Wine Bottle Chandelier & Hanging Glass Votives

My Living Room

Living Room

The book cases on either side of the fireplace didn't fit at first.  I was so disappointed, having fully envisioned them there during the building process of the house.  We stuck them in our dining room for a couple days until my brother came to visit and suggested we remove the baseboards on the wall around the niche and voila! They fit!  The gigantor coffee table was originally a child's bed circa 1600 China.  I don't know exactly how it must have looked as a bed, but you can see where the springs were once attached on the under side.  The bottom windows of my cabinets are covered on the inside with cheapo kid art paper.  Perhaps someday I'll think of another way to hide the c-r-a-p (I spelled it out so as not to offend you).  Curtains are Ikea, Rug, Pillows, couches and curtain rods are all Pottery Barn.  And shhhhh don't tell, we hung the curtain rods upside down.  I don't know what we were thinking when this happened, but it turns out the matching rods in the dining room would not have worked right side up so .....whateva!

That's Dan, my wonderful husband giving me 'the look.'  We recently switched over all the furniture from our family room into our living room, including moving our TV.  So his hard work in setting up the surround sound and stereo wiring in the family room "was for nothin."   Leaving our ceiling speakers in the family room for music, he is installing some older speakers in our living room so *gasp* we don't have to watch TV with out surround.  He's been in and out of the attic wiring for about a month now.  To the left of the TV you can see a rounded wall with a map of Death Valley....we love maps.  The china hutch on the right is a piece I painted and have filled with old glass bottles.

Continue on my Home Tour...

My Vegas Trip - Bachelorette Party

I had the best time last weekend.  My good friend Gena had her bachelorette party of twelve girls in Vegas.  We all stayed at her second home which was set up as party central with multiple beds in each room and a pool with floaties in the back.  It felt like camp.  For me, the weekend was more then the limo bus (with stripper poles) to VIP clubbing and staying out till four in the morning....followed by a day time beach club and then out at night again.  As a mother of three, I have to admit that usually the only thing that keeps me up at night is poop, puke and crying.  When given the opportunity to sleep or go out, sometimes I choose sleep and I'm excited about it (pretty sad, but true).  I was rather nervous to see how I would hold up for a hard core Vegas weekend (don't worry... we didn't wake up with a tiger in our bathroom, or find an extra baby.)  Although I needed about three days of recovery after I got home, the time I spent with these strong, confident, non competitive, friendly woman has recharged my soul and given me a new perspective on the importance of friendship.

Gena's sister Charla and friend Veronica helped make this bachelorette party special for everyone.  Before the big weekend, everyone was asked if they would like to participate in providing items for a gift beach bag or "she emergency kit" for the bride to be.

Veronica wrote little poems for each item, attaching them with ribbon for Gena to read as she opened them.  The bag items included fashion tape, bliss problem salve, beer cozie, passport cover, luggage tag, a silly button, barf bags, a "love" Buddha, lipgloss, a book about friends, after sun lotion, mints, etc.  I wish I could write the poems here for you to read as they were hilarious, but I prefer to keep my blog PG.

All guests were provided with a little box of goodies and a pink lei which we all wore to the Moorea pool beach club.  Guest goodie boxes included lip gloss, hand wipes, kleenex, gum, recovery drink powder, hair band, safety pins, shot glass, and a rubber ducky.  Our little She-mergency Kit was labeled for the party and included such items as bandaids and sewing kits.  These girls didn't skimp on anything!

All in all there were some fantastic ideas that really bumped up the party to a whole new level.  And although I'm still finding napping essential to my recovery, I would do it all over again in a heart beat.

Stay tuned for more about my Vegas trip, including some great lighting ideas and other finds at my favorite store, Anthropologie!

Upside Down Table Lamp Pendants part 1

I've had this idea for a hanging light fixture for years now....upside down lamps.  It's funny because I thought I got the idea from a display at Urban Outfitters, but when I finally found the picture I took (in 2006), it wasn't an upside down lamp but just a couple hanging shades.

Simple & Salty Appetizer

Bedroom Mood Meter

How fantastic is this sign?  Of course my mother (of all people) found it for me at a thrift shop.  I used to have it hanging in my bedroom but just moved it to my hall half bath that I'm filling wall to ceiling with fun items...(more on this later).  It's just too funny to keep hidden in the bedroom.

Have you ever seen something like this?  Do you have a funny sign you'd like to share?  I'd love to hear about it!

My Lampshade Arrived!

So last month I scored big on my thrift store shopping spree.  I've been thinking about what to do with the lamp.  Here's the before picture:

 It's almost finished now and I'll blog about each step, but I couldn't wait to share with you my icing on the cake....

It's called the Bloom Shade and it's from Anthropologie.  It was a total splurge.  If you read about my shutter project, you might have read that I'm on the mend from surgery and so I'll blame my skewed price judgment on the drugs.  But it's here now and I AM IN LOVE!  I'm not sure I've ever bought a cool lampshade before but I can say now I feel that it could be a serious addiction.  Besides, the lamp was like 5 bucks so it all works out, right?

Stay tuned for the AFTER pictures!!!

Welcome To My Home!

Welcome to my home!

My house has a very open floor plan.  I like roominess but I crave intimacy.  It's a fine line.  I'm in search of a new light for my entry way, but have plans for the current chandelier.  You can see how I blocked off one of the openings to my dining room with a buffet, plants and a hanging window.  The double doors on the right lead to my office.  

This is the view upon entering my front doors.  Again I have blocked off another opening with a piece of furniture.  The rubber plant above it is thriving and is a piece of art in itself.  I hope to someday find an old leaded window or stained glass to hang above the plant under the archway (not pictured).  The rocking horse I found for twenty bucks at a local thrift shop.  This find had me on a thrift shop high for nearly a month.  It's taken my three kids on many adventures.


