The Correct Perspective

I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.

Helen Keller

I have always admired Helen Keller's story, and I find it so interesting that she said this about accomplishing something great. She is an inspirational woman and accomplished so much, and yet her focus was to do each little thing as if it were the most important thing in the world. This is what I need to remember!

 

Glorious Guest Room

After a year and four months in this lovely castle we have called home, I have learned one thing. (Well, actually, I have learned a lot, but I am only going to talk about one today. :-) )

 

Home renovations never go as quickly as planned.

One year, three months and seven days ago, I blogged about the spa'oom as we liked to call it. I showed you pictures of what it looked like, and the theN current state, and promised the after pictures "real soon." And now, approximately 440 days later, we are finally finished, and I'm back with pictures. Hey, good things come to those who wait, right?

Here's a refresher of what the room used to look like, taken the day after we closed on the house.

Lots and lots of honey toned wood, grass green carpeting on the floor, on the headboard and on either side of the dresser mirror. Black floral wallpaper, black valances and black blinds. Builtin window seat, dresser and desk on one side, built in bunkbeds on the other.

We knew this room would lend itself to one of the most dramatic makeovers in the house.

Here's how the hideousness became the lovely view you see above. We tore out the awful wallpaper the first week, and the bunkbeds came crashing down shortly thereafter.

Then we let it sit for a while as we discussed decorating ideas for the room. It was lover's idea to go with a black and white theme with just a few pops of color. Now it was time for the serious renovations to begin.

We spackled the walls, sanded down the builtins and tore out the carpet. Once this was accomplished we discovered that: the walls were in decent shape and were drywalled, so that saved us the headache of repairing the plaster. The builtins were not cooperating with being sanded so that we could whitewash them, so we had to come up with a plan B. The wood floor was in pretty rough shape, with paint splatters, scratches and a random skinny section of the floor that was simply MIA.

We decided to simply paint the wood builtins a crisp white, along with the newly patched and sanded walls. That gave us a clean, blank slate for the rest of the room. The dresser drawers became a matte black, set off by white handles. Funny story: Apparently there are no drawer handles to be had in white unless you are willing to get yucky plastic ones. However, some pretty silver pulls and my trusty white spray paint saved the day.

And now I will leave you with some beautiful before and afters... so you can admire all of our hard work ;-)

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

 

Linked to Metamorphosis Monday. Check out the other transformations!

Project Curb Appeal

Summer is finally here, and it will be gone before we know it, especially in this cloudy quaint town we call home. We're lucky if we get two good months of hot weather and sun, so there's not a moment to lose!

Project Curb Appeal is well on its way this summer at Wendhurst Castle. While the castle currently looks like this,


We've brainstormed up a lovely makeover on a dime that will really make our castle stand tall with pride. (Ok, so we're already the tallest house on the street. Sheesh, let me dream a little, will ya?)

Anyways, after playing around in Photoshop the other day, I came up with this mockup of our redone exterior.



The Plan:

• Have the stucco professionally powerwashed to get rid of muck, dirt and mold. Eww!
• Paint the door, windowsills and gables in a soft forest-y green to coordinate with the yellow stucco. (No more orange, hurrah!) Paint the front porch floor too.
• Replace the porch light fixture
• Replace the old, broken down, mostly dead evergreen bushes.
• Repair the concrete stairs.
• Add some nice landscaping to the front.

The Players:

• Obviously, a pro powerwasher. We considered trying to do this ourselves, but given the fact that our house is 27 feet tall, we put out the white flag and called in the pros.
• Some nice exterior paint in greens and tans.
• A shiny new light fixture (preferably one that is kind of old looking, actually)
• A plethora of bright green boxwoods, to replace the yucky old evergreeens.
• Concrete and water to make new stairs that are not a hazard.
• Purple petunias and salvia, yellow marigolds and daylilies, and some showy clematis to liven things up in front.

So what do you think? Have we left anything out? Think we can get all this done by the end of the summer? :-D

Glitzy Glasses

I mentioned a while back that I had found a glass at the thrift store for a "secret project" I have returned to show you what I did with said glass, as well as a few others. Get ready for some horrific "befores" and oh-so- lovely "afters."

On a bad day, this is what my bedroom dresser looks like. On a good day it is a little more organized, but let's be honest here, most of the time it is a "bad day." The combination of hair stuff, makeup, jewelry and junk means that the top of my dresser is more rarely seen then the Loch Ness Monster.



A while back I had the idea to organize my jewelry in a thrifty yet attractive manner. I scoured thrift stores for glass drinking glasses of various shapes and designs, purposely looking for ones with a wide "bowl." I found a few at thrift stores, and then bought two different sized martini glasses at the Christmas Tree Shop.

I had a gift card with a few dollars leftover on it from Christmas, so I popped into Bed Bath and Beyond to see if they had anything that caught my fancy. I left a few minutes later with a purple and red table runner that matched our bedroom set perfectly. Oh, and the runner set me back $3, thanks to the gift card and a coupon. Score!

