Four Little Gems

"Friday" Morning Pinterest Top 5 on Monday...

2013-04-15T11:52:00.001-04:00

Here we are friends for another round of my Pinterest Top 5. But today is Monday? Yes it is. This past Thursday-today I was dealing with sick babies at home and hosting my mom for a more than welcome helpful visit. My eldest daughter fell ill at this virus that's been going around and long story short, dehydration, hospital and now home and healthy.

I love browsing Pinterest. It amazes me how many people out there who are so creative and so willing to share things that they've accomplished or hope to accomplish. Creativity, I believe, is a gift from God. There are so many things that He has given us to draw inspiration from. And then we turn that inspiration into art. Whether it be something as simple as drawing a rainbow, or sewing a brilliantly designed wedding gown. Or building a treehouse to decorating a millionaire's mansion. We are so creative and I thank God for that.

The other night when my mother was here, Maddalaena who is three, drew a picture of my mother. It was so simple but so accurate. She drew a circle with hair. My mom has a round face and she has dreadlockish hair. And that's what my daughter drew. That also plays into the phrase "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder". And it couldn't be more true. Maddalaena also drew a dinosaur about a year ago. Check it out.

Maddy J's Dinosaur.

Amazing isn't it? Creativity at it's best.

Now for the Friday Morning Pinterest Top 5:

All of these photos are courtesy of their owners. They all link back to the original website. All of my opinions are 100% my own and there is no profit for sharing my opinion or these products.

First up an outfit from the blog Lilly's Style. Go and check out her blog and see what amazing looks she's put together in the past. I love learning what trends are new and interesting that she displays. I also enjoy checking out what Lilly will be wearing next. She has an amazing sense of style, and her wardrobe is to die for!!

The Navy blue striped blazer provides somewhat of a chic and professional addition to this otherwise casual outfit. At the same time the coloring and style of the jeans provide a modern feel. The soft colors welcome spring. The brown satchel offsets the look. It's a welcoming and refreshing step away from the norm. She looks clean and fresh. Ready for work or an outting with friends. It's chic, classic and casual. What's most amazing about Lilly's Style is that she offers a shopping list, if you will, to where she bought everything she's wearing in the picture. And if something isn't available, then she'll provide a close match.

This photo is brought to you by a sponsored post over at The Design Confidential. The Design Confidential is like Ana White's site but with a more sleek and modern look and feel. Ry Turner offers a library of modern and classic DIY woodworking plans mostly aimed at furniture.

Meet the Kiran Spot Resist one faucet by Moen. This faucet is kick butt. It's a unilever faucet designed to be easy to install, use and best of all spot free!! I love how sleek and modern and simple it is!! How people out there have been driven insane by the constant chore of scrubbing and polishing those shiny sink faucets only to have spots on them three to five seconds later? I have. And I still do. Even when I don't use the sink spots appear to mock me. Head on of to The Design Confidential to check out Ry Turner's latest post about Changing Faucets.

This next pin is from a site that I frequent on a daily basis. Not because I'm crazy, but because there is always something new and interesting being offered every single day. Some of you might have heard of Decor Steals. If you haven't, now you have.

This Wooden Jointed Fingered Mannequin Hand is up for sale until 9:59am tomorrow or until sold out. Isn't cool in an vintage-y antiquey sort of way? It's one of those things that you would find in an artists loft or in one of those underground coffee houses that hosts regular poetry nights right? I think that the made-to-look-old woodenness of the hand and the metal joints in the fingers give this piece an aged feel. It would also be awesome to on this and pull some pretty cool pranks on people. Just sayin'. Now the thing with Decor Steals, is you have to sign up to receive daily newsletters. These emails will let you know when the next "steal" is up and running. Then you can go to the site and if you like or love you can buy it. Or you can check out their extended steals. They even give you opportunity to pick and choose what will be coming up within a month!

This next pin a about an Anniversary Giveaway on the site The Girls With Glasses, which is a site I've never been to. But from the looks of it, the site seems hip, young, cool and modern. I'll be looking forward to seeing what the site is all about.

Look at all the cool stuff you could win!! I see a few things that I would like to have. Number 10, 12, 2, all of them lol. I'm entering and I would encourage you all to do them same!! Giveaways are an awesome incentive to get and keep your current audience. But it is also just a nice way of saying thank you for reading and being faithful.

This next on is a favorite. I get to personally share with you some typography prints of a beautiful, amazing girl that I went to high school with AND competed with on our high school outdoor track team. She was crazy fast back in the day and I guarantee she's maintained that speed. Patty Murphy owns her own papery design business and boy is she talented. I LOVE her work. I sometimes peruse her sites to get inspiration and ideas to apply to my decorating to my home. She is sweet and kind and a beautiful person all around. I implore you to go to her blog or her store and go check these amazing designs.

And this is one of the many designs she has on her site. I love it so much here are a few of her others!

Aren't these beautiful??!! Patti does custom invitations and paperies. If you see anything you like just shoot her an email which you can find on the about page. Please head on over to Patti Murphy Designs and give her site some love. Don't forget to pin and share!!

Friday Morning Pinterest Top 5

2013-04-05T11:05:00.000-04:00

Welcome to my Friday Morning Pinterest Top 5. I'm starting this little entertainment segment, if you will, as something fun and random. Every Friday morning(hopefully) I will be sharing pictures(with links back to the original site) of the top five Pinterest pins on my Pinterest account. It will be something new and different every week. How exciting is that!! I'll also be sharing my opinions on each pin as well.

I thought this would be fun and interesting. I could be writing about food or a craft or a latest trend in fashion. It's all up in the air and it depends on all of you! The pins I'm sharing are pins from my the people I'm following on Pinterest. If you have heard of Pinterest and still haven't joined GASP!!! You should! It's absolutely amazing fun and it can be so inspirational.

There are so many things on Pinterest that you can take and create something entirely yours. If you're stuck on a room design or even what to have for dinner, there are plenty of ideas to choose from. Pinterest can also keep you in touch with your friends. You can learn a lot about people and their tastes in everything under the sun. You may also learn something new about yourself.

First up, Strech a stroller pouch that zippers from Infantino.

For all you mamas out there, HOW COOL IS THIS??? I think this is pretty ingenius. I mean seriously. It Velcro's around the bars of the stroller and provides storage for all of our mama(and baby) essentials. I would love to have one of these and I just may make a purchase. Also, on the rare occasion that the stroller flips over(hopefully without junior or junny inside) all of our important carry ons are kept safe. Like those oh so expensive phones you mamas carry around or those unmentionables we would like to keep hidden.

The Hooded Car Seat Blanket with Tutorial

I always loved the Kiddopatomus version of these. They were so soft and warm and fuzzy and too small for my kiddos. Don't get me wrong it's a great idea. But I just think this one from The Complete Guide To Imperfect Homemaking is perfect. I love the hood and the long wrap around arms. It snuggles baby perfectly. Keeping them nice and secure and warm. My littlest one is too big for this but maybe some relatives would like one for the upcoming winter?? I definitely have to give this a try!!

Grilled Nectarine Bowls

One word. Drool!! My mouth is pouring drool like when my baby boy The Hulk ~~eats~~ gums a plum. These look so delicious, it makes me want to bust out my grill and learn how to start, maintain and cook on a charcoal grill. The recipe is shared on The Old Hen. It originates from her friend, Amy Graham, a culinary chef. These are pretty simple to make. Buy firm white nectarines. Cut in half. Brush with olive oil. Take out pit and grill until slightly tender(forkable) and browned. Me I would put some pecan ice cream in the center for effect. But, click the picture and follow the link to discover a new delicious recipe that goes hand in hand with grilled nectarine bowls. Amy Graham owns her own business and has a website The Sassy Turtle. Go on over and experience what Amy has to offer in culinary delight!

This is a Three-in-One. Score!!!

Three safe to eat cookie doughs: Chocolate Chip, Sugar and Cake Batter.

Diet? What diet? That word, you know the D one, isn't even in my vocabulary. I'm sorry to all of you who are trying to get your bikini bod exercises on. These will surely cause you to think twice about all that work you've been doing or plan to do wink wink. These will be on the menu at any summer party I might have this summer. Just look how good they look? All the joy of eating our beloved cookie dough without the poisonous risk. Hop on over to Willow Bird Baking, make and enjoy!

Another multi-recipe score!!!

Crock-Pot Chicken Teriaky

Now, for all you diet friendly friends here is a healthy chicken recipe. All done by one of our shared most favorite kitchen appliances, the Crock Pot. Just heat her up, toss in the ingredients and walk away for a few hours. I may do this one tonight :) Looks absolutely delicious. And to add to it, this link has a few other delicious recipes too.

