesday for the summer over at Marla's!

Quite a few years back, 8 to be exact, The Hubster and I had just moved in to our very first home that we built from ground up. Well not us personally but you know what I mean. We had so much fun picking out everything and seeing it come together but after we moved in we looked around said hey our home is kinda empty and sparse. We had no real bedroom furniture and at the time could not find a set we wanted to spend big bucks on. One day I was looking thru my Country Living Magazine and saw a headboard made from a door! I knew I had to have one and to my surprise The Hubster was right on board with the project. It only took him a weekend and me a week or two to paint it.

Here is the headboard. Before we had Littliest she wound up out in the garage and spent the next four years in there. We had refused to sell her and I am soo glad we did not!
This is what she became just a few short weeks ago. I am sooo loving the red color! All I did was sanded her down to get the poly off and then painted her with Cherry Tomato I think it was. It is by SW. After that I sanded her again and went over her with some stain to bring out the distressed areas and to deepen the red color. After that I used some rub on poly instead of brush on or spray on. I really like it and it is super easy to use. Just be sure to war gloves unlike me!

As you can see the headboard was the inspiration piece for the entire mother-in-law suite and thus far I think it is coming along nicely. It will be some time before it is finished completely but the hunt for the perfect accessories is what makes it all the more fun!

This is my fave corner. The rack is something that has been in our garage as well. I built it for my craft shows to hang my bibs from. It looks awesome when I use it for that but decided it would work in here too. I figured it would be a great spot for the moms to hang their purses and what not from when they come. I am trying to decide on what to do to add some life to that there bunny lamp. I keep going back and fourth between ric rac or pom pom trim.

Here is a view from the rocking chair. A you can see by now The Hubster loved me so much this past weekend that he bought me the Ralph Lauren bed skirt I had been wanting and an extra one to tear apart since I was not finding the fab anywhere. It is the only thing I have splurged on thus far for in here but sometimes ya just gotta splurge to get the look you are wanting. I am going to be hunting down some more fabs to mix in and also will be making some pillows for the bed to tie it all in better. Also picture a yellow quilt or blanket at the foot of the bed.

Here is what ya see when you walk in the room. Needs some loving but I have big plans! The curtains I will be going in a differ direction with. I am on the hunt for two shutters for either side of the window. The curtains will be long and flowy with ruffles at the top of all the differ fabs I will be using in here. I will hang um from a standard rod. I am also on the hunt for a two door china cabinet that will be painted and distressed in black. It will store some pretties and a small tv!

Okay enough play time for me. Back to the chores on my list! Have a great day ya'll!

Sord Of A Repost

I am sorda reposting a post I did back in August of last year I think it was. A fellow blogger was asking about how well vincas do in the heat around here and well I love me some vincas and had planted them in our beds at our Baton Rouge home. I LOVED our Baton Rouge home and one of the reasons was because we did all the landscaping ourselves which was a huge feet especially seeing as we had never done anything like that before.

Here is our home when we purchased it. A complete and total blank slate. We had no idea what we were going to do with it.

After some long and hard sweat equity our yard turned into this. We truly were very proud of our yard and thought it had wonderful curb appeal which was important of course when selling your home which we knew we would be doing. We planted the crape myrtles because in our first home we had planted some and a carolina jasmine so it was a tradition we wanted to carry on. Something we figured would live on even though we were not there.

This is what was going on at our old house today. Our neighbor heard some work going on and stepped out her door to see this. She could not believe they had pulled out the beautiful crape myrtles.

Here is the finished product. It brought tears to my eyes to see the transformation and my heart is still breaking some. I know it is not our home any more and I should feel gladness that the new owners are taking pride in making it their home but it is hard. They took most everything out even the landscaping rock we put around the beds! At least they left the carolina jasmine!

