Living Room Curtains!

For Christmas my mother decided to make my sister and me new draperies for our houses.  Yay!  I have been wanting to replace the curtains in the living room for a while now.  It's on the list.  Anyway, I can never decide on fabric and of course when I do, the one I pick is $30/yard embroidered linen.  Not exactly affordable.  So, I put the curtain project on the back burner for a while.  Then when Mama asked me what I'd like for Christmas I decided now would be the perfect time to pick a new fabric and have her sew it for me!  Hooray!  Mama is an experienced drapery maker, and I was happy to hand this job off!  :)  I picked a lovely neutral floral print cotton from Fabric.com.  It's Waverly's Barano Bliss.  It has a nice gray/beige background with a slate blue, golden yellow, brown and ivory floral print.  It looks perfect with our couches and the wall color. :)

The yellow chenille pillows are from Ikea, I had my friend pick them up for me while she was there over Christmas break.  Thanks Marissa!  They are a bit brighter than the yellow in the curtains, but they certainly bring some cheer to the room!  :)  And they'll look especially nice come Spring!

We had some extra fabric leftover from the draperies so Mama made me this matching pillow with fringe trim for my chair.

Here's a good view of the curtain fabric.  I think it would look nice in the dining room, too, with my new color scheme.  I might end up buying a bit more to make coordinating drapes in there.  We'll see.  These curtains are lined with Roc Lon thermal suede lining so hopefully they will help insulate our old windows against temperature extremes.  It's been pretty cold lately, so I've been keeping them closed at night to block the chill.  I'm really enjoying my new curtains.  Thanks Mama!

Well, it's another snow day for me, so I must get back to my knitting. :)  At least until I have to go out and help shovel the driveway.  Boo!

Stay warm!

Dining Room Refresh

I've been planning to repaint the dining room for a while now. The first time around I used flat paint which shows every scuff and smear.  After five years of wear and tear the walls were looking a little worn.  Despite my best efforts I couldn't get the walls clean.  So I decided to repaint with satin paint.  And now that I'm four months pregnant seemed like the best time to paint, haha!  I figured I'd better get it done before I start working on the nursery!!  :)

So after a pow wow with my sister about paint colors (she painted her bedroom and bathroom a beautiful green that I love) I went off to Lowe's to get some new green paint.  It's barely different from the original color (Bayou Shade by Olympic).  The new color is a bit darker and has a bit more yellow in it.  It's called Jekyll Crane Cottage Green by Valspar.

I blasted through the project in one day by prepping the room a week ahead of time.  I cleaned the room from top to bottom and even washed my drapes and the rods, too.  They were filthy.  I think all the spiders that don't live in the garage live behind the drapes in the dining room.  Ick!  I vacuumed the ceiling and walls and trim before starting to paint, too.  No more cat fur and spiderwebs!

I rolled on the first coat, did the trim work against the ceiling and the baseboards, and then rolled a second coat.  I only did one coat on the trim because I am lazy and they tell pregnant people not to climb ladders. ;) It looks good anyway!

Here is the result:

I took these photos with my new Canon Rebel that Michael got me for Christmas.  I'm still learning how to use it, but it's really nice! :)

I decided to ditch the burgundy accents I've had in here for the past eight years and go for something lighter and brighter and more akin to the rest of the house... blue.  :)

Since I got new curtains in the living room (reveal coming soon) I thought I might try the white linen ones in the dining room for a while and see how I liked them.  The cream floral curtains were nice, but these go with the rest of the house better.  I'd really like to make some new drapes for this room that are a bit less "white."  But that will have to wait until after the baby's room is done!  :)

And while I was at it, I stole a bunch of accessories and artwork from the den.  This print was my new addition to the den last year, but we have since put a TV in front of it so it needed a new home.  It's certainly more inviting than the two little dinky art prints I had on this wall before.  

I think it looks really nice with the paint color and it flows with the adjacent living room color scheme as well.  

I'm really enjoying the fresh new look and since we just got a snowstorm, everything outside is bright, bright, bright.  Makes for good photos! ;)

Here is a final look at the before and after transformation (in which you can't even tell I've painted, haha!)

                     Before:                                                                      After:

I'll be back soon with an update in the living room!  Stay tuned!

Winter ONEderland Birthday Party!

This weekend we celebrated my nephew Barrett's first birthday with a Winter "ONE"derland party.  He is such a happy baby and loves everyone, especially me. ;)

So I pulled out all the stops for his first birthday shindig!  Hannah came up with the Winter Wonderland theme since he's a January baby.  Here is the invitation I designed:

My sister took the adorable photo of Barrett and I superimposed it on a snowy background for the invitation.  :)

We decorated the party room with snowflakes and white pom poms and woodland animals and trees.

We had soup and sandwiches for lunch with fruit and veggies, and cupcakes for dessert.

For the centerpieces I arranged some wooden trees, pinecone trees and assorted woodland animals on the tables.  Ruger helped me sprinkle "snow" and blue confetti to finish off the scene. :)

Behind the food buffet, we had a photo display of Barrett's first year in pictures. :)

For favors I made these polar bear cookies.  They were actually pretty fun to make. The recipe can be found at Everyday Dishes.

Then I packaged them up in little bags with a tag that read: "Thank you BEARY much for coming!" They are so cute!

We also had hot cocoa favors for guests to take home after their trip to our Winter Wonderland! 

I made chocolate and vanilla cupcakes and decorated them with white chocolate snowflakes and edible candy pearls. 

After lunch, big brother Ruger helped Barrett open his gifts.

 Then it was time for his first birthday cake!  Ruger helped him blow out his candle...

Barrett wasn't so sure about the cake part, but he did have some icing. :)

 We all had fun celebrating our big boy Barrett!  Happy Birthday Buddy!

2015: Before & After

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas last week!  Another year has come and almost gone... which means it's time for our annual project recap.  What did we set out to accomplish this year?  Here's my project list for 2015:

• Make new curtains for the living room (Got these for Christmas, pictures coming soon!)
• Rebuild deck… still. (Did it!  Hooray!)
• 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 (added a mini island, does that count?)
• 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

We completed a few small things and one big thing last year.  The new deck was our big project for the year.  It's one of my favorite projects so far!  Here's a look:

Before:

After:

We also redesigned the adjoining patio and added some new landscaping to the flower bed in front:

It's such a nice spot to relax now... I can't wait until Spring when we will get to enjoy it so much more!

Another outdoor project from 2015 was reseeding our backyard (again).  We amended the soil with a new top dressing of topsoil before planting so hopefully that will help with the longevity of the grass!  

We also finished the steps in the woods leading to the new garden area.  I planted liriope along the other side after these photos were taken.  So it's all nice and completed now.

This year I also helped my sister create a bear themed nursery for her son Barrett.  It turned out cute:

In the new year, I'm pleased to announce we will be working on our own nursery!  We are expecting our first child in June 2016! :)  I'm sure there will be lots of baby related projects as we prepare for our little one's arrival.  

Which brings me to our to-do list for the upcoming year 2016:

• Redecorate guest room for new baby's nursery!
• Build a home gym in the basement for Michael (in progress)
• 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
• Finish parking area edger
• Continue creekbank planting in the new garden
• Add firepit area to new yard
• Stain and seal new deck

Here's to a fun, healthy, productive New Year 2016!