Weekend Finds

For Christmas gifts, I received a couple giftcards to Michael's. I don't shop there too often since I usually go to Archiver's for my scrapbooking needs and I don't really do many other crafts. I decided to go by there Sunday to see if I could find anything fun.

First I found this cute little basket with a handle. It matches the color of my bedroom so I am using it to store the TV remotes. However, I plan to ditch the TV at some point so then I may put the basket in the bathroom to hold soaps and other goodies. (You can see a picture of my hubby in the background holding one of our cats. Aren't they too cute?)



I also decided to purchase this fun vase and plant arrangement to decorate the fireplace. I love the vase, but I think the fake plant inside might be a bit too wild for what I was after. I'll let it sit there awhile before I decide whether to keep it or take it back. I wanted something a little more straight and structured without all the leaves and stalks flowing everywhere.



Finally, I came across a few scrapbook goodies to buy. The paper was on clearance for 49 cents, the prima flowers were also clearanced for $1.99. I don't remember how much the Making Memories stickers were, but they had all these fun vintage embellishments in this line. The stickers have little words and phrases on them.



Did anyone else have any great finds this weekend? I also lucked out at Old Navy and got 3 shirts and a pair of shorts for $27. I had a giftcard for there too (I have sooo many giftcards!) so I only paid $1.30. Can't beat that.

Beautiful Rug Giveaway

********CONTEST HAS ENDED*********

It's giveaway time, my first since I started this blog about a month ago. This giveaway is for a lovely area rug from CSN Rugs. CSN Rugs offers high quality products with full manufacturer's warranties. There were so many wonderful rugs to pick from it was tough to narrow it down. I decided to give the winner a choice between these two beautiful rugs. Each rug size is 2'x3'.

The first rug is a more contemporary style in sage and ivory:



The second rug is a little more cosmopolitan according to the description:



Remember it will be an accent rug, so you can get away with a more bold design. To enter, just reply to this post and state which rug you would like. If you don't have a blog, than please leave your e-mail and only one entry per e-mail address. Contest closes Wednesday at noon, central time. Contest open to all U.S. and Canadian residents. If you aren't the lucky winner, you can still check out the thousands of rugs in a huge variety of colors and styles at CSN Rugs. Good luck!

Free Paint!

This will be my third post of the day, but I couldn't forget to mention that today you can order a free quart of paint from Glidden. It is an eggshell finish which I'm not crazy about, but you can't really complain with free and you get to pick the color. I chose the color French Chocolate, a deep brown shade. So visit the Glidden site  and order your free paint!

Show Us Where You Live Friday-Master Bedroom

Kelly's Korner has a weekly "show us where you live" party to show photos of your home. Today's room is the master bedroom. I really wish mine was finished before I posted this pictures for all to see, but here's the work in progress:







(The room looks really green here, but the color is more like the first two photos show. This is before I added the swag on the wall.)

On the to do list:

1. Paint furniture. Either white or dark brown. Or tan. I don't know, I can't decide. I'm thinking white with dark bronze colored hardware.

2. Paint or ditch headboard. I could paint the one we have or make my own fabric one. I'm leaning towards the fabric one.

3. New bedspread. I like the colors of the one I have, but it's falling apart and I want something without all the blocks like this one has.

4. New curtains. Ditch the scarf and add some real curtains.

5. Banish the TV from the room. We have this monster old TV in the room that needs to go. We also don't have cable or sattelite(we're too cheap) so we have these lovely rabbit ears that are a bit of an eyesore. More than a bit.

6. Rearrange the furniture? This is a maybe. I've considered putting the head of the bed under the window, but I don't want to block too much of the window. There isn't really any other way to arrange things other than that and how it is now.

All ideas and tips are much appreciated. Hopefully, I'll have some "after" photos to post soon.

***Don't forget to enter my giveaway for an area rug from CSN rugs***

Contest goes until Wednesday at noon.

