Spring Kitchen Updates

Hi friends!  Spring has sprung!  It is beautiful outside today and now that the sun is shining I had the opportunity to shoot some pictures of my Spring-ified kitchen! Yay!

Michael recently had a birthday and he got this cool magnetic knife rack as a gift.  (Thanks Brandon!)  We installed it on the wall under the cabinet and were able to fit all our necessary knives on it.  The big Santoku in the middle is the one we use most of the time.  Those others are just for emergencies… and bread…. or the zombie apocalypse. :)

The new knife rack cleared up the whole corner where the knife block used to live.  I moved the cookbooks over by the microwave.  Now there is so much room on the counter!

Since Spring is finally here I decided to herald its arrival with a few new plants.  The planters and the little variegated plant came from Ikea.  I love how the planters match my white stripe canisters!

My friend and I made a trip to Ikea a couple weeks ago and we had a great time looking at all the showrooms and then browsing the décor items.  I bought this beautiful white tray that I had filled with magazines for a while.  But I thought it deserved a more special presentation, so I put it on the kitchen table with a few Springtime accessories. :)

Everything looks fresh and clean in here and I’m loving it! :)  Welcome Spring!  I’ll be back soon with a post on my Spring blooms in the yard!  Hope you’re enjoying this lovely weather!

P.S.  For more updated content, check out my updated House Tour page!

Art for the Master

I’m a country girl at heart, even though I live near the “big city” now (not really!) and I’ve always wanted a painting of a barn to hang in my house.  I love barns.  Especially old, rustic, falling-down ones.  So, when my mother saw a raffle for a barn print by Ward Nichols at a local church bazaar, she decided to buy a bunch of tickets in hopes that we would win.  And lo and behold, the ticket she entered under my name was the winner!  Hooray!  I never win anything!  I think she was kind of expecting me to give her the print, since she bought the ticket.  I told her we could share custody… that is until I saw it hanging over my bed.  The end.  My barn print!  :)  Thanks Mama!

It’s called “First Snowfall” by Ward Nichols and it is framed with a beautiful tan linen mat.  The tones in the print are just perfect in my bedroom, so serene and lovely.  :)

The linen mat also ties in nicely with the embroidery on the drapes and the tan linen lampshade.

The former bedroom art went to live over the mantel in my botanical inspired mantelscape.  I think this art is a much better complement to the blues and browns in the bedroom.  I also moved the family tree that was on the side wall to the hallway and put something else there that didn’t compete for attention with my new barn print.  I think it looks perfect!  :)

Simple DIY Drop Earrings

I am a newcomer to the earring world, since I just got my ears pierced last year when I turned 30.  Hard to believe, I know!  But now that I have passed that milestone (finally!) I am really getting into earrings!  I spend a lot of time browsing Etsy for neat-looking earrings that are small and dainty.  Since I have newly pierced ears, I am not quite ready for the big dangly ones, and the small dangly ones are hard to come by and they cost $14 a pair!  So I decided I would try making some earrings for myself!

After looking on Etsy for ideas and seeing other people’s earrings (never paid much attention before! haha!) I decided to try a simple crystal drop style earring.  I found lots of helpful tutorials since I was totally clueless as to how to begin. 

Diane from In My Own Style had a helpful tutorial for simple beaded earrings.  She also had a tip to use old jewelry that you get secondhand, take it apart and reuse the beads.  Great idea!  I actually had a beaded necklace that I had never worn, so I took that apart and garnered a few silver beads for my project as well as a bunch of miscellaneous beads that I might use later.  Then I went to Michael’s and bought a pair of jeweler’s pliers, headpins, eyepins, ear wires, and some crystals and beads.  The pliers are important because they have rounded points which allows you to make perfect loops to join your wires.  (Needless to say, mine are not perfect, but I am getting better!)  I also used another pair of needle-nose pliers and a pair of wire cutters that I already had.

