One Project at aTime

Sneak Peak...

2013-07-06T20:44:00.000-02:00

When we moved into this beautiful apartment, we lost our dear sectional. Unfortunately, the elevator of the brand new building was too compact, and the building did not have a service elevator in our wing. So we had to part ways with our dear sectional via craigslist...

After a 3 years of sitting on the outdoor sectional we purchased as a 'tempory fix', it was time to start the sofa hunt. I pinned tons of pins, and had my peg board filled with sofa specials direct mail pieces and clippings of catalog pages.

We finally pulled the triger... introducing Mr. Milano,

We wanted a dark leather sectional with plenty of seating, yet not too big since our living room is very small. With a little 2 year old running around, we needed something that we can wipe spilled milk, or crushed gold fish right off.

Macy's had an AMAZING sale, in addition to a mail in coupon. After great service from the showroom to the our front door, I highly reccomend going to Macys for your furniture needs.

Pillows are from Target and Homegoods
Rug is from Target

Putting some finishing touches to a DIY project and should reveal the living room soon.
Hope you are having a wonderful 4th of July weekend!

One Year

2012-01-14T03:05:00.000-02:00

I can not believe my little guy is turning one year old next month. Incredible. Where did the time go? Just the other day I was helping my mother in law plan my baby shower and now I'm planning my son's first birthday, it just sounds odd saying that.

We are planning on hosting a lunch and as you can imagine, we are on a really tight budget. Really tight. I starting working on the invitations and stationary this week, they should go out by early next week.

Here is a sneak peek of what I m working with...

He loves his lantern

Hope you had a wonderful New Year!

A Pop of Color

2011-12-11T17:19:00.001-02:00

Love the little pop of blue tucked in between the white pillows

and the best part of it, it was on clearance... shhhhhhhh

Found this beauty in the clearance section of West Elm. Sweeeet.

We still have a lot to unpack, but we are managing to settle in little by little. Next up, hang the floor length curtains.

Our Backyard

2011-11-29T19:25:00.001-02:00

This area needs a lot of work but for now this is on the back burner. We need to finish the tenants apartment before finishing our patio.

The view of our backyard and patio from our backdoor

our new backdoor!

Tenants kitchen... before

We have a lot of work ahead of us, wish us luck!

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-26T22:49:00.001-02:00

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I had lots to be thankful for. This was Little R's first Thanksgiving and it was a perfect day. We stayed home most of the day chasing around

Little R and then went to dinner at my in laws house. He behaved amazing during dinner, and was a happy little camper all through out the night. I was in charge of the sweet potato casserole for diner this year and let me say, next year... I'm buying the canned yams. They come peeled already peeled, cut and steamed... oh yes. Did you have to cook or prep anything? How was your day? I also spent most of my weekend looking these these outdoor beauties...

love the sofa L set up with the privacy white drapes

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gorgeous pendants

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pop of color cushions

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great dining and living area

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Ha! These are our outdoor dining table chairs, they are wicker with a khakis cushion. I am thinking of re-upholstering them this spring into a white canvas fabric. Right now I am working on the table.

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Unfortunately my table is no where near this condition, instead mine is bad, real bad. I already started working on the first coat of paint yesterday morning and just finished the second coat this morning. I originally bought it 3 years ago when Target was having the outdoor clearance event, and picked it up for $29.99. It was a black iron and has the opening for am umbrella pole. This is my weekend project...

Hopefully the patio will be ready by spring. Here is my checklist for the outdoor project:
remove old roof and aluminum roof
remove chain link fence
level the ground and mark area to lay cement
lay cement
tile
install lighting
paint
paint dining table
re-upholster chair cushions

due - spring/summer 2012. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Coming Soon...

2011-10-27T09:00:00.000-02:00

Weekend Projects

2011-09-24T02:56:00.001-02:00

Time to get some weekend projects moving...

We finished painting all the interior and touched up the base and crown moldings and I'm in LOVE!!! I was worried when the paint was drying because it was really really white, but once we started to move in our furniture it looks great! So bright, clean and cherry.

Here is the final product.. living/family room leading into the dining room and kitchen.

Paint Test!! I went with the top left one.

First thing tomorrow morning I would like stop at Homegoods to return bath towels, and then go to Whole Foods to buy Fresh Chicken to make baby R's puree's. And then hopefully try to tackle some projects around the house. This is tiring! I do not know how the guys at Young House Love do it, but it's hard to accomplish weekend projects with a little one to keep entertained.

YAY!!! Love the weekend...

Baby Food Making

2011-09-23T01:28:00.003-02:00

I am not a cook by any mean, heck we barely cook at home. If we do cook it's 2-3 nights a week and one night is guaranteed to be an frozen pizza or mac & cheese. However, making Robert food is something I have always wanted to do. I remember when I was about 6-7 years old my grandmother would make all my food. I would sit on the kitchen table and watched her cook or she would give me a book to play with. This is a moment that I will always cherish, so I want to make this special for Robert as well. When I make his food he is usually in his high chair eating a piece of watermelon or is playing with his toy. Making his food feels like such an accomplishment, I love it!

My girlfriend gave me the book Baby Love by Norah O'Donnell and Geoff Tracy. It has been great to get me started, I also check out Wholesome Homemade baby food to get some ideas. I did not want to buy another gadget for the kitchen, so I used a blender that was a wedding gift (still in the box!!!!), syran wrap and a very thin scapula. I did buy the Tovolo Perfect cube trays from Target.com... which I HIGHLY recommend. Buy 3 packs (6 trays in total).

We started with veggies... sweet peas, butternut squash, green beans, carrots and zucchini. I just bought some fresh spinach so tomorrow I will be steaming it and throwing it in the blender! We will be introducing fruits this week... apples, peaches, avocado, blueberries and mango (I am going to rotate some veggies in between the fruits).

Tonight I made peaches and apples

My little man Playing as I make his yum yum. So sweet, I just want to eat him...

7 months 1 week

Weekend blues

2011-09-21T09:00:00.000-02:00

I miss our snuggling in bed...

Circus Party Inspirations

2011-09-16T16:28:00.002-02:00

Is it crazy that I am already thinking about Robert's first birthday? He just turned 7 months yesterday and I'm already planning on what to do???? Crazy. I know. But I can not wait to share this special moment with our little boy. He loves animals and hopefully we will be able to take him to the circus when they come to town early next year.

I have been pinning away on Pinterest and everything I pin is Circus Theme... How much fun will that be???

Here are a few of my inspiration pictures...

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All we need is an elephant jumping through hoops and we are set! I think I might give face painting a try one of these days...

9/11/11

2011-09-11T19:00:00.001-02:00

Source

Shower Time!

2011-09-10T09:00:00.000-02:00

It was a beautiful sunny, breezy South Florida Sunday afternoon and I could not have asked for more. My Mother in Law and sister did an amazing Job. My Mother law wanted me to help her with the decorations, of course if you know me... I could not refuse.

I wanted to start the 'nautical' theme with the invitations, the first thing your guests see.

So every Sunday with my 50 percent off coupon from Sundays Newspaper I would venture out to Micheal's and see what I could find. The White linen Card Stock paper as well as the Red envelops are from Micheal's, as well as the anchor cut out puncher (Martha Stewart Collection). The invitations and favor tags were printed at Staples.

'WELCOME ON BOARD' Life Saver on front door (HomeGoods find)

Ikea White Pots with Wood emblem from Micheal's

Lobster cookie

Dollar bin find at Micheals! I found these rubber duckies way before We knew the sex of the baby. I just loved them, they even had anchors and lobsters tattooed on their tooshies!

Tin filled with Life Saver Mints

Fruit Platter and Cheese and Meat platter (super easy to make, bought at Cosco)

My Sister flew in for the weekend and she was a huge help!! My Husband's Aunt made the shrimp fettuccine, my Mother in Law bought the salad and bread and our other aunt made all the fruit salads and Shrimp Pineapple.

Dessert... agh.. What I was able to enjoy... no wine, but yes to cake... heaven.

We went with the same baker which made our wedding cake, Mr. Bee's. Simply delicious and beautiful. It was a 2 tier, top tier was butter cream, bottom tier Marble and all the flags are made from sugar!

Good times.

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend.