Like what you see? Interested in trying new ideas? Let me know how they turn out. Don't forget to visit all these sites for even more Pinspiration!! Also, don't forget to pin and share!!

Floor Cloth Help

2013-03-27T19:39:00.002-04:00

Hey all! I have a quick question for you. Which one? I'm making a floor cloth for my dining room. The drapes are orange and white, the table is a natural wood color with a grayish blue base. I'm trying to figure out a color scheme for the room and I would be delighted with your input.

As you can see, here's the table with it's dual coloring. And in the background you can see my bright orange and white drapes.

This is a close up of the drape pattern and color.

Now, which one of these, matched with the Golden Lab would "complete" this look in a floor cloth.

The pattern would be every other color in 6 inch chunky stripes.

In my personal opinion, I'm leaning towards Palladian Blue. Oh and all of these are Ben. Moore Paints.

The Master Bedroom Reveal!!

2013-03-27T11:36:00.002-04:00

Over the last month or so I have been hard at work redesigning our master bedroom.
I am absolutely excited for this!!! Like I'm so happy that my cheeks hurt from smiling from too much. You know? Like my inner child is jumping up and down screaming "Weeeeeeeeee" eh let's be real. It's me not my inner child. I have been waiting 8 years to finally do this. Now, what I'm about t show you is phase 1-3. Yes, there are phases. There's still a ton more to do! Now when I started off with this project, I had high high hopes of building this room completely DIY style. I was going to build the furniture and stain it and then have The Hubs make some mirrors and a mantel and what not. But then The Hubs went on deployment. So I copped out. I bought some stuff and finished it. So it became a partial DIY project. We're still going to build the mantel but that's about it.

You know, sometimes you have to realize and accept when something is just out of your reach. And I believe that it takes a ~~lazy~~ mature person to do the practical thing.

You can NOT do a proper before and after without before photos. That would be like making mac and cheese without the cheese! It's just something you don't do. Kind of like too tight speedos on old guys :)

BEFORE:

Just be warned. I am leading you into my design failure and ultimate clutteredness. Brace yourselves and young ones shield your eyes.

Some of you remember when I painted these back when we lived in Groton. I was partially proud of these. This is where my DIY addiction began.

I had extreme high hopes for this room. This bedding was to be paired with the now current bedroom furniture and lamps. But sadly the bedding did not make it through our children.

Fast forward to our move to Maine. This was my emergency preparedness. We got about 30 inches of snow and a power loss threatened but never came... That's not the whole supply. Notice how there are two bottom drawers missing? Yep... I like Ikea. I like it when you live in an apartment and you're not moving around a lot. But if those things don't apply, I wouldn't buy it. It's not meant to be moved and pulled and carried.

The Hubs dresser. Poor thing. Bless it's heart. It tried so hard to be all it could be for my man. But it had enough. I couldn't carry through on it's task of holding a large amount of clothing and that TV.

Enter the replacements.

The bed. Let's start off by saying, we had no bed frame. You read that right. No. Frame. How sad is that? Oh we used to have one. Many years ago before The Hubs broke it. Now, I know that some of you are thinking that it's not fair of me to put the blame on The Hubs when he's not here to defend himself. But I only speak the truth when I say he broke it. He broke the frame AND the boxspring...TWICE. He likes to jump onto the bed. I'll leave it at that.

The bedding was something I have been looking forward to for a good long while. I love Pottery Barn. And if I had the money about 95% of my mom would be Pottery Barn. I have begged and pleaded my case with The Hubs that you get what you pay for. Meaning, spend a little extra dough for some nice quality stuff. Now, I didn't buy all the bedding from Pottery Barn. I only bought the duvet, euro shams and bedskirt from there. Everything else was from Target or Ikea.

Duvet: Fresco Paisley by Pottery Barn

Euro Shams: Linen Ruffle Shams by Pottery Barn

Bed Skirt: PB Essential Bedskirt by Pottery Barn

Sheets: Threshold Performance Sheet Set by Target I bought the Blue Global(pattern) and the Yellow(solid) sheet sets.

This candle has been in my smell good repertoire for about 7 years now. It's the Ginger-Peach pillar candle from Pier 1 Imports. I love how it brings a sense of spring into the atmosphere even in the coldest of winters.

The "candle holder" or trapezoidal plate is made from recycled glass and it was a HomeGoods find. I love the textured of this piece but I also am really impressed with it's versatility.

Our new dresser. Yes. Our. We had two. The rooms here in Maine are really small. They say they were built in 89, I doubt it. Maybe 69...maybe. Anyway to save space and make all my master bedroom dreams come true I ordered this beast of furniture from Country Cottage Furniture. It was unfinished when it came. It has 12 glorious drawers. They fit ALL his clothes. Except for the ones hanging up. And there's still room. Mine barely fit. Not because I have so many but because I have so little. The Hubs has more clothing than I do. Yes, yes it's true.

New Lamps. Much needed light. And they're gorgeous!!!

Standard knobs. Soon to be chrome standard knobs. I'll either spray paint them or buy new ones. Not sure. I'd rather take the DIY route but sadly that doesn't always work out for me. I think I'm becoming DIY challenged. Although most things I do involve painting. And I am a TERRIBLE painter. I can't get a smooth stroke to save my life.

Bottom half of lamp. And an anniversary present for The Hubs. He always has to have water by his beside. That results in copious amounts of glasses on his nightstand. Seriously, we run out of cups.

So I bought him this recycled glass carafe and tumbler from Are Naturals. It's super cute and super cool. The tumbler is the size of a double shot. ;)

Another DIY project. The topiary. I've always wanted them but I refuse to pay the $30-$40 or more price tag. So I figured I could make the for nothing. I bought the pillar holders and the fake boxwood tree balls(two to be precise) at The Christmas Tree Shoppes. Then I took the topiary balls and hot glued them onto two of the pillars. Badda-bing Badda-boom!!! Topiaries.

What a splendiferous difference isn't it? And since taking these pictures I have hung hand painted mirrors (that I scored at the orange store for $19 a piece) behind my nightstands for grandeur.

I'm super excited!!! A piece of art by my favorite artist has come in!!! Later this week I'll be picking up two paintings I had gallery wrapped. Later on I'll be sharing the new art additions to my home and a little blurb about gallery wrapping canvas paintings.

These Are A Few of My Favorite Things...

2013-03-20T18:24:00.000-04:00

"And these are a few of my favorite things..." Most of you out there grew up watching the Sound of Music. This was one of my favorite movie songs growing up. I had a few others but they were all from Disney lol. Today I'll be sharing with you a few of my favorites from around the net.

First, a trip down memory lane...

That's right. A Track. Outdoor track to be precise. I loved this sport. Ha who am I kidding, I still LOVE track. Not the field part so much. I was never coordinated enough to do all the jumping and throwing. Most of you who know me know that I was a sprinter. I ran the 100, 200, 400(most hated), 4x100(my favorite) relay and the 4x400 relay. What I love about running is the freedom you feel. It's just you. You can relax, find your pace and just go. The reason I loved the relays so much was because I felt that I could run faster with other people depending on me. There was also a bond between you and three other people.

Christian Louboutin. That's it. 'Nuff said.

Leonid Afremov. He is a world renowned artist who paints these amazing vivid impressionist portraits of people, cityscapes and objects. I adore his work and although I don't own any originals yet, I do own two reproductions and a hand embellished giclee.

Farewell to Anger

Loneliness of Autumn

Justin Timberlake: The 20/20 Experience.

I got a sound bite of this album watching Late Night with Jimmy Fallon while he was hosting Timber-week with Justin Timberlake. I especially love track 2 Pusher Love Girl. It has a soulful sound to it. It's smooth.

Something I've always been fond of was glass. Plain, thick glass. I love glass because it is characteristically transparent. I hate surprises and I prefer to "see" everything. I'm a planner and a bit of a control freak. But I love the curved edges of recycled glass. It brings a softness. It's not as sharp.

The Casa Collection. Pottery Barn.

These are just cool. I found these at Z Gallerie. They cost about $31 for a set of four of one kind. I bought four tumblers and four high balls for $2.99 a piece at HomeGoods. Right on HomeGoods, right on.

Capri Glassware. Z Gallerie.

New fragrance I pulled out of a magazine is the new Jimmy Choo scent Flash. I love how light and springy, summery and fabulous it is. It'll make you feel fresh and feminine all day long.

Flash by Jimmy Choo

I hope you enjoyed getting to know me a little bit more. I surely enjoyed sharing a little more of myself with you!

AND WE ARE BACK!!!

