~a galvanized bucket and stain update~

 My neighbor was getting rid of this large bucket and he thought I might like it.

Well yes indeed I did, but it needed a little something to make it special!

I stenciled the front of it using black craft paint and a stencil I bought off etsy.

 I filled it with fall flowers and ivy, and voila, a nice new planter for my yard!

 I placed it near the bottom of the stairs leading to our front door

 so you can see it as you walk up the path. 

Well, our house is finally finished being stained. 

They did have to strip off the color we hated.

 The house, the detached garage and 2 out buildings.

 They weren't too thrilled.

It now has a much nicer color on it, and we are very happy.

Now the trim is being painted. It's about 50% done.

When it's done and the shutters and window boxes are back up I will be sure to share photos with you all! Hope you are having a great weekend!

xoxo

~HGTV's shabby chic style guide~

My friend Layla contacted me a while back about using a photo of our living room for an article she wrote for HGTV. 

You can see it here.

I'll be back tomorrow with a winner of the minted giveaway!

xoxo

~help please~

 In a couple of weeks we are having all the stain stripped off our house, 

garage, sheds, etc. and re-stained.

 The trim will also be given a fresh coat of paint. 

I thought it would be easy to pick a new color, {if we decide to change it}

but it's not! We know we want to stick with the white trim, but would you change the siding color if this were your house? 

As you can see by these first 2 photos of our home, it is currently a deep cedar color, which I do love.....

 However, going slightly grey seems intriguing to me.

 This is just a tad lighter than what we have now.

 Same with this one.

I do like the contrast of the darker stain with the bright white trim.

 What do you think?

Au natural and let it age gracefully? :)

I'd love to hear what you think, so please chime in!

Also, I am having a heck of a time adding new photos to my sidebar! 

It keeps rejecting my photos saying Picasa web albums storage is up.

BUT, I have deleted photos and it still is saying that, AND I'm not getting that error message when I do regular posts, it's only happening when I try and add a picture gadget to my sidebar. Anyone know what's going on? Is this a blogger problem or just me?

FRUSTRATING to say the least!

AND, the Patina Style giveaway ends tomorrow! Scroll down to enter if you haven't already!

Thanks for taking the time to give me your feedback!

Have a happy weekend! 

xoxo

~my sweet Savannah's room~

 It's almost been a year since we did the big surprise makeover for Savannah while she was away at camp. Most of it has stayed the same, but a few changes were made.

I sold the little love seat at the foot of her bed to make room for a desk and chair for her to do her homework.

 She still loves her "sweets" themed room and I am proud to say she is still cavity free!

If you want to see how the room came together, go here.

xoxo

~our dining room table~

 I have had a lot of questions as to how I like our dining room table since I sanded all the paint off.

Well, I love it. 

I am so glad I did it. 

It was previously painted black and I wanted a lighter look, so I sanded all the paint off with a palm sander and finished it off with a furniture wax.

It has held up to us eating dinner there every night, even the kids' spills.

 If you have a painted piece of furniture and are after this look, I can say, it was super easy.

A little time consuming and hard on the arms, but worth the effort I think.

Also, I will be completely re-doing and re-stocking my space at Ruffles and Rust Square this week.

If you haven't been in, or want to see some new fun stuff, head on over to Snohomish!

I have made pillows out of vintage grain sacks from the 1800's, and I have a ton of new signs and chalkboards.

Furniture, silver trays, a gorgeous antique dress form, cast iron pieces, and much much more!

xoxo

~more master bath pictures~

 Just a few new little things.

I made this gigantic mirror forever ago. 

It has always been sitting in our bedroom, never thought about hanging it because it's so heavy and huge.

But, up it went, and I love it there! 

I also brought in this huge basket with a lid for our dirty clothes~it used to house blankets in the living room.

 I added a few new {old, I didn't buy a thing, just shopped from my house}

things to the thrift store shelf here.

 Still love my new shelf that I posted about earlier.

I love having all the extra storage!

I also wanted to give a shout out to my friend Timi who runs the Ruffles and Rust flea market, as it was named in Romantic Homes magazine as one of the top 10 romantic flea markets! 

I also shopped the French flea market today in downtown Kirkland put on by my friend Cindy and it was fabulous. She always does such a good job! 

Her store Haley's cottage is a must see, and her link is on my sidebar on the left!

Hope you are having a great weekend!

xoxo

~our kitchen nook~

 This little nook in our kitchen I am always changing up.

