The Master Bedroom Reveal!!

Over the last month or so I have been hard at work redesigning our master bedroom.
I am absolutely excited for this!!! Like I'm so happy that my cheeks hurt from smiling from too much. You know? Like my inner child is jumping up and down screaming "Weeeeeeeeee" eh let's be real. It's me not my inner child. I have been waiting 8 years to finally do this. Now, what I'm about t show you is phase 1-3. Yes, there are phases. There's still a ton more to do! Now when I started off with this project, I had high high hopes of building this room completely DIY style. I was going to build the furniture and stain it and then have The Hubs make some mirrors and a mantel and what not. But then The Hubs went on deployment. So I copped out. I bought some stuff and finished it. So it became a partial DIY project. We're still going to build the mantel but that's about it.

You know, sometimes you have to realize and accept when something is just out of your reach. And I believe that it takes a lazy mature person to do the practical thing.


You can NOT do a proper before and after without before photos. That would be like making mac and cheese without the cheese! It's just something you don't do. Kind of like too tight speedos on old guys :)

BEFORE:

Just be warned. I am leading you into my design failure and ultimate clutteredness. Brace yourselves and young ones shield your eyes.

Some of you remember when I painted these back when we lived in Groton. I was partially proud of these. This is where my DIY addiction began.

I had extreme high hopes for this room. This bedding was to be paired with the now current bedroom furniture and lamps. But sadly the bedding did not make it through our children. 

Fast forward to our move to Maine. This was my emergency preparedness. We got about 30 inches of snow and a power loss threatened but never came... That's not the whole supply. Notice how there are two bottom drawers missing? Yep... I like Ikea. I like it when you live in an apartment and you're not moving around a lot. But if those things don't apply, I wouldn't buy it. It's not meant to be moved and pulled and carried. 

The Hubs dresser. Poor thing. Bless it's heart. It tried so hard to be all it could be for my man. But it had enough. I couldn't carry through on it's task of holding a large amount of clothing and that TV.

Enter the replacements.

The bed. Let's start off by saying, we had no bed frame. You read that right. No. Frame. How sad is that? Oh we used to have one. Many years ago before The Hubs broke it. Now, I know that some of you are thinking that it's not fair of me to put the blame on The Hubs when he's not here to defend himself. But I only speak the truth when I say he broke it. He broke the frame AND the boxspring...TWICE. He likes to jump onto the bed. I'll leave it at that.

The bedding was something I have been looking forward to for a good long while. I love Pottery Barn. And if I had the money about 95% of my mom would be Pottery Barn. I have begged and pleaded my case with The Hubs that you get what you pay for. Meaning, spend a little extra dough for some nice quality stuff. Now, I didn't buy all the bedding from Pottery Barn. I only bought the duvet, euro shams and bedskirt from there. Everything else was from Target or Ikea.

Duvet: Fresco Paisley by Pottery Barn

Euro Shams: Linen Ruffle Shams by Pottery Barn

Bed Skirt: PB Essential Bedskirt by Pottery Barn

Sheets: Threshold Performance Sheet Set by Target I bought the Blue Global(pattern) and the Yellow(solid) sheet sets.

This candle has been in my smell good repertoire for about 7 years now. It's the Ginger-Peach pillar candle from Pier 1 Imports. I love how it brings a sense of spring into the atmosphere even in the coldest of winters.

The "candle holder" or trapezoidal plate is made from recycled glass and it was a HomeGoods find. I love the textured  of this piece but I also am really impressed with it's versatility.

Our new dresser. Yes. Our. We had two. The rooms here in Maine are really small. They say they were built in 89, I doubt it. Maybe 69...maybe. Anyway to save space and make all my master bedroom dreams come true I ordered this beast of furniture from Country Cottage Furniture. It was unfinished when it came. It has 12 glorious drawers. They fit ALL his clothes. Except for the ones hanging up. And there's still room. Mine barely fit. Not because I have so many but because I have so little. The Hubs has more clothing than I do. Yes, yes it's true.

