life on main st.

not so little puppies

2009-10-15T09:37:00.000-04:00

so my pups aren't so little anymore...

this is lola when we went to pick her out...

ginger her first night home...

lola her first night home...

ginger today...

lola today...

~new project~

2009-10-14T22:29:00.003-04:00

So I have been living in my house for a few months now and am still without a dining room table and chairs. crazy i know. I found a table, an ugly one and some ugly chairs too. I wanted to share a before (I only have one of the chair):

I took the caning off because it was tore on all of the chairs, I actually like tha outcome:

I will post pics soon of the end result!

glam halloween?

2009-10-09T09:00:00.001-04:00

So it seems that Halloween has taken a bit of a glam turn.
thats ok with me.
I found these plates that I really liked at Pottery Barn:

So I decided to try and make my own:

Not exactly the same thing but same idea.
All you need is glass plates, mod podge, tissue paper and a skull template.
And now all I need is some cute orange dinner plates to go under these guys.
Has anyone started decorating for Halloween?

Time Traveling..

2009-10-08T18:00:00.007-04:00

Well sorta...i haven't posted in forever
I know.
I'm sorry.
But I have a reason; I've been super busy,
decorating,traveling, being lazy.

So I'm going to back things up a bit to August.

My mother, my daughter and myself had the opportunity to travel to New York City for one day at a very, very, very cheap rate.

How could we say no?

We didn't.
So I'm gonna bore you with some pics of the trip.
we arrived at 9 am and left at 10 pm.

NYC nonstop for 13 hours.
We were tired to say the least.

Top of the Rock...literally...

This guy was in FAO's he's made of Jelly Beans!!!

We simply had to go to The Plaza; my daughter is a huge Eloise fan and we had to stop there to check things out...

Love, love, love the stained glass ceiling...

Carriage ride in Central Park...this is (according to the driver) the same carriage that was used in the movie Enchanted~and we rode in it!

Staten Island Ferry...it was very overcast but we wanted to see lady liberty...

Central Park~the BEST park EVER!!!! We spent a few hours there and barely scratched the surface-so much to see!

Central Park Zoo.

Every city we visit we have to vivist the zoo.

It's a rule.

(my 9 yr. old made that up)

Times Square~we had to meet our group there-it was so cool at night~

Not sure what this is really called but we called it the Today Show Fountain...

Falling...

2009-09-25T17:49:00.000-04:00

for fall! I love this time of year, the leaves around here are starting to change color and I'm in the mood to do a little fall decorating. I haven't decided exactly what I would like~things are so different this year! New house and new spaces to fill!! Here's a few pics I found that I really liked...

Excuses, Excuses

2009-09-11T10:49:00.007-04:00

First off I'd like to say sorry to those few, few (few) people who read this blog-I have been uber busy lately and unfortunately my blog is the 'thing' that paid the price. I FINALLY moved into my 'new' house. There is still so much to do and I promise pictures. soon. There are a few other reasons why I have been MIA; work has been super busy, my daughter started school, my computer is on the fritz and I have no Internet at my new house, yet. I'm working on all of those and will bore you with the pics later. I promise.

I have yet to decide on what to do with my bathroom so help me out! I found these inspiration pics from Country Living:

This one is closest to the layout of my bathroom already & the tubs are very similar~

I just liked the tub in this one~

I love, love, love the shampoo/towel rack~

I would love to have a chandelier over my tub like this one~

or this one~

Share your bathroom pics with me!

~to the fair we go~

2009-08-11T23:33:00.004-04:00

We are slowly etching away at our summer 'to do' list; crossing more and more off every week. We decided to go to a local fair the other week and had a blast! It was a typical country fair which is exactly what I wanted my daughter to experience.

Here's a view as we drove up...

Rides aren't exactly my most favorite part of a fair, so we mixed going on rides with visiting the barns~

I decided not to get too close to this fellow, I've heard they can spit and I wasn't willing to stick around and find out.

This calf was the SWEETEST~he had the softest fur...

