Wrapping Up Spring Break

Today is the last day of spring break :( We've had a great week and I'm sad to see it end, but I know that summer is fast approaching and soon we'll be back to sleeping late and playing hard. After entertaining my girls this whole past week, I was able to get out yesterday morning and shop some garage sales with my parents.I left the house with just $40.00 cash and that was the exact cost of all the items I found - down to the last dollar! Here are some of my finds... A large antique mirror, some old frames, and some sconces. (The reflection is Ben and my mom debating how to hang the mirror)I am going to paint the sconces and frames, but the mirror is now hanging on my dinning room wall.I also bought this Vive le Fete 2 piece smocked cowgirl outfit for Anabelle, along with a sweet pair of pink gingham shorts, and 2 pairs of Lamore shoes. Love!Last, I was super excited to find this baby doll carrier from Middleton's Newborn Nursery. We plan to let Anabelle "adopt a baby" for her birthday this year and I can fill this carrier with some fun accessories as part of her gift. It looks brand new and I bought it for $1.00 (originally retailed for $21.00) Awesome!In other weekend news, my mom finished the pillows for the girl's bed. So lovely!Anabelle approves ;) Thanks Mom!I've recently decided to decorate my previously unfinished dinning room - starting with a chair redo. I LOVE these chairs (a garage sale find from a while back) but the paint is old and very chippy (and I assume lead based) so I am stripping them to repaint. Big job.I am also working on a fund raiser for Tom's One Day Without Shoes on Tuesday April 5th. My friend Kimberly is helping organize the St. Augustine event through Goldfinch Boutique and the Flagler College art department. She asked if I might like to participate in decorating the shoes with the art students - sounded like fun to me. I'm working on an idea with felt flowers. Take a look at some of the cool designs on Goldfinch's Facebook page. In case you aren't familiar with Tom's shoes, for every pair they sell they give one pair away to a child in need. One for one.One more thing I wanted to share is this yummy shrimp quiche I made last night. This is what it looks like before it is baked (no after picture because the hubby could not wait to start eating it). It's really easy to make...

Ingredients

1 can of crescent rolls (for crust)

1 block of pepper jack cheese cut into cubes

1+ cup of shrimp

1 bunch of green onions chopped

2 eggs

Press crescent roll dough into pie plate. Add cheese, onions, and shrimp. Pour 2 scrabbled eggs over top. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 min.

I'm doing laundry and trying to finish watching The War tonight. If you have never seen this series let me just tell you that you should. It is perhaps the best WWII documentary that I have ever seen. It has such an original, touching, personal perspective. It features testimony from a few familiar faces (that some of you other history enthusiasts may already know) along with many others that you will feel you know by the end of the series. I often find myself thinking about how much I would love to sit with some of these fine people - for hours and hours - just listening. I especially day dream about how nice it would be to visit on a front porch with Katharine Phillips from Mobile (sister of Sid Phillips who was portrayed in HBO's The Pacific) I so enjoy her outlook, her sophisticated southern drawl, and the way she turns one syllable words into two (the way she says words like "war" and "boys"). I think she and I would get along just grand. She too is the older sister of two brothers (who served in the military) and has 2 daughters - just like me. I feel like there is so much that we could gleen today from absorbing insight from "the greatest generation" (as they are often refered to). We are in fact living during war and troubled economic times just as they did, but instead of learning to do without like the home front Americans before us, we just keep swiping those credits cards and neglect to contribute to the greater good of our country. We have an opportunity to learn from them! If by chance any of you know Katharine or know someone who does I would LOVE to meet her - I seriously can't think of anything I would like more. I do know that her family owns an antique store where she and Sidney sell antique linens in Alabama - I think I smell a road trip!

What's Goin' On?

And I said - hey yea yea yea - hey yea yea...
... I said hey - a what's goin' on?

