Painting Progress for Our Princess

Mike worked really hard in Olivia's room this weekend, and we made some big progress. 

All we Mike needs to do is another coat or two of the hot pink below the chair rail, and then it will be time for me to come in and get my stencil on! I am SO excited! Here are some before and after shots of our progress so far.

This is what the room looked like right before we started painting-

(this is how the house was painted when we bought it)

This is how the room looks now-

The bright pink is showing up brighter than it is in real life, but everything above the chair rail is pretty accurate.

I am really happy with how everything is going, and I am so excited for it to be finished! I need to work on the floor plan today, hopefully I can come up with something great!

A Bright and Beautiful Entrance

I certainly don't mind having April flowers instead of showers, as long we don't have to make up for it in May or June. I have been loving the great weather we've been having, and all the fun activities that come along with it. It's so nice to add a nice long walk/ bike ride back into our nightly rotation, we all sleep better, and a little exercise never hurt anyone. One of my favorite parts of our walks other than watching my adorable little girl has been seeing all the beautiful flowers blooming EVERYWHERE!
I seriously think I have some crazy version of spring fever, all I want is fresh flowers all around, all the time. Thankfully I don't have to drive all the way to town for them now. I just have to walk outside. I snipped these beauties off of the tree in our cul-de-sac, and I am totally loving them. I was tempted to cut enough for the whole house, but I don't know how my neighbours would feel about that. We'll see, I'm still considering it.

also, notice my little girls handiwork, she got these little white ceramic animals and paint in her Easter basket, and went to town on them. What mother doesn't adore their child's art, I love incorporating it into our decor.

I bought some pots a few weeks ago at our local discount store, (Ollie's for the locals) and I have been patiently waiting to get some flowers to plant in them. Well, today was my lucky day. I decided to bite the bullet, and buy some blooms. I went to my usual flower place, Home Depot, I love their "insurance" if they die within one year, you can bring them back. For a black thumb like me that's enough to have me SOLD!

I bought a bunch, and tried to buy them in colors that would go well with the house, and our fun new zig-zaggy doormat which is orange, red and blue.

I got some ranunculus,

some gerbera daisies,

and a bunch more that were colorful, and liked a lot of sun.

The front of our house has gone through some pretty big changes in the past few weeks. The landscapers cut down a tree, and pulled out the two bushes that flank our front steps.

before: with the tree and bushes

after: no tree, less bushes, more flowers

It really made a huge difference. Our whole house looks brighter!

I love how the entry looks now with our freshly painted door and our newly potted flowers.

YAY! They look great with our new mat, and really brighten up our front door. 

I just need to find or make a wreath, and I'll be done, at least for now.

What have you been doing to bring some spring to your house?



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My Bay Window Cornice Box is Finally Up!

Here she is! I haven't been able to get this window out of my mind for the past couple weeks!

I am beyond excited to finally have this thing hung. I had a really hard time trying to find an inexpensive way to hang this puppy, but today I had an epiphany, and there it is! It's finally hung! I am thrilled and relieved to not have to worry about it anymore. 

It had been sitting on the floor in Olivia's room for a week, and driving me crazy!

She was thinking that it would make a really cool fort, the two side panels are attached with hinges, and move pretty easily, and there was a point when I thought to myself "hmmm, if it doesn't get up, at least she'll be excited to play in it", thankfully it didn't come to that.

It isn't perfect, though it's pretty close, and at a total cost of $25 with extra material for future projects left over I couldn't be happier.

We had a wonderfully productive Friday, between getting the cornice hung, and finally selling our refrigerator, (getting it out of the dining room, once and for all!) I will sleep well tonight!

I took LOTS of photos, so I can give you all a step-by-step tutorial, but it is 1am, and I am so ready to get to bed, so it will have to wait until another day.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! It's project time!!!

Patio Update

So, I am pretty sure that we have the worst patio in our entire development. We have a small concrete slab that is about 6'x9'. As far as I know everyone else has beautiful wood decks. Because we have so much to do inside the house right now, installing a deck is not in our plans anytime soon. We are thinking of extending the concrete or using some pavers to give us some more hard surface to entertain and enjoy the fresh air.

