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This was our lovely mountain of shoes that sat in the back corner of our family room. This is it now:
Definitely one of the best pieces of furniture that Ikea sells!
It holds a ton thanks to my love of ballet flats. 4 pairs of them will fit in the space of one of Adam’s. I recommend anyone trade their mountain of shoes for a Hemnes cabinet!
I had been searching for the perfect patio set for 2 years. I couldn't decide between a couch/sectional set or a dining set. I really wanted the perfect combination of the comfort of a couch AND the usefulness of a dining set. As far as I could tell, there was no such thing. So when we received money and gift cards for our wedding, I promised I'd set aside some of it to buy us a new patio set, just as soon as I could find one I loved.
And finally I found it - it does exist! The perfect combination of sectional and dining set. It's comfortable, all-weather wicker, from Target. To make the price a little more palatable, I went through ebates to get an extra 3% back ($30! Not bad!), plus we managed to get $40 for our old one (which was more than a little rusty) through craigslist.
It arrived a few weeks ago and so we've had a few opportunities to put it to use.
Here is the first dinner we ate at it:
But let's rewind a bit so I can show you more of that delicious dinner. I was growing Pak Choi in my window boxes and it was starting to bolt.
So I cut it all down (isn't it gorgeous?)
And we sauteed it out on the grill with sesame oil and soy sauce
It was fantastic and I'm so sad it's all gone. Since it won't grow in the summer heat, I'm definitely going to grow more in the fall. Meanwhile, Adam grilled these bacon wrapped filets:
We also had fries dressed in truffle oil. The meal was accompanied with a Predator Zinfadel. We loved our first dinner on our new table :)
It also got exercised at our recent 3rd annual Sausagefest Memorial Day party. Adam and I make 25 pounds of various sausages (italian, spinach/chicken/feta, sage/apple/cheddar breakfast) over the weekend, everyone comes over to eat it, and at the end of the night, we throw a projector up in the backyard and watch a movie under the stars (movie tradition inherited from our Lost Finale party last year). We were super impressed with the amount of people it could sit. The benches that claimed to sit 1 person comfortably sat 2 and those that were supposed to sit 2 sat at least 3, meaning we can easily accommodate 10 people for an outdoor dinner.
See the mason jars holding the candles hanging from the umbrella? I got the idea from Martha Stewart:
Source: marthastewart.com via Jennifer on Pinterest
Ok, hers looks better... but here's a few more pictures of mine anyway :P
And here's our hot tub being put to good use as a buffet!
I forgot to take pictures of the movie watching set up so picture 14 bag chairs + 2 princess chairs around a big screen (pretty much just like our Lost Finale party setup).
So a huge thank you to everyone who gifted us cash for our wedding, we love our new patio set and think it brings such a sense of warmth to the backyard. And for anyone who is curious, I bring the cushions in when we are not using the set to prolong it's life as long as possible.
Since everyone else is posting theirs, here's what it looks like in the Northwest Chicago Suburbs.
We can't open our south facing door thanks to this 7 foot snow drift.
Likewise, we can't even see out of our north facing window.
Such a crazy sight. Completely bare driveway in the middle with five foot snow drifts on the north side. This is pre-shovel!
My neighbors house and my driveway.
Out the front window, I can reach out and make a snowball without even leaning over.
The backyard, 4 foot drifts next to the garage. In the far right back corner you can see my picnic table, nearly completely buried.
I don't envy Adam who is going to have to go out and shovel all of this!
UPDATE: After Adam shoveled the driveway.
The official count was 22". Tell it to our driveway.
Figuring that tonight's episode of Lost would feature a bloodbath or two, I told Adam we had to make our cocktails with blood oranges that I picked up yesterday.
I'll spare you the gigantic mess squeezing these puppies created and just share the drinks they yielded.
Not much of a recipe here. It's just Blood Orange juice shaken with Tito's Handmade Vodka. Sure was tasty though!
One of our basement bathroom closets has been out of commission for about 8 months now so as boring as these pictures are, it's a huge accomplishment in this house.
Last July, the linen closet in our basement looked like this:
We'd already taken the shelves down at this point because we needed to get inside of that wall.
Shortly there after, all of the drywall was ripped out of this closet and it had been completely non-functional ever since.
While the closet was torn apart, the basement guest bedroom floor looked like this:
mm... now that's a guest room to be proud of!
Anyway, with the summer, and then vacations, and then Christmas, and then more vacations, and lots of work in between, we hadn't really had time to deal with this closet but over the last few weeks, Adam finally tackled it! He re-drywalled, re-hung the shelves, and re-organized not just this closet, but the one next door to it too!