This poor momma pig had ten babies pullin' at her and all she wanted to do was sleep. See the little piglet by her face? He was biting her nose the whole time trying to get her to wake up~she didn't budge though!

Luckily we still have fairs running well into September so we hope to hit a few more up before the season ends! But in all honestly I'm more excited about the fair food~funnel cakes, corn dogs, french fries, cotton candy~ooohhh I'm making myself hungry!

Lola Bean

2009-08-08T23:34:00.002-04:00

Introducing the newest member of our family...

Her name is Lola Bean...

and she already loves my daughter...

she's got the most kissable face...

She will be joining our family in 2 weeks once she's weaned from her momma and the adventure begins!

~beautiful blue~

2009-08-07T10:51:00.004-04:00

My lovely daughter finally picked out a paint color for her room and it was a total shocker! She's a purple girl through and through but to my surprise she chose blue! A lovely light shade that reminds me of water and has a name very fitting 'Clearwater'. The room has been prepped, primed and painted. It took a whopping THREE coats of primer to get rid of the log cabin theme.

Here's some before pictures as a reminder...

I did feel a little guilty painting over all of the hard work that went into hand painting everyone of those scenes. But only a little guilty. Just a smidgen.

Here are a few after pics. The carpet is in the process of being ripped up and removing the tack strips. The previous owners decided to refinish the floors the same way they did in the other rooms: with area rugs still in place. So I have a nice 1 1/2 foot border of a completely different finish. Guess what? I'm paintin' over it with a nice purty white.

I have some lovely white accents to add to the room. I'll keep you posted!

~wallpaper free & lovin' it~

2009-08-06T22:37:00.003-04:00

So I've been M.I.A. for quite some time but I promise to be posting much more often. House progress is coming along slowly, but it's still coming. I've gotten all of the wallpaper down in the living room now! The only wallpaper left is on the landing and hallway upstairs. Here's the before of the living room and the lovely wallpaper:

another picture of the wallpaper:

Here's the after:

I still need to wash and prime the walls...

Paint colors have almost all been picked out...so stay tuned...

I'm back...

2009-07-21T20:32:00.003-04:00

Well, actually we're back! I was off of work last week and got a ton of things done at the house but we took a break over the weekend. We headed up north to my grandma's lake and became beach bums!

I stitched this photo together it turned out pretty good (click on it to make it larger)...

My daughter has never caught minnows before (not too many at the beaches we visit) and this was one thing on her summer 'to do' list. We had to have caught at least 50...

At the end of the day we did let them go...

The water was pretty clear and cold. But I got in. We walked out to the diving dock and I chickened out, like it said it was cold. We still had fun, found a bunch of shells, caught minnows and swam a bit, I'd say it was a very successful beach trip!

This is the 'cold creek' we named it that when we were kids (not sure if it has an 'official' name)-it is the COLDEST water that you will ever touch! It empties into the lake, my daughter had a lot of fun in it getting really cold and then jumping back in the lake. The lake water didn't seem too cold after that!

Hope everyone had a relaxing weekend!

Can you say yummy?

2009-07-15T11:00:00.000-04:00

Check out Matthew Broderick and SJP's New York home...

Love the punch of red...

Images from Hooked on Houses.

decisions, decisions

2009-07-15T09:19:00.000-04:00

We've made some decisions. We've decided to scrape the wallpaper and wash the walls. that's it. for now. painting will have to wait.

Although it was easier scrapping the other day, I "enlisted" some help from my daughter and she actually liked it-she tackled the lower half of the walls and I did the top.

Wallpaper that needs to come down:

Living Room
Dining Room-done :)
1/2 Bath
Full Bath (on the ceiling too)
Back Room

I feel like I need to do a PSA regarding wallpaper-I'll keep it simple-FOR THE LOVE OF PETE DO NOT PUT WALLPAPER UP IN YOU HOUSE! End of PSA. Think paint-it's easier to change and cheaper.

eye candy...