2013-02-25T20:10:00.003-05:00

And we are BACK!!!! Yay!!!! I know it's been like forever. But...I finally just got the keyboard in the mail about a week and a half ago. First I sent it to my old address and then I had to have my mom send it to this house. So it took a little detour to get home. It's been well missed. I have been going crazy not being able to properly write a blog post or to be able to take pictures and upload them. Now, I can. Aren't you glad? Did you miss me? Huh huh? Cause I missed you. I missed sharing my life with you. I missed posting super cool updates and DIY projects with you.

Speaking of updates!!!! Boy have we got A LOT!!! As of lately The Hubbs is out to sea. He'll be gone for about a lengthy amount of time. Which delays the building projects a few months. But not to worry! I will be repainting and refinishing furniture all around this place. Let's get up to date.

The Master.

We've got the bedding, the fabric and the lamps!!! We are missing the furniture. But hopefully that'll be here in about two weeks!!! EEEKKKK!! I'm SO excited. It's our first real legit ohmygoodness store bough piece of furniture. Not the Ikea stuff(which I love), but something that's substantial.

Here are some snappies!!

I don't have this exact lamp, but it's quite similar to the one I found in HomeGoods.

This mantel is similar to the style we'll be building. Not so big or with as many grooves. I'm not that groovy (ROFL!!!)

We bought 2 of these exact rugs from HomeGoods for $159 a piece!!! They are 5x7's, if I could have gotten one larger rug I would have. This rug is so soft under foot it's like walking on a cloud.

This is a mirror similar to two that I purchased at Home Depot on clearance $19.99!!! I'm spray painting them an oil rubbed bronze to match the curtain rod(72in-144in.) I purchased there for only $37.95!! You'll get to see those once the Master bedroom drapes are finished. What? I have to save something for later.

I'm totally going to talk up this furniture store, Country Cottage Furniture, I just ordered from. So I'm assuming you've all heard of unfinished furniture stores. You know, stores that sell completely built gorgeous pieces of furniture unfinished or for an extra dollar or two to do the hard work for you. I opted to do the hardwork myself. One: it's cheaper and B: it's cheaper.

First I'll be staining it in the same stain I've used on every other DIY project in this house. Minwax Wood Finish in Red Mahogany. If you live in the MA, NH, South eastern ME areas order from them!! They are so sweet and are willing to accommodate you. Their prices are fair and they have a low delivery cost.

The Bed: Alder Shaker

The Nightstand x2 : Alder Three Drawer McKenzie

The Dresser(we'll be sharing this baby. Similar DIY woodworking plan here.):

Alder 12 Drawer McKenzie Dresser

And the bed dressing:

The duvet cover, bedskirt and shams are from PotteryBarn. And the sheets are from Target. The king sized pillow shams are from a duvet set also from Target and the little pillow is from Ikea. Although everything ALWAYS looks better on websites or in magazines don't they?

The Dining:

Now, I've shared with you how to strip, prep and paint a dining room table. I've also showed you pictures. Right now I'm in the process of making pinch pleat drapes for the dining room. I'm making them because I don't feel like paying the hefty price tag of custom drapes. They can run from $50 a panel to over $500 a panel depending on the style and fabric used. Later on I'll show you how I made them, where I bought the materials and which genius seamtress I chose to follow for inspiration.

An inspiration of the drapes I'm making.

The chandelier. I'm really sorry for the terrible picture. Learning how to shoot on manual.

Candles on our table. I love the smell of ginger peach. You can snap these beauties up at Pier 1 Imports.

This natural linen will be the fabric of choice for the newly upholstered seats. That and a ton of scotchguard. I do not trust my kids in any way, shape or form when it comes to not spilling on my furniture.

And the refinished table. Which has seen better days. Yeah...I didn't know that you need like 4-5 coats of polycrylic when using it over paint. Plus curing time for the enamel alkyd paint(if using). You know to make sure every thing is nice and hard. I totally didn't follow those things and although she looks gorgeous she hasn't lasted more than two months unscathed.

Here's a little sneak peak of the drapes coming together!!! My first pair of professional quality drapes. And you know what? They're not as hard as you'd think. Using drapery fabric is nice.

Side hem.

Bottom hem.

Now, for a little family update in an array of photographs.

Enjoy!!

Super snow storm preparedness. I totally thought that we were going to lose power for at least 2 days. I made my room into the living quarters and Seamus' room into the kids play room. Yep...I was all that and then some. But we never lost power. I almost feel that all that work was pointless.

Some extra water for the non-existent power outage and loss of running water.

My hand crankable NOAA storm station. It's super cool. There's an LED flashlight on the front, a am/fm radio that taps into weather related stations, a hand crank so that you can charge it without power and it also comes with a slew of adapters to charge via wall and computer and you can charge your cell phone with too.

BDubb playing with a blue car. I love this stage of a baby's life. How they can find everything, that to us is so usual, new and exciting. Even if they stare at it every day over and over again.

The Hubbs modeling his new hoodie in Japan. It was so good to hear from him when he was there. It's hard being apart and it makes you appreciate the little things in life.

One of my fave pics. My two little ones sleeping together and holding hands. Maddy has this dependency thing where she has to be holding your hand on the way to sleepy land. it's a comfort thing. And Blake was smiling and I had no clue when I took it. I was focused on Maddy and how sweet she was. Sometimes her sweetness clouds everything else. Hey it's her thing.

A view from the bridge connecting Kittery to Kittery Point. It is beautiful up here. It's just that the housing ain't so great ;)

Slight profile of me. Eh what can I say? It's...Me.

Thanks for checking out my blog and reading a long just for the heck of it.

ModCloth Cabin Fever Sale!!

2013-01-21T14:17:00.001-05:00

Ready to update your look for the new year? Then it is time to catch the fever, as in the ModCloth Cabin Fever Sale. For a limited time you can get 70% off great styles from ModCloth during their annual Cabin Fever Sale. Supplies are limited so grab your favorites today before they are gone!

Irwin St. Gingerbread Homes

2013-01-18T19:30:00.000-05:00

Sorry that this post is late. I've been distracted with a bunch of things lately. Like, which DIY project should I tackle first? Or how long is my husband going to be at sea? Or how long can I tolerate my children in the most loving fashion without losing ?? Things like that lol. I'm not going to lie, it's been a little tough. But really only on the discipline side. The Hubs is in San Diego for a bit until he does out to sea on a submarine. He's debating being gone from either 4 months to 6 months. He wants to be on the fast track to Chief and he's convinced this will do it.

Anyway, on a better note... We were invited to our neighbors house to decorate gingerbread houses. I snapped a few not-so-hot pics of the process. My children loved it. And I recommend doing this in the future. But you can do it for other holidays. Like, for Easter you can make a tomb, the one that Jesus rose from. Or if you don't believe in that, a little house or rabbit hole for the Easter bunny.

This was our first year being invited to a gingerbread house making party or making ginger bread houses at home in general. We had a lot of fun. In some of the pictures it doesn't look it though.

The ingredients. Some M&M's, chocolate snocaps, pretzels, coconut shavings, icing, gobbstoppers and so on.

My little Lylibug using her fabulous icing bag to spread icing on her house.

This is a good tip. Use a Ziploc baggie to frost/ice cookies, houses cakes if you don't have an icing bag. Just cut a very small piece of the tip of the bag off.

Little Miss Kinley. She's absolutely adorable and a new friend to my girls.

Some of the village homes.

Carter icing his roof. His house was one of the coolest ones.

B-Dubb being held by Ms. Niomi. He looks pensive.

Anna-Claire(left) and her big sis(and our babysitter) Brooke. Brooke is also the girls Sunday School Teacher.

Miss Chrissy and Kinley's gingerbread house. It's far from finished and came out more elaborately than this.

Coconut shavings as snow. See I would have never thought of this. I know it's simple but I don't think like this lol.

Tootise Rolls for logs I guess? And Pretzels with M&M's for an enchanted walkway.

Seamus and Anna-Claire were decorating their houses together. Poor Seamus, his house kept falling apart no matter how much "glue" Miss Niomi used.

Seamus's roof I think? It might be Anna-Claire's.

I just had to snap a few pics of B-Dubb being just adorably cute and perfect.

This little visit was so much fun!! Niomi has Christmas lights hung in a zig zag pattern across her ceiling because the wiring in housing stinks so bad. Lights burn out all the time. The lights give a warm glow throughout the kitchen. It feels cozy and like you're outside at one of those street parties in a spanish town somewhere.

Mmm-mmm munching on my first pretzel.

Nom nom nom

I love this little camp fire!!! So inventive Chrissy!!

Peppermint hearts.

The Irwin St. Gingerbread homes. Since we live on a Cul-de-Sac we made the houses on one too.

B-Dubb just can't hang.

