Friday, December 13, 2013

Home Tour: Christmas Tree, Table, Mantle...sneak peek of new floor and kitchen

It's Christmas time in these parts and I hope to clean show you the rest of the Christmas decorations over the next week or so.  Plus, Mr. TSL and I (mainly me while he was at work) laid the floor in the kitchen and dining room over 3 days!  Pics of that in a sec.  We are hosting Christmas this year and I am super excited.  I almost alwasy do Thanksgiving and my sister in law does Christmas.  This year we switched!

I don't do "theme" stuff for Christmas.  Mainly because it would take entirely way too much planning on my part.  I often only buy Christmas stuff after Christmas, so I would essentially have to plan a year in advance. Not happening.  Plus, all the ornaments on our tree were mine and the mr's from childhood, or our kids picked them out.  We rock white and colored lights...I want white, mr and kids want colored lights. We hang both.  I am proud to say that other than picking up the brass candlesticks for the table ($10 for all of them on CL) I didn't buy anything for decorations!  I am planning to buy some napkins for dinner and maybe 3 disco balls to replace the silver ornaments on the table, but haven't done any of that yet.

As for now, here is our Christmas Dining Room tour.








Because we have so many stockings, we use a gold painted dowel rod hung with some Merry Christmas stocking holders.  This WILL NOT hold full stockings.  So, when Christmas comes Santa leaves the stockings filled on the floor!





I had been looking for a wool plaid blanket for a while to use as a tablecloth and had all but given up on finding one for cheap.  Then, I was helping my mom clean out some boxes and this was in one of them.  She told me to throw it away...I kept it.  





and that completes our Chistmas dining room tour....now on to some kitchen progress, new chairs, and new rugs.....


The pics are taken in really low light and the cabinets are more of an inky dark gray.  The pics are spot on for the fingerprints on the dishwasher though!


Pic of the newi-sh (I've had it for a while and not blogged about it) runner on the stairs.


 My new 8x10 Kilim Rug my friend was not diggin anymore, so we traded for a mirror I had from Hobby Lobby and a cake stand I hadn't used in forever!  I freakin' love it!  Thanks Erin! Plus, aren't those stools amazing....trash that Mr. TSL brought home for me.  He brought home 7 of them!  The Island is getting a makeover this weekend!




My new chairs I scored on Craigslist for $35 each.  The black one was originally bright yellow.  Couple coats of paint and the black is much better!  I originally thought they were Eames Chairs, but they are in fact vintage Krueger chairs and were advertised as "Fucky Little Chairs"  She meant funky, but now they are called fucky chairs.

xoxo


Linking to:

inspired by charm

SUNDAY: The DIY Showoff 
 MONDAY: Thrifty Decor ChickDittle Dattle,Between Naps On the Porch, Homemaker on a Dime
TUESDAY: Tip JunkieToday's Creative BlogStrictly Homemade
WEDNESDAY: Not Just A Housewife Sugar and Dots The Mommy Club  

THURSDAY:My Repurposed LifeHouse of HepworthsBeyond The Picket FenceThe Shabby Chic CottageSomewhat Simple 
FRIDAY: Fingerprints on the FridgeMiss Mustard SeedRemodelaholic, Chic on a Shoestring,  Shabby Nest
SATURDAY: Funky Junk InteriorsTatertots and Jello 

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

kitchen progress: laying new flooring

Laying new floor........


old painted sub-floor got a coat of flooring primer


real life mess people.  keepin it real. 

It's actually all done and I can't wait to show you it when it's all put back together!

xoxo

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Girls' Collage Wall Mock-Up


I have been known to put quite a few holes in walls and later re-patch them.  That's what I have to do after I put the window headboards and mirror up.  That, ultimately, was more for Crafting with the Stars than what the girls really wanted. Their bedroom is very large and the are getting bunkbeds soon, so I will have this huge blank wall to do something with.

I had 2 packs of ugly wall dots, one pack I transformed to be gold dots with a little spray paint.  The girls looked at them on the paper still and told me they didn't like gold.  I was shocked.  Then when they went with me to Jess's house and saw how awesome they looked they loved them!

