Will in the World

 Check out my new jewelry valet! You  may recognize him. It's Will Shakespeare at my service. PB was selling a bust of a random female to hold jewelry. I thought it was a cool idea, but who was that woman? That is when I went on the hunt for a bust of Shakespeare. I'm an English major. Can you think of anyone more perfect to hold my jewelry? He isn't made out of stone. He is nice and lightweight and only cost a cool $25 on Amazon.

Now....do I paint him? Use some rub and buff to make him silver? I can't decide.

Decorating Books I NEED

                                                  



Mapping Your Travels

My friend Kacee and her hubby, Bobby, are big travelers. This summer they were in Yellowstone. Next summer they have travel plans that take them overseas. Not like I live there or anything, but I think they need some kind of map/record thingy of where they've been together! I'm loving these ideas:


                                                   Image ohdeedoh
                                Personally, I'd add the month and year they went.



                                     

                                                                image life blessons
                                          Not sure about the cork...maybe a painted board with the world map?

                                                            

                                                                      image Design Love Fest
                                               Kinda like this guy, but the world?

                                    
                                                     image Pinterest
 Kacee might go for this one! Maps as mats for pictures of her and Bobby different places. Really cute and she LOVES pictures.

Happy Birthday Mom!

My mom is a super talented a creative lady. All of the houses we lived in were decorated beautifully. She sews, draws, paints, gardens, and crafts. Plus she is an awesome mom, wife, daughter, sister, and dog grandma. :)

I just thought I'd share a couple photos of her home and some of her art.

This is her antique oyster plate display in the kitchen:

                                       I love this "private" sign on her bathroom door:

                                         This is the vignette on her side of the bed (please ignore my reflection in the nightstand):

Here is another vignette in the living room: 

                               Now for her artwork! She is still learning and doesn't want any of it credited to her. I may be biased, but I think it's pretty incredible.
                                              This painting is from a pic she took in Italy a few years ago:

                                                             Love the clouds:

                                Erik is particularly fond of this one of some kids playing a pick up game of soccer in the park:

  My personal favorite is from a pic of me on the beach as a little girl. It may be hard to tell in the photo here, but the waves look incredible.

 That is just a tiny bit of my mom's creativity. Her kitchen wasn't staged when I was there ( she was making us dinner), so I didn't post a picture of it. I'll have to get it another time. It is beautiful!

Dining Room Progress

We have a pretty little dining room. It only has room for a table really. We NEEDED to do something with this boring room without adding any furniture. So, we decided to paint. My kitchen backsplash *love* has little greenish/turquoise tiles in it. After getting over my fear of putting a real color in there, we went and got "green trance" from Sherwin Williams.

Erik getting his paint on. I do the details and he's in charge of the roller.

Thankfully, it's pretty subtle. In the morning light, it is nearly invisible (not sure how I feel about that). I'm not too overwhelmed!

 Charlie didn't try helping by walking through the paint this time. You can still see tiny blue paw prints in our bedroom....

 Once the paint was dry, I started working on what kind of display I could put up on the only complete wall. I decided on a mix of things.

I framed this postcard from Madison, Wisconsin. Print of a goofy little painting called "Cows on the Concourse."

                                            Anthro plate from back in my apartment. Perfect for adding a pop of coral.

                                         The cameoes my great grandmother gave to me. Gosh I miss her.

                                           A watercolor called "Spring's Promise" by a student's dad.

                                                     More of grandma's cameoes:

                                               Another coral Anthro plate:

                                              A pastel of a gingko leaf done by my oh-so-talented mommy. :)

                                                         Here it is all together:

Next job: fix that table. We're thinking "tricorn black" legs and a darker stain on top. Ooh..and I have a chandelier picked out on my pinterest. Eventually I'll change the seating around the table.



Etsy Love

Cute, cute Etsy shop: The Wheatfield

Some of my favorite prints:

My home state :)

My honey's home state

Cute for a kiddo's room, huh?

Love this. My garden is growing really, really slow...

Why can't everything be full size in one growing season?