Since I've been claiming to be "soooo busy" lately I thought I would take a moment to fill you in on a little bit of what's goin' on around here. Here are a few recent pics and some bulleted info, some "busy blips" if you will...
- I've still been working on the girl's room. I considered both of these large scale gingham fabrics for the window treatments. I loved the green, but settled for the pink because it really looked the best with the room. When I went back to the fabric store to order the pink gingham though, I found this...... pink and white lattice print. Loved and ordered it instead! - I've been spending the majority of my time lately planning our church's Daddy Daughter dance (coming up this Saturday night) and it has pretty much taken over my life and my house! It's been fun, but I'll be glad when all the work is over! I will be sure to do a post all about the dance some time next week.- Social Butterfly Miss Evie has/has had a whole slew of birthday parties to attend this week. Last weekend was a PJ party at O2B Kids for her "boyfriend". Check out this seriously prom pic...... Oh Boy! Are we in for it or what?!!! Ben has been busy explaining to Evie that she does not have "boyfriends" only "friends that are boys". Good luck Babe! Ben and I were watching a movie the other day and there was a dad line in it that went like this... "I bench press refrigerators honey - I think your boyfriends oughtta know that" - ha!- I shopped and worked at a spring children's consignment sale yesterday. This is one of my favorite sales every year. I love doing the volunteer shifts because it gives me an opportunity to be out of the house and to indulge in my affinity for children's clothes. I also get to shop for my own kids. I didn't buy as much this time as I usually do, but I love what I got...... this precious 3T pants and top set for Annie to wear next fall and some great barely used name brand shoes!

- Speaking of shopping for kid's clothes, Anabelle and I went to a Matilda Jane party one morning last week. So fun! Here is a peak at some of the items I ordered...Instead of choosing exact matching outfits for Evie and Anabelle, this time I chose mix and match coordinates - a little out of the box for me!- We have still been getting our weekly fresh produce deliveries (plus this week we also ordered a fresh chicken and eggs!) This week we got this cauliflower/broccoli hybrid - a broccoflower? It's beautiful! It makes me think of this... ... Maybe I should rename it St. Basil's Broccoli? Basiloli? Basilflower? Basilbrocciflower?Basilocciower? Ok, now I'm just being a dork.

That's all for now!

I do have an urgent prayer request for a baby niece in my brother-in-law's family. Please visit my sister-in-law Kelly's blog and pray for Taylor!!!

Big Girl Bedroom Project Part 2

Question: Do the rest of you find that the more you have going on, the harder it is to blog? I get so overwhelmed when I feel like I have lots to share! Should I do a lot of little posts? Or one big post? I never know. With that being said, I chose to do one big post this time, so hang in there with me!
A lot has happened since I last updated on the progress of the "big girl" room - painting, finding, rethinking, arranging, redoing etc. And there is still more painting, finding, rethinking, arranging, redoing, etc. to be done! I would say that we are 3/4 of the way done, and that feels great! Let me take you on a little tour...

On Painting...

My mom found this great pair of vintage bedside tables at a local furniture consignment shop. They were the style and shape that I was picturing for the room, and they were the PERFECT price! $120.00 for the pair, the exact amount we had made at our garage sale the previous weekend - such a God thing! I love that He is in all the "little" things. Since most of the other furniture in the girl's room is white, I thought it would be fun to paint them "Martha green", I really love the way they turned out!

On Finding...

Ok, this is just a funny side note that I have to share. Inside of one of the bedside table drawers was an assortment of old photographs, receipts, and this envelope marked "Rare Coins and Weapons". My mom found it first and gave it to me. Immediately upon reading the envelope, I thought "Score!" - followed by "Should I call the consignment shop if this contains something priceless?" I hadn't reached a "moral conclusion" before I opened the envelope and examined it's contents... brothel tokens!!! From "Miss Stella's in Nevada", which I'm sure is a very classy establishment -and shoot we just left Nevada! ;) The details on the tokens are pretty explicit, but I will tell you that some are "good for all night"! So I decided not to track down the owner of these "rare coins", if he's not already deceased (probably from an STD) his wife would most likely kill him now! I decided to spare him. I did, however, wash that drawer really well and then updated my cootie shots! Circle circle dot dot... ok, now back to decorating!

On Rethinking...

I love my childhood vintage lamps, but when I put everything together it just was not working - bummer. So I searched the web and found my "dream lamp" on Posh Tots for $180.00 each - not exactly what I was hoping to spend, but I just fell in love with that pagoda shade because it went perfectly with the Chinioserie inspired fabric in the room! So I checked around for something similar. I went to Marshall's, TJMaxx, Target, Stein Mart, and eventually Kirkland's (where I would have never thought to look except it was next to Stein Mart) and I found these! Perfect! They only had two left and were marked down to... $12.99 each! Again, a God thing! Little pagoda shades and everything!

On Arranging...

I finally found time to hang the girl's Sarah Jane prints - yay! I also picked up an assortment of pink and green frames at Marshall's and put 2 on each bedside table. A small accomplishment that took a crazy long time to do!

On Redoing...

My Nana painted this sweet watercolor for my first birthday. It was in my room as a little girl and then I used it in Evie's nursery. I wanted to use it in the "big girl" room, but the mat and frame were not working with the other art. I painted the frame white and then went to Hobby Lobby (aka the Christian Crafter) for a pre-cut white mat. When I got there, I was disappointed to find out that I needed a mat that was just millimeters off of a standard size. I showed the painting to the framer, who loved it and quickly got wrapped up in its sentiment. He said "Well I'll just cut you a new one", and my thought was "Great there goes $50.00", but no! He gave me the pre-cut price of $2.99 and then gave me the pre-cut 50% off discount special!!! So I got a custom mat for $1.50! Plus he let me bring Evie in the back room to watch the machine cut the mat - like a field trip! I love that place!

So what's left to do?

Here is Anabelle sitting with a few things that have not found their home in the room yet. I'm still thinking about the perfect spot for each of these. I often stand in the room staring, in very deep thought, trying make decisions. I'm starting to wear myself out :)My mom has graciously offered to make window treatments (in addition to painting the room, making the headboard, and upholstering a chair - yes I am spoiled rotten) and we've agreed that we like these from one of my inspiration rooms. Precious right?!!!I also need to make a plan for these blue initial plaques from the nursery that need some sort of redo involving some combination of pink, taupe, and/or green.... hmmmmm. I'm looking at Candice n Katie's Art for some inspiration. I would love to be good at this kind of painting, but I'm terrible - even at stripes. We'll see how I do!

I think I'm nearly done with the updates before the whole project is done and, yes, you can see a tiny bit of the headboard in some of the photos in this post, but I want to save some things for the big "Before and After" - the best for last!

Well now that I've pulled this giant post out of my camera and out of the files of my brain (fwew!) I will get back to blogging about regular life. We have a lot coming up in the next few weeks... we get the last of Ben's test results next week, my 2 brothers and sister-in-law are coming in town, my other sister-in-law is having a baby, Evie is starting pre-school, and a lot of us are having birthdays! So stay tuned! I'll leave you with a few pictures of the silly girls...

Big Girl Bedroom Project Part 1

Welcome from Kelly's Korner! This post is from a few months ago, and the finished "Big Girl" room is still in the works (we're almost done!), but I thought I'd go ahead and share anyway. Be sure to also visit Part II! Last week was an exercise in juggling hats - 1. Be a good mommy to a 22 month old with a virus 2. Be a good mommy to a 4.5 year old who loves my attention 3. Kick my bedroom redo projects into gear (I'm redoing mine right now too - will share a separate post soon!) and 4. Try to still be a somewhat decent wife! No comment on how well I did in all of said areas (see those two sad neglected children up there?) my poor family just "may" have gotten the short end of the stick, but I have accomplished a lot in the way of decorating in the last 5 days! My mom and Ben helped a ton, they painted both bedrooms (while I "tendered ma youngin's") and my mom helped me to wash and put all of the new bedding together. Ben and I had a new king size bed delivered on Friday morning, and we moved our queen to the girl's room for them to share once Annie is out of her crib. Both Evie and I are supper happy with our new larger sleeping spaces, but Ben has expressed a little disappointment at my wanting to sleep so far away from him - it's ok Babe, I'll remember to shout "goodnight" to you from way over on my side ;)! So, I thought I would share a sampling of a few things I've worked on in Evie and Anabelle's "big girl room" this week...

The Inspiration Boards (just to "refresh your memory")

I bought this sweet lamp at Home Goods about a month ago, and I bought this chest at a garage sale before Miss Anabelle was born. Looked nice together, but still needed some accessories!So I dug around my house and found a few perfect things! A mirrored glass frame that was a wedding gift from my Aunt Bobbie, a Cranberry glass globe from my Aunt Scarlet (who died of breast cancer last year), a pink satin ribbon from Evie's first ballet recital, a Lusterware tea cup and Milk Glass bowl from my mom, and then an Apple Blossom candle from Target. Notice the paint color? Taupe!
This is what it all looks like together now. I love it that I was able to find special things to use that were already in my house!

