9/11

We will never forget.

My First Award!

My friend Lindsay has nominated me for my very first blog award! Hooray for me!!

Here is how the "Honest Scrap" award works - I share ten random things about myself, and then nominate ten blog friends to do the same. Since the people I would nominate were already chosen to take part in this, I nominate anyone reading this that would like to take part in the fun!

Let's see, ten things about me...

1. Food segregation is important to me! I don't like my food to touch. Everything has a place, veggies, potato and meat. I don't want corn in my potatoes. I don't want soggy bread because it got in the sauce. I know it all ends up in the same place - don't try to reason with me! We have big plates so I can keep everything separate.
2. I love office supplies. I can spend hours looking at file folders and paper clips. And Pens! I love Back to School time because everyone has great sales on their "stuff". Too bad my office is always a disaster! I should be very organized!
3. I also love dishes. I have a set of every day dishes, Christmas dishes, and china. Twelve place settings each. I had four other sets that I gave away. It is a sickness...
4. I like to keep the dining room table "set" all of the time. It looks pretty, and it justifies #3 for me:)
5. Blue is my favorite color. Followed closely by purple and red.
6. I LOVE FOOTBALL!! Nebraska Cornhuskers and Minnesota Vikings - if they are playing, I am watching!
7. I've lived in eight houses in my life. Which means I have moved only seven times. Four of those moves came after I was married.
8. I dated my Handsome Prince for only ONE month before we became engaged. We were married three months later. We'll celebrate 26 years in December!
9. The first job I had when we moved to Arkansas was at McDonald's. I lasted one day. I was not cut out to be a fry girl.
10. My Grandma taught me to do counted cross-stitch. It is a hobby I really enjoy, and wish I spent more time doing. Unfortunately, I'm figuring out what Grandma was talking about when she used to tell me she did her hobbies in the morning "when her eyes were good".

Okay, now it is your turn!! If you would like the "Honest Scrap" award, I nominate you! Just copy the picture and add it to your blog, tell us ten things about yourself and then nominate ten friends to share in the fun! Be sure to leave me a comment if you participate - I want to learn more about you too!

Southern Living Saturday: Unique Wall Art

The cooler weather we have been experiencing has me in a "nesting" mode! I enjoy every season, especially the beginning of each of them. I get very excited to dig out the decor for each new season and give our home a different look. I try not to be too Holiday specific with the decorative items I choose, opting for items that will look nice for longer periods of time. A lot of the items I decorate with can be changed for each season just by adding different flowers or "fluff" to them!

I love our brick fireplace, but I would LOVE to have a mantel that looks like this! If you would like to create the look in the above picture in your home, these are the items you will need from our fall Southern Living at HOME catalog:

1. 2 - Cordova Candle Sconces (item #40974)


2. 4 - Filigree Iron Wall Sconces (item #41116) Instructions below!


3. 2 - Jackson Square Lidded Urns (item #41233)


4. 1 of the Olive Jar Trio set (item #41027)


5. 2 sets of the Drake Firefly Lanterns (item #41208)


6. The Cordova Firescreen (item #41108)


7. Our Entertaining Bucket and Tray (item #40672) a Customer Special this month!

It will take four of these Filigree Iron Wall Sconces to create the circle. The votive holder is completely detachable (it slides into a bracket in the back) If you are like me, you don't want a million nails holes in the wall, so start by laying out the design you want to create on a piece of paper on your floor. To create the circular pattern lay each of the wall sconces at an angle, points touching at the top and bottom. Mark on the paper where the nails need to go. (hanging hardware is included with each sconce) Tape the paper to the wall and pound your nails according to your marks. Tear the paper off, hang the sconces and WA - LAH! You have unique wall art!

Wouldn't something like this be pretty hanging in the center of your new wall art? Or a simple grapevine wreath - the possibilities are endless!

Home Improvement Update Part Two: Bathroom

It all started because I was really tired of this look:

I loved it when we first decorated it this way, but that was 8 years ago. It was time for a change! So while we were in Branson for our Anniversary weekend I found this shower curtain and some other accessories:

The Handsome Prince is an avid outdoorsman. He loves to get all camo'd up and sit out in the woods for hours. He has several trophies on the wall to show for his patience. This is the room you come in to from our garage. When we remodeled our house we added the shower in here because it works so great when you have been out in the yard working, or in his case covered in "Scent" so that the deer won't smell him.

