Newest Obsession

Recently I have become obsessed with something new. They occur mostly around spring time and represent new growth and a new beginning. I'm talking about flowers!!! And I am CRAZY for them! Especially peonies or any flower that resembles them. I think that they are beautiful and gorgeous. Next year after we've moved I'm having my precious hubby, or myself, plant a flower garden. But it's going to be full of Lilies, Gerbera Daisies, Ranunculus, English Roses, Peonies, Hydrangeas and Tulips.

I just think those flowers are stunning and absolutely  worth the enormous time and effort of making a flower garden. Here are some pics of my favorites enjoy!!

Ranunculus

Hydrangeas

Olde English Rose

Tulips

Peonies (my favorite!)

Peonies

Gerbera Daisies

Like I said, I absolutely adore flowers year round!! They brighten your home and life y our spirits!! God is such a genius(obviously, He created them). Such a wonderful gift to be able to look upon such beauty on a regular basis!

Do any of you have any favorite flowers? Any spring time gardens planned? What do you like to do with flowers? Do you decorate with them? Dry them? I'd love to hear back from you!

Pen Out

A few days ago I woke up to my brand spankin' new white duvet cover colored on...with pen. I freaked out. I think that's needless to say if you know me. This is our fifth or sixth bedding set lost to the destruction of sneaky children. Ok some of it was us.

But I refused to be beat by this!! My husband came over and ever so sympathetically held me and me that it was going to be ok. So I immediately went online and found a bunch of solutions for getting pen out of fabric. 

Some of the solutions were using rubbing alcohol. Others claimed that foam shaving cream worked. And others suggested hairspray. But to be careful because hairspray may ruin some fabrics.

So this is what I did:

Upon seeing the catastrophe I screamed my head off.

I snapped a pic(of course duh!) and then I let me husband comfort me. Then I got to work.

I chose to use Zoya's 3-in-1 Remove nail polish remover first. It's acetone free and they are a safe nail varnish company. You know vegan approved and all.

I soaked the cotton balls in the solution. Then with a towel under the pen marks started to dab and hold the cotton ball in place. What really freaked me out was the fact the the pen spread first before being absorbed into the towel.

After treating all the areas, I diluted with water. The remover is purple and I didn't want it to dye the duvet cover. Not all the pen came out with the nail polish remover, so I used shaving cream. That did nothing.

And in a last ditch effort I used Tresemme's hairspray. I sprayed it directly onto the pen marks and then immediately after soaked the area in water. I didn't even wait.

This was the result.

Pretty impressive huh? There are no left over marks. At all. Then of course I had to peel the pain-in-the-butt duvet cover off of the comforter and wash the whole thing and then put it back on. That was extremely hard considering 1, it's heavy and 2, it's hard to lift things because I'm pregnant.

But when all is said in done I am extremely happy with the results of this home made pen out solution.

Have any of you had any seemingly impossible stains that have been removed successfully? Or even unsuccessfully? Share your stories!! I would love to hear from you!

Lessons Learned

I want to share with you all something that happened yesterday that affected not only me but people I know and love. This is about being offended by someone and then turning around and offending them. Doesn't really make sense does it?

Yesterday a neighbor of mine made a post about moving out west. So I engaged her in conversation about the topic. She told me that they were up for orders sometime in the fall. I then told her that we were up for orders now and that we were looking to also go out west. Then another neighbor chimed in about how she wanted to leave this state.

Now I'm going to say this, I'm from Groton, CT. It's may not be the greatest place on earth. But it's not the worst either. I have a ton of fond memories about living here. There are pro's and con's to every area in this country. 

Then the first neighbor replied(paraphrased of course) that basically she hated New England and couldn't wait to leave. This is where I had the problem. I was part of this conversation. I'm from here, New England. And I think this place for all it has to offer is wonderful. It's gorgeous in all the seasons, there is a ton of things to do, to see and to learn about. There is so much history here it's almost unfathomable. 

I was offended by this statement because my home was being insulted I guess you can say. Now people have a right to their own opinions. I agree with that. But if you're going to share so freely then beware of possible backlash from people that take offense. 

So me being the immature person I am posted a nasty remark on Facebook that went a little like this: I can't believe the ignorance and disrespect of some people. That statement there was my mistake. I was wrong. I should have approached this person privately and talked to them about how I felt and how what they said offended me. Then I unfriended her! I know right? My pregnancy reasoning skills were working in full force yesterday!!! Now I'm not proud of my actions. And due to them I received a lot of backlash from neighbor #2(they're friends). 

Here is the moral of the story, if you are offended by someone talk to them privately about it. Don't make an immature mistake and be rude publicly. It only backfires in your face. Lesson Learned. 

Now I have apologized to neighbor #1. Which is the right thing to do. Never assume that you are bigger and more important than anyone else. We're all human and we all have rights. We are just like everyone else.

Furniture Project Number 2: The Bookcase

I have recently been in the renovate it yourself mode around this house. Doing this, changing that and anything that I can update with my own two hands. It's been driving my husband nuts!! I have this goal of having everything done by March 2nd. That's a day before my baby shower by the way. So for the last two months I have had these "plans" that I think are fantastic but no one else seems to agree. But aside from those crazy plans one project that I have been dying for has finally been finished. It's our bookcase!!!

I know I know, why all the hub-bub over a silly bookcase?

I mentioned in an earlier post that in order for my darling baby boy's crib to be built and find it's resting place in our room the bookcase had to be finished. We had our old entertainment furniture(which is now for sale) in our bedroom taking up the space where the crib now rests. But that furniture housed most of our books. So the bookcase needed to be built in order for the crib to be done. I know it's a lot to follow!! So now I grace you with the few pics of the progress and finished results.

Here is the actual bookcase from Ana White. It is the lack inspired bookcase. I liked it but I wanted something a little heavier and more rugged looking.

Say hello to my Lylian. She is currently the eldest of my two girls and will soon be not a middle child. She loves being in the garage with daddy helping him build these projects.

Smiling pretty for the camera. Rule in our house, you have to have crazy hair in order to work in the garage.

Here is my version of the lack inspired bookcase. I had my hubby add 2x6's to the back for a more complete rugged look.

One coat of Minwax Red Mahogany stain.

The finished product!!

Up close shot of the back boards.

And a wide angle shot of the back. I love how it came out it's gorgeous!!!

What do you all think?

A New Take on the Twist

I had to share this super cool hair do with you all. I got it from The Beauty Department website!!

It's a new take on an old style, the twist!!

A New Twist

Above is the link to the page that will tell you even more about this simple yet wonderful hairstyle.

Here is another new version of a classic style the braid

The Braided Secret

I got both of these hairstyles from The Beauty Department. They are not my own styling. Please go and check out their site and explore and learn about new tips and tricks about style, hair and beauty.

Delightful Order Child Message Center Giveaway!!!

I love this blog. Simply because I lvoe all of the organizational tips that this wonderful lady gives out!! It's helped me so much in organizing my home(some of the things I have yet to do). But I love reading this blog weekly to find out more affordable tips and tricks to organize your home on a time.

Right now Delightful Order is doing a Child Message Center giveaway. What this is, is a 16x20 high quality message center print directly from her Etsy shop which you can check out here. I have wanted four of these prints for my little ones for a while now. They're great for charting day to day activities along with keeping up on homework and what's going on with school. You can even use them for children who maybe too young for school. She sells them for $35-55 a piece in her shop and to get one free would be amazing. Here is the link to the giveaway page on her blog. Enjoy and please enter!!

Here are some pics of the child message boards:

Finished Projects From Our House Restoration

Today I'm going to share with you some of the completed projects that we have done. I will explain how we did some of them so if you wand to try it at home you'll know how!

This was presented in an earlier post. This is our Tryde Coffee Table. We got these plans for free from Ana White and after a few weeks of use I can say truthfully that I absolutely love it. It is very sturdy and can withstand my three children's bums and my husbands feet lol. I would highly recommend anyone who wants to start out woodworking to build this piece. Especially if you need a table. It only takes a few hours to build with minimal tools. Just finish to your taste.

These are my painted curtains in our bedroom. I like them but I'll tell you a little secret, they weren't supposed to be like this lol. I messed up while painting these so I changed the color pattern. It was supposed to be every other with the "white" and TeePee from Behr Paint. But I accidentally skipped a stripe with the TeePee so I just filled it in with the Soulful Music by Behr Paint. And they turned out like this. I really love it. The euro shams on our bed are reversible using these same two colors. So I'm able to switch them out and still have everything match in our room. Here is a brief tutorial of how I painted my curtains. Then here is the tutorial I used as a guide line.

And this is our new king sized bed!! Farmhouse bed frame from Ana White to come shortly. I'm hoping that by the end of June the frame will be completed.

These pillow covers are a Pinterest knock off. They are absolutely no sew and were made using old curtains I had. Now I would not recommend using this type of material, especially having family who uses these pillows for lounging. You can find the tutorial here.

This is another Pinterest find. Submerged flowers, I love it. It adds a touch of delicacy to any room or table. I had the hurricane vases previously. And I picked up two garlands of spring flowers from Joann's for $12. I trimmed the garland down to the length I needed, times two. Then I criss crossed the two garland strands to form an "x" and then placed the in the vase. And I added water and this is what I got!. It's super easy and with coupons super cheap.

These are the painted curtains in the living room. This was supposed to be the pattern in our master bedroom but I screwed that up lol. I used the same tactic in painting these and the bathroom ones(below) as I did for our bedroom.

And these are in our bathroom. We're trying to keep the whole nautical theme throughout the bedroom and bathroom. More decorations are to come!! But it's going to take time.

Let me know what you all think? Do you think it's too much stripe? I got a little carried away lol. Let me know of any other home decor/DIY projects that would look great with these themes!!