Busy Busy Bee- Project 12

Before

Whitewashed & a coat of Blue

Close Up

Dining Room with 4 Chairs :)

Herbs starting to Grow Yea!!!

This week has literally been a week of  Insert Four Letter word here starting in an H ending in a Big L.. it has been non-stop at work (meetings, grading, parent emails/conferences), students just going crazy because Spring Break is so close, tons of assignments for my Masters Program and the house a total wreck because lack of time to organize and too many projects started at once.  I am in deep need of vacation in such a bad way.  But for relaxation what I do.. find more projects to do..lol.

I'm one of those people I think of projects while I am going to sleep, showering, driving to work and I will think about them, contemplate them and obsess until they are done. I think I mentioned that I spoke with Melissa from The Inspired Room about our kitchen. I was getting really TIRED of the red.. it is just not me and is too warm. I know people like Red it is actually my hubbies fav color. His office is St Louis Cardinal Red.. but I don't like it all over my house. I like neutral with a punch of color. So I search for my inspiration for the kitchen with out re painting and adding the neutral tans and whites with a touch of blue..

Than it hit me sea spray wreath I have ( I kinda have a rug and wreath addiction).. this is my inspiration for my kitchen- the colors, touch of classic traditional, touch of vintage with modern.. love it. So on my long hallway wall are some vintage iron wall decor in a red color. The color just didn't fit the new kitchen. I went to the garage and got a plain dry brush and white washed the wood. After it dried I distressed it and re hung on the wall. I liked the white. But it was just too white and too much of a contrast on the walls. So I went back to the garage and found some leftover Blue Paint from the upstairs (all the rooms are various shades of blue-robin, teal, aqua, sky) and dry brushed over the white being sure the distressed areas were still noticeable as well as the white. The finished product is above. I really like it and once you see the whole finished kitchen I think you will too.

On top of my kitchen decor project with paint, finally the two other seagrass chairs came in. Nate originally bought the first two seagrass chairs for me as an anniversary gift on our 3rd year. We were living in our first apartment together. I loved them so much and had wanted them so bad but couldn't afford them while in college and working as a bartender and nanny.  When he surprised me with them I was so excited and I still love love em.  The only thing I hate is my cat will try to sharpen her claws on them..ugh. I have been wanting to get more but at one point they were back ordered in my color and then I just didn't have it in our budget. Finally I did. So I ordered them and they came today. The newer ones are a slightly darker color. But I think they match fine because of the color variation of the seagrass. Aren't they beautiful??  Dining Room is officially DONE!! 

Oh and the Herb Garden I planted on the kitchen window has sprouts in all three containers..yeah!

Here's a hint on a future post to come in the kitchen.. good luck on guessing.

HINT!!

St Patty's Decor- Project #8

 Mantel Decor- Greenish Blue Hydrangeas, Nate's Baby Cup (tribute to his red hair on the mantel), Ireland pic, heart st patty's garland

 Close up

 Entryway vingette- Chalkboard with yarn wreath, greenery and lettered blocks

 Close up of Dingle Pennisula in Ireland

 Front Door

My Newest Additions:Our Adorable St Patty Pillow & Sign

So Valentine's is over which means yea St Patrick's Day is soon!! Which is one of my favorite holidays for many reason..after St Pattys means spring break and flowers blooming, I am of irish hertitage as well as my red-headed hubby, and it is my saints day. Being raised Catholic you have a saint's day and my saint is St Patrick. 

One day this past week I got tired of seeing all the pink and red decor. I love pink but the frillyness of Valentines was getting old. I was ready for Spring, St Pattys Day and Spring Break! I took all the valentines decor down and pulled out my lil bit of St Patty's decor I have. I say lil bit but if you go to my decor closet I have boxes of decor for each holiday. I can't wait till I get to pull out my easter/spring stuff! Wohoo. I love decorating for holidays and I love having things different for each one. I also like changing things such as pillows and accessories with seasons so it feels as if the house is changing too. In fall I use reds and browns, Christmas I add more whites and blues, spring I love all the brightness, and summer I love the aquas and blues. I will have to blog more about the seasons.

Anyways it brings me to my St Patty's. I added the celtic welcome cross to the front door. I added the letter blocks on the entry table with a green tree instead of the typical orchids. I felt the green was welcome for st pattys. I than added my yarn wreath on the chalk board with a cheery Happy St Patty's Message. On the mantel I added heart four leaf clover garland, nate's baby tin cup, and a picture of the homeland Ireland. I kept the Hawaii Map and our wedding pic. I love them and I feel they are welcome all year around, plus Nate loves art and pictures up..when I was putting them on the mantle he said OH I really like that.. wow ok!! Just seeing the map of my happy place- hawaii and our wedding pics make me happy. When I was putting up the decor, Nate was sitting on the couch and I said mind if I put the Ireland pic up and your baby cup. He said really I always wanted my ireland pic on the mantle. Glad he can enjoy the decor too.  Lastly I added our sign a wee bit irish and our pillow. I think it is just enough st patty's touch and I can't wait for Easter!

Side Note to St Patty's: Inspired Room just did a beautiful post on decorating with things you love and things that are important to both you and your spouse since you both live there. I always try to keep Nate's taste in mind. I say I because I do most of the decorating and he does the installing (hard work).  But he has clearly stated that decor is my area and he is okay with what I do. With that said I know what he dispises (anything grandmaie lol, country, floral and a lil too shabby chic). Nate doesn't like alot of change. He likes simple, functional and true to us. He likes a room to reflect my perspective but as he puts it he lives here too.  He appreciates art, pictures of our travels, photos of our families, accepts my love for all things coastal and white. He has specifically stated he hates words (like subway art..lol) and prefers art and photos on the wall. He is dying for me to put a collage similar to the one in the entry in the stairwell.

He dispised white before but likes the idea of bleach now..lol. He is truely a mans man and likes practical things- but he adores a comfortable house such as the one we live in. He accepts my disorganization behind closet doors and love for decorating, throw pillows, milk glass, seagrass baskets and clutterless rooms. I say clutterless rooms because they look clutterless till you open my disorganized closets..lol! He swears I will change when we have kids and accept clutter. I love him for accepting my flaws, wants and desires and I truely hope my house reflects us both. I know that both of our favorite items in our house have been hand me downs or given to us by our families. Which makes me beam that I have a hubby that likes furniture with a story!! Our dining table, kitchen table, pool table, guest room headboard, dressers, and bar cart were all others before they came to us!!But we like to make them ours and I am proud to say it is ours!

Thank you dear for putting up with my crazt DIY obsessions, listening to me and guiding me when I get frustrated with a project and you have to finish it. You are fab!!

Valentines in the E Casa

Well it's been super busy around the Embley casa. Like usual we have been teaching, I have been in my masters program, and we have been doing things around the house and enjoying our friends. I have made a ton of project lists and have only completed a couple of them..lol. But I found beautiful vintage shutters to display on my new mantel I ordered recently. So that is exciting. I will post pics of the shutters painted aqua with my special personalized subway art soon(hint-it is beachy with our wedding date)!!  But the cottage/vintage/traditional look is coming togeather and the great thing is it is all very versatile. On to other news...We recently planned a little trip to New Orleans to celebrate Julie's 30th in April. We also are planning our second honeymoon (baby moon) last vacay with out kids for July..but we are waiting for my check for my stipend from school. It got lost in the mail in December and they just voided and recut the check Feb. 1st. So now I hope this one will make it here. We are going to have our babymoon and put a little nest egg of $$$ away for baby/mommy..lol It will be for maternity leave etc.  Also great news!!!  We closed again on the house and everything went just as planned!! Hooray!

Feb. is in full swing. I can't believe Valentines is right around the corner! Well when I was growing up my mom always decorated for the major holidays- halloween, thanksgiving, christmas, and easter. She did small things for us for the smaller holidays such as valentines. But she wasn't into decorating for the small holidays as much. Now that Nate & I have our own house I like to change the decor up with the holidays and seasons. Nate really enjoys the winter seasons such as thanksgiving and christmas because we go home to see family and we have a break from work.  These are my favorite holidays too.. so I gravitate towards their decor and I forget about the other holidays!! Oopps. I have a TON of christmas decor..I have started a great collection on my fall decor.. and today after getting the PB catalog I got a jump start on my easter and St. Patty's day decor. More of that later.

The great thing about the main great room is that now all the main items are neutrals. The couch and arm chair are a chocolate brown. Area rug is a cream that matches the burlap/linen colored drapes and walls.  So it is super easy to just add a few things to give pops of color for seasons. It also makes it easy for the house  to feel not so drab in the winter months which I hate.

So I started to pull out my valentines decor and noticed it is basically non exsistant. I know I need to work on it. I have vowed to do better next year because I want to be the mom that my kids remember certain holidays because I made it awesome. My mom used to have us build scarecrows in Oct. and I loved it!! She also had a christmas village we put up every christmas and helped with the tree. I love these holidays because she involved us and made it special.. so I need to do better with the little holidays too.

I have a few vday pieces. I have a heart door mat I bought at target the very first valentines Nate & I were together. I recently purchased a new door hanger for vday because some how in the move I can't find my old one. I found my little heart rose wreath and than I bought an XoXo glitter sign to put on the entry way when you walk in. Than I pulled out my vday pillow I have had and another love pillow. Lastly on our coffee table is red candles and a heart candy dish full of pink, red and silver dove chocolates. The pics are below.

I have to say my favorite this season has to be my chalkboard. I layered the wreath over it and than wrote love scripture on the board. Verses are listed below:

My lover is mine and I am his. Song of Solomon 2:16
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth- for your love is more delightful than wine. Song of Solomon 1:2
Love is patient, Love is kind. It does not envy, it is not rude. Love rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes and always preserves. Love Never Fails  1 Corinthians 13
I obviously had to shorten the corinthians verse due to lack of space on the chalk board.. but it is a classic and I wanted to put it on there.
My absolute favorite is his kisses are more delightful than wine.. perfect for a wine lover like me to write!!
Well hope you enjoyed! I loved following the Valentines Mantel linky on the blogs I follow. I love seeing how creative others are. Hopefully next year I will be the same ;)

 Front Door with Vday Decor (DIY frosted glass I did) & Mat

Entry Way- Chalkboard, Rose Heart wreath & XoXo

 All my Luv Scriptures I chose to write on the chalkboard

Above- Hugs & Kisses pillow  Below- Hand Stamped Love pillow


















Happy Valentines Day!!

Project #4- Wine Cork

Nate's Aunt Susie retired last year and after his grandma passed away she moved back home with Grandpa. I personally think it is great so they both have company..but Aunt Susie had alot of antiques and they are currently being stored at Nate's Mothers. So she no longer had use for this bar cart. Nate's stepdad and him had to unassemble it to fit in our SUV and we hauled it back to Texas from Illinois. I love it! But I felt that the area above needed some approriate decor. That is when I decided to make a wine wreath.
The first step was to collect wine corks. Most of mine are collected by yours truely but the first layer you lay straight as possible and won't see with the top layer so I bought some online.
So you line the corks up as close as possible and hot glue onto a straw wreath. After you cover the first layer you go crazy layering corks which ever way you want on the second layer. But remember this layer is the layer you see so you have to be sure you put the pretty side of the corks showing. I even included a couple champange corks. The one on top is from our honeymoon and the one on bottom is from when we bought the house 3 years ago. So it has lots of memories in this wreath. Total time to make is 2 hours. You can hange it with fishing line or ribbon. But I chose twine to make it more coastal/beach bungalow feeling. I mean wine and the beach are hand in hand in my mind!

Happy New Year & Project #1 of 2011

 Coat Rack & show basket overflowing- Above
Below- Entry way Table completed with Chalk board & Wall Gallery - Christmas was still up!!


Nativity Scene given to us from Nate's Mom which was brought back from Africa from his grandpa!! Also our Jingle Bell wreath and Note to Santa on Chalk board from Scout!!


Close up of Valentine Decor in Entryway- Fresh Mum Flowers from my hubby! Not always there! Plus my sheet music wreath with Psalms written on Chalk board. Also my vday decor of XOXO!!

View from livingroom- my last DIY frosted front door windows letting in the light! LUV!!  It looks a little busy with the mums and XoXO.. but its for a short while..

Previously when we had a ton of warm colors in the great room (think all reds & browns) there was no entry way table. It was just a wall of crosses. I loved the crosses but my hubby hated them. He is a christian he just prefers art/photos on the wall than a whole wall covered in crosses! When I decided to change the decor in the room to something I could change when I got tired of it.. I went neutral. Now the curtains are linen to match the walls and everything is very classic with punches of color here and there.

  So I started thinking of a better way to maximize this area. I started with a memo board that is a chalk board (old mirror converted). I than hung all our favorite pics from our weddingmoon in Hawaii. There are pics of Nate and I with his sister and than us with my sisters, landscapes where we snorkeled, the wedding, honeymoon shoots and of course a Hawaiian Guitar printed on sheet music and a vintage skeleton key on scrapbook paper.. I love the Key- Nate will always hold my key to my heart as well as Hawaii. All the frames are black so that it feels cohesive but they are all different types of frames, some shiny, some matte, some flat some bulky with trim! I call this our tribute wall to Hawaii.. whenever Nate & I are stressed we always think back to Hawaii. So it is nice to have the reminder in our entrywall.
 Once I created the wall gallery I felt that it needed a table! So I found a PB knockoff and it is great in it's ebony color- vintage yet modern I feel. It really was a desk but it fit the wall space perfectly and I love the turn table legs and ebony finish.  I also pushed the two stools  covered in cream linen that I use for extra seating when kiddos are over under the table. On top I added a potted orchid- my favorite flower on top of a stack of books on beaches and Hawaii. I love orchids, I have some in my vanity area in our bedroom, one in the guest bath upstairs and now one in the entry. I feel like it adds instant elegance or timeless-ness. Yeah I am an english teacher and I just made that word up!! Plus a great lamp with linen drum shade. It was than complete!
To make the area work even better for us I bought a coat rack to hang dog leashes, keys, my coach purse, scarfs and jackets on it. If you see under the rack is the leather shoe basket which I am going to up grade to a larger one in wicker soon! I have to upgrade because my coaching husband has more tennis shoes than fit in our closet and now the shoe basket!! I found a great one at Target similar to a very costly one of PB and will order next pay period.. I hope you enjoy! I sure love it! I feel like the lamp makes such a lovely light in the evenings.. the photos are near and dear to us obvioulsy so I love looking at them. I also love layering the chalkbaord with wreaths (stole idea from nester).. Lastly  I  love the function of this area now. Pretty and funtional!!

Isn't my hubby great for bringing me mums.. the only reason they are in the entry way is because Bella our siamesse loves eating flowers and she is scared of this table for some reason.. mums are safe!