It's about that time...

For pinecones, berries and greens, oh my!

And maybe a Christmas candle and some carols too!

Fill 'er up...

These make me want to paint something green. 

I used to dread the chore of pumping gas.  Now I find that it is an errand that I don't mind just because it means not having to pull Paddy out of his carseat and then fight to get him back in.  I would be so happy to pump my own gas if the pumps were still this cute.

My mom and I saw these in Cold Spring the other day, so I had to stop to get a picture!

Kiddo Chairs

When I went to order these chairs for Paddy's birthday about eight weeks ago, my worst nightmare came true.  I have had these chairs on the brain since I saw them on say YES to hoboken and Oh Happy Day.  And, granted, I love getting six chairs for $20, but since that isn't always feasible, I figured that these would be a splurge, but I was willing to do it.  I finally caved and decided I need to get on to ordering these so that they would arrive in time for the big day.  I looked at the website and it is said the dreaded words, Sorry Temporarily Out of Stock.  I searched and searched, and all the others that I found were at LEAST double the price of these.  BOO.  I emailed Room Service to see if this really meant that they were 'temporarily out of stock' or if they were 'forever' out of stock so that I knew if I needed to give up my dreams.  When I didn't hear back via email, I decided to go old school and pick up the phone and call.

Dreams can come true, ladies and gentleman.  They just got a bunch of chairs in stock!!  Hooray.  They arrived a few days before his birthday, we had an assembly party before the Toby Keith concert, and now Paddy thinks they are his new walkers that he can push all over or his new climbing toy.  NOTE - these are not very heavy chairs...especially not to hold a very tall, climbing one year old.  The cuteness makes up for the light frame, in my opinion.  Up next...hopefully a table to go along with them...my poor dad :)

 
Lesson - don't be afraid to pick up the phone and call!!  The Room Service website is STILL showing they are out of stock :)

Two labs...

We saw the perfect wooden toy for Paddy at The Black Dog store in Newburyport before we left Boston.  I took a picture of it and texted my dad to see if he might be able to recreate it for Paddy.  He hit this one out of the park...

Could this be any cuter?  He even cut out little ears for the lab.  Paddy has been pulling it around, and my heart just sings every time I see him with this new creation from his grandpa.

We can't thank you enough, dad :)  Glory says thanks too...she thinks it is a pretty good looking replica of herself :)

Better...

We went from this...(pre moving in...notice the standard mirror - can you see how they placed two nice big screws in the middle of the top and bottom of the wood frame?  Genius design move.)

To this...(horrible paint color choice, meghan!)

To this...

Now I just need to work on the side wall!  I am still hoping for a collection of unique mirrors painted white...

Our sweet smiley boy.

Hard to believe that our sweet smiley boy is one today.  We can't wait for all the milestones, memories, smiles and hugs to come. 

'A year of Paddy' has consumed our stairwell art.  It is fun to reminisce through all these photos, and the best part is seeing Paddy's face every time we go up or down the stairs...he smiles at himself the whole way!

Happy first birthday, Sean Patrick!

Got one!

Finally, eBay and I can be friends again.  I got a mirror for the gray bathroom.

This girl is in the process of becoming glossy white as we speak.

I only wish that the mirror was a little bit longer.  When you have a house full of tall people, I always worry that mirrors/art/etc. will be too high for those shorter than us :)

Thankful...

Veteran's Day is such a special day.  It makes me reflect on all the sacrifice that all the men and women in uniform have made.  I am so thankful to live in this great country and have all the freedoms that we do.  As Toby Keith said tonight, here at West Point, "Never apologize for being patriotic. 'em."

Today makes me think back to Sean's deployments, to homecomings, to news of friends who have been injured while deployed, to news of babies being born (our godson) while the dad was gone, to weeks upon weeks without a call from my husband, to hearing of friends reunions on R&R and how their children quickly took to their dad, to unbreakable friendships that this Army life has helped us form, and most of all, to my husband and his selfless service.  My heart just swells with pride when I think about Sean and what he has chosen to do with his life.

Today also makes me remember our Vietnam Vets who were never treated with the amount of respect that they should have been given.  They are true heroes.

Today is one of those days that helps me put things back into perspective.  Time to forget about the silly things that I can let myself get upset about and just be thankful for the fact that, right now, I get to see my husband every day.  Several of my very dear friends and their children are without their husbands/dads today as they are still deployed.  I am incredibly grateful to their husbands and to them, for their service at home. 

In Progress - Half Bath

So, I was hoping to have all these blog posts about all the 'finished' rooms in our house and be happy with everything that I posted.  However, a few things...

1.  Our rooms are NEVER totally done...something can always be tweaked.
2.  I was starting to feel like I wasn't being very authentic if I waited for everything to be picture ready...
3.  I would never have ANY posts if I waited for things to be perfect or until I had the budget to buy everything I wanted :)

So, I figured I might as well post about progress and mishaps...trying to 'keep it real'.

So, our half bath...first, it was painted yellow.  It was a very last second color choice that I was never very happy with/sure about.  Again, trying to find something to go with the oak accents felt challenging to me.  After seeing the yellow on the walls, I knew it had to go. 

(Please notice how the towel rack was hung so close to the toilet paper that you almost can't find the toilet paper!  That has since been fixed.)

 The white accessories don't pop at all...

So, the yellow went.  Welcome, gray.  (By the way, I think it is so funny how I have been so anti-gray for so many years, and now I can't seem to get enough of it.  Just one more reminder why I have to remain open minded.)

My Goodwill elephant and some of my milk glass finds...

I love the color...I matched it to the Ikea floor mat.  I decided it might be fun to find some cheap mirrors to paint glossy white and hang on the wall.  This is the most 'petite' bathroom I have ever been in, so maybe the addition of mirrors may make it feel a *little* bigger??

I have been SEARCHING, and SEARCHING on eBay.  I feel like I don't know the right search words to use...do you ever feel like that?  I, of course, don't want to spend much, and thought I wouldn't have any issues after getting such a steal on my federal mirror!  Well, that hasn't turned out to be true...I have lost several last second eBay auctions...it is killing me!!  I would share a picture of the mirror that I am bidding on, but OH.  I was just outbid.

I will keep you posted if I make any progress...

Pelmet Boxes...

Our kitchen really needed a little something..some infusion of color, for sure.  And, fabric that would tie together the buttercup yellow walls with my red matted "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen" print.

Once again, I relied on Jenny's instructions.  I followed her tutorial on how to make Pelmet boxes. 

I ordered two yards of Robert Allen's Kiki Pinata fabric.  I was hoping it would be enough to serve as a curtain to cover up the space below a shorter section of the kitchen counter and to make a couple of pelmet boxes.

I used some leftover boxes from our move, and got to work.

First, I cut shapes out of the boxes...(notice that the larger box has two folds in it due to the size of the box I used...this has since caused some issues b/c the pelmet box is now bowing out in those spots!)

I tried to reinforce those spots...but that wasn't good enough :)

Then, I laid the batting out, and cut it to size.  Then, I repeated that with the fabric.

Then, I used the staple gun and securely attached the batting/fabric.  It took me a while to figure out how to hang these bad boys, but I finally 'screwed' small eye hooks that I had from some picture hanging kits into the back of the pelmet box, and hung the eye hooks from some picture hangers that I nailed into the wall...see below picture...

Eye hook...

Then I slid the hook onto the bottom picture hanger...

I love the pop of color...the larger pelmet box is bowing out on the folds in the box, so I REALLY need to fix that :)

I used the fabric for the pelmet boxes and as curtain coming down from this random section of counter that was set lower than the rest.  We stash Glory's food, our recycling bins, and a three drawer organizer behind the curtain...thank goodness for hiding places!