It's fun and it keeps me out of trouble :)

Yesterday I added a stack of ironstone plates that I once had for sale at Ruffles and Rust Square. 

When I started dreaming about them at night I knew it was time to go in and reclaim them.

It's a secret love affair I have with ironstone.

 I also raided my parents peony garden yesterday.

Thanks Mom and Dad, you grow much lovelier peonies than I ever could.

I filled a white bowl with fruit, and added a new/old oil painting I got recently.

I LOVE the pink and the turquoise together~one of my favorite color combinations.
{caesar salad dressing recipe from Pottery Barn ages ago, check ebay if you are wanting one}

 And just for fun, here is what the same nook looked like this past winter.

Goodbye hot chocolate and hello lemonade!

xoxo

~living room styling and a few new goodies~

 As I mentioned yesterday, my friend Stephanie came over and helped me style a few things in my house.

One area that I couldn't quite complete is this console table behind my sofa.

I love the table, it's really long and I got it at one of my favorite flea markets.

I recently got the sconces and mirror from Restoration Hardware 

{gotta love that outlet!} 

Well, Stephanie worked her magic and came up with a beautiful, rustic, simple display, perfect for summer!

 Just to the right of our fireplace is this little table that houses all our television components.
{it's twin is on the opposite side of the fireplace and houses dvd's, wii remotes, etc. and our parakeets call the top of it their home~ in their cage of course!}

On top she used the oil of the ship I found at a thrift store recently, a old globe {love decorating with these} and a few candlesticks and flowers in a old glass jar.

 She also visually expanded the space by adding my wood cherubs to the wall behind the sofa.

You might remember them from this post.

I also added a cowhide rug and switched out my wood "trunk" coffee table for these ottomans.

I recently had the pair recovered in grain sacks I bought from here.

 A and  D Upholstery did a great job on these.

Angie from A and D is also the one that did these chairs in my dining room.

If you are local and want her info. just shoot me an email.

She is very affordable, professional, and best of all, fast!
{she did these in 3 days}

 She used the left over grain sack material on the reverse for the welting. The darker color is a nice contrast to the lighter color. 

Because I ran short on grain sack material and only had enough to do the welting and the tops, we used inexpensive drop cloth material for the sides. 

She finished them off with a heavy coat of upholstery grade protectant so that when Cody eats his corn dogs with ketchup on them, I won't have a heart attack.

 The grain sacks are different, but they are both German and have a faded grey design and lettering. One is full of patches, which I think gives it so much character. 

The other one I simply chose because it has the number 3 on it and that is "our" favorite number. :)

I think having these large ottomans together as a coffee 

table actually visually make the room appear larger. 

And that's all for today folks, I am off as I promised my daughter a trip to the mall today.....

Happy weekend!

xoxo

~a dead space has come to life~

 My friend Stephanie, bless her heart, came over yesterday and helped 

me tweak some things in my house.

Sometimes i just need a new set of eyes to see things in a different way.

One area that has always bothered me is this funny little alcove in our master bath. It sits next to the sink and behind the tub. It's an awkward spot and I have never known what to do there.

Then it dawned on me that Stephanie {who also sells at Ruffles and Rust Square} had a cabinet for sale once upon a time that didn't sell, so she took it out and brought it to her storage unit. 

She was sweet enough to go there and measure it for me and then when I said it would fit, she hauled it over. 

I can't get over it.

It's P.E.R.F.E.C.T.

It not only fits perfectly, but the colors are gorgeous!

I love the dark charcoal grey with the lighter cream~beautiful!

Of course I needed help styling it, so she helped me out there too!

 I hauled out my loot and she worked away styling and making things pretty!

 One thing I had packed away that I was so happy to see in use again is this great carved bird urn.

My husband bought it for me about 10 years ago for our anniversary.

She put my gardenia in it and it's perfect there.

{sorry to keep using the word perfect!}

 The giant clam shell came from Ruffles and Rust Square

 as well as the soaps inside it from Circle Creek Home.

I had the lamp and all the other little accessories to tie it all together.

What do you think?

I'll be back soon to show you more of Stephanie's amazing transformations!

xoxo

~parade of homes tour continues~{our home}

Today I am joining poppies at play in their online home tour!

I took some photos of our main living areas for you to see, the rooms that receive the most changes~monthly, if not weekly!

This is our living/family room. It's where we watch tv, play games, sit in front of the fire, and hang out!

This wall behind our sofa continuously changes.

