The Paintings Were Hung By Korey With Care...

If I could tell you how many times I heard today..."You know I love you right? Or I would never..."

And as I watched my husband scale a ladder over and over--I knew he loved me. (I've always known...but what a manifestation of that love!!)

I painted these panels specifically for this spot in my kitchen that has sat blank for the entire 7 years we've owned our home. Waiting for something--I wasn't going to hang anything up there unless I LOVED it.

For me the key to decorating is if you don't LOVE it--don't waste your time with it. When you truly LOVE something then it has meaning and purpose in your decorating. It isn't saying that down the road you won't decide you love something more, but I no longer buy things if I like them. I have to truly love the item and also KNOW where I am going to put it. It does me no good to love something if it is going to be clutter. If it doesn't have a home, I leave it alone.

 As I started out with these paintings I knew I wanted Yellow. Yellow to me is a happy cheerful color. When I was 13 my family lived in Vernal. We had been renting and had started looking for a home to buy. I went with my mom and dad one day to look at a home out in Maeser. There were 3 things I fell in love with as we were looking at that home. The kitchen was a cheerful yellow color and I could picture myself cooking in it, being happy and excited to be in that kitchen! (With at the time 11 kids in the family, I had years and babies earlier learned that if I cooked someone else got to do the dishes)  At first it was practical. I hated doing dishes so I'd rather cook. I found rather quickly that I really enjoyed the creativity of cooking and baking. I had fun finding ways to cook what food we had on hand in  new ways. There were successful dishes...and some rather awful failures...The other two things I loved about the house were it had a greenhouse just off the kitchen, and there was a reading nook in the middle landing of the stairs complete with built in bookcases and a shelf that was carpeted and big enough for sitting right there under the window.

When I picked Yellow as my main kitchen color 6 years ago, I didn't consciously think about that Maeser house. (which we did not end up buying, in fact didn't buy a house at all but left Vernal that next year)

But I LOVE the color Yellow. Blue and Yellow have always been my 2 favorite colors. My wedding dress was Yellow with light blue accents. I knew putting a color I loved would help me feel at home every day in our kitchen, and I think its no coincidence that our kitchen is the heart of our home.

Korey worked hard getting everything just so--the paintings level, just the right distance apart, with me down below dictating. :)
He is such a good sport.

My creativity and vision with his detail orientation makes a really good combo. Our projects always turn out great...except if you ask him they are MY projects that he gets called in to help finish.

Well...there is some truth to that. I love you Babe!!!

And the finished product. 

I think it is absolutely stunning.

Happenin's in the flower gardens

 Finally the snow is over! The fear of frost is gone. The rain has been a bugger--and the weeds have just grown and grown. Last year I didn't do much in the gardens and the weeds were taking over. I spent a lot of time away from home visiting my mom. And then she died, and there was the funeral and my emotions, well I wasn't in a place where I cared what my gardens looked like. Then this spring has come and the rain inspires me.

This is my russian sage that Jilly and I trimmed and used some of the trimmings to make our lamp.

It doesn't look like much, but it grows into a beautiful fragrant bush. I love, love, love my russian sage.

Well this year I wanted to add color and depth and interesting pieces to my garden. I also know that if I put plants in planters there is much less of the weeding to be done.






 The first planter I got this year was actually a plastic bucket. It was flexible and advertised it could be used for laundry, garden supplies, anywhere you would need a bucket. I fell in love with the vibrant yellow (its the color I want to paint my front door! Hopefully that blog will be in the near future!)

I did the typical planting put a tall plant in the center a mounding plant on the side of it and then a dangling plant. Its already starting to grow, and I am excited to watch it throughout the season.  Jilly helped me pick out all the flowers.

 I drilled some good drain holes in the bottom. Moved one of my stumps, painted the stump white to make it look more aged, and placed the pretty planter on top.

The best part? The sprinklers water the plant for me so minimum care. Just a little dead heading so far.

 

These are my tulips as of last week. 

The next pictures are ones I took tonight after Korey and I finished up a bunch of weeding. I've been going out at least 15 minutes a day this past week. working on getting the weeds under control. I finally feel like I am winning! 

I have also been able to place several planters out with plants. I am so excited for the affect it is having in my garden I wanted to share it.

