Halloween Inspiration

I love Martha. Seriously, she rocks, and hires the most creative people. As I am preparing my Halloween decorations to put up around the house this weekend, I keep referring to her Halloween Holiday issue (mine's from 2008), and marthastewart.com for templates and additional inspiration. I have already prepped my "bleeding" candles (#1, below) for the mantle.

Here's my inspiration board for this year:

[photo key] 
click on each number to link to Martha's how-to's:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Friday Finds

Happy Friday, y'all! Here's a couple of things I'm crushing on right now on Craigslist. I am addicted to Craigslist (I constantly search the one where I live, where my parents live, and also where my in-laws live before we go visit).

Today's lovelies:

Pottery Barn coffee table -- $150

Restoration Hardware bronze bar cart -- $199
I think the price on this is a little high, but these are so chic right now!

wrought iron and glass console table -- $100

Thomasville faux-bamboo sideboard -- $75
Can I just say now how much I LOVE faux-bamboo furniture?!

Thomasville Armoire -- $450
I know, this one's expensive -- but how gorgeous!

That's all this week! Have a great weekend!

xoxo

cottage kitchen cabinet painting

Last night we took all the cabinet doors down in the cottage kitchen, and prepped the cabinets for painting. I made sure to label all the doors and drawers so we can get everything back in the right spots! We'll be painting the doors this week - one or two primer coats and probably 2 or 3 coats of color.

Here's the look I'm sort of after:

 

I really like the two-toned cabinets, with the dark lowers and white uppers. I have a gallon of the new Behr paint & primer in one I picked up from the oops rack -- it's about this color:

I'll let you know how well it covers. And I've got about half a gallon left over of the new Martha Stewart paint, called Glass of Milk, high gloss for the upper cabinets.

This is our starting point:

Yep - it's tiiiiiiny. But it's only a guest house, so it will do. The navy blue is just so dark. It will look so much better when we get it painted out and get a new countertop. The window is fairly large, and right over the sink, so there is a decent amount of light. And there will be even more once I change out that dingy light fixture! Plus, the cabinets go all the way to the ceiling, and that helps the space seem not so crowded.

I also really like this:

But I don't think we've got quite enough room, it may make the space feel too small. We'll see after it's all painted.

xoxo

(Bow) Wow

Whoops ... so, I guess I got a little distracted! It's been over a week since I posted last! Gotta get better about keeping up with the the blog ...

So anyway -- the reason I've been busy (besides the usual constant working, cleaning fixing up stuff) is ... we got puppies! That right, puppies. Not one, but two little rascals.

Aren't they cute? Very good boys (so far)! Let's hope it stays that way!

Back to the house stuff this weekend. And maybe some pool time, too.

xoxo

Productive holiday weekend!

Finally … I think we’re done painting.

Den/office -- check
Hallway -- check
Living room/sunroom -- check

Plus, we went ahead and painted most of the trim so it’s at least fresh. Even though I’d like to eventually update most of it and make it all match.

Also this weekend we managed to get some new furniture painted and a lot of the stuff in the office installed, including shelves and stuff on the walls.

Photos coming soon … too exhausted last night to do that.