goddessof4

Vintage baby

2012-01-29T11:00:00.000-08:00

I have been planning a baby shower for our daughter Paloma. The theme is "vintage baby". I know Vintage decorating are all the rage when I look thru the internet but I can say that it has been our style for our entire lives.My kids love going to the flea market and we love to thrift!!!!! I do miss the thrift stores in Chicago,also the yard sales!!!!! So it is really fun hunting around for vintage baby items.I have a tiny collection going on in my dressing room. My latest find is a wooden cradle!!!!! I put money down on it at a children's second hand store and I am going to pick it up on Tuesday( so excited )!!!! It can be an heirloom piece for Paloma to pass on to her kids.For the shower we are going to display it and put the small gifts inside.I am also looking for a vintage baby scale .I have seen them on ebay so I might have to buy it from there. Here are a few photos of the little items we will use to display for the shower.

Blog award

2012-01-21T21:10:00.000-08:00

I feel so honored that my little old blog received an award from the lovely Claudia at http://whosjaja.blogspot.com/ It is the Liebster blog award!!!!!!! Thank you Claudia!!!!!!

I started blogging to document the process of our house renovation and to remember the many moments in my life with four kids. Since starting the blog two kids have grown up and moved out(hard to believe).I love visiting other peoples blogs and seeing the lives around the world.
I am passing the love to http://iheartvoodoo.blogspot.com/
http://curlyscorner-sandy.blogspot.com/
http://broomsticksandlace.blogspot.com/
http://kimspieswithherlittleeye.blogspot.com/
http://oldflowers4me.blogspot.com/

Liebster means "dearest" in German, and this award is given to bloggers with fewer than 200 followers. The stipulations of the award are as follows:
1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.
2. Reveal your 5 blogger picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4. Hope that the people you have sent the award to will forward it to their favorite bloggers

Julian's 10th Birthday!!!!

2012-01-18T08:25:00.000-08:00

This Monday was my sweet Julian's birthday!!!!! He turned 10.My sweet boy had the best birthday ever!!!! We celebrated at home and then we went to dinner at a place of his choice.He picked Rocky Roccos. After dinner we picked up ice-cream from Ben and Jerry's to have with his cake at home. Big sister Paloma came over with her fiancé Jake to have cake and ice cream.He had the biggest smile on his face all day !!!! He especially loved the "Happy Birthday" phone calls from all the family.

We are so blessed to have Julian in our family!!!! He is so bright but most important he has such a gentle loving soul!!!! Happy Birthday Julian!!!!!!

Laundry room

2012-01-10T10:22:00.000-08:00

Last December our washing machine broke down(yeah,the perfect month for it).At first it was just leaking some water but by the end it became a river!!!!)We looked into repairing the machine but it turned out that it would cost half of what the new machine would cost.We purchased our original machine used so it didn't make sense to fix it.Luckily the week after christmas we found a front loader on sale!!!!!! I was so excited,our old machine was a front loader too but was not in the new see thru window style.We did not buy the stand that came with it because I had seen a photo online of what I wanted. I found a photo on Ana Whites website.It is a blog about building(furniture) items and she gives the dimensions on how to build http://ana-white.com/2011/01/sausha’s-washerdryer-pedestals used her design as a guide but made ours a little longer.Here are photos.I am in the process of painting a part of the wall that I started about 3 years ago and ran out paint (lol) and left unfinished. Also I want to buy some type of rug for the floor.So stay tuned for more updates.

Clearing

2012-01-04T12:08:00.000-08:00

Today I finally finished packing all my xmas decorations and putting everything away.I am exhausted!!!! I really love xmas decorations but by the end I feel suffocated in a way. I feel like I need more space!!!! The house is a little messy because we worked on a project this weekend!!! The first one of the year. I am not done so the final reveal might take a while.So besides the xmas stuff ,I am cleaning up lumber,tools,etc.One of my "new year resolutions" that I write down every year is to organize better. That is my challenge ,I am always looking for ways to organize our "stuff". I have become better at it but we still have a way to go. I do believe in Feng Shui and space clearing so that is what I am doing today,wish me luck!!!!! Have a great day!!!!!

Happy New Year!!!!!

