New Dunny Shelves

I spray painted the shelves I got from the thrift store white and hung them in the den. Finally I have almost all of my dunny's back on display!

I love it!

The Den is Done!

FINALLY! I have rid our house of the most uncomfortable futon on the planet for some fabulously comfy leather couches. Thanks Mom and Dad! I have also finally painted the hall and den. Did I mention the paint was FREE and in an ultra fabulous color? Janet likes to pick up the bargain gallons of paint from Home Depot and Lowes. You can get gallons of nice paint for $5 just because the color match wasn't right or someone returned it for some reason. She had this blueish grey which she called "Prison Grey" We mixed it with a light tan and another tan that was almost white and our cheap-o paint concoction turned out almost an exact match to Benjamin Moore's Pebble Beach. (I had to use my paint decks to see if I could find a match to my homemade color).

The room looks so much better, it is crazy how big of a difference paint can make. It turned out very coastal looking and goes well with the rest of my house, rather than looking like a mismatched hodgepodge of everything that didn't have a home anywhere else in the house.

Here are pictures from before:

And here is the room now:

Can you see my violets in the window? One is blooming really well and The leaf that I pulled off to clone is ready for planting!

This is Kathy in her favorite corner. She is ALWAYS laying there and usually looks mopey.

There are still a few things that still need to be done, like painting the side tables and adding some more art to the wall with the TV. My charcoal grey curtains are coming back from my Nana's old house too so I think I will put those up back here and take down the green curtains. However, the big things are done!

Here is the hallway back by the bedrooms that we also painted...

I think I may turn all the walls in the hall into gallery walls. Thoughts?

Thrifting Goodies

Janet and I went thrifting on Tuesday and I found some goodies!

This was actually a lamp, but I dismantled it and just kept the jug.

These were all taped together smallest to largest and it wasn't until after we got home that we discovered they attached together! Best surprise. I am currently in the process of painting them white. These are dunny shelves at their best.

I saw this brass crane and had to have it. I wanted to spray paint it but Zach really likes it being brass. Not sure if I will paint it or not yet...

I got four of these little glass plates. I may hang them on the wall I just am not sure where. But they have a really cool iridescent coloring to them, plus they've never been used!

I also found a pair of grey overall shorts that were from American Eagle that I thought would make the perfect summer paint clothes. However they were priced at $15. I mean come on! Who pays that for used clothes at the thrift store. American Eagle or not. I am still wishing I had them because they were perfect however I will not pay that much for used clothes that will just get covered in paint.

New Paintings

Finally painted again. I got Kyle's other painting done. It is a 20 " x 20"

This painting is from about a year ago, it is in the office. Not sure that I ever put a good picture of it up.

I did this 36" x 48" painting for our bedroom.

Crackle nails

Just got this black crackle Opi polish. So awesome.

Fruit Smoothie

Just made a fresh fruit smoothie with bananas, strawberries, vanilla yogurt, splash of milk, little bit of sugar, and ice. Yum!

Fresh Flowers

These flowers cut from our yard have made our house smell so good! Plus they look oh so pretty.

Our Garden is Blooming!

Zach and I have really been making some progress on our garden and yard! Zach admittedly has done most of the work but I have begun tackling the mass of overgrown weeds that has taken over our flowerbeds in the back yard.  Zach has made us a composter, a water barrel, and the veggie/herb garden is solely his doing. You can also see my newly painted shutters and front door!

The garden has come a long way!

Zach ordered us 1000 ladybugs and praying mantis's. Here's one of our lady bugs. They came in this mesh bag live and you could keep them in the bag for weeks in the refrigerator. Crazy.

This is part of the flower bed that still needs some serious cleaning up. There are dead bushes that need to be pulled out and countless trees and weeds that need to be taken out.

This is what the praying mantis came in. We got 4 pods like this and you hang them on a tree or bush in a shady spot 1-2 feet off the ground. They should hatch in a few weeks!

 This is our composter. The barrels Zach found on craigslist. They previously held pool chemicals. So Zach cleaned them out real well before putting them to use. 

Here is our rain barrel.

I finally have a blue hydrangea! 

My other hydrangea is coming up in the center, Last year it was very sick so I am happy it looks healthy this year. I am not sure what color flowers it will have. I really want to make this flowerbed more curved rather than a straight line around the fence. Maybe its just me but I prefer organically shaped flowerbeds.

Not sure why one of Zach's water jugs is over there, they were being used over top of our peppers at first. It worked like a little mini green house. I definitely think our yard is improving but of course it still has a long way to go!

Coffee Filter Lampshade

A friend showed me this and I am in love! I really think I want to try this on my teal lamps in the office.

here is the link with instructions on how to make this!

Wouldn't my shades on these lamps look good like that???

That picture the shade still has plastic on it! It is the only one I currently can find though. I have so many updated house photos I need to load on here! Guess I will have to do that in one big happy post.