Coffee Bar

Do you have a space that needs love and attention, that you have no idea what to do with? Well we do. In our kitchen the previous owners had built a lighted counter area with glass blocks. It's pretty cool, especially when you light it up, but its not overly functional. However it did have a MUCH needed outlet (we have two outlets in our kitchen, and my Kitchenaide must have power..remember old house...) So..I immediately thought coffee bar, right? How fun to dress up with some glass canisters and my cow creamer.. I ran to our local TJ Maxx (we are not blessed with a Home Goods, which saddens me) and picked out a couple cute glass containers. One for the pods and one for bulk coffee (4.59 for both) its always good to mix and match your heights Now, I just needed a tray.. That I had, in fact, I had a couple, but the wood one won out. (Seagrass one was too bulky and I could see my little cow falling to his death). It needed a bit more color, so I just threw some lovely spring flowers in a old pitcher and that did it. It didn't take me too long to throw it together. Takes more time cleaning up grinds daily...grr... It's a great way to use weird spaces! Take a look... Oh... My kids are infatuated with the old rotary dialed phones which you can see in the pic.

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Southern Crosses

We've been in our home for 3 weeks and I still have trinkets and accessories yet to put out (as you can see by he pics) I guess between the winter blahs, work and trying to find my design mojo I've been in a funk. So after watching 3 hours of HGTV on Sunday AM (giving the kids until 10 until the hammer started swinging) I decided to work on the infamous cross wall. I struggled on where to put it, as its always a conversation piece when people come into our home. So I debated and decided on the dining room. A wonderfully bright space in morning as well as the afternoon with a huge picture window that looks over the back yard. The wall can be seen from the family room as well as the kitchen, it also will provide all that exit and enter a sense of peace for the day.
My cross collection came by accident. About 5 years ago when we lived in "Aggieland", I had visited the home of a neighbor, when she showed me her kitchen there was a massive wall of crosses, It was so neat, and I couldn't stop commenting about it. When our neighbor moved that fall she brought over a small box. Inside were 6 crosses from her collection, and thats where it began and its grown to 26, purchasing 1-2 each time we moved (and unfortunately it was a lot between College Station and Fort Wayne) Although I don't remember which cross was from each home, I do remember the ones that were given to me as we'll as my husbands Grandmothers that we got when she passed. Now that we finally have a home that we can grow into, I hope that our collection becomes one I can grow by collection vs. moving. Oh, by the way..just ignore the mess..we're still under construction...

01 02 12

Nooks & Crannies

I love older homes! But with older homes comes narrower doorways and lower ceilings. Earlier this evening we moved in our new"er" basement furniture (a BIG thank you to my sister and brother in law for kindly paying it forward and giving us theirs) thinking that getting that stuff down there would be much less hassle than the appliance issue. Well... Not so much. First came in the sofa. It didn't like the narrow doorway to the basement so, lets move the fridge out (again) Yeah, no. Plan B. Lets move the recliners in and deal with the sofa after. Ok. Done. Back to the sofa. With the Fridge out, doors off, still no go. Sideways, up on its butt, take the feet off. Nope, still nothin. Scratching their heads, they stood and pondered (my wonderful hubby and my most wonderful brother-n-law) THEN...out of the blue, a vision, an idea of all ideas.. I said.. "Why don't u go through the back door". This was probably the best suggestion ever! My brother in law looked at me in amazement and exclaimed "Why didn't you think of that before?" Listen, I'm 43, it doesn't just come to me that quickly.. Ok. Back out the door, through the garage and around the back (mind you it's snowy and icy) They're in! Not so fast... Light needs to come down, another door off and... They ascend to the basement. SUCCESS! Whew.. First stage of man cave complete..

01 02 12

Appliance Debacles...

When we moved into our home two of the three appliances were circa 1970's. I knew (as frugal as I am) they were going to be electric hoarders so we decided to get newer. We did measure the spaces for both the fridge and the stove, and knew we had to modify their spaces a little. Well...
with the stove space modification would be the least of the problems. When I got home last night my husband says "You're going to love this". The drop-in stove seems to be an electrical nightmare... Needless to say the new one stays in the dining area and she's back in her space until we can get the correct tools and/or professional. Oye..

See any issues in the pics? Suggestions?

01 02 12

Glazin'

I love repurposing things!  Give me Craigslist, EBay or a Garbage dumpster and I'm bound to find a BEAST and turn it into a BEAUTY!
Recently our large family moved from a 1100 sq ft to a 3100 sq ft. home. My husband says "We're going to need a lot of furniture". That was my cue to be on the hunt to find some great pieces.  
Our home was built in 1957, it's considered a sprawling ranch. Our living area is 13x23 and is shot gun style. I was in need to find a piece that would act as an entertainment center and have storage for games, DVD,s etc, as well as ground the room. I looked on EBay and Craigslist daily (setting up notifications when something specific listed with my requirements).   A listing for dresser came up and I texted the seller for pics. It wasn't wasn't what I was looking for but she said she had a dresser for FREE because it was minus the drawer. She sent me a pic, when she sent me the dimensions (75" wide) I knew this was it!  I offered her 20 and she said yes (for her time and the questions..)

So I was the proud owner of a mid century mod low profile dresser.  I had an idea of what color I wanted and that I wanted to glaze it. I had never glazed before so I took to Pintrest. I got some great ideas and this is how it went...

Color: Valspar Acapulco Cliffs in Gloss (qt) Paint + Primer
Glaze: Valspar Mocha Glaze. (There is a lot leftover)
Bag of Tshirt Cloths (Blue Hawk @ Lowes they were cheap, AND you need a lot)
Brushes
Sander


Steps
Removed all drawers
Sand - Just rough up, so the paint will take
Dust or vacuum all sanding stuff off
Paint
Let Dry... I didn't like is step as I'm impatient.  I used a hair dryer to speed up the process
GLAZEEE - put on liberally and rub off. It's that easy!!

Do you like the results..

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