A New Treasure

Today, after I dropped the boys off at the Boys and Girls Club for Homeschool field day, my good friend Amy and I went to a new antique and designer mall here in our town. All I can say is WOW!!!

Please forgive my crappy photos . . . I took them with my phone.

This used to be an old textile mill and it is being coverted into this awesome treasure warehouse of all things pretty. I was on a mission to find tea cups for a Mother's Day tea that I am attending on Saturday so I didn't have the time to truly shop but, I will be going back.

This sweet table was one thing that caught my eye. Of course, in my house, those balls would be getting chucked all over the place. I love the blues and browns and that chunky candle holder.

Here is a close up of another sweet planter pot. I know of at least one sweet friend who would love this place. *SIGH!!!* I must go back and really search. They had everything from fabric to furniture and everything in between. Who wants to go with me?

The After Pictures - I Need Your Feedback!!!

OK, so the rooms are not completely put back together but, they are about 90% done. The trim and thresholds are not done yet but, neither is all the flooring so we will be doing that when all the flooring is laid. Please, feel free to leave me comments and/or suggestions for a diferent furniture arrangement or ideas for some new accessories. I am always up for new ideas.

This is a picture of the formal living room taken from the office door. The front door is to the right and the dining room is to the left. The curio cabinet is supposed to be in the corner but, the extra flooring planks are stacked in the corner. I deas for an area rug???

This is the living room taken from the kitchen. Again, the curio is usually in the corner.

This is the dining room taken from the living room. The kitchen is to the left and is divided by a penninsula and upper bank of cabinets. We recently replaced our brass chandelier with this beautiful Tiffany style fixture. We love the colors. Please disregard the boxes on the table and all my homeschool stuff stack on the sideboard. What colors would you paint in these 2 rooms (really one big room) keeping in mind that we love the wood moldings?

Here is a view of where we stopped for now. I am standing in between the 2 rooms facing the kitchen and past that, the family room. Please pretend the cluttered countertops are nice and clear and clean. The floor will continue through the kitchen and into the family room (where the kids are). I love how well the floor matches the cabinets. I can't wait for all of it to be done.

This is taken from the same spot. The kitchen is to the right and the office door is to the left. I need to do sometthing different interms of pictures here. I know that one of the pictures is crooked. The lamp is the one I aquired at the Nester's Swap Meet a few months back. I just bought a Better Homes and Garden shade for it at WalMart. I like it but, not with the wall behind it. Any suggestions???


I am linking this post to DIY Day at A Soft Place To Land.

I Think I May Have Compulsive Hoarding Disorder!

I think I need an intervention!

I know . . . I know . . . it looks like I need to be on an episode of the show "Hoarders". You know, that show on A&E where people with Compulsive Hoarding Disorder get a therapist and an organizer and they clean their homes. I like to watch it. In a sick way, it makes me feel good about myself and it makes my mess seem . . . well . . . not so bad. Anyway, My dining room only looks like this because the living room has been pushed into the dining room so we can start laying the new floors! YAY!!!



My boys see an empty room as an opportunity to set up a battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons. This is a view of the formal living room taken from the office door.

Here is a view taken from the kitchen . The battle is still waging as Devastator fights . . . well . . . I don't really know who that little guy is.

Here is the table saw that we used to cut our flooring. Very exciting, I know. Please try and restrain yourself from leaping with excitement.



Here are some of the boxes of flooring which we got from Sam's Club for a very good price.



This is Jeff. He is the husband of my good friend, Rona. Jeff was a tremendous help. He even brought his own power tools. Thanks, Jeff!



Here is the first row of flooring. Isn't it so pretty and shiny?!?!?! Humor me! I have been wanting these floors for a very long time. I cannot tell you how good it felt to pull up the carpet on Wednesday morning knowing that Thursday and Friday, my dreams would come true.



Here is a picture facing the office (PLEASE . . . ignore the real "Hoarders"-style mess in the office!) Jeff and my dad had a good rhythm going and the floor went down pretty quickly. Jeremy wanted to help but he kept stepping on the planks so we sent him into the family room to play the Wii.



After we got the living room floor down, we had to take a break and move that giant pile of stuff carefully onto the new floor so we could continue laying the floor into the dining room. This is the living room taken from the kitchen at the end of day 1 (Thursday). Fancy, huh?



