Under a blue moon

Friday's Favorites

1. Candy Lanterns, 2. Vintage Valentine Box, 3. Rhubarb "Tea", 4. Buttons, 5. Wonderland, 6. Colors Of Flowers, 7. Happy Friday!!, 8. Untitled, 9. Pretty in Pink

• Ruche sure has some cute home decor items:  Measuring cups or desk calendar or salt and pepper shaker
• Pretty summery robes
• Two books on my wishlist:  The Set Table and Friends at my Table (I sense a theme here...)
• I love this Apartment Therapy house tour:  Kyle's Cottage in the City
• Sweet song to start your weekend off (I predict we'll hear more from this girl)

Happy Weekend!  I am going to help my mother in law with another garage sale tomorrow.  I pretty much cleared out all my stuff at the last one but I'm going to keep her company and help with crowd control.

Who knows how the rest of the weekend will shape up. Goodness with that To Do list I certainly won't lack for something to do!

Have a lovely, leisurely weekend!

Friday's Favorites

1. Life with flowers, 2. maybe I should bake something?, 3. swap button card, 4. Untitled, 5. Pastel, 6.book storage, 7. a little embroidery, 8. Cards Display, 9. Baby's breathe

• How cute are these paper ornaments made from Martha Stewart's paper punches (scroll down to see all the pictures)
• Pretty alley way
• Ooh - a tiara (or crown) I could actually get away with wearing
• Ha!  Reminds me of how my packing boxes were getting labelled towards the end...
• Clever party invitations (you could used striped fabric and do a circus theme instead)

Exciting goings on at our house this week!  Well maybe exciting is overstating things a bit.  We are having all the old galvanized piping replaced with copper.  So I'll rephrase my original statement:  Expensive goings on at our house this week!

Our town is known for it's hard water.  I mean REALLY hard.  We knew we would need to repipe eventually we just weren't expecting it so soon.  We had a water conditioner installed too.  

It is the first step towards the bathroom remodel though - no sense in putting in nice new fixtures if we are just going to ruin them with hard water.  We have been pricing tubs, faucets and solid surface options.   Naturally all the things I gravitate towards are a bobillion dollars each.   I've had to rethink a couple of design features I want in order to keep within budget.  I'm working on a design board I'll share next week.

Happy weekend everyone!  Hope yours is splendid!

Friday's Favorites

1. Horses all lined up, 2. Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail., 3. Untitled, 4. sweet dahlias, 5. laundry day, 6. Green, Green Grass of Home, 7. Happy Friday!, 8. Bonjour, 9. leaving a mark

• Isn't this a splendid idea for a party:  Bar menu
• I seriously need to learn how to crochet.  Pretty crochet garland.  And another one.
• Simple, yet pretty (and blingy!) gift wrapping idea
• Templates for itty bitty gift boxes (keeping with the gift wrapping theme)
• I know I kind of drifted off into necklaces and bracelets for a bit.  Back with a pair of sweet mint and gold heart studs

Happy Friday!

This week just flew by.  We have so many little projects (and some HUGE ones) that we are working on in the evenings it just makes the time go so quickly.  

This week has been all about plumbing.  We knew when we bought the house that repiping it was in our future.  We were just hoping to put it off for a few years.  Not to be.  So we have had a couple of plumbing contractors give us bids on repiping the entire house.  Ouch.  That's all I'm going to say about that.  There goes most of our bathroom remodel budget.

It will be nice to have water pressure though.  The pipes are so old and filled with gunk that it takes 10 or 15 minutes for the water in the main bath (the one we want to remodel) to get hot.  

This weekend will be spent building shelves (What?  I can help hand out nails or something) and getting the garage a little more organized.  

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

 

Friday's Favorites

1. debee - 4, 2. IMG_8200, 3. by the window, 4. for trifle, 5. my new cards!, 6. Cure for the Winter Blues, 7. Pretty Inspiration, 8. "Candy" Necklaces, 9. ❤

• Here's a cheerful bit of bling for your neck. Or if that is too much (or you want a matching set) here are a pair of earrings for just a bit of color and sparkle
• Okay I may be rushing the season but these watermelon stacks look so cute and refreshing.  Can't wait to make them
• I was looking for 40's interior paint colors when I came across this kitchen renovation.  I love it!  That they kept the original cabinets and any new addition or change was selected to fit into the 40's esthetic.  I also love the colors.  I would do the reverse though (color on the walls with white cabinets)
• We need a clock for our 40's kitchen and I was thinking this one would do nicely
• This has been all over the interwebs this week but in case you missed it - How women see themselves vs. how others see them (we are always our worst critics, aren't we?)

