Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Home Sweet Home - Other Favorite Rooms


Easily one of my favorite rooms in the house....my bathroom. I wanted a spa-like theme for the master bathroom and I have to say that the wall color was a large contributor to that affect. (Olympic paint - Misty Lake)
The vanity mirrors took forever to find. I never thought it would be so hard to find square mirrors with a silver frame but they are! Home Goods came to the rescue once more with these two great finds.


There is not much to say about this picture other than I LOVE my tub:)


As soon as you walk into our home and look to the right you will see what we call our library/home office. This room holds our DVDs, home computer and one day the Christmas tree. The Hagrid chair, as we refer to it, is the BEST seat in the house. 


Located directly across from our library/home office is the dining room. I cannot tell you how happy it made me to finally unpack all of my china and stemware and use my china cabinet again!


Our very functional family room is the most loved room in the house. Our daughters spend hours playing there, football parties are held there and on rare occasion my husband and I can sit on the sofa (together) and watch TV.

To sum it all up I LOVE our new home and I am enjoying it to the fullest.
Hope you have enjoyed my show-and-tell and have even gathered a few ideas as well.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Home Sweet Home - Isabelle's Room


Isabelle had declared her room to be painted purple and pink before we even broke ground on the house. You may be thinking I have quite the girly daughter and her room is decked out in princess decor. You would be mistaken. Isabelle has the most AMAZING imagination and a very diverse collection of interests. She enjoys playing with Disney princess while at the same time having tea with dinosaurs. Isabelle's room reflects this.

You will notice that I fabric covered letters for Isabelle as well and this is a tribute to her (and my) love for the beach. 



Isabelle's room is located over our garage and includes a dormer on the back. The "story time nook" and dormer provide the perfect places to read, play and dream.





I just finished these dinosaurs yesterday and Isabelle loves them. It is nearly impossible to find girly themed dinosaur anything. I bought white canvases at Michaels and used leftover fabric that I had from other projects.
I drew the dinosaurs on packing paper I had leftover from the move and then pinned it to the fabric. Cut out the dinosaur, painted the canvas and then glued the fabric dinosaur to the canvas. 
I've already started to collect ideas for girly dinosaur birthday party ideas because both of my girls love them!

I have to say that for a purple and pink room it really is adorable. However, just like her mother who changes her mind all the time, Isabelle informed me yesterday that she would now like a yellow and green room.  We are living with the purple and pink for at least  one year!



Thursday, September 23, 2010

Home Sweet Home - Anna's Room


My daughter Anna has A LOT of spunk for such a small and adorable package. I wanted our home to exude calm and our daughter's rooms were no exception. So as opposed to using bright and bold colors on the walls I chose to accent with them. Anna's room was painted in a soft blue (which matches her eyes by-the-way) and blush pink curtains. 

I got the idea of covering wood letters in fabric from Pottery Barn Kids and thought that looked easy enough. WRONG!
I bought the letters from Michaels and the frabric from Walmart. After I cut out the fabric for the letter I tried using a spray glue to attach the two. Very bad idea. This had to be hand glued slowly and by each curve and corner. This was a messy and pretty time consuming project but I LOVE the results. It is definitely worth doing.



Anna has the appetite of a little bird and she hopes around like one too. Hence the nickname "Little Birdie".
 The letters were bought at Michaels and painted white. The birdhouses were also bought at Michaels and painted and stenciled by myself. This project cost less than $10 to do and it was SO easy to make!


I continued with the bird theme to the opposite wall with birdhouses purchased at Michaels (again) and painted by myself.


The "storytime nook" is a BIG hit. I bought the mosquito net at IKEA and covered the pillows with the help of my mom. This has become a napping place for the cats as well. 
The picture over the bookcase is a gift I painted for Anna's 1st birthday.

Anna loves her room and I must say I'm pleased with it as well.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Home Sweet Home - Landscaping

As you know, I keep binders of ideas I see in magazines so of course I had some ideas of what I wanted our yard to look like. My WONDERFUL husband gave me the reigns (so to speak) to decorate the interior of our home and landscape the exterior. I was intimidated by the idea of picking out plants and knowing how far apart to plant them and so on so we consulted with a landscaper. He came up with some designs and prices and although they were nice they were not what I had envisioned. So we decided to tackle the project on our own and I must say we did a pretty good job.


We found all of our plants at Costco, Lowes, Home Depot and one of the nurseries that the landscaper used. We lucked out in starting this project right as nurseries were discounting their plants for the end of the season and Costco was getting in new plants for the planting season. 


This bed is full of Arborvitae, Nandina, Japanese holly, and a Japanese Red Maple.


Ornamental grasses were planted around the heating and cooling unit.

Ruby ornamental grasses really do give off a relaxed and cooling affect. There is always a breeze blowing and the sway of the grasses remind me of sea grasses I so love at the Outer Banks.

 

We purchased three beautiful Nanchez White Crepe Myrtles to plant along the left side of our yard and a Maple tree that turns a brilliant red in the fall for the right side of the yard. I don't know which will grow faster. The maple tree or my two beautiful girls!





A fire pit was something my husband and I have always wanted so when we saw a Lowes DIY fire pit project we were thrilled. This literally took about an hour to put together. It consists of a wire fire pit and retaining wall bricks. That's it! We cannot wait to have friends over for a S'mores night.

The landscaping turned out better than I could of imagined and I know it will forever be an ongoing project. I just love having a yard of our own to plant in!

Monday, September 20, 2010

Home Sweet Home

How did two months fly by so quickly? We are finally settled, unpacked and enjoying our new home. I cannot express how exciting it is to see what I have imagined our decorated house to look like come to fruition. 
This week I will share with you what I have been busy working on these past couple of months and some of the craft projects I have completed and am thrilled to finally show off.

This became...




THIS!!!