Baby R Nursery

2011-09-02T01:41:00.001-02:00

We are currently in the process of setting up his nursery in our new house (well, really our old house since we are moving back in). However, I never had the chance to post the pictures of his first Nursery. This was the nursery we brought him home to from the hospital, the one that we bonded and were inseparable for the first three months of his life, the one where he learned how to roll over, I can keep going and going but I do not want to bore you.

It was sentimental leaving the apartment and seeing that room empty of his toys and belongings, but I know we will make great new memories in our home.

'Welcome on board' Lifesaver - I purchased this for the baby shower at Homegoods for $3.99. It was missing a few shells and the net was not on secure. So I had a few shells laying around from the beach and hot glued them on

View from the entrance of the room

Crib - Babies R us Carters collection (Scratch and dent sale)

Bedding - Pottery Barn Pique Navy Blue (discontinued sale)

HomeGoods Frames

Ikea dresser - Hemmes collection

Sailboat Mobile - A Baby boutique near his pediatricians office

Side table - Target (we had it in the living room as a side tale next to the sofa, but recycled it for his room)

Metal Basket - HomeGoods $6.99

Fish Decor - Recycled from living room as well (originally from Z Gallerie)

Closet - sailboat end holders were a gift, as well as his first piggy bank

Hamper holder - Walmart (around 8-9 years ago). This was also recycled from our home. I bought 2 baskets from Micheal's at 50% off for the selves to store hid books and toys.

Decor - Star fish was used in my cousins destination wedding as a place card, they tied a sting and a paper tag with our names and table number

Oh and the carpet, was also recycled from our living room, It was a jute natural color rug from Target. I cant wait to finish putting together his room. I want to keep the same theme, but make it so that he can grow into his room.

Any plans for the long weekend????? I know what we are going to be doing.... Painting, cleaning, moving and organizing!

She is still alive

2011-09-02T01:34:00.000-02:00

My cousin and his wife gave me this beauty as a birthday gift 5 months ago, this morning she was opening up her last tiny bud.. she is BEAUTIFUL!!

We have her in our bedroom and it catches Baby R's attention when he is in bed with us. I guess it must be the bright purple that catches his eye. This has been the first and only plant that has EVER survived in our house... a Miracle!

I wish she could stay with us forever...

We are back

2011-07-30T01:59:00.000-02:00

in our old house that is.
Our Tenants ended their lease, which gave us a window of opportunity to move back in. But of course something had to go wrong along the way which lead to this...

Never a dull moment

Where it all began

2011-05-06T15:09:00.000-02:00

Before I reveal RJ's Nursery and Baby Shower pictures I want to share with you where our inpirations began...

My husband and I love the ocean, we live 10 minutes away from the beach, we go boating very often in the summer and two years ago I received my certification for scuba diving (so far I have only taken 3 dive trips). The ocean is so peaceful. In fact 99.9% of our vacations we end up on an island, no snow for us. So when we found out we were expecting a boy, what better way to celebrate with a nautical theme?!?!? Ah... the ocean... heaven. My wonderful mother in law wanted to host the baby shower at her home and asked me to help her decorate and organize all the goodies (I love surprises, but I was so happy to help... I live for this stuff). On one of our shopping trips to Ikea, I found these napkins
and right away the baby shower was planned around this little adorable napkin. I loved the navy blue with a touch of white and light blue sleek modern clean lines. Most of the decorations I tried my best to either make it or find it on clearance, thrift store or recycled. Guest received this invitation that I created to set the mood

Favor Tags

Here is a glimpse of the paper station

Lobster Cookie Favors all tied up ready to go

I also made a banner for behind the cake table

Last but certainly not least was the advice cards. I wanted something personalized and of course free, so I created these in Photoshop. There was some hilarious advice, and others that I look back on and wished I would have listened (for example.. SLEEP as much as you can!!).
One of my friends predicted the date and was off by one hour exact, incredible!

I had a great time helping out with the shower, I wish I could plan parties 24/7.
Next up we will post the decor pictures.

