unfinished

Well, it's official, one week until school starts for my Kindergartner. Then I will officially have two kids in school and a lovely three hour nap from the two year old. That's when I will be able to start projects for my house again. I've missed it a lot. There has really not been time lately. Soon enough I can get to a slew of projects I have had on the back burner. 

Look at all this paint waiting to be uses. I scored an amazing deal earlier this summer where I got 4 pints of paint for the price of 2. So much fun to be had. And there is easily four times the amount pictured. 

Clearance mirrors not on the wall along with a gorgeous hand me down waiting for a new stain. Or maybe it will be limed, we'll see! Lately it's just kicking it with the bikes.

And surely I will have time to finish that green bathroom already! I'm just one trip to the hardware store and about an hour away from it being complete. 

Most of my extra time has been filled with client work. So I really look forward to taking some time out for me and my house. My favorite thing to do! And of course I will have much more time to be here everyday and much more to talk about too! Who's excited!?! I am!

pinterest challenge summer edition

Silly me! I totally thought the Pinterest Challenge was tomorrow for some reason! Oh well. I really love what I did this time, unfortunately they look much better at a distance than up close. And they are not up on the wall yet. 

I started with these $3.50 hooks I found in June. 

Thinking of these Anthro stunners.

I cut my tape and got them all prepped and ready.

I painted them with oil based gloss black that I had on hand. And tried to be as careful as possible since the rounded edges left little dimples here and there. 

Here they are! Not perfect at all but at a short distance they look pretty awesome. In fact the hubby came home to see them and I said I painted them myself and he said "yeah right" he thought I bought them!! And then he tried to recover himself a little :)

I love them! I know they will look even better hanging in a row on the wall. I will update after I do so. And with the anthropologie ones coming in at $18 a pop and since I had all the supplies I needed it was a savings of $43.50! Not bad at all!

Make sure you check out the challenge at Young House Love, Bower Power, Centsational Girl, and Ten June!

i'm in love

Words cannot fully describe how much I love this kitchen.

{via}

In my head, there is a huge plan to do a small renovation on the kitchen. Small, but it's going to take some time to save up for new counter tops, floors and appliances. But, that plan has always included white upper cabinets and either navy or gray bottoms. Well, my friends, this decides it! Navy!! I'm in love! Maybe I should just go ahead and start painting :) This picture also has my ever timeless subway tile back splash. I love, love, love it!

a tuesday adventure

Yesterday we had ourselves a little adventure! As you may know, our family just has one car. So that leaves me home...a lot. But every Tuesday we pile into said car at 6:20 and take Mr. Wallace to work. We come home and get ready. Get back in and have a morning appointment, then we try to function normally the rest of the day with tired kids. In short Tuesdays are always an adventure.

Well, since school is out we did this with the whole group all day. And for some reason, I thought it would be a great idea to take them all to my wholesale frame shop. And we did it! We turned a few heads in the process but whatever! I knew that if I didn't do it then I couldn't make it work until Thursday. In the end we piled in the car with one giant frame, {HUGE!} four large frames and two medium frames. Oh plus, glazier points and mat boards. A nice lady even felt sorry for me after my third trip and helped me out. Thank you nice lady. 

What troopers! The chocolate helped...

We had the four frames in the back. Two in the passenger seat. And the big one had to go in between the kids and me. Let's just say my right arm got pretty tired holding it all the way home. But I kinda like my kid's faces so it was worth it :)

And if you are wondering why this was so important that I had to cram it all in with these guys. The answers are pretty simple. For one, I'm a little crazy and two...

About a month ago I stayed strong and sadly walk away from this $45 beauty. But $25!!! I couldn't even believe it was still there. Look how big and awesome it is!

Have you ever seen my dining area? It's a little boring. But, it's mine! But back to the star of the day. Giant. Gold. Greek key. Cheap. I'm thinking score!

Me and this lover have big plans. I just have to wait for a few client projects are wrapped before I can think about it again. It will probably always be there in the back of my mind though. I think I'm in love!

