Farm Fun

It is going to be a busy weekend and upcoming week so posts may be slacking. Much like this one! I shall leave you for the weekend with some of the most ADORABLE kids you will ever know :) Hanging out and enjoying the GORGEOUS weather we have had lately! The leaves at the farm our changing and it looks sooo lovely!!! My big boy Aidan... He had decided to ride his bike after the game of "bury the plastic snakes and find them" went awry and we started forgetting where said snakes were buried. Yeah, that game isn't fun when you have no clue where they are!

Elin was in charge of washing the snakes and lizards :) She loved it. She also poured an entire bucket of water on her lap. Awesome. Clearly, she was shocked.

Happy Friday!!!

Chalkboard Paint

I mean really, who doesn't love The Simpson's???

This is not a post about Bart and Lisa. I swear. This is about chalkboard paint, not to be confused with CHALK PAINT. I love chalkboards. I like anything with a chalkboard surface. I have snappy little canisters on my counter with chalkboard labels. Let's face it, chalk is fun! I always wanted to be a teacher just so I could write on a giant chalkboard. How sad would I be now since most don't even use them anymore??? Or maybe they do. I don't know. I am not a teacher. Clearly.

ANYWAYS. Chalkboard paint. You can buy it at Lowe's or Home Depot or other places. It comes in a spray version and can. But you know what is even better??? Making your very own so you can make it any color you want!!! You know who already knows this??? Martha Stewart. Of course she does. I found this little recipe and felt it VERY important to share:

Martha's Chalk Paint

Start with a flat finish latex paint in whatever shade you like

This "recipe" uses 1 cup as the amount of paint

Pour 1 cup of paint into a container

Add 2 Tablespoons of UNsanded grout and mix with a paint stirrer until all the clumps are out

Paint your surface! Do a couple of coats letting each coat dry in between.

Smooth the area with 150 grit sand paper and wipe off the dust

To prep the "chalkboard" for use, make sure you rub chalk all over the surface first then wipe clean with a damp sponge. This is VERY important. Then you are ready to use!

I also read somewhere else that you can subsitute the latex paint for regular ol' crafting acrylic paint that you can get a like Hobby Lobby or whatever. Lots of color options and much smaller investment! I believe then you are supposed to use 1.5 teaspoons of grout to 1/4 cup of paint...if my math is correct :)

Give it a try! Gotta love Martha Stewart!!!!!!!!!!

New Appliances Anyone??

If you have known me for any amount of time you will know that I am not a cook. Not that I CAN'T cook, I just don't like it. I think it's the mess. I don't even like my food touching on my plate and I eat my food one category at a time. I know. I am WEIRD with food. Luckily I married a fantastic cook and he looooves to cook at that!! However, I do LOVE to bake. I have a crazy sweet tooth. I actually have no idea where this is going other than to tell you that I baked some delicious cupcakes the other night from a recipe off of Pinterest AND I used a feature on my oven that AMAZED me. I am sure most people know of convection ovens, but this here amateur had no idea!! I baked those dang cupcakes in 6 minutes!??!?! As soon as I figured out how awesome our oven was, I wanted to bake anything I could. I put chicken nuggets and tater tots in there one evening and I have never had more perfectly crispy and fabulous kid food ever. Now that I am incessantly rambled about my gourmet food I prepare, I really am sharing to tell you what I learned in the quest for appliances.