He even doubled the depth of the shelves in here!
It's very exciting :) You should see the guest room floor now! Soooo clean!
And look how he re-hung the shelves and organized the 8 million paint cans in the electrical closet next to this one!
I'm feeling some major organizational zen in the basement bathroom right now - of course it just makes me even more eager to call up my kitchen contractors and ask them to tackle this bathroom and remodel the entire thing... but we won't tell Adam that...
Drumroll please! Here we go - the final reveal of our kitchen/living room renovation. (Remember, if you want to see the day-by-days you can click here)
Let's go back to the beginning!
Before:
Design:
After:
Before:
Design:
After:
Before:
After:
And then the living room, which was not the initial targeted remodel but we wound up giving it quite the face lift too!
Before (this was actually almost a year ago but it's the only picture I can find of the whole living room):
During:
After:
And for fun, here's lots more detail shots:
My custom designed spice shelf - probably one of my favorite things in the whole kitchen!
And of course, you've seen this before I think, but here's the craft room again with the new storage closet which used to be my pantry.
Ok, now some details for those who care:
And now, for the source list:
So.... what do you guys think? Does it look better? LOL!
Any questions about the process or decisions or sources I left off, just ask!!
I think they refer to this as fall nesting... this weekend my house was taken over by pumpkins.
First came the decorative pumpkins, picked them up at the farmer's market for $2. Saturday was the last day of the Farmer's Market for the whole season :(
The small pumpkins and gourds (on my cute new green table!)
The woven pumpkins
The glass pumpkins
and then, the baking pumpkins
which got sliced
and baked
and pureed (this is what I did while passing out halloween candy. I had to wash pumpkin off my hands about 87 times)
and bagged
and turned into Pumpkin Five Spice Sweet rolls.
Ok, seriously... I didn't take a picture of these :( They were so good! I made 3 pans and gave one to my neighbors. One is still in the fridge. Maybe I'll take a picture when I bake that batch.
and turned into Pumpkin Butter
which is even better when smeared on crusty toasted bread with a little regular butter
and then there are pumpkin seeds...
which dried overnight on their baking sheets
and then were seasoned and baked this morning. Salted, Salted & Chinese Five Spice (Ground Cinnamon, Ginger, Anise, Star Anise, cloves), Lime & Chile
And I probably have enough pumpkin left over in the freezer now to make pumpkin flavored desserts for the next year.
Tonight, I decided to tackle Julia Childs' Boeuf Bourguignon. Apparently it was my goal to spend as much time as possible in the kitchen this weekend as I started that recipe 3 hours ago and it's still got at least 2 more before it's ready. I'll let you know how it turns out. I'm serving these Buttered Rosemary Rolls alongside it. I've been watching the rolls rise for a few hours now and I cannot wait to see them all golden and rosemary topped!
I made two super quick home decor projects this weekend (about 20 minutes tops for each) and I thought I'd share :)
For this one I:
Next, I was flipping through the latest Real Simple and was totally inspired by one of their Thanksgiving tablescape ideas. And it had a tutorial!
You need:
My bottle is from Koval Distillery (local in Chicago!) which used to house "my crack" (as Adam calls it), their Organic Ginger Liqueur. It is heaven on earth. I've been saving the bottles because I really like their shape. For a while I was taking the labels off but they do not come off easy. As you can tell I got half done with this one and gave up. Which made it a perfect candidate for this project!
And in just a few minutes, you have a pretty new vase recycled from your favorite liqueur!
Well, we're having a party tonight so it's about time for me to jump in the shower and clean up my art projects!
And while I'm here - here's one more way I've recycled a Koval bottle:
To hold dish soap. I just added a liquor bottle spout.
Well... this is it, time to say goodbye to this:
(excuse the filth, we haven't been too tidy when cleaning it out since it's going to be demo'd in the morning)
and hello to this
Goodbye to this
and hello to this
And no, those aren't the light fixtures I've chosen, they were just the last ones I saved in my photoshop drawings...
We had a little gathering this weekend and decided to let our friends draw on the wall... it's pretty darn fun if you've never tried it :)
A bunch of folks spent the night and when we got up on Saturday morning we saw that they'd even started a height chart
Kitty posed next to her line so you'd know she wasn't a liar! She really is the shortest 'person' we know.
You can see Mr. Meowmers in the background, I couldn't get him to come up for the picture.
For the next 4-6 weeks we will be kitchenless. I rolled our kitchen cart into the living room though, so here is our lovely temporary kitchen:
I'm so excited to see the demo, I'm not quite sure I'll be able to sleep... be back tomorrow!
