Fallish Pinspiration

Here I am, sipping on some tea, thinking about how I really should start putting up some fall decorations.  I've had so much going on this month, I haven't had any time to start!  I still have my summer mantel, sea glass and seashells all sitting out.

Even though lots has been going on, I still have had time to get some ideas and inspiration for what I'd like to get started on soon.

This year, I'm going to try and work in more neutrals to my fall decor.  With a sea of pastels going on around here, orange doesn't exactly look awesome.

Here's some of my Pinterest pins:

Pottery Barn fall mantel

3.bp.blogspot.com

Pottery Barn

tastespotting.com

pinkpersimmon.tumblr.com

loveoffamilyand home.blogspot.com

 

Aaaaannnd....

I hit a snag yesterday with the half bath paint project.  Another one of my ideas gone wrong.  (It helps to follow the directions...) 

I was about to scrap it and move onto (yet another) Plan B, and good fortune smiled on me today...

I think I found a way to still work my plan! 

Thanks to Pinterest!

kfddesigns.blogspot.com

So I hope to have a more productive afternoon and not another re do!

:)

You can view more of my Pinterest boards by clicking here 

Happy Wednesday!

Cook's Tour- eating and house snooping!

I just love looking at other people's homes, don't you? Whether it's surfing the real state listings, or going on a tour like the one I did yesterday, I love seeing how other people express their tastes and lives through the spaces they live in.

I was able to snap a few photos of some favorite features during the Cook's Tour. If you'd like to see what this tour was all about, and get more details on the homes, you can read about it here. Sorry about the not so great quality on some of these- I only had my phone camera.

One of my favorites was this home built by Timbercraft Homes. I can always recognize one of Eric Jensen's houses- the storybook-like brick is spectacular!! I adore the wavy pattern. Always lots of authentic craftsman style details.

All of the homes were unique in their decor. I really liked this crystal drum light fixture:

This corner vanity with the black chandelier was such a great use of space, and so pretty.

Several of the homes had guest suites, in law suites, or entertaining spaces with second kitchens. This one was so fun with the pale blue cabinets, tile checkered floors, and cottage accessories.

My favorite house on the tour was this one:

A long winding driveway, English garden landscaping, and a greenhouse!

 

Here I am with my partner in crime, Miss Jenni. (I was having a bad hair day....hence, the ponytail....)
One of the sponsors handed out the purple bags for all the freebies and literature.

Our exit from this home was off of the patio. I spotted this really beautiful and creative hummingbird feeder
(I  want one!!) A pretty green bottle, and a canning lid wire hanger attached to a traditional feeder.

All of the homes had little tasty bites to try from local restaurants and shops. Curried chicken, wild game meatloaf, butternut with roasted red pepper soup, smoked salmon puffs, macaroons, chocolate cake with orange sauce- just to name a few.   :)
all yummy!!

Thank you so much to the homeowners, Assistance League of Salem, the local chefs, and all the shuttle drivers! We had a blast and hope to do it again!

Happy Tuesday- let the stenciling begin!  :)

First round of paint - check!

I spent most of the weekend in my paint clothes. Hopeful that I wouldn't have to do more than two coats.... Nope.

Definitely needed three. Both ceiling and walls. 

This color has a nice, bright tone. Just a hint of yellow to it. I do like that aspect, but the light fixture globes have to go. 

When? 

Hopefully sooner than later, but this mini makeover is supposed to primarily be a 

paint treatment and a new mirror. 

Ahem.

On the subject of the mirror.

If you read my Facebook updates, you know that plan had to change.

We discovered that the mirror wouldn't budge, and that some drywall repair and/ or replacement would be necessary. Since this was only a mini makeover, the idea of using this:

...was out.

:(

I'm mulling around some ideas, I guess we'll all have to wait and see what works out! 

Tomorrow I begin the second part of the paint project:

I hope you had a fabulous weekend, and a happy Monday to you.

I'm spending the afternoon with with a buddy here (one spot among many!):

Assistance League Cook's Tour.
Local chefs preparing some fabulous food, and a peek at some gorgeous area homes!
I've actually been through this one before, and it is AMAZING.  It was on our local Tour of Homes (new builds) a couple years ago.

Hoping I can sneak some photos to show you tomorrow!

Can you believe we are in our last week of September??!

first day of fall and half bath update!

I have a confession.

I am really not excited to say goodbye to summer.  :(

We barely got to say hello, and after such a chilly and dreary spring, I could just about cry thinking about the possibility of that weather being around the corner again soon!

Don't get me wrong- I'm not a fall hater- I just wanted a few more weeks of sun, shorts, flip flops, barbecues, pool time....you know.

*sigh*

...but here we are.

I was on our porch swing the other night, enjoying a beverage ;) and noticed how pretty my marigolds looked sitting next to me in the late summer sunset:

I am looking forward to decorating the porch for fall, but I'm still hoping to enjoy a few more days of nice, warm weather!

****

Yesterday I started painting our half bath.  This tiny room is just off of our kitchen.

It's one of the last spaces to de-brownify.  I've said for a long time that while we really love our house, and it has some very nice features, I've never been a fan of the color choices the builder picked. 

BROWN!

In every shade and tone!

I picked a creamy color, Desert Powder from Behr to lighten up the space.

 
It picks up some of the lighter tones of the tile, and won't clash with the green we have going on just outside the door.
 

First, I had to paint the ceiling.

 Yikes.  It really does look this dreary when you're in there.
I do like the look of ceilings painted the color of the walls in houses, but when you don't like the color to begin with....ugh.  It's the same color- Desert Powder, but in a flat sheen.  It will definitely need two coats.

Next, I started on the walls.

You can see with the ladder I needed that this place is tiny.  The ladder pretty much fills up the whole space!! (this should be interesting....)

I know it's hard to tell alot of difference (thank you very much yellow-y light fixtures....!)
but believe me when I say it is already SO much brighter!

I went with a Hi Gloss sheen for the walls.  

Yes, I said it, Hi Gloss.

You may be thinking, Huh??? why?

I'll let you know soon enough.  

:)

Definitely a two coat job, hopefully not more.

This weekend, besides finishing up the painting, we need to safely remove the mirror.

Yikes!  I'm a little nervous about this one, because it looks like it may be glued to the wall.
Wish us luck- hopefully we won't need any trips to the emergency room!

(even with taping it all up!)
Enjoy your weekend!

Stylish pet accessories for the home

Recently I came across some amazing and unique pet bowls! 

I'm probably more aware of stuff like this right now because we need to replace ours.

Unleashed Life offers some gorgeous pet products.
I first found these exotic beauties in Forbes magazine:

the Phuket

the Blanca

love the elegant Mod look to these!

Bellaire

wouldn't these be gorgeous in a beachy area?

Fleur de lis....How can you ever go wrong with this look?  So classic, I love anything with this!

Unleashed Life also has a collection of pet 'dining tables'.  Such a cute name for these:

Not only do they have all of these bowls and more, they also have some pretty impressive and stylish pet beds:

Union Jack

This gray crown design is so elegant.  I'd love having this out.

William pet bed

Forest Park

The ticking stripe, nature theme and contemporary design are all adorable.

You can check out all of these products and a whole lot more at Unleashed Life.
Something for every price range & super stylish pet accessories for any decor.  Can't wait to find something for our Bella!

Day 1 of the half bath project starts today!
Happy Thursday!

dressing up the stove hood & some other pretties

Since we redid the area above the stove in the kitchen, it's been waiting for a little accessory. 

I have this large tray / platter that I got at ZGallerie a couple years ago, and I really wanted to put it up where we can see it.  It's a great design, but it is really heavy!

I've been waiting to hang it until I could order an XL Disc Hanger.

I am in love with these things.

Do you use them?

Super simple to use, and so much prettier than the wire plate hangers. 
You just wet the back of the disc where the glue is, let it sit for about 5 minutes so the surface gets tacky, and then apply it to what you want to hang.  Let it sit overnight, and you're good to go!  You can also removed the disc hangers just by soaking it in water.  It doesn't damage the surface at all.  They are just as inexpensive as the wire hangers.

I love not having those showing!

Because the back of the tray has the ridges, I was really careful to press it in snugly around them.

Just to make sure it stayed that way while it was drying overnight, I filled up a Ziploc bag with sand and laid it on top of the disc.

I purchased some of these wall hangers for the area I was going to hang the platter on.

 

Because they were brass, I touched them up with a little paint so it wouldn't be as noticeable.

 

 

I like having a little color added back into a focal point of the room.  Now to add some more....