2012-01-02T09:12:00.000-08:00

We had a very mellow New Year's Eve,we were exhausted from working (doing hair) earlier in the day.We did get to eat some fabulous food in the evening!!!!! We bought thai food from our favorite Thai rester aunt!!! Yummy!!!!That was a good way to end 2011.Looking through my blog at the projects we did in 2011 has been fun!!! I mostly did a lot of furniture makeovers.Many paint projects, most important was finishing the exterior of our house that we started last year.I also painted the front porch(I had wanted to repaint it for years!!!!! We redid electrical in our main bathroom(it started when I wanted a new outlet installed for my electric fireplace heater). In the summer we made our garden more functional and beautiful by adding pea gravel.We also put up my wrought iron arbor in the back leading to the garden.Back inside I added an apothecary wall unit in the kitchen for organization.The biggest project that was in the planning for years was adding a driveway gate!!!! That to me was one of the biggest things that we did (we also redid the fence on one side of the house) beside painting the exterior.Our house is looking complete!!!! I am thankful for what we have been able to accomplish in 2011 but am looking forward to 2012!!!!!

Life is good!!!!!

2011-12-28T12:30:00.000-08:00

I am excited!!!!! We have a brand new washing machine!!!!!! It is a front loader,and it is brand new!!!!! Our old front loader was Neptune/venus(we bought it used)and was leaking water all over the basement for the last month.Up to that point I loved it!!!! When we inquired about getting it repaired the cost didn't make sense.It was a used appliance and would have cost $200 for what they thought was the problem with no guarantee.I am so excited to have the newer front loader as I always liked the vintage looking window/door.Now I have a project for Trent(hubby),we need a platform to put the washer and dryer on.I have been on pinterest looking for inspiration!!!! Now I will need to spruce up our laundry room!!!!!Also last month our dishwasher broke!!!! I put in a large pan(big mistake)and it broke the attachment to the spinner.We asked at a few stores and they said I needed to find the part on line.Yesterday,we tried an appliance part store and they actually had our piece!!!!! The best part was that it cost only $5 for the replacement. I am so blessed to have two functioning appliances today!!! Life is good!!!!!Photos via pinterest

Christmas 2011!!!!

2011-12-25T09:45:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays!!!! We are having a great day so far!!!!! Just a quick post before I get ready for our guests. Here are photos of the boys that I took just this week. I can't believe how much they have grown this year. Merry Christmas!!!!!!

Vintage santa collection

2011-12-23T06:09:00.000-08:00

I have been collecting Santa Clause figures for a while now. I especially like the vintage Santas.Some have glitter on them ,some are made out of wood ,some are replicas of originals and all of them are unique!!!!! This year I bought only one but plan on buying some at the after xmas sales!!!!! I have a few last minute items to get to be ready for the holiday!!!!! Before I brave the cold,I need my morning coffee to get me going!!!!!!Here are some Santas in different parts of the living room.

Blessings

2011-12-22T08:31:00.000-08:00

This has been year of transitions for my husband and I. We are going to have a grandchild next year!!!! As much of a blessing that this is ,it brings up emotions of the past. We are young parents with two boys(age 9 and just turned 14) still at home and two grown up kids. I had my two kids very young and my daughter will be the same age as I was when I had her(when she gives birth).It brings back some emotions in me that I haven't felt for years. To say the least,

my family was not happy with my choice to have my baby before I was married .I was fortunate to have friends that accepted me and my kids as a package deal.I was blessed that I met my husband and he raised my two kids(who are 19 months apart) since they were young as his own. Our family grew with the birth of our boys and we have been ONE family ever since.We never used the term "blended family" or "stepdad".Those words were not in our vocabulary ,we are one family.
We are excited for our next chapter to begin.I am determined to make my daughter feel special at this time in her life.My husband and I are going to be young grandparents and starting that journey younger than we thought but happy never -the- less.So this holiday season we celebrate a new life to come and many generations of blessings !!!!!!

Christmas cheer!!!!

2011-12-21T11:59:00.000-08:00

I am feeling the holiday cheer!!!!!! The shopping is almost done(99%). It is a big relief!!!!! So today the boys and I had time for one of our xmas projects. I found some kits of gingerbread men cut outs. The kits came with everything to decorate the gingerbread men.It was fun, fast and added more christmas cheer to the house.I had bought an extra gingerbread kit so I made a gingerbread girl!!!!! It was fun participating with the boys( I am usually just the prep person and photographer)LOL.They turned out really cute so I decided to hang them on the chandelier in the living room. After the boys were done and off to do their own thing I decided to make paper snowflakes. Now that is a messy project. I made enough to put on our glass door on the front porch.Our house is officially done being decorated!!!!

