Chic Little House

Design Trends to Love or Hate?

2012-01-25T08:57:00.000-08:00

A year and and a half ago, I wrote a blog post titled Design Trends { Skip it ? } after I read an article from MSN Lifestyle about design trends that should go away. You can read the blog post here. I weighed in with my opinion on how I felt about the design trends, which by the way a year and a half later some still are going strong :) So when I came across another article via Apartment Therapy sharing an article they read in Elle Decor about the Worst Design Trends of 2011, and I had to read it and weight in. Here's the article form Elle Decor along with my thoughts.

Elle Decor: “I adore books and cannot imagine life, or my home, without them,” says Ronda Carman, of All the Best Blog. But for her, books as props have a short shelf life. “Rose Tarlow put it best: ‘An object added for effect instead of affection will always look like an affectation.’”

CLH: I agree, I love books, I love to read. I only buy books for my home that I love and plan to read. It's a plus with they come with pretty colored spines, because they look so pretty on bookcases. So if you see a pretty book like the classic Pride and Prejudice by Penguin Classics in my home, please know I love Jane Austen and that's why I bought the book. I plan on buying more Classics books for my home { The Secret Garden & Northhanger Abbey to name a few } when you buy the books you love, you value you them so much more.

The books are all pretty, but I'll only buy the ones I love to read :)

Elle Decor: Antiques dealer Richard Shapiro has modernism malaise, calling out the “monotony of one midcentury room after another, all with predictable, gratuitous, gimmicky accessories.” He lobbies for collecting objects from different periods and styles that all have a bit of soul.

CLH: Oh how I love mid century modern, after all our Rancher was built in the 1950's how could I not embrace little in my home. I do think a little goes a long way. I adore ( and get a ton of compliments ) on the MCM Secretary desk I bought via Craigslist and and refinished recently for our living room. I love the clean lines of Mid Century pieces and I personally LOVE finding old pieces { that are new to me } giving them some love and using them in my home.

Elle Decor: It’s time to retire brightly lacquered Hollywood Regency furniture, says decorator Mary McDonald: “I think we all have seen enough garage-sale junk sprayed in high-gloss Skittles colors to last through the next century.”

CLH: I disagree with Mary! I adore and never tire of seeing old cast off furniture given a new life because someone has vision. I think its great re-purpose furniture. So many pieces are given new life thanks to spray paint and a can of paint! As the old saying goes, one mans treasure is another mans junk. So whatever Mary, lol.

{ via Design Sponge }

Elle Decor: Designer Mario Buatta singles out “dysfunctional decoration,” his term for interiors that don’t relate to people. “Everything is done for styling, and nothing has to do with living— there’s no place to have a conversation or set down a drink,” he says. “The best time to look at a room is the day after you’ve had a party because you see the way people used the space.”

CLH: I agree, for me the best design is practical design. When my friends and family come over, I want them to feel comfortable and relaxed. so while the living room below is pretty, doesn't make sense for my life. Just a little too sterile and not personal enough for me.

{ via here }

Elle Decor: The DIY craze has run its course, says decorator Sheila Bridges, who has seen her share of “earthy, handmade concoctions. Just because it can be reclaimed doesn’t mean it should be.”

CLH: Seems to me Shelia is lacking some vision or hasn't been on Pinterest. I love love a good DIY project and I love so many pretty and crafty & artsy items on Esty. It's fun to 'think out side the box' in terms of retail stores. I think a mish mash of homemade and store bought goods and adds interest in a home + you put your own personal stamp when you DIY a project and you save money and up your own personal skill level. And lastly there's a certain satisfaction you get when you DIY :) I love all the early 'concoctions' below, bring it on the more the merrier :)

Mug Cozy, yes!

{ via Etsy seller Lilac Gifts }

DIY Kids Cushion, Yes!

{ via Pinterest }

For me interior design and decor isn't about spending lots of money its about getting creative and having fun. My husband and I are all about creating a home we love on a budget, and when your on a budget it forces you to get creative :) For me that's when I'm most creative.

Now I'd love to hear your thoughts on the topic. Which design trends to do love or hate and why? do you agree with the designers in the Elle Decor Magazine? Also which trends have you skipped and why?

After Christmas for Christmas

2012-01-20T08:28:00.000-08:00

Is it socially acceptable to talk about Christmas goodies I won't be using for another 11 months? Let's just pretend is perfectly OK. I didn't mean to buy anything after Christmas for Christmas, but hey when you come across items that are marked down 50 to 70% off, you need to at least look at potential goodies. My first stop checking out Christmas goodies was West Elm ( online ) I was a day late shopping online, but I still scored four red felted stockings for only $ 4 bucks each and free shipping! I didn't even have to drive to our nearest West Elm which is about 20-25 mins in my car, this makes me a happy girl. I'm so glad I bought them! Every year I intend to sew stockings, I just never find time. Next year we're planning on a colorful traditional Christmas decor.

My next Christmas loot came from Target, there I bought a box of pretty green & red ornaments for around five bucks, I also bought some breaded cranberry strings and a Christmas door mat for only three dollars! The door mat is so nice, its already packed away for next year. I also grabbed a bunch of wrapping paper for only a $ 1.25!!

Lastly my favorite buy is the vintage style Elf on the Shelf!! I'm so happy about getting this set it even comes with the book :) I paid half :) I love how its all about starting new family traditions, so this makes it even more fun. I'm so excited about the Elf!! :)

Did you score any good deals after Christmas for Christmas?

Flor Decisions

2012-01-19T08:46:00.000-08:00

The time has come to decide on a rug for the nursery, I know my little baby is now 7 mos old! Where does the time go? Anyways, right now I'm about 90% certain were going to do Flor carpet tiles in the nursery for the rug. I like the fact that you can custom build a rug to fit your space, and love how easy there are to clean. Easy to be clean is a must with a little one { spit-ups, drool and snacks etc } I also like the look of the Flor tiles, just enough push without the lint. We've been carpet fee since moving into our home so I no longer deal with carpet lint, now I deal with dust bunnies. I guess its a good trade-off we love our wood floors.

Before ordered a bunch of tiles for his rug, and hoping the colors will look good in Avery's nursery, I decided to order four carpet tile samples. Oh I also played on their online 'build-a-rug tool' that helped give me an idea of how the tiles will lay. Here are the tiles & colors I ordered.

