Copycat Feature: Thanksgiving Branch

It's been a while since my last copycat project.

I had seen this project a year ago on Kelle Hampton's blog Enjoying the Small Things.  (have you been to her blog? No? You should.  Beautiful pictures, beautiful words.)

Isn't it lovely?  I thought so.  So, I put Michael on a mission: "Find me a branch, so we can do this, please." Well, my man delivered!  He brought home three branches for me to choose from, and after two nights (one for hanging the branch, and the second for me to make the leaves) we had our copycat version:

 Not to bad, right?  I mean, I think I need to add a couple more rows of leaves, and next year I'll defiantly make my leaves smaller.  I mixed felt and scrapbook paper.  We have a sharpie on the table underneath the branch so whenever we're feeling thankful, we can jot it down on one of the leaves. 

I love the colors of fall.  They're rich and warm.  They're comforting and spicy.  And they're popping up all over my house!

I also made a wreath using a cheap foam wreath I found in the dollar section at Target, twine, and some felt flowers:

 The rest of the yellow bungalow has splashes of fall around it from Thanksgiving pasts.  Including the entryway:

 and the mantel.  

I just have to share a common weirdness that my husband and I share:  As I'm typing this, Michael is working like a madman in the kitchen.  He gets on these kicks of cleaning and organizing.  We both do, but I guess tonight is his turn.  Early tonight, I informed him that I was taking a shower to "wash off my Monday", and he offered to do the dishes because he's nice like that.  When I came back out, he showed me how he organized our tupperware drawer, and is throwing away lids that don't match to anything else.  I applauded his hard work, but it was clear he wasn't even close to being done.  So I let him and his techi podcast be, while I finish this post.  I think right now he is gutting and completely reorganizing our pantry.  It's weird, but I get it.  We both have that quirk.  That, "I don't know why but I have to completely finish this non urgent project right now!" quirk.  Michael can tell when I'm in it, too.  He usually smiles, and lets me be.  We're imperfectly perfect for each other.  

The warm wind known to us locals as Santa Anas have been picking up lately.  Milo's intrigued.

(look at that hair!  I refuse to cut it, you can't make me!)

I wish I could show you his "ooohhh" face.  It's purty darn cute.  He's becoming a little parrot.  And true to form, Michael and I are have become the cheesy parents that tell their kids "Say...bye bye!,"  "Say....stars!,"  "Say, Mommy/Daddy/baby!"  It's ridiculous.  And there's no end in sight.

The table saga: the final chapter

This post is ridiculously overdue.  But it needs to be said that Michael finished our table.

It's big (double wide, also known as a gathering table) Which is exactly what I wanted.

Remember those spaces between the boards? 

He cut small pieces of wood, and hammered them into the spaces.  Creating a "That's exactly what I meant to do all along" look.

I love the details of it...

The sanded/distressed edges were fun to make.

We did not add polyurethane on the table yet.  We might one day.  Instead we went for a wax finish in cherry.  

Yes it gets bumped, scratched, and water stained.  But, the idea of just sanding those problem areas down and restaining and waxing doesn't seem that daunting to us.  Less daunting then a cracked or bubbles urethane surface at least.

So there you have it.  The final chapter of our table.  It perfect for parties, holidays, and even family dinners.  

Thank you Michael for my table.  I love it.

Plans from Anna White

Table Saga I

I'll leave you with a shot of Milo during his first time at Disneyland this past weekend.

That's the best I can do.  Playhouse Disney was a hit!

love, 

Kristin

chandy in the living room?

I was just going through some of my previous pins of living rooms with high ceilings like ours, when I start to see a pattern:

Chandelier 

ceiling fan

chandelier: sidenote: this house belongs to the couple from TLC's "The Little Couple." Never seen it, just thought that was interesting.

'nother ceiling fan

'nother chandelier

are we missing something? 

(besides the window coverings, built-ins, planked ceiling, and artwork.)  

Would a neat looking chandelier or pendant light work in this room?  

Or Will it take away from the high ceiling?  

Thoughts?

love, Kristin

Office Update #2

For our first office update click here.

However, I realized I never posted pictures of our office space after we painted.  

