A Date

It is 1:56 a.m. and I just finished a late night date! It didn't start until midnight when I decided to go and put something out in the garage. I am a total night owl! Dremel was out there and he was feeling kinda lonely. I had thought about using him earlier in the day but it is just too dang hot these days. So there he was lying there feeling lonely and all so I decided to pick him up and turn him on. Oh how he loved that! I had not really used him to do what I was doing with him before so it was a learning curve but I think it went well. I did have to come inside in search of some safety goggles but all I could find were my old sunglasses. So me, my old shades, and Dremel spent a wonderful hour and 45 minutes together. Here is a sneak peek!

No, wait a minute. That is just a pic of our crazy cat who likes to lick plastic and chew on tape! Such a weirdo.

Sweet dreams!

A Work In Progress

Edited Note on 8/20/10- Linking up to Nesters spur of the moment liky party about tables and chairs. Our dining room table is from Havertys. The chairs are Pottery Barn inspired  and the bench I purchased at an unfinished wood furniture place in Baton Rouge. The french country arm chair in the corner is a local yard sale find! Thanx for stopping by and be sure to check out my April Cornell Giveaway!

Happy Friday ya'll! Hope this week has been a good one for ya! Today I am sharing the progress I have made in our dinning room. It has been a long process with much indecision because there are just soo many beautiful inspirations out there. I attempted many colors and was thinking of actually going with green on the walls and then doing black and white toile curtains. I ordered the fab but sent it back. I was then thinking maybe red but that would make it too dark and I wanted to warm it up and brighten it up.

I purchased many testers. I just could not make up my mind.

Then what made it harder was the fact that I found these curtains at Tuesday Morning back at the beginning of the year. I loved them but they are a funny green/beige color which made paint choices even harder. See that cream in the corner on the wall. It was in the lead.

Here is the dining room before we moved in. A blank slate. How endless the possibilities were!

Here is the dining room today! I finally decided on Ivorie by Sherwin Williams for the top and then just a basic white for the bottom. Funny thing is is that cream color in the corner in the previous picture was the tester Ivorie. The gallon Ivorie is totally differ....or maybe I mixed up my colors. That could very well have happened. Either way I ended up loving it. Ivorie is one up from Whole Wheat on the strip and we have Whole Wheat in the main portions of our home. This pic is with the light off. We are going to purchase bamboo blinds for the windows eventually. They are a pretty penny since they have to be custom made.

Here is a pic with the lights on and the flash on. There is the blue Windsor bench. I like the subtle punch of color.

Here is the view from the kitchen hallway into the dining room before we moved in.

Here it is now. One of the first things I purchased for this room other than the table was the rug from Ballard. Not sure I will purchase a rug first next time. It made the curtain choice hard as well. I do love it though!

The curtain dilemma continues for the mere fact that I do not like how I hung them.

It was suppose to be an inexpensive way to get around purchasing an expensive wooden rod that we would have to cut and then the finials on top of it all. I have since purchased a rod at HobLob that we are gonna attempt to cut down. I will let ya know how it turns out.

See the hem is let out and they are still short and of course there is the issue of the trim not being long enough. They will soon be re-hemmed.

Here is an option to add more punch to the room. I am thinking of making a topper with this gingham fabric I purchased at Garden Ridge. It was $5.99 for 2 yards! A steal! If I make a topper then it will solve my length issue but may mean I have to undo the pinch pleats of the rooster curtains. I would love some ideas if ya have any!

Once I get another hanging kit the scrolly Pottery Barn votive holder will be hung on this wall.
What should I do on this wall?? Eventually I want to rip down the chair molding and do board and batten. We have textured walls though so it will be a huge undertaking. Instead I am thinking a fancy picture molding that I can maybe mirror around the chandy on the ceiling.

Here is a pic of the bench fully painted. I am thinking of making the seat darker. I have not put poly on it yet because of this.

Thanx for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed the tour. Please flood me with ideas!! I sure could use um!

Linking up to It's A Hodgepoodge Friday over at It's a Hodgepodge Life!

Thrifty Treasure & A Redo

It has been almost a week since my last post. Finally...knocking on wood...everybody here is well and we are getting back into our normal groove. It has just been one thing after another since May and I am hoping things will quiet down till school starts back up.

Our 4th was a pleasant one and I hope that yours was too! We went to watch fireworks up at the church where Littliest goes to preschool. It lasted all of ten minutes but they were very pretty. We parked at a local business near by and sat in the back of The Hubsters truck. The boys were just tickled! Afterwards we came home to our sparklers and few works we had and the neighbors were out doing theirs. Seeing as we had not met most of them and we have been here a year officially now we thought we should go down and introduce ourselves and join in on the fun. Again the boys were just tickled!

Not too much else going on around here except for some more rain. In between playing mommy nurse I was able to tackle a few projects while the boys were down and out. It was totally weird because they never had a fever nor acted sick just had the barforama going on. I insisted they stay on the couch though and just watch tv. Worked out nicely. But before I show ya one of the projects I completed I must show ya'll my thrifty treasure first mainly because I loaded my pics backwards but hey it all works!;)

Are these not beauties!? Found um on the local yard sale site and finally I was the first one to respond on something I really wanted! WhooHoo! They needed a good wipe down and so they ended up in the garage...um messiest area of the house...and this evening after dinner I wiped them down and disinfected them. Yes, I am a germaphobe.

For now I am placing one here in our dining room in the corner. The other one will be my chair in our soon....one day in say the next month or two...to be office.

I was thinking of possibly painting and then selling one of them but while I was wiping them down I just fell in love with all the details on them! I was told they are antiques.

Look at the carvings that trail down to even the legs! Just beautiful!

I wish I knew exactly how old they are. They have a stamp on them but it just too hard to make out what it says. They are super duper sturdy!! Nothing like furniture these days so I am sure they are old, just how old is the question. If anybody has a chair like this and knows any info abt them please share! Oh, what makes them all the more wonderful was that they were just $25 a piece!! I just think that that was an outstanding deal especially if they really are antiques!

Okay now on to my first project I tackled. I purchased this bench before we moved here over a year ago. I at first I thought I was going to just paint um black and slightly distress it to match our table.

That changed and so I started adding on colors. First was white and then a layer of a buttery yellow.

Next I used the Tomatoe Red that I used on the guest bedroom headboard awhile back.

Looks kinda scary I know!

After 5 coats of paint, distressing and some stain here is the final finish! I wanted to add some blue to all the rooms in the house and so I figured the bench was a perfect way to add it to the dinning room. Seeing as somehow I managed to NOT download the pic with the entire bench in it ya'll will have to come back and see it in all its glory. I will have another reveal then!;) Have a good one ya'll!
Linking up to Frugalicios Friday over at Finding Fabulous!