Sorry for all the exclamation points!!

office peek

I'm ashamed to say that for over a year our desk was a sad, old rectangle card table. It....worked. We couldn't commit to anything that I didn't love :) And we needed something long. I finally settled on this baby.

And you may remember my mood board.

But how was I going to get the table to home to Boise?

I patiently waited two months until I found a way to get it home. It was a bit of an ordeal! But we did it!

The room is not done in the slightest but, I am feeling so much better about my little office already.

It's the perfect spot for me to sit at the computer and it's great for one of the kid's and I to sit and work on homework or color Octonauts. And if you squint your eyes really hard you will see an iMac...unless you are my husband or my wallet.

I have yet to pin anything on my pretty boards but that is on my to do list. Color will be the order of the day.

 And also a different angle. All in good time the printer will be across the room and off my desk. But, we have plenty of workspace here in the meantime. Oh, and look at my lucite stapler and tape dispenser I scored on clearance at Target for $2.22. I think I did a happy dance.

So even if I have this in the other corner, I am content with my office progress.

Who wants to play I Spy!? There's some good stuff in this pile. But not for my house!

seven!?

I cannot believe it has been seven years since this little angel came into our lives. I could not have asked for a more thoughtful and loving little girl. The best big sister. A smarty pants little reader. A tender tiny thing who cries at movies all the time and is so small she fell off the growth chart. I am all teary just thinking about how wonderful she is and how lucky I am that she calls me Mama. Still. The best word ever as far as I'm concerned.

  I thought it would be fun to share her little nursery with you today. It was five moves ago so she probably has no recollection of it but it is a space I will always love. And I have to say it is the first room that I completely drew out on paper and turned into a reality. I was a bit obsessed! I was a lover of interior design but hadn't practiced much of it. We should have known then that I would be all crazy into one day. 

So here goes! Amber decorates circa 2005.

Her teeny 10 by 10 was not considered a bedroom but an office. So no closets. Naturally I went on the hunt to find or make shelves that would serve as hanging space behind her double doors.

While visiting my grandparents in San Diego my grandma took this photo and I ran to kinkos to blow up a big shot of it on foam core. Never will I do that again! I was ripped off. But I still loved it!

Her dresser is the first piece of furniture I ever painted. It worked great for so long. We sold it about this time last year. And it worked every place she lived even in that 6 by 6 foot walk in closet. Yep! I will try to hunt that picture down :)

Man I loved those lamps! Thanks Aunt Tracey!

My husband and father in law painted her room the softest pink and I stenciled words I thought would fit her all over the room.

Didn't my little makeshift closet rock!

And here is as much as I could fit in the french doors. The crib skirt and rocking chair hadn't arrived yet but pregnancy brain never reminded me to take new pictures. I even made the most random but perfectly functional slip covers for the rocker cushions. If only I had been blogging then :) Oh and that rug I seamed together out of two! I shouldn't have put it on a diagonal...but whatever!

Well there is a blast from my past! I wonder what a baby girl nursery would look like if I had another girl???
Too bad we will never know!

Love my little bug!

miss l's room

I really liked my girl's room before.

But I like it even more now.

One weekend, I was feeling a bit blue. I want to get something done when I feel blue usually. And having zero dollars I knew the only thing I could really mix up was my daughter's room. You see for a year I was saving this pair of bergere chairs, pillows and a stool for a project. But that project had been put on hold and since changed...a lot. Getting installed in the next few months though.{!} So they came to rescue my mood and I turned them into a sweet little sitting area.

 

Then I moved the bench by the window to create a little window seat of sorts. It's been really fun there because we get amazing sunsets from the back of our house. I also moved the mirror over the headboard. But do not be alarmed, it's a plastic mirror and well secured at that. Nobody will be injured by the cute mirror :)

 I popped her little desk into the corner and moved the bulletins to that wall. All the kids love to sit there and color.

The art stayed the same mostly, except for adding this owl mask that she made that I love.

Not too shabby for a free makeover! And it's another one of those 30 by 30 projects I haven't shown you yet. Check it off the list.

my weekend

What a fabulous weekend I had! It was busy, busy and full of soccer games, errands and a few super fun parties. But, the thing I am most happy about is this.