Vintage pink tinsel tree

2011-12-14T09:26:00.000-08:00

A client of ours gave me a vintage pink tinsel tree. I think it is from the 1950's. It is very unique. It came without a stand so I had to get creative about finding something to hold it, next year I will look for a proper stand but what I came up with is cute. I placed the tree in a large pink bucket that I already owned (I

put styrofoam inside to hold it up and covered the styrofoam with spanish moss greenery. It is not the most stable but it worked!!!! I put the tree on the porch with the other pink tree so my porch looks very pink and festive!!!!! I am at Farmhouse friday http://laurieannas.blogspot.com/

Clean up!!!!

2011-12-13T13:13:00.000-08:00

Getting ready for xmas around here!!!!! The other day I started cleaning up my dressing room and dusting off my shoe/boot collection!!!! I have quite a collection of boots and already have my eye on some more ,lol!!!!! My favorite print is leopard and since it is currently in style I am stocking up !!!!! Here are a few photos....

Rearranging

2011-12-07T10:23:00.000-08:00

Yesterday hubby had the idea to turn the dining room table to the center of the dining room/study and the parlor room. So we rearranged and so far I love it!!!!! Since we keep our computer on the table I am liking seeing the wood burning stove from this angle !!!! It opened up the space. I also can now enjoy my victorian leopard sofa that I had on the other side of the table. I was trying to hide it from our big dog(Scruffy) but instead I didn't get to enjoy it and he still snuck up on it.I have it covered in a million pillows and throws so I know when he sneaks on,lol!!!! I took some photos to show you the change...

It is giving us more room since it was hard to walk around the table before and the parlor room basically was just wasted space if the kids weren't using their desks. I left their vintage desks so we still do school in both of these combined spaces.

Tissue pom poms

2011-12-06T15:06:00.000-08:00

I finally made some tissue pom poms!!!!! I have seen them all over blog land and I always thought they were cute and I should try to make some!!!!! I finally did, they were a little time consuming and a little messy since I used glitter tissue paper but I love how they turned out!!!!! We had a small birthday party for my son Trent( turned 14)

so I had the tissue pom poms for decorations. The boys actually liked them so I was happy here are some photos of the set up and the big day!!!!

Favorite things

2011-12-01T09:05:00.000-08:00

Christmas Wonderland

2011-11-25T15:44:00.000-08:00

Traditionally the Christmas season officially starts the day after Thanksgiving.Although stores start decorating in October but here in our household we decorate the day after Thanksgiving!!!!
I was a little worried about where I would put the "trees". Our living room has turned into a work out room( hubby's huge weight set and now I added a stair master machine) and I have one of the Victorian sofas in the corner.It is not a very big room so I had to put my thinking cap on. Hubby suggested I move the sofa into our parlor room . I thought that was a good idea so the boys and I just pushed the sofa out of the way and set up the tree in the corner(where sofa usually is). This is a very narrow tree so after the boys and I finished decorating we thought we would just put the sofa in front of it. It worked out great for two reasons,it blocks the tree from our big dog and we didn't have to rearrange the parlor room!!!!!! Now "my favorite" tree is my baby pink tree.Last year I put it on top of a dresser that is in our living room but this year since our front porch actually looks cute I thought I would put it there.Luckily it was a warmer day so I didn't freeze decorating it.Unfortunately the lights that are on the tree do not work so I am going to buy a few strands of pink lights for it this weekend.Now the last mini tree is a tinsel lavender /pink and I found a spot in the kitchen for it!!!!! So now I am worn out from all this decorating!!!!! I still need a wreath for our front door and maybe some other little things but for now it looks like a Christmas Wonderland!!!!

Linking to http://laurieannas.blogspot.com/

Thankful !!!!!

2011-11-24T07:36:00.000-08:00

Today I am thankful for my husband who loves me!!!!! I am thankful for my children,I am thankful that I had one of my babies on Thanksgiving Day 14 years ago(wow).I am thankful that we have a beautiful home to call our own!!!!!! I am truly blessed!!!!!! Thank you Universe for all our blessings!!!!!! Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

Thanksgiving turkey project

2011-11-17T07:50:00.000-08:00

The boys and I had a fun homeschool Thanksgiving project to do yesterday. We made turkeys!!!!! Well paper bag turkeys!!!! I found a cute project on line (one I thought we could do) and had a go at it. It was fun,messy and best of all we now have center pieces for our Thanksgiving table!!!!!!! Here are photos of our turkey creations!!!!

