Ice cream on a warm day

In the middle of all of our chaos we took a little break to get some ice cream at the dairy store. So yummy, especially after a hard days work.

Soon I will be able to share pictures of what I have been working on the past few months. In tackling the entire house cleaning and organizing at once, I am not completely finishing anything, especially with the yard sale on tomorrow. I am praying that it all comes together at the end. Only a few more days, and then perhaps I might get to sleep again. I'm not counting on it though.

A Daisy Day

"Mommy we're going to pick you some flowers!"

So thankful for little girls who bring sunshine in a bowl to their Momma!

A Welcome Wreath

One of the projects I wanted to finish up was a new wreath for the front door. I have never really had anything up for the spring and summer that I have liked or finished. Last year the wreath hung unadorned waiting for me to do something! I finally got around to it this year. Perhaps it was lack of inspiration or motivation, but this year I got it done! I think it looks quite welcoming for a potential buyer. I only spent about 5.00 on the greenery and rolled the flower rosettes out of leftover fabric. So simple!

Next up on the list is painting the front door. The first thing people will see is this door and the paint is peeling off!  Here is a photo of when we first moved in. And one of when the door was painted red. The color has faded so much! 

What color would you paint it?

A New table for the kitchen

I often look at the Craigslist listings where my parents live to see if there might be anything interesting, after all it's a college town and well, just different than where we are at. I came across this table one evening and asked my Mom to see if it was still available. It was if she could come that day, otherwise it would go to someone else. Off she went to pick it up for 50.00! Of course it needed to be refinished. It is a lovely pine table made by Pennsylvania house that came with two leaves. I don't have a before of it all put together, but you can get the idea of the orange finish it used to have.

I I had been in search of a round table for a while, as the one we had before was a little to big for the space. This one is perfect and makes the kitchen look much bigger. That will be nice when we put the house on the market. Originally I was going to paint the chairs, but have decided to wait to see what our new house will look like and what color will look good for the chairs.

 I painted the pedestal and apron "Swiss Coffee" by Bher and used English chestnut for the glaze. The distressing and glaze really brought out all the beautiful details this table has. I just love it's feet!

So pretty!

I decided to stain the top with Ebony, which is a black finish. It really toned down the orange pine can have and gave it a warm brown finish while keeping the some red undertones. I wouldn't recommend this for every piece of pine, but it was perfect for this one. I then put two coats of polyurethane to take it home. I am currently adding 3 more coats to the top for durability.

We love our "new" table! This is the view from the living room into the kitchen. The little hutch was the first piece of furniture I ever refinished way back when I was in college. I paid 25.00 for it and it matched the old table.

This is the view into the kitchen and living room from the hallway. Yes, we still use baby gates, they keep our cat in the house because we don't have a screen, and she eats the flies that come in. It works perfectly. :)

And one more shot because I liked it!

Sharing with this party!

Rest

This past week I have been resting at my parents house, away from all the work needing to be done. It was glorious! Spring was in full color and nowhere on earth does spring smell the way it does in the South. I knew I was home when I smelled the sweet scent while driving up the mountain.

I had the chance to meet up with one of my friends from elementary school while she was in town with her family. We hadn't seen each other in years! We met up at the park we played at as children, and watched our children play while we chatted. It was so nice to catch up face to face!Over the weekend my brothers came into town for to celebrate my Dad's 60th birthday. It was such a fun time to all be together!

I think we wore him out! :) Happy Birthday Dad!

During the week I had a chance to work on a little project my Mother picked up for me off of Craig's list. I'll share that with you as soon as I can get pictures tomorrow!

Now it is back to work, our house goes on the market in 12 days!