Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Confessions of a Black Thumb

I like to pretend I'm perfect.

My house is always tidy and organized.
I make delicious, healthy meals every day.
My kids are well-behaved and know how to clean up after themselves.
My yard is weed-free and perfectly manicured.
My hair is always neatly done and my make-up applied perfectly.
Every plant I own is healthy and grows green.

Sadly though, these statements are so far from the truth.

The real me has a messy house with piles of clutter in every room.
I try to make healthy, delicious meals, but most days I'm lucky if I can just cut up some fruit and throw some chicken nuggets into the oven.
My kids leave a constant trail of mess behind them as they tear through the house.
My yard is probably one of the weediest on the street (seriously, I can only pull about 3 weeds before the kids start rolling in the dirt and fighting with one another!).
My hair hasn't been cut or colored in a whole year and it's usually wadded up in a mess on top of my head.
And I can't seem to keep a plant alive to save my life. I'm responsible for three toddlers, two dogs, and a husband. One more thing to keep alive and healthy is just too much for me :)

So that brings me to the topic of this post...
my black thumb.
I definitely do not have a green thumb when it comes to plant life.
I am so horrible at maintaining plants, that I would say that my thumb is the opposite of green. 
It's black.
Is that the opposite of green??

I bought a huge palm tree on clearance at Lowe's for $5 a few months ago. 
I was so pumped at the deal I got.
Turns out $5 isn't such a good deal if you can't keep the plant alive.

I can't figure out what happened.
I mean, I watered it once a week.
Okay, maybe it was only once every couple of weeks.
I guess that could have been the reason.

Even my outside plants look pretty sad.
Here is a pot that sits on my front porch.
It used to have beautiful white, purple, and yellow flowers (Don't ask me what kind they were. I know nothing about plant names).
After I cleaned out all of the dead stuff, I was left with a pretty sad looking green mess.
Hey, at least it's still green!
This one doesn't look that great either.
 
And I DO water it! It even gets rain water.

I have been able, however, to keep my spider plant alive inside the house.
I won it in a drawing at a M.O.P.S. meeting and I think it's kinda ugly.
So of course, it is the only one that actually looks healthy.
Go figure.

I've also had decent luck with this little fern.
I almost killed it once, but somehow managed to bring it back to life.
Therefore you can still see lingering brown parts...

I recently read this in a Cottages and Bungalows magazine:
One houseplant per 100 square feet.
Are you kidding me!?
I would need to own 35 houseplants.
And keep them clean and free of dust.
So NOT happening.

Clearly, aside from being decorative, houseplants provide great health benefits.
But how do you keep them alive???
What's the secret??

Saturday, August 28, 2010

Solving the Dresser Dilemma

So I finally solved my dresser dilemma (click on the link to see the post about my old junky dresser)...

I bought an old dresser for $20 off of craigslist. 
You have to look beyond the superficial mess and see the awesome bones to appreciate it.
I know Jacob thought I was absolutely insane as he helped me load it into the car. He couldn't understand why I would buy something so ugly.
But I KNEW it had potential. 
I mean, look beyond the chipped paint, the red stains, the missing knobs, and the fact that the drawers don't work, and you can see that it is a sturdy, well-built dresser with really cool detail work.

I remember thinking, 
I can't believe I got this thing for only 20 bucks! I'll just strip off the paint, sand it, repaint it and it will look beautiful.

Funny how naive I was.

Stripping paint off of furniture is torturous work. Especially when that piece of furniture has an infinite number of little grooves and tons detail work.
The top of the dresser was easy. Just spread on the paint stripper, wait 30 minutes, and scrape it right off.
But I spend at least 15 hours over the course of a couple of weeks out in the garage with a flat head screwdriver, scraping out every single little chip of paint out of all of the grooves.  
It was super tedious work.

I got to about this point and was contemplating throwing in the towel.
See all of those little grooves and detail work?? 
Uuuggghhh, so much work!

But after a pep talk from the hubby, I decided to persevere.
I ended up getting almost all of the paint removed and sanded the heck out of the dresser. The garage now looks like a dust storm blew through :).

And now it has been primed and sits awaiting a few coats of new white paint. 
After two coats of primer, I sanded it down a bit again to get rid of the paint drips and brush stroke lines.
 
 Seems kinds crazy that I did all of that work to get the white paint off, only to paint it white again!

I was told by the pros at Sherwin Williams to use an enamel-based paint on furniture because it dries a lot harder and is more durable than paint you would use on the walls.
It's a bit spendy (around $50 for a gallon!), so I am waiting until tomorrow to buy it because they will be having a 30% off sale.

Then I have to get new drawer glides so the drawers work,
pick out new knobs for the drawers, 
and get some contact paper to line the insides of the drawers.

Now I know why the thing was only 20 bucks!

