ARE YOU READY FOR SPRING AND HERB GARDENS THAT ROCK?

So are you completely and totally over this long cold winter? Coming from someone born and raised in the snow belt of Lake Erie in northeast Ohio I say loudly YES! 

Ok, I guess I’m cheating a just a little...I left that snow tundra almost 8 years ago to move here to southeastern North Carolina. So I am not experiencing it as badly as some, but I am definitely still ready for Spring! So, with spring came thoughts of flowers, greenery and gardens. And that made me think of my herb garden. I love herbs, especially Basil.

MY WHIMSICAL TREE IS FINALLY ON THE WALL!

Every room should have a little bit of whimsy! 

I did it! I actually free hand painted a tree on my wall! Yay me. lol....

I am so pleased at how this tree turned out! And also, so pleased it is done! It was kind of a spontaneous last minute decision. I mean I have always wanted to paint a tree on my wall, but I wasn't prepared to do so. But today it was pouring rain and I got the itch and looked around to see what paint I had on hand and voila!

MAD MAX AND THE REST OF THE WEEK

Meet Max. He’s the newest addition to our crew. -Or I should say Mad Max cuz he's an absolute adorable, but psycho kitty. Non stop running through the house, up the stairs, around the corner, back down the stairs and yes....right up your shoulder on to the top of your head. All in a split second before you have time to duck. :) But he is a doll. He is a rescue from a rescue group in town, as are all our little four legged family members. You can see the others here.

So there’s not much going on here around the old homestead other than... 

THIS WEEK'S DIY PLAN WAS A TOTAL BUST!!!!!!!!

The Blissful Bee Blogspot

Well this week was a bust. I had it in my head all week that this was the weekend I was building my brand new beautiful Factory Cart coffee table for the living room. I have the coffee table in there that I "checker boarded" and I'm using but it just doesn't work with the room. It isn't my style and quite frankly...I just don't like it.

MY LIVING ROOM FACE LIFT...SHE LOOKS 20 YEARS YOUNGER!

Here is my new living room! It's not exactly "done" because my home is always a work in progress. Always. But is done for a while. And it is definitely a much happier room. :) I think it's smiling now -I know I am!  Take a look! I absolutely love it...what do you think??  

So we went from this room which I also loved once upon a time too for all it's color.. 

MY WONDERFUL CHARLESTON TRIP AND MY BEAUTIFUL COW!

Charleston was fun! It was the first time I had ever been there. My son Eric moved there for a job opportunity about 4 months ago. I miss him so much and hate that he is 4 hours away. Yes I know 4 hours isn't much and lots of grown kids move far away from their parents, but I don't have to like it! I miss being able to just meet him for lunch or go listen to him play out at one of the local music venues. (He is also a musician)  I simply miss him. Okay, I am done venting and I will share with you the upside of him living in Charleston where I will continue to visit him...

MY LOVE/ HATE RELATIONSHIP WITH LEATHER...

Google image, Source not found

Yes, its true, I have a love/hate relationship with leather. I hate it for its stuffiness, dark and formal feel. I love it for its beauty, comfort and durability. I just purchased a small new leather love seat to replace my fabric couch in the formal living room. And please understand.... that it really isn't a "formal" living room at all but since we have a family room open off the kitchen that is what they call it. But, believe me, there's nothing formal about it. Or any other part of my house for that matter.

MY GORGEOUS JUTE RUG IS GOING BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, in a matter of just 3 days I've gone from over the top madly in love with my new 100% Jute rug to so very disappointed and sad in the fact that I have to return it. :( 
I mean, I truly can't tell you how much I love this rug! LOVE!!!

Waaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

But 3 days in and this is what it looks like... It is coming apart in about 4 different spots. The weave is actually coming apart and big, and I mean huge loops are sticking up! And they are not end pieces they are actual loops so you can not cut them. I could pull them back through the underneath but at this rate I'd be doing it constantly. I am just really sad about this. It IS a beautiful rug. 
I have dogs, kids, grandkids, and a hubby. So what to blame it on? The dogs nails? Grandkids playing? Shoes? Who knows? I haven't seen anyone "catch" on it so I really can't say. And since I saw the first one I have been on a vigilant "eyes wide open" rampage trying to figure out how it's happening. But not luck. 
Fortunately, thanks to the wonderful return policy of where I bought it online... I can return it. Sadly. Did I mention how sad I am????? And now I have to start all over and search for another rug to fall in love with....

IT'S HERE! MY NEW JUTE RUG HAS ARRIVED!!!

