Beach Bums

Our week at the beach wasn't long enough; two weeks would have been perfect. We stayed in Union Pier Michigan, a cute little beach town.

The yellow house we rented was the perfect size for our family of three. If you have a bigger family, the house across the street could work for you.

Most of the homes in the neighborhood are rented out for part of the year.

The beach was a couple blocks away and the pool was right around the corner. We swam there or played at the beach every day.

Some days we had the pool all to ourselves.

The beach is the little ones favorite place to be. She must get that from me, I spent a lot of time at the beach when I was younger.

She saw her first sunset...

And made her first s'more

Delish!

I got to visit one of my favorite shops while we were there. I had a few people ask me where we got our coffee table so I thought I would show you.

The Plum Tree is owned by a sweet older man and his wife. She paints some of the beautiful furniture their son makes. They sell a lot of antiques too.

I love how it's tucked into the woods.

We will be heading back in a few weeks to visit our favorite pumpkin farm. It's become a tradition for us; this will be our 7th year. Today is a perfect seventy degrees and I'm thinking about fall my friends.

Have a fun and safe weekend!

Where I Blog...

We are back from vacation and we had a fantastic time! I was working on a post last night and had my pictures uploaded to blogger when I accidentally closed the window and they were gone.  Needless to say that didn't make me very happy, so I decided to work on that post another day.

Today I'm joining Kate from Centsational Girl who is having a Where do you blog? Party.

I blog all over the house, even outside.

Our outdoor family room is my favorite place to go when the little one is in bed. Now that it's getting dark earlier, the outdoor chandelier has been put to good use.

You can also find my laptop in the kitchen at the island.

Or find me sitting cross-legged on my deep comfy couch.

My bed and dining room are also blog reading and posting places, so I really am all over the place. How about you, where do you blog? The link party will be up through Wednesday Sept. 1st.

Late Summer Vacation

We are off to Michigan for a week to play and relax at the beach. Before we had the little one, my husband and I would stay in the same area at a Bed and Breakfast. Now we rent a little house in a cute beachy neighborhood.

This is a picture from last year; the little one loved her purple whale.  A dolphin will be coming with us this time.

The best part is it's only about an hour away and we don't have to get on a plane. Flying is not one of my favorite things to do.

Off to finish packing, I will catch up with you all when we get back, have a great week!

The Beginning

If you have been reading along for a while you know I've been working with my paint sprayer. I got some painting time in this weekend and you know what? I've got it down my friends. I am excited to be starting something that I love to do, making over vintage and antique furniture.

Here is the dresser I worked on this weekend. It was rough and in need of some love but I liked the shape and size.

My husband picked it up for me after I found it on Craigslist. Am I the only untrusting person who won't go to a strangers house to buy something?

I used white paint again, boring I know, but I do think this dresser looks good in white. It also wanted to be distressed, so I sanded the edges. Next time I will be ready to try out some color.

Are you loving the legs?

 I also gave the existing pink hardware a makeover. I used two different kinds of spray paint to get the look I wanted.

I used the black chalkboard paint as a base coat and then went back and forth with the metallic until I was happy.

This is the first piece of furniture I bought with the intention to makeover and sell. This is just the beginning...

I'm playing along with the CSI Project this week. Check it out, it's a lot of fun.
Linking with Nifty-thrifty-tuesdays  power-of-paint-party
                   Miss mustard seed   fresh-coat-friday

Board And Batten

I've found some great DIY board and batten inspiration out in blogland. It seems like an easy and inexpensive project for a big impact. You might have seen some of these.

First we have The Nester. When I started reading her blog I fell in love with her office right away. One of my favorite details is the wainscoting she and her husband did.

She wrote a post here about how they did it without breaking the bank.

Next we have inspiration from Pancakes & French Fries. Jules's husband made and installed the board and batten and it looks fabulous.

I always enjoy visiting her blog; Jules makes me laugh and always keeps it real. This room should be in a magazine.

Karla from It's The Little Things wrote a detailed post about how she gave her room a new look.

                                     

Love the little bottles sitting on the ledge at Pine Tree Home.

I think I could do a post a mile long with all the inspiration out there.

I really want to give this a try, I feel armed and ready. Now I just need to get my husband in on this gig. I wonder what he will think of this great idea. Hmm...I'm sure he'll be thinking oh no, here we go again!

It Just Can't Be Easy...

Friday my husband set out to hang the new chandelier. Everything was going right along until the very end....

See, this was not just an easy change of the light fixture. When we bought our little bungalow ceiling fans were in every single room, except the bathroom. I am one of those people who are not a fan of the fan. Sorry fan lovers, they do have a very good function, I admit.

Back to the story...the fan in the dining room was centered in the room. Our table is not, so hubby moved the electric box over the table and a chandelier was installed. Great, until we lived here for a while and I realized the table was too close to the wall. Over time it kept moving and we ended up with a light that was not centered anymore. Did I mention that I am not good at patching a hole in the ceiling? The hole I patched never looked good either.

The time had come to move the old light and paint. Dear husband was not very happy about this as you can imagine. But he would move it again, one more time, I promised. While we were at it, I ordered the new chandelier that I have been wanting for a long time.

Back to the holes in the ceiling. This time we called a painter to patch the hole and fix the one I did years ago. Finally, I was able to paint.