Down came the wallpaper and all those little fish I painstakingly cut out and pasted all over the walls. (I am pretty sure Joe and Terry were mumbling about those by the time they peeled the last one off!) It took way longer than I thought it would, and the color isn't exactly how I envisioned it would look, but I am very pleased with the new look.

I really like how the color looks with our oak woodwork. It has a bit more orange than I saw in the paint chip, but I really like how warm this room feels now. "Yarrow" was the right choice!
It looks different depending on the light and shadows.

I still have so much work to do to get everything looking like I want! I have a wrought iron mirror I am going to hang above the sink instead of the big mirror that was (barely) there. I think it will look nice with the towel bars and other rustic accessories I have found to go in here. Lucy and Gatsby are thinking I am going to a LOT of trouble making their room pretty:)

I hope to be able to share completed room pictures with you soon!

Home Improvement Update: Part One

I know, I promised an update on Saturday, but the work was supposed to be done by Noon too.
Neither thing happened. Joe thought they would be done in half a day, but things just kept happening and they were finally able to finish after five on Saturday. It looks beautiful and I am VERY happy with the colors we went with. I wish everything was back in it's place now, but it is not. I am trying to get a little done each night so I can finally get back to normal!

I took a bunch of photos, so I will do a Dining Room post, part two will be the bathroom progress and hopefully part three will be completed photos of both rooms!

Here is an action shot - Paint is finally being rolled on! "Notable Hue" looks a LOT darker here than it is.

You can see in this photo that the color is just a shade darker than what was there. This color is very close to the same shade of blue that our tile is.

Just a small mess compared to the rest of the house right now. They had to put stuff somewhere!

It seemed like we spent most of Saturday watching paint dry. We did go purchase a new chandelier. I'm really glad I waited to purchase this light, because I had a stained glass fixture picked out, but I don't think I would have like it once we got the paint on the walls.

I love the one we picked out! No more ugly brass with a chain that was too long!

I love this! Simple, but elegant.

See how pretty those ceilings are now? The kitchen is next on my project list!

With the money I saved by NOT going with the stained glass fixture for the Dining room we were able to replace two more fixtures that I have hated almost from the day we put them up! Yes, THREE for the price of one! The ceiling fan in the Kitchen is now gone, as is the ugly little can light that was above the sink.

Much better! Don't you think?

Bathroom photos tomorrow...

Southern Living Saturday: Gail Pittman pottery Sale!

I have mixed emotions about the following announcement from Southern Living at HOME:

We are thrilled to announce our first Gail Pittman sale for September! Everyone will want to take advantage of our 30-day price reduction on these beautiful Gail Pittman products.We're also running a sale on Gail Pittman to make room for new Gail designs and extensions of highly successful recent product introductions. We won't be going forward with any Provence pieces or Sienna dinnerware in spring, but we will continue to carry almost all of the Sienna accessory pieces. Gail feels it's time to move on to new and exciting concepts, and we agree. Make sure your customers complete their collections this fall.

In October, you can count on a fall "White Sale," but you won't find any pillow cases or sheets on special. Instead, we will run a Gallery dinnerware sale with a few select accessories and related items. Again, we plan to make room for new designs that couldn't be introduced in the past because this slow-selling dinnerware occupied too much space. We won't be continuing it with the new spring catalog.

I know they have to make room for new things, but I LOVE these Collections! So for your planning purposes, here is the link to the sale flyer . I do plan on sending an order on September 1st. Since it says that quantities are limited I am assuming that the Provence items will go fast. If you are wanting some of these Hand Painted items to complete your collections PLEASE don't wait. You do not have to have a minimum purchase to take advantage of the pottery sale, AND your pottery purchase counts towards your $29.95 minimum purchase for the September specials!

Check back later today for a Home Impovement update!

Day Three

Well they didn't get done today, but it will be done tomorrow!

I walked in the house to see this:

The light fixtures are out, so it is too dark to take good pictures. Sorry.

The dining room is taped off and ready to paint.

The ceiling got painted, but as it dried Joe saw some spots that he didn't like. So he repaired it and the mud needed to dry overnight. It will get another coat of paint and then they will do the walls!

So by noon on Saturday, we will have two new rooms! I can't wait:)