A few weeks ago our Home Owners Association hired a property manager to help keep things in order, and make sure that everything that needs to be done is actually getting done. She decided that the roof that covers our concrete slab should have a post in the corner to help hold it up. I completely agree! :) 

When the guys came out to put in the post they noticed that the wood inside was horribly rotten. All the wood on the ground is what fell out when they took off some of the soffit. uh-oh!

these shots are after they replaced the worst of it. this is the "good wood"

 Because of the way our homeowners association works we don't technically own the outside of our home, so we are not responsible for any of these repairs. If we damage the exterior, or if there is damage to our home from a previous owner we are responsible for that.

Anyway, everything is all back together now, with the addition of a support post and some hefty new gutters. I am a happy homeowner. Gotta love home improvement projects that cost nothing, and require zero effort.

Here's what the space looks like now.

Our super awesome neighbours shared some of their patio furniture with us since our old set won't fit in the tiny little space. I like it! I can't wait to sit out here on a nice warm morning and sip on a yummy cup of coffee.

We still have a lot more work to do out here. We need to figure out a solution for our garbage can since we don't have a garage. We also need to get our paint scrapers, and power washer out to clean the paint off of the concrete. I don't know if you can see it in the picture, but the original color was  a nasty green, which was later followed by baby blue. Both colors are 80% chipped away. We still haven't decided whether we will leave it plain, stain it or paint it.

While I might be confused about how to finish the concrete, I have a ton of ideas about how I want the area to be designed. We got a new Kenmore Grill as a Housewarming/ Christmas gift, and I LOVE that it's red. That's not something you see everyday. We haven't put it together yet, but I'm pretty sure it's this one from K-Mart.

I definitely want to take the red and run with it outside. I've pretty much taken any traces of red inside and gotten rid of them completely, (I was a bit traumatized by how poorly the previous owners chose to use the color) but I've always loved red, and I think the patio is a wonderful place to go for it. I'm still not sure whether we will use red alone, or accent it with some other colors.

These are some of the rugs we are considering.

This One from World Market is a very affordable option at only $20. You can't beat that. I was thinking it might work if I go with a slightly nautical feel for the space with red, a bold blue and light blue. We'll see. 

I am really liking the pattern of this rug, and I keep noticing that I am drawn to patterns similar to this one quite often. At just $48.99 it is another very reasonably priced option, and I don't have to worry as much about how it will look with the grill.

This one is probably my favorite of the three because it pretty much takes my color scheme problem and throws it out the window. It incorporates the red as well as most of the colors I am using a lot inside our home. Unfortunately at $123.99 it isn't nearly as budget friendly as the others. BOO! If anyone from overstock ever reads this post. I have absolutely no objection to being sent this rug free of cost so I can do a review on it's quality and fab style!   (j/k, yeah right, that kind of stuff doesn't happen to me)

Sorry, I know this post is getting pretty lengthy. I promise I'm almost through. I just wanted to share one last idea for the patio. As soon as I saw that post up the first thing I thought was "I should dress it" Here's a photo to show you what in the world I am talking about. 

I took this photo at the 2011 Cape May Designer Show House, and I love how it adds a softness and warmth to what can be a really hard space.  When you're working with a concrete base in an outdoor space it's easy for it to feel cold and hard, and I want it to feel warm, comfy-cozy and inviting. I think dressing the pole could really help.

Alright, I'll be done for now. I need to make some mood boards for the space and see what works best. I'll be sure to let you know what I come up with. Hope you are all having a wonderfully week! Tomorrow's Friday! WOO-HOO WEEKEND!!!

The Horrific Red Bathroom is on it's way out!!!

Just a quick iPhone post to show you our progress on the master bath. What a relief! I am thrilled to have that red 95% gone, especially knowing it will be completely gone very soon. My hunky hubby worked all day to get it there. There was spackle on more than half the walls when I got home from church, and I think this is a much better look.

Here's a little before shot to remind you just how bad it really was!

I can't wait to style it when the painting is finished. I'm sure you'll be hearing much more about this redo very soon. So for now we're heading to bed. Hope you have a wonderful week!