So what did I learn in all this? Research your appliances and spend a little more (A LITTLE) and get what will make your cooking experience a joy :) I love using our new oven and cooktop. I admit I was petrified to use the cooktop. I have never used a gas one before. I know, you are shaking your head because that is pathetic. I GET IT. Open flames just make me nervous! We have always had an electric range. Our new house is all gas so we went for it and got the KitchenAid Architect II Series gas range. BEST THING EVER. We got a killer deal on it and I am sooo thankful that we made the purchase. Here she is, in all her cooking glory: Besides the fact that there are more buttons and controls than I know what to do with, it is great. There are 3 different "types" of baking. Don't ask. I still have no idea what one of them does and am scared to try! It also took my dad and I to figure out how to turn on the oven and change the temperature. What can I say? We don't like instruction booklets in this house. I am also glad we went ahead and got a slide in range. I love that our backsplash (my New Jersey mafia backsplash which I will share about soon because it is sooo worth sharing about!) goes all the down to the counter/range. It just looks so clean! While I am on my appliance tangent, I will tell you that our last dishwasher was awful. It sounded like a semi-truck coming through the kitchen everytime you turned it on. NOT GOOD. Forget about watching TV if we were running it. It was almost funny how loud that sucker was. I swore I would buy the nicest, fanciest dishwasher they made. Well, do you know how much those cost?!?!?!!? OMG. NO WAY. Over $1000 for a dishwasher??? You are outta your mind. My buying all our appliances together we were able to get one heck of a deal and got our KitchenAid dishwasher. It was just their normal standard model. Nothing fancy. BUT YOU GUYS. It is soooo quiet. My mother in law had to stand there with her ear by the door to decide if it was actually running!!! HAPPY DANCE!!! I also am thrilled to have the buttons on the inside/top of the door where tiny hands and fingers can't mess with them. Dishwasher SUCCESS!!

So if you are looking for appliances, do your research. Totally worth it. Our fridge is the same series as our range. Just a normal side by side. I don't get too excited about fridges. Though I would love that new one by Samsung (or maybe GE?) that has the smart board thingy with apps on it. How crazy is that?!?!?!

Did you know that there is actually a time of year that appliances are cheaper? Yes, you should buy your appliances in the September and October. During this time, manufacturers bring out their new models so you can get a steal on the current or "last year's" model. I have read that on multiple websites and found it to be true when we were searching for our appliances this past year. Also pay attention to holiday weekends. Like ALL holidays, even Columbus Day. Appliances usually go on sale during these times as well. I prefer online shopping and usually you can get a better deal that way. I also always wonder about those extended warranties too. Consumer Reports advises you to stay away from them. They say that statistically most appliances don't break during the extended warranty period. We have never bought one and have not had an issue with any of our appliances (knock on wood!)...even the truck driving dishwasher.

Appliances can be scary to buy. They are a big investment and you need to get a ton of use out of them. I would love to have gotten some fancy commercial-style Viking kitchen, but for us that clearly was out of our budget range. Do your research, set a budget and find what works for you! It may even make you into a master chef! I know Chad is shocked at how much I want to cook now!! I guess it helps that we live in the middle of nothing and it's either cook or starve :) HEHE.

Jerseylicious

Have you seen this show? It's awesome. It's ridiculous and obnoxious. All things I look for in great trashy TV. Poor Chad. Our DVR is loaded with this show. I mean really though! How can people who look like this daily, not be bananas!??!?

Chad secretly (or not so secretly) thinks that I have some hidden Jersey roots. If you know me at all you know how I feel about animal prints. LOVE LOVE LOVE. They are just another type of neutral if you ask me!! People are scared of animal prints sometimes I think. I guess if the only encounter you have ever had with animal came from someone named Snooki or looked like the above photo, I would understand. But I LOVE them. I would have it everywhere if I could. So fun. Enter: My laundry room. Obviously I have to share my master bedroom with Chad :) I have already made him nervous with the amount of pale pink that has found its way in there so I have made my next target our laundry room. If you recall, I had a blingy fantastic chandy put in the laundry room. If you don't remember, ask Chad :) I am sure he will be glad to tell you about that!! Ha! So this is where this room is headed:
My three most favorite things ever in a room: Pink, animal print and blingy chandelier. My theory is, it's the laundry room. It is at the end of a hallway all on its own. Why not have fun with it??? I think the laundry, mud room or playrooms are great places to have a bit of fun in your house. Face it, laundry is BORING. Why not do a little happy dance everytime you have to go in there?? I THOUGHT SO!

The wall color is Marina Gray from Benjamin Moore. This was a major compromise. I wanted a color called Hot Lips SO BADLY. Ugh. I cry about it a little still. The hubs was just NOT comfortable at all splashing hot pink all over a room. So we ended up at gray. It's okay, I can work with that! This room will be black, white, gray and HOT PINK. I am so excited. There is a small window that I plan on covering with a fabric covered roller shade...SUPER CHEAP...because we know momma rolls on a budget!! We have a travertine counter top and ebony cabinets in there. It's a great space. It is going to be the most dramatic room in the house! It should! It has already had its share of drama (remember the CSI incident?!?!). I love surprises in unexpected places. Our house is not flashy colors or blingy anywhere so you never expect to open the laundry room door and see what you will find! Hope to be working on this room this week!!