Isn't is gorgeous! It was bad! Not so bad that our car slept outside but bad enough! I didn't even think to take a before shot. I still have to donate that high chair, move the file cabinet to the office and spruce up that chair but this garage is ready for a new friend, my friends. After 3 years of being a one car family we are in the market for a mini van and I could not be more thrilled. Do you know how much furniture I am going to haul in that bad boy!? And my 3 kids barely fit in our back seat right now so it is a long time coming.

The joy of this shot is that all the bins are empty. Lots of purging and donating happened. Feels great! And a special thanks goes out to my hubby who did a lot while I was at a birthday party.

And then the cutest thing that happened this weekend. Friday night my daughter passed me this note. "Paint your room Mama." Love it! She then took me to one of my magazines and told me which colors she thought would look best. A girl after my own heart!

Happy Monday!

catching up

I feel like I have been playing catch up this week! Hopefully this weekend I can get all caught up and feel back to normal {and get over this little annoying cold too!}. It's been one busy, hectic week. But all in all a good week so that's a relief.

I have been busy working on a few client projects and my projects as well. I have been doing a lot of shopping for the playhouse I am working on and stumbled upon the cutest teacup set and teapot at One Kings Lane.

Aren't they cute? And just $16 for the set of 6 cups and saucers! This playhouse is going to be tricked out :)

How about another project of mine?

I wanted to do a large pin board for my office. I really liked this one from Courtney Hill via decorpad.

But I already had two large cork boards to work with. I also really like Bryn's boards from her office. Plus, there is going to be a lot of pattern in the room eventually so I wanted to keep the fabric simple.

I used the same method from the bulletin boards in my daughters room for these. But I wanted to add some nail head trim to them. Nail head is expensive if you do not buy it online. But I was in the zone and wanted them to be done immediately so I trudged off to Home Depot anyway. I found brass thumbtacks right next to the nail head. And I thought why not use these instead. Which coincidentally took up more time because I had to go search for more thumb tacks at more stores. I need to learn to just hit up the next Home Depot instead of trying Lowes and Walmart. Didn't I learn this while searching for the brass corners!? Go to the original source and it will save you time in the end.

 

Are you still reading? 

 

Well, I haven't hung these yet but here they are in all their glory.

 

 

 I love how the thumbtacks turned out. They are not prefect and I just used my finger to space them apart. I love that it is easy to make little adjustments as needed. Now I just need to hang them during my weekend catch up! I hope you have a nice weekend, whether it's relaxing or productive!

 

progress!

Look what's living with me now...

And I am in love. I'm not sure if this is where they will live or not but they are having their tryouts right now. What do you think? I might have to design my bedroom to work with them at the foot of the bed. We'll see.

I will be showing you my full living room next week. After all the projects are done. I did want to show you the full lamp now instead of making you wait. The lampshade is project number 11 that you've seen I think. You are going to get hit HARD with projects after this little birthday of mine has passed. Some are really boring and necessary and some are lots of fun!

 

 

And while we are in a coral mood I will show you my simple little Easter table. It's not winning any awards but I threw it together and liked it :)

There's still so much to do! I'm so glad I gave myself the challenge though. I'm getting a lot of little things done that have been on the list for quite some time now.

monday mood board: office + guest room

Today I'm so excited to kick off my new series Monday Mood Board. Some will be for me, some will be for clients and some will be for fun. I am going to start off with my much awaited office and guest room. It's finally becoming a reality and I think I pretty much have decided on everything and have a good portion of the stuff already. But another chunk of stuff will have to wait until I get to ikea next. A trip is scheduled for the end of May so....it might take a while but the good news is it's at least starting now.

I thought I would share the Ikea stuff I need to get. First is this table which is the exact size I need and lets face it the perfect price. I still really want the throw I posted on Friday. And I will need some storage and this set of drawers will be perfect. 

I have some of the fabric and the campaign nightstands so at least I can get started. We also will probably have a queen bed in there for a while but I did find the perfect sleeper sofa while we were out last weekend. 

I cannot wait for this room to be done so I can use this card table I'm working on for other things and also so our guests will have a better place to stay.

Happy Monday Mood