Peyton's 8th BIRTHDAY!

This free digital scrapbook personalized with Smilebox

My little girl turned 8 over the weekend. When I recooperate, I'll post more about it and some tuturials on how to make the 2 types of favors.

Spring Fever!

 Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn. ~Quoted by Lewis Grizzard in Kathy Sue Loudermilk, I Love You


Thank the heavens, we've had several warm (high 50's) days in a row. Everything just seems BETTER in the spring. The birds are starting to chirp and Peyton and I saw 3 Robins when we were walking to the bus stop yesterday. I can't wait till everything gets GREEN!

My friend Julie and I went to our favorite little antique store and scoured for some goodies. Julie snagged a super cute green and yellow vase with Daisy's on it that looked "SO JULIE!" and a fun vintage 7 up glass for her mom and a super cute antique baby bottle that had kittens embossed on the front. Her mom had bottle fed a found kitten last fall, so it was apropos!

I had Bob (the owner) look through some vintage kitchen utensils that he has packed into this cool brown crock. I'm thinking I might frame one for the kitchen. He pulled out this really cool old egg boiler and I immediately pictured it with pretty Easter eggs nestled in the coils. It was CHEAP too which was even better. The little scoop, that you really can't see, is so pretty too, it has lovely fluted edges toward the handle. The other cool thing about this egg boiler is that it collapses upon itself!
I'm busy getting ready for Peyton's birthday party this weekend. I think I have some fun ideas planned so come back in a couple days and check it out!

I linked to Melissa's Thursdays Treasures party at  My Cottage Charm. Go check out what everyone has!

Desk area Before and After and we finally decided on an ISLAND color! ...and some info about my back.

This cabinet is in no way finished. In fact, we are not even sure we are going to keep this here. Matt is thinking he'd like to make a larger built in cabinet because we NEVER use this as a desk. NEVER. However, in the meantime, I wanted to change it up a bit. Over the years it has become a storage space for various unmatching kitchen goodies, most of them were items we never used. EXCEPT the cook books, the little blue ball jar that hold the box tops (that my children say I'm obsessed about) and the pink cake stand. Hey, do you see that sweet little cupcake on it? Peyton painted that last year for her birthday. I think it's LOVELY and so sweet! More on Peyton in a bit. I know it's hard to see because of the glare but that's about as good as it gets looking into this cabinet. Because we don't know if we are keeping it, we haven't done the knobs either so don't mind the mismatched knobs, and lack of trim and lack of paint on some of the trim! I think we'll leave the inside unpainted wood to pull out the wood from the island top.

In the spirit of our BUDGET kitchen RENO, I went through my basement and pulled out some pieces of silver plate I had inherited from my parents. I was originally inspired to do this cabinet by that little silver pedestal (which is actually my Tuesday Treasure I'm linking to later!) l I found at the best antique store in the world. This cabinet is going to be a mix of clear, white and silver. My white and clear everyday stuff is in the open shelves. I left the silver plate goodies tarnished, I LIKE it like that. It's called PATINA people. NOT LAZY... PATINA! Plus the knobs are going to be painted hammered silver. (I showed that in a past post)

Callie is having a fit because she says we have too many colors in our kitchen. She's not feeling the eclectic vibe I'm hoping for. She also doesn't' like how I wear my eyeshadow. I'm not so sure I like this teenager honesty. 
If
that
is
what
you
call
it.

She can wear my boots but I can't wear hers 'cause I stretch out the calf area! PSSSSSHHHH!  That one is probably true!

We finally decided on an island color. We had all kinds of input from friends and family on what color it should be. WHITE. BLACK. BLUE. I finally decided on a really nice grey paint called French Silver by Behr.I wanted something that would compliment the cabinets and the desk area and the cool reclaimed wood (from a barn in WV) that our friend Bryan was kind enough to put together for us. I really like how it's turning out, it's pulling everything together like the knobs on the black cabinets and the stainless appliances. At least I HOPE it's pulling it all together! Maybe Callie is right. EEEKKK.


Enough about the daughter who is in all of her teen glory. Let's talk about the soon to be birthday girl. You can't see because of the stupid glare, but in the left side of the cabinet I have 8 little antique pressed glass compotes that will be so fun to use for Peyton's ice cream party. I have some fun ideas that I'm HOPING to get done for the party this week. It's all a surprise for Peyton so I'll have to be careful getting the stuff done and showing it to you too! Come back to see what I hope is up my sleeve for the party on Saturday.

I'm LINKING this post to Tuesdays Treasures at My Cottage Charm!

If you're still following me after all that and you want a spinal update, read on.  If not, you might want to turn around.  Maybe go check out this blog...it's LOADS of coolness...www.knockoffwood.blogspot.com.

I went to the doctor on Friday to see what my other options are.  Apparently, they had a team meeting about me (should I be flattered?) and it has been decided that

because my case  is convoluted do to a couple factors (scar tissue, etc.) and the fact that the pain doesn't radiate below my butt (maybe it's too big and it holds it in) the spinal implant has less of a chance of being sucessful for me.  They changed my medicine again, added some new schtuff and I'll go back in a month.  At this point it's suggested that I wait 6 months and they'll try the injections again. (the nerve cauterizing ones) 

Shhhhh it's sorta a surprise....Peyton's Party and some other cheap party ideas with UMPHHH!

Little Miss Peyton will be turn 8 next week! She wants to have 8 of her friends spend the night for a slumber party with a cake and ice cream buffet. That DOES sound like the ideal party for when you are an 8 year old girl! Heck I'd like that for a birthday NOW but I'd want chick flicks and wine to go with the cake and ice cream!

I always feel bad for Peyton because her birthday is in a cold month and we've never been able to do the fun things we have in the past for the twins when they were smaller. They are in May so it's WARMER and just seems easier to pull off. Like last years party, the SURPRISE!!! 13th b-day at a local farm that makes it's own ice cream and  we rented a cotton candy machine (which we often do because it's their favorite!) but with Peyton I am NOT having a cotton candy machine in the house...it's a disaster. Been there. Done THAT. It's a really inexpenive FUN thing to have at a party that EVERYONE loves and then you don't have to do favors either! But you really want to have it outside. Last year, Peyton wanted a tea party slumber party and that was easy and fun too! Those cupcakes in a tea cup were EASY and her friends LOVED them and their tea cup was theirs to keep.  (they were CHEAP from Ikea!)  The year before that, when she was six, she had a DIVA BIRTHDAY and my sister did all the girls hair and Callie, my older daughter and her friends did the little girls makeup.  They danced to Miley Cyrus and I did a mini "photo shoot" for each girl that we printed and gave with her thank you card.  I guess that's only cheap though if your sister is a super duper fabulous up-do specialist hair stylist!

She really wants this Cookie Sandwich cake but we don't have a Williams Sonoma around us (it's their photo) so I told her I didn't think that would happen. Luckily, Aunt Brandy DOES have a WS and she already picked up the pan...so it's a surprise and I'm going to do everything in pink, black and white! Should be fun! I'll keep you posted! I'll be on the lookout for inexpensive party decor ideas. On another positive note, I don't really like Oreo's so it should not add TOO many extra pounds to my sloth-like body! GO ME!

Oh, BTW, Mommy (that's me) is going to have some girl time and have some of the other mommies who are my friends stay and hang out and have some wine and snacks to help me get through the party! LOL Nothing like setting a good example for the little girls. JUST KIDDING. THEY won't KNOW we are having a glass of wine. I. Promise. ;+)

Our Painted Black Cabinets Kitchen REVEAL PARTY...not really but I got tired of promising you!

 



  If you scroll down past the kitchen you can see the fireplace.  The mirror and surrounding molding was rescued from a demolished gentlemens cigar bar in Maryland.  THANKS for looking!

Don't let these photos fool ya! It's really not done but I couldn't wait any longer (for now at least). We still need to do the counters and decide on the color for the bottom of the kitchen island. The counters won't be happening for a while (this not being able to have a job sucks in so many ways) .  I'm in LOVE with the reclaimed wood kitchen island top (you might remember my wood saga), that our friend Bryan Ford was super kind enough to put the board together for us and make this cool top!  If I could, I'd rip out that light and get a pendant light or two that is more plain, more like the school house style or something. That light was great when our cabinets were oak but now they are a bit much. One I like at Ikea is super cheap then there are some other cool ones (the ones at the bottom of the post...only $50.00!) at www.mothology.com that are awesome and inexpensive compared to others on the market that I've seen. Remember, we are on a BUDGET just like the rest of the US so instead of getting NEW knobs we spray painted the old knobs with paint that mimics stainless. 
Since this isn't the final KITCHEN RENO REVEAL, I'm not going to go crazy posting before and afters but here are some links to some of the kitchen posts,  OH and BTW, I have more people find my blog from google searches of painted black cabinets than anything, so a lot of people must be thinking about black paint all over the world! :o)

closeup of the cabinet converted to open shelving

a prettier closeup of the open cabinet

distressing technique described

blue base coat and pictures of the converted shelving cabinet

How the island went from Barn flooring to an island top!

when they were oak (before paint)

first images of the now black cabinets

new faucet

I've joined in Cindy's show and tell at romantichome.blogspot.com .   Go check out everyone's goodness!

Yesterday, we had new couches delivered for our family room.  It's been forever, like 10 years since we had furniture in the family, but you'll have to go to yesterdays post to find out WHY we really needed new furniture and you can scroll down and see the HOW I made the temporary fix...let's just say it involves duct tape!  Um. Yeah.    Before the furniture men came, I had to take Callie to an appt. and then we popped by Pier 1 to pick up a chair I had on hold for the family room.  It's actually a dining room chair  but we are going to use it as an occassional chair.  My husband wasn't too crazy about the idea until I showed him the price differences between the two.  Sometimes you have to think outside the box!  Plus I LOVE this chair, it matches the family room perfectly!  I'm going to edit yesterday's post to include a photo of the chair!  I'm so excited about these new goodies! ;-)    

I joined Thursdays Treasures at my cottage charm! Check it out!

She's a camera HO!

Our new couch and loveseat came in today, so I thought I'd snap a photo or two. I took the first shot of the loveseat, then I checked my settings and put a little dent in the creampuff pillow. When I looked back through the lens, this is what I saw. She's the Paris Hilton of boxers, I swear!

EDIT:  Here's the chair I picked up at Pier One...she was on sale and I think she's lovely EVEN IF she is actually a dining room chair!
 

and looking into the kitchen...and no the kitchen isn't done yet, sorry! LOL  It's the doing that's fun though!

...and I have to add this shot of Cosmo laying by the fire...so cozy he looks!

FLEA MARKET STYLE MAGAZINE! WHOO HOOOO!

"To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of JUNK." ~ Edison

It's finally HERE! If you are like thousands of others, you've been counting down the days till this little beauty's debut! Well, she's here and she's spectacular! It's the baby of a couple of style gurus, Ki Nassauer and Matthew Mead. With the DEMISE of so many great magazines of late (Domino, etc.) this fresh face should have an awesome audience. If you only buy one magazine this Spring, make it FLEA MARKET STYLE. Even if you don't go to flea markets (I don't) but I LOVE a good antique mall and my favorite little antique/junk shop.

EDIT:  I meant to mention that my wall color in my family room is almost the same color as the room on the cover, it's a bit more muted.  It's called Impressionist Blue by Ralph Lauren and Linda from http://www.restyledhome.com/ was kind enough to remind me of something.  It's OOOODLES cheaper if you have your heart set on a high end color, to take the sample and have it matched to a paint more to your budget.  We almost always match Ralph Lauren Colors and have them made into Behr paint but this time we didn't because the RL was on sale, but the painter in the family (sure is heck isn't me) said the Behr goes on nicer!

There are so many great ideas packed in here plus tons of links to GREAT sites that you may not already be addicted to! Here's a couple:  This first one is the magazine's blog link
http://fleamarketstylemag.blogspot.com/
http://www.junkrevolution.com/
http://www.matthewmeadstyle.com/
www.theletteredcottage.net
www.redshoeshomegoods.com
www.sarahandabraham.com
www.restyledhome.ca
www.lisasouersdesign.com
www.heatherbullard.com
wwwpoppytalkhandmade.com
http://studiolara.com/
www.eddieross.com

Some of the articles that tickled my fancy, and this is just to name a few 'cause I loved the entire 'zine:
An article on flower frogs...you KNOW I LOVE those prickly, pretty little things!
How to make antique stamps into super cool photo holders!
Making cool decorative things out of paper...as you may know I LOVE paper, think back to my days with http://www.whimsyworks.blogspot.com/

The absolute BEST little girls playhouse that I've admired online for years!
Setting a FUN and QUIRKY table for summer time entertaining!

Plus the eye candy on EVERY page is just too delightful to ignore!

Let's shop the house and a redneck upholstery fix!!

Have you ever "shopped" your house? You know, when your wallet is full of dust instead of crisp bills but you still have a hankering to make some changes around the homestead. That's when it's time to SHOP YOUR HOUSE! Walk around your home, open cabinets, check the basement and look in your Goodwill pile. Gather some oldies but goodies and do some rearranging of accents in your house.

That's exactly what I did when I decided to purge the cabinet in the kitchen that had just collected stuff over the years that I liked but had no sense of cohesion. Not working has forced me to reevaluate what I NEED. Sometimes one little inexpensive piece can inspire you to make changes in your decor. During my hunt and gather around the house I assembled the "new" goodies on the dining room table. I like the patina of these old silver plate pieces I've inherited through the years so instead of cleaning them (I don't have any silver cleaner anyway or the energy and umph to do it) I'm just going to wipe them with plain cheap dollar store ammonia! It cleans but not too well and the patina remains.

I want to do this glass fronted cabinet that I showed you yesterday, in whites, silver and clear. After I get these pieces wiped off and I get the kids or
Matt to clean out the cabinet, I'll reorganize the cabinet.  I'm hoping for a cleaner look.  Come back and see!

I also mentioned my couch to you yesterday, so I thought you'd want to see my MAD redneck upholstery skills with Duct tape. This fabric and tape held in the bits and pieces of foam that Cosmo spewed around the family room.spewed around the family room. Matt also had to cut ply wood to line the bottom of the couch to stiffen it up a bit. It's so squishy now that it's hard to get out of.  Obviously we NEED the new couch! LOL The new one is chocolate brown. I'm so excited!  This old one lasted us 10 years so we have to be happy with it.  Oh and don't be jealous of my duct tape skills...they run in my family! ;-)

Cabinet re-vamp

We have been snowed in FOREVER now. Not that we can't get out, we can, but I'm such a chicken that I won't go by myself because of the icy parking lots and walks. Thank goodness that all 4 vehicles we have (one is Matt's work SUV) are 4wd Jeeps!

This weekend, Matt dragged me out for the Presidents day weekend furniture sales. We are in DIRE DESPERATE NEED for a new sofa. We've had this one for about 10 years (eeek) but leather lasts so well and is GREAT for a family with kids that spill (I think all kids spill, right?), dogs that sneak on the couch, people that have allergies, etc. etc. The final straw for our sofa was this summer. One day, while I was doing aqua therapy and the kids were swimming, we were stupid enough to let innocent LOOKING Cosmo loose in the house NOT in his cage. We came home to a virtual ball pit in our family room made of zillions of bits of foam in our family room that just happened to come out of the cushions of our couch! OUCH! We patched it together Ala red neck style with DUCT TAPE. Not necessarily the look we are going for. We picked out a couch and love seat but got cold feet. Then last night, 58 minutes before the store closed and the sale ended, Matt raced there to order it! I'm so excited! I'll show you next week when it comes in. The change in our kitchen (yet to be finished and revealed, but SOON) and the change in the family room makes me want to do some FREE decorating. Meaning just SHOPPING the house! Come back later for the update on our desk area glass fronted cabinets. Those pieces on the side WILL also get painted and we will have matching knobs too. I'm going to major pare down the stuff inside and do a mixture of white, clear and silver. Come back and check it out later~

OH YEAH, I forgot....these cabinet doors were originally all wood. Matt used a router and took out the center raised panel then added glass. The wall space below, was painted with magnetic paint then chalkboard paint...it's missing it's top piece of trim...but as I said the whole thing is not done anyway! ;-)

TV cabinet...COMPLETE!

 My handy husband finished the TV cabinet with all reused materials EXCEPT the hammered handles.  It hides all the kids movies and junk plus I was able to display some of my antique cameras my father has given me.  He came by today and was so tickled in his own gruff Joe Pesci type of way!  It's hard to tell but Matt put under cabinet lights in it too, so it looks cool at night.  I don't think I'll always keep the camera there but they're fun for now!  One day after my Dad took me for one of my follow up appointments, I had cabin fever so I had him take me to this back road that Matt and I have ALWAYS loved.  I took a few shots just to keep my creative juices flowing.  Not that these are great or anything, because I was afraid to get out of the car and slip, but it sure was fun for ME! LOL  BTW, these are before the big blizzards we had.

SNOWNAMI aka: Snow, take two

Here's our current blizzard, the dark spot in the photo are flakes in front of the lens through the window. A. Lot. Of. Snow.

SNOW WAY! ...and a Peytonism (2 actually)

Living smack dab in the center of the mid atlantic region meant that we got pelted with the Blizzard of '10. Basically my job was to ration milk and toilet paper to my family and insure that the dryer ran constantly. I did not/will not be stepping outside anytime soon. However,it sure is pretty! The first photo is the side walk up to out front porch. That's my Commander covered in a fluffy winter blanket. If you refer to the last post, you'll see what part of the play house looks like, now it's smothered under a large pine branch that broke off this morning from the heavy white goodness.

It's PEYTONISM TIME! If you are not familiar with a Peytonism...you should probably do a blog search here at whimages. Peyton is our youngest and she says/does the funniest things. I KNOW everyone thinks that about their kids but this one is pretty darn cute with her comments. Friday I had a follow up appt. with Dr. Doctor about the procedures I've had over the past couple months. (more on that later if you're bored and really give a hoot about it). I came home and picked Peyton up and went back to wait at the pharmacy in the car (the drive through line was MUCH smaller than inside...it went from the back of the pharmacy to the front) We waited almost 45 minutes in line...people were obviously petrified of the impending doom of the snow storm. When we finally treked home I layed down to rest up in our bedroom. Unbeknownst (that is a word, right?) to me, Matt fell asleep in the family room. Peyton was on Disney on the computer and she remembered hearing the twins talk about getting a celebrities "real" phone number. So she asked them how to do it so of course they tell her. A bit later, I came downstairs and she was leaving a message on the phone, "Hi Justin, this is your biggest fan, I think you're so cute, yadda yadda yadda". I'm putzing in the kitchen and really only half paying attention. Then I hear her leave a similar message..."HI MILEY, this is your biggest fan EVER...". So I ask her what she is doing and she explained that Callie and Cole told her how to get "real" numbers of celebrities off of youtube. Um. Yes. This. Is. Great. I glance at the computer screen and she has the "phone number" pulled up for Selena Gomez and it's OBVIOUSLY a FOREIGN number! So I try not to freak and she says she did ask Daddy (who after the week he had preparing for the storm is like talking to a zombie) and he said yes she could call because she told him she thought it was free. Unfortunately she can't remember how many people she called. I'm just praying that only that one was out of the country!
Peytonism number 2 Okay, at this point you may be questioning my parenting skills. It's okay, I am too! LOL After I made some chili for the frozen masses, I sat down to cuddle with my little phone talking TV watching little goober. She is watching a show called "BULLY BEAT DOWN". Um. Yeah. Probably not the best and most appropriate show for an almost 8 year old. I started to switch it and she said she has watched it with Daddy before and it's really good because the mean bully guys always loose. So against my better judgement I'm watching this show where this poor guy had been bullied by this complete jerk for 8 years. The bully comes onto the show and agrees to cage fight (yes, I did just typed CAGE FIGHT, EWWWW) with a professional fighter who is protecting the honor of the victim. After the fight, I said, "Gosh, I actually enjoyed that so much more than I thought I would!" and Peyton said, "I know Mom, doesn't it just make you feel all warm inside?" Oh. My. Gawsh. It would be different if we were watching the Hallmark channel!

About the back. We are weighing some options but we are considering putting
in a permanent spine stimulator in my back that constantly sends signals to my brain to try to interrupt some of the pain signals. I don't know much about it yet, but I'll know more in the next month or so. If that's what happens I will officially be bionic Robyn.