stainless or white?

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...

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!

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!!!!

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!