Happy Friday everyone!  I'm still buried in boxes but there is light at the end of the tunnel. We are kind of picking at little projects and identifying the bigger ones.  Plumber is due to arrive any minute (which I fear will be a BIG project).

So I answered my own question about washing fabric roll-up shades.  It doesn't work out so well!  Ha!  I took one down and unrolled it and the fabric is just taped to the rod with masking tape.  Well this should be easy, I thought.  I removed the fabric, tossed them in the washing machine and they shrunk in width by three or four inches!  Whoops.  I did go online and research the manufacturer and even though I couldn't find the exact shade all their other fabric shades seemed to be a poly/cotton blend so I thought I was safe.

I popped on over to our local JoAnns who was clearing out their stock in preparation for moving to a new location and bought roller shade material for about $8.  I also bought some beaded trim to finish it off and made new shades for both windows in just a couple of hours.  I'll try to post a picture next week.  Wasn't a project I was planning on undertaking but it was way easier and cheaper than I thought it would be.

Hope everyone has a marvelous weekend!

Edited to add:  The "Home Sweet Home" print in today's photo mosaic is available on this Etsy site: One Little Bird Studio  I just found it online!

 

Friday's Favorites (weekend edition)

1. Bird hooks, 2. Untitled, 3. Untitled, 4. I love Washi tape, 5. Day 79 • A • Handwritten Letters, 6. Delicate Dreams, 7. One of a Pair, 8. Papoila, 9. Untitled

• A friend of mine gave me a set of sweet clothespins similar to this for closing up chip bags and the like
• Ha!  Isn't this the truth.  As is this
• Sweet, simple earrings.  My favorite kind
• Has anyone seen this book: At My Grandmother's Table? Looks like it might be a good one
• Very moving video about lost love

Unpacking is coming along.  I don't mind the unpacking part so much - it's the putting away that bedevils me.  I don't have the same amount of storage space in the new house and I can't quite decorate like I did in the old house.  Not that I wanted to just replicate what we had before but I'm struggling with where to put things.  

I know it will all come together eventually but I kind of like things to be DONE.  Right now I feel like I'm just haphazardly slapping things into drawers and cupboards and I'll never find them when I need them.  

I'm kind of wishing we painted before moving in but I wasn't ready to decide on colors nor did I want to wait another minute to move in.  Our bedroom is this weird greyish/taupe color that turns lavendarish in late afternoon and evening.  The room is on the North East corner of the house and it really needs a warmer color on the walls.  Right now it is very gloomy to me.  That just might be the first room to get painted.  

I hope everyone is having a splendid weekend!

Friday's Favorites

1. textures, 2. Sunday Roses..., 3. My sister's cat, 4. peach fizz, 5. bright eyes and bushy tailed, 6.Autumnal Leaves, 7. confections, 8. shadowplay, 9. precious things

• Sweet Easter eggs.  Looks pretty easy and doesn't require a lot of stuff.  Just cute napkins and some eggs
• I love these curtains (this from an avowed curtain hater...).  I tried to find the original source of the picture for directions or where to buy but couldn't find it.  I think they look like they would be pretty easy to make if you found the right fabric and crocheted lace
• This must be the year of the bracelet on UABM.  Last year I was all about the aqua and gold earrings.  Pretty feather bracelet (and at that price get an armload!)
• Pretty use for vintage wallpaper scraps.  Envelopes
• Isn't this paper quilt GORGEOUS?  I may have to try my hand at this...

Moving day is Monday!!!  I'm taking ten days off from work to get settled and unpacked (although I doubt it will all get unpacked...). First thing I'm going to do, before we move a speck of furniture in, is take a ton of pictures to share.  I have pictures now, but they all have the previous owners' stuff in them.  I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be happy to have them posted on the interwebs for all to see.  

I can't wait to share the house with you and what we do with it, decor and renovation-wise.  We don't even live there yet but it truly feels like home.

Happy weekend and Happy Easter everyone!  