You should check it out (the Etsy shop, not my garden. My garden is lame)!

McKinney Trade Days

This last month Erik and I headed to Third Monday Trade Days in McKinney, Texas. The big deal around here is Canton, but before we took that on we decided to warm-up :)

We picked up a darling mirror, lil bitty pink plate and two hanging bottle openers. Those are all in the works. I'll show you their fates in a later post.

Here are some of our favorite finds:

 
 
 



Who doesn't need a giant triceratops? The giant, yet colorful pile, is a variety of things cast in iron (this is where we picked up some bottle openers-they just put me in the mood for an IBC root beer!). I'm loving the oriental vibe of this side table. Erik was coming up with every last place for the wooden mantel. Our actual fireplace already has one we love. There was a lot to browse, but it was clean and not overrun (we went on Friday). If you're interested, the next few dates are:

May 13, 14, 15

June 17, 18, 19

July 15, 16, 17

For specifics check out their website.

Bookshelves!!!!!!!!

You may be thinking that is an excessive use of the exclamation point. I assure you, it is not. I really am that excited! We finally had a built-in made for the living room. Originally we just had a GIANT niche next to the fireplace. I drew up plans about 6 months ago of my bookshelves with space for his big ol' tv too....

 

A couple guys: carpenters and painters, came and put them together.



Look at these babies:

Exactly what I was dreaming of...minus the television and its counterparts. You see how much more room I would have for books without that thing! Ah well...marriage requires compromise.

Now, I'm trying to figure out how I want to decorate them. Obviously, I love the books, but I want it to have a little more visual interest. I already put up my baby succulent and my adorable bookends that pay homage to the world's cutest dog. I've been flipping through magazines trying to find some inspiration. Here are two of my faves:

image via House Beautiful

image via Target

It's a work in progress.

Headboard: Part I

 <---I have this...
but I want this--->

The headboard/footboard we have is my husband's from when we merged (I had a full, he had a queen. He won that one.) It is a mission style...which is not my style. So, for awhile now I've had my eye on this guy from PB.  Unfortunately, the price tag on one of those is a little steep.

Enter my husband and father-in-law:

I showed them what I wanted (a queen size Raleigh headboard from Pottery Barn) and they got the measurements and headed to Home Depot.

Their supplies included:

2 4'x8' pieces of plywood at 5/8" thick

2 4"x10' pieces of pine at 1/2" thick

2 6"x 6' pieces of pine at 1/2" thick

Finishing nails (quite a few)

Wood glue

First, they did some cutting. Both boards of plywood were cut from 8 ft to 6ft 3in. One of the large boards was cut on the other direction from 4 ft to 3ft. Both 4"x10' pieces were cut down to 2 4"x4'5" boards each.That is four total pieces.One 6"x6' piece was cut down to a 6"x5'3" board. The other was cut down to a 6"x4'7" board.

Phew...that's confusing. Let me tell you what you should have now.

1 5'3"x4' plywood

1 5'3"x3' plywood

4 4"x4'5" pieces

1 6"x4'7" piece

1 6"x5'3" piece

 Now you are ready for glue and nails. They laid the 2 pieces of plywood down with the matching 5'3" sides together. The 4' piece was at the top of the headboard and the 3' piece was at the bottom (with the idea that the seam would be behind the mattress...although it will be covered in fabric...). The 6"x5'3" was glued across that seam and then nailed into place. The other one was placed on the 4' piece of plywood flush with the top edge of the headboard. Shown below:

Use wood glue for that one and then nail it down as well. Next they put a 4"x4'5" piece butted at a right degree angle to the top board. They did that on both sides. Those were glued down and nailed. For extra support (because of my *future*adorable nailhead trim), they added the other two 4"x4'5" boards, one on top of each of the others.

Whoa...have you followed me so far? After all that was finished, we drew on the curve we wanted at the top. My father-in-law trimmed it off with his jigsaw. Finally, he sanded it with a belt sander across the top to make the curve smooth.

Aren't they handy? My dad said, "I see your minion pool is growing.." Uh oh! That could ruin my excuse for not being as good as Martha!