To all of our men and women serving our country, past and present -

Happy Memorial Day

I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Memorial Day.

While no magic spell will transform a trashcan into anything other than a receptacle for holding whatever, we can pull out our magic craft sticks and transform it into something pretty.

So here is our first volunteer!  She isn't much to look at, but she's got potential!

So its not like I'm drawing a blank on pillow ideas....I have lots of those, but I'm feeling in a funk about what to do with some of the other spaces in the house, so its time that I found some inspiration for them.

Harrison is ready to go!

One of my favorite things to do is tour all of the model homes in the area. In Northern Va there are a {ton} of new home communities and most of them have model homes. So Mom, Steve, Harrison and I all piled into the car and took a tour of some  homes. Our plan was to hit 5 homes, but that didn't happen. We visited two and got some good ideas. The third we drove by because Harrison was eating, don't worry Steve was feeding him some fruit medley while I was driving down the gravel road. The 4th we never found. Then we decided to drive around Bull Run Mountain, and looked at all the pretty landscaping. The 5th house we stopped by but we didn't stay at long, because while it was open it should not have been. It was not anywhere near ready to be open to the public. We'll go back and visit that house in about a month.

I'm sure all of us have seen something in a store and said, "I can make that, and for a lot cheaper than that." I had that moment in Target about a week ago, and I said then I was going to make that pillow. Well, I didn't forget about that pillow, but I did forget how it was sewn together. So back to Target we go.

How do you deduce how a pillow has been sewn together at a store with no intention of buying it? You unzip it, remove the innards, turn it inside-out and hold it up to the light while your mother takes pictures {because you let your phone completely die}.

I know some of you gals will sympathize with me about being a baseball widow, but I'm not just a baseball widow....I'm a red sox widow. *sigh* I know that Papi has hit 8 home runs recently despite early-in-the-season talk that he was in a slump. I know that Jacoby Ellsbury just came off the injured list after breaking some ribs. I don't know these things because I want to know them. I know them because my husband told me, because like any good wife I have learned enough about his interest to be able to have a conversation with him. I'm sure you all can empathize.

So I've been hankering to do this project for a while now, but because I wanted to get the bedroom done...I put it off, until now!

Subway art is super easy and chic right now, and I wanted to make some, but for who? Devlin! The boy loves the Super Mario Bros.! So I made him some art using all of the characters and then some from Super Mario Bros. I asked him which ones he wanted included and then went about laying it all out in Photoshop.

So Saturday was uber-busy for us, but I want to tell you about it anyway. As most of bloggy-land knows Saturday was the day of the Luckett's Spring Fair and I was going. Come hell or high water. Despite the fact that at 1 o'clock Dev had a game and at 4 o'clock we were having a pot-luck of finger foods with about 22 of our friends and family. I figured that if Mom and I got out of the house by 8 (Lucketts is about 45 minutes from me) then we'd have plenty of time to get there, browse and then be home by noon, because Dev's game was in Manassas and it'd take me at least 20 minutes to get there.

Yea, none of that plan happened. I didn't wake up early, because H decided that he'd sleep till 7, but we still made it out of the house by 9....I still figured we could have some fun. So up Rt. 15 we went. We got sidetracked though. By a pink and black polka-dotted silo and a handwritten poster board sign that said antiques. I stopped. I couldn't help myself. :) We never did  make it to the Spring Fair at Luckett's. We drove by saw the crowd and said....ehhhh, not gonna happen. We got sidetracked on the way home by Michael's and Dev missed his game, because I didn't get home until 1. Ooooops. :)

Here's the take I ended up with:

So it was my weekend again for the family dinner, and I had planned on having Peach Pie, Apple-Stuffed Chicken, Cabbage and Potatoes of some sort. I go to pull out the makings for the chicken and guess what?!?! I have no chicken stuffing, and its pouring. Cats.And.Dogs.Raining. Yea....there's not enough money in the world that would get me to go out in that mess. So off to the cook book I go.

I find a recipe for Glazed Cornish Hens, and I have everything for that, except the Cornish Hens, but I have a chicken, so I'll adapt it. :) I then continue on with my original plan. So here's the goods!

I only cooked my bird for 2-1/2 hours. Parts of it had to be nuked, because I  had a time limit. We needed to be done by Lost's Finale. :)

The event you've all been waiting for! My bedroom. She's done...except for those pillows that I didn't think I'd have any trouble getting done. I could not find trim that I liked for them....of course, I didn't go to Hancock so that could have been part of  my problem. I went to 2 Jo-Ann's and both had what I wanted, but not 6 yards of it. I just wanted an olive green lipped cord.....not hard. I know if I had gone to Hancock they would have had something. Hancock's home dec trim selection is soooo much larger. :)

Beware of a very picture infested post. :) So on to the show!