New Lamps. Much needed light. And they're gorgeous!!!

Standard knobs. Soon to be chrome standard knobs. I'll either spray paint them or buy new ones. Not sure. I'd rather take the DIY route but sadly that doesn't always work out for me. I think I'm becoming DIY challenged. Although most things I do involve painting. And I am a TERRIBLE painter. I can't get a smooth stroke to save my life.

Bottom half of lamp. And an anniversary present for The Hubs. He always has to have water by his beside. That results in copious amounts of glasses on his nightstand. Seriously, we run out of cups.

So I bought him this recycled glass carafe and tumbler from Are Naturals. It's super cute and super cool. The tumbler is the size of a double shot. ;)

Another DIY project. The topiary. I've always wanted them but I refuse to pay the $30-$40 or more price tag. So I figured I could make the for nothing. I bought the pillar holders and the fake boxwood tree balls(two to be precise) at The Christmas Tree Shoppes. Then I took the topiary balls and hot glued them onto two of the pillars. Badda-bing Badda-boom!!! Topiaries. 

What a splendiferous difference isn't it? And since taking these pictures I have hung hand painted mirrors (that I scored at the orange store for $19 a piece) behind my nightstands for grandeur.

I'm super excited!!! A piece of art by my favorite artist has come in!!! Later this week I'll be picking up two paintings I had gallery wrapped. Later on I'll be sharing the new art additions to my home and a little blurb about gallery wrapping canvas paintings.

AND WE ARE BACK!!!

And we are BACK!!!! Yay!!!! I know it's been like forever. But...I finally just got the keyboard in the mail about a week and a half ago. First I sent it to my old address and then I had to have my mom send it to this house. So it took a little detour to get home. It's been well missed. I have been going crazy not being able to properly write a blog post or to be able to take pictures and upload them. Now, I can. Aren't you glad?  Did you miss me? Huh huh? Cause I missed you. I missed sharing my life with you. I missed posting super cool updates and DIY projects with you.

Speaking of updates!!!! Boy have we got A LOT!!! As of lately The Hubbs is out to sea. He'll be gone for about a lengthy amount of time. Which delays the building projects a few months. But not to worry! I will be repainting and refinishing furniture all around this place. Let's get up to date.

The Master.

We've got the bedding, the fabric and the lamps!!! We are missing the furniture. But hopefully that'll be here in about two weeks!!! EEEKKKK!! I'm SO excited. It's our first real legit ohmygoodness store bough piece of furniture. Not the Ikea stuff(which I love), but something that's substantial.

Here are some snappies!!

I don't have this exact lamp, but it's quite similar to the one I found in HomeGoods.

This mantel is similar to the style we'll be building. Not so big or with as many grooves. I'm not that groovy (ROFL!!!)

We bought 2 of these exact rugs from HomeGoods for $159 a piece!!! They are 5x7's, if I could have gotten one larger rug I would have. This rug is so soft under foot it's like walking on a cloud.

This is a mirror similar to two that I purchased at Home Depot on clearance $19.99!!! I'm spray painting them an oil rubbed bronze to match the curtain rod(72in-144in.) I purchased there for only $37.95!! You'll get to see those once the Master bedroom drapes are finished. What? I have to save something for later.

I'm totally going to talk up this furniture store, Country Cottage Furniture, I just ordered from. So I'm assuming you've all heard of unfinished furniture stores. You know, stores that sell completely built gorgeous pieces of furniture unfinished or for an extra dollar or two to do the hard work for you. I opted to do the hardwork myself. One: it's cheaper and B: it's cheaper.

First I'll be staining it in the same stain I've used on every other DIY project in this house. Minwax Wood Finish in Red Mahogany. If you live in the MA, NH, South eastern ME areas order from them!! They are so sweet and are willing to accommodate you. Their prices are fair and they have a low delivery cost. 