We added a West Elm daybed we had in the nursery, before it was a nursery.  It was one of those hold-your-breath-and-see-if-it-fits moments.  And it did! Just barely, but it did.

We also added two white shelves from Ikea and their cardboard storage containers (I may convince the hacker to upgrade to nice fabric ones later on, but for now these get the job done),  a free desk, a chair from Staples (on discount) and viola.  

Our new monochromatic office!  

I can't believe it used to look like this before:

Removing that giant office furniture has added so much room.  Even with the bed, the room doesn't feel cramped.  It's nice to have the extra seating, and when we have company, they don't have to sleep on the couch.  

We've been asked if we really do use the magazine holders and boxes for all of our filing and office storage.  Yes, we do.  I actually think its an easier system than a filling cabinet. 

Having the bulky office system just shrunk the already small room.  

Since taking the pictures above, we've also added accessories to the shelves a bit.  My favorite part of the room?  The e-Card the Hacker sent me the day we started dating.  I printed it out and framed it.

So that's our office as we know it.  There are a couple more plans we have in this room: 

Add curtains, just like the rest of the yellow bungalow.  I think this is where we may have fun with some color.

Add a barn door to cover the archway for guests that might acutally sleep on the bed.  

Add a jumbo sized map to the opposite wall of the desk.  Not sure what kind of map yet.  Maybe a decal.  

But so far, we're happy with it. The monochromatic look feels fresh, which is what we wanted in such a small space.

Well, I have three dogs going crazy through my house right now, better go!  (More on that tomorrow.)

Happy Thursday everyone!

xo, 

Kristin

A Look Ahead

This post has been three weeks in the making.  I wrote it the first week of January.  However, my Mac and I were having photo exporting issues.  But now we're friends again.  So here is the long awaited post:

When I was in in school, college, and even when I was teaching, I never looked at the beginning of a calendar year as a new year.  For me, New Years Eve was summer, and New Years Day had always been the first day of school.  

This year it was different.  There was an end to 2011, and 2012 does bring a fresh start.

Our little guy is sitting up now.  

There is still a 50/50 chance he'll tip over, but that little trunk of his is getting stronger every day.  

His physical therapist is blown away every week by his progress.  We're so close to crawling, it's just beyond his grasp.  He rocks back and forth on all fours, and to his dismay ends up in reverse instead of drive most times.  

He's been eating puree food for about two months now.  I can't believe homeboy likes brussel sprouts.  

The Hacker and I aren't fans, but the little guy opens his mouth as wide as it can go for the green goo.  

We're setting goals for the yellow bungalow this new year too.  

1.  Finish the garage 

2.  Complete the 5-10% of the finishing details in the master bedroom, nursery, office, and living room.  This seems to be a consistent flaw of mine.  I complete a room about 85-90% of the way.  Then it take$ me month$ and even year$ to complete the re$t for $ome $trange rea$on.  (was I subtle enough?)  

3.  Complete the dining room table and make a console table. Have I told you that the Hacker is building our dinning table? He's in the distressing and staining part.  Ana White has become a treasure chest for the Hacker and I for furniture.  If you haven't checked it out, if would behoove you to do so.  (side note: behoove is a word I haven't used, maybe ever.)

4.  Window Treatments.  All of our windows have blinds, nice blinds.  But yet they all seem so bare.  This year it would be nice to dress them up a bit.

5.  Add shutters to the garage window out front.  We have a feeling our window looks a little bare.  A pair of shutters might be the perfect company for it.

6.  Add bookshelves on either side of the fireplace.  

So there it is.  New year, fresh start and new goals.

Good to be back, 

Kristin

Nursery Update

I am finally updating you on the nursery.  It's not yet complete but it's on its way.

Here is the room with two cribs in it, and the art not yet hung.

And here it is with only one crib.  With our little guy's health, we can't have another placement, so we took the crib out to increase our space for a while.  

(please pardon the christmas decor, leave it to me to wait until I put up some decorations to take pictures.)

Here is what the room looked when we bought it:

Here is the transition stage just after the wood was installed, just not painted.

And here is what it looks like now:

(If you notice, the Hacker has 3/4 of the crown moulding done.)

I made some of my own prints to hang in the room.  