Headway!

We had a weekend at home. It was great. I love when we officially have nothing to do! Obviously, I can never have "nothing" to do so I was a busy bee!! Elin's sad little empty room bothers the everliving daylights out of me!! SO. I did some work! Her dresser has some color and life finally! I got my prints from Chez Jolly and they are beautiful!!! I put 4 of them in these gold frames on her wall in the "nook" by the window. The picture I took is in the middle of things so you don't see the little parlor table and chairs that are in there now as well. It looks soooo much better! I will update those this week.
She has a wall with a TV on it (again, can I emphasize how UGLY black TVs are on girly, white and pink rooms...) and I had Chad hang up 3 little antiqued white crown hooks. On each hook is a tutu or pettiskirt in pastel pink, white, yellow, blue and purples. I am in love with them. I still need the froo-froo hangers to put them on, but the plastic ones get the point across at this point!

The last piece to the puzzle arrived today. The monogram letters for over her bed/crib. They are white and fabulous. I found them on Etsy of course! I have been waiting 3 months for the monogram!!! Totally worth the wait though! I fell in love with these monograms from Little Crown Interiors:

Did you see the price tag on those????? ONLY $350. For MDF board. After I fell out of my chair, cried (mostly because I knew even I couldn't justify those, and only partly from falling out of my chair) and tried my best to think of ways to convince Chad that these were a great idea...I began my search. Have I ever said how much I LOVE Etsy. Yes. Lifesaver! I found a place that made the monograms at a FRACTION of the cost!!! I guess the trade out was waiting 3 months for it to come. It's okay. I got my monogram. My crazy design OCD can almost be put to rest. I hate half or partially finished things. Ugh. It gives me the twitches.

I was also able to get the rest of the things up in Aidan's room and his window treatment up. Whew. I feel a LOT better!!

I just realized how PINK her room looks in these photos. I swear, her room just gets a TON of natural sunlight and I am not a professional photographer and take very crappy photos in that light. It is a very soft pink. We could not handle any bubble gum overdose pink :)


So more pictures to come to update all this work that took place this weekend!!! I also cleaned like a maniac. Chad had a horrific sinus infection all weekend and didn't even get to hunt. I know he was mad about that!

This week I am also going to post about all the stuff we learned building this house. This is the third house we have built and we have definitely learned some things along the way!

Colors for the Fall

Have you seen the Fall forecast?? No, not the Farmer's Almanac, the IMPORTANT forecast...Color Trends!!! Pantone has given us the heads up on Fall's color trend this year. So if you are looking to spruce up your home, maybe one of these fabulous colors strikes your fancy:


First, we have Quarry. I LOVE this color. I would say we have a relative of this color in our home. Pantone describes it as a "medium gray." Looks bluish to me, but could be my computer screen???














My FAVORITE family of colors: PURPLE!! Actually, the word you are looking for is Phlox. Fancy purple!! Ha. It is a really deep true purple. I couldn't love this color more. If I could have purple everywhere I would. Unfortunately this color falls in the sad group with my hubby of: NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN. Ha, there are actually 2 other on this nasty list of his in the Fall trends. See, I tried to tell Chad that he just isn't trendy. Now we have proof!













This is lovely. It is Orchid Hush. It just sounds pretty, doesn't it? This color is technically a gray with the purple (Orchid) undertones. Pantone actually calls it a "complex gray." See, Pantone understands my struggle of color with my hubby. Purple?! Orchid?! NO WAY. "Complex gray?" HA. That my friends, is how you slide this color right past the radar :)












We definitely have a lot of Nougat in our home. And we also have a lot of this color. Bwahaha. Sad, I know. But really, we havea lot of this color throughout and it's really pleasing to the eye. It is described as a "camel tan." I like it because it is super neutral, not too yellow or gray or orange, but perfectly neutral.














OMG MY FAVORITE. TO DIE. I LOVE. SWOON SWOON. YAY for Honeysuckle.
Not only do I think this color is friggin fantastic, so does Pantone. In fact this is 2011's Color of the Year. So if you love Honeysuckle you are clearly an awesome person. Ahem, this is also on my hubby's "Suck It" list. Boooooo. I am sure "Camo brown" and "Hunter Safety Orange" will be on the list next year...












Emberglow...how lovely. Not a lot to say about it. I think its gorgeous, but it falls in the pinkish-orange family I love. I am not a fan of red. Ugh. I hate true red. Make it orange-y or purple-y and we are fine. I don't know what it is about it, but I have found that most people either love it or hate it. I love it in other people's homes, but not for me! Some of my favorite spaces are friend's kitchens done in red. You just won't see it at mine :)













If I got to vote, Deep Teal and Honeysuckle would be married and have lots of Color of the Year babies. I don't understand how you cannot be a fan of teal. It is such a soothing color and so rich looking. SIGH. And guess what list it's on at my house?? Yeah, that's right. Dang it, Chad!














I love this color because A) It is essentially the color of my dining room and office and B) It's name: Coffee Liqueur.
It is pretty self explanatory and a safe color so I don't have much to say about it. Except maybe that it looks amazeballs in my house, hahahaha














Oooh, how about this beauty??? I am a fan of greens. Cedar is described as a mid-tone neutral green. I find green to be a great neutral ground for men and women. It is definitely a gender neutral color. I think that most people can find a green that they can agree on. Our old house had a green kitchen. It was fun. Our current kitchen is a Nougat...I would love for it to be an orange...we will see!!













Finally, there is Bamboo. This is a yellow with green undertones. I think I would like this yellow. I tend to run screaming from yellow since I am a blonde (though obviously much BLONDER than Mother Nature intended currently) and am VERY pale. Yellow and I don't get along. But this. This yellow is not as harsh to me. I could deal with Bamboo.












So this is what you should look for this fall. I actually love every one of those colors. I am a big fan of color and don't think you should be afraid to use it. You don't have to paint your whole room Honeysuckle (Chad, relax, I am NOT thinking of that...), but you can definitely add some Honeysuckle love in different ways! The prints I ordered for Elin's room have pops of Honeysuckle in them. Just enough to make me happy and not so much that Chad's eyes roll back in his head. SUCCESS! Today's lesson? COLOR IS AWESOME. Go forth and love some color!

Fantastic Finds!!

I love old things. Makes sense. I have a degree in history. NERD ALERT. I actually kept all of my college history textbooks. I know, right??? My husband thinks I am the biggest dork he has ever met. Excuse me, but did your GOLF DEGREE ever get you a call from Jeopardy?? I THINK NOT. Yes, I took the Jeopard test and passed!! I got called for the nexts steps and everything, but I happened to be 9 months preggo when that happened so boooo. Also, yes, he has a golf degree. Well, actually it is a BA in business with an emphasis in GOLF management. I didn'te even know such a thing existed until I met him :) I guess that does get me my snazzy "Spouse of a Member" PGA card, hehehe. Okay, not at all where I was going with this. I love old things. I love digging through antique malls and flea markets for my home. It's a sickness. We happen to have some AMAZING antique malls in our area. So here is what I have found this week...

This fabulous little quail statue...
I thought it was a totally justifiable purchase since A) it was old and I LOVED it (really all that matters, but you know) and B) It's a quail...which you can HUNT...which is what Chad loves...which means that really this purchase was for him. Seriously, I can justify anything. THAT is a gift. The little red clock and wood candle holder are from good old Hobby Lobby. I found the red vase-y thing at Pier 1 for $3
All of my finds are currently living on our mantle for safety sake...mostly their safety and partly for my kids hehe. They will all be moved to their permanent homes when I gather a few other pieces and put it all together!
So what else did I find?
A Platte River Whiskey jug, Kentucky Club tobacco tin (I collect old tobacco tins...hey! The hubs works for Big Tobacco now, I must support the cause...don't judge!!), a little trunk and another candle holder...all of that cost me UNDER $25
I can't tell you how many fun things you can find at an antique mall or flea market. I prefer used things and you can find AMAZING deals on pretty much anything you are looking for. Antique doesn't mean it will only work for vintage or traditional looks either. You can find all sorts of stuff. I love sharing what I find and I love going with people who have never mastered the "art" and showing them how awesome it can be!!!