Now this picture was taken tonight. It may look a lot like the one from last week, except if you look closely you will see less weeds and grass cutting into the area, and the plants in the planter are growing a bit.

move your eyes over and here is a super fun element I found at a local consignment shop . Its an old seed or fertilizer  spreader that had been painted this fun lime green color. I was so excited when I saw it. There wasn't a price tag on it, so I found a gal to find out for me.


She called the vendor, and I was thinking, I can't go over $40. You have to walk away if its over $40. She came back with the price. $19. Inside I was giddy, but I remained calm on the surface. What a steal!! Jilly picked out the purple flowers in it and the pretty contrast is exciting to me. I can't wait till the flowers grow a bit bigger.

  

The same purple flowers are planted here next to one of my stumps. I love the earthy-ness of putting the stumps in the garden. I love that it is natural and visual--and that they were all free. (free is always good) on either side of the stump is an orange plant I put a while ago. They didn't grow very big last year because the weeds were choking out their light. Well this year they will have room to grow and I think it will be visually stunning.

Looking at the other side of the garden past the stump are some more fun planters and my new rose bush. behind the stump is my lavender plant that needs some serious trimming to get it back under control!! And more fun planters

This is a iron wheelbarrow planter that I have had a couple of years. I still want to spray paint it this year, but its still cute and will do for now. The flowers are gerber daisies that were given to me by my boss-lady for Mothers Day. I love the blue planter and how it contrasts with the orange flowers.

Close up of the rose bush and other planters

I've had the teapot planter a few years now. but previously have made the mistake of putting it up on the porch...where I had to water it all the time. I didn't and my plants always died. So this year they too are going in the flower bed where the sprinklers can take care of that for me. I put just some greenery in the top on for this year. The orange pot has pineapple sage in it. It smells and tastes just like pineapple too--I'm excited to add it to my herbs this year!

This Stump is in the flower bed in the front of the yard. I found another red bucket, drilled holes and put a pretty pink perennial in it

These are my tulips this week--I love my tulips

This bed gets my attention next

Quick Lift to the Toy Room

 

 So the latest and greatest...We've been working in the toy room hard core this past month. Its not done, but it is getting so much closer. and I'm very excited about it. I found this cute pink rug at Shopko for $49. It was perfect for the little art table.

The Table itself Jilly got from Santa 2 Christmases ago. I'm pretty sure Santa picked it up from Korey's best friend Andy since he makes tables exactly like this. :) The top of the table is white board. Its so great to let the kids color to their hearts content. No paper to throw away. we take pictures of the picasso's and the kids enjoy wiping away the art as much as they do drawing it in the first place. It's also a great little table for snacks or lunches/dinners when we have cousins or friends over. The table is just their size and that as you know is very important.

This cute bucket I picked up at Target for a couple of bucks. The fairy on the outside shows us what lives in this home.

Why Fairies of Course!!

 

I should probably start by the front door...I love the set up we finally came up with. there are hooks on the wall for jackets and purses. Permanent homes for Jilly's &

temporary resting places for those of her friends and relatives when they come to play.

We lose less jackets this way.

Next we have the shoe bins. I know it looks kind of messy but its CONTAINED messy. Much better than tripping all over them all over the house. And parents appreciate that there is a place to put kiddo's shoes where they will be found at then end of their visit. I am also happy since I no longer have to keep an eye out for random shoes...well most of the time there is one stray pink sandal that I think belongs to my niece who lives in New Mexico. But it is only one random stray shoe, and that my friends is progress. I'll take it.

Next is the window. We used a storage box that Korey built and turned it into our little faux window seat. I found these awesome pillows at Tai Pan. One had a small defect so it was $12. The other one was $14. I was VERY happy with this find. I had taken pictures of them on my phone and thought about them for 2 days. I went back to get them before this perfect find was gone. I still loved them, and I had Jilly with me this time and she loved them (pink...need I say more?) So we got them. The bins in the slots underneath have the baby dolls and baby doll accessories inside of them.(the fairy bucket hang here by the window)

Now we've come to our big beautiful bookcase that Korey and his BFF Andy built into my wall. LOVE IT! I gave them one crazy design and they made it happen. Thanks guys! perched on one of the outward shelves are Jilly's travel bears. We like to collect them as souvenirs of places she has been.

We don't always find them but when we do 

they have a happy home to rest their weary traveling legs on.

What is a toy room without dress up clothes? (Especially when the primary resident of the room is a little girl...a theatrical little girl and no I have NO idea where she gets that from! ;) You can barely see it in the picture but we have a tote just for dress up shoes that fits nicely in the bottom of the pink dress up chest. Again it looks kind of messy, but controlled messy. Anything that the kids can put away themselves is a good idea in my book!

 

The pink chest slides perfectly under the bookcase. Evey thing has found a bright cheerful home!

Doll set from Christmas this past year has a nice cozy home on the other end of the book case. Complete with swing, highchair, changing table/sink combo. But no, we do NOT put water in the sink. That is a nice for pretend thing.

Under the  bookcase on the right side is one of my absolute favorite homes for some previously homeless items that found their way all over the house--you know the toys that migrate like lemmings--and you find them in the most inopportune times and places..like under your bare feet...or when a visitor gets a strange look on their face and pulls something up out of the crevice of the couch...Yes I'm talking about the lite brite. The marble games, and the play dough. The puzzles and candyland, the 3D version. all those pesky games which are so much fun but a vacuums nightmare. Well say goodbye to that heart sinking crunch as you wonder what you sucked up now...

TADA!!!

These bags are a god send! I was put onto these by my cousin Sarah who is a preschool teacher. She showed me the bags and how she uses them and then she said some wonderful magic words..."I found them at the dollar store" and that is where I found them as well. Now all the play dough as shown above here is all in one place. The lite brite and its little pokey friends have a home where they can all be together! and no more gingerbread men from candy land hiding under my bed!

This fun guy I found at Ikea. His mouth always holds some fun treasure.

 



Storage bins are on the shelves providing homes for the tea sets, the barbies and their accessories as well as all the paper books that just fall all over and get torn to shreds. 

A home for everything and everything in its home...

 for the most part.

Lights Lights Lights, Lets Make Some Lamps!!

Jilly and I made our third lamp today. We had been out in the yard trying to get it under control~that is a process I'll tell you...sigh. We were trimming the Russian Sage bush when I had a great idea--we could use some of the trimmings to create a third lamp! I had a collection of sea shells from Kat's wedding and from our visit with Gretchen when she lived in Florida, along with some that she had brought to me. They made the perfect filler for the glass vase. (we picked up the vase for $5 at Tai Pan Trading)

We spray painted one of the branches white, did two blue and one with a mix of the blue and white. Then placed in the light "branch" from Rod Works. ($15) I think the results are stunning.

 This is the first lamp we made. Jilly picked out the large pink Gerber Daisies. (Gerber Daisies were from Rod Works) I curled the light "branch" we had gotten at Rod Works ($15) and we used glass pebbles for the filler. We used clear and a light blue.

Here you see where Jilly had lined up some of her shells she collected in Florida. She was 11 months old at the time she picked these up on the beach.

This is the second lamp we made. The filler in this one is some neutral stone. (Hobby Lobby $4) I picked out some fake branches that have purple beads on them instead of flowers. (also Hobby Lobby $2 per branch on sale) I thought they were fun and whimsical for what I wanted to do with them. I used the shorter light "branch" from Rod Works for this one. ($10)

This is the set up. The bird was a gift from Jilly as an early Mother's Day present. (I admit I helped her pick it out) we found it on clearance at Cracker Barrel. $12. I have to brag that one.

By our third lamp is a shell box that my Grandma gave me when I was 10 or 11. She passed away when I was 13. So it is really special to me and I've been waiting to find the perfect place to display it.
These are close ups of all three lamps. I'm excited to have them. They don't give off a lot of light but with all three of them it brightens up the room. There isn't an overhead light in that room so it makes it nice to have that light to play the piano.





Speaking of the piano, I'm excited to paint it soon. I just have to decide what color I want it. I know that it is tantamount to sacrilege to many musicians--I won't be touching the inside, just the outside. We purchased the piano from some friends of ours when they inherited a baby grand. Why do I want to paint it? Partly because I paint everything. (haha but kinda true...) and also because I want it to be a statement piece that draws little fingers to the keys. The room it is in is the Toy Room and there is so much whimsy and fun in the room. We brought the piano upstairs into that room when we carpeted the Family Room. As soon as it went in the Toy Room I knew I wanted to paint it. So just waiting on the decision as to what color I want.





The Alphabet Letters on the wall are vinyl. I love how they brightened up the wall from the Acorn. The Toy Room used to be a formal room, but we NEVER used it. It was just wasted space. Now this room gets lots of attention.

L