Friday, August 20, 2010

Master Bedroom Progress

I started the "do" on our Master Bedroom way back in January. 
Oh my gosh, was that really 8 MONTHS AGO!?
Oh, wow, I am really slow.
Well, what can I say, I have triplet toddlers...
'nuff said.

Anyways, here's what's been accomplished in 8 months...

we painted,

we built an awesome farmhouse bed,

we bought new bedding (we had to save up over the months and buy one piece at a time),

we got new lampshades for our old lamps,

we repurposed some old artwork, made some artwork and bought some new pieces,

and we made a long curtain rod and hung drapes.
        


So what's left, you ask?

We bought a cool old dresser off of Craigslist that I am in the process of refinishing (I'll do a whole other post on that project).
It's a bear of a project that is taking me forever to finish.

I also want to put our old nightstands in the boys' rooms and build these ones from Knock-Off Wood for our room.

And last, I still need to paint Jacob's dresser white. 
It used to be white, but after I painted it years ago, 
I applied polyurethane on top and it turned the whole thing a nasty yellow color.

My goal is to get all of this accomplished and the room finally finished in the next 2-3 weeks...
we'll see how that goes...

Monday, August 16, 2010

Ceramic Garden Stool - A Steal!

I've been coveting ceramic garden stools ever since I saw them featured in my House Beautiful magazine awhile back.

You know the ones...
you see them everywhere...

Here's what House Beautiful had to say about them...


But they are oh, so expensive!

I've searched high and low for a good deal on one.
Ballard Designs has them for $139
Target sells them for $169
Pottery Barn sells them for $159
But the best price I found was at Wisteria for $99 (on sale).

I still wasn't willing to spend that much.

I resigned to the fact that I would never have one.

Then I got a tip from Beth over at The 7 Daggetts
She found garden stools at Big Lots for $10!
That's right, I said TEN DOLLARS!!!
And they are EXACTLY the same as the ones from Ballard Designs, Target, and Wisteria.
Thanks, Beth!!!!

So of course, I packed all of the kids up this morning and raced out to Big Lots.

I searched the whole store and finally found them in the back corner with the gardening supplies (duh!).

I had a hard time choosing between red, blue or white, but ultimately settled on the white one.
The price tag was marked at $20 (still a killer deal!), but when the cashier rang it up I found out it was 50% off.

I am beyond thrilled at my purchase. 

In fact, I think I may go back and get the blue one too :)

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Beachy Accessories

One of the best parts of a beach vacation is shopping for beachy accessories to take home.

Since I've become such a penny pincher lately, I now look at a lot of things and think  
"I could make that for way cheaper"
and thus I end up buying very little because I just know some day I will get around to making some of those cute things I spied on my trip.


Unfortunately that some day rarely comes.


So I decided to write this post to document those cute things I saw that I know I could make myself and hopefully (eventually) I will be inspired to blog about those things that I actually did make myself...
we'll see. 

I spied this cute "Coast" sign hanging on the front of one of the beach cottages.
I thought it was pretty clever.
I'm a sucker for signs and they are SO easy to make yourself. 
They were everywhere I looked!
I liked this "Surf Shack" one,
the "Sandcastles and Surf" one,
the tiny little "Life's at Ease with and Ocean Breeze" one,
 
and the arrows pointing to the "Shore" and the "Beach".
Then I saw these Scrabble pieces spelling out "Beach Time" for sale. 
I repeat, FOR SALE! 
I could make that for FREE using the Scrabble game we never play!
This isn't the best picture of this, but it was a framed description of a sailboat alongside a sketch of the boat. 
How easy would that be to use some scrapbook paper or fabric for the background, 
find the words and picture online, 
and stick it in a vintage frame?

I also saw several of these driftwood whirly gig things hanging from people's front porches.
I fell in love with them.
They couldn't be that hard to make, right?

Therefore, I repeatedly drug Jacob down to the beach and made him collect driftwood pieces with me.
We ended up filling a whole grocery bag with driftwood.
I WILL make one of those...
some day.
But I promised myself I would not start any new projects 
until our Master Bedroom is finally complete.

Here are the few things I actually did purchase.
They were all things I knew I couldn't  make myself.


A rustic little wooden tea box,
 
2 blue finger starfish,
a decorative plate with a great phrase,
You cannot change the wind, but you can adjust your sails.
and two vintage books that were a great color with meaningful titles.

I love coming home from a trip with new treasures for the house and 
ideas for new things to create!
 
Linking up to:

Friday, August 6, 2010

Coastal Cottage Getaway

Jacob and I got to get away by ourselves this weekend. 
That's right, NO KIDS!! 
It was the first time just the two of us have gotten away for pleasure since the trio were born!

 
We spent our weekend away at Pacific Beach on the Washington Coast and
stayed in the cutest little cottage suite at the Sweet Alice Inn.

I had heard about this new beach town on the Washington Coast called Seabrook.
It is basically a resort town full of beach cottages that you can rent.