Master Bedroom

We are finally getting things done around the house. Rooms are slowly coming together. Our master bedroom is definitely not done, but it is filled with what is going to end up there in the end! I found this awesome birdcage the other day for less than $10... I used it to put all my nerdy books in. Everything is sort of just piled on our dresser until we get a few other pieces I am on the hunt for. Poor Chad :)
Sorry the photos are crappy. They are taken with my phone (as usual) because the Hunter in my home has stolen the camera for outdoor activity right now. This is our bed:

The only rule I had in our room from the hubs was that A) no new major bedroom furniture and B) NO PAINTING the furniture. Got it. So our furniture is this amazing heavy, dark wood goodness. I do love the furniture. I can't lie. I love giant, heavy, dark pieces. I think that's why I love Old World and Traditional stuff so much.
I love me some pillows. I also love a deal. My bed houses a bunch of pillows along with my "grandma bedding" (as Chad calls it. The man hates a quilt, what can I say?!). I have the Shabby Chic by Rachel Ashwell Patchwork quilt and shams. I found some fantastic pillows at Marshalls, Pier 1 and WALMART. Yes, Walmart.

My most favorite pillow is my Pier 1 score. It was $8. It really is lavender, but for some reason this picture makes it look some crazy color:

It is like a knitted sweater with a pearl/sparkly broach. LOVE IT.
Then there is this one:

It's linen and the print is a dusty sage. It cost a whopping $10 at Marshalls.
I needed a little something on one wall so I made a trip to Hobby Lobby. I am on a serious budget people. Serious. So, it was time to get crafty. I bought a black metal wall ledge and randomly found a cute little birdy for $4 (so clearly it came home with me!). At home I busted out the chalk paint and painted the shelf and also a few of our extra picture frames...this is what I ended up with:

The little bottles were fifty cents at Goodwill. The whole project cost like $15. The shelf is actually white, again, the crazy lighting at night and my phone = shoddy pics.

So this is where we are so far...

See, our step ladder is in the room still...waiting for it's next job

I am looking for a piece for under our big mirror and some finishing up on our dresser area. But we are finally moving forward and making baby steps!!!

Grace

This weekend I went to another design workshop at one of my favorite places to shop, Grace: A Place of Restoration. They specialize in architectural salvage and you can find the most amazing and random things there... The owner used to run a design company in St. Louis, but now does design here and runs this store. HGTV was actually just there filming for an upcoming show!

The store has excellent examples of ways to repurpose every day items. I have a "thing" right now for old mantles and window panes.

This is my favorite thing in the store right now:

That is a chicken coop repurposed as a coffee table. It is fabulous. Pretty sure it would be a giant threat to my kiddos so it won't be coming home with me! Actually, that bird cage is pretty fabulous too!! I just found a perfectly adorable bird cage the other day. It's white and worn and so what I was looking for. I will share my thoughts and ideas on our master bedroom tomorrow. It is finally coming together. I WISH I was one of those fancy people that could live with no TV in their bedroom. But seriously. My TV and I are married. That is not going to happen so I am struggling with the dangling cords. They are a must and I am thinking of how to make them less obvious...though that doesn't really sound possible. There has to be something someone has invented right??????
Isn't that lamp gorg????

We didn't end up at the game this weekend since Mother Nature was crabby. We stayed at the house and had a lazy weekend. It was fabulous.

Bedroom talk tomorrow!! hehehe

Happy Friday

Work is crazy this week. It's that time of year again! Looking forward to the weekend! Going to a design class tomorrow morning and hopefully the MU game in the evening...if it doesn't rain!!!!

Elin's Room

My new goal is to finish, er do something, with Elin's room. She has furniture and I got her window treatments up, but that's it. Like really. Poor girl. Though I think she totally loves having an almost completely bare room to run like a banshee in. So I love all things absolutely girly. Pink is my favorite color and I love sparkle and frill. Elin's window has fabulous linen drapes with adorable distressed white hardware. I can't lie. The window looks amazing. Ha, but that is it. OOOOHHH Fancy window. I suck. Oh well. When she is 15 her room will be done. ANYWAYS. I began searching Etsy for things that I love and found Chez Jolly. They have awesome French photography that met all my requirements. I mean look at these:

GORGEOUS. So of course I ordered a handful to go up in Miss E's room. They have so many to choose from. I have these fantastic frames and they will look awesome in the collage on the wall. You can click on this and see all the Chez Jolly joy for yourself:
They did not ask me to post this (um hello, they only know me as the lady who ordered a bunch of pink) nor am I getting anything for you to check them out. I just LOVE their work.

