my favorite store

those who know me best know when I say, "I want to go to my favorite furniture store" it means the salvaged furniture store down the street. I had an itch to go on friday but I had to work all day. friday evening we were going to eat and noticed they were having one of their trunk shows. we stopped in. big mistake. I saw 3 pieces I wanted. who was with me? my pessimistic husband. when I see a unique piece of furniture I want it. it is one of a kind and I will find a place and use for it. I really don't want someone in my ear telling me why I don't need something. my husband loves hats and has probably about 50 of them. I think it is crazy when he wants a new one but I never say a word, it is his moment and I go with it. so I found this AWESOME yellow bookshelf. I liked it and then my husband said, that would be great for our kids, then I LOVED it. I could fit all of the old books we have on it. he didn't want to get it so we left. I then decided that I could take back the chairs he got me for christmas that are sitting in a box in the garage (and will be until we move) and buy some of the things I saw. he was up for it so we went today. we walked in the room and there was a red SOLD sign on it. in that moment I thought, wouldn't it be special if he secretly bought me that book shelf? wouldn't it? can I dream? so I was a little irritated but tried not to be a pee-pee baby. I did find this desk


on ebay for $38 and I bought it. I don't care if I have a place for it, what I will use it for and when but I love it.
oh, and to try to make up for the yellow bookshelf, I saw this bowl today


at my favorite furniture store and my husband said, why don't you get it? I said, why don't you pretend you want to buy it for me! happily he did!

beautiful sunday

what a beautiful sunday. our orange tree is in full bloom and the orange blossom scent is great to wake up to! this morning my husband picked some oranges (he even put them in a cute basket).


I am not a big breakfast person
but this morning I made a homemade quiche


and we had fresh orange juice-YUM!


and fresh tulips. have a lovely sunday!

all I want for christmas

is THIS PIECE!


details: an antique store counter from Burlington, Vermont's Church Street c.1890. this piece has been stored in a carriage barn for the last 45 years or so and features decorative cast iron bin pulls on its 10 drawers. great in the kitchen or in your retail establishment or a tiny sprouts office!

tiny texas houses

I love the magazine, this old house, and in their march edition they had an article about a company who makes tiny houses from all salvaged materials. the floors, the windows, sinks,


doors,


door knobs,



lights, the exterior, everything. it is so neat. 95% of the home is made from salvaged materials and the rest consists of energy efficient products. you can read more about it here. the cool thing is is they build it in their warehouse and ship it to whenever you live.



the homes are very small but that is what I love about it. they make a good point in the article about today's "McMansion Age" how the average home builder maximizes his investment by supersizing square footage and forgetting about craftsmanship and a big yard. you also pick out everything from their warehouse. forget the cruise, I want to go to texas to visit the salvage yard! what a great company with a cool concept.

earth day 2008

earth day is april 22. are you doing anything to help
preserve/save the planet?


celebrate earth month this april with us. details coming april 1st!

sweet chair

I am currently the highest bidder on this sweet chair. I do not want a plastic high chair for my kid. this one is more my style.


with a deep clean and a new paint job this chair will be awesome!

baby love

sierra skye


brennan & elsa


jack & lily

cradle me

oh yes, so I forgot about this great piece I wanted for our nursery. I am not into the crib thing until the kid is older but maybe that is because I don't yet have a kid so I don't know how/what it is like. this however, is on my list for things to get 10 minutes after I find out I am pregnant.



this is currently on ebay and if I had my hands on that cradle, I would coat it with some cream or celery paint and then distress it. I think I do that with every piece of furniture I have so it looks old. I dislike matching furniture sets and anything that looks perfect. I usually don't match,
rarely comb my hair and always wear striped
socks when not wearing flip flops.

sneaker

my sweet husband painted our bathroom today despite his bad neck pain. poor thing could barely turn his head but he decided to paint anyway. can't wait to hang pictures, have the window installed and hang the shower curtain. oh, yeah, AND take a shower in there. I am thankful for a place to shower in the meantime but the older naked ladies at the YMCA and the dorm showers are starting to get to me. hopefully they are coming tomorrow to reglaze the tub!

happy easter!

hope your day is filled with lots of chocolate,
easter egg hunts and warm weather!

another etsy find

I found studio mela tonight on etsy. love her stuff!

day 3

almost complete! we have to wait on the window for about 10 days. we decided the natural light was so nice so we are having a window installed! in the meantime we have a board up so water does not ruin the window opening.
I am in love with this bathroom! I picked up paint today and decided on color "eiffel tower". it is a chocolaty color. one other thing we purchased was a curved shower rod. WOW! what a difference it makes. the shower is a lot roomier. the nice guy hung the rod too high (it is drilled into the tile). I know it will bother me that the curtain isn't all the way to the floor but I will try REAL hard to not let it bother me. stayed tuned for the final pictures.



texture went on the walls and ceiling this morning!



these are the original floors in the bathroom. they obviously aren't my color choice BUT they are unique. so my question is what color walls would look good with these floors? they were cream before but I think I want to paint them chocolate. I just don't want the bathroom to look too stark. any suggestions?

day 2

check it out!

6 p.m.


it will never look this good again!


3 p.m.


11 a.m.

nursery talk

this morning while standing in what is now my office, I turned to my husband and said, let's pretend we are pregnant and today is the day we decorate the nursery. he said, what? and laughed. he knew I was serious. I love to decorate and have been dreaming of decorating my kids room for quite some time. so this is what is on the list:

jenny lind crib except I want it in cream:


vintagy dog picture with kids:


this material for a little pillow and a blanket:


for the bumper I want to have my mom make it with the creme brulee chenille and celery pom poms.

okay, I have just realized how psycho I am being so I will quit doing this until I actually am prego!

bye bye stinky shower

today started the demolition of our bathroom. finally!
we had one of those plastic inserts and it stunk!
I was so excited about today I could barely sleep last night.



check out the original wood boards from 1934. they had to come out to make room for the shower backing that is used today. and isn't it so much better with those blocks out? I wish we could have a window in there!


more pictures to come. I am trying to stay out of the way and not annoy the workers too much with my camera!



2 p.m.


4 p.m.


subs go in tomorrow!!!!

it's st patty's day!

doesn't really mean much around here except that the irish pub around the corner is slammed. my husband thought it would be fun to go out in that crowd. I told him to have fun as I stayed home and watched the cosby show. we actually went to the beach today. we live 3 miles from it and rarely go. reason being is that it is under major construction and there are not many great places to eat. we decided to actually GO to the beach and lay out. well, I guess if being in a t-shirt is laying out. we were surrounded by 18 year old kids and oh, how that made me feel old! so about a month ago I started my 1200 calorie days and it has been really hard but really rewarding. I have 1 more pound to go until my goal weight! so I ordered a suit today to get ready for our cruise. it is less than 1 month away. I CAN'T WAIT!
I got this great suit:


and this OMG sweater:

and while I was shopping, I had to pick up some things for elsa & brennan. how sweet are these?

have a great day whatever you are doing!!

"the way I see it"

so I love starbucks (loved). the ambiance, the drinks, the merchandise BUT I am about to boycott. hear me out. I have always been irked that starbucks does not automatically serve organic milk and their lack of recycling. they pretend they are all for the environment but yet have no recycling programs setup in their stores (at least in our area) and have no problem serving milk with hormones and pesticides. so today I was getting a drink and noticed their new sign, "save a sleeve". seriously, this is their recycling program? I know it is a start BUT if they really cared about the environment that would start a program that didn't benefit the company first. so I wrote them an email tonight because I really wanted to get it off my chest and see what their response may be. why don't they use plastic cups made from PLA that are biodegradable? I read a few plastic facts on www.earth911.com and this is what I learned:

* In 2006, Americans drank about 167 bottles of water each, but only recycled an average of 23 percent. That leaves 38 billion water bottles in landfills.

* Bottled water costs between $1 and $4 per gallon and 90 percent of the cost is in the bottle, lid and label.

* According to the Beverage Marketing Corp, the average American consumed 1.6 gallons of bottled water in 1976. In 2006 that number jumped to 28.3 gallons.

* It takes over 1.5 million barrels of oil to manufacture a year’s supply of bottled water. That’s enough oil to fuel 100,000 cars.

* Eight out of 10 plastic water bottles become landfill waste.

* Plastic bottles take 700 years before they begin to decompose in a landfill.

* If everyone in NYC gave up water bottles for one week they would save 24 million bottles from being landfilled; one month would save 112 million bottles and one year would save 1.328 billion bottles from going into the landfill.

to top it all off I read starbucks mission statement and one of
their missions is
"contribute positively to our communities and our environment"
OH PLEASE!

lazy days

today was very dreary. it rained all day and the sky was a depressing gray. stewart enjoyed his lazy day on the couch.
I can't believe he is 8 or 9. love that dog.

where have I been?

this might be the longest I have gone without blogging. I feel like my friend Brooke who is a bad blogger. I spent a nice few days visiting family in indy. oh, how I love that city and was sad to come back to florida. it was nice getting off the plane and having a smiling husband standing there. today it was back to work though and fedex is really ticking me off. they have "attempted" to deliver a package that I desperately need. instead of coming to our door they just sit across the street in their van and say they attempted delivery but the "business was closed". oh well, at least the sun is shining, birds are chirping and the windows are open.

check out this sweet bag I had throughout childhood. this was sitting in a box in my sister's attic so I brought her home.

I love pillows

these pillows are one of my favorite items I carry now.
they are so plush & soft.


another new product idea came about from these pillows. stay tuned...

PLEASE NOTE WE ARE SOLD OUT OF OUR PILLOWS
BUT ARE HAVING MORE MADE.
EMAIL ME TO BE PUT ON THE WAITING LIST.

sweet babies

thanks to all who have sent pictures of their little ones!
check out how sweet!

shelemiah

lizzie

isaac

isaiah

mallory

jordan

lucy jane

leo