Since our whole house is pretty much going to be torn apart anyway, we decided it was a perfect time to swap out the 2 windows in the living room that are original to the house (the only original ones left).
We'd been debating between a normal or a bay window for the front one.
I came home yesterday to find Mr. Meowmers lounging in the sun on our kitchen table. Ok, we get it.
Bay window it is...
Now please stay off my table!
(1 more day till they start demo!!!)
Can you guess what that is? (If you read the subject of this post I bet you can...)
Yes, it is my hideous popcorn ceiling that makes my window filled living room look like a cave because it sucks in every speck of light into it's hills and valleys and makes the ceiling one giant shadow.
Here's the deal, I want to get rid of that ceiling while they are doing our kitchen. But it's not cheap. Adam said I could do it if I raised enough money.
So guess what that means. New Product!!! Sale!!!
I know you guys love to help me out of a crisis and things don't get much worse than a popcorn ceiling so I'm rallying my digi scrapping troops (if there are any of you still out there) and asking for your help!
Ok first, check out this new product. I'm really excited about it because as far as I can tell, it hasn't been done before!
These templates allow you to add the look of a photo mounted behind tabs with realistic shadows to your digital scrapbook pages. You can move the frame anywhere on the page and it will look like notches were cut out of your paper and the photo was stuck behind them!
For example (paper by Flergs):
And a few sample layouts from my lovely ladies
You can pick them up right here BUT because I really want you to buy them along with anything else you might like in my store, use coupon code jc-popcorn40 through September 8th to get an extra 40% off your entire purchase!
So go shop, have fun! As always, tell your friends :) Let me know what you think of the new product as well!
Newsletter subscribers should watch their mailboxes for an extra discount!
Be gone popcorn ceiling!!!!!!!
It was a lot of little things that I've done recently that have made my bedroom such a happier space :)
Let's take a trip down memory lane shall we?
When we first bought the house, my bedroom looked like this:
ain't it pretty?
pretty soon after, I'd remodeled it as such:
But there was still lots of little things that bothered me about the room so how about I show you how I fixed them :)
First off was this cable going to the TV. Looks pretty trashy, huh?
I armed myself with about $8 in supplies (Spray paint, painters tape, a white cable, cable staples)
Part of the cable I couldn't easily replace so I taped off the wall and spray painted it. After it dried, I attached the white cable and used the cable staples to nail it next to the trim. All-in-all this took about 20 minutes of work and I couldn't be happier with the finished product!
Next up was the lack of pillows on my bed. My Martha Steward bedspread came with some matching euro shams but they had this silly pink lining on them which didn't fit in with my color scheme at all so they just sat in my closet.
It finally hit me that I had a sewing machine so I took to ripping out the stitches in the shams to remove the pink piping, sewed them back up, and bought some Euro pillows for 7.99 a piece at JC Penny's (thanks to a 50% off sale) and just like that I had dirt cheap new pillows for my bed :)
(I didn't buy a new bedspread, I just decided to flip it over for a change)
These next two ideas I found on Young House Love (which they found somewhere else but I can't remember where).
First off was this slouchy dust ruffle that was a tad too long
I bought some upholstery screws and screwed them into the mattress every 18" or so after adjusting the height and now my dust ruffle hangs in the perfect spot!
No before picture for this one, but if any of you have a feather mattress topper you know how much it likes to move around. I picked up some jumbo safety pins and again, about every 18" (and again - thanks to inspiration from Young House Love) I stuck a pin through the feather bed, feather bed cover, and the piping on my mattress:
It's like magic!!!! I've had these pinned on for about a month now and the mattress has not budged an inch! It's like I have a whole new bed!!
Next, I needed a dressing mirror. I had this cheap one in my closet from college, I got it at Target I think. It didn't match though so, again, armed with some painters tape, newspaper, and spray paint, I transformed it.
I then hung it directly across from the door leading to my backyard to bounce around as much light as possible.
Ok now for the biggie - window treatments!!!
As you can see in this BEFORE picture, there are two main problems with my existing window treatments
1. The drapes on the door are hung way too narrow so when they are fully open they still block half the light coming into the room. They needed to be re-hung about 12" wider on either side so when they are fully open, all the light gets to come in!
2. That UGLY roller shade on the window behind the bed had no personality (and was ripped).
The first problem I solved by myself by simply remounting the drapes wider, filling in the old holes, sanding and painting. Piece of cake and such a HUGE difference right?
