Well HEY friends!!

I've been so busy working on the loft project.  It's ALMOST done!!  If you hang out with me on Facebook, you've seen some sneak peeks.  Just need to work on curtains and art.  I'm actually going to be sewing.  Eeek!  So far, it's such a wonderful and cozy spot.  We are LOVING it!  I will tackle the cloffice soon.  But, I need to recover from this one a little bit and plan out what I'm going to do in there.  The loft has been one of the most budget friendly projects I've ever done.  Just about everything was re-purposed or already had on hand.  Can't wait to finish it and show you!!

It's that time again!!


You guys make it so hard to pick features.  You guys are more amazing every week!

Here are the posts I loved:



Kathy at Life on Lakeshore Drive reupholstered this GORGEOUS chair!  I mean, really.  WOW!!  It's absolutely gorgeous!


Judy at Rooted in Thyme shared these amazing toile covered lampshades.  How dreamy is this?? *sigh*


And how about this ravishing beauty shared by Megan at Our Pinteresting Family??  That color is SO gorgeous, it reminds me of my beloved Wythe Blue.  GOR-G-EOUS!

And here are some treats that made me drool:



Adrianne at Happy Hour Projects shared these  Right Side Up Pineapple Cakes.  She was upset that most of these didn't turn out looking pretty.  They look PERFECT to me!!  Anything in a jar is good!


Nettie at Moore or Less Cooking shared the recipe for this Very Berry Nut Crumble.  Oh.  Yum.  Dessert, anyone?!?!

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Be on the lookout for the loft reveal, coming SOON!!  :-) 

Time for this weeks awesome party!!

DIY/Crafts:



Tasty treats:

Hey there friends!

How are you this week?

Hot where you live?!?!  CRAZY hot here!

It's a State holiday here in the Beehive state.  Pioneer Day.  Otherwise known as, Pie & beer day.  :-)

So, this is late because I was trying to get in a little family time.



Well, here are my features!!


Jess at Mom 4 Real shared her gorgeous breakfast nook makeover.  Isn't it lovely??  The shutter is to die for.  I would love to sit with a cup of coffee (iced please!) and read the Sunday paper there.



Tonna at Navy Wifey Peters shared this ADORABLE top she made for her darling baby girl.  This is so clever and sweet!!  Her baby daughter is precious!




Amy at home happy home shared these tinfol monograms.  I literally gasped when I saw how she made these.  Easy and GORG!!! 

Now, let's make ourselves drool over these nummy treats:


Robyn at Robyn's View shared her GYCO winning brownie bottom coconut chocolate cream cake.
Could you DIE?!?!  Just give me a fork and let me at it!! Congrats on taking my crown Robyn!!



Kathe at Kathe with an E also shared her submission for the GYCO challenge.  Look at these Coconut maple bacon cupcakes!!  Anything with bacon is awesome.  So, you KNOW these are as well!




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And now, let's get this weeks party going!!

DIY/Craft...


Tasty Treats

Whew.

I'm exhausterated. 

BUT, I finally got started on the loft project.

Still lots to do, but let me show you the progress. 

Oh, and let me just say, this is how it looks tonight.  And it's driving me NUTS!!  I'm the kind of person that wants instant gratification.  So, I know this one is going to take some time {Because I'm working on this alone, and it's going to involve actually BUILDING stuff} but I want it done now.  Because, well... I hate the clutter.  Word.

So, here is the loft in all it's 'before' glory:



This is the view from the stairs.  And there is that adorable, gargantuan kitty jungle gym.  And that has to stay.  The kids love it.  So, I'm just going to embrace it and make it a focal point.  LOL  How can I not?!?!



Laundry room door and hallway. 



Top of the stairs.  Obviously. 



The hall.  Guest room on the right.  Merry's bath and bedroom on the left.  Drew's office is at the end of the hall.  See the mess?!?! Drives me nuts, but I promised it would be HIS space.  I can barely go in there for a few minutes.  I start cleaning. 

Today, I put up the B&B and topped the closet {that will be turning into the cloffice}, then caulked everything.  It was A LOT of work!!  It's a pretty big space {I was working alone}, it was a lot of up and down the stairs, it was hot and I gave myself rug burns on my knees... from all the lovely caulking.   I LOVE caulking!  Not. 

Here is how it looks tonight:



The doors will come off, and this will be my cloffice.

The other door you see is to the Master bed/bath.  That's a scary place.  Why is the master always the last room in the house to get any prettyfying?? 








The opposite side of the half wall got B&B as well.  I'm going to continue down the hall, but I ran out of MDF... and energy.

Oh, this is different from the B&B downstairs.  Those boards are all 4 inches.  These, are all 3 inches.  The downstairs B&B is only on feature walls, this is going to be all over, so I wanted it to be less chunky.


And guys, don't hate me... but, I never measure the spacing between my boards.  I lay them against the wall and do this visually.  My brain doesn't like math.   I'm more about visually pleasing. 




I'm going to carry this around the window and top it with the same treatment as the cloffice.  I need to get more MDF cut, but I'm not going anywhere today. 

Some things I've learned about putting up B&B:

• Measure 3 times before cutting if you need to.  I do.  Sometimes I write the numbers down wrong, and end up wasting time & MDF. 
• Caulk, caulk, caulk, caulk.  Caulk everything.  It's worth the time, mess and carpet burned knees.  Caulk ALL the seams.  It makes it look so much better and professional than if you're lazy about this step. 
• It's fun, and pretty easy.  And I love the look. 

I used up 2 full tubes of caulk on this so far.  You cannot use too much caulk.  Over caulk.  It's better that way.  Sanding will make a hella-mess, but these 2 steps will make or break how this ends up looking.  I even filled in some bigger seams with wood filler.   I've learned this from my 2 other additions of B&B.  I guess I've learned what steps to not skip.  Even if you're tired and lazy.  :-)

I really love my B&B painted white.  But this is a big space, and it takes sometimes 5 coats of white paint to get it even.  So, I'm thinking of keeping the lower half the color the walls are now and painting the upper portion Wythe Blue.  It just makes for so much less painting.  I will throw in some pops of white.  I'm thinking the interior of the cloffice will be white, or just off white. 

The other colors I'm using in this space are plum and a little bit of green & yellow. 

I'm not excited to sand and paint, but I'm really excited for this space to actually be pretty and have a purpose.  Until now, it's just housed the jungle gym.

I'm excited to finally be started on this.  Can't wait for it to be finished!

Any thoughts or suggestions are always appreciated!

XOXO

Well hi y'all! It's Friday and I have a truck full of lumber!  Squee!!

Anywho...

It's time again for the Get Your Chef On challenge!!!   This time, it's coconut.  First lemon, now coconut... getting better and better!



Since I'm the defending champion, and damned proud of it, I took the opportunity to check out the other entries.  I'm tellin' ya... the competition is FIERCE!!  I'm actually a little scared.

It's all good.  I'm a good loser.

So, my entry is:

Hey you guys! 

It's almost Friday again!  WOO HOO!

I've been running around gathering up some goodies to fix up for the loft project.  Tomorrow I'm going to get all the lumber cut.  You know what that means!  Out come the power tools!  I'm having separation anxiety from my nail gun. 

2 of the fun things I picked up, in expectation of being put in the loft, are 2 new-to-me chairs.  The chair I picked up yesterday for $50 is so dreamy... I think it's going to stay in the living room. 

One of my neighbors actually borrowed me her sewing machine so I can make some slipcovers for the super comfy, uber ugly chairs already in the living room!  So, the plan is they will be covered and moved up to the loft.  One of the new chairs is a wing chair.  Not a terrible color, but I LOVE the look of slipcovers. 

My kids get a little obsessed over new pieces of furniture.  They act like we have NO other chairs in the house.  Max, is currently obsessed with the new, dreamy chair, as am I.

Here is a day in the life of Prince Max... and his new throne:




I don't think he has moved from this chair since it came into the house.


Oh, giving me the stink eye.



Believe it or not, he used to have a pretty rough life.  He's adapted well to being royalty. 


Look at his feet.  I'm obsessed with his feet!



It's good to be one of our kids.


So, I've pre-ordered some of Miss Mustard Seed's milk paint.  I hear it's supposed to be shipping very soon.  I'm tempted to use some milk paint on this chair.  But, then again... I think the finish is so great.  Would it be better with milk paint??

Hmmmm.

I will keep you posted on the slipcover project.  Could be terrifying. 

XOXO

Hey!!

Hows it going party people?!?!



Me, busy, busy as usual.

Really going crazy with all these ideas going on in my head for the loft.  I just want to get started on it already!  Life.  You know?  That thing that happens when you're busy making other plans??  Yeah.

I've picked up some pieces for the loft, getting excited.  Lots to do and build first... before we can get to the pretty stuff!  I'm so impatient.  I wish I were a wizard.  Like Hermione and I could just wave a wand and have it all done!

Ok, so I will update you on how things are going.

Let's move on to YOUR pretty stuff!


Joanna from To A Pretty Life shared this very, very pretty rose pillow cover.  How pretty is this??  I've asked for a sewing machine for my birthday.  Which is in January.  Yeah.  I want to make pretty things like this!  Beautiful Joanna!




My new friend Julie at Jam's Corner shared this gorgeous window mirror.  I've been lusting after this for a few weeks now.  I.  Want. 

Now for a few tasty looking treats.



Baked In The South shared this amazing Black Raspberry Peach Cobbler.  I could eat a whole pan of this.  YUMMY!!!


Devi at Diddles & Dumplings (LOVE that name!) shared this Chicken & bacon Italian BBQ pizza.  No more words.  Need this pizza.  Now.

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Now, let's see what other fantabulous things you've been doing this summer!!


DIY/Crafts...




Tasty treats...

Drew and I finally got off our butts and took the measurements for the loft area.

We bounced ideas around, it was tons of fun.

We are going to change out the closet.

Here's where I'm torn.

We are always thinking of resale.  We will not be living here for the rest of our lives.

Our home is 4 bed/3 baths with an unfinished basement.

Our city is mostly young families with lots of kids.

We are trying to keep in mind the kind of people that will be looking to buy our house.

We are thinking that all the bedrooms will be used for just that, kids bedrooms.

In the loft, we have this nice, unused closet that is begging to be greater.

Do we make it into a storage closet with a bench seating for shoes or maybe a reading nook??

I don't have children.  The human kind, that is.

Probably going to upset some folks here but, I don't really like kids.

Coming from a huge family and then raising my 4 Nieces, I'm done.

We highly value our peace & quiet.

Never wanted kids.

Just not into kids.

There is 1 exception to this.

My Niece, Caeleigh.

She is the coolest kid I know.

She loves science, video games, techno music, girlie stuff, the color red, rainbows. Not to mention, she's so smart.  It boggles my mind sometimes the things this kid says.


We were supposed to have a sleepover last weekend, but my kids {the furry ones} got sick and we had to postpone things.

So, this weekend was our make-up sleepover. 

We had a blast.




We both crashed pretty early, which isn't how we roll normally.  Normally, we stay up as late as possible eating popcorn and watching movies.  Usually, "Spy Kids" or "Strawberry Shortcake".

This morning, we had a blast making rainbow waffles.

They turned out awesome.



I just mixed up the waffle batter, as usual.  Then, split it up into 6 bowls and we colored it.



Cutest helper, ever.

I scooped a spoonful of each color into the waffle maker. Then, we topped them with berry butter, maple syrup and sprinkles.











Then, we took some pretty pictures of her.















Some of her hair is, pink.  Used to be red, her favorite color.


It rained.  Oh, glorious rain. 


She chose to go see "Ice Age"... in 3D.



I love this kid.

We had a blast.



XOXO