Google streets view

Now it's Google Maps lol.

I couldn't get a good enough shot for Apple Maps.

Any of you do any cool Christmas themed activities? Any time spent with friends? Any surprise guests??

Layla Grayce Sale

2013-01-18T17:46:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!! I just wanted to let you know of a Valentine's Day sale going on at Layla Grayce. This site is amazing!! They have so many unique and beautiful items from home decor to clothing. They even sell fabric!

Below are some of my favorite gifts.

I've included links to the items I've shown below(please bear with me. Blogging from my iPad app is not easy).

1. Barefoot Dreams Cardigan in Cozy Pink and Espresso
2. Sienna Pink and Sea Earrings
3. Rosanna Les Petite Sweets Compote Square

You can find something for the little girl in your life or you can hint to the beau of your life that the special gift you want is at this site. Just clicks the link to go check out the sale.

Layla Grayce Valentine's Day Sale.

You can save 15% off on Valentine's Day merchandise. Just type in 15pink when you check out. This sale ends 1/31.

A Delay In Plans

2013-01-16T21:02:00.001-05:00

Hey all!! There's going to be a delay in posts. An accident happened with my iMac keyboard. It got destroyed by hot chocolate today and I'm working off of the iPad. The problem? I can't access any of my photos on my computer. And I don't know how to get them from my Nikon d3100 to my iPad sans computer. Please bear with me as I work to get this issue resolved.

Thank you
~Portia

Ballet & Snow

2013-01-16T17:30:00.000-05:00

Ever since I was a small child I loved ballet. I loved how graceful and strong and beautiful the ballerinas were. I loved the costumes and the stage. But I never danced. My mother couldn't afford for me to take ballet and my grandparents wouldn't support it for their own reasons. Now that I'm a mommy to two little girls I have the absolute privilege of living vicariously through them hehehe(maniacal laugh).

Not only do I get to watch do something I love but I love seeing them do that something that I love lol. I'm blessed, so far they like it. They love the slippers and the costumes. And my youngest, Maddy J, calls them "go-llet lippers". It's just too cute.

Maddy J. I have no idea what kind of face she was making.

Lyli Rose. When I told her that she was going to be taking ballet, she did a happy dance and squealed!!

Ok so ages 14 and 12 anyone? I swear by this age(4 and 3) they come preloaded with all the attitude and sass a teenage girl could ever need.

And for B-Dubb?? Well...Not a single care was given that day :)

Today, there is snow. And it just keeps coming! I love it. Well, the look of it. There are few things more magical and more peaceful than a blanket of freshly fallen snow.

This is the view from our back porch.

Right past the playground is water. People load their canoes and kayaks and just go. It's really interesting having the water right there.

I am ashamed to say that I didn't have my camera out when all my kids were outside.

There would have been some awesomely spectacular shots. Kids were having snowball fights and wrestling matches in the snow!!

I love the falling snow against the brick.

The side yard I guess you could call it. I am really not digging the log/cabin style homes lol. I guess back in the 30's this was it huh?

This is B-Dubb's first official snow. All the others he couldn't sit or stand in it. So this is the only one that counts lol.

Lyli Rose and Maddy J clowin' around. Shh don't look but their snow pants are too small. I have to get them new ones lol.

Isn't he just adorable?

Anyone else getting slammed with snow/ice? Any snowboarding, skiing or sledding planned for the afternoon?

Little Gems Family Update

2013-01-14T18:15:00.001-05:00

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADDALAENA!!!!!!! My baby girl turned 3 years old yesterday!! I can't believe she's 3 already! It was like I gave birth to her yesterday.

Maddy J 1/13/2010 19.5in 7.06lbs. Maddy J 1/13/2013 31.5in 28lbs.

Right now I'm rocking out to Cheryl Lloyd's I Want You Back. For some reason I like this song even though the "UGHH!!" is REALLY cheesy :)

We went to the clinic today because Blake and Maddalaena had their follow up check ups. Blake had his 9 month and Maddy J had her 3 year. We got there and did the standard fill-out-100-or-so-pages of forms before being admitted. That took a minute. Then we had to wait for a good 20-30 minutes to see the doctor. Whom I love, because she takes her time to explain everything to you so that you understand and don't screw up your kids. She's very patient. And kind.

So the hospitalman(woman) took all the measurements and vitals. My little macho man Blake "B-Dubb" Allen weighed in at 21lbs and stood tall at 31.5in. Not to be confused with the 37.5 I posted earlier(sorry about that :)). And my pin thin little lady stood high at 39.5in and weighed in at a mere 28lbs. Tall and thin. And I'm breeding a tight end with B-Dubb. Patriots keep your eyes peeled for this guy huh huh?? Wink wink.

Now, who likes getting shots? I don't mind them. I just stare them down like when Maddy J steals my chapstick out of my purse. Yes...she did that today. My girls ~~hate~~ LOATHE them. They scream and cry. It takes two people sometimes three to hold them down, one at a time. So I had to beat around the bush when they asked if they were getting shots. I would say "I'm not sure" or "Blake is getting a shot". They would smile at that one. But in the end they each got a flu vaccine. But the crazy news came when I found out that the clinic might have accidentally mixed up their vaccinations. Meaning Maddalaena got Lylian's(in November, they had physicals) and vice versa. I was very questionable and upset. Although I kept my composure. The Hubs would have been proud :) Thank you, thank you *pats self on back. But now, I have no clue who has what and what's needed next. So far no one seems to be struggling or having a reaction to getting vaccinations mixed up.

On that note, PLEASE make sure that the immunization people know who they're giving what to.

It's scary not knowing what's going on. The problem is, with my girls being so close in age they're easily confused. Typically people mix up their names. They'll say Lylianna? Which is gorgeous, but it's not my kids name lol.

B-Dubb's adenoids are quite large. The doctor doesn't know if it's due to allergies or if he has a problem that might require surgery. He has very little space between the upper back of this throat and his tongue. So he's on Singulair for a few weeks to see if that clears anything up. If so, then we know it's allergies. If not then we know that it's something more serious. B-Dubb's issue right now is that he snores very heavily. Even to the point where it wakes him up at night. He also stops breathing sporadically. Which can be very dangerous. So we're hoping to get this issue resolved soon.

Both Maddy J and B-Dubb have small umbilical hernia's. Maddy J has had hers since she was about 6 months old. I've been waiting for it to close and it hasn't. So we're going to wait it out with both of them to see if it closes or if any pain comes from having the hernias. If pain occurs than Maddy J will have to have surgery. She will have to go under with anesthesia and everything. All this will happen probably when Richard is out to sea. Please keep our family in your prayers as we sort all of these things out.

Me on the other hand? I have been picking up amazing finds to refinish. And I've also picked up the fabric to make floor cloths for the dining room and kitchen, and to reupholster the dining chairs. I found a $5 rocking horse that I'll be repainting and a $13 dining table with a leaf that seats 6 at max that I will be refinishing in Annie Sloan's chalk paint and soft wax in brown in the upcoming month or so. Keep a look out and keep coming back for more projects and updates!!!

Road Block Anyone?

2013-01-12T19:30:00.000-05:00

Recently I have been in this design road block. I've told you all in a previous post, that I am redesigning my dining room. The table is finished. It's pretty and I'm pretty proud of my refinishing skills. If you haven't gotten a chance to read about it, you can read more about the processes here, here and here.

See, I thought I knew what I wanted. I swore( I know naughty, naughty. Finger wagging and head shaking) I knew what I wanted. I had fabrics picked out, a design board made and paint and materials all priced out. But I couldn't figure out which pattern should on the windows and which one on the floor. I was stumped. Completely. I was thinking a geometric print on the windows and then a damask print on the floors. I couldn't picture it at all. I kept going back and forth, wondering if it would be too much have a pattern on every surface.

Remember this beauty? It got the old nix-o. Three strikes. It's O-U-T!!!

Then I was hit with open-mindedness. A bunch of what-ifs popped up and flooded my mind. What if I added a bold color instead of just having grays, whites and browns? What if I didn't paint the chairs? Is twill the best fabric of choice for everyday dining? How would velvet on the chairs look? What if I did a solid fabric on the chairs instead of stripes? And so on and so forth.

So out with the old in with the new right?

Oh yeah baby. Boo-Yeeeahh!!! I LOVE this!!! Just which print for the drapes?

