Garage Sale Treasures

Saturday morning garage sale hopping with Sheri was a lot of fun and we both found some amazing things and ran into a lot of colorful characters. One of my favorite purchases was this table for $5 - great bones but in really bad shape. After a couple minutes of sanding, a can of spray paint in Heirloom White, a little distressing, and a coat of satin poly - this is what it looks like now. Not bad for a total investment of $9.It's the perfect size for a table on my side of the bed and I love that the lower shelf offers some extra storage for my books that always seem to end up on the floor or under the bed.

Other than the table redo I spent most of my time cleaning the house in preparation for Justin getting home, baked a little, and took some great hikes with Tripps. I made minor progress on my sign but am not quite done yet nor did I organize my closet - that seems like a good project to procrastinate on just a bit longer.

What about you? How did you spend your last weekend of summer?

Neglecting

Work has gone into warp speed to end this week and I just haven't had the chance to do proper blog updates - I'm sorry! I've got a list of things to do this weekend which includes finishing that "antique" sign so look for the results on Monday. I'm also super excited to go garage sale hopping with my friend Sheri - who happens to hold a black belt in finding treasures for really cheap. Should make for a fun morning! I may even try to tackle cleaning out and organizing my closet using the picture below as my motivation.

Hope you all have an amazing weekend!

My last post of the day...

I just had an email from my sister Maren and she forwarded me some photos of my adorable nephew Evan. Here is what you should know about him:

~He is two, but talks like he is 12
~He has an amazing memory - so you can't mess up around him or he'll remind you of it at a later date
~Is a bit of a neat-freak but in a very endearing way
~He is not too sure if he's going to like being an older brother (a little sister is coming in a few months)
~Favorite color is purple
~Does an excellent horse imitation

This picture makes me happy

What an amazing hideway for kids - perfect place to daydream.
I would draw the curtains and loose myself in a good book.

My biggest blessing

The greatest gift in my life is my amazing husband. He is above all else one of the kindest, most thoughtful people I know not to mention he's just a lot of fun and encourages me in everything I do. He somehow manages to put up with all of my nonsense, including but not limited to the constant pile of laundry in the corner of our bedroom, the never-ending list of ideas I have for the house, for the yard, for the garden, for this...for that, and my penchant for starting projects but never quite finishing them. He works so hard and is on the road all the time and when he's home he's still working non-stop to provide for us.

That is why I am so happy he is gone this week on a fly-fishing trip in Alaska with three of his friends - getting off the grid and spending his days doing something he truly loves. This is the photo he sent, of the view from his back deck. He deserves this break and I'm so happy he's enjoying it!

Image of the day

I'm in love with these tiles!
My new mission: find these for my bathroom

Signing on

After seeing this picture I could not stop thinking about how cool that old sign looked sitting on top of the hutch - just adds a lot of personality to the room. Made me think hmmm...I could do that, but after sourcing stuff like that online I realized I either need a lot of patience (which I don't have) to wait and find one at a flea market or I need big bucks (which I also don't have) as buying signs like this even on ebay are really expensive. So, I bought all the materials last night for $6 and hope to start working on my very own "vintage" wood sign tonight. Can't wait to show you the results.

Monday blues

As much as I love my job there are times when all I want to do is be at home working on the things I want to be doing. Like installing the new kitchen bin pulls I started this weekend, or baking the rhubarb cake I've been meaning to try ever since we had it at a friends, basically anything but the long list of work tasks that need to be done - already feeling buried before the week has even begun. But I found this quote today which reminded me the joy that comes from working on and completing a task - even if it is only one of many on the list.

or as my wise mother has always said:

"If not you - who? If not now - when?"

a happy surprise

There is one event in October that Justin and I look forward to most - pumpkin carving with the nephews. It's been a long-standing tradition, well before I came on the scene and the last few years we created a new twist - growing pumpkins so the boys can pick them from our garden. Earlier this year we received sad news that Steve, Heather, and the boys would be moving to Salt Lake by fall so we decided to replace our wild pumpkin patch with tidy rows of corn since the little monkeys would not be around.

Last month Heather informed us that they were staying put for now which is great news. Looking at my garden though I realized that this year we'll have to buy the pumpkins...or so I thought. The other day I had to go turn on the water on the side of the house and found this...A full blown pumpkin patch happily growing on the side of our house, there must have been some seeds that found there way into the lawn clippings that usually call that place home. It was a very happy surprise - come October we'll have more than enough pumpkins for the boys - like this pretty one that is already growing...

Enjoy your weekend

After a busy week there is nothing I look forward to more (except maybe a sale at Anthropologie) than the weekends. We're headed to the Western Idaho Fair on Saturday for great people watching and that delicious fair food (like funnel cake, one of my favorites). I hope you all have something special planned - whatever it is...enjoy!

Tapping into my dark side

I'm no stranger to color (look for house tour photos soon) but I have never had the cojones to go really dark on the walls, at least not until this last weekend when I had the wild hair to paint something in my house a dark, dense chocolate brown. I scored a three dollar can of satin paint at Home Depot and quickly turned my blah-bland creamy back wall into a deep, warm anchor for our main living space. I love how it turned out and only wish I would have remembered to snap a quick before photo so you could really see the difference.

Raccoons and Tripps - not a quiet combination

Justin has been out of town the last few nights which means Tripps comes to my side of the bed to let her out during the night. Last night I let her out around 3:00 am and within minutes her barking filled the neighborhood. I rapped on the window as that will usually get her to quiet down but after a few more minutes of listening to her I stumbled out of bed to see what the commotion was. There she was, barking up our tree at a very cute but mischievous looking raccoon. It took quite a bit of cajoling to get her to come inside - for any of my neighboors out there I hope she didn't cause too much of a disturbance.

Wedded bliss

This last weekend we threw by brother Aaron and his new wife Lauren an open house since they got married in Salt Lake a few weeks ago and not all of their friends and family from Idaho could make it. We held it in my parent's back yard and I must say it turned out amazing. We all pitched in and did the food which included homemade mini apple tarts with caramel drizzle, melon salad with honey mint glaze, and grilled honey lime balsamic chicken skewers, among many other tasty bites. My aunt Marcene did all of the beautiful flower arrangements, I love how she used the fresh limes (40 of them) to line the vases. Here are some photos from the day...

Daily inspiration

I stumbled across the following pictures today and had to share. The colors in the entryway shown in the first photo is such a friendly way to welcome folks into your home , the old window/door as a chalkboard calendar is so fresh, and that floor covering in the bottom photo adds an interesting layer to the sunny eating nook.

My three monkeys

My sister-in-law Heather sent over the cutest picture of her boys - whom I lovingly refer to as the monkeys. They are a constant source of laughter, fun, and entertainment for me as they all have very distinct personality's. Spending time with them always puts a smile on my face and I'm lucky to have them close by.

Is it fall yet?

After our recent weekend away in lovely San Francisco I am earning for the cooler temperatures of fall. As I was wandering around the Anthropologie site today my craving only increased once I saw this sweater. Doesn't it look like something you could crawl into on a crisp autumn day? Hopefully it will be on sale by the time the weather changes.

It's a good place to start

I've been hemming and hawing over whether to jump aboard the blog bandwagon for some time now but have finally decided to take the plunge. I get so much inspiration from other blogs and love the sense of community it builds, I can only hope that my humble little blog will entertain some folks out there. Please bear with me as I figure this whole thing out and feel free to share tips on what makes a good blog in the comments section.

Here goes nothing...