The Dinner Table Gets a Make Over

Like everyone else out there, we've been pummeled by some oppressive heat this summer. So bad that we actually didn't even want to go outdoors a few days. And since I've been a little lacking on the creative home front. And my word this year IS create. I picked up some fun fabrics and made some summery place mats and napkins to cheer up the place.

It's been so nice to actually sit down as a family and eat a meal together. I swear this rarely happens during the school year. So we've been working on making the occasion a little more special.

With fresh cut flowers. From my neighbor's yard. shhh....

The new place mats and napkins.

And some food. That we actually cooked. On the stove.

Oh...and I know there's not a clear photo of the glasses. But these little glasses with the stars on them? Probably my all-time favorite Good Will score ever! They came in a set of 16. YES....SIXTEEN! When does Good Will have a set of SIXTEEN super cool glasses?!?! All for $4.25?! I had just returned some little vino glasses to Pottery Barn that cost more than that for one. And they weren't anywhere near as cool!

There's room at the table. Come on over and have dinner with us.

Before and After: The Little Ballerina's Book Shelf

It's still project central over here. Just downshifted into slow gear while BSD is away. But there is one project that is basically complete that I can't wait to share. So here goes.

One of the goals of our redecorating is to gain some sort of organization. As I've said a million times. I am not an organized person. Put that together with a young ballerina who loves to play with all-things-small-parts and you get one big-fat-mess. That mommy has to either clean up. Or shut the door so she can't see it.

Finally fed up with this chore, BSD and I decided both ballerinas needed a desk in their rooms. We were all set, thanks to a dear friend who took the ballerinas for the night, to drive four hours each way to IKEA to get each girl a desk. At the very last minute, BSD said, "I don't think a desk is the answer."

*crap*

So...we scrapped our overnight trip to DC and made it a local date night instead. Stopping off at a local furniture store along the way. Where I spotted this fun shelving piece.

I love this piece. But I have no space nor place for it. I just tucked it away in my head as FUN! And $2,000. And off we went to dinner.


Weeks passed. I cleaned up many toyswithmanyparts. Many times. Until BSD, pumped up by his recent hallway project success,  finally told me, "Find some baskets. And I'll build a storage unit for LB."


That was the plan. Until one day I stopped by my favorite Habitat for Humanity store. And I stopped short. In front of this.

Are you with me? Do you see where this is going?


If not, that's OK. BSD didn't either. He thought I was just dragging home another piece of junk to clutter up his precious garage.


Not this time. This time I had a clear vision. I was motivated. I got right to work. But still wound up needing BSD to bail me out on the finishing paint layers. Because I am a lousy painter. I don't know WHY I can't paint well. But I can't. And BSD thinks I am ridiculous for being paint-impaired.


ANYWAY...


That doo-doo brown, faux wood grain piece of ugliness became this oh-so-fun, Steven Shell inspired storage shelf for the Little Ballerina.

And the best part was all I had to buy was a second matching tote on the bottom right. Luckily Target still carries that pattern because these fit perfectly. And now house her American Girl doll clothes in one. And her Barbies in the other. The upper purple tote holds all her Barbie clothes. Although it's a bit overflowing.


And the VERY best part??! LB helped me organize it like this over a month ago. And I pinky swear that I did NOT clean it up before taking this picture today. She is keeping it clean HERSELF! *snoopy dance*

I still need to finish hanging the art on the wall above it. But I can't seem to locate the poster I bought over 3 years ago that I want to put there. hmmm...imagine that.


Oh, and I have to tell you about that drawing. I got it from my neighbor. It was a wedding gift from the artist to my friend's husband and his first wife (who sadly passed away). The artist now fetches a pretty penny for her works. Everyone in my family hates the picture. I love it. Before I hung it up in her room, LB told me, "That scares me." I thought perfect! It kind of looks like the person is in jail. Hopefully, it will scare her straight!

Oh Martha, you're so fine...

You're so fine. You blow my mind. Hey Martha. Hey Martha.

You may remember our little New Year's Eve party. Where we made resolutions. And posted them.

One of those resolution cards read "The person I want to be more like this year is..." I left this one blank for most of the night. And finally just scribbled down Martha Stewart. Not really giving it much thought.

Maybe it was because of that piece of paper that I picked up this magazine in January. Because any magazine with the word "organizing" in the title would normally send me running for the hills. I. am. not. an. organized. person.

But much to my surprise I found myself enjoying this magazine. And ultimately falling in love with this picture...

Since our entry way looked like this...

And because BSD is uber organized, (we've got that whole yin yang thing going on) it wasn't hard to get BSD on board with the project.

He quickly built the upper shelf. Using some cool old brackets I bought at an estate sale. But after that he started getting cold feet. The built-in bench was a little daunting to my new handyman's skill level. So we took the easy way out and bought a bench instead.

We lived with the space like this for a few weeks, but I could not get good ole Martha's bench out of my mind. Finally, after much begging, BSD agreed to give it a whirl. We had no instructions so we had to just wing it. And when we were done we ended up with this.

It probably took us ten times longer than someone with mad carpentry skills, but we got there. And I find myself wanting to hang out in this space now instead of shutting my eyes tight every time I walk in the front door.

My favorite parts? The red Euro license plate that was on my car when my parents picked it up for us at the factory. My dad's name is on the registration sticker on the back. And that little woven mail basket? A $1.25 Good Will score. *woot* I'm loving the ole G dubya lately.

Oh Martha, you're so fine. You're so fine. You blow my mind. Hey Martha. Hey Martha. 

Stay tuned. There's more Martha in the making over here.