Fast forward to the other day. Hubby cutting a new hole in the ceiling, me hoping I picked the right spot this time, him climbing into the attic to get everything wired up. Then the moment of truth...he popped a light bulb in and we had light!! Yippee! Until I flipped the switch on and off and it wouldn't turn off! My poor husband, he was so puzzled. After checking and checking again, we still couldn't turn the light off without turning the power off. Not a good time.

Enter the electrician. Turns out, lots of crazy things happen over time when the house is over 65 years old. He had to cut into the old electric box to see how everything was wired. Everything is working great now, but I have this again.

Another hole in my newly patched and painted ceiling! Bring out the paint and roller, here I go again. We are getting closer to the finish line; I did make some progress this weekend.

Mini Garden Bouquet

While we were out pulling weeds in the garden, the little one started picking one flower as we went.

Some were hard to get to or not very easy to pluck so I helped a bit. She had so much fun putting together her little bouquet and is so proud of it. I don't think I'll need to buy flowers at the farmers market this weekend, I can just send my little helper out to pick flowers for me. Speaking of the weekend, I hope to get some things accomplished.

This weekend I will be...
Playing imaginary games with our 4 year old.
Sending my sweet husband up to the 150 degree attic to hang the chandelier.
Cleaning and prepping some furniture to be painted.
Working on the dining room.
And walking up to the farmers market.

Have a wonderful weekend! I'm linking to Lauren's Pure project.

Dining Room Talk

This chandelier is on its way and I am so excited to see how it looks. Our dining room is small so it will either be fabulous or just too much.

Celeste chandelier Pottery Barn

There is not a lot going on in the room as far as fabric goes...no rug or fabric on the chairs. The drapes are a similar color to the oatmeal walls....for now. They still need to be hung.

Here is a peek at the newly painted chairs and walls. I'm working on a gallery wall of black and white photographs and this is where I'm having a hard time. All along I thought I would be doing black frames but after seeing the paper on the wall, now I'm thinking white. The other day I painted all the mix match frames black and then yesterday I started repainting them. I stopped when I realized I still don't know which way to go. I think I need to wait and see how the chandelier is going to look before I move forward on this. I really wish Pottery Barn sold the chandelier in the store, I can be so impatient.

After living with the gallery wall mock up for the last couple days, I see it needs to move down a bit. I guess that's the good part about moving at a snails pace.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

My Favorite Paint

While I was painting the dining room I knew I would do a post about my favorite paint. I had another amazing experience painting over dark walls so I had to share with you.

What I love about Aura paint from Benjamin Moore....

It has a built in primer. Yes, this paint is pricey but you are saving money by not buying a separate primer.

You are also saving time. This is what my wall looked like after one coat of paint. I knew going in two coats would be needed for the best coverage though.

I love that it's a low VOC paint and the odor is mild and dissipates quickly.

Using this paint is a little different to use. For best results, trim out along the ceiling and baseboards first. Then go back and roll it on. You can even come back and roll the next day and it will blend seamlessly.
It dries very quickly so you want to put it on the wall and leave it. Don't go back over it like you might with other paints.


Did you know you can wrap your paint brush and roller in plastic wrap and store in the fridge until the next day?

When I mentioned this to my friend who is no stranger to a paintbrush, I was shocked when she told me she didn't know about this tip.

While I'm talking about tips and tricks, here is one I had to use when I realized I didn't have another disposable tray liner. I lined my tray with a few layers of tinfoil; in a pinch it worked ok I just had to take my time. You could also use a plastic bag.

This time around I found out that Jimmy Buffet is great painting music.
Van Morrison will get you in a good even groove.
Bob Seger will have you daydreaming away.
Ray Lamontagne is always a good choice.
And I always listen to Crosby Stills Nash and Young.

How about you, do you have favorite painting music?

Estate Sale Finds

Wow, this has been such a busy week for me, and for some reason painting the dining room took forever to finish. Nothing on the walls yet but it's painted. I did make it to an estate sale yesterday and picked up a few things. I bought a kitchen table with really nice chunky legs, two chairs and a cute little bench with a cane top. I will share pictures with you once I give them a little makeover.

The sale was at a cool old house in the woods. I had to keep reminding myself to stop looking at the french doors with wavy glass and all the old details you don't see in houses anymore and hunt for treasures. Because of my sightseeing, I missed out on two chairs that closely matched my set of four reproduction chairs. Darn it!

Another find were these plates.

I only wanted a few but the women working the sale wouldn't break up the set until the next day, so I waited and hoped they would still be there today.

I got two dinner plates and four small plates for two dollars. They were designed by Raymond Loewy and the pattern is called Script, aren't they pretty?

I'm thinking of doing a plate wall in the dining room. I've seen so many inspiring pictures and the idea has really grown on me. What's your opinion?

The Practice Dresser

My sweet husband came home with this dresser that someone was throwing out and I was thrilled. Some of you might be wondering why a beat up old dresser with a missing drawer would make me so happy. Well, as some of you know I have been working on perfecting my paint spraying technique and I wanted to practice on something with drawers.

I removed a bunch of stickers that were stuck all over the top and sides and got it all cleaned up before I got to the fun part.

 My hardware cleaning station.

I was painting my dining room chairs white at the same time so white it was for the dresser. I distressed this piece quite a bit because it was already worn on the edges so I went with the shabby look.

All the original hardware was there.

The basket is from Ikea.

Now I feel ready to do some painting for a friend. I'm posting this on Craigslist to see if anyone is in need of a dresser with a basket for a drawer...you never know.

Linking to  Nifty-thrifty-tuesdays @ Coastal Charm  just-something-i-whipped up

                 frugal-friday