Princess Party Invitations

I wanted to quickly share with you the invitations that I made for my girlfriend's daughter's 1st birthday.  It took a couple of weeks to design them and I think that they turned out fabulous!  More important, my friend absolutely LOVED them!  I will post pictures of the banner, thank you cards and cupcake toppers that I made as well later.  Bye for now!

I Am Cheating!

Hello all!  Just a quick note to confess that I have been cheating on blogging with...PINTEREST!  It is super addicting and I am officially hooked!  I promise that I will post an update on my still-in-the-works hall closet!  The Mr. has been working super hard and we are half way done.  Thank you for being so patient!

Shannon

Caprese Salad???

My dinner, my take on a caprese salad...

Boneless, skinless chicken breast
Basil
Oregano
Kirkland's No-Salt Seasoning
Garlic Salt
Spinach
Mozzarella Cheese Ball
Cherry Tomatoes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Seasoning chicken (both sides) with basil, oregano, no-salt seasoning and garlic salt.  Place chicken breast into greased (I use olive oil spray) baking dish and cook for 40 minutes.  Pull chicken out and turn off oven and turn on the broiler.  Smother chicken in spinach, sliced cherry tomotoes and slices of mozzarella cheese (the amount is up to you!) and place in broiler until cheese is melted.  ENJOY!

Houston Summer

Houston, Texas is suffering from their hottest summer on record and we are also in the middle of a MAJOR drought!  Oh how I wish for a couple of rainy days, as they are good for the soul.  Around here, there is excitement over a five minute shower, but I thank God for whatever he sends down and do not complain.  He knows what we need and will send it in his own time and in his own way.  I never thought that I would say this, but a category one hurricane wouldn't be so terrible right now.  We could seriously use a good soaking.  Everywhere you look, this is what can be seen...

DEAD!

And seeing ads like on Facebook, just hurt! (I love you most days Ann Taylor!)  I cannot wait until the fall.

Everything is so ugly and depressing outdoors that I decided to bring a little cheerful summer indoors by making this wreath.  I absolutely love it!

We will be hanging an over sized mirror in the dining room next weekend and I will hang this to fall down it's center.  It makes me smile every time I walk past it. 



I hope everyone is staying cool (and getting some rain)!  God bless!

Cleaning and Loving It!

Okay, first thing is first.  Would this inspire you to clean? 

Why, oh why did they keep a stock pile of pickle jars???



NO, those are not our roach baits!  They belonged to our super dirty previous owners!  (They even had them in the cabinets with the dishes!)

A cluttered collection of miscellaneous cleaners!  This is what happens when the Mr. gets into things!  ;)

Me neither.  Let's face it, cleaning is a chore and it doesn't help when you are afraid of what is waiting for you on the other side of the cabinet doors!  I have been asking the Mr. to clean out and paint under the kitchen sink for almost two years and he has found a way to avoid it every time.  Big surprise, right?  LOL!  Well, he will do almost anything to get out of painting the den, yet again, so I finally got him to do it!  The project is still not complete, as I am missing baskets and such to make the space more appealing, but I am not complaining at all!  Thanks Babe for getting it done!

After a major wash with soap and water!

After spraying on the bleach and water solution to kill the mildew smell!



Here is the finished product!  Like I said, we are going to incorporate some pretty baskets to make it look as nice as possible!

Remember that back corner with the shelf and load of pickle jars?  Gone is the shelf and the abundance of glass is off to the recycling center!

I HEART MY CLEANING CADDY!

Thank you Micheal Graves for incorporating this paper towel holder!  What a genius you are!  This will keep the Mr. from taking the roll from the kitchen and placing it on the bathroom floor (GROSS!).  Of course, I don't know how often I will let my husband get into the cleaners, as I like things nice, tidy and organized!

I am loving my new micro-fiber blinds cleaner!

I stocked up on Method cleaners per I Heart Organizing, Jen's suggestion!  I have always purchased Seventh Generation but just the other day, the Mr. was complaining about the smell from their cleaning products.  Methods cleaners smell delicious and are cheaper, which is an added bonus!

Method Tub, Tile and Sink Cleaner

Method Spearmint Scented Bathroom Cleaner

J.R. Watkins Lemon Scented All Purpose Cleaner -This stuff is amazing!  Be sure to check out their hand soap and lotion!

Method Wood Cleaner - This the Mr.'s absolute favorite!  He loved the almond smell of this so much, I was honestly concerned that he might drink it!  ;) 

Method Toilet Bowl Cleaner - I imagine that the shape of the bottle gave that away!  Isn't it super cute?

Williams Sonoma Pink Grapefruit Glass Cleaner - I am a HUGE fan of WS cleaning products and they have the best smell of anything that I have ever found!

Method Pink Grapefruit All Purpose Cleaner - Not as fresh smelling as the Williams Sonoma products, but still nice!



And there you have it!  A collection of my new favorites!

Cottage and Vine Giveaway!