Jeff came back at 8 the next morning (Friday). He laid the flooring in the hallway up to the bedroom doors and then continued moving toward the dining room. You can sort of see the opening to the hallway in the background of this picture. We are taking it straight through the kitchen. See how well it matches the cabinets! BTW . . . I will be changing the hardware and counter tops. Just not yet.



Because all the rooms are open to each other, we had to lay some flooring in the kitchen which we were not planning to do until next week. We ended up having to move the refrigerator. We had to take the doors off of it so we could get it out. The island doesn't allow for the refrigerator to come all the way out of it's spot. The floor under the refrigerator made me want to throw up. Did you know linoleum could grow fur? EWWWWW!!! After I cleaned the floor with ammonia, we had to cut the cabinet above this space to allow for the added height the flooring would give to the refrigerator. VERY MESSY! Saw dust was everywhere . . . and I mean everywhere! I had to clean saw dust out of my purse! This is a picture taken from the dining room of Jeff laying the flooring in the alcove.



Here is the refrigerator with no doors on it in the middle of the kitchen floor.



This is the refrigerator door leaning against the wall of the family room. It didn't take very long to get that whole section done. The doors were back on and everything was reconnected with in an hour. Nothing was lost except the ice in the ice maker and a small container of shrimp sauce that fell out of the refrigerator while we were moving it.


Finally, here is a picture of Jeremy helping to clean up all the sawdust. He was a big help today. Tomorrow I will post pictures of the finished rooms after all the furniture is back in place. Now I am off to bed. I am so tired and I didn't even work as hard as my dad or Jeff.

Thanks, Dad and JoAnn for the lovely Christmas gift of new floors! We love them!

I am linking this post to DIY Day at A Soft Place to Land.

My Late Post About The Swap Meet

Pardon my tardiness. Yesterday was a crazy day. I was all set to take the boys to the movies with friends but all 3 decided to show me their "Mr. Hyde" so I said, "That's it! We are NOT going to the movies with our friends." As they sat there crying and begging for forgiveness, mercy and second chances, I said, "And there will be no Wii or TV either." To which Judah asked, " Well, can we go to the pool?" You gotta love 4 year olds!




We did not go to the pool. We did chores! Caleb, my peace maker, did everything I asked and tried to motivate the others.

Jeremy snuck off to his room to play with Legos but I did make hime help with the laundry when I found him.

Judah . . . well, I am just grateful that he did not try to make a bigger mess while we were cleaning.
He picked up fruit snack and granola bar wrappers and picked up the crayons.

We ended the day with more pizza creations (which I did not photograph). We had Black bean and shrimp with Mexican cheese blend and spinach alfredo pizzas. The boys actually preferred the bean pizza. We watched The Sandlot while we picniced on the family room floor.


This morning . . . Let's just say everyone is being super obedient today!


So one week ago, I attended a Swap Meet at the Nester's house. I met so many lovely ladies. Some that I knew from following their blogs and others that I am following now. It was a wonderful time of food, fun, fellowship and . . . getting new stuff (I couldn't think of another word that started with "f" that fit here). I got some lovely mossy green fabric and trim to match, tan curtain panels and a tall skinny lamp that I'll be using on my buffet in the dining room. I will post more on these items as I figure out how I will be using them.

There was so much food and while I tried to be healthy and brough a fruit tray (I know . . . boring), Stacie brought these yummy simple little treats made with bugles, peanut butter, chocolate and sprinkles. For a sweet/salty junky like myself, this was like CRACK and they were wonderful. I will be making them in the near future. Oh and Stacie was very sweet and great to talk to. Jen, Kimba, Richella, Emily (the Nester's sister), Bonita and Terri were just some of the ladies that I met that day. They are all just as fun and genuine as they are on their blogs. Here are some photos of my fun Saturday.







Here is one of me and the Nester. She is just as real and sweet as she can be!



All of these ladies have posts about the swap and we all hope to do another one.

My Garland Is Showing!!!

I am participating in The Nester's Garland Show and Tell. I have never done garland before but when I saw her garland I was inspired to try. So here it is. Tell me what you think.

Here is the full length view with my new Chocolate accent wall. Please disregard the black trash bag in the bottom of the picture. It is a bag of clothes that we are dropping off at Goodwill.