New Year... New Beginnings

2011-01-02T19:19:00.000-02:00

It has been some time since my last post and I have lots to catch up on.... First off... we have rented our 2 bedroom 1 bathroom home and have moved into a 2 bedroom 2 bath apartment. It took a lot of time to make this move, but we could not be happier. I am closer to work, my husband is going against traffic so he could not be happier and we have simplified our lives by minimizing house work. Here are a few pictures from the first day we moved in (Please pardon the quality, these were taken on my phone)... Kitchen

Living Room / Dining Room

Balcony

Our View from the balcony, kitchen and master bedroom
Master bedroom

Nursery

Nursery bathroom

Yup... You read correctly, Nursery. Please let me introduce our precious baby boy...
Baby R 8 pounds 7 ounces 20 inches of love.

This week I will reveal his nursery and other updates, I am very excited to get back into updating the blog. Thank you for being patient with me :)

Hello Bubbles!

2010-06-19T01:42:00.000-02:00

I am officially a new owner of the beautiful J Crew Bubble Necklace (found here).
This piece is so pretty and has that girly vintage feel to it.

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You could dress it up

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or even a white tank top with a cardigan and jeans

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Love it! so far I have worn it twice this week :)

craigslist

2010-06-01T23:47:00.000-02:00

have you checked out your local CL lately??? There are so many variety of items that either need some making over or some just perfect as is. and don't forget to check out the free category... you will be shock at what you can find. Here are a few lovely pieces from my local area sofa and side tables $300 Coffee Table Free wood dresser Free china buffet Free Dresser with end table $125 I think if I bring home 1 more piece my husband will kill me. all through out our house I have unfinished projects laying around... Sorry hon! Ill finish some up this week :) Hope you have a great short work week,

Happy Memorial Day

2010-05-23T23:44:00.001-02:00

during...

2010-05-23T23:26:00.001-02:00

hopefully I will have an after soon..

Oh la la

2010-05-11T00:56:00.000-02:00

Love these beauties... Credit Credit How adorable is this french chair? Credit Credit Credit Credit and these white ottomans Credit Hope you had a fabulous week,

China Cabinet find

2010-05-04T16:08:00.001-02:00

Last week my Dad emails me some pictures of a china cabinet that he found and remembered that I have been looking for one. As soon as I read his email my heart was pumping, I was giggling in my chair and was already thinking on how I was going to make it over. On Saturday my amazing, loving and so generous husband went and picked up the cabinet with my dad. Thank you Dad and Honey, I truly appreciated all your hard work and motivation from picking up this piece from a small, no AC apartment on the second floor and bringing it home :)

Here are some pictures in the previous owners home - The cabinet is in great condition, the only draw back is the pink (who knew that pink was in the in color, from our exterior paint to our Pink Bathroom). After it was in our possessions I started researching for similar pieces and ideas on what color to paint and knobs, when I ran into this picture from ShabbyChic.com. Notice the details on the leg of the chair, the china cabinet has the same details This piece is going to take sometime but I'm so excited that I will be able to use my Air Compressor for the first time!!!

DIY Wedding Details

2010-03-19T18:55:00.000-02:00

Since we were on a really tight budget for our wedding I tried my best to keep things on the minimal or did it ourselves (just like everything else in our life). That meant from our Monogram, Save the Dates, Invitations, Favors, Decor Pieces, Card Box, Table Numbers, Aisle Runner, Sand Ceremony Vases, Ceremony Fans, Thank You Parasol and much more!

Lets start off with Our Monogram. I created a few different versions in Photoshop, but after we had to change our venue 3 months before our wedding date this was the final version that I fell in love with

I created our Aisle Runner first, prior to the change of venue so it had our original Monogram (we were going to get married in front of a light house on the beach, so I wanted something more casual). We were really really short on time for me to do it all over again so unfortunately we kept the original one and had tons of white rose pedals on it. Robert traced the stencil for me and I painted all the details... with a few glasses of wine of course.

We purchased wicker fans from Oriental Trading on Ebay and placed one on each chair in the Ceremony with our favor tag for the guest, just in case it was warm.

Our Card Box (made out of 2 packaging boxes and a hat box from Micheals)

Since we were having an outdoor ceremony the unity candle was not going to work. Can you imagine the candle that you are lighting as a couple to begin your new lives together blows off??? What a great way to start our marriage, huh? So I researched and I loved the Sand Ceremony idea. I found these vases in Pier 1 in clearance rack for $6, and knew that they would work! There were a little bit plain so I got to work on them, I spray painted them silver and added some bling to match our toasting flutes.