Cottage and Vine is having a giveaway!  She is generously offering a $20.00 credit in her Etsy store and she has some fabulous things!  Go see her http://cottageandvine.blogspot.com/p/services.html!  I have my eye on the pair of vintage urns!  ;)

Our Plans for the House for 2011

Ahhh, the best of intentions.  Let's see how far along we come with the plans that we are making for the house.  Here goes...

The Den/Family Room

This hideous and extra large sliding glass door MUST go!  First off, it has to be oiled/greased all of the time and makes a mess on the carpet and if the kids get near it, grease all over their clothes.  It is heavy and not sealed very well, so when we have a really hard rain (you know the kind that blows sideways?), water gets in the house.  Of course, down here in Houston, Texas, this is not much of a problem as we are in a severe drought!  I will talk about my poor lawn later.  Back to the plans.  We want to install french doors with a side window.  The carpet needs to be replaced and I want to put slate tile or wood in front of the entire door.  When it rains, it makes a mess all over the carpet if someone goes in and out of that door.  I would also love to replace the black slate hearth to a granite or brick one. 

The Kitchen

This is the room that we plan on taking the slowest.  Obviously, we do not want to be out of a kitchen for weeks and weeks, so we will do some of the work ourselves, little by little.  The will leave the hard stuff up to the professionals.  Things like the new island with storage drawers, new walls and counter tops.  I will purchase a sink from Overstock.com that I love and came with an awesome price tag!  We will most likely be adding granite counter tops, but have yet to decide on colors.  The backslash will be tiled with white porcelain subway tiles to be installed by the Mr. and myself.  We will refinish the cabinet doors and drawers one by one and purchase updated hardware.  We will most likely also purchase a new refrigerator (stainless steel) and a new range (stainless steel as well).  This room just scares me again, because it needs so much work and I cannot stand messiness, so, this renovation will drive me nuts!

The Dining Room

Of course, this is not MY dining room, but oh how I love the neutral color palette and elegant, yet livable and simple design!

Jones Design Company

Our Master Bedroom/Closet

Sales!!!

How I LOVE July 5th!  That is the day that most retailers typically put their summer clothing on sale.  Living in Houston, Texas, this is wonderful considering that we can generally wear summer type clothing through October!  Tea Collection is having their 40% off semi-annual sale right now!  They have the most delicious tunics and I plan on stocking up! 

Reorganizing and Redecorating...

To start, I completely reorganized our hall closet, which moonlights as our second pantry/medicine cabinet/decor keeper, and it looks and feels fantastic!  Well, at least compared to what it used to look like.  We still need to install Elfa shelving, the Mr. needs to install VERY tall baseboards as we have some large holes in the sheetrock at the bottom and it could really use a nice paint job. 

Let's move on...

I have always been a neutral pallet kind of gal.  I like the color in my rooms to pop in the form of textiles, flowers, etc., not paint color on the walls.  Upon moving into the Chippendale house I became decor challenged and I have never felt so lost.  Even turning to my second Bible, the Pottery Barn catalog, didn't help at all.  In short, I ended up with some interesting wall color choices.  The Mr. has been out of town for SIX days and returns this evening.  He was in Minnesota sitting on a picturesque lake visiting with his Grandma while I was here with both of the little ladies and needless to say, it has been a very trying week.  I told him that his punishment for being in such a gorgeous location was that we are painting the formal living (the playroom)/kitchen this weekend !!!  Right now, it is a light blue/gray color with a navy blue accent wall.  While I love having an accent wall, I am not so sure that blue is the right color for us (or shall we say, ME).  A big thank you to my favorite blog, http://dearlillieblog.blogspot.com/,  you have inspired me to get back to my neutral roots!  Pictures will follow after the weekend!

Where We Are Now, Room By Room...

In my last post, I described my feelings regarding our home and how they are slowly evolving.  I also shared photos of what the house looked like when we moved in.  The only room missing is Miss Madeline's room.  They did not take a picture of it for HAR.com and it was so hideous, it never occured to me to snap a quick photo.  The original color of her room is hard to describe, but this is my best effort...a combination of medium chocolate brown and olive green.  Gross, gross, gross!  On top of the wall color, EVERY piece of trim, door, crown molding, chair rail, kitchen cabinets, etc. in the entire house is about 10 coats of high gloss paint.  This becomes a huge problem because every time you barely knick or scrape any of these pieces, huge areas of paint start to peel off.  It makes a horrible mess.  So, back to the Madeline room story.  The color of the crown molding and chair rail was a miserable cream (I think that it was just really dirty white!), so it needed to be relieved of it's layers and given a fresh, bright coat of white paint!.  Because of the high gloss paint, we had to scrape every inch of paint off of the crown molding, chair rail, window frames, closet and bedroom doors.  That alone took 3 weeks.  The pictures below is where we are now.  (Please ignore the cluttered toys and such!  We will be redecorating and going through all toys very soon!)

Madeline's Room

Charlotte's Room

(These beds, nightstand and dresser will be painted a creamy white!)