 ****

I also wanted to show you some beautiful jewelry I got, thanks to a giveaway I won  from Under the Table and Dreaming a couple weeks ago.

Lucy Doo Designs gave me a store credit and I picked out some earrings

and a couple bracelets.

I am loving these - so pretty and comfortable to wear.  The bracelets have a magnetic closure which is really nice for taking them on and off. No more wrenching your wrist to wear!

Thanks so much Sandi, and Stephanie Lynn  for the giveaway!  

You can visit Lucy Doo Designs here.  You won't be disappointed. Affordable and beautiful stuff!

Have a great Tuesday~

I'm off to enjoy some Gyoza with my girlfriends!

Here's a sneak peek at some upcoming projects I hope to tackle before the end of the year....

Deepwood Vintage Market - my booth

I had so much fun this weekend at the sale, and I am so exhausted.  I was able to sleep in a little today, and we are just taking it easy.  My brain finally feels like it has a chance to rest now too!  I can't even begin to tell you how many lists I had going on- both on paper, on my phone, and in my head. 

Friday morning was the big set up.

It took us about an hour and a half to load everything.  We were able to borrow a trailer which was super nice- otherwise we would have spent half the day driving back and forth.

Once we got there, we unloaded everything under the tent.  I bought a nice white pop up tent to begin using for events like this.  It was a little bit of an 'ouch' on the pocket book, but it was something that we needed to do.  It went up really fast and easy so I was glad I'd done the research on it.  I purchased it through Costco's website, so in case there were any issues with it, it would be easy to return.  So far, so good!

I asked a few of my girlfriends- who have a great eye for staging- to help me for part of the day.

They were all such a huge help and really helped me finish up quickly! It looked great, and they had some great ideas for displaying all the stuff.

From left to right: Julie, Lois, Janie, Janna, me.

I was so excited to be next to what I call Rock Stars!  Molly Mo's, Vintage Trifles, and Roost Re imagined were all my booth buddies for the weekend.  I didn't have time to snap any photos while the show was going, but you can click here, here, and here to see their spaces / blogs.  Wow!!

I also met a really nice vendor across from me- Pam from Peonies and Possibilities.  She was so fun and such a nice girl.  Her sister was also there helping out for the event- and I'm so sorry, her name slips my fried brain at the moment....

I was really happy with my sales for the weekend.  Friday night was fun, but Saturday was a steady stream of people.  I had a great time seeing so many friends who came out for the event.

A couple of befores and afters that I wanted to follow up on:

The wall clock that I finished:

After:

This one didn't sell, but I have a couple more shows before the end of the year that it will be going to.

The pink bed that I snapped a quick garage shot from last week. 

Here was the original before:

And the after.  I named this one the Sweetie Bed.

The bed went home to a very sweet family and a cute little girl, who I hope will enjoy it for many years!

One of the other big items I sold was this one:

...and this:

I sold lots of little stuff on Saturday- a lot of fall stuff, and some others.  The weather cooperated and stayed dry for the most part, and it was such a fun event!

I was also able to try out a product that was new to me- SquareUp. 

It's a small plug in device you use with your smart phone, and you can swipe credit cards for sales transactions. 

It was fabulous, and worked great.  If you have a small or on the go business, I highly recommend it.  You can get the card swipe plug in for free from Square, and download the app for your phone, also free.  They charge less than Pay Pal, and deposit the funds into your account that evening!  Amazing!  You can also send your customers a receipt via text or to their email address.

****

Best moment(s) of the weekend: meeting readers of the blog!  Wow!  :) It was so fun to meet some of the people who check in to see what I'm up to. he he!

Biggest cringe moment of the weekend:  Ok, I know people who shop at vintage markets like this or Etsy, or Ebay, know that we are buying and reselling some of our goods.  However, when I spotted a lady this weekend checking out one of my vintage pieces, I was HORRIFIED to see that I had left the original price tag on the bottom!!!!!!!  EEEK!  I seriously wanted to crawl into a hole and hide. 

My stomach still does a little turn when I think of it. 

Best memories: Me and my dad working on a few of my furniture pieces that needed some last minute fixes; and having Jon and Hannah at the event, excited and wanting to help out.  It warms my heart.

Now that the event is over, I am looking forward to some projects for the house and getting some more fall and Christmas items ready for my Etsy shop and holiday shows.

Be on the lookout for a giveaway I have coming up!  It's a fun one!