The Bed: Alder Shaker

The Nightstand x2 : Alder Three Drawer McKenzie 

The Dresser(we'll be sharing this baby. Similar DIY woodworking plan here.):

Alder 12 Drawer McKenzie Dresser

And the bed dressing:

The duvet cover, bedskirt and shams are from PotteryBarn. And the sheets are from Target. The king sized pillow shams are from a duvet set also from Target and the little pillow is from Ikea. Although everything ALWAYS looks better on websites or in magazines don't they?

The Dining:

Now, I've shared with you how to strip, prep and paint a dining room table. I've also showed you pictures. Right now I'm in the process of making pinch pleat drapes for the dining room. I'm making them because I don't feel like paying the hefty price tag of custom drapes. They can run from $50 a panel to over $500 a panel depending on the style and fabric used. Later on I'll show you how I made them, where I bought the materials and which genius seamtress I chose to follow for inspiration.

An inspiration of the drapes I'm making.

The chandelier. I'm really sorry for the terrible picture. Learning how to shoot on manual.

Candles on our table. I love the smell of ginger peach. You can snap these beauties up at Pier 1 Imports.

This natural linen will be the fabric of choice for the newly upholstered seats. That and a ton of scotchguard. I do not trust my kids in any way, shape or form when it comes to not spilling on my furniture.

And the refinished table. Which has seen better days. Yeah...I didn't know that you need like 4-5 coats of polycrylic when using it over paint. Plus curing time for the enamel alkyd paint(if using). You know to make sure every thing is nice and hard. I totally didn't follow those things and although she looks gorgeous she hasn't lasted more than two months unscathed.

Here's a little sneak peak of the drapes coming together!!! My first pair of professional quality drapes. And you know what? They're not as hard as you'd think. Using drapery fabric is nice.

Side hem.

Bottom hem.

Now, for a little family update in an array of photographs.

Enjoy!!

Super snow storm preparedness. I totally thought that we were going to lose power for at least 2 days. I made my room into the living quarters and Seamus' room into the kids play room. Yep...I was all that and then some. But we never lost power. I almost feel that all that work was pointless.

Some extra water for the non-existent power outage and loss of running water.

My hand crankable NOAA storm station. It's super cool. There's an LED flashlight on the front, a am/fm radio that taps into weather related stations, a hand crank so that you can charge it without power and it also comes with a slew of adapters to charge via wall and computer and you can charge your cell phone with too.

BDubb playing with a blue car. I love this stage of a baby's life. How they can find everything, that to us is so usual, new and exciting. Even if they stare at it every day over and over again.

The Hubbs modeling his new hoodie in Japan. It was so good to hear from him when he was there. It's hard being apart and it makes you appreciate the little things in life.

One of my fave pics. My two little ones sleeping together and holding hands. Maddy has this dependency thing where she has to be holding your hand on the way to sleepy land. it's a comfort thing. And Blake was smiling and I had no clue when I took it. I was focused on Maddy and how sweet she was. Sometimes her sweetness clouds everything else. Hey it's her thing.

A view from the bridge connecting Kittery to Kittery Point. It is beautiful up here. It's just that the housing ain't so great ;)

Slight profile of me. Eh what can I say? It's...Me.

Thanks for checking out my blog and reading a long just for the heck of it.

The After Christmas

Hello everyone!!! How was your Christmas'? Ours was wonderful. First we had our good friend Steve, or Rookie/Rook as we like to call him, for the unwrapping of the Christmas presents. He's like our kids god-parents. Then my mom came up to visit for the day. But as a surprise, she brought my grandfather. Which was awesome! I thought that he would be spending Christmas alone. My grandmother passed away this past August for those of you who don't know. The kiddos were uber excited about their presents and super happy that grandma and papa could be here. 

Welcome to the After Christmas edition post. I really haven't posted anything on here in while. I've been sprucing up my other blog. It's centered on DIY projects while this blog will be focused more on the family. I'll still be sharing projects but it will be less tutorially and more the after math. You can visit the new site here. I hope that you enjoy and please spread the word. Tell your friends and families!

Our tree this year!! We tried no lights...never doing that again. But unlike last year I am now in planning mode for nest year's theme. It's a color palette that everyone has seen before, except for babies. I'm hitting up PotteryBarn online to score some of those really thin lights which you can find here and the velvet stockings and velvet tree skirt. Hopefully they'll still have them and I can get everything monogrammed for a good price.

The kiddos presents this year. I think we may also buy some gifts for children who have none next year.  We don't believe in over spoiling our children. So we choose like the top three on their lists to Santa.

Can't go wrong with a semi white Christmas and some snow covered foliage right? 

Blake eating Happy Tots Stage 2 foods for breakfast. He can put two of those away with a pancake if I let him. This kid is a tank!! We're training him to be a tight end lol.

My beautiful girls playing quite nicely together. 

Tribute: my grandmother this past April/May holding baby Blake. I miss my grandmother so much. She was a staple in my life. I've spent so much time with her, I consider her closer than a grandmother. She was always there when I needed her and offered me advice from the Bible. Not just from her own opinion. She wanted to be as much like Christ as she could and she wanted the same for her entire family. She loved my children like they were her own even though they were two generations apart. This is the first Christmas without her. I love her and she was always be remembered and hold a special place in my heart.

A holiday isn't a holiday without holiday cookies :) We made sugar cookies with homemade icing. For the garnishment we used butterscotch and semi sweet chips on the ginger bread men and crushed peppermint candy canes on the candy cane shapes. 

The icing was 2 cups confectioners sugar, water(I poured until I was satisfied) and a little bit of vanilla. But you could easily use any other flavoring.

Mmm Mmm cookies...

This was a gold box that I picked up from Pier 1 Imports a few years back. I thought it was something really cool but I could also afford it lol!!

Seamus' ornament from last year. We have a tradition that we do every year. We typically go and buy ornaments for one another. Kind of like an ornament swap. This year we decided to make salt dough ornaments with our neighbors. They didn't turn out the way I wanted. That's why there's no pictures of them lol.

Table top decor. Gold glass ornaments with glittered covered pinecones in a Yankee Candle crackled vase.

Yes, that is a Pier 1 candle with the paper label still on it. And to add it's still wrapped in it's plastic cover. I tend not to burn candles. The Hubbs tends to let them burn all day, or my children will knock the candle over. And these candles are strong enough that they don't have to burn.

This is Maddalaena's ornament from Poppop last year.

Our minimalist table decor lol. It makes me feel better to say that just because I didn't put too much effort into decorating this year.

Lylian's ornament from last year.

Something nifty I picked up. It's a ball of gold leafy flowers and red berries.

Blake raiding our snack cabinet. He loves him some Cheerios. I just hope that when he's 50 he has great cholesterol lol.

Seamus and Lylian opening some of their presents. Of course my son thinks that the biggest present is his. Because bigger is better right??

Blake. I love that look! He's so expressive. He's like "Hey where's my stuff?"

I wish that I was quick enough to get Lylian's reactions on camera. They were priceless. Everytime she opened a gift she screamed and had the biggest smile on her face. It made me feel like I was the best present-buyer/mother on the planet. 

Maddalaena showing off her Minnie Mouse picnic set.

The Hubbs was just wiped out. He had duty the previous night and he stayed up all morning to help the kids open their gifts and enjoy the extreme joy that radiated from their pores.

Blake or Goldo(Fat boy) and his walker toy. We thought that this was a good investment considering Maddalaena walked at 14 months. And I really didn't want to tote this big ole boy around at that age. He's 8 months and over 20 pounds!! And I am kidding, I know that babies will walk and develop at their own pace.

Seamus got Skylanders for the Wii this Christmas. Has played it most of yesterday and he hasn't stopped today. This was his smile as I asked him to take a picture. See the priority here?? I'm just glad that he is happy. 

The girls playing with their little brother. These moments are golden and I love them when they happen, however rare it is...

How was your Christmas? Do your children believe in Santa? Has anyone spoiled it for them? We just started the whole Santa things because of Seamus' school. They talk about it, so we act on it. But I'm hoping it doesn't last much longer. I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas!! And soon to have a Happy New Year!!