Toy Poodle - Cloud ( looks light blue )

Toy Poodle Frost ( looks grey)

Toy Poodle Oyster ( looks greige )

Feelin' Groovy Bone ( looks white )

I'm planning on going with a 5 x 8 rug size which requires, but I don't want a solid color rug. I'm planning on doing a stripe rug. I'll buy six of each color tile. The Flor tile squares on pretty large about 19 x 19 so each row of stripes will be nice and wide. Now if only Hasani and I could agree on the color of the stripes. Here's the possible combinations

Cloud & Frost

Oyster & Bone

Cloud & Bone

Frost & White

When I originally ordered the tiles samples, I was pretty certain I would prefer a grey and cream { almost white } stripes. But, after seeing the grey and light blue together I loved how the colors look together. I really think a blue and grey rug would look so pretty! Right now in Avery's nursery he has subtle hints of blue, there's blue animals on the bedding, and a the pretty hand knitted blanket my girlfriend gave him.

To male sure the rug colors really worked in the space, I held the samples up to Avery's baby bedding loved it. Then I placed the samples under his ottoman again loved. Lastly I placed his pillow that's always on his nursery chair on top of the samples, again loved!

I love Frost & Cloud! :)

Here's a reminder of how Avery's nursery looks. The room is begging for a rug! :)

What color combinations do you think will work best in his nursery? Are you on my team Grey & Blue or Hasani's Grey & White?

Opinions welcomed :)

** ps: I'm not being paid to talk about this rug option, just really excited about it! :)

Avery's Seven Month Birthday Photo

2012-01-18T08:34:00.000-08:00

It's so hard to believe our little guy is already seven months old! Avery is so much fun, just looking at him makes my heart skip a beat! Quick reminder just in case your new to my blog, we're taking monthly pictures of Avery for the next two years in his nursery. Nothing will be planned just him hanging out, its such a fun way to watch your baby grow up. After 24 months of pictures, I will turn the photos into a book.

Avery Seven Months

I just love his bed head!! If you follow me on Twitter, you saw that I wrote, Avery + Overalls + Stripes = heart melting!!! We love you little guy and are so blessed you have you in our lives!! :)

Practical Shelving

2012-01-17T09:47:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a lovely week last week, sorry I was MIA { except for one post } I couldn't find my card reader to my camera to upload pictures and time just got away from me. With that said we have been more productive over here at CLH. Remember our bathroom project we've slowly been working on? When we last left off, we installed a new sink to our existing cabinet, which instantly made our bathroom feel fresh. Well last weekend the bathroom officially got painted Bedford Grey from Martha Stewart Living color matched to Olympic Paint. i'm in love with this color!! Its made our one and only small bathroom feel so much bigger!! I love when paint does that!.

This past weekend we installed shelves in our bathroom. At first I bought the EKBY Valter brackets from Ikea, but those had to be painted white. As much as I love painting, I decided to head back to Ikea and exchange those for brackets that were already white. I eneded up buying the EKBY Stodis in white from only fifty cents per bracket, super cheap, yes. It's cool that they are were so affordable, but I love the fact they look so clean since we opted for the exposed look in our bathroom, like our Pinterest inspiration picture. We decided three shelves in our bathroom would be perfect. Here's our new shelves. For now bath room stuff is just 'on the shelves' no pretty styling done yet. We still need to removed the stickers from the shelves { little things like that, lol } However, you can see how much storage space we added in our bathroom! Each shelf is over two feet long, so we added over eight feet of usable space in our bathroom :) This makes me a very happy girl.

I love our new shelves! I'm so happy with the additional storage space for practical bathroom stuff { face wash, lotions etc } and space for pretty too { candles, perfume, pictures etc.} We are almost done with our bathroom. Still left: clean bathroom, re-paint trim, buy artwork or create some, hang shower curtain. Oh I also love our new acrylic containers from the container store! Its had to tell in the above pictures, but they are such a great size and are very nice! I'm so glad I found a pretty alternative to glass. Love glass, but acrylic works so much better for our lives { baby, tween, clumsy husband, you get the point! }

Hopefully our bathroom will be in ship shop shape all ready from a complete reveal very soon, maybe next Monday :)

What do you think of our practical bathroom shelves? Anything on your project list taking longer than expected like our bathroom?

Baby Toys We Love

2012-01-10T13:47:00.000-08:00

These days they have the cutest baby toys for the little ones, that melt my heart! I love getting Avery sweet baby toys I know he'll enjoy for years { it's so hard not to go crazy when getting him stuff!} I put together a round-up of baby toys Avery & I love :)

Here's the breakdown and why we love them!

1. Skip Hop Hug a Dog I love it because its cute, hug-able. The arms open wide to reveal a puppy and a mirror { baby safe }
2. Melissa & Doug Rainbow Stacker I love it because it has bright colors and super soft stacking development toy.
3. Melissa & Doug Giraffe I love it because its the perfect grasping toy for little hands, the neck twists and turns in all fun directions
4. Melissa & Dough Three Little Pigs We got this gift for my girlfriends sons 1st birthday. Who doesn't love the story of the three little pigs? perfect for teaching little ones stories with 'visual aides'. All the houses stack inside each other for easy cleanup and the child can carry it from spot to spot.
5. Rings I love baby rings for so many reasons, keeping toys attached to the car seat or stroller, to count with to play with, teaching colors! So many reasons
6. Barn Friends I love these little barn animals, each one makes a sound and Avery loves playing with the barn since its a bright red. Perfect for imagination play
7. Carters Stacker I love it because babies MUST have more than one darling stacker!
8. Fisher Price Piano I love that's its colorful and the keys make a cute sound. Avery loves tapping away on it. We might have a little pianist!
9. Skip Hop Animal Trio - I love owls and these are perfect for the stroller, they also make sounds, perfect for little hands
10. Sophie the Giraffe, Avery loves this giraffe she is a must have for babies that are teething the rubber helps soothe his gums and he's able to grasp it himself

We have all the toys above { except number four, which he'll get when he's a little older } Avery loves his baby toys and plays with the above toys all the time. It's so much fun watching him military crawling to play with his toys we place just out of his reach. Baby toys have gotten so much cuter and developmental since we had our tween 11 years ago, its fun being a mommy to a little one again. Oh, and I'm not being paid to share our favorite baby toys just thought I'd pass along the ones we love :)

What's you favorite baby toy from the list above? Or which baby toys did/does your little one adore?

Peppermint Bark (Homemade)

2012-01-06T08:41:00.000-08:00

My son and I recently made homemade Peppermint Bark its super easy, oh so delicious and a great way to use left over candy canes for Christmas. We actually made bark on Christmas Eve, but we ate it all up before I could take pictures. So we just had to { insert mischievous laughter } make more to share the recipe with all of you. For the recipe you only need three ingredients: Peppermint Candy Canes, Milk Chocolate or Dark Chocolate { I'm a Milk Chocolate girl } and White Chocolate. Next grab a small or medium cookie sheet and parchment paper or wax paper for easy cleanup and follow my directions below.

