Shopping!!!!

So lately I've been workin' like a dog-full day of work then to the house for some more work. This week I finally got all of the wallpaper and backing off the walls in the dining room (talk about a pain!). I also got all the holes patched in the dining room and bonus back room. So today I decided to reward myself with some shopping! Started out at Lowe's to get some primer and scored a 5 gallon bucket of primer for $25. Then onto the plant department-which is where it got really good! I checked out the markdown plants first-I discovered this section last year and am so glad I did! I picked up a 5 gallon white hydrangea-$6.25, 4 six packs of dianthus-$.50 each, 2 five gallon pre-designed flower planters with 4 plants in each-$4.50 each, and a tomato plant for $1.50!! All they need is a little pruning and they'll be fine!!! Then I headed over to a discount store (Big Lots) and found this little gem shoved in the back of one of the shelves....

It's 5.5 quarts and it was only $8!!!!!!! I've got the perfect spot on my counter. I'll post pictures of my house progress soon! Happy shopping!!!

I wish I was back at the beach...

ugh...I HATE hot weather. It's near 90 degrees here and it's almost 10 p.m. I wish I was back at the beach and splashing in the water. Here are some pics from the mini vacation. We arrived at the beach at night but my daughter HAD to go to the beach, so to the beach we went. The water was freezing cold-I'm talking ice water cold. but she went in and splashed around a bit...

It's hard to tell from these pictures (because it's so darn pretty) that it's Lake Michigan-the water is freezing like I said-but the beaches are clean with light colored sand and clear water...

The lighthouse on the pier...

It rained all day on Saturday-totally bummed my daughter out-it was her birthday. But we had gorgeous weather on Sunday so we spent as much time there as we could before we headed back home....

It's hard to see but as soon as we arrived we spotted 30 or more sailboats heading out (see those tiny dots on the horizon?)-it was so colorful~

We'll be heading back to the beach soon & I can't wait!

So I know I still have A LOT of work to do before i really start thinking about decorating but I just can across this pic of a window seat that I LOVE!!! Here's what I've got:


and here's what I want...


Don't those pillows and cushions look so comfy! I love the window treatments because they won't hide my pretty woodwork!

room with a view~

So I've been MIA for bit~but with good reasons! It was my daughter's birthday and I took her to Lake Michigan for a mini vacation! We were total beach bums! Then I can back home...to tons of work on the house. I have started to take down the wallpaper, tear out carpets and take down the curtains in attempt to remove the stench. The previous owners had several dogs (supposedly 10!!!) and smoked so it was a bit stinky. I am switching my focus to the bedrooms, well only two of them-mine and my daughters. Here are the before pics of my daughters room, it was the previous owners son's room and she HAND PAINTED all of it!

She's just chillin' (don't worry-she's laying on a blanket!). You can see a bit of the closet-they are HUGE!
It's a log cabin theme if you haven't noticed-this is the painted gun rack:

Here's an up close of the window painted on one of the walls-a bear in a stream with a fish in his mouth-the detail is amazing!
Here's a pic of the whole 'window' and the logs are also hand painted:

And a fishing pole leaning in the corner. One of the walls was left blank with the beginning sketches of a fire place. I am going to feel somewhat bad painting over this but I have a 9 year old GIRL and this isn't cuttin' it.

Here's my new room-not too many pics. The windows take up almost one whole wall facing Main St. The ceiling needs to be scraped and textured, and walls need to be painted. Unfortunately the previous owners painted the hardwood floors so I'm going to try and work with it

I'm not exactly sure what I am doing but it's going to be along the lines of what I previously posted. Here's another view:

Do you have ideas for a fabulous bedroom? Send them my way!

home sweet home...

...well almost. So here are a few snapshots of my new home!!! They are a bit random and *out of order* but there are here!

this is the built-in linen closet upstairs:


up close pic of all of the molding around all of the doors (even inside the closets) and windows...

this is the *bonus room* not sure what to do with it, its a lovely shade of pink with white polka--dots. But it does have a great window seat!

an aerial view of my living room, patterned wood floors and all...

aerial-ish view of my dining room looking into the kitchen and pink pol-a-dot room...

up close of my built in sideboard/hutch with stained glass windows. These windows are making it hard for me to decide on what color to paint the dining room...

another view of the dining room and a pic of one of the two window seats in the house. All it needs is a comfy cushion and LOTS of pillows...

view from dining room from living room, you should see the detail on the wood-amazing!

this is what you see as soon as you walk in the door-my staircase-can't you just see the garland and stockings hanging from this at Christmas time?

another view of dining room from living room-you can see the lead glass windows-I have two!

Hope you enjoyed the 'tour'! I will post more pics soon!

My aching back...

I went over to the house today like I previously posted. Originally to take pictures then I decided to clean up a bit. I'm not sure why I decided to do this all today especially after I worked all day on my feet-I'm definitely paying the price now. So the picture below is what the front of my house used to look like. Horrible isn't it?

And here's what I got done, well I should say we my lovely daughter helped! Hidden in that mess was coral belles, astilbe, and lots of sedum.
Under all of those vines and bushes was one of the cement brick walls (I have 2). Unfortunately the plants destroyed some of the bricks. So they have to go. I'm sad about that-they are original to the house, one even has a date stamped in it (1914)! But don't worry (I know you are) I plan on reusing the bricks to line the front garden. Hopefully I will be getting that done soon and will keep you posted!

Boring Glory...

I went over to the new house today to take some snapshots. I started out with the front porch-which I absolutely LOVE! It's huge! It just needs some TLC and some furniture and it will be perfect! Here it is in all it's boring glory:

And this is what I'd love it to become...

Couldn't you see yourself on one of these porches with a cold glass of ice tea?

Finally!!!!

So it finally happened!!!! I closed on my house today! After four long crazy months it's MINE!!!!!!!!!! Can't you tell I'm a bit excited? After I closed on the house my mom took my daughter and I out for dinner-it was yummy! Then I took my mom over to the house to give her the 'grand' tour and guess what? I forgot my camera to take pictures to show you all!!! It looks even better now that it's mine! Now comes the fun stuff-the painting and decorating!

The grass is super long so I've got to get over there asap to get it fixed up. I'm still trying to figure out how I want my garden to look-my daughter's one request is to have LOTS and LOTS of color! The only picture that I have that I really want to do in my side yard is this:

I would love to have a white picket fence on the side on my house around the garden with a stone walkway like the one above. Little bird baths, peonies, hostas, lilies, daisies, cleome, you name it and I want it in my garden! I can't wait!!

Oh so pretty!

So you may have noticed quite a change to my blog (still working on the header)-even though it's only 3 days old! I stopped over to http://shabbyblogs.com/index.html and made it pretty! Seriously though-stop on over there! I was looking for a way to make my blog 'not-so-standard', came across a few sites but all wanted mucha $$$ for the designs and then I found SHABBY BLOGS. And guess what? It's all FREE!!!!!! Don't worry even if you aren't technologically savvy there are step by step instructions that guide you along and make the process super easy. Life is so much sweeter with FREE goodies!! Check it out!