Continue on my home tour 

Old Window Pane with Hand Made Glass Beads

Amy Hunting Block Shelf Book Shelf

Is this possibly the coolest thing you've ever seen?

I applaud Amy Hunting for her amazing creativity

in the design and assembly of this "Block Shelf."

The wooden blocks consist of twenty types of untreated

wood, upcycled from a rubbish bin in London.

The cotton rope is tied in some serious fishing and sailing knots

to hold up the massive weight of the wood and books.

You'd definitely want to find some studs for these puppies.

This is quite a creation that Amy has designed! You can be pretty sure I'm gonna try and duplicate it myself (well....myself meaning with the help of my wonderful hubby). Amy's piece has so much personality and history in each block of upcycled wood!

Besides being an obviously awesome bookshelf, can you imagine it in front of a viewless window with plants and glass bottles? Could you see yourself attempting a replication?

Photographer: Trine Stephensen

Check out Amy's Site
She was awarded the 2nd prize from Green Furniture Award in 2010 and her bookshelf is available for purchase from Green Furniture Sweden

Toddler Self Hygiene - Montessori Style

I'm always on the look out for ways to have my kids learn independence, responsibility and self hygiene.

Mother's Day Craft Ideas

My son's 4-H club worked on Mother's Day crafts at their meeting last Sunday.

Decorating with Shutters

For an updated post on the completed project click here.

Ah the shutter project. Sorta my baby....I love it, it's kinda messy, takes up a lot of my time, and has been fun to show off. But you know how when you get a new car, you notice everyone else driving it?....in the same color? Or when you name your kid, or dog something creative and unique, suddenly you hear it all the time? Well, I've had a little of that too. My inspiration for this project came from a display at Anthropologie. The display used shutters but in no way was it close to how I chose to recreate my dining room wall. Since beginning my project I've come across a couple similar ideas. My friend Melody who lives in Davis, CA mentioned that one of her favorite restaurants in Sacramento has walls covered with shutters. I googled sacramento restaurant shutters and look what I found:

The Ella Dining Room and Bar

It seems as though they used shutters of mostly the same size, which I have to add would probably be a lot easier when it comes to fitting them together. I also like their use of an occasional horizontal shutter. They covered their ceiling with the shutters which really intensifies the motif but is sort of like considering a fourth child in my house.....NOT going to happen. On a side note, I like their use of three stacked coffee tables for display purposes. I could imagine that in a corner of a room near a window, used for plants.

Flipping through the new Pottery Barn catalog I came across page 45, with a picture of the Como Headboard. The website didn't show the wall to the extent that the catalog did so I took a picture of it.

Uh, shutters? On the wall? Did they not get my fax about the copyright on that idea? In fact it looks quite similar to my guest room wall.

Which, by the way my husband thinks we should consider taking this down so we don't over use shutters in our home. What do you think? I don't mind it and think it adds enough character to the room and is far enough away from the dining room to not matter. (Ironically the shutters in the dining room are on the other side of this wall.) This collection of white shutters with hinges used to be the actual headboard of the queen bed we had in this room. When we moved our master bedroom (cal king) furniture into the guest room, we left it on the wall behind the iron head board.

...Anyhow the shutter project is coming along. I invited friends over to paint with me....Thank you Robin, Caroline and Rachel! My daughter also painted a few and besides working next to me, she mentioned that she enjoyed the time she spent painting them quietly by herself. This is my four year old I'm talking about here....enjoying the tranquility of a little art therapy. Interestingly my artsy 6 year old son wanted nothing to do with painting the shutters, but quite enjoyed helping his daddy with attaching the wooden support beams.

After priming 5/8 inch OSB plywood, my wonderful supportive husband Dan, ran them through his table saw, cutting four inch wide strips. What is OSB plywood you ask? Check out WiseGEEK on OSB Plywood.

Working with the table saw in the front yard always brings the neighbors asking questions ...."Laura's covering our dining room wall in shutters." "....She's what?"

After priming and trimming two sheets of the OSB plywood, Dan and Riley attached them horizontally about every foot or so on the wall. Additional small pieces of the plywood needed to be attached to insure the shutter was not at an angle on the wall.

Using a stud finder (convenient when I was in college), Dan made sure the support beams were screwed into the studs. He even climbed them to prove their stability. No pictures of this stunt unfortunately...just my stud. I had planned to paint all of the plywood the same color as the wall but after getting about two thirds finished I decided to only paint where the shutters didn't line up perfectly.

Getting these guys lined up just right was like a giant game of Tetris. Micro cuts here and there were made to get them to fit just right. Most cuts were made on the top or bottom, and many of the double opening shutters were cut in half. We plan on going back with small cuts of wood to fill in any spaces left when we're finished attaching all the shutters. We'll either use remnants of shutters that have been trimmed or small pieces of MDF.

One of the giant shutters that was not a double opening shutter was cut in half. This had to be done at just the right spot on the sides to account for the shutter part being left intact. So far the only shutters that have needed a vertical cut have been the bottom two shutters on the far right.

We have some shutters left, but not quite enough to finish the job. I decided to stop with a few left so that I can complete the project evenly once I have all the shutters ready. I had abdominal surgery 2 weeks ago and can not lift anything over ten pounds for 4 more weeks so this project has been put on hold for a bit. I plan to make a trip out to the Habitat for Humanity thrift Shop soon to see what treasures are waiting.

The shutters have started a domino effect of upgrades (good-bye chandelier) and I'm gathering ideas for other evolutions for my dining room like table, chairs and lighting. I'll keep you updated when the wall is complete. :)