Directions

Line your cookie sheet with Parchment Paper or Wax Paper
In a microwave safe bowl heat 1 cup of chocolate chips for 1 minute, then stir until all the chocolate chips are melted. Then pour the melted chocolate onto your cookie sheet and spread. Repeat with the additional chocolate left in the bag.
Cool the melted chocolate in the fridge for 10 mins
Break your candy canes into chunks. We placed our candy canes inside of a zip lock bag and smashed them with a hammer! :) DIY baby!
Removed the chocolate from the fridge
Repeat step '2' heating instructions for the white chocolate. Pour the layer of white chocolate over the the milk chocolate. Then layer your candy cane chunks on top of the white chocolate and gently mush chunks into white chocolate using the back a spoon.
Place the bark into the fridge and let chill for 2 hours
Grab another cookie sheet and turn the bark upside down. Then break apart chunks with a knife.
Enjoy!!!

Our Peppermint bark, ready to be broken up in chunks

Peppermint bark is my new obsession its so delicious!!! I like eat my all by its self or with a cup of hot coca YUM! I stored the bark we made in zip lock bag and kept it in the fridge. Next year we plan on giving Peppermint Bark away as Christmas presents :) Here's how our yummy bark turned out. Tabari just refers to it as 'bark' such a tween :)

See, proof that Peppermint Bark makes kids happy! lol

Even bigger smile!

Here's his, 'OK mom can I please eat my Bark already' look :)

Have you made Peppermint Bark before? What new sweets recipe did you and your family make over the holidays? Please feel free to share your recipe link with us!

DIY Gold Bowls

2012-01-05T08:57:00.000-08:00

I love when I come across ideas that are so simple yet inspiring that is a total DIY must. I saw these pretty little gold bowls on Pinterest and knew I had to DIY a version.

{ via Pinterest }

All you need to re-create a DIY version of the bowls above are; simple white bowls, gold paint and a craft brush. I found three mini bowls at Cost Plus { they're actually small tea cups } and a medium square bowl with round edges at Ikea. I love the little bowls cute and they where cheap, only 99 cents each. The Ikea bowl was a little pricier around two bucks. After finding the perfect bowls, I bought a bottle of Acrylic Gold paint from Walmart for only 97 cents. Love that they bought their craft section back! I can stop in there and pay next to nothing for craft supplies and some sewing supplies.

Here's what I did. I poured a small amount of paint directly into the bowl and slowing painted the entire inside of my bowl. I left the paint dry for 3 hours and then applied a second coat of paint.
For the Ikea bowl I wanted to try something a different. I wanted to have a pretty design inside of the bowl, so I used a butterfly pattern ( left over from my wedding). I placed double side tape on the butterfly and placed it inside the bowl and then painted the entire inside gold. After allowing the paint to dry for an hour I carefully took the pattern out of the bowl. Then I waited another hour and carefully painted another coat of gold paint inside the bowl.

Here are my little DIY gold bowls. I really like how they turned out. The gold paint is so vibrant in color and it shines. The small bowls are perfect for rings, earrings and small precious jewelry. I'm going to place two on my nightstand and one on Hasani's for his wedding ring. I plan on placing the butterfly bowl { its new name } in the bathroom.

Here's the butterfly bowl, not perfect but perfectly imperfect. The the natural light in my house was starting to disappear when I took this last photo, so I I had Hasani hold the bowl. I love how the butterfly is center towards to bottom of the bowl.

It's funny, I love sliver and pewter shades in my house, but now I want to pull our my paint brush again and pretty up some more items with gold. This is such an easy project and a must to add to you DIY to do list. Little bowls painted with a variety of colors on the inside would also make pretty gifts:)

What do you think of the little bowls? Are you a 'new' fan of gold again? Like I am.

Top Five of 2011

2012-01-04T13:02:00.000-08:00

Wow we are officially four days into a New Year!! Last year went by so fast, but I think they all do when you have kiddos and now that we were blessed with a new baby in June I'm sure time will speed up even faster. It's fun to look back over the past year and reminiscence about my favorite fun projects. I decided to stick with my Top Five Projects of 2011 broken down by category, the projects big and small that I had fun doing. From painting to sewing to crafting ( a little) here they are.

Top Five of 2011

Best Refreshed Furniture Piece

Mid Century Modern Desk
- I love how many purposes this pretty desk has in our home. The dresser holds, our DVDs, board games and even provides a work space. Gotta love a multi-functional piece that we bought for only $ 80 bucks for. All it needed was a little 'PP&P' that's Primer, Paint & Pulls :) Read more about its makeover here.

Best Use of Glossy Spray Paint

Mirror Makeover
Transforming an old dated mirror I bought at a Thrift Store proved to be easy peasy when I used super glossy Krylon Fusion Spray Paint in Navy. The result a pretty focal point at the end our our hallway. Read more about this project here.

Best Use of Ribbon

DIY Back Tab Drapes

Who knew Ribbon could be so useful when making back tab style drapes? Ribbon ended up being the perfect solution to make my DIY drapes appear pleated and more polished. You can read my how to here.

Most Fun with Mini Pom Poms

DIY Giraffe Softies

I made two darling little giraffes for Avery's nursery, thanks to the help of a pattern I found on Woman's Day. I changed up the pattern just a little bit and added cute mini pom poms for the giraffes mane. I used the same fabric for each giraffe just in a different color. Read more about this sewing project here.

Most Fun with Colored Paper

Baby Artwork for the Nursery

I had so much fun transforming color paper into pretty artwork for Avery's nursery. For the artwork below, I used left of dot garland I made for my baby shower and framed it. The dots are varying shades of blue. They look so sweet in his nursery. Check out the other color paper projects I completed here.

That's my round up for 2011. I'm so looking forward to what this year will bring. The plan for the new year is to work on lots of projects that are both budget friendly to our wallet, but have big impact. I've already finished up my 1st DIY project of the year and will share on Thursday. Oh, and I'm almost DONE with our bathroom update!

How was your New Years eve, whats you favorite fun project you completed last year?

Relaxing

2011-12-28T08:19:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone!! I hope you all had a lovely fun filled holiday with your loved ones! We had a great Christmas spent with our kiddos and family. My posting will be a little spotty until next week. I'm going to take some blog time off to enjoy my family and work on some new projects about our house and on the blog as mentioned in this post a few months back { here } We have a bunch of projects { in progress } we are working on around the house. I hope to get a few done in the next few days, just in time for the New Year. It's hard to believe it will be 2012 in a few days!

Holiday Movies

2011-12-22T08:26:00.000-08:00

There's nothing I love more than doing a Holiday Movie Marathons with my family. In fact Movie & TV show marathons are a regular occurrence around our home. In the past we've done Die Hard Movie-thons (1-4) I'd never seen them before, and actually ended up liking the series. We've done Saw Movie-thons, Breaking Bad TV-thons, Elm Street Movie-thons the list goes on and on. Of course we save the scary movies / too young for Tabari to watch Movie-thons for us the adults :)

I love watching Holiday movies during the Holidays ( of course I could watch the movies above anytime of the year!). Every weekend this month we've been getting our into the holiday spirit with holiday movies, making a ginger bread house and baking cookies. I love watching these holiday movies year after year: Love Actually, Jingle All the Way, Family Man, Trading Places (LOVE THIS MOVIE) Home Alone, Deck the Halls, The Santa Clause, Scrooged, While you Were Sleeping and The Holiday.

What are your favorite Holiday movies to watch year after year?

Built-in Bookcases

2011-12-15T08:49:00.000-08:00

A few months one of my girlfriends mentioned to me, she's planning on adding built-in bookcases to her living room for more more storage for books, movies pretty much 'life stuff.' I loved her idea and started emailing her inspiration ideas, to come up with the perfect bookcase style for her home. Not too much later it dawned on me, that's what our living room needs! I started gathering ideas for 'our bookcase style.'

I drew up some plan drafts on paper, then finally on the computer. Here's what I've come up with so far. The lower section of the bookcases would consist of cabinets. Which is the perfect spot to hide clutter: DVDs, DVD player, cable box etc. The top section would be a mix of long shelves and a middle section a spot for our TV. The TV would hang inside the bookcases / on the wall. I want to bookcases to be floor to ceiling, wall to wall.

My bookcase plans are very rough, nothing is drawn to scale { right now } and no measurements have been taken { yet } But this is the overall idea of how we want them to look. We want the bookcase to be placed where our current TV and Ikea bookcases are now. It makes the most sense and its the perfect spot in our living room for them. I like the bookcases we purchased from Ikea awhile ago, however it just makes more sense to have built-in ones. I found the image below via Pinterest and love the simplicity and style of the bookcase. I want ours to feel clean lined and have faux feet, like in my sketch above and in the picture below. I think the chunky feet style really give the feeling of a more modern clean lined look.

{ via Pinterest }

Another example of how I want the feet to look on the bookcase.

We decided to DIY our bookcases after seeing how amazing Sara via Russet Street Reno's turned out. Yup, Sara and her husband built the bookcases themselves! Lovely, huh! It really adds to much appeal and style in our 'Woman Cave'

{ via Russet Street Reno }

Our plan is to do a mix of ready cabinets for the bottom bookcases { like Sara did } and the top make 3 - 4 long bookcases depending on measurements for the upper portion of the bookcases. My sketch below is an example of the individual upper bookcase unit we would build. Each bookcase portion then would be connected to the cabinets.

After we tweak our plans to achieve exactly the style we want ( with measurements etc.) the next plan is pricing and cabinet shopping for the lower portion of the bookcases. We'll be doing a lot of price comparing to get the best deal. Here's a picture of in stock cabinets from Lowes 36x30

Here's a look at how our living room currently looks. Can you see my vision? Floor to ceiling bookcases with long thick shelves and a perfect spot for our TV to hang.

I'm really looking forward to this project and the amazing transformation of our our living once its completed. I know they'll be many hours of sanding, painting, cutting and screaming { me } But I can feel the end result will be amazing!

Can you picture it?

'Tis the Season

2011-12-13T10:50:00.000-08:00

It's starting to feel more like Christmas now that we have Holiday Decor and our tree up in our living room. I like to keep Holiday decor sweet and simple, a little can go a long way. For a few years we've been decorating our home with blues & silvers, next year I want to go crazy with the color! Crossing fingers I can find lots of pretty colorful ornaments on sale after the Holiday. Here's our home dressed for the Holidays.

{ Can you see my reflection in the bulbs? That's just me saying Hi! }

I wanted a little Holiday tree on top of our secretary desk, so I used a manzanita branch and spray painted it white placed it in a large round vase ( left our from our wedding) and wrap it in sliver ribbon. Then I hung ornaments on the branches (instant pretty).

A few years ago I made a white feather wreath for Christmas, this year I made a wreath twin and hung them from our bookcases. I opted to only decorate the top of the bookcases, again keeping it simple.

A closer look. Ornaments placed in vases and just resting on top.

More ornaments placed a pretty bowl! To more ornaments look pretty on the tree and scattered around the house in vases, bowls on wreaths wherever!

Finally our tree! I let Tabari decorate the tree this year, he had to much fun and didn't break one ornament, but I did! lol

My favorite ornament of all time is the gingerbread ornament Tabari made in Kindergarten, it still smells good years later. He placed his letter 'T' ornament next to it. We started a tradition last of buying a special ornament each year, he decided on the 'T' and got an 'A' for Avery. I opted for the pretty white owl { sitting on our secretary desk } Hasani also got an owl a cute felted one for the tree.

A tree is not complete without a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, { heroes in a half shell, turtle power} lol

Some beads and snowflakes dressed up our entryway.

Most of our holiday decor is done, I need a few more coats of white on my Goodwill deer and plan on making a few ornaments I saw on Pinterest with the kiddos this week. I'll share when done.

Have you finished all your Holiday decor? Any projects your still working on?

Under Foot

2011-12-12T08:40:00.000-08:00

Do you remember my little shipping trip to West Elm on Black Friday where I bought two new circle dot pillows for our living room? Well I mentioned I we also purchased something else, and would share when our shipment arrived. Our package arrived late late Monday night, seriously late. Our UPS man must have been doing some serious overtime, because we got a knock at our door a little after 8pm, then heard a truck speed off. Yeah our UPS guy never hangs around to see if we even open our door, he jumps in his truck and floors it. Now back to what we bought from West Elm. Ever since we re-finished our original 1956 wood floors, we've been wanting find a rug to go in our living room, to warm it up a bit. I love how our wood floors look, and have been enjoying their natural beauty, but with a baby that's now 6mos old its important to offer a softer soft to play on, site on, roll over on and eventually crawl on.

So while we were in there, I decided we must look at samples and see if anything will work for our space. I really wanted to show Hasani the Jute Dot rug, the same rug I've been lusting over for months.

Lucky for us they finally had a rug sample in the store { I wanted to see it in person too } I showed Hasani the sample on the floor, they have light faux wood flooring in the store and he hated it. I was sad but not ready to give up on the Jute Dot Rug just yet. I placed the rug sample on top of a dark dresser to show him how the rug would look on our floors. Like me he's a very visual person, so giving me an example of our it relates to our house made him fall in love with the rug!

West Elm had a sale going on purchases over one hundred were 10% off, we saved $ 17.90 on the rug. The rug cost $ 161.10 + tax + shipping, but I ended up saving an additional $ 61.52 on my purchase. How? Price Adjustment, baby :) On 12/8 my exact rug went on sale for 30% off the original price! West Elm has a 14 day price adjustment, I called their 800# and they promptly issued me a credit our $ 61.52, Yay!! We ended up paying $ 136.48 for a 5x8 hand made quality Jute rug! Oh how I love Store Price Adjustment Policies. Here's a pic of our rug-less living room from a few months ago before I moved the furniture around.

I was a bit nervous when we rolled the rug, what if we didn't like it? Should we have gotten a larger rug? What if its too neutral? My nerves proved to be wrong, because we LOVE the rug. It brings so much warmth into our living room. I adore the various subtle shades woven into the rug, and love the hexagon shapes ( its no a dot dot rug) I also love the subtle zig zag pattern in the rug for certain angles. Here's our new rug and first rug for our house, I can't believe we've been rug-less for almost 3 years. Patience pays off, I guess.

We've had a few family members stop by last week and they loved it to, its an instant pow! Without being to in your face, ya know. I find the texture under my bare feet to be comfy, then again we haven't had carpet in 3 years, so maybe its just personal preference.

Avery also gave it his approval.

I'm glad we went with more neutral style rug, because I'll be able to change up our living room color scheme whenever I want to. Right now I'm loving navy's, greens, and goldenrod yellow. Our pillows feel right at home with our new rug. and here's a better look at my new green pillows we got at West Elm on Black Friday .

We also made some more changes in our living room. When we first bought our sofa at Scandinavian Designs we opted for maple wood feet, well as you know most of our home has darker wood tones. So instead of buying new feet, we spray painted of sofa's feet with the left over Metallic Spray paint. I did the same thing to Avery's vintage ottoman when I get it an update over the Summer, the spray painted feet our holding up well. Our sofa's new feet color looks so good. We're still looking for a large mirror or artwork to go above the sofa. We recently hung our son's artwork above our newly painted secretary desk, so the wall's not completely empty.

I'm so glad we bought this rug, only 3-4 more rugs to go in our house!

What so you think of our new rug addition? Is there a rug you've been lusting at for your own home? does your UPS also do a 'hit and run' ? lol

Bathroom Progress

2011-12-07T09:04:00.000-08:00

I'm so happy there's a little bathroom progress to share! as I mentioned before our plan was to replace our old bathroom sink with a new one and keep our existing cabinet. We deiced to keep the existing cabinet for three reasons: #1. It was solid wood #2. I painted the wood a rich brown awhile back and we still liked the look # 3. We wanted the update to be cheap.

We bought a new sink counter from HD Home Supply, love that store. They have very competitive prices for builder grade /style updates. We always go there when we need to rent something { Floor Sanders, Power Snake } because their prices are so much lower then Home Depot & The staff is knowledgeable. We bought a simple white sink from there for only $ 53.00, such a good deal. Hasani installed our new sink with ease and no drips. He's working on a how to install as sink post, as I'm writing this post. Oh we opted to keep our faucet, since it was a teeny upgrade and still new-ish { 2.5 years old) Here's our old bathroom sink. In the pictures its hard to tell how dingy it was.

The new sink has made such a huge difference, our old sink was a tacky faux marble cream color, it was stained. No matter how much a I scrubbed and bleached the sucker it never look clean. I'm in love with our new clean white sink against the dark wood cabinet. I actually walked by our bathroom and few times and flipped the light on just to see how nice it looked. I need to do a little repair work above the sink, our old sinks backslash was much taller then our new one. The repair is such an easy peasy fix.

Sorry for the dark pictures! Our bathroom has very little natural light, so why I painted it the ugly sea foam green is beyond me. I also picked up this little blue soap dish holder from West Elm on Black Friday. I'm more on a pump soap kind of gal, but loved the little pop of blue around the base. And it was only .97 cents, so I said what the heck and bought it.

As I mentioned before, I planned on painting our Bathroom again making this the third time I painted the bathroom, second time this year!. After much debate with Hasani, we decided to paint the bathroom Bedford Grey by Martha Stewart Living. We had the paint color matched to Olympic Paint, in satin finish at Lowes. . My goal was to paint the bathroom over the Thanksgiving Holiday, but we just got to busy and I never made the time. We still need to take down the old hardware, patch holes and then I can paint the bathroom. The gallon on paint is sitting in our garage waiting to be opened

{ Bedford Grey Martha Stewart Living }

I also bought six EKBY Valter brackets from Ikea that need to be painted white. I bought them from $3 bucks each, so I spent $ 18 dollars on them. I'm going to go to Lowes and buy the wood or MDF board for the shelves, I'll have them make the cuts for me.

I wanted to buy the EKBY Stilig Brackets, but they weren't in stock a few weekends ago. There now back in stock, so I'll go to Ikea over the weekend and exchange the ones I bought for the ones I want. They're a dollar more each, but the require no painting so its a tie.

I can finally start seeing some progress in our tiny bathroom and boy does it feel good! Plus its nice to see a small bathroom update ~~upgrade~~ can have such a nice impact on in our bathroom. Its already feeling more fresh and modern-ish.

What do you think our our little sink refresh?

Secretary Desk is Done

2011-12-05T06:00:00.000-08:00

Do you remember the Mid Century Modern desk I purchased in September? If not here's a quick reminder, I found the desk one night while trolling Craigslist looking for a Secretary desk to help De-clutter our living room. I paid $ 80 bucks, they were asking $ 90 bucks. The desk is worth every penny and then some. The previous owner, had the the secretary desk for over 40 years and only parted with the desk when his wife wanted him to De-clutter { oh the irony}. We talked about staining the desk a dark walnut or painting the desk a shade of griege. Here's a reminder of how our desk looked before its makeover.

Before I even completed the makeover, I loved how the desk looked in our living room. Its such a great piece and so well made { solid wood }

I decided to paint the secretary desk by Cobblestone Martha Stewart. It's the perfect shade of griege.

The original stain was worn thin and flaky on the top of the desk, so I used my power sander on the entire desk to removed the old varnish. Its the same basic power sander I used on my sons desk, compact but works good. After sanding the entire desk, I applied three coats of Zisner primer with a sponge roller. I allowed each coat to dry 6 hours before reapplying the next coat.

I really liked using the Martha Stewart paint, but its very very thin, I ended up applying 4 coats of paint! This time I waited 24 hours before applying the next coat, I wanted to allow each layer of paint to fully cure before applying the next coat. I used a sponge roller to apply the paint and then went back over the the paint with a brush. I use Purdy brushes for a nice smooth finish. I decided to keep the original pulls, but wanted to change up the look of the first drawer. Originally the first drawer had six tiny knobs, I replaced those with four knobs I bought at HD Supply for only $1.67 each. The drawer now has four knobs, I used wood filler on two of the holes and the faux notch drawer. I felt six knobs looked too busy on the drawer and desk, I'm glad I went with my gut and changed it up. I spray painted all the pulls oil rubbed bronze. I had a left over can from spray painting Avery's ottoman. I really like how the oil rubbed bronze gives off a nice metallic shiny finish. I bought a little can of Valspar black gloss to paint the feet on the Secretary desk. Here's our secretary desk. It turned out so nice!

It took awhile to complete the Secretary desk, but it was so worth it. I'm in love with how it looks in our living room, its such a great multi-functional piece. We plan on using the top piece that pulls down to store our office stuff, one side will be Hasani's and the other mine. The first drawer will be for more office stuff: chargers, paper, misc items. The bottom two drawers are nice and deep perfect for movies and board games.

What do you think our my Mid Century Modern Secretary desk redone?

Have you painted any Craigslist finds recently?

Favorite 'Pins' Thus Far

2011-12-01T12:44:00.000-08:00

I'm having a blast 'Pinning' so mo many pretty ideas for my home from decorating ideas, and sewing musts. I wanted to share with you all a few of my favorite Pins. I've been 'Pinning' a lot of built in bookcases, ideas I'm thinking about for our living room. I think built-ins would be perfect for our living room and provide so much additional storage not to mention more places for pretty things.

{ via here }

I'm all about the floor to ceiling built in bookcases, with cabinets below and room for a flat screen is a must, I love the one below. Simply put floor to ceiling!

I'm have a major crush on the bookcase below, I love the clean modern lines of each shelf nice and long. A nice twist on the conventional built in style. It feels so me.

{ via here }

I've also been Pinning kitchens, since our kitchen update is in our very near future. 1st paint, then more cabinets and finally new counters, Hallelujah! The kitchen below is a great example of using stock cabinets to create custom look.

{ via here }

I'm also finding so many great crafting and sewing ideas, I can't wait to try out! i just need a quiet moment at home to whip out my sewing machine and get busy. I'm loving this idea for storing fabric, so clever! My little house doesn't have this much room, but I can make the baskets work in a closet { perhaps the sewing closet I want to work on still } on shelves to keep my fabric nice and tidy. I know my husband would appreciate it! lol

{ via here }

I'm making a bunch of softies for Avery for Christmas and for some of my friends baby boys too! I'm planning on making Avery a cute cloud below, the ribbon makes it so darling.

{ via here }

I'm sure you've all see this cute idea on Apartment Therapy. Super clever jar + plastic animal + glue + spray paint = fun way to keep the kiddos organized! I'm going to do a few jars for my tween, I know they make him smile and keep him organized.

{ via here }

As I said before I'm loving Pinterest! All the ideas blow me away, especially the affordable ones { or ideas you can MAKE affordable } because being on a budget like our household is when decorating forces you get creative! If your on Pinterest follow me and include your link in the comments so I can follow you back :)

What's your favorite thing(s) you've pinned lately?

Homemade Holiday Drinks

2011-11-30T10:09:00.000-08:00

I'm a Huge coffee drinker and usually get the same few types of coffee unless its around the Holidays and there's a few more choices . So just a few weeks ago I decided to get the Caramel Apple Spice . I haven't had It since last year and completely forgot about it and Katrina has never had it, when she had a sip of my she loved it. So it quickly became a big deal at Chic Little House lol . As I was waiting in line I happen to glance over and got a chance to see how simple it was to make at home. I double checked with the Barista to make sure I had it right and now I'm sharing it online lol .

Caramel Apple Spice

You Will Need

1. Cinnamon Dolce syrup - we use the Starbucks brand
2. Apple Juice
3. Cinnamon and sugar
4. Whip Cream
5. Caramel

In a coffee mug or glass depending on how warm you like your drink first add 1 pump of syrup for every 4oz of apple juice .Then add steamed apple juice (I like to stir the syrup and Apple juice at this point but I think it taste just as good if you don't ) ,whip cream on top then caramel , cinnamon and sugar .And that it .If you have had this drink or try it please let us know what you think .

Katrina likes caramel on in the inside of the of the cup (this is optional) I think its too sweet.

Katrina's cup of Caramel Apple Spice - lots of Caramel

My cup less Caramel, but still good!

Another holiday favorite is the classic EGGNOG . Even before I had "REAL" EGGNOG I loved it but I always just bought it from the store and drank it plain and SOMETIMES added Brandy lol. One day I had a few friends over and one noticed the carton of eggnog I had in the refrigerator . He told me that He makes his own and showed me how, so now I make it every year.

Classic Eggnog

You Will Need

4 eggs
1 table spoon of vanilla extract
3/4 cup of sugar
Nutmeg
Pint of milk
2 cups whip cream
1/4 cup rum
1 cup brandy

Stir egg and sugar together in a large saucepan; gradually stir in milk. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, for 18 to 20 minutes or until mixture thickens and coats the spoon this is to make sure there's no bacteria from the eggs I heard the alcohol kills the bacteria but I'm over cautious lol . Remove from heat then stir in brandy, rum, and vanilla. Cover and chill for approximately 8 hours. Final step - beat whipping cream at high speed with an electric mixer until soft peaks form; fold into the chilled egg mixture. Garnish with nutmeg or more whip cream (if desired). This should make about 8 cups

Please share with us your favorite Holiday drinks and/or even your recipes for these same drinks. We would love to hear.

Hasani

Black Friday Shopping

2011-11-29T09:01:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a fun relaxing Thanksgiving!! I planned on posting on Monday, but decided to extend the Thanksgiving weekend a little bit longer, I hope you all understand. We didn't do a whole lot of shopping on Black Friday { we didn't leave our house until after 10am! } talk about late, but got some good deals on a few unexpected items that made us smile. Our first stop on Black Friday was Best buy, we mostly looked around at TVs and CD's but left empty handed, then we headed next door to Target. Oh how I love Target, amazing we only bought one thing a DVD of It's Complicated. I love Meryl Streep and loved the movie and for only $3.99 I gladly took it home with us. Do you remember the amazing kitchen from the movie?