With a free afternoon before me, I tackled Mt. Dresser. The first step was to clear everything off, and clean the surface and mirrors. Here's an action shot:



Then it was as simple as placing different pieces of jewelry in the glasses I had collected, and arranging it in a semi-artful way. I'm an out-of-sight out-of-mind kinda girl, so having my jewelry front and center means that, hopefully, I'll start wearing some of my lesser used pieces.

Before:






After:

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Part of throwing a great party is having the perfect present, and I am so proud of the one I made for my lovely sister-in-law. But first the back story:

The week after Sara's shower I, along with my sisters-in-law, threw a combination baby shower/going away party for my brother and sister-in-law. They're moving across the country and having a baby shortly thereafter, so we wanted to send them off in style. I'll post more details about that party in the next few days, but first I wanted to share the oh-so-awesome present that I dreamt up for them.

Months ago, when my sister-in-law registered at Target, I fell in love with the theme she had picked out for the nursery.

These adorable little animals will be on the crib blanket, the rug and everywhere else. They're a really simple drawing, so I knew that doing watercolors of them would be a piece of cake.

I bought three 8x10 frames, and did a watercolor of the elephant, the tiger and the giraffe.





I love how they turned out, my favorite is definitely the giraffe! Aren't they so cute and cuddly? I am sure my little nephew will be bribed into choosing me as favorite aunt love them as much as I do!

Sara's Shower

Last week I told you I was working on two parties. They are both over now, so I am here to tell you all about them, now that I have my sanity back. Sara's shower was for her newest addition to the family, a little boy. They already have three girls, so we decided that she needed to get some "manly" stuff for the little guy. However, the shower was anything but manly. Sara loves feminine, girlie things, flowers and chocolate. So we did our best to accommodate!

We set the tables with white tablecloths, pretty little clear plates, and a favor at every plate. We were going with a very elegant theme of blue, silver and white, which I think turned out awesome. Melissa did a great job with the favors, aren't they just beautiful?


Here's a closer look at them. Inside each box there were some truffles and Dove candies...so yummy.


In the center of the table we put a painted clay flowerpot planted with white petunias, alyssum and lamb's ear. One guest at each of the tables got to take home the flowers at the end of the night.



Sprinkled on all the tables and throughout the room were these little photo holders with cute sayings about motherhood, family and boys. The guests had fun walking around and reading all of the little sayings.



The tables were loaded up with lots of yummy goodness to dip into the chocolate from the chocolate fountain, and we also had oreo truffles. It was chocolate heaven!



We asked the guests to write down some words of wisdom on parenting, motherhood or being the mother of boys, and then gave Sara a pretty little box to keep them all in.


Speaking of the guest of honor, here she is opening some of the cards (it was a gift card shower)

She is such a sweet and loving person. We had a great time planning her party, and it went off without a hitch!

June Blooms

Here is a look at my garden this month. We'll start out with a few annuals I have planted. I wanted to try out petunias this year, and I chose a few white ones for the deck,


Purple petunias for the hanging baskets off the deck and the front porch, and yellow marigolds for the driveway. There isn't a picture of the marigolds yet, as I have raised them from seed and they haven't bloomed yet. But, they are getting bigger every day. :-)



Next up are the flowers that grow wild in the yard. My guess is God planted them for me, just to make me smile.

I love daisies, and these grow wild in one of the planters. The whole bed is filled with them, and I love them.




Then there are these yellow buttercup-y ones, only they are bigger than buttercups.


This purple one is so pretty,



These have got to be one of my favorite flowers. They are just so pretty, and they pop up in the most random of places. Some people call them Johnny Jump Ups, I think. I want to get a bunch more of these so they're everywhere next year.



Next up are the flowers that were already planted by the previous owners. Last year most of these were really scraggly, but a little TLC last summer meant that they came up profusely this year. Except for this allium. I think it is hideous, but even though I dug it out last year, it came back again. Solo. Just one, weird looking flower.


The blackberry bushes were overrun by ivy last year, and were too strangled and shaded to produce much fruit. This year we have lots of canes, and tons of flowers like these, getting ready to produce yummy fruit.


This little guy is a miracle. He is in the same bed as the peony below, and last year I almost stepped on him he was so small. This little rose bush was probably only a foot tall last year, completely overgrown by weeds, and only had four little stems sticking out. We cleared all the weeds out, and Lover chopped it down to the ground. Apparently it took to the pruning, as this year it is almost four feet tall and wide, and covered with little flowers like this one. Anyone know what kind of rose this might be?


The other rosebush, up by the driveway, is blooming prolifically. If it follows true to form, it will bloom all summer, which I am looking forward to. The flowers are so big they bow the stems sometimes. :-)




When we moved in there was an entire bed of these irises. They were so overgrown that it was just yucky, and they were all packed in. I pulled them all out and replanted a select few in some of the other beds, and they are much more beautiful now that we have some room to admire their loveliness.


But the star of the month has got to be the Peony. These beautiful flowers are simply stunning, and I get so excited when they finally open. The flowers are huge, and they are just lush and creamy and beautiful We'll be dividing this plant at the end of the summer, so hopefully we'll get even more blooms next year.



Gorgeous, isn't it? I'll leave you with one more photo of the peonies.


Ok, I lied. Just one more. Really. Have a great day!