Spring Vignette and Mantel

Finally! Was that a long winter or what?  Spring is here, and apparently so are the April Showers...which I keep reminding myself...

Source

Then sadly, I remembered I didn't even plant May flowers. I did plant a few June flowers. Gah, not good enough. I made a mental note to plant 5,000 tulips for next Spring. I need tulips in my life!

Anyway, my favorite "Spring-y decor" in our house is our entryway.
This old sewing machine table is really beat up, but I kinda like it that way. To create this vignette I shopped my house and the thrift store.

My sweet baby lamby greets guests at the door. I think she fits perfect in the Spring theme.

I took some cheap-o dollar store plastic eggs and mod podged some old book pages to them. Then stuffed them in a mason jar. Done.

I found a few ducks and bunnies at the thrift store and gave them a few coats of silver spray paint.

QUICK STORY: When I posted the above photo on my Instagram, somebunny (my mother) demanded she have the bunny holding the egg for herself. So off to her house this little rabbit went...

EDIT: here is the bunny in his new home, on my mom's kitchen counter.

Anyway, back to the vignette. The chalkboard was an old frame from Family Dollar of all places. I sprayed the frame white then used a little antique gold rub and buff.

Add a spritz of fresh grocery store flowers for a cheap and true spring touch. (If you are smart and planted yourself some tulips, you are lucky, you can use those!)

I love decorating with old books. The funny thing is, I pick them up for a quarter at the thrift store, and my husband ends up reading them. If he knew I ripped out the pages of some to make these eggs he would may or may not be cranky.

My mantel also had a few Spring additions. I made a burlap and lace banner one evening with a girlfriend at our monthly "Wine and Design"

Added a few little bunnies too, and my mantel is ready for Spring!

See my Winter/ New Year Vignette.
See my Fall/ Autumn Vignette.
You can jump back and see my Christmas Mantel right here.

What do you do to get ready for Spring in your house?
Do you have Spring flowers popping up?

Story Time: Trina Appleseed.

Hi friends, today I am not sharing any house photos, or any projects, just a sweet story...

Picture it. Early 90's, Sicily* Spring Valley, Illinois:
*extra points if you get the TV show reference!

Kinda cute huh?

A little girl was enjoying a delicious green apple with her dad. She noticed a few seeds in the apples they were eating.

She asked: "Why can't we just plant the rest of this apple and see if a tree will grow?"
So they did, with that very apple core.
And, would you believe it, a tree grew...

Now that little girl is in her (late) 20's.

Dad & daughter on the day he finished our fireplace. 2012.

And this is the first year that very tree, sprouted apples.

Freshly picked apples from my thought up tree.

Kinda neat, huh?

Best apples. Ever.

*crunch*

We plan to plant a few of these on our property and see if we can get a second apple tree growing.


Did you plant anything when you were a little kid that is still growing? (I know ya'll brought home some of those Earth Day trees too! Mine died.)

Stone Fireplace reveal!

After a long three weeks in the new house, we have internet and television.

We are finally moved in---although the house is far from complete. We are still "roughing it" with only a fridge, microwave, pizza pizzaz and a crockpot.


Here is an example of us roughing it the day after move in:

(before floors, obviously)

Lawn chairs and plastic tubs for furniture and Uncle Buck in the dvd player...thankfully that was only for a week.


SO many more things to update you on!

But when we left off, we were still working on the fireplace. It is finished. And more beautiful than we could have dreamed. My dad did a wonderful job and it makes it even more special that he did this for our home.

Adam think he is being classy by putting his golf trophy up there...

Move in day, which is why we look like bums.

Me and my dad with the finished product.

Scout on the first night "But, when are we going back home??" 

 Stick around, many many updates and photos coming soon to you.

Where the heck have we been?

Well we have been to Washington D.C., and back again.
We have been working on the house every.single.day.after.work.until.bedtime.
We are back on the road this weekend to Wisconsin for a family wedding.Then home again.
To work. And then work after work...and to pack. So much packing...

Because we are moving in next weekend!!
......................
Now FYI--- we are moving in a little before the house can be called completed
The flooring in the living room/kitchen will not be finished. Which means our cabinets will not be installed yet. Which means our appliances will not be hooked up yet...

Which means we will be roughing it with a mini fridge, microwave, and pizza pizzaz for a week or so...
But WHO CARES. We will be in!


So so many things to share with house updates. But I have been a bad blogger and haven't been bringing my camera with me to the house every evening...

So, I leave you with just a peek at our favorite part of the house.

I think this photo shows the true paint color as well.

The board is obviously not the mantle, we were just testing the height.

My dad was here all last weekend working on our beautiful fireplace. Hopefully he will be able to come back down next week and get this baby completed.



I promise to post the rest of the updated stuff next week!

Do you have a pizza pizzaz? We received it as a wedding gift and we LOVE it still.
Would you move in a house without kitchen cabinets or full size appliances, even if it was for a short time? Or would you rather wait?

fireplace part 1 and 2

Everyone has been asking what about the blog? Where are the photos of the updates? Truth is, they have all been sitting on my camera...we have either been too busy or too tired to blog. Or to do laundry for that matter. 

The past two weekends my dad has traveled the three hours south to help us work on the house. My dad is stoning the fireplace and the exterior of the house for us, with Adam's help of course.

Here are some photos of what he has been working on...

My dad climbing down the scaffolding.

The scratch coat gives the stone something to stick to.

Ready for stone.

This is how we cheat the look of a full masonry fireplace.
Instead, we purchased a fireplace insert, and had it framed so we could stone around it.

Adam will probably not appreciate this photo, but this is the view from the kitchen/dining.

Oh and I was also re-picking out paint colors the evening before they needed to be picked up. Yup.
 ...more on that story later.

And the underlaminate is in, ready for hardwood.
Well, after the fireplace is stoned anyway.
At least the dust is gone.

And after the second weekend:

He picked out the stone for the hearth and cut it to size for us too.

Oh and the house is painted now too! But don't judge it by these photos because it looks different in these.
I haven't figured out how to make my fancy camera take photos of painted walls. Be patient with me.

We love it.

We can't wait for him to be able to come back down and work on it more.
Love you dad, thank you for all your hard work!



This weekend, we are starting the hardwood upstairs...
What do you think of the fireplace? 
Do you like the stone?
Does your dad ever wear a shirt?
Can you explain to me how to take photos of painted walls with my fancy camera?