 I was inspired by all of the paintchip mobiles I had seen over on pinterest, and decided to make my own. 

My dear friend jen made a cute yellow pillow to add to the rocking chair that she already gave us. 

Since then, I've decorated it for Christmas.  I added little treasures from our own Christmas childhoods to the bookshelves.  I made my own version of the christmas tree I found from one of my favorite blogs, enjoying the small things.

These are the normal decorations I have on the shelves.

A converse piggy bank, an owl from Indonesia a friend gave me, and some lincoln log toys.

I made the l.o.v.e. letters by covering them in yellow, black, and gray stripped fabric.

So that's the room.  It isn't nearly completed.   However, as I look through our house, nothing really is.  There are some valid rea$on$ for that.  
But for now, it is a happy place that our little guy can live in.  He can sleep under the colorful dots dancing above his head, he can gaze at the yellow stripes on the ceiling, he can cuddle with us as we rock him in our chair.

It's our happy place for now.

xoxo,

Kristin

Office Updated #1

When making the third bedroom into the nursery, we inadvertently had to update the office as well.  There was a daybed that needed a home, and the office seemed like the "perfect, for now" solution.

Way back before we had bought the yellow bungalow, the Hacker told me he wanted an office that was monochromatic.  Only grays, whites, and blacks. I am now a reformed traditionalist, who proudly embraces the unique.  (Hello, I have stripped walls!)  But back then I was a traditionalist who cringed at this idea.  However, because I love my geek, and realized he'd spend more time in there than I would, I scurried online to find some inspiration of gray and white offices.

I was impressed with what I found, and have had them saved on my computer waiting for the day to use them as inspiration.

roomzaar.com

Centsational Girl

The first step was painting.  We had decided on a dark gray that was just too dark for this small room.  I don't have any pictures of it, but here it is in comparison with the lighter grey that we ended up using.  

It's less blue, and more of the grey we were looking for.  

Once painted, the next project was to fix our light fixture.  It was doing nothing for the room.  In fact, once people saw the room painted, their first question always seemed to be "Are you changing the light?"  

Yes, yes we were. 

This is where compromise comes into play.  

I had always wanted to duplicate the beauty that lights up our bedroom.

I thought it would look just as lovely in the office.  And it would add a touch of elegance.  The Hacker didn't like the $200+ price tag.  Also, after further research, it turns out West Elm stopped carrying the Long Capiz Pendant. 

After spending hours and hours shopping for the right light, it came down to these two:

Either Ikea's Maskros or a DIY project using a yoga ball, glue, and some string.   

Well, the Hacker was the deciding vote, and Ikea won out.  Only $89 later, we were the proud owner of this daring pendant light.

Installing it was a breeze compared to our last ceiling light.  All the extended arms clicked into place to make this weird orbed looking thing.

 Once we got all 166 flowers onto the light, it was complete.

 It's big, I mean BIG. But it does lighten the place up. 

My one concern about it is that it is off center.  The hole where the last owners added the light fixture isn't centered in the room.  The Hacker isn't motivated at all to adjust it.  So, for now, this is how it will be.  

Every night little fireworks dance on our wall.  It's quite nice.  

But for now we have off colored walls, which you can tell if you scroll up and look at the paint color change from picture to picture. The Hacker says it is the light bulb, hates it, and wants to switch it to an LED light bulb. 

However, when I look at these pictures, I can't tell if it is the light bulb, or my supreme lack in photography skills. I'm pretty sure the latter, but I'll play along with my hubby for now. 

So what do you think?

Do you like the changes so far?  We've already added the daybed, shelving, and a new desk.  I'll share that with you next week.  

Do you think the DIY light would have been better?  I admit, I still have my doubts.

Happy Friday everyone!

Have a great weekend,

Kristin

Garage Framing the Ceiling

It's been a while since I've posted on our garage.  You can read about our garage project here, here, here, and here.  If you remember, we wanted to have it done by May.  Obviously the project has taken a backseat to the kid's room this summer. 

Our friend Marc the Arc drew an inspiration sketch that we fell in love with.  

Since we have friends that will install the drywall for us, we (and when I say we that is a very loose term, in actually it means the Hacker, while I cheer him on) had to frame the ceiling first.  