Friday's Favorites

1. *, 2. Milk tea, 3. Low Visibility, 4. Untitled, 5. Untitled, 6. white light, 7. Untitled, 8. Untitled, 9. hiding spot

• I saw this laptop bag and loved the crisp stripes and leather details.  Then I read about the company and loved it even more
• LOVE these bridesmaids' dresses.  Via Etsy
• I sure wish we could have chickens at our new house.  I'd get this book for sure
• Cute plant waterer.  Available here
• Sweet Bunny Zippered Pouch.  Just in time for Easter

T -10 and counting!  Only ten more days until we have the keys in our hands and can start the unpacking process.  One nice thing about this move is having a break between the packing up and the unpacking.  Both are so exhausting.  

We have a busy weekend ahead of us which should help the time go by quickly.  On Sunday my niece Maddi and I are throwing a baby shower for her sister Lizz.  It's hard to plan a party when all my stuff (pretty linens, nice serving pieces, etc.) are packed up in a warehouse somewhere in Sacramento.  

I'll take pictures and hopefully will have something to blog about other than Friday's Favorites and the incessant impatient chatter about the new house.

Happy Weekend Everyone!  Hope yours is fabulous!

Friday's Favorites

1. Pretenders, 2. sweet summer moments, 3. yamate, yokohama, 4. Yearning for Simplicity, 5. *, 6. 伸びろ伸びろハートの木, 7. Peek-a-boo....I see you~~♥ 151/365, 8. refreshing, 9. white moments....

• The Ball Mason Jar folks have come out (again) with blue jars.  No need to scour antique stores for overpriced ones
• Love the colors and layers in this beaded necklace
• According to this vintage poster thoughts about eating local, not wasting, avoiding wheat...aren't such new notions (great site with free printable vintage posters too...)
• This is rather touching...children around the world with their favorite possessions
• I was looking for St. Patrick's Day appetizer ideas (I could always go with the ever so appetizing sounding leprechaun balls...) and decided to forgo the green theme.  Or Irish theme for that matter.  I'm making these olive pastry bites and Chinese scallion pancakes (hey both have green in them).  Actually these Guinness pretzels look good.  I could do them bite sized and serve with a Guinness cheddar dip

Happy Friday!  Has everyone recovered from the time change? There is something about putting the clocks forward that absolutely discombobulates me.  Takes me a good week or two to get my biorhythms back in synch.

Only 17 more days until we move in!  In the meantime I'm scouring the interwebs for paint color ideas for a bedroom with North and East facing windows.  I'm thinking a pale, creamy yellow maybe...It's painted a cool taupe with grey and lavendar undertones.  Exactly the wrong color for that type of light.  I suppose we should actually move in before I start buying any paint.

I hope everyone has wonderful weekend!  Sláinte!

 

Friday's Favorites

1. Floral Rainbow, 2. Milk and Cookies Tonight . . ., 3. cups 'n pegs, 4. Note of Love to all my Flickr Peeps ♥, 5. Good Morning!, 6. Beauty Contest, 7. Fetish for Strawberry !!, 8. On the way to the workplace, 9. Little baby Fairytale dreamcatchers

• I was trying to pick a favorite out of these sweet bracelets but I think you need to just get an armful of them
• Pretty soon you can take a trip on a replica of the Titanic.  With extra lifeboats...
• Love these DIY envelopes using vintage wallpaper  
• Think I have time to whip up a felt shamrock before St. Patrick's day?
• This is so silly you cannot help but laugh.  Goats yelling

Happy Friday!!  This week seemed twice as long as it needed to be.  We finally have a move in date (23 days from now) so time seems to have slowed down to a crawl.  

Did you know that Daylight Savings is THIS weekend??  Doesn't that seem too early?  On the plus side we do get to put our clocks ahead one hour so our move in will happen that much quicker.  How is that for looking on the bright side?

Friday's Favorites

1. an unexpected twist~, 2. Things That Make Me Pause, 3. Time for tea, 4. Untitled, 5. far far away, 6.Pastel Summer, 7. birds these days, 8. Moraine Lake, 9. The Old Forest

• Pinterest blew up with repins of these printable chalkboard gift tags.  I know the chalkboard thing should be played out by now but I still love it.
• Sweet sweet love bird bowls
• I'm going to have to try this method for washing and whitening my grungy old pillows.  I usually just toss them.
• Love this slideshow of old Hollywood stars at home
• This doesn't exactly fit in with my decorating style but what a great DIY version of the sunburst mirror

Less than three weeks until Spring!  I can already feel it in the air. The days are warming up earlier and they are getting longer.  

We need to get through the month of March and then in April we can start planning the move into our new home.  We are just ITCHING to get in there and putting our stamp on things.  

I hope everyone has a wonderfully relaxing weekend planned.  I know I do.