So after gathering my supplies I spent a little while designing my earrings on the headpin.  This tutorial from beadage.net shows how to use a headpin:

I put some beads together on a pin to see if I liked the combination and rearranged them until I was happy.  Michael helped, too, he is surprisingly opinionated about earrings! :)  After I got my beads in a row, I followed this simple tutorial for making the top loop.   Don’t pretend you know what you are doing, just follow the rules! :)

After making my semi-perfect loop, I just strung them onto my ear wire and closed the loop.  Voila!  This kind of earring is super easy!  Here are the ones I made with just a few purple bicone crystals, some silver beads and a headpin.  This pair is 1 3/8” long from the top of the ear wire.  You can make them shorter or longer depending on how many beads are on the wire. 

This pair looks really cute with both blue and purple! 

The next kind of earrings I wanted to make involved a chain of beads with loops.  I found these adorable light pink glass drops in a pendant kit at Michael’s.  The kit was an assortment of pink and purple beads (right down my alley!) and these drops matched the bicone crystals I picked out.  To make these into earrings, I had to thread a wire through the top of the teardrop and then form a loop.  That loop was joined to another crystal that I put on an eyepin (which already has a loop on one end) then cut and formed into a loop.  The whole chain then hangs on the ear wire.  Not as easy, but definitely more fun, since all the little loops in the chain make the earring swing around more!  These are also 1 3/8” from the top of the wire, just right for me!

And for my third pair, I used the same technique except with two crystals.  Dark pink and light pink joined by loops.  These are so cute, they are just a bit over an inch from the top of the wire.  Dainty and sweet!

Making the little crystal charms is really fun and rewarding once you get the hang of it.  I still have tons of beads and wires, so I’ll definitely be making more earrings in the future.  Hope you enjoyed my little “tutorial” on earrings.  Try it yourself, the supplies are inexpensive and next time someone compliments your earrings you can say you made them yourself! :)

P.S. For more earring inspiration, check out my Pinterest Board: DIY Jewelry.

A Frozen Birthday Party!

While most of the country has been frozen by the “Siberian Express” or whatever they’re calling it, we have been celebrating my niece’s birthday with a Frozen themed party!  This year everyone gathered at my house for her party.  Since, Abby loves Elsa and all things Frozen, I decided to do a blue/white/snowflake theme for the décor. 

The piece de resistance was a two tier castle with the Wilton Castle Cake Kit.  I frosted the layers with a blue ombre effect.  Abby loved her cake!

The rest of the décor was shades of blue with white pom poms, snowflakes and garlands. 

I made this garland out of fabric scraps (leftover from my many Elsa costume projects) cut into strips and tied onto a piece of yarn.  Then I hung snowflakes on top and balloons at either end. :)  It was cute and really easy!

I decorated all the windows and mirrors with snowflakes.  I drew them with a chalkboard marker which erases easily from glass.  :)  Abby had fun adding her own designs, too!

For refreshment, there was blue punch to coordinate with our cake, of course!

And some chips and dip, and fruit and veggies for snacking.

Abby wore her new Elsa dress (that my mom made) for her party.  She was a pretty princess! :)

We all had fun visiting and eating and helping Abby celebrate her 7th birthday.  Happy Birthday Abby!

A Vintage Botanical Mantel

It’s time for a post!  I almost let January slip by with nothing to report from the Horvath House.  But of course, there have been a few projects here and there since Christmas.  We have some new art in the master bedroom, but I haven’t had a chance to photograph it yet.  I’ve been busy at work and catching up since the holidays, and also welcoming a new nephew to the family!  My sister had a baby boy on January 12th and we have been spending a lot of time there hanging out with the new little guy.  I’m hoping to do a feature on his nursery soon!

In the meantime, I want to show  you my mantel that I created last week.  Since Christmas had to come down, I decided to switch up the artwork over the mantel with the pressed ferns that were hanging over our bed.  They were the jumping off point for the mantel design.  You can see how I made those here. 

I joined the warm earthy tones and gray greens in the art with a dried hydrangea arrangement and a couple pewter candlesticks.