Garden Klutz

I'm not much of a gardener. I love flowers, but hate having to water, prune, fertilize, whatever all that stuff you are supposed to do. I just pop them in the ground and they better survive and come back next year. (No annuals for me.) I will pull weeds, but that's about it. Luckily, most of my plants do make it most of the time unless they are consumed by the rabbit herds.  They are fighters, but no one stands a chance against the mighty bunny appetite.

This year we decided to try our hand at growing veggies in containers on our deck. We used containers because our yard is full of those pesky rabbits. They are cute, but they nibble on anything edible. And not edible. They have chewed holes in the wooden lattice underneath our deck. So we went with containers. You can see the start of our gardening in this post.

The thought of crisp, fresh veggies right from our own deck was too pleasing. So we started seeds indoors. Some of them survived, others wilted away. Once it was warm enough, we moved the plants outside. We do water the containers fairly regularly. Ok, hubby waters them anyways. Still we don't have much to show for our effort. We have some 3 in tall pepper plants. They don't seem to be getting any taller. I think I have lettuce in this one. I planted a salad mix, but I'm not sure if I have more weeds or lettuce. It looks like lettuce. Of course, I also heard it you leave it too long it gets bitter?



This one is supposed to be celery. I'm not sure what I've got going on here besides a nice weed mix:



I did have some success with the herbs I planted although I have yet to use any of them and I'm not sure if I will. One of them is coriander and I don't even know what that is. It came in a package of herbs so I planted it. I have yet to look up exactly what it is and where to use it. I have some basil, oregano, and chives I might use. I'm not sure if fresh herbs are worth all the work though.





But they at least look nice, right?

I do have some green onions planted that I use all the time. Just snip and go and they grow back super fast. I think next year we will just stick with the grocery store veggies. I think our efforts were in vain. We are garden klutzes.

Relax, stay cool, and enjoy

It's been in the 90s for the past week or so. Today I think it's supposed to be 98 degrees with a heat index of over 100 degrees. We skipped right past the refreshing early summer temperatures of the high 70s and low 80s and went straight to steamy and sticky. It's the kind of weather to stay inside unless you have a pool to enjoy.

So I decided to post a few more light and airy bathrooms. They have a tub, which is kind of like a pool. (Ok, not really, but let's pretend.) And the colors are calm and refreshing. So sit back and imagine walking barefoot across crisp, cool tile floors and admiring the beauty of these bathrooms.

















[

The Beauty of Stained Glass

I just love stained glass windows, especially in old homes and churches. The intricate designs and vibrant colors look wonderful when sunlight streams through. They really can add a nice historic and unique style to a home. If I ever build a home someday, I would love to able to include a stained glass window or two. I also love the ones that are also just clear glass, but have the leaded borders between various geometric designs. They have a nice craftsman style look. Here are a few pictures I had saved of elegant stained and leaded glass.

Or you can even hang a stained glass window or panel on the wall like the photo below.I always wanted to take a class sometime to make a stained glass panel or lampshade, but the supplies are a little expensive.

Pillows, and Curtains, and Cats, Oh My!

I've been searching for curtains for awhile and not having much luck finding the color I want and the price I can afford. I visited Old Time Pottery on Thursday and came across some tan colored curtains for $12.99 so I grabbed those along with some silk hydrangeas (only 88 cents!) and a nice table runner for $5.99. So Saturday's goal became hanging curtains. The goal became a little put off after I went to Wal-Mart in the morning and found some flowers on clearance. So I ended up buying some and by the time I got home it was getting very hot outside.After planting the flowers in ninety degree weather with what felt like 200% humidity and losing about 2 pounds of sweat, it was time to hang curtains.

Here's a reminder of what my living room looked like before with the burgundy curtains which were full of dust because I hung them up there 4 years ago and haven't touched them since. Eww!



I pulled open the first package of curtains. I turned around to take down the curtain rod and when I turned back around, I found that my new curtains had received Emma's seal of approval.