Now on to the repost in memory of our Baton Rouge home.:

Geez, the start of yet another week. I really can not complain though. Today has not been bad for a Monday. Yesterday was more like a Monday to me. I went grocery shopping at Target and got home to realize I left the kitty litter on the bottom of the cart. Littliest and I went all the way back up there to get it. Thankfully they had it and that it had not walked off with somebody else.

Been busy working on Many projects. I can not wait to share my before and after pics once I have everything done. Last week I painted the kitchen. Thankfully Littliest was quite content just hanging out and watching which allowed me to accomplish it all in a day. I was expecting two or three days. This weekend I hope to tackle the living room and the first half of the foyer. We are going to have to pay somebody to paint the second half. Once I am all done I will post picks! It is feeling so much more like home now.

This weekend I was chatting with Melissa over at 320 Sycamore. She was sharing her updated front yard where she had planted some vincas and was hoping they would survive the Tx heat. I LOVE vincas. Why do I love vincas?? They are the only flower I can not kill. Well I could but it is hard to do. I planted them all in the flower beds in Baton Rouge. They lived pretty much year round. All I ever had to do was trim them back and they would grow fuller and then I trimmed them again once winter came about. I actually had ones around the water fountain and trellis that actually stayed green all winter if ya can believe that! I was looking forward to planting some in our new front yard but sadly I missed the window. Nobody has them anymore. I told Melissa I would post pics of my vincas. All I ever did was spray miracle grow on um every two weeks. Very easy to care for.

This was during the Cajun Blizzard of 08. Ha! If you look around at the fountain you can still see how green they are and some were even still blooming. Over by the trellis the vincas were so tall that the snow weighted them down to the ground.

This is Spring 09. Most of the vincas survived the snow. I only had to replant a few around the fountain. The ones by the trellis were perfect!

These are my only vincas that I have now. I brought these hanging baskets with me when we moved. They are not as hearty right now since I have neglected them but last week I showered them with some miracle grow so I am hoping they perk back up.

This is at the old house. I was trying to get them to fill in with out buying new ones. When I saw a new one pop up where it was not suppose to be I would dig it up and transplant it to this area. I was very surprised that it was working.

The water fountain I wish I would have brought with us. I hated unclogging it but thought what a perfect planter it would have made here at the new house.

These are the vincas that greeted you on the way up to the front door. They also made it thru the winter. Oh how I miss my old front porch.

So thanx for joining me on my tour of vincas! I will be back later with a post abt chandys!

Drum Roll Please

Thanx to all who entered my CSN give away this past week! And the winner is......

Congrats Sonny over at Sonny Day Dreams!! I will be contacting you later today with the code! If ya have not been by to say hi to Sonny yet be sure to drop in. I just love all of her inspirations! My fave is her chess board in her living room!

Thanx to all of my wonderful bloggy friends! You truly are the best! I feel like I have won a give way!:)

Later today I will try to link up for Whoo Hoo Wednesday over at Marla's but I have a lot on my plate today so it may take till tomorrow. I will be showing ya the mother in law suite thus far!:) Have a good one ya'll!

Stressing!

This whole oil spill thing has me pulling my hair out!! For us it is just a vacation and I understand that because it is SOOOOOO much more for those that live in the areas affected. It is actually more than just a vacation for us though. It is a family tradition. One that has only been broken once since Oldest was born and that was last year due to our move back to Tx. We were really looking forward to getting away this year and spending time away together as a family. We have been talking abt it for two years now!

I made the plans back in December. Those plans changed in the beginning of May when the owner of the condo we were to be renting said he would not refund our money if the oil spill did come to the Gulf Shores /Perdido area. We lost our deposit. A week later we re booked with an owner that was. Sadly tomorrow I will be canceling that reservation as well. Oil has reached Gulf Shores as of late Monday. It has not washed up on shore yet but is abt 8 miles off shore. Too close for comfort for us. I got my info off of their local news channel website.