{ via here }

Next we stopped in Hobby Lobby, its my third time there since my first visit a few weeks back. I picked up a few things for Christmas. Then we headed to Goodwill. I discovered last year that Goodwill has half off days on Black Friday. The Goodwill we popped is was buy, people had cart fulls of items. I was super happy when I spotted a large gold paper mache reindeer and a mini one. Here's the cute set I bought for only $ 3.50. One of the antlers on the large reindeer needs repair, nothing a little hot glue can't fix.

Hasani thought I was crazy was crazy when he saw me pushing our stroller and carrying a large gold reindeer under my arm. Are you thinking the same thing? I'm planning on spray painting the pair glossy white, which will give them an instant modern look, kind of like the West Elm Paper Mache ones at $100 each. So cool, I only spent a little over three bucks to achieve almost the exact same look.

{ West Elm }

Oh and Z Gallerie also sells deer at $ 129 bucks a pop! The Z Gallerie version is white and glittery. It's much larger in person than the West Elm ones are, more like my deer which is over two feet tall!

Then we gabbed some lunch at Boudin SF , they have the yummiest bread ever! I love eating there, especially on a brisk sunny Friday afternoon. Too cute Daddy and Baby matched! Grey on Grey. After lunch we popped in Anthorpoligie, sorry no pictures, I just browsed, because I really wanted to go to West Elm. It's my new favorite store.

I love West Elm's clearance section, so many goodies!! I took my time and looked though all the bins, they have a ton of pillow covers on sale and tons of dishes.

I found two pretty green pillow covers, that I'd seen online and didn't think much of until I saw them in person. The green is so pretty and the circle dot print it subtle and delicate it adds a nice textural pattern against the green fabric. I also liked that the back of the pillow closure was done in brown buttons. I bought two pillow on clearance for $ 9.99 each. I also grabbed an egg shaped greige vase, they were only bucks can't beat that. Do you remember the bathroom hook that I was hoping to buy that matched the Textured Bath Hardware I bought for a steal { each piece was only $ 1.99! } I found the hook in the store for $ 4.99, so I didn't complain.

I made a few more updates to our living room in the next couple of days. I'm in love with all the changes. It's all coming together so nicely, and I love how the green pillows look in our space. It's feeling more finished & polished. Oh and we did buy one more item from West Elm, it had to be shipped so when it arrives, I'll share. Lastly we popped into Kmart on a whim and I stopped in their Home Improvement section and bought four cans of white glossy Krylon paint for a $ 1.00 each!! They where on clearance so I bought all the the stock they had left! A girl can never have enough white glossy spray paint. I already stared using a can on the picture frame { new artwork for the living room } I'm going to spray paint both the deer today!

So that was our day out Shopping Black Friday sales, I'm so happy we popped into various stores and picked up a few items on the cheap that made us happy. You know I love a bargain!

Did you go Black Friday Shopping, and great finds? Where you an early bird or did you get a late start like we did, but still scored a few good deals?

thankFUL

2011-11-23T15:49:00.000-08:00

I'm so thankFUL for my two boys, I love them beyond words! They bring so much joy to my life every day!!

{ gratuitous cute picture of my kiddos!! }

Pictured snapped by my husband, his always takes the BEST pictures of me with our kiddos! :) love you Hasani, and so thankful for you:)

Enjoy your time with you family and loved ones on Thanksgiving. I'm still trying to decide if I'll go out shopping on Black Friday, thanks to a %15 off coupon at West Elm that showed up in my mail, I'm very tempted! I really looking forward to going shopping w/my BFF at Ikea over the weekend :) Whatever I end up doing, I'll share my scores and misses.

Any plans this weekend? How are you celebrating Thanksgiving?

Our Holiday Card 2011 & More

2011-11-22T09:08:00.000-08:00

My family is finally sending out Holiday Cards this year! Every year we always intend too but it gets to late, so I abandon the idea altogether. This year I was proactive and picked a weekend on the Calendar, lucky for us it was a lovely ~~chilly~~ Saturday morning in Northern California. We took the pictures ourselves more on that later (in another post) Here's are lovely Holiday Card we had made from LrnM Design. Lauren is the owner / graphic designer behind LrnM Design and is also a fellow blogger, her personal blog is called Meyers Maison: transforming the home she recently bought with her husband on a budget { a girl after my own heart!} Not only does she design cute whimsical Holiday Cards, she has created cute artwork, callings cards and cards all of it darling.

Lauren recently contacted me about creating (she must have been reading my mind) our darling Holiday cards (as seen above) I was so excited when she emailed me the preview, the Holiday cards feel like 'Us' fun and relaxed! The cards are customize-able you can add your own text and greetings etc, choose color or black & white. Now I'll I have to do is print the cards at are local CVS and then mail them out easy peasy.

Lauren is offering ALL Chic Little House Readers, a 20% off discount on all Holiday Cards from now until December 3, 2011!!! The are various styles to choose from, so if your putting off your Holiday Cards don't start a new tradition of getting them made and in the mail, like I'm finally doing. Please enter Promotion Code CLH20 at check out, click here or www.lrnmdesign.com

What do you think of our Holiday cards, are you mailing any out to friends and family?

Bathroom Plans

2011-11-18T06:40:00.000-08:00

Now that we have new West Elm hardware { bought it at a super discounted price!, see here } My promise { to myself } is to paint the bathroom again { this be the 2nd time this year } over the Thanksgiving Holidays, hang the hardware and hang some shelves. My BFF and her baby are coming to visit Thanksgiving Weekend and we are planning a trip to Ikea! To her Ikea is a religion, and its our first time going together so it should be a FUN time. I'm planning on buying shelves from Ikea. I recently pinned, this pretty bathroom for shelving inspiration, LOVE it. Its perfect for my tiny bathroom, I have the same tiny wall next to our toilet. I love all those shelves, perfect mix of practical and pretty. I also like the bracket hardware underneath the shelves, very cute.

{ via here }

Most likely we'll do 3-4 shelves, all stacked like in the picture, currently our extra bathroom toilet paper resides in our linen closet, but I now want to keep in the bathroom. I like these flexible white totes from the container store, perfect for toilet paper! Its cute and durable for a house full of boys.

I also love clear storage containers, and think thees stacking ones would be perfect for me. I'm a product girl and love products and some products have to stay in the bathroom. All my other girly product stuff is my top dresser drawer in my bedroom { here }

I also like these simple acrylic bath canisters also from The Container Store, simple cute and space saving. I plan to use a mix of clear plastic containers and woven baskets on the shelves.

