Guest Room Peek

Hello All – Wow- things have been busy around here…but I wanted to share a sneak peek of my mom’s guest room. Two weeks ago, we went down for the weekend again. We painted the trim, touched up the walls, installed the window shades and then started unpacking the boxes of goodies we had purchased for the room.

The daybed from West Elm had me at hello…it is beautiful!

My little guy tested out the memory foam mattress we purchased  from Overstock.com. What a great buy…the price and delivery time were fantastic, the mattress is extremely comfortable, and it arrived conveniently boxed via UPS.

The dresser, again from West Elm was beyond our expectations.

 

It was fun getting all of the accessories in the room. I don’t think I will leave both lamps on the dresser…but the side table for the bed is another in-process project.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to complete the room for my sister’s arrival. I received the fabric for the drapes the Monday after we returned home and we weren’t able to get back down there before her arrival yesterday! We are enjoying our visit together now.

What do you think of the room so far? I just love how light and bright it is. Remember the before?

We are hoping to return within the next few weeks to install the drapes (first I need to make them), I also need to complete the pillows for the daybed and add trim to the shades and paint a side table. I will be sure to keep you posted.

Thanks for stopping by!

Guest Room Mood Board

The guest room at my parents house was made up of my parents original bedroom set from when they were first married in 1965 and a bunch of miscellaneous pieces that overwhelmed the small room. It was outdated, lacked light and space for guests to feel comfortable.

My mom, sister and I have something very fun in common…we all love a good design show on HGTV! So, a couple of months ago, I asked my mom if I could redo her guest room. To my delight, she agreed. The room had a full size bed, two dressers and a chair…a lot of furniture in a small space.

Here is my design for the room:

{Sources: Pearl Beaded Mirror $150, Illuminated oval mirror $27, Fabric $10.95 per yard, Saratoga light-blocking roller shade $17 each, White wood curtain rod $12, Serpentine Storage 3-drawer dresser $360, Luggage Rack $77, Simply Shabby Chic Elegant Neutral Comforter $80,  tie pillow case $45 , Window Daybed $381, Glass table lamp $80 each, Carat Wall Hook $18 each}

With space in mind, we determined that a daybed with a trundle would be a better option than keeping the full size bed. The large mirror will help to reflect light in the small space and provide a nice spot to get ready in the morning.

Hooks are for towels, jackets, handbags, etc..

Room darkening shades will keep the room dark to encourage sleep for grandbabies. I plan to embellish the shade to make it look more custom. I will also make custom panels for the windows using the fabric from Tonic Living.

This last weekend we made the trip to start the process. Hubby and I cleared out the room, painted the ceiling and walls and did some other organizing. O helped paint too…he was in the mix the entire time…he loves helping grandma! My mom plans to strip the blue crackle paint from the dressers that used to be white and put them in her bedroom…which I think is a fantastic idea…they have great lines and are well made.

We are heading back down this weekend to touch up the paint or give it a second coat and start bringing some of the new items into the room. We are trying to meet our deadline of May 5th when my sister, niece and great-nephew will arrive for a visit….and hopefully a big “reveal”.

Stay tuned for more to come on this fun project!

 

Hello Monday…on Tuesday!

Hello Monday…I didn’t get any projects completed this week…but lots of things are in process.

Hello to a great weekend in Traverse City at The Great Wolf Lodge with this sweet little guy:

He was quite proud of himself after conquering the lily pads.

Hello Monday morning and a new septic system…umm yeah…not so cottagey. But, if it means I can do virtually unlimited laundry AND use my soaking tub again, I am in.

This was not an unexpected event…it has been looming since the house was remodeled…but the issue came to an ugly head on St. Patrick’s Day in the middle of our dinner party. I will leave the story at that or hubby will surely die of embarrassment.

Hello new $5.99 acrylic earring holder from The Container Store…how I love thee.

Hello herbs in clay pots. Unfortunately, I didn’t label the pots…so I need to wait until they get larger to determine which herb they are. I brought the pots into the house since there was a risk of frost last week.

Hello kiki…I see you checking out my bounty. I’m keeping an eye on you!

Hello getting ready for the Easter Bunny:

Hello to a fun, new project I hope to share with you later this week. I was hoping to have it done by today…but I failed to read the IMPORTANT message on the paint can:

Is it just me, or are you wondering how there came to be this sort of important message on the top of the paint can? When I was on my fourth coat of paint, I was thinking…is this EVER going to be covered…and then I had to laugh when I put the lid back on the paint can. The lid with the message for ME.

Have a great week!

I am linking up with Lisa Leonard and her Hello Monday series.

Chicago Weekend and Meal Planning

This past weekend was my annual pilgrimage to Chicago with my stepdaughter, sister-in-law and niece. We started the weekend with some fun gifts from The Pleated Poppy:

We spent a few hours here:

I adore these girls! We found many treasures…like these awesome baskets…perfect for beach towels. I plan to use the smaller basket for sun tan lotion, extra hats and other lake supplies.

We ended our trip at Trader Joe’s. For those of you lucky enough to have one of these in your town, you know why this is part of the pilgrimage. We stocked up on all our favorites and this is what the car looked like:

I would say the trip was a great success and am already looking forward to next year!

It was back to reality today, but I was armed with my meal plan for the week:

Monday: Pork grillers, rice, salad and broccoli.

Tuesday: Whole wheat penne with pesto, chicken and sun-dried tomatoes, salad.

Wednesday: Grilled tilapia fish tacos with roasted corn salsa (Trader Joe’s).