2009-07-14T22:39:00.005-04:00

OK well not that kind of eye candy... I'm talkin' house eye candy! Check out Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly's lovely home-it's for sale, a mere $8.5 million and it will be yours~

Look at this curb appeal~
I think I like this house so much because it has so much wood work in it-here's the stairs~

Look at all the windows...

and the ceiling...

another shot of the stairs and a view of the front door...

Images from Hooked on Houses.

House progress...

2009-07-14T00:37:00.003-04:00

No more polka-dots! I'm almost done with the bonus room! Here's what we started with:

Lovely pink polka-dots and urine soaked carpet-ugh...

The carpet was pulled up to reveal moisture damaged floors, so they became painted floors! I also had to texture the ceiling due to poor patching by previous owners. I never want to add texture to a ceiling again. ever. I also patched the walls-lots of nail holes. Two coats or primer and two coats of paint later I have this:

Here you can see the floor, it was drying and got a second coat after the pic, it will receive a final coat of off white later this week...

Now to rest my bones-my aching back and jello arms...

Weekend shopping finds...

2009-07-14T00:25:00.004-04:00

So I did a bit of shopping this weekend-check out the goods:

I found this cute little candle holder at Target marked down to $3.74! It turned out to be the inspiration for the back room-tan and brown~

Then I spotted this lovely...

...a 4 x 6' woven chocolate brown rug for $20.00!

Now on to garage sale finds~I bought not one but TWO of these chairs for $45 for BOTH!! Can you believe it?

Happy Shopping!

~Dining Room Idea~

2009-07-10T23:31:00.003-04:00

A while back I asked Fikle Chick to do an idea board for my dining room. Check out her blog http://fiklechik.blogspot.com/search/label/Idea%20Boards. I was torn on what colors to use-what color would I paint when I have a colorful stained glass window? Well look at the magic she worked up...

I love it! Now onto shopping...

Summer to-do's...

2009-07-10T22:38:00.003-04:00

and I'm not talking about house work! I saw this idea on another blog-
http://megduerksen.typepad.com/whatever/ check it-you won't be sorry. This is one amazing blog. After seeing this idea my daughter and I decided to make a little list of our own; some simple things like catching fire flies and some more time consuming like going out of town. All have the same outcome-no boredom, creating memories and having fun! Make your own summer list today!

Good-bye cabin-hello ?

2009-07-09T22:26:00.006-04:00

I've got the cabin room primed! Here's some before and after pics:

Good-bye gun rack...

Good-bye bear...

Good-bye fishing pole...

Here's a few pics of what my daughter would like her room to look like...

This is her favorite, she is really into different countries and learning about them so maps are right up her alley. This room is funky and cute at the same time-fits her to a t!

Dining Room update...

2009-07-08T22:34:00.004-04:00

I haven't updated you all on my house progress so here goes...

I recently got ALL of the wallpaper and backing off of the dining room walls and let me tell you it was quite a task! I still haven't nailed down a color or even primed the walls but it will happen soon!

Here is the largest blank wall with all it's wallpaper glory...

and here's the after-wallpaper scraped, holes patched and sanded...

The built in buffet 'before'...

and the built in during...

and lastly the window seat...

and here it is without wallpaper (and lace curtains) and holes patched...

Next week I will be painting! I'll post more progress pics tomorrow but for now I need to rest my aching back!

stainless or white?

2009-07-06T22:59:00.003-04:00

So I made a lovely discovery the other day...my refrigerator is dead. I need to replace it~obviously~but I need help in deciding to go with stainless steel or white. My kitchen isn't the largest but does have tall ceilings. When it comes time to redo the kitchen I am repainting the cabinets white (or slightly off white), walls latte and replacing the floors with a light neutral color. White appliances would *blend* in with the cabinets, but stainless looks so good! Here are some pics of my kitchen in it's current state.

This is one of two doors going into the kitchen...

View from door above...

Further in the kitchen looking into the second entrance out into the dining room...

View from second door...