Oh wait....You thought I was going to announce the winner in the title. Ha! You're so silly. No, no I'm going to make you read a bit before announcing the winner. :)

Buuuuut, first, I am happy to announce that my bedroom make-over is complete (except for the pillows, but I'll tell you about that later)! I will do a full post on it tomorrow, but all I want to say right now about it is, Phew, thank goodness that's over. :)  I will never, never, never, I mean ever make another duvet. And this time I mean it. :)

I'm chipping away at my to do list. The duvet is 98.9% done. It would have been completed, but someone was missing some Velcro. I'll need to talk to Stephen about keeping Velcro stocked. ;-)

This would be the afternoon sun streaming through my windows.

There's the duvet eating my work space. Can't wait until that Velcro gets put on.

Ok so yesterday was interesting, in a good way, well most of it. :) Let me start off on the right foot, however.

Reminders

So now on to the rest of it!

I see give-aways all the time in blogland, and I did not realize until this moment how much planning and thought goes into each one. I suppose that with practice it does get easier, but I'm not there yet. :) So on to the show!

The Rules:

Become a follower and leave me a comment on this post. If you already are a follower, then please remind me with a comment on this post. :)

That's  it....pretty simple ;)

So I know it's only Tuesday, but it has been a spectacular week already!

First, I get notified that my Beveled Mirror Project was chosen as a top 10 project for the DIY Club this month. All of the projects are beautiful and I encourage everyone to vote for their favorite. My project is number 33. Good luck to all the entrants!

We celebrated a friend's birthday this past week, and in honor of that I tried a new recipe. Now, I'm not really an icing person, and neither is the birthday boy! It was also requested that the cake be in cupcake form. Not a problem. I had a box of spice cake mix, but who wants plain spice cake? So off to Google I go.

I found a recipe for chocolate spice cake on FamilyOven.com. It was easy enough, so on to the show!

So, I've  been sitting here staring at my blogger screen for about 5 minutes trying to decide on what I want to post. I've also been writing out this paragraph in my head, because I couldn't reach my keyboard. My laptop was sitting on the ottoman in front of me, and I was staring at a blank blogger new post page. Why?

Because, Harrison was eating, and I figured that while he was eating, in between kisses on the head, I could maybe try and decide what to write. It didn't work. I am still torn between two directions.

Everyone has been talking about these 'Decorating Personality' quizzes, and each time I've tried taking one I get a response of: Your color/decor personality is                       .  Apparently, my style is blank? I don't think it is. I'm pretty sure I have color in my house. :) So I found a quiz in a magazine. Well surely, it'll tell me what style it thinks I am, based on my answers, so let's do this together.

Today was a day for getting things done. Small things, but things nevertheless. I got 20 pink napkins bleached back into the realm of white. I also washed up some of the new bedding for the master bedroom, and painted over my stenciling from this weekend. I made dinner, cleaned up the family room and kitchen. I also decorated a shirt for Dev. I'll show you that tomorrow, because I do need something to talk about. :) Let's see.....what else got done?

Oh, Steve helped me out by enabling me to be doing two things at once. :) I started priming the nightstands while he was doing bath and bed for the kids, then he came in, and very graciously finished priming the one piece, while I was working on another painting project. The other piece will be sprayed tomorrow, because the detail on these pieces is insane.

The effect is nice, and exactly what I wanted, but yea...not gonna happen.

So this weekend I had a major minor setback with the room. I was doing some stenciling, and there was no way I could finish it by myself, ever. If I had super powers, then maybe I would have been able to finish it. Scaffolding probably would have helped also.


I spent two hours and got 9 repeats done of this stencil. I was working on my bed, because I figured that if I got dizzy and fell {and I did get dizzy} it would at least be soft, but then I remembered that I was holding a wet paint roller. Doh! Oh well, at least I never fell or accidentally painted the wall/ceiling. So that's good, I suppose.

Sorry for the picture, but I was lying down, face up on my bed for this.

I did, however, think of another option for my stenciling dilemma and it arrived today. So excited!

Here's another project for my master bedroom. The wall space above the vanity needed something spectacular. Its a big space and that poor vanity was being a little overwhelmed, but not any longer! As all of us know, large mirrors are expensive, and I, frankly, did not want to fork out the cash for one. I wanted a mirror that was as big, or almost as big, as the top of the vanity and square. With only an idea in tow, its off to Lowe's I go. :) So on to the show!

I didn't know it at the time, but Pottery Barn also had a similar idea. :) Here's theirs:
and my finished product. I like mine better....especially since mine did not cost $249.00

When Diana posted a few weeks back that she wanted to start a new series on her blog called Teach Me Tuesday, I knew I wanted to contribute. So today is my day over at The Girl Creative to teach her followers about the Typography Pillow from a few weeks back. I hope you guys go over and visit!

I had wanted to show off pictures of Mom's Mother's Day Brunch, but someone {Dad....and in case Mom didn't give you the message, then Mom} has not sent me the pictures. So you will have to make do with some camera phone pictures and some funny shots from after the brunch, but given my seemingly new Sunday night tradition, I'd like to share with you a recipe.

