transformation

                     before                             during

                 after 8 hours                    2nd round- finished!

man, do i feel so much better. 

there's nothing like a makeover to getting you feeling good!

a pillow and succlulents

my momma brought me this beautiful vintage doily when she came to visit and it was her idea to use it on a pillow. i made the pillow with some red fringe balls (hehe), stuffed it, sewed it shut, then sprayed the back of the doily with elmers spray glue. after i attached it to the front of the pillow, i hand sewed down the edges and a few points throughout just to make sure it was good and sturdy. i love how the hand crocheted doily is two toned.

my momma also so lovingly funded the start of my first succulent garden. i've been dying for some succulents on my porch since we moved in! i love these plants. they are just so luscious and each plant is so unique!

this venus fly trap looking one might be my favorite:

i was so very lucky to have been spoiled by my momma! she flew back to today after 2 weeks here and we are so sad to see our nana leave. thanks nana for making the long trip out here to love on us!

dollhouse

i remember one of my childhood christmas' very well. it was the year i got a dollhouse. my dad made it for me and my sister. it was beautiful. the lines were very simple, but he added so much detail to the floors, the walls, etc.. i remember he made flower baskets for the windowsills out of small dried flowers. we had tiny dishes and books and it made me oh so happy. i don't know why we ever got rid of it. i'm sure noel and i grew out of it, but i really wish i still had it to pass down to my daughters. i've been thinking for about a year now how to recreate this nostalgia for my girls and then one day, it just appeared near a trash can. FREE! this humble dollhouse that looks so similar to mine. it has a lot of work to be done, but man, do i have a vision!

that was about a month ago. fast forward to the other day while my mom and i were out thrifting. i couldn't believe my luck when i stumbled upon this box of dollhouse furniture. it was sitting next to some cheapo dollhouse and they were marked together for $50. i begged the manager to let me just buy the box of furniture, and after a while, she gave it to me for $20!!!! people, this is a miracle! dollhouse furniture is so expensive. after i did my research, i realized that all this is priced well over $200! and it's all in fabulous condition.

 the office

 the kitchen

 bedroom

 the nursery

 living room

 bathroom

my childhood came back to be in the form of these lucky finds. i think back of my dollhouse days playing with my sister, then i think of the little girls that once owned these items, and i come full circle to anticipating paisley and carter playing together. besides the amazing price, i'm so glad i found these items used, because they mean that much more to me.

can't wait to get started remodeling!

china cabinet

back in february, i purchased this china cabinet and matching four chairs off craigslist.

it ended up being a pain in the butt, bc the people lived far away and were pretty ghetto, but it worked out in the end. i gave all pieces a good sanding since they smelled like smoke (yuck!)

here's how they came out:

i changed things up a bit for this project and used only spray paint. 

pros:

easier

less messy

cons:

more expensive

can get streaks where you spray 

i sprayed on a primer first since i stripped the wood so well while sanding. i thought about glazing the china cabinet, but decided against it since my kitchen cupboards are stark white as well. it took everything i have in me not to paint the cabinet some crazy color, but i can only have so much colorful furniture in my house ya know? i recovered the chairs in a heather bailey print and also stapled on some clear vinyl just to protect them from my kids. that can easily be taken off later if i choose. 

i just loved the lines of these chairs and green was the perfect color for them i think.

your opinion

so my momma is in town and we are having a blast. she taught me everything i know about thrifting so you know what that means. we've been to every thrift store and garage sale there is in this town. and boy, has it paid off. we have scored some major goodies. i'll blog about those later, but for now, here are my sexy metal chairs. we found them yesterday at a garage sale for 3 bucks a piece! ah-mazing deal.

so here's my dilemma: should i use my new sexy metal chairs around my kitchen table?

or my green chairs that i just refinished a couple moths ago.

i like the color of the green ones, but the style of the metal.

these pictures aren't the greatest, but what do you think?

please share your opinion!!

coffee table

so this is my coffee table before. it was given to me years ago by a friend and it was just medium wood color. i distressed it with white paint back then, but it didn't turn out so well. we need some color in our new home so i decided to go with behr "zeal teal."

2 coats of that, a little glaze, and a bit of sanding, and here she is after:

just the perfect amount of color in our living room.

more pictures of the living room when it's done...

baby rhye's quilt

how sweet is this baby face?

this is my new niece, rhye.

isn't she such a precious angel of love?

i'm a little late on her quilt, considering she more than 3 months old now, but here it is nevertheless:

the pattern is a disappearing nine patch and can be found here.

it came together pretty easily and i so enjoyed making it.

leftover fabric makes up the backing:

 and i chose a buttery yellow thread for the quilting.

it was bound in a solid soft pink cotton that i had lying around.

i think these colors are perfect for my sister-in-law, molly.

not obnoxiously girly, but still feminine.

i hope baby rhye and molly enjoy snuggling up in it for many years to come!

*side story. i had this quilt wrapped and ready to go before i left for california last month, but didn't have time to mail it out before hopping on the plane. so i gave my husband instructions to mail it at the post office and told him to choose the "cheapest option." bad move.  he literally shipped it to hawaii  the very cheapest and SL o w e st route. it still hasn't arrived and it i mailed it june 9th. i'm a little worried. please tell me it's not lost, but it's just the fact that it's going to hawaii?!

daddy plays

this is how it starts:

daddy starts strumming his guitar upstairs on the bed.

then baby carter joins him with avid curiosity

and then she makes really weird faces at the camera.

then of course the paisley girl has to join the fun on the bed.

and somehow, we all end up squished in bed in the middle of the afternoon while daddy plays 

his favorite tunes on the guitar.

happy sunday with a picture collage

so apparently my husband can't center a picture for the life of him, but that's okay:)

this is one of my all time favorite dresses that i've owned and it was from target a couple years ago.

i paired it with a full black slip so the lace would show at the bottom and some leopard pumps.

so comfortable in this outfit. behind me there is my new photo collage wall.

i had all the frames and instead of fretting how to arrange them, i just threw them up there randomly and called it good. sometimes, the less i think about things, the better they turn out.

the frames hold a mixture of old and new photos and the shadow box at the tope holds a folded american flag that was flown over iraq in honor of my brother.

 i love that each time i walk up these stairs i am reminded of family. my small family and our families of origin. my mother's senior picture, a young picture of my cowboy grandpa, etc... makes me happy and my home feel warm.