I had to take a step back and breathe. I took a week from blogging and from designing(a new found hobby/love). Then a few days ago I started to clean my dining room. It's the first space you walk into when you enter my home and so I'm a little OCD about keeping up elementary appearances lol. I have these red Pier 1 candles in glass hurricanes on my table as well as a white decorative bowl with oranges and a yellow vase with red and cream silk flowers. As I was scrubbin-a-dubb-dubbing away, the color of the oranges stood out to me. Something about the gray of the table and the boldness of the fruit caught my eye. Then I looked up at the cream flowers and I knew I was onto something. But it just wasn't right. I omitted the red candles and the red flowers from the vase, then I added orange Pier 1 candles to the hurricane vases. Voila!! It was perfect! I knew my new color scheme. The orange was just the perfect contrast and pop of color the space needed. Gray and orange; it's soft but bold. Feminine but masculine. It's Perfection. Total cheesiness huh?

As for the chairs? I'm going to leave them unfinished. I love the color of the wood with the rest of the color palette. I decided to change the fabric from twill to linen during all of this enlightenment. I thought the switch would help soften up the room. I'm using the Warsa Linen from Gray Line Linen on the chairs and for the floor cloth. It'll be my first time ordering from the company and using their fabrics. I've heard great things about them from The Little Green Notebook(you should check out her blog). Warsa Linen is a heavier weight linen good for suiting and drapery. So I figured that it would hold up on everyday dining chairs.

I'll also be using the same linen but in a different color for the floor cloth under the table. It will be lighter than the chairs to add contrast, texture and brightness to the room.

Tomorrow I'll be releasing my updated design board for this "new" dining room. I'm proud because by stepping away from my blog and Pinterest I was able to come up with this color palette on my own. It's a thinking-outside-the-box for me type thing. I am a creature of color habit. I always have been. But since I've been blogging and experiencing other blogs my tastes have changed. And I like it.

My next projects will include: refinishing my living room end tables, finding commode style( not the bedside potty) bureaus for our master bedroom, reupholstering the chairs and making the floor cloths.

Has anyone heard of floor cloths? They are superbly awesome!! They are the awesomeness of a well decorated rug but with the efficiency of a laminate floor. And what's great is that you can use them anywhere!!! On the back porch, bedroom(with a rug pad underneath), mud room and in other convenient places. In the upcoming weeks I'll be posting more tutorials about floor cloths, dining chair restoration and drapery making.

Anyone else interested in floor cloths? Or making your own custom drapes?

New Things To Come

2013-01-03T16:30:00.000-05:00

Happy January 2nd!!! I'm wasting no time getting into the swing of this new year. I did get a late start though. I woke up at 7:15am. That's pretty late for us. My son's bus comes around 7:45-7:50. I had to wake up two little girls and a baby, get hair done, dressed and fed. Oh and my son too. I was so late in fact that I had to shoo my son out the door to catch the bus without me walking him to the bus stop (something I HATE doing). I hurriedly got everyone else geared up and out the door just in time to wave to him as the bus pulled away. Talk about a close call!!

So if you've made new resolutions or game changers, don't feel bad. You can always make them happen no matter how late you are or how far off schedule you are. I did it :)

This year I am not going to say I am turning over a new leaf. But I will be building, decorating, organizing and taking you along with me. Our household, since moving, has lost almost all form of a schedule. When my eldest was little, we had a strict schedule. From food to toy pick up to bedtime routine not minute was to be missed or the apocalypse would ensue( or so I thought). After having a few more children I realized that I could relax and not stick to such a crazy-strict schedule. Well, now the not-so-crazy schedule is long gone and everyone is sorta flying by the seat of their pants.

New chore charts will be made, closets will be cleaned out, a new command center will be erected and the cobwebs are comin' down baby(figure of speech). Although in these homes cobwebs really do exist and it wasn't because of us. We've only been here about two months.

Magnetic Kids Chore Chart from A Spotted Pony White Command Center from Maven of Savin'

Some of my closest family and friends know that I am a planning freak. I will sit down to plan something out in the morning and next thing I know I'm prying myself away from my computer to get my son from the bus. It's bad. The Hubbs sometimes brags about it and not in a good way. Know what I mean?

DIY Paint Chip Calendar from The Bird With The French Fry

One of my "things" I will be working on is to be more of a doer and less of a planner/dreamer. There are so many times where I let opportunities slip by because I'm too busy planning every facet of the details.

Another is to be more home organized. My house isn't the most organized space. There are toys, clothing, sometimes food and dirt everywhere. My sewing has over taken the sewing table, papers have over taken the desk, and toys have over taken every other square inch of this house. I'll be labeling and sorting every room in my home. And I can't wait :D

Burlap Sacks from Pottery Barn

Is it sad that I have been dreaming about this for years?

2012: A Year In Review

2013-01-01T12:16:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year everyone!!! Welcome to 2013!! When I was a kid every. single. time a new year came, I would always, ALWAYS, mess up the date. Instead of writing 1999 it was always 1998. So I would have to erase the 8 and replace it with a 9. But of course the erase was all messed up and it would leave black smudges. So I would resort to using white-out. Did this happen to any of you? Then you would sneakily sniff the white-out? Or maybe paint your nails with it(girls)? I did. And I was caught. Lol.

Are there any fun memories from 2012, or even years past that make you chuckle or blush in embarrassment? Mine embarrassing moments happen on a daily occurance. Mostly with my children.

Originally i was going to make this post about projects I've done throughout the year. But since I am procrastinator of the year, and I haven't truly completed a space, I figured that I would do a photo montage of this past year. I just want to note that these are in no specific order.

Our first ever DIY project!!! Remember this? Completed with borrowed tools.

Lylian Rose being her smiley self :)

Seamus, soccer superstar, reading extraordinaire.

Brothers for life. Although I have no clue what was going on with Blake. I guess having your mouth hang open and drooling pouring out is the new thing for babies?

I had this cake made for Blake's baby shower. It was delicious. I believe it was marble cake with chocolate chocolate chip buttercream.

We encourage our children to enjoy music and we hope that one day they'll all play an instrument seriously. Here is Maddalaena "playing" the guitar. If you look close enough, you can see that she is grabbing all the strings. Apparently folks, this is all the rage. It's a new form of guitar playing.

This was taken right out in our back yard in Groton. It's one of my favorite pictures of Blake. His true personality is shining through.

Another picture, taken the same day. This kid was on a role with the good pictures. I'm guessing he loves the fall months.

This is speaks volumes. My eldest daughter, Lylian, is shy as a bat. She WILL NOT talk to anyone in front of an adult. And it's pretty tough to get her to talk to anyone who is more than 2 years older than her. But here she is at her 4th birthday party, hamming it up with her best friend Eric "Bubba" Santiago and sweetheart extraordinaire Alliyah Montoya.

Like I said best friend. Bubba now lives abroad with his family. And Lylian is still heartbroken that she can't have her Bubba.

I believe I was 39 weeks with my youngest, Blake, in these two pictures. I remember that I couldn't sit on the bed cross legged or even with both legs in front of me. I was so uncomfortable, swollen and tired when we took these. Lol, I was using my stomach to help keep me upright for the bottom shot.

This cute little number was going to be used as a prop for the newborn pictures I had planned for Blake. We also invested, as I'd like to think of it, in a few other things. Even having one of Richard's aunts make a cute little sock monkey outfit. But this child came out a whopping 10.4 lbs!!! And didn't fit into any of the bottom pieces lol. I still have all of these little props and even if didn't get to wear all of the I'll keep them forever.

My grandmother, or Gramma Shirley as my children called her. She is the only great-grandmother who saw all four my children. And the only great-grandmother that my children will ever know. She passed away this past August with bone cancer. My children loved her and she loved them to pieces.

Holmberg Orchard's. We took the children apple picking here. But I could not get Maddalaena to keep her head straight while taking this shot. I tried to bribe her, scold her, love her but she wouldn't corporate.

Me: 8 months. My grandmother: shocked and excited.

This was taken after Seamus' 6th birthday. The Hubs took the kids outside after the party so my mom and I could clean house lol.

A more recent picture. Our Christmas tree this past year. We decided not to do lights. Yeah... we'll never do that again. It's not complete without lights.

And this was Thanksgiving, three weeks after moving to our house in Maine. You can see boxes in the background by the door. The kids weren't really fond of the food I cooked.

Some Christmas decor. Ornaments, pinecones and such.

We literally just wrapped up a series on refinishing this dining room table. You can check out Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here.

Can you believe how much he's grown??? Hair, teeth and handsomeness all rolled up into a Mr. Chubbs.

I just can't get enough of the brother shots. Blake looks up to Seamus so much even at this young age. It's amazing. Maddalaena doesn't really look up to Lylian all that much. They are only 17 months apart. Their more like equals than big sis little sis. But the admiration that Blake shows for Seamus is amazing.

Peeking up over our neighbors couch.

Blake Christmas morning, as everyone else was opening presents. A picture's worth a thousand words.

Maddalaena being the bad-to-the-bone girl that she is, took my sunglasses and put them on gangster style.

Our neighbor hosted a gingerbread house decorating party at her house. And this was one of the walkways.

We set the houses up, similar to our homes. We live on a circle, so we made the little town of 5, Irwin St.

The Hubs, or daddy, as the kids call him, was getting ready to make his way into the OR for Blake's birthday. I love his kind eyes.

What do you think was running through his mind? You know, if he could think on a complex level at this age.

It's like " No!! Put me back!!! It's so warm in there!!! Where's my dignity!!!"

Gramma Shirley holding Blake for one of the first times.

See even as infants, they're foot printed. Know what I mean?? They always screw up the foot prints. They make my kids look like they have these crazy mixed up toes. Their piggies are pointing in all insane directions.

It's cold!!!! Oh ok, I'm good. Carryon.

Little miss here was not pleased at all with the arrival of Blake Wesley Allen. The whole time she had a sourpuss face unless you were talking to her about herself. Ugh, Divas!

Welcome to the world.

The four of our beautiful children. Of course I'm biased. But they are gorgeous, even with crazy hair.

The only newborn picture with a prop I got of Blake. And I felt so bad because I felt that the room was too cold. So I just couldn't do anymore lol.

Welcome to New Year's Day. They just couldn't handle it.

This picture was taken sometime over the summer. Seamus was upset because he had gotten in trouble for something and he broke out in tears. Lylian gave him a hug to make him feel better. I thought that the moment was beautiful so I snapped a picture. Emotionally raw pictures are the most beautiful in my opinion.

The Hubbs doing his thing... Whatever it is, I have yet to figure it out.

At the weigh station getting the truck and the U-Haul weighed before we took off for Maine.

One of my families traditions. It started with my Uncle Doug taking my cousin Nathan, who was young at the time, riding on Papa's tractor. For some reason, the boys loved it. Then when Seamus was old enough, Richard would take our kids out on the tractor.

Playing floor hockey with Uncle Doug and Papa.

Fun in the sun at Papa and Gramma's house.

I don't exactly remember what year this happened, but we took a trip with some friends of ours( who aren't really friends now) to B.F. Clyde's Cider Mill. This mill has live demonstrations of how they mill the apples to make cider. They also serve wine and hard cider and you can do tastings there as well. In their shop they sell a variety of goods for purchase. If you're ever in Mystic, CT look it up and plan a trip. You won't regret it!!

I made these DIY Glass Thumb Tacks as a Pinterest Challenge over at The Bower Power Blog( good reading I suggest you head on over and check it out).

Remember this ribbon wreath? This adorable addition to the girls room? Well, you can find the tutorial here. Have fun with it!! Add Mardi Gras beads or felt flowers to it. You can add virtually any embellishment to this wreath to make it your own.

This bench was our first custom order. We used Ana White's Farmhouse Bench wood working plans but we modified the bench to be more practical. Here is the post for this. And the update is here.

Here is the most single important thing to happen to The Hubb's career to date. He put on First Class. In the Navy that means that you're ready to take on responsibility. To handle your own...poop if you will. It shows that you're ready to be a leader and it prepares you for the big guns. Congrats baby. I am so proud of you!!!

Thank you for taking the time to look at our year in review. The projects I listed have links to their pages. Just click on the picture or on where is says here. What memories do you have of 2012? Some good? Or some bad? Anything you'd like to re-do? Is there anyone who has any New Year's resolutions lined up for this year?

Painting and Sealing A Dining Room Table. Pt. 3 Refinishing A Dining Room Table Series

2012-12-30T10:30:00.000-05:00

Hello all welcome to the final installment of the Refinishing a Dinning Room Table Series.

Today we'll be covering the painting and sealing process. The type is you use for a high use piece should be durable to be able to withstand a lot of action. Some great paints are Benjamin Moore's Advance(which is what I used) and Sherwin Williams ProClassic. These paints are latex based paints that perform to the standard of an oil based paint. If you really want durability use an oil based paint. Just know that the odor is strong and clean up isn't so easy.

Things you'll need:

Enamel Alkyd paint such as the ones listed above or an enamel based paint

Nylon or horse hair brushes( I recommend and use Purdy brushes)

Polycrylic(topcoat/sealer)

Tarp

Soap and water with a rag for clean up

Paint tray

Floetrol

Before you get started, pour your paint into the tray and mix your Floetrol in with the paint. This will help the paint last longer. It doesn't thin your paint out it just conditions it so that it dries slower and helps you leave less brush and roller marks. For one gallon of paint you will use 8 ounces of Floetrol or one cup. Since I only used a quart of paint I used 2 ounces. Or 4 tablespoons. When in doubt, Google :)

I'm sorry I don't have pictures of me painting. I only have pictures of the finished project. And of the things I used. So here we go!

Purdy 1", 1.5" and 2" Nylon brushes( I love them!!)

Floetrol for paint conditioning action

Minwax Water Based Polycrylic for protection. I'm paranoid so I may slap on an extra coat or two :)

The table. Isn't Melba gorgeous now??

The corner details. The lady who sold this to us was extremely nice and gave us four chair covers. They get the job done ;)

It's almost like looking up someone's skirt isn't it? Wink wink lol.

Upclose shot of the feet.

And the whole thing. This is our ~~just didn't give a crap~~ minimalist approach to Christmas decorating.

We only have enough covers for four chairs. So the ugly step sisters have to stay behind the table. Kind of like putting a bag over your head.

And our little nutcracker that Nana gave to us a few Christmas' back. I love this gift because it came from someone who loved and cared for us very much. And it's unfortunate that she is no longer with us. So every Christmas we place him in a visible space so that we can remember Nana around the holidays :)

If any of you have any questions about refinishing furniture, please don't hesitate to contact me directly. I'd love to hear about your projects and your thoughts on this project.

Is anyone attempting a refurbishment on their own? Any other DIY painting projects in the future?

Don't forget to see the $40 Table Makeover, Part 1 and Part 2 of the Refinishing a Dining Room Table Series.

Priming A Dining Room Table Pt.2 Refinishing A Dining Room Table Series

2012-12-29T10:30:00.000-05:00

Welcome back!! Today we'll be priming a stripped and cleaned dining room table. Over the last two days I've shared with you the before and after pictures of my $40 Dining Room Table Makeover and how to strip and clean your dining room table.

Priming your table can be frustrating. I'm going to share a little secret with you. Are you ready for it?

Go on. Press your ear to the screen and imagine me whispering to you. Too close for comfort? Yeah I thought so ;) But are you ready for the secret? Penetrol.

That's right. This stuff baby.Now, I admit, I should have used this. But I didn't. I wasn't sure I had to. What is Penetrol you ask? It is a paint conditioner for oil based paint and primer. It allows paints and primers to dry at a slower rate allowing for less brush and roller marks. Which if you look really close at my table, you can see them.

Items needed:

Oil based primer(it's more durable than latex based). I used Zinsser Cover Stain Primer. But Kilz in the equivalent is fine.

Three-five 3in foam brushes(large areas)

2-3 1in foam brushes(small areas/details)

Tarp

Penetrol( I highly recommend it)

Mineral Oil(clean up for accidental spillage)

Extra fine grit sanding block

Cool thing about foam brushes? You can buy them at your local dollar store for less than a dollar a piece.

Priming doesn't have to be exact because you'll be painting over it. But be sure you sand with an extra fine grit sanding block to smooth out the primer.

More visual learning aids :) I'm just looking our for you. It's ok you can tip me later ;)

I think this is a 2". Definitely use a 3". It makes your life so much easier.

Now, I know that you can have your stain tinted. But When I opened my can of primer, it was this color. I wasn't sure if someone had it tinted and then returned it or what. But I used it anyway. It worked fine. I did one coat for the base and two coats for the table top.

I did not prime the brass here. I'm not sure why. I think I wasn't sure on if I was going to paint it.

Upclose shot of the detail.

The whole piece.

This is one coat of primer, sanded. You can see areas of the wood showing through. The top definitely needed to coats.

Corner detail of the table top

Close up edge detail.

Some areas of the feet and base needed two coats of primer.

One coat on the table top primed and lightly sanded. REMEMBER to sand lightly. You don't want to take off the layer of primer. It's best to sand by hand. An electric sander, even on the lowest setting would be too strong.

And then even taking extreme precautions, your son could accidentally damage your priming job :(

Don't forget to check back in tomorrow for the painting and sealing process!! It's almost done!!!

Prepping and Stripping A Dining Room Table Pt. 1 Refinishing A Dining Room Table Series

2012-12-28T10:30:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the Refinishing A Dining Room Table Series. Over the next three days I will be going over how to strip, clean, prime, sand, paint and seal a trestle dining room table.