Now I am on the hunt in hopes of trying to out run the oil spill. If anybody has or knows of anybody who has an awesome place on the beach from Ft Walton all the way to West Panama City let me know. I have several inquiries out but so far nothing is working out. We need three bedrooms and the availability to park three cars. We want to be able to go just one last time and take in all of its beauty! We had dreams of owning along those shores one day and praying that the worst case scenario will not be the worst case for all of the shore line.

My heart and prayers go out to those whose life revolves around these shores! It is truly devastating!

A Few Reveals

Hey ya'll! It is hard to believe that this long three day weekend has nearly come to a close. Hope you are enjoying it with family and friends. The Hubster has to work so the boys and I are headed over to our friends for a lil' cookout. While I am waiting on the mac-n-cheese to finish baking I thought I would share a few of the little projects I have finished up over this long weekend.

Last night I posted about this here toilet. I asked ya if you could ever even guess what I could have possibly done to it...other than clean it, Ha!

Am I crazy or what!!?? Remember I am going for cottage chic with whimsy written all over it. When you walk in these rooms I want you to feel happy and peaceful. So honestly what do ya think? I figured it was just a toilet seat and we always end up replacing them when the house hits the market so why not!? I looked into just purchasing a yellow one but all there was were those old vinyl seats with the foam in them that when you sat down on them they decompressed and eventually cracked every where. Do you remember those or am I totally dating myself here? The bathroom looks super cute in person. I am currently now working on window treatments. I did the valance last night. Think white cafe curtains with ric rac or even yo yos.

This is a pic of what is quickly becoming one of my fave corners in the guest bedroom. Yes, that there is the ever so in famous Ikea picture frame hanging up there. I used the same color of spray paint on it as I did the toilet seat. Originally the frame was black. It is not totally done but done enough to hang it up. I am going to put some chicken wire on it and then back it with a pretty matching fab.

I had had the frame for over 6 months and loved it but just could not figure out what to do with it. It then dawned on me a few days ago when I was admiring this Shabby Blogs button. Yep that was the fate of the Ikea frame.

Here is a close up of it and a snippet of the door headboard I refinished. I will reveal it for Whoo Hoo Wednesday this week and also let ya see how the guest room is coming along as a total picture.

Well the mac-n-cheese is done and the boys are protesting so gotta go.

Linking up to Metamorphosis Monday and The DIY Showoff!

Just found the Paint Party over at Domestically Speaking and am joining in on the fun!:) Head on over for some more great project ideas.

P.s If any of you are pro bloggers and can tell me how to link my before and after posts to my before and after section I would be so ever grateful! I just can not figure it out.

Major Night Owl

It is yes almost 2 a.m. ! Actually after taking pics and downloading them it is now officially 2:07 a.m. . Don't ask me why the cat was sitting there staring at the clock. I guess he was fascinated by the ticking sound.

Since I could not sleep I decided to work some more on a mini project I had started last night. Can you guess what it is??

Hope ya'll are having a wonderful holiday weekend with family and friends! Before I go could you please send a prayer or two up for a young girl named Bathany!? I do not know her personally but our paths crossed briefly this evening while the fam and I were out running a few errands. Bethany apparently took a corner too quickly and lost control of her little car. She ran off the side of the road and tried to correct herself which led to her landing in the ditch which then led to her vehicle going air born flipping several times and landing on the opposite side of the ditch. We were one of the first few people on the scene since we were behind her by two cars. All we saw was the dirt flying and we knew something terrible had happened. After spending 10 min or more on the phone with 911 help finally arrived and were able to get her out of her car. The only reason I know her name is because I was handed her license so I could give the 911 responder her info. Not sure of her injuries other than she said her head hurt really bad and she was bleeding quite a bit. The Hubster said she was pretty out of it which is to be expected. It was found out that she was not wearing her seat belt and it is truly amazing that she was not thrown from her little car. So please send some prayers up for her and her family and friends. I know they could use them!

Off to bed now. It is 2:22 a.m.!!

P.s Don't for get to enter the CSN give away if you have not already! It is a few posts down from here.