I placed my order order with The Container Store yesterday, thanks so a 10% off coupon I saved a little moolah. The closest Container Store is around 70miles away, so I decided to buy it online. I do that a lot these days, with the little guy now here I like things be delivered to our doorstop, it frees up the weekends. We also place on replacing the dated cream marble style vanity sink top with a white one. The sink base is fine its solid wood, when we bought our home I painted over the wood with dark chocolate paint and still love the look. We have boring beige cream tile floors; that wont be replaced any time soon, so I want our new wall color to compliment our floors and not work against them. I've been leaning towards a mushroom greige color. I really like Martha Stewart Living paint colors, I'm currently leaning towards two options. Both colors are neutral,and should some warmth into our bathroom

Cobblestone

Pottery Clay

Right now I'm not sure if I'll keep our current white waffle shower curtain, or get a new one. I think after the walls are painted, the shelves hung and a few minor tweaks are made I'll decide. Next week is Thanksgiving { it came too fast this year } so I'll be counter-top shopping / purchasing and buying paint over the weekend.

Are you working on any bathroom projects? Is your bathroom in need of a refresh like mine is?

What the What?!?

2011-11-17T06:00:00.000-08:00

Your not going to believe this post, but trust me the following is all true and I have the proof. I'm regular stalker of West Elm, I go on their site like it's magazine. Please tell me I'm not the only one? Any who, I was making my daily lookie lou on their website and decided to check out the bath stuff. I've been meaning to update our bathroom for quite sometime, and even painted it earlier this year. Well I hate our bathroom paint color, I blame it on prego hormones in choosing the wrong paint color, I decided to look on for paint color / bathroom inspiration & ideas. I clicked on the 'Lighting & Hardware' and saw that the Textured Bathroom hardware was on sale. It was on sale for a crazy AMAZING good deal, all of it for only $ 1.99 per piece, towel bars, paper towel holder, towel ring all for $ 1.99 each!! ON SALE!

I didn't believe my eyes, there's no way it was that cheap! I happily placed everything in my cart. I bought 2 towel bars { one 18' one 24" } the paper towel holder, and towel ring, my total before tax and shipping was only $ 7.96. I know your sipping your coffee or tea in utter disbelief, right? Well here's the screen print proving it was only $ 1.99 for each item. The crazy thing is these sale items weren't in the 'sale' section of the website, they were mixed in with the regular items? Odd huh? Well, went I went on the next day to see if they were still on sale { so I could blog & tweet about them } but they were back to full price. It must have been some typo, but West Elm honored the price and shipped everything to my door a week later. Here's a screen print of the of the sale.

Now a closer up view, so you can see the price.

Even Hasani was in disbelief, until he saw the packing slip. I think he thought I went on a little West Elm bathroom spending spree lol. Ok, I know I sound silly, but I actually screamed with excitement when my package arrived. I opened each box and smiled with GLEE, and joy and thankfulness! Aren't these gorgeous and not oh so typical bathroom hardware! I love how they add some glam with their shiny finish, they also reminds me our my jewelry tree and branch candle holder. I'm super in love with this hardware, too bad I didn't see the towel hook on the website, would have loved to buy that on sale { I know you just rolled your eyes, I'm rolling mine too } I'll have to make a strop in the store this weekend.

I love that the toilet paper rolls just slip on for a clean look

See, they cute little bags attached to all the hardware, the bags hold the screws and anchors! I love that they thought about the smallest details in the packaging.

In all honestly, its the push I need to make bathroom less blah and actually pretty. So here's my deep heartfelt apologies to all friends and family that's had to use my bathroom for the past 6+ mos! I'm sorry! I promise to make our bathroom, practical and pretty and chic!

Now for the fun part, lets do the math. If I would have bought the Textured Bathroom Hardware at full price I would have paid $ 109.00, but I only paid $ 7.96 + Shipping + Tax, my total was only $ 13.96!!

What do you think of our new bathroom hardware?

Have you come across any crazy good deals lately that made you scream in delight?

Growing Pretty Blooms Indoors

2011-11-16T08:21:00.000-08:00

Yes, this is yet another bulb post, are you sick of them yet? I hope not. When I planted my bulb garden a few days I ago, I saved a few bulbs with the intention of growing a some pretty flowers indoors. I have some round vases I bought for our wedding reception and decided to use one to plant my bulbs. I also bought a bag of decorative rocks from the dollar store, yes I bought rocks! I know sounds silly, but far less of a hassle, of finding rocks around my house and then cleaning them etc. I checked out a few websites to make sure I was forcing bulbs to grow correctly { Martha Stewart and This old House }

From everything I read its best to use a glass vase to check water levels easier and change water if needed. Add the rocks to your vase and add water then the bulbs, the bulbs should not be touching the water. To actually get the bulbs to grow, the vase needs to be placed in a cool dark area, to trick them into thinking winter has come. You can either put them in a cabinet, place a paper bag over them,, put them in the garage or attic. I choose to place our bulb vase in the garage. Its dark, cold and the perfect spot to mimic winter. The bulbs should stay in the dark spot for 8 + weeks. So with any luck I'll have pretty blooms for winter, maybe around Mid January. When there's an inch or two of greenery, I'll bring the bulb vase back inside my house and place it in a sunny spot.

I'm hoping the few bulbs I 'planted' in the rocks will be super pretty, and look as pretty as the flowers I've been admiring.

{ via here }

{ via here}

Oh, I forgot to mention I have no clue what bulbs I saved to plant indoors, from our bulb garden. So I'm extra anxious to see if the flowers will grow, and what flower is going to grow!

These bulbs in vases would also make great presents for friends and flower and be a pretty homemade gift, instead of buying the store bought version for ten bucks a pop. You could easily buy a bag of bulbs for around $ 10 bucks, some glass vases or the Ikea white pots and dollar store rocks and have pretty gifts for friends. Even place them in a box and wrap them up pretty and say 'No peeking, until after Christmas'

I might be gifting some friends some pretty bulbs for Christmas this year :) The gift the keeps on growing a blooming, lol.

Have you planted bulbs indoors before? Any tips?

This Weekend

2011-11-11T06:16:00.000-08:00

I'm so looking forward to the weekend and the pretty fall weather, its going to be a crisp 66 degrees this weekend in Northern California. I know I say crisp, but that's cold to me, lol. Our weekend plans include: finishing up the Mid Century Modern Secretary Secretary Desk, a few Trips to Starbucks, playtime with the little guy { the park } and tween { Wii time } and a few 'master' bedroom changes and a few sewing projects.

I hope you all have a pretty fall weekend! Any plans ?