In a previous post I shared some before and after pictures of a $40 dining room table find. If you missed it you can find it here.

Today I'm going to show you how I prepped, stripped and cleaned the table to prepare it for painting.

Things you'll need:

Indoor/outdoor paint and varnish stripper

Plastic scrappers

Horse hair or brass stripping brushes

Medium sanding block

Tarp

Chemical gloves

Goggles

Bucket of warm water

Trisodium Phosphate

Sponge

Towel

I'm a visual learner so i'm incorporating lots of pictures :)

Sanding with Toby. When you prepare a table for stripping, sometimes the piece(if old enough) may have loose polycrylic or polyurethane peeling or flaking off. I sanded it with a medium grit sanding block. My cat thought I was trying to play with him lol. Also DO NOT do with with a new manicure. Mine was ruined.

After sanding, you're going to dust off the extra particles and use a stripper. Citristrip Paint and Varnish Stripper is good for indoor use as well as outdoor use. I chose this brand because I did this entire process in my dining room. It doesn't smell too bad but make sure that you have tarp laid out and baby gates up to keep children out and to keep the stripper from getting onto the floor. If it does clean it up right away. Also you'll need chemical gloves so as not to damage your skin. And take off your jewelry.

I used a spray stripper because it was the easiest at getting into the crevices on this dining room table base.

The stripper doing it's work. When you're using this shake the can and spray generously. Making sure to get in everywhere you want stripped. It'll take about 15-20 for this brand stripper to do it's job.

After your allotted time expires, you're going to use the flat plastic scraper to scrape off all of the stripper and varnish/paint. And the bristled brush to scrub out all of the little areas. I didn't included pic because my hands/gloves were nasty. Also remember, if you're not sure what the stripper will look like when it's ready, it'll look like a top layer of hardened frosting. How it gets a very hard thin layer on top of it? You know what I'm talking about...cool...ok:)

Ta-da!! Look it's wiped down!! In the wiping process I used shop towels and paper towels. I prefer paper towels because they are thin and you can squish them into crevices better.

Now I chose to wipe down the table with a dry towel because I wanted to see if I needed to re-strip the table. You don't have to do this, it's an extra step but to me it's worth it. Do you see the blanket? That's all of the scraped off gunk from the trestle base. Nasty huh?

Now, there is still stripper on this base. So here comes the cleaning part. If you leave stripper on your furniture you run the risk of messing up your project. The stain/paint won't adhere well and may not stay on.

In comes Trisodium Phosphate. What's cool about this stuff is it's one of the only cleaners that you can use inside. Pretty much every degreaser I was looking at was for outdoor use. This powder you mix with warm water and it'll clean the stripper right off. It also can be used to clean items in your home. But it may remove the finish on your floors. Just warning yah :) The mix is 1/2 cup with 2 gal of warm water. Mix with your gloved hand and sponge and wipe/scrub clean.

Those darker areas I had to re-strip.

Do you see how much lighter the wood is after I cleaned it? It's amazing.

Nasty, messy work area. Now you see why you need gates, drop cloth/tarp(my suggestion) and other precautions. This is terrible dangerous for children and pets.

He wanted to help out. Luckily, I took this when everything was put away and the trestle base was drying from being cleaned.

Sorry for the bad pic.

And it's all cleaned!! She's a beaut isn't she? At this stage I named her Melba.

Come back tomorrow for the priming process!!

$40 Make Over

2012-12-27T10:30:00.000-05:00

Looking at the title, how many of you thought that I got a make over?? Come on :) Be honest. Well, I didn't but my dining room table did. And no, it's not the one Richard built me. It's a $40 find that came with a set of four chair covers and a huge custom framed picture. Don't worry the picture is getting booted. I'm replacing it with a mirror :) You can always make something better right?

This is no ordinary table. To some of you it might be...shame on you. This thing is at least 40 years old. How perfect is that? It cost me $40. But it comes with two leaves and 6 caned back upholstered chairs. The piece is gorgeous.

The design process for the piece was a quick one. I knew I wanted to stain the table at first. But after stripping it( a pain in my b-u-t-t!!), I saw that the wood it was built with wouldn't turn out like this gorgeous table that I found on Restoration Hardware.

Of course it would have been stained in Minwax's Classic Gray Wood Stain. Of course...right?

Well, that just wasn't in the plans for this table. You can always stain darker, never lighter. And I wasn't about to sand this thing with all of it's nooks and crannies all the way down to bare wood. I would have destroyed it.

I'm going to share some before and after's with you all and over the next few days I'm going to share with you how I did the makeover.

A Chair

Some detailing around the chair. Now the chairs haven't been touched. I've only removed the back cushions on two of them. I'm still deciding on if I want to paint the caning or not.

Isn't the caning gorgeous?

Front of the table leaves

The table top. Imagine if I had stained this??

Table edge detail

I love the details of this table. At first when we brought it home, I was going to refinish it and sell it. But then I found out it was a trestle table(something that I have wanted forever) and I just had to keep it. So the homemade Farmhouse table has found a new home on our back deck with the two benches. I hate to see it out there but hey, now we don't have to build a back porch table and benches!

Trestle base

Brass detail on the feet.

The finished prduct. Sorry for the mess. I just applied a coat of Polycrylic to the top of the table.

The color f the table took me a minute to decide on. I picked out four grays. Two from Benjamin Moore and two from Sherwin Williams. I chose Ben Moore because Ace Hardware is right up the street(and the have a 10% military discount). But I chose a completely different color. I chose Pebble Beach and I used Benjamin Moore's Advance after a few email consultations from Kate at Centsational Girl. Thank you so much for your advice, it turned out beautifully!! I love this gray it's so soft and bright!! I also discovered, after accidentally painting my wall, that it would serve as a good paint color for the kids bathroom. Which I plan to do after The Hubbs goes to sea :)

And look...a trash bag... I should have edited it out. Oh well. Now you know we're normal.

Look at that detail. It was a PAIN to strip. But I'll do it again :) I decided to paint the brass. I didn't think this color gray with it's blue hue would look good with brass details. Especially if the brass were restored to all it's brassy glory.

Oh look, bad washed out picture of the top of the table. The lighting in this room is terrible. I need to invest in a new lense. Anniversary gift maybe? Hehehe...

So there it is. The Before and After's. What do you think? Please weigh in. As hard as this was, I really liked doing it. When I was finished I had a sense of accomplishment. It took a total of a week and a half to do. Or about 10-12 hours. If I hadn't of stripped it I think it would have been 4-6 hours.

Aqua and Vintage

2012-12-26T15:45:00.000-05:00

As I've been meandering the internet, I've noticed a booming trend in home decor. It combines vintage with modern making for a chic design scape. What's awesome about this combination is that it isn't specific to one item or space. It's everywhere!! Just check out a few of these webpages(just click on the pics) for home decor or fashion inspiration.

You can find this in rooms in your home:

: Bathroom via Ciao! Newport Beach

: Paneled Bath via Interior Porn

: Laundry Makeover via Sand and Sisal

: Hallway

Or on Furniture:

: I LOVE this chair!!! Home By Heidi

: An Antique commode(something I've been searching for myself)

: On Beds!

In everyday fashion:

Aren't all of those gorgeous?? I wish that I could wear all of it lol :)

I've also seen it used in decor and in food!!

: Don't those look like the perfect party favor??

: Aqua Lemonade. Must try this!!!

: I believe these are my favorite!!

: I love this idea!!

: I love how the aqua vases and bowls tie the map into the space. It's very serene.

I had a lot of fun bringing these pictures together and I've even been inspired to incorporate this theme into a few of my own rooms!

The After Christmas

2012-12-26T15:42:00.001-05:00

Hello everyone!!! How was your Christmas'? Ours was wonderful. First we had our good friend Steve, or Rookie/Rook as we like to call him, for the unwrapping of the Christmas presents. He's like our kids god-parents. Then my mom came up to visit for the day. But as a surprise, she brought my grandfather. Which was awesome! I thought that he would be spending Christmas alone. My grandmother passed away this past August for those of you who don't know. The kiddos were uber excited about their presents and super happy that grandma and papa could be here.

Welcome to the After Christmas edition post. I really haven't posted anything on here in while. I've been sprucing up my other blog. It's centered on DIY projects while this blog will be focused more on the family. I'll still be sharing projects but it will be less tutorially and more the after math. You can visit the new site here. I hope that you enjoy and please spread the word. Tell your friends and families!