Kerri...note the lack of window treatments on the side lights. ;)

Ten on Ten: April 2012

ahhh...Ten on Ten, my old friend. I'm sorry I haven't called in a few months. Things around here have been hectic. But in a good way. Lots of projects in progress. Lots of family time in action. Lots of good. And just a little ick that I work hard to shove way down deep. And cover with lots of dirt. Hoping that will be enough to make only good things emerge. If I ignore it for long enough.

It's Spring Break this week. We're sticking close to the old homestead. Enjoying the break from schedules. And homework. And carpools. It's a week of checking things off our To-Do list. But I keep adding new things to that list. And poor BSD is running on his hamster wheel as fast as he can trying to keep up. If we were independently wealthy there is no doubt that we would spend our days putzing around the house creating. When we get in the zone together, the hours fly by. And in the evening we are both tired and dirty. And content.

Yes. Life is good.

I'll be back soon with updates on our latest projects. Stay tuned. But in the meantime, check out what everyone else's Ten on Ten looked like here.

Old Wood, New Art, Happy Campers

I really should be working on my photo class project. But I don't want to go there. Too many missing pieces. And only two weeks of class left. Gives me a pit in my stomach. Need a photo of the Big Ballerina but the girl is never home when the sun is up. And trying to shoot without any source of natural light is worthless. 


Case in point.

Ack. 

So instead I'll share our latest house project. The painting is all done. Larry has moved out. The new bedroom carpet is installed. And most everything is back in place. There is still a long list of things I want to make happen. But it all takes time. And money. So we progress at a snail's pace.

The Big Ballerina's bedroom really needed something on the walls. Something fun. Something large. Something beachy. Nothing I found in the stores appealed to me. And if it did. The price tag sent me running.

Luckily, BSD still has some free time. And some power tools. And some of those old pickets we used this summer to make our fish sticks with.

And earlier this week he turned a few of the pickets into a new piece of art for BB's bedroom.

I love it! BSD loves it. BB loves it. And most importantly, sock monkey loves it too. Oh, and the best part? The whole project cost about $10 for paint and hanging hardware.


Now I'm dreaming of some trim around the window. A cute rug next to the bed. And a fun chandelier to hang in the corner over her nightstand. BSD's not on board with the chandelier idea just yet. What do you think?

Fish Sticks

We did our fair share of thrifting this summer. Lots of fun finds to share. But one of my favorite scores was a pallet of old fence pickets. I'd been hoping to find some of these for a good long time. Ever since I spied some that were turned into fish.

Luckily, BSD is getting pretty darn handy with the woodworking tools these days. And he was able to make these....

 

From these...

Well...not all by himself exactly. Nope, we had a little help from our friends. In the form of a Fish Sticks and Friends Fiesta. 

We set out some tables. And some paints. And some drinks. Of course. And went to town.

The ballerinas and their friends got busy too.

There may have even been some input from a chicken or two.

And when the sun went down. We moved the party indoors. We wanted to serve fish sticks for dinner. But spaghetti and peach cobbler seemed a whole lot easier. 

 And a lot more fun too.

 

I love these little guys! They are so bright and happy.

Luckily, we still have enough pickets to make....oh, say another 200 or so. Anyone wanna come over for a Fish Stick Fiesta?

Hurrication Irene

I'm so far behind on this blogging gig. It's really quite depressing. There are so many memories I want to be sure to preserve here, but I can't find the time to do it the way I want to. Once the ballerinas go back to school, hopefully, I'll get a chance to sit down and record them.

But, thank you to those of you who checked in to see that we were ok after the "big" hurricane. Yes. We survived Irene. And the earthquake. Even though we were only 19 miles from the epicenter. It was a close call. But luckily, we're all still alive. Crazy world we're living in these days. Maybe Nostradamus is right? I'm starting to believe...

The Irene predictions were starting to get a little hairy. And we'd been talking about taking a little road trip all summer. So we joined forces with some of our best buds. And hit the road for a little hurrication.

After some major yard securing. And tree trimming. And coop relocation. We were ready to go. But the chickens had other ideas. Dixie decided, "Hell no, we won't go!"

Luckily, the story has a happy ending. That includes BSD stripping down to his tightie whities.  And diving under our deck. I'll spare you the rest of the details and photos. Although our neighbors had front row seats. As they were up on their roof. Doing their own hurricane prep. You can email them if you want the insider scoop.

Six hours. And one quick sanity break later. 

We made it to the mountain resort located ONLY THREE HOURS away from our home on the coast. Where we watched the hurricane happen live. On TV. Instead of outside our kitchen window.

We partied. And napped. We read. And played.

There was food for days. Good wine. And good music.

Endless rounds of Crazy Eights. Continual pick-up games of Bananagrams. And a tense game of Pictionary on the last night.

There was wine tasting.

And mini golf.  

 

Followed by a side jaunt to a quaint town. Where we got our junk on.

And our pizza on.

Found a fab indie book shop. And picked a few too many peaches.

Something about the country had us wondering if we could ditch our beach life and move. Maybe it was the ice cream.

Or the scenery.

Or the fact that we're chicken farmers now.

I'm not sure we're ready for such a drastic change. But it's nice to know we're covered. If we do decide to pull a Green Acres.

Top Five Things I Learned During our Hurrication:

1. It's awesome to vacation with people who have better music on their iPods. And who can perform live.
2. The spelling gene is passed down by the father.
3. Our early bird personalities may be found annoying by those who prefer to sleep in. 
4. My family is not going to strike it rich on Win, Lose, or Draw. We're more WipeOut material.
5. Ballerinas have REALLY stinky feet.