A Splash of Color

After talking about it for what seems like forever, I am finally 99% done with my kitchen in the new house.  We finally got our Ikea island on Tuesday night, it's all put together and installed in the kitchen.  I have to oil the butcher block top for 2 months and just got the first coat on today....it's definitely going to be worth it as we were already seeing marks from drinks, etc after only using it for a day!

I painted the kitchen an awesome turquoise blue color and I'm accenting it with bright yellow and red accessories.  I'm not afraid of color in any way, but my husband took a few days to adjust to the new colors.

All I have left now is to find the perfect accent pieces to add to my new white Ikea shelf!

Here's a before picture, blah:

And here are some after pictures, yeah!

Happy Holidays

Hello Everyone, I'm still here!  Sorry it has been so long since I have posted....things have just been so crazy lately between work, family and the holidays!  We had a wonderful Christmas and everyone got everything they wanted and more!  We are still celebrating with my family on the 30th and I'm really looking forward to it....I just love being around my family, we have so much fun and we are all equally crazy!  I also have off of work until January 3rd and that is MUCH needed, I'm going crazy at work lately.

I'm looking forward to a new year to come as I'm sure many of you are.  This has been a tough year for me, seems there is always something not going as I have it planned in my head.  I also just lost my sweet doggie Mugsley on Dec 21st.  It was completely unexpected and it was a rough couple of days. But, he lived a long full life of 11.5 years and I can only be thankful for that.

I do have lots of exciting new projects to share with all of you!  My bedroom re-do is nearly complete!! My dad and Brandon hung the new glossy yellow barn door on Christmas Eve, now all I have left is to paint an ombre picture for over the bed.  I'll have pictures posted within the week, I promise!  We also just got our new kitchen island this evening, so I'll have pictures of the kitchen re-do in the next few days as well.

Art Mart

We had an art sale at work last week, here's a few pictures of my table!

Candy Buffet

I finally have some better pictures of the candy buffet I set up for my sister in law's wedding!  I wish the photographer had taken some pictures of the buffet as a whole, but alas, she did not.  These are definitely better than the pictures I took with my iPhone and posted here.  :)

Another Beautiful Wedding!

I have been working with a co-worker on her wedding and posted her save the date postcard that I made, as well as her invitation set.  Well, I also made her a wedding tree guestbook.  Her photographer added a few pictures to her website and mentioned my wedding tree on her blog!  Check it out: http://heatherbrulez.com/blog/2011/11/boulevard-brewing-company-wedding-mindy-jim/

Below are a few pictures the photographer took of the wedding tree, it looks like it was beautiful day for Mindy and Jim!

'Tis The Season

I've had a few requests for holiday postcards in my etsy.com store, so here are a few that I have listed now.

Retro Photos

I posted a blog a while back with a tutorial on how to give your photos a cool, retro effect.  I've been playing around with it and thought I'd show you the results.  I love them and need to get them printed to frame.

The Wreath Project - Final Edition

I finally made my burlap wreath yesterday!  I have been talking about it for a couple of months now and posted the link to the tutorial I used in this blog posting.  But, I am going to list out detailed instructions with pictures below!  It was SUPER easy and didn't take any time at all! 

Step 1:  Find old wire hangers and shape them into circles

Step 2: Cut burlap into 3 inch wide strips.  I just eyeballed mine so some were 3 inches, some were 2 and some might have been 4!  (I bought 3 yards of burlap and made 2 wreaths out of it)

 

Step 3: Put burlap strips onto the circle wire form, fold it like an accordion onto the wire.  I found it was better to keep them tight rather than loose folds.

Step 4: Continue adding burlap until you think your wreath is full enough and then use a pliers to attach the wire together to hold your circle.  And here's your final product!

I installed the wreath onto the wreath holder and then added the bow.  I'm not very good at tying fancy bows, so this is what I got....it doesn't look too bad.  Anyways, here's a picture with my 2 wreaths on our front doors.  I'm really pleased with the results and the total cost was really cheap.  My burlap was about $7 (with a 50% off coupon), my mom gave me the wire hangers and I had the ribbon...and it only took me about 30 minutes to complete both wreaths!  Yeah!