So, the other pack is getting sprayed gold soon and put up on their wall. (they wanted them to go on their ceiling, but alas we have disgusting popcorn ceilings that I am not removing due to the fact that we live here and I am not freaking cleaning that crap up!)  see what I plan to do with the popcorn ceilings here.

I mocked up a little wall example in Paint (I don't have photo shop, hell I've never even used it!)  

the sources for the mock art on the pic above can be found here

Now to patch the previous holes, prime and paint them. UGH.

xoxo

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Friday, October 25, 2013

H&M Purchases

A while ago, I decided I needed to start dressing better.  Being dressed cute always makes you feel better.  I often can be found in yoga pants and a crappy shlubby t-shirt with paint all over it.  Most days I wasn't doing my hair or putting on make-up.  I use to get ready and look cute for work, but when I had Audrey I stayed home, then Oliver came and it was even harder to get ready.  Now, I take care of 2 other kids to help with money.  This makes 4 kids under 4. ALL DAY.  I was getting lucky to even get in a shower.  Gross, I know.  Or you are going, oh my God me too.  Either way I was getting sick of it.  I have a fat butt and not so big boobies.  Both of which I am fine with.

Yes, some weight loss would be nice, but I found myself saying "I'll buy new clothes when I lose x amount of pounds....  I don't want to waste money buying cute jeans at this size, I'll just wear the crappy one's I have.....and so on."  Well, eventually I hope to be a healthier weight I still need to feel fabulous now.

I was on a mission to get some pieces of clothing to make up some cute outfits for fall/winter that I would look cute, feel comfortable in, and not constantly be adjusting/tugging at my clothes.

A few outfits I wanted to piece together:






Also, I decided after staring at this pic forever that I most certainly needed to cut my hair.  It was looking ratty and blah.  My hair is very fine and looks stringy when it's grown out.  It was also almost always in a weird wad of a bun on my head.  Not a cute bun, but more like just out of my face bun. Shlubby again.  So, I had my friend Tammy cut my hair.  I love it.  Like super love it.  


Back to the clothes and the H&M Purchases.  I was looking for some sweater/tunic shirts to wear with skinnies/leggings.  I found some, they were like $50 each.  Yikes.  Then I was searching H&M's home stuff again. {I would rather buy stuff for my house over clothes always} I found some of their new fabulous pillows that totally tie my bedroom together, more on that another day.  So, I decided to peruse the clothes.  Fabulous and affordable.  
Then I found this tunic sweatshirt.  I order all three colors. These were $18 each.

And this sweater.  I ordered, black, white and stripes.  These were buy 2 get 1 free.  Which made them $13.30 each.
This sweater will need a tank underneath, but I can totally make a few of the super cute outfits from Pinterest with these!  

I cannot even explain to you how much I hate trying on clothes.  Mostly because I usually look like crap when shopping and that just makes it worse.  Plus, it's a pain in the ass trying to pull your 3 year old back into your dressing room while you baby screams in the cart you pushed into the too small dressing room and your older kids sit outside the dressing room and say "are you done yet?"  Mr. TSL tries to help by taking them, but usually by the time he does that I am done. Like super done.  Like "I don't care if I ever go out of our house I don't want to stare at my muffin top want to crawl into a hole" done.
I should get all dolled up, then try on clothes after I have had a few margaritas.  

I buy clothes online a lot, because nothing is more stressful than trying to find cute clothes that fit your big butt, but aren't too big for your smaller waist and bust.  These are the problems that plague me.  Anywho, I freaking love all of these tops and the purse I ordered (first new purse in forever-usually it's goodwill stuff that's okay) and the pillows for my bed.  I have never been 100% satisfied with an online purchase.  There's always tha tinge of "the quality is not what I thought it would be."  Not these I freaking love them and can't wait to get dressed!  Seriously.  That is a huge feat for me.  I can see all kinds of kitchy house crap or furniture and see it's potential and can make it look amazing. Getting dressed has always been a chore, but I am actually excited to wear these.  
xoxo


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Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Diagonal Wood Flooring

My flooring is in, so I am super pumped!  I will hopefully have it done in the next week or two!

More pattern options, laying it on the diagonal.


I think laying it like this will be significantly easier.  I can't wait to start, but alas, I have to prep the floor and such.


xoxo


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Friday, October 11, 2013

deciding on a herringbone floor pattern

After our foundation cracked last summer from 2 summers of extreme drought, putting matching hardwood floors in the living room and dining room wasn't an option anymore.  We decided to lay new carpet in the living room and it's great.  We still wanted something else by the door so the carpet wasn't eternally disgusting.  So I chose peel and stick wood flooring.




While I have changed the entry, once again,  I still love this flooring.  It doesn't warp if it gets wet, it is super easy to clean and it's extremely affordable!

I also put it in our front closet and in the Laundry Room Makeover.
please note, I hadn't put the trim back on or touched up the black paint, yes my laundry room/pantry is black.
After living with it for a while, I have decided this is the flooring for the dining room and kitchen.  With 4 kids, I don't always catch spills and I don't want to ruin a $2000 floor because someone's sippy cup leaked for too long.  Plus, our painted floor {while this looked good for a while} is looking really shabby.  
The total cost is going to run us about $300 in flooring and I am guessing another $100 in extra glue and floor primer.  Significantly less than hardwood.  

On to the pattern for the floor, I laid the entry, closet and laundry room normally.  They were small spaces and a larger design would have been wasted.  The dining room and kitchen however are a much larger space and I am trying to decide how I want to run the herringbone pattern.

These are my inspiration pics:
so lovely

I really like this one, it's less traditional and visually doesn't catch my eye as herringbone

the pic on the left the herringbone runs the opposite of the first pic I showed you

Thoughts?


via

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Barn Loot: Ugly Tin Makeover

I went to a barn sale months back and got a bunch of goodies.  One of which was this ugly ass tin box that had a flower on it.  The other was a fabulous coffee tin.


I spray painted the flower area with white,  taped it off when it dried completely and painted it red!

 Now they both hang out on my freshly painted kitchen shelves!



xoxo

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

White Top Cabinets and Color Choice for our bar stools

I finished painting the top cabinets and shelves!  It looks amazing and was a total bitch to do because of the paint I chose.  We'll get to that, but let's see some pics.






This is a much better pic of how fabulous the sharpie marker subway tile turned out! :)



not sure why the doors look different in this one other than I suck at photography, they match in real life.

Now, my paint choice.  I primed with BIN Zinzer Primer...it's the shit.  Then I decided to roll the cabinet tops with Krylon roll on paint.   This wasn't a giant mistake, like I have to redo them, but a giant time suck and pain in the ass.  It drips, bad.  Luckily I caught most of the drips, but it took 6 thin coats of paint.  The paint itself is very thin and in using it you have to use tons of coats to reach your desired results.  It leaves marks when you roll it then look a little texture-y to me.  Don't worry it self levels and these don't stay.  

The reason I picked this paint was so I could spray paint the doors and they would have the same finish and color.  I should have just brushed the doors and rolled them, but hindsight is 20/20.

The doors painted super fast though.  It took me about a half hour total after the primer dried to spray the doors to completely cover them.  However it took forever to paint the frames, so next time I will be rolling all of it with better paint, much faster.

Now I have 7 of these stools that Mr. TSL brought home and had in the iron trailer (scrap to take to the recycler)  I found one while I was looking for something and he said he had 6 more the school was throwing away.   No freaking way.  I might add the tops were broken and my mr fixed them for me.  

They look like this:


my stools have a dark gray metal frame and need to be painted. These sell for $550 for the pair, so 7 for free is one helluva deal.


I could leave them with the natural finish and they would look similar to this because the island will be black.


These are the choices:



While I love the orange stools, I am thinking yellow or army green would look better with the red lantern over the island.   Which soon will be getting a makeover!  I am thrilled to start the kitchen and can't wait to finish it!

So what are you thoughts on the stools?

images via



xoxo