My husband the carpenter

He's quite the craftsman these days.

Here's the process of making our new snazzy computer desk.






And... ta dah!



Did you notice?.. It's on caster wheels so we can unplug and roll our computer to the printer. Handy dandy!

The Chosen Pumpkin

I spent a good 15 minutes digging through the mound of decorative gourds at the grocery store.  I was examining all surfaces and carefully selecting the most unique one, of course. I imagined it sitting atop our table, daily reminding us of fall's arrival.


I finally narrowed my selection --passed up the wide, white Cinderella pumpkins, yellow squash-like gourds, and spotted petite green guys--and had the chosen pumpkin in hand, the one most interesting to me. 


As soon as I got home I placed it prominently in its position and waited to dazzle Caleb with my festive, perfect pumpkin. 

Minutes into his arrival, I hear him notice it. 


What I saw as charming and interesting and worthy of display, he saw as warty, ugly, and unappetizing.  It could be that the times we spend closest to it (admiring it...) are when we're eating :) Too funny.



We laugh a lot about our little pumpkin. (I think it's growing on him.) 


And I love that we each see the world through different eyes.  


Does anyone else find our pumpkin endearing? :)

Recovering our Chairs

It's funny to think about the family in Houston two years ago who threw these chairs on their curb for trash pickup. They have no idea that some lady (Hi, Mom!) would spot them, call her newly-a-homeowner-with-an-empty-house daughter to describe the trashy chairs that had "good bones" and potential once you looked past the faded purple-gone-brown stained and dog-furry fabric.


Here are the beauties before.
stained fabric (although awesomely geometric)

mysteriously sticky

and torn

But free :)


And...Fast-forward to when I get around to recovering these trash-to-treasure finds. Here's a peek at my process.


Demo and deep cleaning

primer & paint

meet fun Ikea fabric
staple guns

All arms and legs were used to pull the fabric as taut as I could.

Here's how they turned out. 

I decided to trim the chairs with double welt cording because I read it is the most forgiving trim since it's nice and wide. My favorite local fabric warehouse (remember, the place where I scavenged for my table runner pieces...) makes double-welt cording for a few dollars per yard. It turned out perfect...I love the quirky Tim Burton-y feel of the black and white diagonal stripes.





I love the hand-drawn quality of the Ikea fabric I picked for the seat of the chair and the backside. 




We're happy to have our old chairs a little bit freshened up :)

Queen of the Kitchen

There's a new gal in my kitchen.

She's pretty cute.  And loves to do the dishes. 

She has a lot going for her.

My mom got me this cute little brush to scrub dirty dishes. Makes the job much more fun :) 


Bonus:  Reminds me a lot of these gals...

          

It's a whole lot of fun having little things around your house that make you smile.  

Surround yourself with treasures that you like even if they don't go together--who cares if it's not the way the magazines say you should decorate?

Take it from me, the goof who has hippos and dolled-up dish brushes that help with the washing. 

Fence Suspense

So...

We've been up to something.







{Are we crazy? }

Nature Drawing: Rabbit

Well, it's kind of been plant week around here :) Jill Bliss (via Design*sponge) has inspired me to journal the nature around me. Today I featured a little character known well around these parts.

An outlaw. A rebel. Up to all sorts of mischief.

Family Antiques

My mama-in-law passed along two really neat old items for our home.

This great old RCA radio.


And this beautiful mirror from Hub's great-grandmother's farmhouse in Arkansas. Sentimental and sweet to have.



Lots of little family bits to love around here.

Our Great Adventure: Flooring

Before: carpet and vinyl



(here we are in November '09)

{Well, we finished laying the kitchen tile, moving all of our furniture into our front 3 rooms and garage, then ripping up all 1200 sf of carpet and the blasted tack strips that went with it--so the next step on the agenda was to install our own laminate.

After a really rough time fighting with some iffy-quality laminate, we returned all 55 boxes and launched plan B. Through a great friend we got a good deal on some hardwood...and it would be installed by the pros. In 2 days! We were relieved and so happy with the result.

The good news: since we had huge installation help, we met our goal of redoing 90% of our flooring in one month.

The bad news: we'll be eating canned beans for all of 2011.}

During: chaos! but lots of fun for our ambitious little hearts :)




After: a new house!







Very happy to make this investment ~ so thankful we were able to.

Thrilled to be done!

"Yyyyyyyyyyeeeessss! We're done!"