Our tree this year!! We tried no lights...never doing that again. But unlike last year I am now in planning mode for nest year's theme. It's a color palette that everyone has seen before, except for babies. I'm hitting up PotteryBarn online to score some of those really thin lights which you can find here and the velvet stockings and velvet tree skirt. Hopefully they'll still have them and I can get everything monogrammed for a good price.

The kiddos presents this year. I think we may also buy some gifts for children who have none next year. We don't believe in over spoiling our children. So we choose like the top three on their lists to Santa.

Can't go wrong with a semi white Christmas and some snow covered foliage right?

Blake eating Happy Tots Stage 2 foods for breakfast. He can put two of those away with a pancake if I let him. This kid is a tank!! We're training him to be a tight end lol.

My beautiful girls playing quite nicely together.

Tribute: my grandmother this past April/May holding baby Blake. I miss my grandmother so much. She was a staple in my life. I've spent so much time with her, I consider her closer than a grandmother. She was always there when I needed her and offered me advice from the Bible. Not just from her own opinion. She wanted to be as much like Christ as she could and she wanted the same for her entire family. She loved my children like they were her own even though they were two generations apart. This is the first Christmas without her. I love her and she was always be remembered and hold a special place in my heart.

A holiday isn't a holiday without holiday cookies :) We made sugar cookies with homemade icing. For the garnishment we used butterscotch and semi sweet chips on the ginger bread men and crushed peppermint candy canes on the candy cane shapes.

The icing was 2 cups confectioners sugar, water(I poured until I was satisfied) and a little bit of vanilla. But you could easily use any other flavoring.

Mmm Mmm cookies...

This was a gold box that I picked up from Pier 1 Imports a few years back. I thought it was something really cool but I could also afford it lol!!

Seamus' ornament from last year. We have a tradition that we do every year. We typically go and buy ornaments for one another. Kind of like an ornament swap. This year we decided to make salt dough ornaments with our neighbors. They didn't turn out the way I wanted. That's why there's no pictures of them lol.

Table top decor. Gold glass ornaments with glittered covered pinecones in a Yankee Candle crackled vase.

Yes, that is a Pier 1 candle with the paper label still on it. And to add it's still wrapped in it's plastic cover. I tend not to burn candles. The Hubbs tends to let them burn all day, or my children will knock the candle over. And these candles are strong enough that they don't have to burn.

This is Maddalaena's ornament from Poppop last year.

Our minimalist table decor lol. It makes me feel better to say that just because I didn't put too much effort into decorating this year.

Lylian's ornament from last year.

Something nifty I picked up. It's a ball of gold leafy flowers and red berries.

Blake raiding our snack cabinet. He loves him some Cheerios. I just hope that when he's 50 he has great cholesterol lol.

Seamus and Lylian opening some of their presents. Of course my son thinks that the biggest present is his. Because bigger is better right??

Blake. I love that look! He's so expressive. He's like "Hey where's my stuff?"

I wish that I was quick enough to get Lylian's reactions on camera. They were priceless. Everytime she opened a gift she screamed and had the biggest smile on her face. It made me feel like I was the best present-buyer/mother on the planet.

Maddalaena showing off her Minnie Mouse picnic set.

The Hubbs was just wiped out. He had duty the previous night and he stayed up all morning to help the kids open their gifts and enjoy the extreme joy that radiated from their pores.

Blake or Goldo(Fat boy) and his walker toy. We thought that this was a good investment considering Maddalaena walked at 14 months. And I really didn't want to tote this big ole boy around at that age. He's 8 months and over 20 pounds!! And I am kidding, I know that babies will walk and develop at their own pace.

Seamus got Skylanders for the Wii this Christmas. Has played it most of yesterday and he hasn't stopped today. This was his smile as I asked him to take a picture. See the priority here?? I'm just glad that he is happy.

The girls playing with their little brother. These moments are golden and I love them when they happen, however rare it is...

How was your Christmas? Do your children believe in Santa? Has anyone spoiled it for them? We just started the whole Santa things because of Seamus' school. They talk about it, so we act on it. But I'm hoping it doesn't last much longer. I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas!! And soon to have a Happy New Year!!

Terrible Tragedy in Newtown, CT

2012-12-14T21:15:00.001-05:00

I would like everyone who reads this to take a moment or few of silence. Just offer up a word of prayer for the families and first responders involved in an indescribably horrific tragedy that took place in Newtown CT.

A young man walked into an elementary school and opened fire on students and faculty killing 20 students and 6 teachers. Then he turned the gun on himself. Now as a parent of an elementary aged student, I can't fathom going through something like this. It brought tears to my eyes and pain to my heart. Those children are with The Lord now which is amazing. I just pray for peace, comfort and strength for everyone else. I pray for discernment for the journalists reporting this story. I also pray that God's will be done.

A Little Something I've Been Working On...

2012-12-07T21:00:00.000-05:00

Hey all, just dropping in to let you know that I still exist and that I've been working on a little something. I have created a design board mostly for me, but also for all of you to enjoy. This design board has taken me hours of hunting down pictures, looking up tutorials and booking marking/pinning. I've been on the hunt for the perfect furniture, textile and accessory inspiration for my very first room design. I am attempting to design my own dining room this winter. I will be in and out of local thrift stores and pouring over the internet to find the perfect pieces for this space. If you've seen my earlier posts you'll know that we have recently built the Ana White Farmhouse Table with matching benches. Now I want to mix that table(and one bench) with kind of a french antique cottage look. Here's what I came up with:

Do you see what I'm getting at? I have our table pictured top left centered. Next to that on the left, I want to build a similar bookcase. Except it'll be 6'x4' and it'll be stained the color of the table. I have two bookcases pictured because I love the design of both of them. The picture on the middle right side has different pitchers in white. I want to do something relative to this. My bookcase will be covered in white dishes except they will all be serveware. You know platters, pitchers, bowls and condiment types.

The chairs I would like them all to be a french inspired oval back chair, but the don't have to match one another exactly. They'll be painted a similar color, as in the picture, but I will be using the Premier Prints Canopy Stripe in Storm in the upper right corner.

For decor I was thinking of covering insulation board with the three fabric swatches pictured lower left. I love those colors together and I think that the powder blue will give the room the pop it needs. Also dead center is the portrait of the swans that I found randomly online. It's sold in an Etsy shop but I forgot which one.

And last but not least, lighting. I have a chandelier already. Just exactly like this one. My is a pale gold and I got it for $30 from a really nice lady out in Kennebunk, ME. I'd say that was a steal. Brand new this baby retails for $242.

So what do you all think? This is my very first proper design board and my very first home decor/re-design project. I hope that I can find everything I'm looking for, for the price I want to pay. I'm also going to be debuting something new and unique in the upcoming month or so. Unfortunately I have to wait until the Hubs goes to sea in order to get all that I want accomplished. But I think he'll be pleased with my efforts, the design and most of all...the cost!

The NEW Myspace

2012-12-05T12:45:00.000-05:00

Good afternoon all!! I just wanted to drop a quick line and let you all know that the NEW Myspace is right around the corner from being open to all. Go on over check it out and request an invite. I already have page so look me up. I'm fourlittlegems. It looks pretty cool. I'm excited about it.

HAPPY 1 YEAR BLOGIVERSARY!!!

2012-12-03T14:14:00.001-05:00

Holy Snaptitudes!!!! Can you believe that it has been ONE entire year since I've started this little creation? And to top it off there are 80 blog posts!!!! I cannot believe that I have hit the one year mark. Honestly this is the longest I've ever been tied to something on my own accord(besides my family) ever. I've never really been a person to follow through on somethings. Especially if I didn't like or if I got bored with it. Anyhoo, what have you all been up to? I'm thinking and praying about talking this whole blogging thing to the next level. I would love to continue blogging about our house updates and things that are going on with our family. This is has been an amazing journey and I would love to continue it on a grander scale. But in order to do that, I need dedicated followers. I need you my readers to spread the word about this blog and about the blog over at Word Press(same name just .wordpress.com at the end). I'm starting something new. I would like to take this to the next level. Who's with me?

I just have to thank everyone who has ever read this thing. I truly appreciate the time you all take out of your busy lives to read my little blog. It means the world to me that you find what I do interesting. Please, keep reading and keep spreading the word about us over here at Four Little Gems.

Now, in tradition what is a blog post without uber adorable random pictures?

PLEASE don't mind the mess and just pay attention to the aodrable crazy haired girls dancing in the kitchen

Blake on the move! Getting ready to go somewhere.

Look ma! I found my Christmas present and I like it!!

What? Look this was in my chair, I just happened to make good use out of it.

Seriously? This is my nappy time!

What's that piece of wood on underneath Blake's cutie patootie feet you ask? It's just a little sneak peek of an up and coming DIY project. I'm just as excited as you are to see the finished product!!