The other side continues the vintage paper theme with a collection of old books and some nature-inspired bird figures.

I topped the coffee table with my vintage toolbox filled with more dried hydrangeas.

And the bird pillow on the couch pulls it all together. :)

I’m loving the new look which can easily be updated with more vibrant accessories come Spring!  And it can’t come fast enough for me.  Come on groundhog!! :)

Okay, I will try to be back soon!  I have a Frozen party in the works and of course the baby boy nursery reveal! :)  Stay tuned!  Stay warm!

2014: Before & After

Well another year has almost come to an end.  That means it’s time for a recap of the past year’s projects!  Last year about this time, I gave you my to-do list for 2014.  Here it is:

• Make new curtains for the living room to match the new couches (maybe this year!) 
• Rebuild deck… (probably not happening this year either!)
• Clear out “the last frontier” for sunny vegetable garden?
• Finish exterior spruce-up with black storm door, and freshly painted white trim
• Refinish or replace dining table and refinish side table in living room
• Refinish secondhand dining table for kitchen (already in the works!)
• Repaint dining room with satin paint (the flat paint is so grungy)
• Edge parking area at top of yard (we started replacing the gravel this year, so hopefully will get that finished up in 2014

We did accomplish a few of the things on the list this year!  We definitely got around to the “last frontier” and now we have a new garden spot and a new big yard! 

I refinished the living room table but didn’t get around to the dining room table, which I still want to replace!  And I decided that we need wainscoting in the dining room, so I’m waiting to repaint until after that is installed… we’ll put that on the list for next year!

I finished the new table for the kitchen, which is probably going to be nixed once we build an island for the space… we’ve been contemplating the idea of an island in the center and a small sideboard to replace the table. 

We almost completed the parking space upgrade last year… we still have about 8 feet of edger to finish, haha!  And we still need another load of gravel for it, too. 

So, here are the notable projects from 2014:

The parking space upgrade was our first Spring project, which involved adding a brick edger to our upper parking area and refilling the area with new crushed brick gravel.  It’s not quite complete, but we will have to finish that next year!

The excavation of the back border of our property was a big project from last year.  We rented a bobcat and my brother tore out all the underbrush and small trees and cleared down to the dirt.  We then spent the rest of the summer (and fall!) adding a vegetable garden, planting beds, plants, mulch, and finally grass!  It’s going to be so nice enjoying our new yard next year when most of the hard work is already done! Yay!

We also replaced our worn-out asphalt-shingle roof last year with a new black metal roof that my brother-in-law installed.  It’s beautiful and durable and hopefully will last a long, long time! :)

In addition to the exterior updates, we also made a few interior updates!  We replaced our old thrift store kitchen table with a beautiful two-tone pedestal table that I painted white with a stained cherry top. 

   

The table may not be around for long since we are planning a mini-kitchen upgrade with a custom island.  But I’m sure I’ll find a good home for the table if we decide to move it. 

In other table news,  I refinished our side table in the living room and removed the corner top unit to simplify the design a bit.  I love the new look and now I don’t have to worry about putting a drink on the top.

I also refinished the bookcase in the office while I was at it! haha!  I was repainting in there and decided that the bookcase needed work, too.  I love the new paint color and the bookcase is much nicer now!

So, that brings us to the end of 2014’s outstanding projects, and now I need a new goals list for the new year!

• Make new curtains for the living room (maybe?)
• Rebuild deck… still.
• Finish exterior spruce-up with black storm door, and paint white trim
• Replace dining table
• Repaint dining room with satin paint and add wainscoting and chair rail
• Mini-kitchen update with custom-built island, move pendant light, add sideboard
• Finish parking area edger
• Finish steps in the woods to the new garden
• Start creekbank planting in new garden
• Add firepit area to new yard
• Add compost pile to garden

That should keep me busy for a while! :)  Best wishes to you and yours for a happy, healthy and productive ;) New Year 2015!  See you next year…