I thought that sounded like fun, but then when I learned that this year's Coastal Living Ultimate Beach House is located in Seabrook, I was dying to go!

Unfortunately all of the cottages were booked up for the weekend that we wanted to go,
so I did some research and found the Sweet Alice Inn, only 1 mile away from Seabrook.

It was just as cute as the Seabrook cottages and WAY more affordable!

We did spend quite a bit of time exploring Seabrook, however, and drooling over the beach cottages.

Okay, maybe it was just me that was drooling :)

The cottages ranged from gorgeous and gigantic,
 
to average sized and absolutely beautiful,
to sweet little clusters of mini cottages.
But I kept coming back to this one.
I loved everything about it. 
 
 
Isn't it beautiful!?

There are a ton of old-fashioned beach cruiser bikes owned by Seabrook available for guests to borrow. 
You just pick one up and leave it on the sidewalk for the next person to use when you are done.
Even though we weren't guests, we helped ourselves to two beach cruisers and cruised our way around the neighborhood.
What rebels!

I think that was my favorite part of our trip.

However, I thoroughly enjoyed our tour of Coastal Living's Ultimate Beach House too.

It wasn't anything super fancy from the outside, but it was absolutely GORGEOUS on the inside!

As you enter the front courtyard, you are greeted by secluded, outdoor living spaces including a large stone fireplace, outdoor grilling area, lounge and dining area and a covered walkway to  the guest house.
Our first stop was the guest house.
I was immediately drawn to the colors and was later told by the host that the interior designer (Tim Clarke) used pictures he took of the area and had the colors in the pictures matched at the paint store.
Clever!
We were in love with the ceilings and thought we could totally do that in our house.

I love how the rustic mirror in the bathroom was hung in front of the window.

After touring the guest house, we walked back through the covered breezeway to the main house.

I loved the arrangement of pictures and antique faucet knobs hanging on the wall beneath the stairs.

While the rustic plank table by Tim Clarke Designs probably cost a pretty penny, 
it made me smile to know that even fancy schmancy designers buy things like the white chairs and vases at IKEA.

While I love taking in the whole design concept of a room, it really is the little things that intrigue me. For example, I really enjoyed inspecting the accessories and taking note of how the little things were arranged.
Some of the little things I particularly liked were this wire basket holding fire wood,

these rustic hooks hanging in the entryway,
 
the numbered bowls holding vegetables in the kitchen,
the open shelving in the kitchen,
and the stripes painted on the stair risers leading upstairs to the bedrooms.
  
The first bedroom we came to upstairs was the "kids' room". 
There were two elements in this room that had me saying "wow!"
The first being the bamboo curtain rod and drapery rings. 
What a unique way to hang the sheer drapes! 
I was dying to know where the hardware came from, so after some investigating, I learned that it can be purchased through Antique Drapery Rod Co.

 
The second thing I loved about this room was the blue panels adorning the walls behind the headboards. 
They look like blue pieces of wood with white wood grain showing through, but are actually blue panels painted on the wall with faux wood grain hand-painted over the top in white.
The bathroom off of the kids' room also had a mirror hung in front of the window, 
much like the bathroom in the guest house. 
I loved the blue painted vanity too!
To be quite honest, the master bedroom didn't do much for me. 
It was pretty, just not really my style.
I did, however, really like the blue and white striped rug (which you can't really see in the picture I took) from Dash and Albert and the antique dresser used next to the bed as a nightstand.
The master bath was stunning and featured heated floors, 
which almost burnt my feet it was so hot!
The door separating the master bedroom and bath was a space-saving barn door on rollers.
If only I had a place that one of those would work in my house...

The basement consisted of two bathrooms, a fantastic laundry room, a media room, and a fitness room.

The first bathroom was simple, yet tastefully decorated. 
I loved the hunk of wood hung above the sink as a display shelf. 
It simply held a small collection of rocks and two paint-by-number pictures.
The second bathroom was decked out in wood paneling
as it held the dry sauna and an exquisite shower (which I did not take a picture of!)
Isn't that a great sink faucet though!?
I was absolutely in love with the laundry room...the color and style of the cabinets, the wide-mouthed jars holding clothes pins and laundry detergent, the plethora of storage and counters. 
If I had this laundry room, I might actually be able to keep up with our mounds of laundry... 
okay, probably not.
As you can see, Jacob had no problem making himself at home in the cozy media room. 
A guy can dream, right?
 But the very best part of the house was the location. 
The views were breathtaking.
After we finished scoping out the Beach House, 
we drove down to Ocean Shores and rented a moped. 
 
We drove that little thing up and down the beach, not even caring that it was freezing cold and raining. 
 
Eventually we started to feel hypothermia creeping in, so we had to call it a day.

It was a great getaway for us, but of course we missed our three wee ones back home.
Jacob drew their names in the sand and 
we took a picture so that they would know we were thinking about them.

We are definitely going to have to make the trip to the ocean more often. 
I love it there!