Smell that paint!

I painted my bedroom and bathroom this past weekend, with a little help from my husband.  I started the bedroom on Saturday and decided to prime....for some reason I let the Lowe's guy talk me into using oil based primer.  WOW, did I make a mistake listening to him!  It stank SO bad, I had a headache all day and had to sit outside for like 2 hours after only spending about 20 minutes painting! 

Anyways, I finished up the room on Sunday after letting the primer air out all day Saturday.  Here's a picture of the new bathroom and I'll post pictures of the bedroom once I have new new curtains made and installed!  By the way...I have been looking for a place to hang my capiz shell lampshade since we moved in and I finally found a place, as you'll see in the pic.  It really makes our bathroom seem fancy!

It was a Success!

The trunk show last Friday night was a great success!  I had lots of friends and family show up to support me, it was awesome!  Here's a few pictures:

Tonight is the Night

Trunk show is tonight!  http://oureclecticlives.blogspot.com/

Seeing Yellow!

I'm gearing up to start working on my bedroom project and I'm VERY excited!  If you remember back to an earlier post I described how I was going to paint our room.  Starting this Saturday, I start painting and my dad is working on the barn door already!  I have my white and gray paints bought, but don't have a yellow picked out just yet.  I ordered some fabric samples for curtains and pillows and they just came in, so now I can pick out my yellow paint color!!  Here's the swatches I ordered.....I think the gray, white and yellow will be the curtains and then 2 of the other patterns will be pillows.  I'm SO excited to get started now!!

The Wreath Project - Part 2

If you remember from an older post, I was wanting to find a wreath for Fall.  I found this tutorial and decided to try it.  I bought an old curtain at Goodwill and could only find a really small wire hanger to use.  The curtain fabric was like burlap, but definitely not as coarse and I ended up using almost the whole thing for this small wreath!  (I was actually planning on making 2 wreaths with the 1 curtain and I didn't end up having enough fabric!)  Anyways, it turned out really cute and I do plan on buying some burlap and making 2 big wreaths for my 2 front doors as shown in the tutorial.

Do you have a Fall wreath?  Did you make it or buy it?

I Heart Spray Paint

Spray paint is really one of my best friends.....I love how easily it can change any object!  I bought this old magazine rack at a garage sale for $3 and spray painted it for my family room.  LOVE it!

Vintage Lumber

We rebuilt our deck in August at the new house and ever since I have been searching for things to make with the old vintage(salvage) lumber.  I was looking on esty one day and found the most awesome dog bowl holder!!  I just fell in love and had to get it for my super sweet doggie!  We couldn't have made it ourselves because we didn't have lumber the correct size, so I bought it.....it was a ridiculously expensive purchase. (not something I would normally do and my husband is in shock!)  Here it is:

But, how could I resist when I have the cutest dog in the world who LOVES it!!

Have you made an outrageous purchase for your pet?  Make me feel better and tell me about it!  :)

Got Some Art

I posted back in August about how I needed some artwork for my house.  Well, we ordered one of those photos from Society6.  Here's the finished product:

 

Before framing

After framing hung in the family room

It's almost Show Time!

I know I have been neglecting my blog a lot lately, I am very sorry for that.  I have just been swamped between work and everything going on at home!  Here's what has been consuming all of my time:

Fall is Upon Us

It's cold here in Kansas City today and I realized fall is upon us!!  I LOVE fall...love, love.  I mostly LOVE making pumpkin flavored snacks...but I also love the weather, going to the pumpkin patch, Halloween, etc. 

Now that I have a new house, I've realized that I need a fall wreath for the front door!  Here's a few options that I found, I'll probably end up making my own....I'm thinking burlap needs to be the main component.

Do you have a wreath for every season for your house?

I'm still here!

Man, I have been swamped lately!  Between work, etsy store orders, activities and getting ready for my trunk show I have been totally ignoring my blog!  I'm so sorry to all you faithful readers.....Erica!

Here's a couple of orders through my etsy.com store that have been keeping me busy:

 

Happy Anniversary

I can hardly believe it's been a year ago tomorrow that I married the love of my life!