New to us

Happy V Day to you all out there. I hope you have a very nice one. I certainly will...spending this day with my 10 to 12 year-old students is an experience like none other. Love is in the air, people!!!!

We were recently gifted with an armoire that has been in my husband's family for many, many years. I am very excited about it! My in-laws are starting a kitchen renovation project, so they decided to pass this one along or sell. Um, we'll take it!

This whole piece, which is huge, is all made of tongue-and-groove. So, the top piece you see holds it all together once it is assembled. We had a merry time trying to put it together! What I think is really neat about it? When my husband's great-grandparents moved, they moved all of their belongings down the Ohio River in a boat. So this piece went along, just unassembled.

Cool skeleton key...

As you can see, there is a LOT of storage. I am excited about this....but am fearful of it getting junky. I have a big problem with that in large storage pieces.

All of the hooks are there that they would use to store their cloto thes. I think all of them. Hmmm...it is so good to be a 21st century girl!!

Small lined drawers at the bottom.

Pretty cool, huh?

I love keeping things like this in the family, you know? There's nothing in it yet, but I'm planning to clean out one of my dressers and put everything in there. I'm just so tickled to have it.

Eradicating the peachy off-white

If you've read my blog at all in the last few years, you would know that we inherited a lovely peachy off-white color in most of our rooms. Other than being bland, it makes me feel as if I am living in a mental institution.

I'm pretty excited....we are preparing to eliminate quite a bit of the P.O.-W. in our basement. But right after Christmas, we painted our powder room bath. Now, not only was the wall color bothersome, it was light enough to show all of the dirty handprints my children would leave as they would enter and exit the bathroom. We just couldn't take it anymore.

A few before shots...

It has really good features to it....pedestal sink and nice light fixture. So....we I chose a dark, sort of green/brown. It looks brown sometimes and sometimes a really dark green.

And after?

We added some black framed prints. This one is from an art shop in Bergen, Norway.

Here is a silver sign for the door, given to us by my Norwegian cousins. WC stands for "water closet" and means bathroom, if you didn't know.

The cabinet was a Craiglist find for about $20. It can be recessed into the wall, but I like the cabinet look.

Be gone, peachy off-white. I'm coming for the rest of you.

Cozy mantel

Well, today is the final day of winter break and it's back to the grind tomorrow. And....tomorrow could be the most depressing day of the year. It's dark when you go to work, it's dark just after you get home. There's nothing to do. No pretty Christmas decorations. (this tends to be a theme of mine this time of year) Plus, there's still a little more than half of the school year left. I love teaching kids, but there are times of the year that just drag a bit. Luckily, I won't be bored.....there's a month left of basketball games for my band to play, which is about 14 games, and I will be giving a clinic at our state music conference with two of my colleagues in February.....; )

So, here is what is going on around the house. We have been cleaning mofos. I mean, pulling out the fridge and cleaning behind it, which has never been done in this house (going on four years). This is my favorite time of year for painting projects, so we have a few on tap.

I have a big pot of ham and bean soup going, made from the ham bone of a Honeybaked ham...yum.

I have a really pretty little poinsettia that I am going to try to keep alive this year. It's pink! I usually am totally over poinsettias by this time of year, but I'm going to try with this little guy....or girl.

Now that the holidays are over, we've moved on to what I like to call "winter-y but not Christmas-y." As such, our mantel.

I have used dried grasses, flowerheads and seed heads from the garden. I try to remember to hold on to some of those things when I am cutting back in the fall. I bought an off-white sweater at the thrift store and cut it up to cover the vases.

I cut a log into a few sections to put some votive holders at different heights. The small cup below has some pieces of driftwood that are bleached and smooothed.

I picked up this piece of driftwood on one of our vacations last year. I love the texture that it adds and also how it reminds me of our trip. : ) The yarn balls also had a bit of texture and a fun shape.

The seedheads are from Black-eyed susans and the flower heads were clipped from my oakleaf hydrangea. I also like the white birch brances.

As my husband said, it's all brown and white. He claims that brown is my favorite color, which it's not. It's just a neutral that goes with all other colors. I bet he doesn't know what IS my favorite color.

It's not my favorite colors, it's just what I see when I look out the window right now. : ) 

Hope you are staying cozy wherever you are!

Time Travel Thursday at The Brambleberry Cottage

Fridays Unfolded at Stuff and Nonsense

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Show and Share Day at Just a Girl

Simply Creations Link Party at Simple Home Life

Addicts (not so) Anonymous Addicted to Decorating

Sunday Showcase Party at Under the Table and Dreaming

Project Parade at The DIY Showoff

Creative Bloggers' Party and Hop at Homemaker on a Dime

Tip-Toe Thru Tuesday at Crayon Freckles

Pinspirational Thursday at The Artsy Girl Connection

Make the Scene Monday at Alderberry Hill

Tuesday Talent Show at Chef n Training
Flaunt Your Flowers  at Tootsie Time
What I Wore/What's Up Wednesday at Rae Gun Ramblings
Sunday Roundup at A Rosie Sweet Home
Overflowing with Creativity at It's Overflowing

Packing it all away

So, how is 2013 looking for you lately? Good, I hope. We've been busy bees around my house. Out with the old and in with the new, you know....

I read an update on Facebook from an old friend the other day that made me laugh. It read, "I'm not making any resolutions this year because I'm just fine the way I am. I do, however, have plenty of suggestions on how you can improve."  ; )

We put away Christmas yesterday and have nearly packed it up. As I was packing some garland, I came across my favorite Christmas packing box.

It is an old bankers box that has been around a long time. It came to our house many years ago when I was a child and my grandmother sent gifts to us in it. Since then, it has been written on by my mother, my sister and me to hold various Christmas things. I enjoy seeing everything that has been written on it and knowing what each of those things mean, as well as who it was who wrote on it.

Pretty cool, huh?

Fall's last gasp

Well, here we are, the weekend preceding Thanksgiving. It doesn't seem much like it's time for Thanksgiving....I suppose it's because this is one of the earliest dates possible for Thanksgiving. I *think* that T-giving is always the 3rd Thursday of November. And November 1 was a Thursday.

But I digress. We have been putting up some Christmas stuff this weekend, mostly because I don't like putting it up after we've gotten back from being out of town. : ) So, I took a few moments to enjoy the last of my fall decor.

I tend to do a lot more of "fall" decor, rather than Halloween. Too much changing up in too little time! The only nod to Thanksgiving I do is on the mantel.

I add in a little framed quote about giving thanks and a turkey tea light holder.

An appropriate quote for me.

Then......on the front step. I posted some pics of my flowerpots a few weeks ago. Well, the frosty weather got to my sweet potato vine and killed them. What they looked like....before.

So, I cut back the vines and stuck some seed pods I found at the park, walking around with my daughter.

Does anyone know what seed pods they are? Also, you can see Christmas stuff looming in the background....

I was digging the texture it added. Don't forget to use things from the garden or nature in your planter pots. 

Enjoy fall while it lasts.....the stores have already moved on. ; )

Have a good Sunday, you lovely people.

Party Time......

Time Travel Thursday at The Brambleberry Cottage

Fridays Unfolded at Stuff and Nonsense

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Show and Share Day at Just a Girl

Simply Creations Link Party at Simple Home Life

Addicts (not so) Anonymous Addicted to Decorating

Sunday Showcase Party at Under the Table and Dreaming

Project Parade at The DIY Showoff

Creative Bloggers' Party and Hop at Homemaker on a Dime

Tip-Toe Thru Tuesday at Crayon Freckles

Pinspirational Thursday at The Artsy Girl Connection

Make the Scene Monday at Alderberry Hill

Sunday Salvation at Sassafras Salvation

Tuesday Talent Show at Chef n Training
Flaunt Your Flowers  at Tootsie Time
What I Wore/What's Up Wednesday at Rae Gun Ramblings
Sunday Roundup at A Rosie Sweet Home
Overflowing with Creativity at It's Overflowing
Manic Monday at Silo Hill Farm
Mannequin Monday at Artsy Girl Connection

Big girl room before/after

We spent a good bit of time fixing up a room for our daughter in June. She will be four this winter, so we decided we wanted to move her down the hall to be closer to the bathroom. Since becoming reliably potty-trained, she'd had a few episodes where she would be in tears in her crib because she couldn't  get out to go to the bathroom. Poor girl!


You know, it's been funny to have a toddler transition into a preschooler with no pregnancy on the horizon. When our son was three going on four, we had to move him into a bed...because the baby needed the crib. You get the picture. Well, with our Sweetie, she has definitely let me know that she is a big girl and ready to move on to bigger things. 


The spare room that is next to the kids' bathroom functioned as a guest room and my sewing room.

This picture is representative of the paint color that pervades much of our house. Mental institution chic.


I added the chandelier I inherited from my sister, knowing that eventually this would be Sweetie's room.


So.......we painted and fixed up. I'll share some more details on the process soon. And....voila.

She loves it. : )

Party Time......

Time Travel Thursday at The Brambleberry Cottage

Fridays Unfolded at Stuff and Nonsense

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Show and Share Day at Just a Girl

Simply Creations Link Party at Simple Home Life

Addicts (not so) Anonymous Addicted to Decorating

Sunday Showcase Party at Under the Table and Dreaming

Project Parade at The DIY Showoff

Creative Bloggers' Party and Hop at Homemaker on a Dime

Tip-Toe Thru Tuesday at Crayon Freckles

Pinspirational Thursday at The Artsy Girl Connection

Make the Scene Monday at Alderberry Hill

Sunday Salvation at Sassafras Salvation

Tuesday Talent Show at Chef n Training
Flaunt Your Flowers  at Tootsie Time
What I Wore/What's Up Wednesday at Rae Gun Ramblings
Sunday Roundup at A Rosie Sweet Home
Overflowing with Creativity at It's Overflowing
Manic Monday at Silo Hill Farm
Mannequin Monday at Artsy Girl Connection

A visit to Swedish wonderland

That's right, we made a visit to IKEA last week. My kids love to go to IKEA.....and I do, too. We have one that was built a few years ago in Cincinnati, so it's really nice to be able to go whenever we want. Usually, when my mom, sister and I would go, we would go to the one in Minneapolis and we would buy everything we saw since we didn't know when we'd be back. : ) Now, it's nice to browse and not feel any pressure.


We went on a Tuesday, which was nice, since the kids' meals are free. My daughter is now potty-trained, so she is able to go into the play area. Yessss!! They also have storytime at 1pm on Tuesdays for kids in the restaurant area.


I'll share a few notable things I saw there....I really liked this white greenhouse! I might have to buy this one sometime.

I have been in l.o.v.e. with these metallic mirrors for a long time, especially the tall one below.

I could totally see it leaning up against one of the walls in my house!

I really liked these pillows....a mix of print and embroidery. So cool.

My best finds were these scarves that I found in the fabric area. They were on clearance for $6 apiece. I was totally drawn to them because of the turquoise colors!!

They are the perfect size for a sarong....or I might take the pink/turquoise one and make some kind of top.

Of course, I had meatballs for lunch.

The kids enjoyed their lunch in the kids' area....

And we finished off the day with storytime...Miss Heather was really good! She tells a story and finishes off with a craft, as well as giving away a few stuffed toys.

We got some frozen yogurt for me and some cinnamon buns for the kids and headed home. Victory declared.