Bedroom Is Under Construction

Beware...

this bedroom bead board is -

And my husband wants his wife and house back!

The hallway outside my daughter's room is crowded with her furniture and belongings, and I have been slaving away on and off this weekend installing the bead board.  I do not own any tools for such a task; however, I have great friends that let me borrow them!  I have been using a jig saw to cut my boards, and the good 'ole fashion hammer and nails!  Definitely not the easiest; however, we are managing just fine.  

Here is a photo thus far:

It's a work in progress, but coming along nicely!

Nate Berkus - Home Rules

For Mother's Day this year my mother gave me Nate Berkus's book, Home Rules.  As some of you may have read in previous posts, he is my idol!  This book has a lot of great advice, he is just brilliant!  

In his book, Nate gives tips for everything from finding your color, your style, to styling in different rooms in your home. 

I am an avid watcher of the Nate Berkus show.  This past year I have learned so much from him, he has definitely helped me to find my style. 

I highly recommend you get this book and can find Nate's tips helpful to you as well.

I've got my eye on you...

Just a few Pier One items I have been googling over lately...

  

So Pretty!

Special Order Spray Paint

Ever since I saw Mandi @ Vintage Revival's post here on special order spray paint, I can't stop thinking about all the options!  All these AWESOME Krylon colors are available to order from your local:

I thought the new lamp I rewired a few days ago and posted about yesterday here, would be a good candidate to try one of their new colors on. 

Now to pick a color that would add a little "pop" to my daughters room update I am working on.

Here is a picture of her bedding and color of her furniture that will be remaining in the room:

I am thinking this Krylon color, what do you guys think?

Satin Hyacinth

 Purple and blue are her favorite colors.  She has chosen to paint the walls a soft blue so I thought this would be a nice accent.  

I really would love to hear your suggestions!

I Did It, I Rewired My Own Lamp!

After posting here about how to rewire a lamp, I have been looking for one of my own to experiment on.  I recently found this one during one of my many thrifting adventures, I thought it was a good height and had a pretty shape to it.

It was a whopping $6.99.  Right away I figured this baby would need to be rewired, look at that plug?!

Not to mention it had no switch thingy on it!

Definitely not something I feel safe about putting in my daughter's room!

I found my rewire kit at Ace Hardware for $10.99 - 

I too my needle nose pliers and quickly cut the old wiring out of the lamp:

and was left with this...

I followed the directions on the back of the kit.  Surprisingly, it was EASY PEASY!

I screwed in my light bulb, and nervously plugged it in.  And guess what...???

It ACTUALLY turned ON!  I was very pleased with myself I must say, I felt so...handy!

For some reason it still makes me nervous to use.  I know it turns on and all, but what if I didn't tighten the wires tight enough or something and it catches fire?

Now that it works (hopefully stays working :0) I need to make it PRETTY!  On to painting it and finding a shade!

Guest Feature - Trellis Mirror

Recently in a post here I shared the mirror mate idea on how to customize your bathroom builder grade mirrors.  I mentioned I am contemplating between doing this or taking down the existing mirror and putting up an entirely new framed one.  However, it is so hard to justify doing that because then what do you do with a perfectly good mirror?

That's where Anne from Hello Newman's comes in!  She took hers and created a beautiful trellis mirror as a decorative mirror in her family room.  Remember, this used to be just her ordinary builder grade mirror, and now looks like this!

Check out her post here on how she did it!

It's beautiful Anne, thanks for letting me share it!

Amish Furniture

A friend and client of mine has a couple of beautiful Amish dressers, so I was very excited when I had the opportunity to go to an Amish market while visiting in Maryland.

Their work is gorgeous, and the quality is unbelievable.  The wood was so smooth I couldn't stop touching it!  Here are some pieces that I captured while I was there - 

I was crazy about this headboard and footboard!

The prices definitely reflect the time, effort, and talent that goes into each one.  However, I think it is worth every penny for these pieces will last a lifetime.

Antiquing in Maryland

I LOVE the history and charm Maryland has to offer.  Not only does it have beautiful rolling hills and gorgeous greenery all around, but such history as well.  It is overwhelming to drive by a beautiful field and know it was once a civil war battle field.  

 
My family lives near Frederick which has many beautiful old homes and buildings. 

We went to an antique store in Frederick where I drooled over many beautiful pieces:

If only I didn't live thousands of miles away, I would have happily thrown them in the back of my minivan and drove home. :0)


My brother's home backs onto this gorgeous lake, it is breathtaking!

Back from NY & MD...

*Warning, picture overload!*

I am back from an incredible trip seeing and spending time with my wonderful family back east:

There were many new "firsts" for me, one being NY and all it's sites.

Um, yeah...my mom and I basically had "tourist" written all over us. 

You wouldn't believe how much we fit into our 30 hour overnight trip!

Our hotel was just a block away from the garment district, it was a decorators haven!  I didn't know where to look first.

I couldn't believe Time Square, AMAZING:

Empire State Building:

Rockefeller:

For anyone going to NY soon, the show Memphis was a MUST see.  I was speechless, it was incredible!

The food was amazing!

I was excited to come across this street in our travels amongst the city.  It was the street that Tom Hanks named his mermaid Madison after in the movie "Splash".  It was from that movie that my husband and I had the "light bulb" moment to name our first born Madison.

We took the Ferry to Stanton Island so we could get a good look at the Statue of Liberty:

Central Park was even more beautiful than I could have imagined -

See that group of people in the photo above?  We originally thought it was an art show in the park; fortunately, we walked out of the park in that direction and found ourselves in the midst of a photo shoot for the upcoming movie Arbitrage. 

And guess who was shooting a scene?  The one and only Richard Gere.

Yes, I was a little starstruck...I have never seen a celebrity up close before. 

The very last site we saw was Ground Zero, SO touching.  This had a lot of meaning for me since two of my family members went on to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq after this occurred...one being my brother.

This took my breath away, I had not seen a photo of this before from after the attack.  It was a support beam from the original tower that was left standing LIKE THIS after the dust had settled. 

A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.!!!

Tomorrow I will show you pictures from Maryland, it is just gorgeous there.

 Meanwhile, I am going to catch up on my sleep and get back into the swing of things here!