n o t   t h e   b i g   k i t c h e n   p o s t

Ok, I am sorry I promised the kitchen post...but you know what I am not ready!

Truth is, I went to Home Depot this morning to pick up glaze and wax for my garage projects and I found some large stainless steel pendant lamps that I think I want.

{I am hoping my husband isn't reading this, but they were under $29 each and really really cute}

Don't get me wrong, I love the origninal 1910 farmhouse lighting in the kitchen, but I HATE the lighting in my living room-entry way.

{notice I never show it in pictures, you would have to look really hard to find them}.

I was thinking of moving the kitchen lights into the livingroom-entry and getting new ones for the kitchen. I am on a budget of $0 so maybe they will be a Mother's Day gift???

So, that is why there won't be a big kitchen post today.

Instead, I thought I would show you some new fun things going on in the family room.

Warning.

If you hate color you might not like this room. But I love color and we have a family of young kids and they 'create' in this room, so why not go all out.

I bought a new rug at the Home Depot that is durable and soft so the kids can't ruin it {well, I am sure they will try to}.

After my trip to Home Depot, then the Y, I stopped off at a thrift store on the way home.

This thrift store is usually way too expensive, but I did find some school house chairs for $7.99 {super price, these are usually $25-45 in antique stores}.

I picked up two and texted my friend Molly and told her there were six more left if she wanted some. Thrifty friends must look out for each other.

They look just like the two I already had. I will need to paint or seal them {you know, in case they have lead paint on them}

I also bought two new little globes on clearance at Target {$10} to add to my collection.

Ok, cheers my friends and have a good weekend. I am off to my office in the garage.


Scroll down to bottom of page to see what this was linked to.

g o o d   t h r i f t i n g   d a y

Things are moving along for the Shop Modern Cottage. You wouldn't know it by looking at my current inventory for sale, but my garage is bursting with furniture and I have been a busy bee working.

I scored some cute pieces yesterday.

I am going to keep the bamboo tray. It needs some poly to bring out the wood color a bit but I think it would look cute on my entry dresser. It sort of matches my bamboo mirror in my entry.

{and it was $2.99!}

I need to finish this post, get back out in the garage so I can finally show you some finished pieces.

Speaking of finishing projects....the kitchen is almost done.

Want a sneak peek?

Friday I will have the big kitchen post with the before and after and the breakdown of materials used.

c a n d l e s   h o l d e r   f r o m   t a b l e   l e g s

A couple months ago I cut down my kitchen table legs so I could use it as a coffee table. Pretty simple, except I had to use a hand saw.

Once the legs were cut down I had these left over funny, chunky wooden feet. I didn't want to toss them out. I hung on to them and decided last week that I would turn them into candle holders.

This project cost me $4.00. Super deal, right?!

I purchased small round wooden plagues from my craft store. I nailed a large nail through the center of the round plaque, so it was sticking up about a half an inch {this is what keeps the candle firmly in place}.

I glued the round plaque to the top of the left over wooden feet and painted two white and two the same color blue as my table.

c a n   y o u   s p o t   t h e   d i f f e r e n c e 

a n d

k e e p i n g   i t   r e a l

Can you spot the "BIG" difference in this photo? Yes, there are less baskets and pillows. But look harder...can you see it?

My kids were standing on the table, using it as a stage {normal kids stuff}

I heard a creak.... and the table started to break.

 Because I am random  {crazy?} and collect things like antique tables, I took a table top out of my garage, fixed the old table legs to the new {yet old} table top and voila a new

table for the living room.

                               

 Doesn't this room look pretty?

Ok, now for a confession. This is what the room really looked like when I took this photo. Turn a little to the right and this is what you see.

And I even pick this room up a bit today, it was a lot worse an hour before the photo was taken.

This is what my house looks like 90% of the time.

Sometimes I don't bother cleaning at all.

And I am only showing you one room of my house, imagine what the other rooms look like!

I don't have the courage to show you. I like you too much.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend!

b a l a n c i n g   a c t,  p r o j e c t s,  a n d  a n   u g l y  s h e l f

I feel like a broken record, apologizing for my lack of blog posts. I am not going to do that after this post, I promise! I have too many projects going on and once they are finished you might see too many posts from me.

Warning the pictures that you are about to see aren't pretty, but it is what I have been working on.

I sewed a lumbar pillow for my entry bench.

{target body pillow coved in butter yellow curtain from Ikea and I added white buttons}

One coat of chocolate brown paint on my basement stairs.

Now I need to add another coat and then clear out the furniture down there and paint the floor. I know there is no urgency on this project but it would nice to get it done before school gets out.

This buffet will hopefully be completed by this weekend and put onto Shop Modern Cottage. I am going to paint it a robin's egg blue with black knobs and pulls. I forgot to fill the holes and take the doors off before I sanded and added one coat of primer, shoot.

I bought Benjamin Moore's Aura paint so I didn't technically need to prime it, but oh well.

I haven't been planning out my projects very well.

I bought this faux wood shelf yesterday. I think it is going to be painted kelly green for my daughter's room. Can you imagine it green with white baskets? I think it will be cute.

