Craigslist Find...New Bar Stools

About a year ago I had purchased these bar stools from Kirklands.  

I loved them but unfortunately they didn't fit in our new home because our counter tops were lower, we needed 24 inch bar stools not 28 inch.  I began my search of craigslist looking for new bar stools.  After months I finally found these beauties online.  

Don't mind the baby stuff in the background my dinning room is now the baby staging area and my work space.

Aren't the lines great!!  They are just perfect except for one thing, the color.  They are a lovely shade of honey straight out of the 90's, but that's ok I just bought some great Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Versailles.  I have been dying to find the right project for my new paint.  I think these two beauties are perfect.  Stay tuned for my follow up post once they are complete.

10 Weeks To An Organized Home...Kitchen Junk Drawer

Happy Thursday everyone!!  With the baby on a good sleeping schedule, I decided that I can finally tackle all those things I have been wanting to do for months.  These 3 hours in the afternoon are magic!  I don't know about you but we have a few areas in our home that could use some attention.  Do you have closets or drawers that you just throw things into?  We do!  I call it we will get to it later areas.  Well I finally decided to tackle these areas while on maternity leave and blog about my progress.  Hopefully I will inspire you to tackle your most challenging areas.

For my first week I decided to tackle the dreaded kitchen junk drawer.  We all have a junk drawer but why does the kitchen catch all drawer have to be a disorganized mess? From this day forward I don't want my junk drawer to be disorganized.  

Let the organizing begin.  This is our before picture.  What a mess I could hardly open the drawer. 

 Still Digging.  Boy there is a lot of stuff in the drawer.

 Once I pulled everything out I had to determine what belongs here and what doesn't.  When we bought our house the builder had put all the warranty paperwork in this drawer for us which was handy but why am I still keeping it in the kitchen?  I decided that I needed to put the warranty paperwork in my office with all our other warranties.  

Next I had to clean out any trash or expired coupons.  I put all the medicine with all my other meds (stay tuned for my organizing medicine post).   I was surprised to find so many tools in the drawer that don't need to be in the kitchen.  Crazy.  Those immediately went to the garage where they belong.

Finally made it to the bottom. 

After a little cleaning it was time to put everything back.  On a side note I love this kitchen cleaner and the radish smell is awesome in the kitchen. 

After looking thru everything in the drawer I decided that this drawer should only have the hot pads, trivets, dish towels, dish cloths and a few odds and ends.  I got a little basket to hold a lighter, pens and the garbag disposal tool ( I didn't feel we needed anything else).  While cleaning I decided we needed a few new kitchen towels. I threw out some really old ones and stained ones.  I went to Target and bought some great towels by their new brand called Threshold (the first 2 towels on the right are them), while at Home Goods I saw the other towels and bought those as well.  A girl can never have to many towels.  After about 10 minutes I was done, why didn't I do this sooner.  

Boy it looks good.  When I met my husband he used to roll everything (he learned that in basic training) I used to think it was silly but he is right it saves so much room.  I never would have gotten as much stuff in the drawer without rolling the towels.  So what do you think?  Much better than what I started with.  I can find stuff now it amazing!!  Now your turn I want to hear about your kitchen junk drawer. 

Our Nursery Part 3..every princess needs a chandelier right?

So the nursery is coming along slower than I thought.  Being pregnant really slowed me down and limited what I could do.  Now that I have had baby Madison I have finally been able to finish up her nursery.  I never thought in a million years that her nursery wouldn't be finished before I had her, life has definitely been filled with curve balls lately. 

I fell in love with with this chandelier off Pinterest! Isn't it great!!  Perfect for a little girls room.

 After searching the Internet looking to buy it I found it but was a little sticker shocked!  So I decided to make my own.  I found the chandelier at Ikea called the Kristaller.

Unfortunately the light was a little long so with a little bit of help from my hubby he was able to shorten it.  We had to take the metal rod and cone off the top of the light and purchase a new topper from Home Depot.

Next was recreating the sweet dreams medallion.  I went to Home Depot and bought the medallion in the clearance section.  I bought little wooden letters and circles at JoAnn Fabrics in their unfinished wood section with my 40% off coupon.  It was hard to find the same medallion and letters after searching I decided to add my own twist to my version.  Plus the medallion I found on clearance was at a good price!