100% JUTE RUG

So my new rug has arrived. I bought it online and received it in just 3 days! I love the site and order almost everything from this store. As I mentioned in a previous post I am doing a very small budget friendly "redo" of my living room. I am still working on my family room so I don't want to spend a lot of time or money in this room right now but it definitely needed a minor face lift. I called it a "re set" in my previous post, but I guess that's wrong. In a 'reset' you would normally empty out your room and get a clearer picture of what you have. Take an entirely new look at your space. And then mostly using things you already have in the room or from other rooms, change it up. Mix it up. Rearrange and move things in and out of the room for a new fresh look. 
While I am indeed doing that, I am also buying a few new items and I am going to add an old fireplace I have sitting in the garage collecting dust. And possibly a faux surround for it. So I am doing a bit more than just looking at it differently and moving things around. 
I bought this new rug and a new love seat. As I said the rug was from (?)(edit:I have decided to remove the name of the company so as not to give them a bad rap. They are a wonderful online company and have a great return policy so I want to honor them) and I got a great price on it with a coupon code and shipping was only $2.95! The love seat was also very inexpensive ...(cheap). The room needed it badly. At this point the room, which used to be my favorite spot, has become a room filled with mismatched items, (thrown in until I find a place for them or get rid of them) and an over sized couch. And it needed some love because it has become a "walk though" room. You don't sit and stay, it doesn't draw you in or feel welcoming. So....
I am still waiting on the love seat to be delivered. From a different seller. I wish it had been from the same one because I have had nothing but problems with the delivery from this other dealer. We shall see.
But the rug is here!! It is 100% Jute. And it is extremely thick and comfy under your feet and yet very pliable to bend and pick it up to vacuum under. I just LOVE it and now I am getting very excited to get moving on the rest of the room. 
Don't mind the junk in the room that's all being painted or moved about. The coffee table is my next project. The way this picture is taken the rug looks much smaller than it is. It's really quite large. And its beautiful! I'll keep ya updated!!!!!!!!!!   (See the sad update here)!

The rug is very thick and is light tan, brown and flecked with grey. :)

MAMA'S LAMP

Just a little update. My mom gave me this lamp long ago. She had two of them and they were in our home while growing up for as long as I can remember. Although they looked much different. You read about my re-purposing household items here. 
But it has finally found its resting spot after years upon years in my garage. It seems like nothing to all of you I suppose but to me it's a lot. It says hello at my entrance and its says "mom" to me every time I walk in my door. :)

A little Cottage with a little Vintage

PAINT ME..PAINT ME.. PLEASE!!!

So this is a coffee table that I have had for.. oh about 12-13 years.
Not in the house, mind you, but it's been around. I haven't used it for at least 8 or 9 years. But it's still hanging out. I tried to give it to my son (He used it for a tv stand) and that lasted a while until it ended up back in my garage recently.  So here it is again. hmmm....I just can't get rid of it! So I think I might use it again. It's really not my style, especially the legs. But I might give it a try...only -not like it is of course. It's begging for a make over. I am thinking that this might be my next little project. Not a real "project" that takes an a considerable amount of time...just a Saturday afternoon kind of thing. But as easy as it is, I keep putting it off. So maybe this Saturday..... maybe. So I found a few painted ones online that give an idea of how it will look....

I AM DEFINITELY NOT A "PINK" GIRL!!!

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE MUSTARD COLOR BUT NOT FOR THIS PARTICULAR ROOM

AND I DO LOVE WHITE, BUT STILL, IT IS KINDA BORING......

   I think I want to paint it kind of a Citron color...like this.  

It will go in my living room which is a much smaller/cozier room than the family/great room and so it's size really works in there. My drapes in that room are from Pier 1 Imports and look like this...

so I want to get close to the color of them which is actually a citron kinda color even though this picture doesnt show that. What do you think?

Painted Interior Doors

So I was over checking out the most recent post of Kristi's, a fellow blogger that I follow. And can I just say that I just love her blog? (link below)

She is such an inspiration both in decorating and blogging itself! I am absorbing all the learning experience I can from her! But anyway.....she had a post about painting interior doors and was asking what others thought of it. I commented on it because I did just that. -I painted all my interior doors on the first level of my house about 2 months ago. And I LOVE them!

Kitchen "trash" door

I have always just had plain old white doors and never really thought much about it. But this time around I did. I first painted my front door (the exterior door) a beautiful turquoise and fell in love with it. You can see that beautiful door here. Then I painted all the rest of the doors inside the same color. Big mistake. What was beautiful in a small dose for the outside door, was way too much inside. So I repainted them a beautiful soft greyish blue called Yachtsman by Valspar. Check it out...do you like??? This color gives the whole downstairs a cohesive flow since I have used various greys, blacks, whites and yellows downstairs. 

Downstairs Powder Room door

view from standing in the kitchen to the hallway

So check out the link here if you'd like to see the original post that I was referring to of one of the blogs I follow! 

Heres a few more pics of the downstairs doors...

Pantry door with chalkboard

Double duty for all those Pumpkins laying around from Halloween???

Here's what you do  -Paint them! I simply took a spray can of primer and then sprayed them with a bright white paint. 2 coats for a really white look. While it's a little damp you can sprinkle it with gold or silver glitter if you want. They look festive with the glitter. I chose not to this year. I did last year and I am so done with glitter for a while. That's just me but so done... lol  A very fun and CHEAP decoration for Christmas and I really love the look of them white. 

BANG FOR YOUR BUCK!!! A Kitchen Re-do!

The big job that I have been putting off is my kitchen update.  I don't plan on doing a kitchen "remodel" with new layout and all that. -My kitchen layout is fine for this house and it can't really be changed without some major structural re-configuring. And we aren't sure if this is our "forever" home or not. If not, our next one definitely will be. But until we figure that out, I just wanted to upgrade my kitchen. And get new appliances. Because I hated the way my cabinets looked!  But I love how they look now! This is how great they turned out!!! And ya don't have to spend thousands of dollars to give your space a simple facelift. New appliances were a bit pricey but painting the cabinets was truly the biggest change for the least amount of money. 
                          Take a look now!!! I just love it!

AND ANOTHER CLOSE UP OF THE COLOR...

from this.... 

to this....

AND HERE ARE SOME OF THE BEFORE AND DURING PICTURES.......