I am also really trying to focus on getting the business started. Baby steps. I am at the point that I know I need to shift my focus on the business and not on all of the volunteering that I have committed myself to. I can't do it all or I won't be successful at anything.

Today is the last day of my kitchen remodel. The electrician will be here in fifteen minutes to finish changing out the outlets. I am very very thankful for my new kitchen and thankful that it is almost over.

Oh, and I am still planning on doing an in depth kitchen post {one of these days}.

Thank you friends, now I need to get back to finishing my projects before heading off to the gym, grocery shopping, picking up the kids from school and relaxing with my friend Molly while the kids play.

c a t c h i n g   u p

It seems like April and May are going to be very busy for me. I might have over-promised to help with too many school functions. Also, I have a long list of things I need to finish before the school year is up.

Just a few things on my list, ugh.

*finish painting my basement stairs and floor {the kids playroom}

*finishing touches on kitchen

*paint porch, add flowers and mulch to beds, and maybe a brick boarder

*get in better shape for swimsuit season, double ugh.

Many more little things.

One big thing....I did get my business license. I also bought my first piece of furniture to redo and sell. 

I did a little thrifting last week. I found this $15 table for my home.

It was already painted and distressed. This was the first time I ever bought a thrift piece of furniture that I didn't "mess" with somehow.

I have no more room in my house for anything else, so any more treasures I find will be for sale on Shop Modern Cottage.

It is a rainy day here in the northwest. My daughter had a dentist appointment so I decided to keep her home the rest of the day. We had a girly lunch and got our nails done.

Sorry if I haven't gotten back to you if you have emailed me or commented.

I feel like I have too much on my plate right now. I need to learn to say "no" to more things. I am working on that!

k i t c h e n

{almost done}

Yes! The kitchen is almost done. We still have to install new electrical outlets and switch plates, and new baseboards.

I am finally starting to enjoy this new kitchen. 

Do you want to see the way way before photo? This is what the kitchen looked like 7 months ago, I am kind of embarrassed to show it.

I will do another post with the breakdown of everything we did, but for now enjoy the pictures!

Have a great weekend.

-Alison-

g a l l e r y   w a l l

and 

b e i n g   h u m b l e

Hi everyone, head over to www.theinspiredroom.net and join in the gallery wall party.

I am!

{the wall on my stairway}

These little cubbies are original to my home and for the longest time I had them empty, not really having the guts to put anything in them without them looking like clutter.

One day I decided to go for it and fill them with frames.

I am so glad I did, it looked a little weird without anything in them.

Also, on a totally different subject, today at my bible study we talked about being humble in our everyday lives. Not only with God but with others.

I had my first test of being humble within ten minutes of leaving bible study. 

Here is the back story. We have an old sweet dog, inherited from my husband's mom. He is having trouble with his legs giving out on him {just in the last few days}. We have always had cats, so we are like, what do we do?? We took him to the vet and he is fine. I went and bought the right supplements for him today to help him.

But, there was the issue of our hardwood floors and him having trouble walking on them.

My husband told me today we need to get rugs for all over the house for him. And I am going to admit to you {because you are my friends} that I was like, urgh {I know, that is terrible of me}. I didn't want rugs all over the house, but I need to be humble and not think of myself and how I didn't want our house to look bad but the poor dear dog. 

So what did I do? I went out and bought a cute rug at TJ Max {and it was a screaming deal} and now I am on the hunt for other budget rugs that will look good and make me and the dog happy.

I am thankful for all of you and humbled that you would take the time to look at my blog.

Thank you friends.

Please scroll down and see what this was linked to.

k i t c h e n    f l o o r

I finally got the kitchen clean enough to take a picture of the finished floors. 

I am so glad I didn't go with hardwood floors.

I think the porcelain tile is more modern, yet it does not look out of place in our turn of the century victorian.

Even though the color is dark dark grey, the kitchen seems warmer.

This tile is not cold under my feet, which I as a little worried about.

Don't forget this is the only "dark" element the kitchen will have when the whole redo is over. The overall effect of the kitchen will be light and bright.

The counters {that go in this Wednesday} are Quartz.

And the backsplash is a white subway tile.

I do not have all of my fabric picked out for the kitchen, so please be patient with me.

c r a z y    w e e k

Sorry I was MIA last week. It was Spring Break and my kitchen floors were being installed. So, it was a four day ordeal of ripping the old floors out, new cement board, tiling, and then grouting and putting the toilet back.

All of my kitchen items were in my family room, including my stove and fridge. 

I love the new floors, they were worth the craziness. I sort of wish the construction didn't really fall on the same week as Spring Break but it is done now and we did manage to get out of the house and have some fun.

I will show pictures probably tomorrow. I am still in clean up mode. There is an inch of saw dust covering my first floor.

I did manage to start a subway sign for my kitchen. Here it is in progress.

I hope to have it finished {needs some paint touch ups} and a tutorial by mid-week.

I missed you guys. Hopefully I will have a productive week and some projects to share with you.

Oh, and the new Quartz counters are being installed Wednesday. I can't wait!