I also forgot to mention that the counter tops will be replaced in the spring!

Snakes, S'mores and Sparklers...

2009-07-04T22:59:00.003-04:00

That's how we spent our Fourth of July. I spent most of my day at the house, patching, priming and pulling weeds. The front of the house is shaping up (a bit) I'm slowly chipping away at my long, long list. Then we roasted hot dogs and s'mores on the fire, did some snakes, lit a TON of smoke bombs, did some sparklers and called it a night.

Do you remember snakes? My daughter loves them-she put 3 together to make a REALLY big snake...

One of our very colorful smoke bombs...

Sparklers...

and more sparklers...

Hope your fourth was as relaxing as mine!!!

Happy 4th!

2009-07-04T22:45:00.002-04:00

Last night we had a blast! Our town puts on a pretty big fireworks display on the 3rd every year. So we headed down there last night to join in on the festivities! Here's some pics of the little one enjoying ice cream and a pretzel before the show started~

I got some pics of the display some turned out really cool...

This one is my favorite!

Have a happy and safe Fourth of July!

Shopping!!!!

2009-06-28T21:34:00.002-04:00

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...

2009-06-25T21:28:00.003-04:00

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!

2009-06-19T23:25:00.003-04:00

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~

2009-06-18T22:23:00.004-04:00

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...

2009-06-10T00:49:00.005-04:00

...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...

2009-06-05T23:36:00.002-04:00

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...

2009-06-05T23:18:00.008-04:00

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!!!!

2009-06-02T21:29:00.003-04:00

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!

2009-06-01T20:28:00.004-04:00

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!

decisions, decisions

2009-05-31T18:13:00.009-04:00

With a big move coming up and blank canvases I've got some decisions to make! I was thinking that I would do the bedrooms first so that we would have an 'oasis' amongst the renovations and 'face lifts' in the house. Here are some pics that I have collected as inspirations for the master bedroom. Some have come from other blogs (let me know if they are yours so I can give you credit and others are from bhg.com and goodhousekeeping.com).

here we go...

2009-05-30T11:22:00.001-04:00

I've decided to take the plunge, well actually two plunges. I'm starting this blog (plunge #1) to share my journey into home ownership (plunge #2). OK, so starting a blog isn't as big as buying a house, but it's still new to me! I close on my house on Tuesday (finally!) after four LONG, LONG months of ups and downs. I went under contract with this house four months ago and have been told several times that the contract is off then on again, have had vandals, and worked with people that know absolutely nothing about their business. I've been lucky enough to share this experience with my lovely daughter who has had more patience with this than I have.

So here's the skinny on our new house; it was built in 1915 and still has all of it's original charm! The original woodwork in the house is untouched and beautiful-we're talking 8" baseboards people! There's your standard living room, dining room and kitchen on the main floor along with a 'bonus room' with a half bath. I'd have to say that the dining room is my favorite; it has a built in sideboard, two stained glass windows and two huge wooden pillars at the entrance. Heading upstairs there are three bedrooms with huge closets and a bathroom. There is a decent sized yard; not too big and not too small; which is good 'cause I loath mowing the lawn, but there is still enough room for my veggies. I will hopefully be posting pictures very soon of the house in it's 'before' state. I'm off to pack...

life on main st.

not so little puppies

~new project~

glam halloween?

Time Traveling..

Falling...

Excuses, Excuses

~to the fair we go~

~~Lola Bean~~

~beautiful blue~

~wallpaper free & lovin' it~

I'm back...

Can you say yummy?

decisions, decisions

eye candy...

House progress...

Weekend shopping finds...

~Dining Room Idea~

Summer to-do's...

Good-bye cabin-hello ?

Dining Room update...

stainless or white?

Snakes, S'mores and Sparklers...

Happy 4th!

Shopping!!!!

I wish I was back at the beach...

room with a view~

home sweet home...

My aching back...

Boring Glory...

Finally!!!!

Oh so pretty!

decisions, decisions

here we go...

Lola Bean