Because he built the frame on the ground, he hoisted it up with straps.  A genius idea. 

However, once it was up, it was evident that it was too low.

So the Hacker and Marc raised the frame and built a diagonal elbow for the air condition arm. 

And now we're one step closer to getting this garage done.

 

The Hacker just has to add some framing to the other parts of the roof, that wont be dropped. Then it will be time to complete the drywall and finish the ceiling in the garage.

Do you see it somehow coming together?  (and yes, the garage has gotten messy again.)

And now some inspiration for the laundry room.

via Pinterest from sn128w.snt128.mail.live.com

This probably wont work in the garage, but I would love to be able to add this element, somehow.

via Pinterest from House Beautiful

And here's the inspiration board that I made a while back. 

Thanks for reading.

Now I have to go fold laundry.

love, 

Kristin

A Patio Update

One of my first posts on this blog was the success we had staining the concrete on our patio.  It turned out to be one of my favorite projects we've done.  Since it is our most popular and visited post so far, we wanted to share this update with you. Here we are a year later.  While we still l.o.v.e. the over all look of the stained patio, 

(move Dex, fine!  He's such a ham.)

it is starting to show some wear.

This is the largest problem area.

As much as we loved the ease of the Behr Concrete Dye Kit, the sealer has left much to be desired.  It was supposed it give it a wet look, while retaining good traction.  Well, we never did see the wet look, and as you can tell our dye is coming up.

For the most part, the dye is intact.  However, there are a couple of spots around the edge of the concrete that are literally lifting up from the concrete, exposing that bland salmon colored concrete.  

Our solution?  We we haven't solitified one yet, we're still in brainstorming mode.  Our thoughts were to buy the individual cans of dye, restain, and then buy a better quality sealer.  This sealer just didn't cut it in our book. We're under the impression that if the sealer had been more durable, this may not have happened at all.

Just thought we'd share with you this temprary blunder.  

Any thoughts or your opinions?  We're hoping to get this done before cold weather comes through.  However, given the fact we live in sunny southern California, we still have some time.  

Time to go.  I have a very full to-do list, and I need to get started. Thanks for reading.

Happy Monday,

Kristin

paneling the kids' room

We paneled the kid's room a couple of weeks ago. The Hacker and I have always appreciated added texture that paneling gives a room. 

Layla and Kev from the Lettered Cottage have added the paneled look throughout their house. 

We knew that we wanted this subtle addition of interest in the kid's room.

Why that room you ask?  Because of the line.  

The dreaded line that had annoying me from the day we moved in.

We don't know if it was from a bad drywall install or the constantly moving ground of southern California.  It didn't matter, what mattered was covering that pesky line and quieting his taunts for good.

So the first thing the Hacker did was frame the window.  

Most of the windows in the yellow bungalow aren't framed.  A simple fix later down the road.  

But for this little window, it's time had come.  Because of the paneling that would take place on the same wall, the Hacker chose a simple frame.  Using simple beams,  a tedious puzzle saw, and a staple gun he measure, cut, and stapled perfectly.  At least in this supportive wife's book.

It was then time to start paneling the wall.  He started at the baseboard and worked his way up. He decided to use shiplap for the paneling. They fit in together nicely and make for an easy installment.

Measuring out a space for the outlet,

he used that time-consuming puzzle saw again, and cut out a perfect hole for it.

After the measuring of the window and outlet, the rest went up quite quickly.  Before we knew it, he was done.

He stopped just short of the ceiling because we figured, we might as well add the crown moulding now.  

(another project that's on our list for the rest of the house, later down the road of course.)

 

We have ourselves a paneled wall.  And more importantly, the line is gone!

Since taking these pictures, we've painted it white and added two cribs.   We're still in the midst of decorating and adding the details that make a room.  A little piggy bank here, some pretty framed words there.  All in all we're ready for inspection. But I've got to leave something for the big reveal. 

Paneling a wall is now something else we have learned to do together since living in the yellow bungalow.  I fired my first staple gun, not as intimidating as I first thought.  We'll continue to learn as we continue on the journey of homeownership.

love, 

Kristin