The real fun began when the old curtains came down. They were instantly transformed into a cat playground. There were cats sliding, pouncing, and burrowing underneath the sheer curtains. I think they were a little sad when I took them away.





I know I broke all the designer rules, but I didn't know about the designer rules on hanging curtains when we first put up these curtain rods 4 years ago. Now I know that you should hang them high and wide so the windows and room look bigger. We already have massively tall ceilings, so I'm not too worried about the height. I would like to move them up at some point, but then I will have to add a strip of fabric or something to the bottom or the curtains will be too short. Right now they are the perfect length. I also would like to spray paint the curtain rods black, but that will wait until another day.

So here they are in their rebel state so all the designers can go tsk,tsk. (Just kidding.)





And my wonderful mother-in-law was nice enough to sew some pillow covers for my old couch pillows using a fun paisley print fabric from Joann's. It was on sale and I had an extra 10% off coupon so the fabric ending up costing around $14 w/ tax for one yard.



The other pillow, the cream one with the brown leaves/ivy pattern I found at Garden Ridge. I love the lighter colors, I think they help brighten up the room.

The final part of my weekend mini-home makeover was adding this table runner. I'm still a little unsure on the color. I love the design and the length, but I wanted something lighter in a cream or green color. So the runner might be going back. The flowers I switched out with the red flowers I had in thier previously.

Here's the before of my dining room:



And the after:



So now I just need hubby to help me rearrange the furniture in the living room. I've never been crazy about the placement of the entertainment center where it is. It blocks too much of the window. I also am still on the hunt for a cheap rug for either the living room or dining room. It's time for the one in the dining room to go. So stay tuned for more updates.

America the Beautiful

In 1893, Katherine Lee Bates visited Pike's Peak in Colorado Springs and was inspired by the majestic view to write a poem. This poem was later set to music and became the familar hymn of "America the Beautiful." We plan to enjoy this same inspiring view of God's majesty when we visit Colorado in September.

I've been busy planning for several months to try and figure out what spots to visit, where to stay, and what to do. There are so many wonderful places in Colorado and the state is so vast with mountain ranges, rivers, and tons of historical sites. My hubby always leaves all the vacation planning to me, so I have to decide our route and which places are "must sees."  I've decided that we will spend 2 nights in Colorado Springs, 3 nights in Estes Park, and one night somewhere in between. That in between spot could be Leadville, Breckenridge, Grand Lake, or somewhere else.

In Colorado Springs the plan is to drive up Pike's Peak (and try to avoid altitude sickness!) and visit Garden of the Gods. Garden of the Gods is an area with wonderful rock formations. Best of all it's free! Gotta love the attractions that cost nada.



After Colorado Springs, we plan to visit some of the old ghost towns like St. Elmo. We may also stop by Twin Lakes and Leadville. If we have time, we may take a train ride in Leadville or Georgetown. A drive up Mt.Evans is another possibility.

Our last several days of vacation will be spent in Estes Park visiting Rocky Montain National Park. We are staying in a cozy cabin/condo at the Woodlands. We will have a full kitchen and living room, a fireplace, and even a grill. And all located right on Fall River.





We plan on doing a lot of hiking around the park, driving up Trail Ridge and Old Fall River Road, and just enjoying nature and the sceneary of Colorado.



(All images from Tripadvisor)

Does anyone have any tips or sights to see in Colorado? Know of any good restaurants? We like trying out local places. Now I'm just counting the days until we pack up and head west. Now if it only wasn't a 12 hour drive including a looooong drive across Kansas.






Outdoor Living

Continuing on with the post from yesterday about adding curb appeal, I thought I'd share a few refreshing porch and patio spaces. One of the things on my wish list for my dream home would be a nice, deep porch with a cozy swing and rocking chairs. I would love a space to curl up with a good book and enjoy the fresh air at the same time. A nice screened in porch or sunroom with a table for dining alfresco would also be a lovely addition.

So here are some beautiful outdoor living areas I wanted to share. All are from one of my favorite sites for decorating photos, BHG.com.