Trough sink

2011-11-15T08:50:00.000-08:00

We picked up my trough sink Saturday!! I am so excited!!!!! It is huge ,my vision is to use it in
a bathroom for the kids one day.Here are some inspiration photos( also this sink would be cute in an art studio or a mudroom)

* Mine is as long as the white sink and my vision is to paint it the turquoise blue if we use it in the boys bathroom!!!

Craigslist rocks!!!!!

2011-11-12T10:57:00.000-08:00

I am so excited!!! I found one of my dream items on Craigslist that I have had in my treasures to find list!!! Hubby would say my list is ongoing ,LOL!!! A cast iron trough sink!!! This is a three person sink with the vintage original faucets included. I have dreamed of having one in a kids bathroom. Now granted we do not have a kids bathroom yet ( we have a main bathroom on the second floor and we put in a bathroom in our basement). But I have envisioned adding a bathroom on the main floor. Basically I don't care where we put it (it would look cute in a laundry/mudroom) as long as I get it!!!!! It is also a really awesome price . So I asked hubby if this could be my xmas present. These are the presents that make me happy!!!!! I love antiques,vintage items!!!!!!

Entrance hallway

2011-11-11T11:27:00.000-08:00

Today I finally took the rest of our halloween decorations down( I was avoiding going on our front porch because it has been so cold ).So then I had to put them all away!!!! Not as much fun as taking them out of the boxes. We store our holiday(halloween and Xmas) decorations in our front hallway closet. This was a coat closet originally but it is so narrow that it was hard to hold all our coats in it.It just evolved into the holiday closet and it was a mess!!!! I took everything out of the closet and swept,wiped down the boxes and neatly put it all away. Then I spruced up the section where we hang our coats. I moved a cute mercury mirrored table there to place items such as keys and my purse. It looks so much better!!!! I was storing a gazelle exercise thingie in front of the closet door and it looked awful!!! That was the first thing you saw as you entered the house.In a few weeks I will be in the closet again taking out all the xmas decorations out,LOL!!!!

I am linked to http://laurieannas.blogspot.com/ for farmhouse friday!!!!

Bedroom shelves

2011-11-10T10:42:00.000-08:00

So we have been working on getting hubby's items on the brand new shelves. We bought about 3 baskets from Hobby Lobby ( not on sale) so I will go back and buy more when they have that section on half off . In the mean time I "shopped around the house" for a few more. So far I like how it looks,it still needs tweaking but it will do for now. I realize our bedroom will always be evolving but it definitely feels like both our styles are blending well.I like blingy,feminine,sparkly and hubby likes plain,techie,gadgety items.

Bathroom update!!!!

2011-11-09T08:12:00.001-08:00

We finally had time this weekend to connect the sink in the bathroom. It seems life gets busy around here!!!! I uploaded some photos to show my "new addition" to our main bathroom,my fireplace!!!!! This is a decorative fireplace that is a heater as well and I have to say it has kept our bathroom toasty warm!!!!!! I really love it. I have been looking at it since last year or so and finally I purchased it. Asking Trent to install an outlet for it opened a can of worms with electrical issues from previous owners. I am happy to say we now have safe, new wiring in our bathroom!!!!! Safety first!!!! Also the fireplace looks very cool with my mirrored sink since it is a mirrored fireplace. This bathroom still needs a few more finishing touches(new wall tile around bath tub, and tin ceiling ) but I love it so far!!!!

Master Bedroom shelves

2011-11-02T09:37:00.000-07:00

This is the one room that never seems to be finished!!!!! I have painted the room at least 4 times,a lot I know but finally I am happy with the color.It is mostly a vanilla color with one accent wall of chocolate brown. The problem we have had in the past is the lack of storage( a running theme in our 100+ year old

home). My husband didn't have a space for his items and it was hard to keep it all tidy . Monday we decided to add shelves that we made ourselves.We had previously bought book shelves but they really didn't hold much.So off to Lowes we went and bought the wood and had them cut it!!!( That is the extra bonus of going there). We found a sheet of birch wood board and had them cut it in sections and then we actually went to Menards to buy the shelving brackets.Luckily they are about five minutes from each other.Hubby and the boys went to work building the shelves.I was not feeling good so I wasn't helping,but I did take photos !!!!! Now that the shelves are up we are amazed at how much his side opened up. I am in the process of buying baskets to organize and style the room.