The Small Wall of Pictures That We Have Started

We Rearranged Our Living Room and Love This So Much Better!

From the Dining Room Looking Towards the Study

It Took Many Coats, But YES, That Is A White Ceiling!!!

(My husband and my father made my mantle for me!)

Den Looking Toward the Dining Room

Looking Out the Sliding Glass Door Into the Backyard

(Excuse the dog nose fluid and slobber on the doors!)

Den Looking From Sliding Glass Door

Our Master Bedroom

We took down the crown molding in the master bedroom because it resembled a castle!  I have never seen anything like it in a "commoner's" home.  The chair rail will be coming down as well because of our wall-hanging bedside tables.  On top of it all, they are that awful creamy (dirty white) color and of course, coated in 10 coats of high gloss paint!  This room is still absolutely a work in progress.  We will be putting a taupe color of some sort on the walls and when I find a fabric to fall in love with, I will make curtains to adorn the windows.  Speaking of curtains, you will see below a picture of some white curtains...that is our closet!  My Mother is so not a fan of the concept of curtains instead of a door, but we absolutely hated our bi-fold doors!  They would get stuck everytime you opened them and would wake up Madeline.  Anyway, they were ridiculous, so until Mr. Witz and I can decide what we would like to do to hide the clothes, shoes, purses, bags, hats, etc., we chose some curtains from Ikea.  Cheap and easy. 

Above our chests, we are hanging some 3 month portraits that we have of each of the girls wearing the same Petit Ami pink dress and in almost the identical same pose.  We are also going to replace the knobs on the chests to "dress" them up.  

Walking Into the Master Bathroom

Notice the curtains in the far right of the picture?  That is where our washing machine and dryer are located.  They are the same Ikea curtains as are in our bedroom.  They did not build this area out deep enough for any washing machine/dryer, so doors are not possible.  The machines stick out too far, so curtains were really our only option to hide the laundry "stuff".

My Wall of Crosses

We have left the girls bathroom the same color.  It matches the multi-green mosaic tiles on the floor.  We have just added a stark white shower curtain and pink towels.  (oh and of course, Dora!)  I am just waiting for PBK to give me something that I cannot live without and then I will redo their bathroom.

The Formal Living Room - Otherwise Known as The Playroom!

Right now the wall color for the playroom, kitchen and "walkway" is a light grey blue.  We plan on painting all of the light blue Ralph Lauren's Cymeric Silver (which is the master bath color).  The navy blue wall will either stay the same or be painted a beautiful, deep plum color.  We still have not decided...

From the Dining Looking Into the Playroom (and Front Door)

One of My Favorite Walls in the House

A Little of Everything In This Picture

The Ikea Black "Grid" - Houses the Girl's Toys and Some of Their Books

From Playroom Looking Towards Dining Room and Den

The Dreaded Kitchen

I have very little counter or cabinet space.  The appliances are awful (with the exception of the new dishwasher that I insisted on upon moving in) and white.  The countertops are dirty (no matter how much I scrub them, they still feel gross).  The tile and grout is disgusting and ugly.  I know, short and choppy here, but there really is not too much to say.  Horrible, horrible kitchen.  Ugh...  We keep talking about updating, but there is NEVER a good time to destroy your kitchen when you are a stay at home mom and have two toddlers!  I am baking several times a week and cook two to three meals a day, so it is looking like now is a good time. 

Looking from the Walkway Into the Kitchen

From Playroom Looking Into the Kitchen

Looking from Kitchen Into the Walkway (Notice Our Beautiful Sideboard and Hutch?  Had to Be Purchased to House Baking Dishes, Etc. Since I Have No Storage!)

The Dining Room

Our dining Room is a work in progress.  Since it is part of the "old" house, the electricity is not updated in this room.  Did I forget to mention in my previous post, that 2/3 of the house's electricity has not been updated.  Our course, we are taking care of that, but until it is done, we cannot update fans, lighting fixtures or add any new ones either.  What am I going to do with that big blank wall you ask?  What I really want to do, is to knock out part of the wall and add a window, but the Mr. and I are not too sure how much money we want to sink into this house since we do not plan on staying here too much longer.  Most likely we will buy an oversized mirror to give the illusion of more light.  We also plan on purchasing a chandelier and I have found several on Overstock.com.  Again, not wanting to spend too much money here either.  The wall color is Ralph Lauren Neutral Brown (always has been one of our favorites), but we are missing our old neutral pallette and are considering going with a beautiful cream.  Ryan also installed the chair rail, but we still have some work there.

From Kitchen/Walkway to Dining Room

Wall with the Master Bathroom

Our Beautiful Dining Room Table (It Has Two Leaves and Can Seat 12 to 14 and Has Come In Very Handy!)  Pottery Barn Rug 9x12' (We Bought the Blue to Coordinate with the Slate Flooring - Not Necessarily the Best Plan)

The Nipple - Seriously Not an Endearing Term, Truly Hideous!