For My Sister, The Teacher...

HERMANN

This weekend was also the annual voyage to Hermann. Oooh, boring winery and bed & breakfasts you say?? Most certainly not! We all met up Saturday afternoon for fun and wine. It was a blast as usual! I mean really, just look at these fine folks...We spend the entire afternoon at Hermannhof eating and drinking and eventually hooting and hollering. It is always an experience! I mean really, just look at our model...The winery should really hire Deric for their billboards. He has the pose and the look down pat. Unless they want to attract FUN people to Hermannhof, then they should hire these sexy ladies...Fierceness at its finest, clearly. With a group like us, it was hilarious to see how long it actually took to get a photo taken. For example:

WAIT WAIT WAIT! WE ARE NOT READY!!!

FINALLY DANG IT!

Finally we got it together. Really though, it was because the men were the photographers. Amateurs to say the least. We just knew exactly what we wanted and of course the men couldn't follow the directions.
Jamey made some darn tasty gooey butter cake. It tasted amazing with our bottle of Vignoles ;)
Jamey and Laura

Me and Jenna

Chad, Jimmy (or should I say Pierre) and Kyle

You see, Pierre is the wise wine-o that joins us for the festivities. The beret is an essential part of the trip. You must be fancy to drink wine. And apparently this year, you also must bring reading materials. This year? The Art of War. Yes, that is correct. We had readings from some literature to accompany the elegant wine drinking that was happening. Ridiculous.
Elizabeth

Pierre and Kyle with their bachelorette party bounty...the lei. Well, and Jenna is back there too

The Grotto photo with Pierre reading from his book for all to learn

The sassiest ladies in Hermann

The coolest people there:

I literally laugh out loud everytime I see this picture. It is even better when you see the outtakes, but my parents and Chad's parents read this blog and frankly we still want to hang out with them so you get this one:

We called this picture the "Mark Sucks" photo (hahahaha). It helps to know that Rebecca is our sister in law...really it only helps the photo's awesomeness
Me, Jamey and Rebecca

Again, how long does it take to take a group shot of the girls when there are 7 of us and after being at the winery for 5 hours now?? 10 minutes and about 10 bad photos. Exhibit A:

I pretty much love that picture because we look bananas. I have no clue as to why my sister is bent over in front of everyone and also no idea why I am so intrigued at Laura. Photos really are funnier the next day :)
AH SUCCESS!

Need I say more?

After the winery closed, we headed to our B & B's to "freshen" up for an evening out on the town. Well, as much "on the town" as one can do in Hermann. We didn't care. We aren't tricky to please!

Our B & B's were very, uh, traditional and rustic and a little bit of everything in the sense of their decor choices. Aren't you jealous you don't have this amazing wicker chair in your living room??

I thought so.
What better way to prepare for a night of fun than a makeshift dance party in the GIANT kitchen...and by giant I mean, I was praying the floor wouldnt cave in on all of us in the that room...

I also find it very brave that Chad chose to forego footwear in that kitchen. It was not dirty, but eeek, you know, it's a rented room LOL. I guess it made for better dancing.
Do you want to know what old people do when their kids are at their grandparent's house? They attempt to show everyone that they indeed can breakdance. That's right. Jimmy actually spun around alomst a whole one time! Very impressive!

I think Chad confused breakdancing with gymnastics and instead of spinning, went rolling in a somersault across the floor. A for effort!

Are you taking any great home decor ideas away from this yet??? NICE!!!
Me, Laura and Jenna enjoying the ol' Boone's Farm...stay classy!!

Chad surely must have been destined to be a dancer. He really missed his calling

Fast Feetmy friends

Bobby and Elizabeth

We all had a super time. We had our one night of stupid, old-school college day fun. I am good until next year!! The weather could not have been any nicer to be outside. We have a week full of nothing coming up so that makes me happy!!! I am excited about the things I have to do in Elin's room so it isn't one giant empty box with a crib and dresser. I will share tomorrow!!