Decorating
What I’ve been up to!
Projects! Projects! Projects!
When I don’t post for a while, rest assured it’s because I have been very busy.
That is exactly the situation again.
If you didn’t already know, we moved into a new home a few months ago. Since then, we have been trying to update it a little bit. For one, it is bigger than my last one. (HALLELUJAH!)
So, we needed to actually get some furniture for it, which I’ve written about in other posts. Well, there is something else now. The floors!
The floors were pretty nasty to begin with. There were so many “pet stains”, that when we pulled the carpet back, I couldn’t tell where one ended and another began. : (
Plus, to top it all off, we have allergies that get worse when you involve that ugly little carpet word.
Here is a “Before” shot of part of the living room. The carpet doesn’t look that bad in this pic. My camera is being very kind to me.
It was the best feeling in the world when I got to see the first row of boards go down.
This however, was not. It took him the whole weekend to get the tile in the foyer out! : ( We later found out that a much lighter tool would have done the job in way less time! Oh well, lesson learned.
This is a “still in progress” picture of the living room.
The whole project isn’t finished yet. However, when it is, I’ll post the final pictures.
While the kitchen, living room, and pretty much the rest of the house was a mess…… we decided to go ahead and do the backsplash I’ve been wanting in the kitchen.
I had this at the last house, so I knew that I would like it. It only cost me $140 in materials! For a tile backsplash, that is great!
The undercabinet lights kind of made the picture too bright, but I’m too lazy to turn them off and take another. It isn’t grouted yet, but I will update the photos when it is.
I also managed to snag this pendant light from The Goodwill down the road for $5.95. With a little paint, it and it’s 2 siblings will be the fun, quirky light fixtures I have been looking for to go over the bar.
SO!
That is what I have been up to lately. Updating the house and now hopefully updating Babies and Biscuits.
Oh!
I did manage to make a pot of Chili along the way!
Recipe to follow tomorrow!
-Esther
Halloween Decorating
I love sprucing up the house for different Holidays. I especially love doing it for Halloween.
My mom, as well as my mother in law always do atleast a little decorating on the inside for it.
You don’t have to do much. I just take some “scary” things and put a little around the house.
For instance. . . . .
No coffee center would be complete without a few orange coffee cups, equipped with their own ghostly chains to drink out of.
A dead black rose and bones for stirring your cream and sugar.
Of course, if you aren’t careful . . . . . .
things can become a bit “overgrown”.
While pesky critters may come out to play!
However, you must REMEMBER, any Good Witch will tell you . . .
ALWAYS decorate your foyer.
NEVER dust for cobwebs,
ALWAYS put out your best Skeleton Heads,
And ALWAYS keep Lists.
And NEVER EVER forget your Black Cat.
Happy Haunting!
-Esther
New House Update / “Conversation Area”
I wanted to give you an update on our new house. We have been hard at work trying to get it cozified. (Yes, I know. I made that word up.)
Which reminds me, I should probably update my kitchen picture on my “About Me” page. Maybe later.
Anyway, I don’t know about you, but in my home, the kitchen is the main area everyone likes to congregate.
AND I love that! I feel like that is exactly where I want everyone.
In the kitchen, talking, eating, and even curling up with a good book? WHAT?!?
“Curling up with a good book?” YUP!
In my old kitchen, Z would come home and we would literally hop up on the counter tops, sit there with beer and a glass of wine, and talk about our day.
We would try to do this without interruption from our children, but alas, this never was the case.
Our old home was so tiny, there was no place to hide. AND I MEAN NO WHERE!
Exibit A:
So, what I’m tryin to say…. is that even if it is just us, and not a million people, we still seem to hang out in the kitchen.
With this being the case, I decided that instead of having a breakfast nook with a table……
I would have a breakfast nook with “A Conversation Area”. I know what you are thinking. Why not just call it a Sitting Area? Well, because I don’t want people to just sit. I want them to actually Converse with eachother! : )
The way the layout of my home is designed… the kitchen, dining room, and family room are all open. So, I didn’t see the need for both a dining room table and a breakfast table.
It’s not completely finished yet. I still need to hang curtains, and move the original light from the center of the space, over to hang between the two chairs and the side table in the center there.
This is what the space looked like before. ( The day we moved in )
We still have to change out the flooring. Thank goodness this is laminate and not tile. Else, we would not be doing them for a while. It is not fun having to remove tile before laying any kind of wood flooring!
We are going to have to do this in our foyer and I really think that is the reason we keep putting it off.
I absolutely love this Industrial looking side table I snagged at Homegoods. It has wheels on it, so I can easily move it if I want to.
I got the linen chair from Homegoods as well. It was missing one little button on one of the arms and the lady knocked $50 off! Either she was being really nice, or she did her math wrong! Regardless, I SCORED!
I got my pretty floral bird chair from Overstock.com. I waited until it went on sale. The fact that their shipping was only $2.50, and they didn’t charge me tax because of the state I lived in, was an added bonus!
I’ll make sure to post more as we do more updates to the space.
I am working on finishing up my office space too, so hopefully I will have more pictures to share on that as well very soon.
This is the before picture of it:
SO, you can imagine that anything I do to it, will probably make the space look better. I’m trying to “girly” it up, so that certain male species in my home feel uncomfortable being in there after maybe 240.28 seconds.
Happy Monday y’all!
Burlap Wreaths
When I went to my friends house the other day, I noticed her adorable wreath on her front door.
It was made from Burlap and had the cutest “B” hanging on it for their last name. The first thing I said to her when I came in was, ” I MUST HAVE A WREATH LIKE THAT!”
I asked her where she got it and to my Horror, she said she made it! I say Horror because while I like to think of myself as creative, I have never tried to make a wreath before. However, the Horror changed to Delight when she told me she would make me one. Well two, since I have a double front door now on my house.
Which (sidebar) reminds me! Double front doors are beautiful! In fact, they are fantastic! You can open both when bringing in furniture so you no longer scrape door ways. They have a grand appearance as well.
HOWEVER!
You always have to buy two of every stinkin kind of decoration so that it looks proportioned. Which translates into lots and lots of $.
I’m lucky my good friend loves me and agreed to make them for me for cost. Even if she didn’t, in my opinion they are VERY reasonable. Especially considering their size. She starts with a 22in. grapevine wreath for the base. Adding the burlap makes it even larger!
She makes and sells one of these for $50 each. Here is a link to her Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/KDiddlespropshop?fref=ts
She is awesome and doesn’t just make wreaths, so check it out.
(Apparently, you also have to get 2 welcome door mats or it doesn’t look proportioned!!!)
This is the cute little “Z” she put for mine. I’m thinking about attaching Halloween ornaments for a seasonal look. Regardless, this is a “year round” look, but especially great for the Fall and Winter.
This is the first wreath’s little sister, so she doesn’t get lonely.
And (second side bar) , this was my breakfast this past Saturday morning.
Don’t judge me!
–Happy Monday Everyone! : )
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