I couldn't do the other ones by myself though so Adam got up and helped screw in my new bamboo shades (again thanks to Young House Love for the inspiration)
Aren't they pretty (the white sheer ones actually came with my bed set too - they have a cute green trim at the bottom)
We also bought a new flat screen tv for the bedroom. It has a build in DVD player so that we can drag it outside and watch movies in the hot tub ;)
Since I took this picture I also bought a pretty blue pillow that matches the walls to go right in the middle of the bed (behind the roll pillow). I don't feel like taking another picture though ;)
SO... I think that's it... all my little renovations to the bedroom that make it so much better :)
We do have one project left in here. That awful ceiling fan. I'd love to replace it with a modern chandelier (like this one) but Adam insists on a fan so I'm on the lookout for a great sleek, updated, non-brass one that will match the room.
Now... do I need this pillow? :P
I have a major crush on this pillow and I think it would match so well in my bedroom, don't you?
Of which I have lots of new pictures to share because I've made tons of improvements lately.
Problem is that pillow is $69 with shipping... (Marked down from $125). But I think I kinda need it...maybe I should have waited to show you this pillow until I showed you the new bedroom pics because it's changed quite a bit (colors are still the same but I have new window treatments, new tv, new mirror, new pillows, new accessories, etc... )
But I need to decide by Saturday because it's not longer available after the 22nd. Have you guys heard of One Kings Lane by the way? They have awesome deals on designer home decor goodies but you can only shop there by invitation and the deals only last a few days. If you'd like an invite let me know ;)
Anyway, what do you think? Do I need that pillow?
I am pretty sure I've made a decision.
When we were talking pendant lights above the sink, I must have forgotten that I'd asked for a garden window above the sink so I could grow fresh herbs year round.
Something like this
Obviously it would not look right with a light hanging down in front of it, so, pendant light is out.
Also, if we tried to put two pendant lights over the bar like this
that cabinet will hit the one on the left when we try to open it...
So I think what I'm going to have to do is just put two recessed lights over the bar. Which most of you pointed out - would lead to better flow between the two rooms and nobody sitting at the bar will be stuck looking into a light fixture.
and over the sink, dial it down to the three light sconce
My photoshop skills are starting to fail me. I don't think that garden window is quite at the right perspective... you get the idea though! (Do you like the forest that miraculously appeared in my front yard?)
As far as schedule goes - the cabinets have been ordered! Work is scheduled to start September 1st! Is it ever going to get here?
ok bloggy friends, it appears you and I are not in agreement on the lighting scheme for my kitchen. Nobody liked my favorite light....
But, I do see some of your points.
For instance, a few of you pointed out that I may not want a pendant light over my sink because:
Of those of you who liked the pendant, most of you liked the first one the best of which I've started to totally hate... so I went back to the drawing board.
My current plan for over the sink...
Something like him (or maybe even him)... what I like is that it takes up all of that horizontal dead space above the window, provides TONS of light , but also doesn't block my window... To scale (as far as my math skills allow), what he would look like in the kitchen:
We'd probably move some of those recessed lights over at this point.
So what do we think? Do we like this idea better?
Oh and while we're here - do you think the tile should go all the way up on this wall or stop where it is? Here's a preview if it went all the way up
It does make this wall more of a focus doesn't it....
I'm also not totally convinced I want lights over the bar/peninsula anymore... it's not really that big so we don't have room for more than 2.. in fact, perhaps 1 is more appropriate... but if I do put one there, I found this one that coordinates with the over the sink fixture perfectly!
If I just did one, he would look something like this:
Ok, new opinions please? ;)
We're about 5 weeks away from when they start on our kitchen and the one thing I just can't decide on is the lighting.
I must've spent at least 6 hours at this point browsing on-line stores looking for the perfect pendant light for the kitchen (or three... ) I'll definitely want one over the sink and then maybe 2 over the peninsula/bar.
I was kind of thinking of something industrial/contemporary/old-fashioned... easy mix huh?
This was the first one I considered... it got me headed down the stainless steel path.
but it was a little too art-deco/80ish for me and I realized I needed something a bit more 'craftsman'
Then I found these from Martha Stewart. I like how they are two different lights but that they coordinate.
But they're the priciest options I considered and I just don't love them, a tad too plain....
I finally stumbled upon this guy
Brushed stainless steel to coordinate with my appliances, seeded glass to add the perfect amount of sparkle, and that industrial/craftsman look I was going for that will coordinate with the rest of my house.
So I decided to try it on
I do think I like it....
Adam doesn't though (but he also said "just get whatever you want").
So what do you guys think? Anybody have a pendant light they've been lusting after to show me? Or do we like this one?