This pair of vintage lamps was in my room as a little girl (FYI they were vintage then too) and I wanted to use them, but the colors were not quite right... ... A little paint and voila! They match! I have a plan for those plain white shades too - stay tuned for that and much more!

The "Big Girl Room" Plans

This girl, as much as I hate to admit it, is growing up. Evie is four and a half now - she starts preschool this fall, which means it's time for a big girl room. I can't believe how time has flown by, and while it feels like I have known her all of my life, it also feels like she was an itty bitty baby just yesterday! I love just about any excuse to decorate just about anything , but this project is just a little bitter sweet. Evie and Anabelle have been sharing a room ever since we moved Annie out of our bedroom at four months old. Every night since then, at least one of the girls if not both, have at some point each and every night migrated back into our room to sleep with Mom and Dad. So after 20 months of squishy nights, Ben and I are ready for a bigger bed!!! We have decided to buy a king for us, and give our queen to Evie and Anabelle to share - seeing as they love to snuggle anyway (we hope this will help to keep them in THEIR room!) We also plan to use the girl's room as a guest room when needed and then Evie and Annie can just camp out with us in our new big bed ;) That is the plan, now for the fun stuff - here are my decor plans for the "big girl" redo...

Fabric/Bedding/Window Treatments

A) White Matelesse Quilt (I bought one Queen size for the bed, and an extra twin for making shams and a cushion cover to go on top of the toy trunk)

B) Fabric for upholstered headboard (I bought 4 of these huge "Cherry Blossom" shams when they were on sale at Pottery Barn Kids, it is enough fabric for the headboard and chair cushion!)

C) Green with white polka dot sheet set

D) I plan to have some monogrammed pillows of course!

E) Possible coordinating fabrics (love these, but not sure if I will need them yet)

F) I plan to do white window treatments with trim

Artwork/Accessories/Furniture/Lighting

A) Artwork: "July's Dilemma" and "August Sound" prints from Sarah Jane that I ordered last year (love!) along with a growth chart from Rosenberry Rooms for $49.95 (but I found it for $6.99 at TJ Maxx!!!)

B) Accessories: I would like to find some fun frames, plus I need to repaint Evie and Annie's wall letters to math the new room (inspiration from Posh Paints)

C) Furniture: I bought a vintage chest of drawers before Annie was born and painted it white, it is similar to this one. I need to find cute bedside tables/chests - I love these, but they are about $1,500 each!!!

D) I bought a sweet lamp for the chest of drawers at Home Goods, it is similar to this one, but it's green. I have a vintage ceiling fixture to redo and plan to use this chandelier as inspiration for painting it. I also have a sweet set of vintage lamps that were mine as a child (were vintage then too!) to go on the bedside tables.

The Nursery

Before I dive into the "Big Girl Room" redo, I wanted to share and remember the sweet room that has been Evie and Anabelle's nursery. My mom and I chose the colors, fabrics, bedding, etc. while I was pregnant with Evie, and I still love the soft simple pallet. The room has moved and grown with our family from our town house to our current home, and from one baby girl to two! It all started with this classic rocking chair that Ben and I bought with the hopes of having babies one day. I basically chose blue and yellow long before I knew I would have girls (plus, for some reason I totally expected to have a boy). Decorating a girly room to coordinate with the chair was a bit of a challenge, but I didn't give up and it worked out!The room has always been very soft, mostly white with bits of color here and there. It has been such a fresh feeling space for my babies, sort of like a clean white onesie - just yummy and sweet!This antique twin bed belonged to my mother as a child, then to me, then to Evie! It is a very special family piece that I will save for future children. Mom and I made the wall letters before Anabelle was born to go over each girl's bed.I love the sweet vintage style fabric, I chose it along with blue gingham to coordinate with the rocker and my mom all of the bed linens. The girl's have a collection of Beatrix Potter figurines, some were mine as a baby and my aunt has added to the collection for Evie and Anabelle. They are housed in a cabinet with books and other treasures...... like this stack of vintage blankets. I have LOVED the girl's nursery! It has been a happy room for baby girls to sleep and play! Here are a few of my favorite nursery memories of the girls as tiny babies...

P.S. Annie is still a baby to me - she only gets to move to a big girl room at this point by association with her big sister, and it's a little too soon for me!