Estate Sale Find

I'm looking forward to (hopefully) going to a big estate sale that starts this week and it reminded me to share this little find from a sale I went to with my grandma quite a while back.

I found two old wooden crates in the garage of this sale and bought them. Later, we picked up some little stainless steel casters at a discount store for the crates. Tyler put casters on one, and we gave it to his mom for part of her Christmas gift. I'm still waiting on him to put the casters on mine.... meanwhile, with the crate being so multi-functional, I found another use for it. I had some house plants sitting around needing to be permanently potted, so I dropped them in my crate and it makes a charming little plant box. I'm sure this crate will have many homes throughout my house, but for now, I'm loving this charming little set-up.

Here are some inspiration pictures of uses for these crates that I've run across:

{Pictures 1, 2, & 3 from here}

{Picture from here}

{Picture from here}

{Picture from here}

{Picture from here}

And here is my little crate...dozens of possibilities for this little guy.

A Little Oklahoma On My Couch

I saw this little pillow here back in 2011, and then a few weeks later I ordered 2 pillows for Christmas presents for family members. My mother-in-law was a recipient of one of the pillows, and every time I see it at her house I think "I want to get one of those for my house" and then I never did. Until now....enter 2013 Valentine's Day present to me.

My 2011 order was a custom order (I picked the colors for the fabric) and this one was a custom order too. Marek did not disappoint either time - she is super nice to work with and super fast on production and shipping (I think I talked to her Thursday last week? and my pillow arrived this morning). Check out her shop: marekalaine on Etsy.

This fun little pillow will live in my living room for now, but it would be great anywhere - in a kid's room, a playroom, on a bed, etc. Here she is:

{I tried to get him to smile and "model" the pillow but he was NOT about to humor me}

White Plate "Collage"

After a month of no posting, here I am. December was a month of chaos, and as other priorities rose above playing on the internet, there was no time left in the mix for conjuring up any posts. Things are getting back to normal, and I'm here (though you might see me a little less often than you used to).

I started a little white plate collection a few years ago, and I always intended on putting them up in a random pattern collage, like these:

{source here)

 ...but with less order/shape.

{source here}

 I don't have this many plates (yet), but I like this.

{source here}

My plates were just stacked up in my dining hutch until I thought of where to put them and it finally donned on me that I should put them in a line (instead of a collage) above my kitchen cabinets because it was bare up there. I think it's pretty charming and it subtly takes focus off of the fact that there is no crown on that back wall and a very crooked paint line (for reasons beyond my control)  ;) I will probably add more to them.

 

 

Project Post 28: Mudroom Wall

We moved into our house in February 2010, and I started brainstorming for this project shortly after that. After Pinterest launched and became widely used, I started finding lots of inspiration for this little project I wanted to tackle.

Here was my dilemma: our laundry room is also the walkway between the door to the garage (which is the door we use to enter the house 99% of the time; guests enter through the front door) and the rest of the house; meaning, it is a widely used, high-traffic area. It not only is a main source of traffic, but also used daily for laundry (I have a toddler, hel-lo), and up until a couple of weeks ago, it was the place we bathed my son every single day of his life (there's a huge tub-sink in there). I mentioned all of that to stress what a popular place this room is.



{Laundry room / walkway BEFORE}

You can see in the picture above that there is just a long blank wall on the left side of the room, and the doorway from the kitchen (there is a pocket door there, it stays open unless there is laundry going) and the door to the garage butt up against the wall so that there is no possible room to put a piece of furniture or any kind of organizational/functional anything there, without running into it every time you come or go. I really wanted a way to utilize this wall for storage or some kind of functional space. Our "landing strip" or "dumping post" for purses, diaper bags, and miscellaneous junk we bring in from the car was usually the kitchen table or island and it drove me insane. I wanted those things to have a "spot" out-of-site and not where we dine. The problem is now solved and it's beautiful!

Here is where my inspiration comes in. I saw a couple of these little projects in different posts on Young House Love, and the rest I found browsing Pinterest.

{Sources for 1, 2, 3}



 



{Sources for 4, 5}

I showed Tyler my inspiration pictures and he was on board and thought it was a good idea. After I pinched myself to make sure it wasn't a dream, I asked if we could do it that weekend and he said ok.......................(wait, WHAT?!) This was back in June and the reason it has taken me so long to share it, well, there is no good reason. It took me a good two months to get it painted and purchase a rug (yes, that's important) and take, upload, and edit some pictures.

We decided to go with bead board instead of doing the more craftsman-style option (which I do love) for 3 reasons:

1. There is really nothing about our house that is craftsman style

2. We couldn't just use 2x4s and paint the sheet rock because our walls are way over-textured (our painter called it a "Mexico house" and I absolutely agree - our drywall guys didn't listen)

3. Our cabinets throughout the house have a bead board panel so the bead board really works the best

 

The pictures will explain the rest:

 

{Before}

 

{Before}

 

 

 

{During Painting}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bloom

 

 

This post really doesn't need much wording. This past year I have come to really enjoy fresh flowers in my home. I don't buy them very often, because the nearest grocery store or market that offers decent blooms is almost an hour away, so it just isn't worth the trouble usually. I would take a couple of fresh hydrangeas and some baby's breath over a dozen roses any day (as seen here).

 

This little jewel makes me really happy because it came from my very own flowerbed. I clipped it yesterday. The other blooms are blooming brown and pink but this one was beautiful and white. It's the little things....