Here is the left side. I want with pine cones and berries. Everything was 50% off at Hobby Lobby. The vase I already had. The rocks in the vase are from a gem mining trip the kids and I took and the large pine cone is one we found at my Dad's house. The baby shoe is Caleb's bronzed shoe and the bird I got at the Habitat Restore for $1.



Here is the right side. The funky basket I got from a lady who was freecycling a huge trash bag of baskets. The pine cone is another from dad's house and the shoe is the partner to the one in the photo above. The bird is also from the Habitat Restore for $1 but it is a little smaller and different from the one above.



Our stocking holders are silver and spell out PEACE. For some reason, the stockings are not hanging. I think we had the fire going the night before and had taken them down for that. Anyway, they are hand knitted by a friend of my mother-in-law. They each have our name and the year we were born and they are red, green and white. You can't really see them in this picture but, I have a strand of colored led lights in the garland. I think I need to change the batteries.



Here is my newly painted front door with a wreath that a good friend of mine had her mother make for me.

Here is our tree. I take down all our window treatments and hang sparkly snowflakes in the windows with fishing line.

These are the things my kids are not allowed to touch.

These are the things I let them play with.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think. I know I will enjoy looking at everyone else's decorations.

All I Want For Christmas Is My 2 Front Teeth!!!

I know . . . I am so slack but, I have been soooooo busy. My house looks and smells wonderful. I love Thanksgiving/Christmas time. I wanted to share some pictures with you, my faithful readers. Jeremy lost that other front tooth finally. I told him we had to floss it so it would be healthy for when the Tooth Fairy came to get it. I just tied the floss around the tooth and kept tightening and tightening until the tooth just popped out. He was so scared it was going to hurt, that he didn't believe me when I showed him it was out. Then he stopped crying and started laughing. He was excited about money from the Tooth Fairy. Here are some pictures from that day:

Caleb has also lost his fair share of teeth the past few months. It looks like he only has his front 8 teeth. He recently lost all 4 canines and the pre-molars right behind them.











Judah did not want to be left out of the picture taking and gave me a "CHEEZY" smile. Although he is only 3, he has already lost one tooth. See this post for the whole story. This baby is going to need braces.






We also took our Christmas card pictures. Our church decorates for Christmas better than I ever could. The past 3 or 4 years, we have taken our picture there. Let me know what you think.






I will take some pictures of my Christmas decor soon but I have to go put a cranky 3-year-old to bed.

Join in the POOPIE Fun!

The Nester over at the Nesting Place is having a Mr. Linky party for all the POOPIES in blog world. For those of you who are new, POOPIE stands for: People Opposing Objectionable Pretend plants In the Environment.

So I thought I would start out with violation # 1 . . . Ivy atop the cabinets in the Master Bathroom. I kind of like it up there only because the ceilings are so high and I feel like it needs something. Plus it goes with my wallpaper and I wash it in the shower once a month so it is not all gross and dusty. It used to cover the tops of my kitchen cabinets but, I took it down to wash it and decided not to put it back up. Here are my two faux pas:



Here is one of those trees in a basket that has two-tone leaves. One side of each leaf is dark green and the other side is burgundy. Not very realistic looking but I wrapped some clear Christmas lights on it and it has become a great night light.




I love this arrangement. I purchased all these flowers at AC Moore. I tried really hard to find flowers that looked realistic. It is very springy . . . not very fall-like but, I love it.

This is another simple arrangement that I like. It is pale pink roses and some greenery in a really cool pink vase. I love roses and the real ones never last. I've tried drying them but they always look so sad . . . and dead! (P.S.- Notice my Tobacco Road wall behind the arrangement. I just did that yesterday!)

This wreath is one of my favorite fall/winter decorations. I purchased it from Princess House when I used to be a consultant for the company. I pair it with this silver bowl fuul of glass stones and a pillar candle. At Christmastime, I have a crystal bowl that I set in the center of the wreath and I fill the bowl with Christmas balls.




I had this old grapevine wreath. It is heart shaped. It used to have some eucalyptus on it but it crumbled off. So, I threw this together but I hate it. I think it's the shape I hate or maybe it just feels too "country" with the raffia bow. I don't know. Maybe it's the leaves on the burgundy flowers. I think they look shiny in the picture but they are not shiny up close. I think I will be making a trip to Hobby Lobby for a round wreath and something more autumn-y (that's not really a word) to put on it. The daisies and burgundy hydrangeas were the most autumn-y things I had to put on there and I hate it. I need to go shopping. Help!!!