I recently have gone through a sunburst mirror infatuation, so that is what I have up there now, along with some of my favorite family photos. I call it my wall of love!

I also just got these new lamps.

Don't kill me, if you've been reading my blog a while I had just purchased some fabulous chippy blue wood lamps.

I have a friend who wanted them really bad, so they are now in her house.

I like my replacement, a bit more contemporary, I like mixing modern with cottage.

Here is our back door, which 99% of the time people use as our front door, us included.

I painted the walls a while back a creamy oatmeal color but chose to leave the ceiling cedar, as well as the logs you see here above the french doors.

The chandelier is from Pottery Barn.

We have a massive river rock fireplace and with the exception of the summer months, we have a fire going almost all the time.

It's a very cozy room.

I also changed out some of the accessories on the sofa table.

I got this ornate gold mirror at TJ Maxx to tie into the gold in the new sunburst mirror

{also a TJ Maxx purchase}

I love this photo of my son with his 2 front teeth missing.

I got this cool metal box thingy from circle creek home at ruffles & rust square.

My mom gave me some old pharmacy bottles, and I added these as well as succulents in chippy garden pots.

I kill almost all indoor plants, but these are almost impossible to kill.

I think I always have at least one candle burning at all times, it's an obsession of mine~I love yummy smells.

This one is called milk and honey.

All these items sit on my $5 garage sale trunk that is stocked full of magazines~another obsession!

Now, moving onto the dining room which sits directly behind the living/family room. It's actually one big open room with different floors being the dividing line between the two.
I am seriously obsessed {do I use that word too much?}

with these melamine Ikat bowls and plates from Target. The kids can't break them and the colors are fabulous!

 Another every changing wall. This little niche that sits at the top of the stairs. I found this great ledge/shelf at a garage sale last summer, and for now have photos of my kids in reclaimed wood frames that I made. A couple old posts are leaning up against the wall.

 I recently stenciled this one wall in the dining room just to add a little interest. The shelves, which are an old door cut in half,  are filled with misc. flea market finds and TJ Maxx goodies.

 I LOVE all the light these windows bring in! They face the lake and in the summer months, the light just streams in. I have never shown this angle of the room before because of the embarrasing water damage in the skylights.

Don't look too close :)

I also recently found 2 caned high back chairs at a thrift store, painted them black and added a burlap coffee sack to the seats.

I may do a seperate post on those later, they are kinda fun.

Moving along to the kitchen which is right off the two rooms.

We do not have this pot rack anymore, but I like this picture because it shows the lettering around the inside of the skylight.

You can also catch a glimpse of our chalkboard wall in the background, which the kids love. I have to say, I love it too!

The kitchen island has a honed black granite on it and is HUGE. Eventually when money allows I'd like to update the rest of our counters with the same or maybe even butcher block.

I got these counter stools at Pier One Imports and think I'll have

 them for life.

They are comfy and I just love the cross backs.

A dear friend of mine made me the most adorable light leopard print seat cushions for them with a flouncy ruffle around the edge.

My husband trimmed out the island with mouldings and I painted and distressed it. These photos were taken prior to our mini kitchen makeover where I painted the cabinets to match and stained our floors.

You can see them here.

Not much else has changed in our other rooms, but if you are new to my blog and would like to take a peak, you can see our daughter's room here

&

our son's room here

{photos taken pre good camera days, sorry for the poor quality}

Thanks for stopping by!

Next up on the list is flea market trixie!

I love her home and her diy attitude, so be sure to check it out!

Here is the complete list of homes on the tour:

1. www.funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com

2. www.theoldwhitecottageblog.com
3. www.dearlillieblog.blogspot.com
4. www.honeywerehome.blogspot.com

5. www. mysweetsavannah.blogspot.com
6. www.fleamarkettrixie.com
7. www.starviewsonnet.blogspot.com
8. www.reddoorhome.blogspot.com

9. www.theshabbychiccottage.net
10. www.jenniferrizzo.com
11. www.justagirlblog.com
12. www.gransvillehouse.blogspot.com

13. www.infarrantlycreative.net
14. www.joysofhome.blogspot.com
15. www.modvintagelife.blogspot.com
16. www.domestically-speaking.com

17. www.isabellaandmax.blogspot.com
18. www.inmyownstyle.com
19. www.freckledlaundry.com
20. www.muchtodowithnothing.com

I also wanted to let you know I will be doing the mother of all giveaways tomorrow, so be sure to stop back by, and tell all your friends!

xoxo