I had some paint from the nursery furniture and took it to Lowes for color matching and bought lotus flower pink from Sherwin Williams.  Now came the fun part putting it all together.

The medallion was plastic which meant I couldn't paint it to match the furniture, so I had to prime it first.  I bought plastic priming spray paint and after 2 coats I was good to go.  A little side note don't paint late at night, I learned my lesson.  I can't tell you how many bugs I had to scrape off the medallion while the paint was drying but a girls got do what a girls got to do.  I then painted the middle part with the cream color and the outer rim with the lotus flower.  

 

While I was at JoAnns I bought a package of some cheap brushes in all different sizes which really came in handy with this project.  Plus they were so cheap I didn't feel bad throwing them out after this project.

I then painted the letters and circles with the lotus flower paint to tie everything together.  The hardest part of the project was gluing the letters down and spacing, no matter how many times I laid it out it I couldn't get it just right.  After about the 3rd time I finally decided that I couldn't make it perfectly even but just good enough, plus its on the ceiling so people aren't going to be staring right at it because it isn't at eye level.  I have found over the years that some times you just have to go with it and if its not perfect its ok.  Sometimes we can't be perfect like a computer or someone who does this day in and day out as their job and its ok.

All in all I am happy with the light in her room and it only cost about $60 with light and medallion.  Way better than the one I saw online for almost $200.  

Our Nursery Part 2...Let There Be Pink!!!

Our nursery is slowly coming together.  We finally put some paint on the walls this weekend, so what do you think?  

No more builder white.

We went with Sherwin Williams White Dogwood a very, very light pink.  I think it will go really good with the bedding.  I still haven't decided what to do behind the crib. 

I am still in love with doing these stripes behind the crib.

Or painting the wall Sherwin Williams Lotus Flower with a white tree behind the crib and the baby's initials.






Isn't this tree great?  I found it on Etsy by Wall Decal Depot. They have a ton of colors to pick from.  I am leaning towards this tree in white.

Stay tuned for part 3 as we finish up the nursery for our new little arrival.

Baby Jogger City Mini GT Double Stroller - Black/Shadow (Google Affiliate Ad)

Did someone say free landscaping!!!

We bought our town home almost a year ago.  I love that we have a corner lot since we have more room to do landscaping.  When we bought the house the builder just put in minimal landscaping.  We also had tons of grass on the side yard which without a sprinkler system (in Virginia it's rare to have a sprinkler systems) it would be hard to water all the grass and mow all the time.  Last August my husband and I decided to rip out a lot of the grass and build a flower bed to cut down on the watering and mowing.

We were only able to afford a few hydrangeas, a few green shrubs and 2 crepe myrtle bushes.  We installed everything in one weekend.  I never really liked how we finished it but shortly after we installed everything I found out I was pregnant and life just took over.  I knew that we would revisit the yard this summer and add more plants.

Finally after having baby Madison I was ready to get out there and finish the yard. Our neighbor works for another home builder and is always getting free landscaping from the model homes that they are closing out.  Knowing this I have been waiting for our builder to sell the last town home and single family home so I could ask for some of the landscaping.  Typically a builder will rip out all of the landscaping near parking lots and their models and throw it in the dumpster.  Crazy!!  I know.  It is such a waste. 

The day finally arrived and I saw the foreman out there with the workers I asked if I could have some of the plants and they said whatever we could dig out I could have.  I could see in my husband's face that he was not looking forward to digging everything up and transplanting but when I told him how much money we were going to save his face changed.

My husband, father in law and I dug up 6 rose bushes, 3 green shrubs, and about 15 little green bushes to add to our landscaping.  It only took us about 3 hours to do everything and boy did it make a huge difference in our side yard.  We had a few things left over so I added a few of the items to our new planter boxes in the back yard. (stay tuned for another post on our flower beds)

 Not bad for free.  All the plants would be around $400 if we had bought it at a Lowes or Home Depot.  All we had to do was ask, dig everything up and transplant everything.  The one lesson I learned was when I asked I specifically said the rose bushes, I should have said everything.  There was this great crepe myrtle tree that I would have loved but another neighbor had asked about it and the builder gave it to her.  Please learn from my mistake and asked for everything that you want.  So next time you see a builder closing out a neighborhood go ahead and ask about the landscaping, you never know they may let you take everything.