_________________________
Edited to add:
Naughty Kelly just directed my attention to a new-to-me site where I instantly found this:
And they're on sale!! Oh my I love this one! I actually did start out looking for a green glass pendant but I couldn't find one I liked... This color green is even in my backsplash tile... and you guys know how much I love green right? LOOOVE the seeded glass!
My current kitchen sucks. For instance, this is the view of the kitchen from the living room:
I'd like to point out a couple of awesome things about my current kitchen:
So you can obviously see why I'm desperate for a new kitchen.
Feast your eyes on this! This is the new view from the living room (colors are not correct in this drawing)
Look at all that new counter space! All my drawers, all my cabinets, the correct placement of the handles, all those recessed lights, the under cabinet lights, etc.
I took some liberties in photoshop with my designers drawings and added in pictures of my appliances, pictures of my backsplash, and pictures of the sink and faucets I already picked up and added in the color I think I'll paint.
Look how pretty! (Pretty sweet photoshop skills huh? )
So now that you've met my new kitchen, what do you think?? Hopefully by October I'll be able to show you the completed photos but in the meantime, expect plenty of 'during' shots!
Does this give it away? This is what I bought last night.
... and I got an incredible deal. Sears was having a "Friends and Family" event last night open to the public. All Kenmore appliances were marked down at least 20% and then from 6-9pm you got to take an additional 10% off with 1 year financing. Thanks to that sale, our appliances came in over $1000 under budget!!!
(The fridge alone I snagged for $1800, down from the ticket price of $2800!)
Yup, that contract I posted yesterday was for our kitchen remodel. It's the one thing I've been dying to do since we moved in and in a few short months, it will be done!
And yes, for those of you with sharp eyes - both myself and my contractor managed to mis-date the papers by 1 year ;)
Oh my God, what did I just do? Besides sign away a small fortune... Any guesses? There is a hint in the background of this picture (the colors aren't coming through in the picture very well).
Moving on.
I am totally obsessed with Succulents. They are so cool looking and so easy to take care of. Plus, dirt cheap!
I went to HomeDepot this weekend and picked up a bunch (only $2.98 a piece!), some cactus soil ($4), some river rocks ($4) and a couple of pots($5 for the glass ones, $12 for the big white one).
For about $30 I got 3 arrangements and have plenty of cactus soil left over (I'm out of rocks though)
Each $2.98 succulent had at least 3 separate plants in it which allowed me to divide them and use them in different arrangements.
Look at everyone in their happy new homes:
My favorite, he lives in my bedroom now:
You can see him a little better when he was still outside:
I got this guy a few weekends ago - he's my other favorite succulent - a Burro's Tail:
This morning I noticed that all three of my different color Lilies were blooming! They are soooo gorgeous! I just love the colors together. I can't believe how many there are either. Last year I planted 2 of each color and this year there are at least 4 or more of each color. They propagated like crazy! These are all of the Asiatic variety.
I also think it's crazy the way they figured out how to vary their height. The orange ones in the back are super tall while the red ones in front are really short. The yellow ones are right in the middle. Perfect!
More of my garden favorites. My Jack in the Pulplit! Last year he didn't grow a comb but this year he has this beautiful one!
And check out my Calamondin and Lemon Tree blooms - they've blossomed! And they smell delightful!
My hanging and window baskets are doing great too.
The creeping Jenny's are definitely creeping!
And mom - look how the impatiens filled in!
I'm slowly getting the Living Room to feel like a Living Room instead of an empty space waiting for decoration. My window treatments haven't arrived yet but my new entertainment center did and Adam put that together today which gave us 6 new cubbies to fill! My next step in making the living room pretty was to reign in the clutter.
So, off I went to Homegoods. $60 and 45 minutes later, we are clutter free!
Before, the bottom shelf of our bakers rack. Great place to store my old Rebel, a stack of DVD-Rs and an external hard drive right?
Ahhh.... all hidden! (These were just $14 a piece!)
Next, a big pile of magazines that was sitting on the floor that have come in the mail recently (We have WAY too many magazine subscriptions). No Before picture, I'm sure you can imagine what it looked like. But, my after picture
I bought two of these for two of the cubbies in our new entertainment center shelves. One will hold magazines straight out of the mail that we haven't read yet. The other will store mags that we are keeping around for some reason after we read them. This basket is olive green since it's kinda hard to tell in the picture. They were only $12 each!
And finally, the bathroom clutter. As I mentioned, we have a lot of magazine subscriptions. And a lot of them that we start reading wind up here:
So annoying... Not anymore though. I reigned it in (for $10)!
I love when a small investment can leave you feeling so extremely satisfied!