Pinterest is super addicting

Sorry I have been missing for awhile.  I have become completely addicted to pinterest.  It's this awesome little site chalk full of design inspiration, delicious pics of sweet treats, beautiful rooms, stylish clothes and tons of DIY ideas.  So needless to say it's a bit like online crack, that site is soooo addicting and time consuming.  Check out my pinterest page here when you can and in the mean time here is a little bit of what is has to offer.  Enjoy!

It's been awhile...

Sorry I have been completely MIA, there is really no excuse so my apologies folks.  So let's get down to business.  I thought I would share with you all some pics of your veggie garden.  Paul has quite the green thumb and thankfully that produces lots of delicious, money saving goodies.  So enjoy the show folks.  We have everything from lavender to ferns to peppers and more... oh my. 

PS  All the veggies are planted in raised beds because that's how we do in the south.

coffee anyone?

So my love of the sweet little bean is pretty intense.  To say I have an addiction to coffee is an understatement.  My coworkers can definitely back me up on that...right Missy?

So anyway I was lucky enough to have a hook up at one of the local coffee shops who gave me a couple of the coffee bean bags.  I pondered what I could do with them and thought about making throw pillows, aprons, table runners etc but settled on framed art.  Not just because I am completely addicted but well I am broke and can't afford a massive piece of artwork for my expansive living room wall that was currently a literal blank slate and the bags are actually pretty colorful and graphic.

 I got to work and cut the fronts off of each of the bags and stretched it like no other around the backer board (sp?) that came with the frames.  FYI frames came from World Market.

So I broke out the guns, both literal aka the staple gun and the figurative my arms (ha ha) and got to work. They turned out great and the impurties in the stamped prints and the discrepencies with the burlap are more evident in the framing but I think it adds to the uniqueness of this art.  What do you think?

Vistors, Taxes & House Painting

So sorry I have been completely MIA lately.  We have had visitors the last couple of weekends and being a professional procrastinator I waited to the last minute to do our taxes.  Call me crazy but I don't think good ole Uncle Sam would  let me slide because I have house rehabbing to do.  So being the upstanding citizen I am I opted to do the taxes with the looming deadline. 

So this weekend I was free to take on a project I have been wanting to do for awhile.  I have really wanted to paint the living, dining, entry and hallway.  They are the same color because essentially it is all one big room.  We have had this bright yellow on the walls that  I painted when we first moved in.  I liked it at the time but I think paint colors are like fashion trends and this trend was O.V.E.R.  I was so tired of seeing that bright buttery yellow it could have maybe induced vomiting had it lasted much longer.  I know I know completely dramatic but true nonetheless.  I forgot to take shots prior to moving the furniture into the middle of the room but this gives you a good idea of how bright those walls were. 

Sorry for the tilted pic... I forgot to edit it before uploading so just tilt your head.

With my mom in town ready to help (thanks Mom) we headed to Lowe's to get some paint.  It needed to be something light and clean.  I love dark saturated colors but our house is a bit of cave because of all the trees surrounding so I chose a color by Valspar called Asiago, its like a light greige (grey/beige).  And here it is now.

I just took a shot of the living room because I am not quite done with the dining room.  There is a big ass piece of furniture that mom and I didn't even want to try and move so P can help with that. :)

PS  More to come on some diy art I made with coffee bean bags. 

Another Before & After....it's the fireplace!!!!!

Here it was the day we moved in, this picture isn't great but just to give you perspetive there was also very bad ceremic tile circa 1991 flanking it.  It stayed like this for awhile but after a couple of years with it this way it was time for a change.  The room is pretty dark due to many mature trees that surround our house and create A LOT of shade (sunshine is overrated!!!!!!)

Well I know we are very lucky to have a home with a fireplace (we may have used it twice so far...wooo hooo).  You don't need one much in the south.  So I pondered what changes I wanted to make, I considered painting it a really bold glossy color just to do something different but then I remembered that I live with my husband and he would have had an actual cow.

So I decided on the tried and true classic crisp white.  I sanded the entire thing and then put on a light primer.  Then came the paint.  I think it makes a huge difference in the room.  It really lightens things up if you know what I mean.    Paul surprised me and replaced the tile with a black slate that looks waaaaaayyyyyyyyy better.  So here she blows now:

 

Don't mind the discolored areas.... I must admit it still needs a light sanding and some more paint.  After painting it white some "impurities" appeared in the structure.  So I had to break out the trusty wood filler and that is the remeants of what you see.  But all in all I think its pretty good. And please don't mind the christmas ornaments in the plant, I didn't feel like putting them up after the holidays :) .  I think they had a nice suttle sparkle... fyi I am just making an excuse for myself.

Dining Room Before & After

So this is our dining area the way it looked when we moved in.  It's sandwiched between the living room and kitchen.  It definitely wasn't bad (especially in comparison to some of the other rooms) but the light fixture definitely needed to go.  Believe me when I say this photo doesn't do it justice as to how hideous it actually was.  It basically belonged at the "Regal Beagle" aka the bar on Three's Company that Janet, Jack and Chrissy frequented to conjure up plans on how to get out of whatever mess they found themselves in. 

OK, back to my house, sorry for the side track on a 1970s sitcom.  So obviously this room just needed a couple of cosmetic changes.  The layout of the house is an open floor plan so colors have be consistent from room to room in order to not evoke feelings of complete chaos (I have enough of that dealing with the general public... I don't need it at my home also).

So, I painted the walls a buttery yellow (thinking about repainting but haven't been able to commit to a color), we laid new tiles, added a bistro style dining table, stools and a pie safe we were lucky enough to get courtesy of Paul's grandparents on his mom's side.  We stripped it and stained a turquoise color to make it a little less traditional looking and added some like colored linens.  I made a rug (more on that at a later date) with fabric that coordinates with everything else.  So here it is now.

This is my attempt at a homemade terrarium.  It is basically an apothecary glass jar with soil, pea gravel and a jade plant.  I just did it so I guess we'll see how well the jade enjoys this little home.

Bathroom Before & After & After

So here's the deal with our house, it only has one bathroom.  So needless to say a major bathroom overhaul hasn't been in the cards, call us crazy but we like to shower and utilize our working plumbing if you know what I mean.  With that said our bathroom was a sad sad little room when we bought this house.  1987 had officially called and wanted it's linoleum back and the lack of storage was kind of a joke.  Here's a little look at the bathroom we started with.

It's a thing of beauty isn't it?  So we knew we needed storage ASAP.  Our house is very old & tiny so storage is key.  We were on a major budget  and were very naive on scale, color, etc.  So this is what we came up with.

Not too shabby, new floors, new paint, new vanity, mirror, etc.  It wasn't bad until.... well, we used it.  The vanity was way too deep for the space and although it was very "modern" it was a pain in the arse to keep looking clean.  So after about a year with this set up we craig's listed the vanity (it sold in 17 minutes), painted the walls, painted the mirror and wall storage and headed back to store for a new vanity.  This is our second go around at the bathroom.

It's definitely more functional for the space and we didn't really lose any storage area.  So there it is until we decide to change our minds again. (I am secretly thinking about new floors again.)