Sandra Dee would be proud of this one. I found the idea from Bakerella, but changed it, because I'm 1) lazy, 2) overbooked my weekend and 3) slept in today (being that it was Mother's Day and all), but all those  excuses aside I had intended on changing the recipe all along. Mom's culinary theme was citrus, so I thought that lemon cake dipped in white chocolate would be yummy. ;)

It was not until I was a mom that I appreciated the above saying. It's hard to know what to write today. Mother's day was always kind of ubiquitous for me. I try to show my mom how much she means to me all the time, because she is not only my mom but my best friend, confidant, muse, and a host of other things when I need her to be there. She knows when I don't want to hear what's good for me, and then tells me anyway. She also knows that sometimes, no matter how old you get, that a hug from Mom while you cry on her shoulder is more healing than any medicine can ever hope to be.

With all that being said, I did want to do something for my mom, mother-in-law and my grandmother. I, of course, don't have cards, nor did I mail my mother-in-law's gift (sorry, Donna!) :) but I took a picture of part of them. Only part, because I'm not done yet, because I was so consumed with the master bedroom stuff that I forgot that Mother's Day was this weekend. Oops.

I am looking forward to Mom's brunch tomorrow, and I hope that everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day. As for the bags and sugar scrub. I found the tutorials in blogland, but can't for the life of me remember where. So if any of you know I'd be very appreciative to give credit where it's due! Oh and I'm very happy that my mom and mother-in-law have names that begin with the same letter!

Have a splendiferous day!

I'm just including this little guy because he lives under our air handler, and I didn't know that until today. :)

Well, I am just going to have to admit it. There is no way on this green Earth that I am going to finish the bedroom this weekend. Part of the reason is because I have not yet even begun to paint our dressers, and the mirror projects one mirror project is being a pain. The other reason is because I have no nightstands. Well, I have our old ones, but I really don't want to use them again, and well, I have no replacements. Sigh.

I do, however; want to share with ya'll what I have gotten done, and marked off my checklist! I wanted something above my headboard, but had no idea what. Art really wouldn't work. I don't know why, but I feel like the only 'art' I want in our room is the art from our life, but I don't really want a family portrait over our headboard. So while I was discussing this dilemma over with Mom, we came up with a solution. A mirror! But then I got the thinking that a mirror is kind of boring and can get pricey. So while we were walking around Ikea, we found an $8 mirror that was the perfect size and proportion, but the frame was lacking. I have a solution for that! I also had another idea for layering some interest. :)  So on to the show!

So the title is kind of obvious to all except me. Most of you know that I write my posts the night before, and well I went the entire day today thinking it was Wednesday. I feel like a complete dodo now because of an email I sent my sister.

My sister, Dana, is doing my very first guest post, and in coordinating when I would post her tidbit, we decided on Friday. Well because I went ALL day today thinking that it was Wednesday, I sent her an email asking her if she would mind if I posted her stuff tomorrow or Friday. DUH! Same day, way to go, Heather.

Trash to treasure is overused don't you think? Which is why I have rescued some garbage :) Ok, so not really garbage, but there was no way this chair was making into my house with the way she looked. The desk, a little beat up, but has some awesome bones. :) So welcome to first real glimpses of my bedroom revamp.

I also need to explain, that while I took pictures of my process, I am in know no way advocating the way I did it, because there are most certainly better ways of creating a slipcover. So on to the show!

Ok, so clearly I'm on a pillow kick, but at least this one is completely different! I did not sew anything. Not.a.thing. :)

This was my first adventure in freezer paper stenciling and I am hooked. I have two more projects in the wings for this in the immediate future. This was also one of the first projects for our master bedroom revamp, and it was silly simple and free. Score! So on to the show!

My boys are home! After a weekend of working hard on the bedroom, going to pick them up from their great-grandmother's was a welcome break. I'm not going to even attempt to tell you that I did not enjoy the break from my guys, but Monday could not come soon enough. There are some things that are not the same unless your family is all together, and dinner is one of these things. I did go over to my mom's for dinner on Sunday, but Stephen was not feeling well so he stayed home. The boys, were of course, not there. So only 4 of us graced her dinner table.

Tonight, however; I had all of my boys home and healthy, and I would like to share with you what we had for dinner. It was another new recipe from the Food Network magazine.

So the bedroom revamp is in full swing, but I managed to get this pillow done this weekend. I have never been so happy for my algebra lessons before, because when I was an 7th grader I was never going to use it in real life. Hah! Sometimes we are so naive in our youth. I was also surprised that the math was a welcome break to all the cleaning and painting.

We've all seen these pillows in the stores, and while I will probably not be making a lot of them, they are nice looking though. I also made this one as a slip cover, so that you can easily change it out for the seasons. So on to the show!

 Well we are starting the makeover, and I'm a little over-whelmed by the magnitude of things that I need to accomplish in order see my vision come to fruition. To make matters worse more complicated interesting I went shopping, and found the perfect vanity. Well it will be perfect. Then I found a chair, an UGLY chair for the vanity, so it needs some love. A lot of love, but we'll get to that. Later