Our Toasting Flutes are from ZGallerie (Thanks to my amazing Mother in Law), and the finished vase

Our Favors... I wanted something that our guest can take home to enjoy or something edible. The first favor I found was at Micheal's which was an adorable white vanilla scented candle in the $1 rack... CHA-CHING!!! So you better believe that I bought all the candles they had and had to go to another Micheal's to purchase 20 more. All the favors I found on online that was candle related it was no less that $3/each one. So we put them in a silver organza bag that I bought at a wholesale distributor, made a bow with left over silver ribbon, glued a little diamond in the center and hung our Thank You Tags.

The Second favor was a 2x2 Clear box with a silver ribbon and our Thank You Sticker filled with Personalized M&M's. These were such a hit! On one side there was a picture of us and then on another side it sound our names and wedding date.

Since we had extra M&M's, we placed over sized Martini Glasses through out our Cocktail Hour and reception for the guest to enjoy

Next up is our Place Card Table.... and of course I did not want your typical escort card with the guests name and table number on it that normally ends up either on the floor (meanwhile they are not cheap or easy to print out) or tossed around the table after the guest found their table. So I researched and researched and found the Escort Rocks Idea and fell in LOVE. I bought at Micheal's (with my almighty 50% off coupon of course) bags of River Rocks and picked out the rocks that we could use, large, smooth and pretty :) Another thing that I really wanted to incorporate somewhere in our wedding was a Manzanita tree, but there were too expensive for center pieces for each table, so why not our Card Table?!?!!? I bought three branches on save-on-crafts and after a few failed attempts of putting it together my Handy Man father was able to help me built it in less than an hour! Here are the three branches after they were painted, Screwed together and then waiting for concrete to dry

The hanging candles were too large for my tree or out of budget, so I bought these candle holders at Micheal's for a $1/each and made my own hanging candle with Floral Wire

Final Product

'Escort Rocks'

Can you believe that some guests still have their rock displayed somewhere in the home??? How cute is that?

One thing that I wanted was our guest to be able to take home the center piece of their table. I went to a few different wholesale distributors and different florist to buy glass vases, but there were either too expensive OR too plain. That is until I went to my favorite store Micheal's around Christmas Time and saw these beauties....

The Tall Cone vases were for each table, the small round ones were scatter through out the room and the the three tall candles were for our head table (I did not want our head table full of flowers).

My next mission was how to decorate the room/ceiling so that it would not look so empty? Up lighting was around $25/each and we would need at-least 12, so we scratched that idea out. And the sun was still out as well since we had the ocean and bay around the reception, so we did not want to hide that gorgeous feature (this is what sold us on choosing this location). Then I found the White Parasol on Ebay and I fell in love with them. Either way I wanted to hang large white paper balls on the ceiling to give it some dimension

Our Table Numbers - Printed the table number with our Monogram on Vellum paper and hot glued it to a cylinder vase from Micheal's and Matched the ribbon with a diamond Brochette from the invitations

Extra cylinders - made for my Made of Honor and my Bouquet (Which ended up at our head table)

Here is a picture of the room before and after

At the reception once the dancing began we had a basket full of Grey and White sandals from Old navy with this sticker, that included our last name and the size of the sandal

For the Thank You cards we wanted to personalize them and include a picture that our family can keep for keepsake. I painted 'Thank You' on a left over Parasol and could not be happier with the finished product.

I think that wraps up our DIY items from our wedding, I am missing a few things but can not find photos for them but once I do I will post.

Feel free to ask me any questions or how I did anything, I would love to help,

Our Wedding

2010-03-17T16:55:00.000-02:00

was truly the best day of my life. I will never forget the first time I saw my husband at the 'Alter', he had a smile from ear to ear and I think he was glowing. It was a beautiful sunny day and we could not have asked for more (maybe not as hot, but its OK). All I always wanted for my wedding was to me on the beach or at least with a water view and we got the best of both worlds! Our ceremony had the Bay behind our alter and the ocean behind us, just beautiful. Here are some of our pictures Next post... our DIY Details