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!

Change of Plans

Well it's time I shared with you what we have been up to and my silence here on the blog. My husband is done with his three hour round trip commute and so we are going to be moving. It has taken to much of a toll on our family. So we trying to move again, the housing prices have dropped where we are looking and are at least stable where we are selling, hopefully that will be to our advantage.

I have been getting the house ready for our list date of May 15th, with painting, purging, organizing, cleaning, and also daily life. That just doesn't leave much time for anything else.

I hope to share more as things progress.

A new dress for Fiona

I finished up one of the dresses I started for the girls. Fiona has a party at Church tonight and wanted to wear it. Thankfully I used an easy pattern for this one and was able to get it done on time.

This is Pattern # M5966. I used view B with the ruffle from A to make the dress longer. It is also a bit big on her as she is in between sizes.

Fiona chose the material for this one. I wanted her to have some input so she would be more likely to wear it. With sensory issues one never knows if she'll like something. I plan to add a bit of detail to the V neck line. I have found that V-necks are usually quite low in patterns, but was pleasantly surprised by this one, it's much higher than it looks and a bit of lace will finish it off nicely. 

  She loves her new dress and has worn it all day. I knew it was a hit when she said it was like wearing pajamas. She would wear pajamas all day long if I let her.

Boys Room Progress

Last week I decided to paint the boys room and the bathroom to a more neutral color. The boys are changing the theme of their room to outdoors and there will no longer be any blue in the room. So while I am working the boys are sleeping in the school room and I have not been able to access my computer much. I will be so glad when it is all done!

This is what the room looked like before. The baskets under the bed held toys. In our massive clean out they are now all empty!  We will use them for clothing instead of a dresser.

I haven't begun the process of switching to summer clothes yet as it has been so cold! I will do that as soon as the room is put back together. Right now the baskets are stacked up in the school room, but I think that they will work well for clothing and are easily accessible.In the old room they each had their own dresser with the top drawer being for collections and special items. Mostly it became a junk drawer as it was so big and they could stuff whatever they wanted in there. You never know what you might find. We went through each and every box and got rid of most of it. The rest was put into a special treasure box that now sits in the closet. It's so much neater! They were so good about getting rid of things that it made the process go quickly. This is what the inside of the closet now looks like. We purchased an expedit shelf from IKEA to hold all of their things. They need a place to put the Lego's when they are all built and they are playing with them. Before they sat on the floor getting in the way and I was so tired of constantly stepping on those little pieces. They hurt!The baskets on the bottom shelf hold their costume accessories, and spy gear. Anything else made it's way to the consignment sale of the basement toys shelf. I still need to add labels.

I can't wait to share finished pictures. It will be a while before I get to some of the art that I have planned, but the new bedding arrived today. As soon as we steam clean the carpets I can get the room back together. That is a another story in itself. I hope to share more on that as soon as I am able.

Even as exciting as it is to re-do a room and decorate a new space. I will miss the sailboat theme they had "when they were little". My mother made those quilts for them when they were toddlers and they loved them!