Thursday: Layered taco bake (new recipe…if it turns out, I will share it with you next week).

Friday:  Dad B’s bean soup in the crockpot

Saturday:  Heading to Great Wolf Lodge for the weekend!

Have a great week!

Spring mantle

Happy first day of Spring! The gorgeous weather is still holding out here…the perfect way to usher in the new season.

To put together our Spring mantle, I mostly “shopped” the house, trying to look at objects in a different light to see how they might fit the Spring theme. I did make a trip to Hobby Lobby and spent $25 on supplies.

First, I took some pink buds I found at HL, cut them apart and added them to a wreath I already had to give it some more color. I also bought the faux grass and put it in a pot I already had.

Next, I found one of my favorite photographs. I bought this photo at an art fair in San Diego almost 20 years ago. If you look closely at the matte, it says “her favorites” in gold. The photographer was Dane Greir.

Aren’t those felt wool chicks adorable? I got them a couple of years ago from an Esty shop called Bossy Feltworks. I have several items from them…right now I am coveting their chocolate wool bunny. The ladies that own the shop are lovely…I highly recommend their shop.

Last summer, I saw a tutorial on how to make moss balls at The Yellow Cape Cod. Brilliant! What a great way to add green to a vase. I bought foam balls and moss at HL and this is what I ended up with:

I love how they turned out! It was an easy project and took about an hour to complete…the only sacrifice were my husband’s water skiing gloves…I thought they were work gloves and used them to keep my hands from getting burned with the hot glue. Sorry, Babe…I promise to replace them before the water warms up!

Here is the complete mantle:

I am linking up with The Lettered Cottage for the Spring Fling link party!

Enjoy your week!

Meal Planning

I have been reading One Bite at a Time ...52 Projects for Making Life Simpler by Tsh Oxenreider. One of the projects that inspired me was on meal planning.

Hubby and I both work outside the home, arrive home about 6 PM and scramble to put a meal together. We have meal-planned in the past and it worked out great…it makes our meals less stressful and more enjoyable and healthy. So, why don’t we do it every week?? In an effort to be more organized and create some accountability, I am going to plan our meals on my blog each week.  If you have any great go-to recipes, I would love for you to share them with me.

This week we have a head start. We had a dinner party on Saturday night and roasted 4 chickens for the event. Hubby made his Dad’s “Hot Cabbage Creole” to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and it was a huge hit!

Here is the recipe if you are interested. Cabbage is loaded with Vitamin C and antioxidants (plus, the recipe has BACON).

• 4 slices bacon
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 red pepper
• 1 28 oz. can of tomatoes
• 1 medium-size head of cabbage (he used red) cut into strips
• 1 tsp. salt
• 10 drops hot sauce
• 1/3 cup red wine vinegar

Cut bacon and fry. Add onion and red pepper and sauté with bacon. Add tomatoes with juice. Add cabbage, hot sauce and vinegar. Bring to boil and simmer about 35 minutes.

Without further ado, here is our meal plan for the week:

Sunday:  Stuffed artichokes.

Monday: Corned beef and cabbage in crock pot. (belated St. Patrick’s Day)

Tuesday:  Chicken tacos in whole wheat tortillas with black beans, guacamole, and rice.

Wednesday: Caesar salads with grilled chicken breast.

Thursday: Carnival at school…the flyer indicated a ”delicious hot dog dinner” will be served. We told O. we would take him to his favorite Mexican restaurant after the carnival…but he is completely sold on having hot dogs with his friends. Anything for our little man cub.

Friday:  Momma is going to Chicago for a weekend with the Girls! Boys are on their own…which most likely means German wieners and sausage.

Have a great week!

AMAZING weather!

I was going to continue the house tour today…but got distracted by the amazing weather we are having in West Michigan. It was 78 degrees today…that is 35 degrees above average…these are SUMMER temps…and I am loving it. Hubby, O. and I spent the entire day outside…and finished the day here:

What a treat to eat dinner on the porch! This is what our porch looks like in the summer:

Everything still looks cold with no green trees or flowers. The table on the porch was my grandmother’s kitchen table. The table was dark brown and we painted it white. She would LOVE that we are using it still. In the summer, we eat dinner out here every night. The chairs are from IKEA.

This fabulous weather has me thinking about our garden. The first year we planted our garden, we had great success; tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, pumpkins…we were hooked on the fresh and organic food we were growing…and then…we had several poor years…a summer that was too wet, a summer that was too dry, a summer that was too cold…you get the idea.

When I saw an idea on winter seed sowing and how it can create stronger plants I was SOLD. You can read the post  here at Life is Good, but the basic idea is to create a “greenhouse” out of milk jugs.

O. and I planted tomatoes and “magic” green bean seeds. We taped the milk jugs back together and placed them in the ground in our garden:

We also planted cilantro, basil and rosemary in my “aged” clay pots. Look at all that sunshine…ahhhh.

Several years ago I “aged” these clay pots using a cornstarch mixture. Submerge the pots in water. When the pots begin to dry, they dry unevenly…mix cornstarch and water into a paste and apply it to the pot with a foam brush or your hand…it will stick to the wet spots. Once the pot is dry, you may want to sand some areas. Once the pot is to your desired aging, apply a medium brown varnish over the top. I just used whatever I had on hand.

I also managed to start some Spring decorating. I will be linking up with The Lettered Cottage on Tuesday for the start of the Spring Fling Link parties. Here is a sneak peak: