Winter Shenanigans

11 Feb

12 Oaks turned into a Winter Wonderland last week. It was the most snow we’ve had all season, about 6″ or 7″. I was in San Antonio where it was upper 70’s and came home to this.

photo-88

IMG_2244So pretty, right?

My Mom and little brother Jared came out to visit for the weekend and the boys cooked up the idea to tie an inner tube to the 4-wheeler and ride around the property.

IMG_2421

It was a blast!

IMG_2422

IMG_2431

IMG_0101 2

Then we decided to build a snowman. But it couldn’t be just any snowman. Since we had Ben’s friend’s bobcat, we decided to go big or go home. We checked the world record and quickly realized that was way out of our sights at 122 feet. It was actually a “snowwoman” that had skis for eyelashes and 30 foot spruce trees for arms.

tallest_snowman

Our goal was 20 feet, and I think we ended up at about 12. We just started building a giant pile of snow. After that we shaped the middle part, then added a head.IMG_0107 2

I think Ben enjoyed building his first snowman.IMG_0110IMG_0117

We had to call it a day and come back to it the next day to finish up. Except then it had started raining, so we worked fast and furious to shape the bottom and put his “outfit” on.

A regular hat was too small so we spray painted a bucket for the hat and cut some spare fabric into a large enough scarf.

We were pretty proud of the outcome!

photo-91IMG_0127

Unfortunately, his face has melted off from the rain. But it was still totally worth it.

Next up on the blog: bathroom tile. It’s all laid, just needs to be grouted.

Tags: ,

Toasty Toes, More Paint, New Lights & A Furry Rug

2 Feb

While I was in Las Vegas for work this past week, my darling husband installed the underfloor heat in the bathroom and finished painting the 2nd spare bedroom.

He said the underfloor heating was really easy to install. First, he laid down the cables in a “S” pattern. You can see in the photo there are little steel straps that you weave the cables through.

IMG_2282

Next, he applied a coat of thinset over everything to keep it in place and prep for tile.

IMG_2288I’m traveling for work again this coming week so maybe I’ll come home this time and see some tile down (hint, hint Ben ;)).

And here is the 2nd spare bedroom with its final coat of paint. I ended up tweaking it a bit from the first coat, toning it down a little by adding about 15% of some grayish paint we had to the original color.

IMG_2289

As you can see, we are using it as a staging area/workshop for the bathroom right now, but I can’t wait to get it all set up!

See that wood in the picture above? We are going to use that to plank the walls in the bathroom. I’ve always loved this look and am so excited to get to do it in here. Here is one of my inspiration images:

Found here: http://www.southernliving.com/home-garden/decorating/bedroom-walls-00417000070400/page10.html

Found here.

We also had a bunch of items show up in the mail this week, including a new light fixture for the office.

It’s a 3-bulb semi-flush light from Wayfair for $99. Simple and clean. IMG_2334

But my favorite is our new bedroom lamps! They are from Pottery Barn and are more than I would have liked to pay except we had a leftover gift card from our wedding, so they weren’t too bad.

IMG_2355They are nice and big and make a major impact in the room. The base is mercury glass and the shade is burlap. I wouldn’t have thought those two things would go well together, but they totally do.

IMG_2343

Here’s the room before so you can see what I mean about the big impact.

MasterThe final tweak this week (I’m a poet) is a faux sheepskin rug that was intended to go in front of the fire but it didn’t look right with our other area rug so ended up in our bedroom.

IMG_2352

I think it works great in here and helps balance out the dark wood furniture and floors. Plus it’s soooo comfy. Doc loves it.

That’s it for now. Tomorrow we are having some friends over to watch the Super Bowl and I am attempting to make chili for the first time. And make these cute little strawberry footballs. Wish me luck…I’ll need it.

Strawberry footballs

Found here.

Tags: , , ,

Upstairs Updates

27 Jan

We haven’t shared photos of the office and spare bedroom since we moved furniture into them. Now that we finally have all the doors hung and painted and door hardware installed, I think it’s time to share!

Here is the spare bedroom that is across the hall from our master. Remember when it was the “yellow Sharapova room?”

Yellow Sharipova room

Hard to believe it is the same room.

IMG_2269

IMG_2268

IMG_2267

IMG_2270

We still need to add some art, window treatments, a light fixture and find the bed skirt, but there’s not much left to do in here. Hooray!

Next door is Ben’s office, which formally looked like this.

Bedroom #3 (Future office)

And now looks like this.IMG_2271

IMG_2272

IMG_2273

The furniture in here used to live in our old house’s office and sunroom. It seems too crowded to me, but works for now. And it’s Ben’s space and he doesn’t mind.

We’ve also made a few updates in our room including a new ceiling fan…

IMG_2133

We purchased it at Menards, which has the best lighting selection of any of the big boxes, for a reasonable $89. Plus we got a remote for it so we can turn the light and fan on/off without getting out of bed. It’s the little things, people!

Here are the doors and closet doors with oil rubbed bronze hardware…

IMG_2260

IMG_2280

And lastly we hung a bamboo roman shade, purchased from Home Depot.IMG_2256

We hung it about 6″ in higher than the window casing to make the window appear bigger. Could you tell? Also this way when the blind is pulled up it doesn’t block any light. I will eventually add curtains so it won’t be as noticable the blind is higher than the window.

IMG_2264You will likely see these type of shades showing up throughout our house. I really like the look of them instead of the horizontal white ones and they are pretty affordable. About $18 for a standard 39″ x 72″.

The final bedroom upstairs is still a big “in progress.” No furniture in there yet but we did some work in there today and got the trim caulked and painted. I never realized how amazing caulk is. See how much of a difference it makes….

Baseboards before paint/caulk:

IMG_2275

And now:IMG_2277

We had a mishap with the 2nd coat of paint in this room, but hoping to get it repainted and furniture moved in this week. As always, stay tuned.

Have a good week everyone, I will be in Las Vegas for most of it for work!

Galena Antiquing Finds

21 Jan

As part of our plan to visit somewhere new every month, Ben and I spent the weekend in Galena, IL, a cute little historic town about 2.5 hours away near the Mississippi River. We had a wonderful, relaxing time eating at great restaurants, checking out all of the antique stores and fun boutiques, and even walking on the frozen Mississippi.

Mississippi river

There was an overabundance of antique shops and we scored big! It’s definately the most we’ve bought antiquing, but everything was pretty cheap… about $3-$10 with a couple things topping out at $20. We like getting things for the house while away that way there is a memory/back story behind an item.

So for about $120, here’s everything we brought home (minus the cat..we brought her home last month).

IMG_2214

Our finds include a vintage lantern, a couple of spools, a glass candle holder, 4 vintage yardsticks that we’re going to make into something like a frame or box…

IMG_2218

An old Pepsi crate, a large crate to hold records, a whiskey jug, a small blue Ball jar (to hold cotton balls or something in the bathroom)…

IMG_2223

And a small silver dish (to hold jewelry/hair ties/etc. in the bathroom or bedroom), some “XOXO” printing press letters, and a vintage washboard (I actually have 2 of these now… Ben is worried).

IMG_2211Plus, all our antiquing finds were pretty much free because when we went to pick up our bathroom vanity, we saw it was now on a big sale. We asked if they could credit us the difference and they easily agreed. Thank you, Home Decorators.

We couldn’t wait to get it out of the box and quickly assembled it when we got home. Easy, peasy. Not like Ikea furniture.

IMG_2226

IMG_2227Here it is just temporarily placed in the bathroom. You like?

IMG_2230

I love it and can’t wait to get some baskets, towels and knick knacks on those open shelves!

Now off to watch the last episode of Homeland. So bummed to be done with this show and have to wait until September for a new episode.

Tags: , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →