My Beachy Wedding

Lately, I have been seeing so many beach inspired rooms. I personally love the beach and my parents have been taking my sister and I to the Gulf coast since I can remember. We started out on the coasts of Florida and through the years made the Alabama beaches our favorite. When my sister and I were young we vacationed on the beach at least once a year, sometimes twice. Our most recent trip was to Ft. Morgan, AL for our wedding. I couldn't imagine any other perfect place than this. Until BP had their little mishap....

We had already paid our deposit for our beach house and were worried what was going to happen with our "perfect" plans. Luckily, the water cleared up and there was NO oil in the water(that we could see or taste, at least). They opened the beaches back up about two weeks before the wedding and it turned out to be perfect after all!! 

See how blue the water was??!

This wedding was planned on a serious budget. If I couldn't find what I was looking for at the right price, I made it. Including the bamboo arbor we stood under while being married.

 I made all the flower arrangements, except the bouquets and all the decorations, with the help of family and friends. We made all the food and desserts.

I iced these cookies the night before the wedding!

If you can't tell, my wedding was starfish themed. I fell in love with the way the starfish looked and totally went with it.



The best part is that I got to bring most everything home with me as momentos. I found an arrangement similar to this one and wanted it so badly.

The kit with the vase, sand, candle, shells and starfish was over $50 each plus shipping. I headed over to our local Old Time Pottery and picked up two similar vases and white candles. My mom filled the vases with sand from the beach and shells she found as well as very inexpensive store bought starfish. There were two and they turned out perfectly all for about $20 for both centerpieces, saving about $80!! I brought one home and she has the other. Mine is sitting on my armoire in our master, I love looking at it everyday knowing it holds sand and shells from the beach we were married on!

I wouldn't have been able to do it without the help of wonderful family and friends! There were only about 15 in attendance, not including the wedding party and everyone chipped in and helped with something, whether it was building the arbor, smoothing the sand, or making food and starfish decorations for the aisle chairs.

It was the most perfect wedding and we loved our local minister. He incorporated the ocean and sand and told us true love is endless, just like the ocean. Sigh.

If anyone is interested in the details of the decor or vendors we used in that area, feel free to contact me. They were all AWESOME! I would recommend them to anyone with small or large budget!

Time for a new clock...

Since we moved in our house, we have always had a large clock in our living room. At first, I never paid any actual attention to the function, it was hanging on the wall for decoration purposes only. But, everytime I asked hubby what time it was, he pointed to the wall. So then I got used to checking the time on the wall clock and depending on it to make sure I was out of the house on time for school.

A couple of months ago, Hayden started a stage where he beat his big head against anything near him, doors, furniture, and you guessed it, walls. One day we weren't paying enough attention to his head-banging and so he banged hard enough that the clock fell straight off the wall and bounced off his head. That was the end of that clock.

The clock hasn't been replaced because I'm super picky about what I want to do with that space. Since I'm obsessed with mirrors and all, I've really been contemplating creating some sort of mirrored clock. We recently replaced the standard frameless mirror in our master bath with a framed one from Kirkland's outlet. So I have a mirror that can be cut down to size. The issue is finding a clock kit that I like and figuring out what type of numbers I am going to use(Roman numerals or block numbers?) and if I want to etch the numbers or use vinyl or paint. 

I've got a few images of what I like, but not really sure how I'm going to cover the edge of the raw mirror if I have it cut down. Maybe I need to scour the area for a round frame? Or maybe a large square frame with the numbers in a circular design?? I'm so indecisive!!

I'm loving this one from Restoration Hardware. I love the circular design and square frame. How in the world would I get this design on a mirror?? Stencil paint possibly? Projector??

I also like the antique look of this one, but it has no hands, so not actually a working clock.

This one is modern and sleek, but no numbers and I'm not patient enough to try to picture numbers in my head :)

Love these two as well!! I guess I have a lot of decisions to make!! The biggest part is going to be trying to get hubby to take the huge mirror to the glass shop to have it cut down. Luckily, it's not far from our house and they have even offered to cut it for free! What nice people they are!

Maybe someone will have some suggestions for me!

So it seems I have an obsession, or quite a few actually!

Since I was out of school last night and had some free time after work, I decided to find some Goodwill frames to place the seahorse pictures in. I stopped by a new little place called Small Treasures. The first time I stopped by was after it first opened and it only had about 4-6 booths. Now, they are busting at the seams! They are 1000 times better than an antique store because there are plenty of antiques to choose from, but without the enormous prices. Also, way better that Goodwill, because I don't leave the store smelling like, well, Goodwill. And, I don't feel the need to sterilize my hands afterwards, that's a big plus!

I had made a trip around the store once and found quite a few things that I would have loved to take home. There lies the problem. I always find something I want to take home. In fact, there is a Pottery Barn piece, a gold frame, a box from ebay with a bird cage and ceramic birds(that has yet to be opened) and a gold mirror that I purchased the last time I was at Small Treasures, in my car at this moment. All these things were purchased over a month ago, even a couple of months ago, and they have been traveling around with me in my car. I don't take them inside, because I don't have anywhere to put them at this time. Plus, I have to unload a kid, purse, diaper bag, and sometimes lunch when I get home. Who wants to go back out to the car to unload more junk? Not me. They need to go into the shed for now, but then I will have to hear it from hubby when he opens the shed door and stuff comes tumbling down on top of him! So, hello shopping obsession. Or is it hoarding? None-the-less, on to my second obsession.

Mirrors.

On my shopping trip yesterday I took a second trip around ST and almost missed this!

It did not have a hangtag, so at first I didn't think it was for sale. I checked the back and there it was! A sticker for $6!! I had to have it for my bedroom. For a month now, I have had a vision of a wall collage of pictures in my bedroom. I have a side chair and table that need to be recovered and stained and wanted the collage to hang above those. I have a tin star that is red and think it will coordinate perfectly. I think almost everyone has one, or two. You know what one I'm talking about??

And guess what?? Yeah, it's still in the car too! I did manage to take in the 3 books I got from Salvation Army (Lipstick Jungle, One Fifth Avenue, and My Year's with Julia) SCORE!

Oh, and while I'm at it, let me just mention how high prices are at the local Salvation Army. An old brass table lamp is $19.99. I realize this is for a good cause, but how are they going to donate any money if no one can afford their junk?? And dressers with severe water damage for $100?? Come on!

             Dear Salvation Army, I can buy a BRAND SPANKIN' new lamp that is NOT brass at Walmart for less than $20.

Thanks!



Just in case you were wondering, here is the mirror that has been hanging out in the back seat for a month or so...

Isn't she beautiful?? Not sure what I am going to do with her, but for $7, I couldn't pass her up! She has a travel companion too that is almost a twin, but she will be painted and stuffed with corkboard for Chloe and Savanna's new room! I'm thinking lime green!

This leads to my other obsession. Gaudy, ornate frames.

I typically buy any old gold frame I see if it's reasonably priced. It can always be painted and I'm sure I'll find a place for it one day(note the hoarding coming out in me here). I love anything with detail! I currently have two gigantic gold mirrors at home that need a place on a wall. Oh, wait, three :) I just have to find the perfect place for them.

So next time you come across an old tacky mirror, you'll think of me. And if you have any to get rid of, think of me!

Oh and I googled gaudy to make sure I was spelling it right(I'll blog about my memory loss one day and the fact that I seriously need a planner) and this was the first picture that came up! It's titled, "gaudy nail art".

Ha, ya think?

Seahorse Knockoffs

Well I got my Ballard Designs catalog in today and couldn't wait to see what kind of surprises were ahead! I flipped through, and of course, was in love with everything. BUT BOY, is it overpriced! Sigh.....I guess I'll have to figure out some way of making some knockoffs.

My favorite things were these seahorse giclee prints. I love the beach and these would look perfect in my blue bathroom!

Ballard Designs

But at $319 for both, I'm outta luck!  I pulled together my resources(Google, ha) and found a free download of a seahorse sketch and a free linen background and pulled together this...

Now, I know this is not the same, but I really like the finished product. Fell free to use my image if you like. Or make your own. The sketch can be found here

 and the background can be found here.  I can't wait to get them home and frame them and get them hung! I'll post a picture soon of them on the wall so you can see them against the blue!

Dresser dilemma.

Well, poor hubby is going to kill me because now I'm on a dresser kick.  I'm really trying to get our mismatched master in order and it's taking me a while with all the other stuff we are doing every.single.hour.of.the.weekend. So, while I was doing my hourly search on craigslist.org I cam across a really rough looking dresser for $15. It was gigantic and very unusual. Almost immediately I had a vision and it looked a lot like this number...

Which is a $2500 Williams Sonoma french style buffet. Ha, right. I love how the white contrasts with the stained top. Then as I searched more for inspiration, I found this dresser, which was in horrible shape and this lady spruced up. Now the craigslist dresser and this dresser are almost JUST alike. Same details in the drawers and everything! I decided I had to have the dresser.

So I sent poor hubby over to the house to get it and let's just say he came home empty handed and smelling a little like "grass" if you catch my drift. He proclaimed that the dresser was not coming into our house. Enough said. So I've been on the prowl for a nice old wood dresser that I can paint white and stain the top a dark mahogany or walnut. If any of my friends come across one at a cheap reasonable price, let me know!

Paint...yet again...

I've come to realize I might be a little, tab bit obsessive over paint colors. I cannot just choose a color and be done. I literally scour the internet for any and every painted room I can find. I can look at paint swatches, but it definitely doesn't compare to seeing it on someone's actual wall with their decor. I'm also pretty sure the people at Home Depot hate me by now. I've had plenty of trips their in the last month(have even been 3 times in one day). I stare at the paint swatches in one brand, shimmy over to the next brand, usually skip Disney, then over to the next. I grab a few swatches, throw them in the basket and then back to where I started. About a month ago, I was looking for a Tiffany blue. I told the guy that I needed a paint match to Sherwin Williams Tiffany Blue.

He mixed up the sample and it came out a weak, baby blue, clearly not robin's egg like it was supposed to be. So then, he searched Tiffany in his swatch matching thingy and mixed another color. This time it came out  very close, but a little too green. So I had him add more blue. What I had was pretty dang close!

He told me it would be easier to just bring in the box to match. Did you hear that Hubby???

Finally. I grab my paint samples and move to the front of the store where there is a plastic tote the exact color of Tiffany blue! I grab it up and take it back to the guy to match the color. By this time, he tells me that on my receipt there is a place to go on the internet and tell HD how their employees are doing. He said if I do that he could get a $50 gift. Ha! Apparently, I put him through so much trouble, he thought he really needed that extra $50!!

During one of the most recent trips, I went in looking to get a sample that matched Ben Moore's Santorini Blue.

I super serious wanted this for my bedroom and bathroom. I tell the older gentleman and he tries to look it up. He says it does not exist in Benjamin Moore, but Sherwin Williams had that color. Since he could not see the color on the screen, I googled it. It was wayyy too dark. I also couldn't understand why I could find it on BM's website, but they didn't have it in the system. So then, he asks me, in such a lovely tone(did you catch the sarcasim?) if I wanted to take the chance with that color and pay the $3 for a sample. Um, no. I want BM's Santorini Blue, not SW's. Thank.you.very.much. Finally he leaves and I do some more research and find out that they changed the formula a tad and call it Nantucket Fog. It is almost the same. So I get my $3 sample and move on, only after the other employee kindly laid out every other brand's swatches they had available :)

Nantucket Fog

Finally, the day came when it was time to get the actual paint for our bedroom and bathroom. I confidently(only because I had actually made a paint decision) went up to the employee(one whom I had never seen) and told him exactly what I wanted. BM's Nantucket Fog and Philipsburg Blue. He goes to the computer, looks them up and tells me he doesn't have to formula for either one! Luckily the kind employee who had scattered the swatches the day before took over and found the colors for me before I had a nervous breakdown.

The rooms look great and I love the colors, but I have to put my finishing touches up before I reveal!

If your my friend on FB you know that I have been struggling to choose a paint color for my kitchen. I had three narrowed down, but now I have added two more. Sheesh. Will it ever get done?? Here are the updated options.

Also, I wanted to mention that Melanie, over at The Frosted Gardner is giving away a $50 Home Depot card! Wouldn't that be lovely if I won? Maybe I should just invest in HD!



Let's Build!

My 2 stepdaughters are growing fast and running out of room in their shared room. As of now, they have two matching twin beds, a nightstand and a tv stand. They have to live out of thier suitcases while they are here because hubby has taken over their closet. Our master closet is just not big enough for mine and his stuff :).  They have only the nightstand with 2 drawers to use for storage. So all their junk goes under the bed or in those two drawers. Needless to say, their room is a disaster when they are here for lack of storage. I saw some awesome bunkbeds on my local Craigslist, but they are out of our price range right now and I have been trying my darndest to sell the ones they have, but no bites just yet. I'm positive the lady will sell her bunks before mine will sell. So, I have given up on those and I have decided to build my own!! Big surprise there, right? I have been doing research online and there are several websites that offer plans for FREE! Yes, free. But, none of them are perfect.

 Let me explain.

I had bunk beds as a child. They were the big ugly metal ones that was a futon on bottom and twin on top. I pinched myself often on the ladder and the futon. Now, I hope I haven't offended anyone with my statement. But, for some reason, I find anything that was in my house as a child repulsive, such as that bed, baby blue and pink paint and wallpaper(I could also go on forever about my hatred of oak cabinets). Metal bunk beds are just not my thing.

I found plenty of bunks that I LOVE, but they are $1000+. Yeah-freaking-right. I have stayed up at night debating on whether I really want bunks in my house, but it will free up so much space in their room and be better in general. When I started googling, I knew exactly what I was looking for and found this

and this

The first bed is my favorite and is what we will be aiming for. It looks so cottagey and I LOVE it! I have forced the hubby to agree and I think we will be starting next weekend! What makes it even better is that one of my junking, thift storing, yard sale-ing friends has an armiore she is passing along to me that will look great in their room. Not to mention, I came across a very retro desk that is still in decent shape that will be marvelous! I'm so excited to get started on their room and see the looks on their faces the next time they come to visit and they have a new room! I will post pics soon and list the instructions and materials when I finish in case anyone else is as brave as me!