wednesday loves #10

Here is the tenth installment of Wednesday Loves!

The first thing I love is this bridge faucet from Perrin and Rowe that I found in This Old House this month. It's $1,472. So... let's just say, I'll never be owning this faucet.



I adore this idea for an outdoor fall gathering... doesn't it just make you want to eat some apple pie and go apple picking?



I love the idea of using an old pallet as a headboard and writing a single word or phrase on it:



I think this is such a great idea for holding pencils on your desk, I remember my Dad's garage broom looking just like this growing up:



I found this amazing tip on Pinterest to make your own coasters. It could be a great gift for a kid to give their grandparents! Here's the how to: Get some 4x4 tiles ($.16 Home Depot) and some 4x4 scrapbook paper. Adhere the paper to the tile with Mod Podge and let dry. Spray a coat of clear spray paint and let dry; attach felt pads to the bottom.



This idea is from Martha Stewart (of course, she generates about 110% of the good ideas floating around). Her idea is to keep mason jars filled with souveniers from a vacation instead of filling up scrapbooks with things because it makes for a great display.



This room is a little busy for me, but I love the headboard covered with similarly colored books. It would be great in a small space for someone that doesn't have room for bedside tables.



I love this saying, it is SUCH a good reminder!



My last Wednesday Loves is this little guy:

Have a great Wednesday!

wardrobe

Our friends Helen and Ted gave us this great wardrobe from Ted's childhood that they decided they didn't want anymore... you know me, I'll never refuse a good free thing. :)

Here it is with three great shelves and four pull out drawers. It smells a little musty from being in storage but I figure a good sanding and cleaning will take care of that.

The drawers need to be stabilized but I'll recruit my trusty husband for that.

So I went onto my trusty website Pinterest and searched for photos of linen cabinets... here are a few of the photos that I found to inspire what I want to do with this cabinet. I would love to have glass doors in the cabinet but it wouldn't work well with the drawers. Don't you love the color of this cabinet and how organized it is?

Love how happy and organized this is... not the color I'm going for but I could see it looking fabulous in Kim's apartment. I love how the towels match the cabinet.

I think I will do this next idea, I love the idea of putting wall paper on the inside of it to make it look that much more special... especially since I have problems committing to a pattern (I'm a solid color kind of girl).

Love these ideas for how to organize the inside of the cabinet.

Wouldn't a door organizer like this be perfect on the shelf side of the chifferobe?

My goal is to finish the cabinet within the next couple of weeks. I'm debating between painting the outside a really great blue color or sanding it and staining it Jacobean (a really dark brown), it would be two very different looks but I guess I need to figure out what we are going for in our bedroom before I do anything... next post: bedroom inspiration...

When we bought the house there was a separate kitchen and dining room; we decided to open up the space. And once we knocked down the wall between the two rooms when we realized that that still wasn't open enough for us... here is the dining room wall on the other side of the stairs pre-demo. Doesn't look light and airy, right?

I posted here about knocking down the wall and here about a railing we found at White Elephant for $35 after AJ knocked down the wall. This next photo shows what the wall looked like the other day... we lived like this for a while because it was / is a big project to fix the angle of the railing:

AJ is in process now of cutting each spindle to the correct angle to fit the drywall frame. It's been taking him a long time because he's checking and double checking each measurement. We are short one spindle based off what we need to meet building requirets... looks like we'll be heading to White Elephant to see if we can find one more railing that looks exactly like this one that we purchased.

I'll post more photos once we make more progress!

a baby of many faces

I got Drew an adorable crib sheet the other day and took a few pics to celebrate it's arrival. I know, it sounds strange to center a photo shoot around a crib sheet, but a new crib sheet beats having just one and then forgetting to wash it and having to put a sheet / quilt on his crib from our queen sized bed because I realize just before he falls into bed my mistake.

He is just learning how to hold himself up on the side of the crib... and let me tell you, he's pretty proud of himself. :)

I thought the face he was making here was too silly not to post.

Is he a handsome baby or what? :)

our ceiling (or lack thereof)

I posted on Tuesday about our dining room ceiling missing and about AJ "fairly impulsively" removing it... to be fair to my hubby, I told him he could. To be fair to me, I wasn't thinking. A) wasn't thinking period and B) wasn't thinking that we have an important dinner at our house on Saturday evening where a pastoral canidate is coming to meet the diaconate. That being said, we've delegated. AJ gets the job of making it not look like a "construction-y ceiling" (my technical term) by removing the dangling wires that go to two prong outlets (we live in the dark ages) and by putting up some molding. My job is to paint everything a glossy white. Painting a ceiling is harder than you think.... AJ said to me two days ago: "how did you get paint in your arm pit?" Yep, gravity is working against this painting job. And so is Drew, which is why three days later and it's not done. I work on his nap schedule.

(Sidenote: I'm so obsessed with Pinterest that I click for the photo to upload and then immediately look on Pinterest for "blue bedroom" photos to get ideas for our master.) Okay, this photo shows the moment after AJ decided to undertake the demo (pretty much his favorite hobby, he likes it a little more than running and a little less than eating Snickers. :) ) The seam running the length of the room is where there was a wall dividing the living and dining rooms, hence the two different ceilings. The giant hole is from when we installed the tall wall oven and microwave cabinet. The only way to get it to stand up with our low ceilings was to cut a hole in the ceiling, and that is where the problem started...

This next photo is of after most of the ceiling got one coat of paint. And as you can see, it barely made a difference. I was, in a word: discouraged; especially because this was the one thing AJ really wanted to do to the kitchen and I sort of hated it. I made AJ walk me through the process of how it wouldn't look so construction-y and how he was going to do the molding around the edge of the kitchen. I needed the vision. And I'm pretty sure you'll need AJ giving you some vision too after you look at this next photo. Ahhhh.... I just want to drywall the ceiling...

Here is a close up after one coat of paint.

Let's hope we can make some serious progress on this by Saturday (yikkes... it's already Thursday). I'll stay up all night if I have to to finish painting it.

Because we have ADD and need a quick fix sometimes here is what we did yesterday:
AJ: started to fix the stair railing and rewired part of the electrical
Jen: painted the foyer and painted the inside of the glass cabinets

Photos of both of these things coming either later today or tomorrow...

wednesday loves #9

This first one is for you, Rob! :)
A hurricane with raspberry sorbet and peppermint pattys. If I had a photo I'd put it here... but AJ would probably eat it before I'd get to take a photo.

AJ loves Teddy Super Chunky Peanut Butter with Flax Seed. In fact, I just told him the PB smelled good on his bagel and he said "it does" and then didn't offer me a bite. Hump. He must like it. :)




I just finished reading this great book. It is the third one in a three part series and I feel like my friends just died now that it's over. I know, I'm crazy and have attachment issues. Maybe I need a few more real friends.



I am in love with the gray and pink color scheme. (I found this "pinned" on Joanna Hewitt's Pinterest page). I'm pretty much asking AJ daily if our master bedroom, once we finish it, should be with dark grays or dark browns and then lighter accent colors... what do you think? I want the whole room to have an airy feel like this one but I would like a simple dark brown bed (I think) and then after that I'm not so sure about anything. I'm looking at photos like a crazy woman to try to figure it out. (Are you thinking "lunatic" right now? Because I am...)



I have never posted a photo of our laundry area in the basement. For very good reason. Here is some gorgeous inspiration to spruce it up.



And the last one for today is Chocolate Chip Banana Bread... which I've just mixed a tiny bit into Drew's applesauce (trying to leave out most of the chocolate chips) and let me tell you, rave reviews from the little guy. This recipe calls for sour cream which makes it so moist! I did a little less sugar than the recipe calls for and used whole wheat flour and it's still amazing. It makes three large loaf pans.

Have a great Wednesday! :)

beam ceiling

Now that AJ fairly impulsively ripped out our ceiling, we are sitting on the couch googling photos of beam ceilings. I'm not loving the ripped out exposed look because it doesn't seem to go with the more classic look of the rest of the kitchen, and after looking at these photos I'm even more convinced that just painting our ceiling will just make it look like a glossy white construction site.

I love all of these ceilings because they look so intentional, not like newly painted floor joists and ceiling boards.

for you, april beadle

AJ's mom visited us last weekend to take care of Drew while we were running around for Brian and Jade's wedding and mentioned that last time she was here the molding wasn't done above the windows either. Well, April, we made a list today of all those little things that need to be finished that'll take about 10 seconds. And you know how that ended up? With the little things finished and NO CEILING in the dining room. Yeah, I think AJ was just getting nervous that it was starting to look complete. I'll post more photos this week of that renovation...Anyways: notice the lack of moldings? All it took was some $7 boards from Home Depot, a little white paint from Jen and a little measuring and cutting from AJ and it was done.

And the partially finished product because the inside of the windows need to be framed out like AJ is doing in the second photo:

And then, April, we did finish the back splash. Same drill with the board above the sink and then I cut the tin to the correct width and used liquid nails to secure it. We don't have it going all the way up to the ceiling because we'll be putting molding where you see the white paint at the top of the wall.

And last but not least, we AJ has completed installing the kick piece at the bottom of the sink.

We have company coming on Saturday; I'm on the search committee for our new pastor and AJ and I are having the deaconite over for dinner to meet with him.... nothing like company coming to make loose ends come together. Here was the list we made this morning:

Finish boards above the windows

Paint foyer

Paint hutch legs (not sure if this even deserves a photo but maybe one tomorrow)

White paint on missing on trim (not worthy of a photo, or even writing about it)

Finish tin back splash

Paint inside of the cabinets

and apparently we just added "rip out ceiling and paint existing boards".

a vintage wedding

Everything about the wedding of Brian and Jade spoke of who they are... The ceremony was such a wonderful reminder of what marriage is meant to be and the entire reception was so "them", and especially so Jade. She is one of the most creative people I've met and is so talented at implementing the ideas she sees online. This adorable sign greeted all the guests as they arrived at the reception.

Here is the happily married couple as we showered them with loose lavender, like I said before, Jade is just so thoughtful of every little detail, lavender went perfectly with the loose lavender that she had surrounding the candles in the teacups they gave as favors.

Back to the reception, and to Brian and Jade's love of books...  There was flag after flag, made of book pages, lining a path towards the tent.

See all the flags on the fence in the photo above? This is what they looked like up close:

Instead of a more typical slide show Jade and Brian opted to post their engagement photos on old doors that Jade had painted. She took apart books and did an amazing job of choosing book titles representative of marriage or love, like this one: Marriage: A Life Long Honeymoon (okay, it's not a realistic title but it's completely perfect for a wedding day. :))

Here is a photo of the doors... even the vintage-y shabby chic way Jade painted the doors was well thought out to blend with her vintage theme.

This could, quite possibly, be one of my favorite parts of the wedding: a card catalog that she found for $32 at an antique store. She placed cards in each of the drawers with phrases to start the guests thinking, for example, the card I took had the phrase "always remember..." at the top and I needed to fill in some marriage advice or something that could be helpful to Brian and Jade in the empty space. The top of the catalog was a display of teacups with old Scrabble like tiles, thread and candles.

After I oogled their gorgeous photos and her out of control creativity at the card catalog table it was off to the table to find out where all the guests were sitting. I lucked out and got to sit at the head table because my date was the Best Man. :) Jade found a vintage frame, covered the back with fabric and made each table look like a card out of a card catalog and then the matching card would be at your table, all the table numbers were actually names of old books.

I love this sweet display with the roses, old vases and bottles and the vintage crate. And see that fabulous ball in in the front covered with pages from a book? Jade didn't like that. I was in love with it and now want her to teach me exactly what she used to make it so I can fill an apothecary jar on my coffee table with them.

It wouldn't do to have a simple box to put the marriage advice card we picked up at the card catalog... but a vintage suitcase would be the perfect item to blend with the theme.

Now onto the table decorations. Below is a photo of the pie table. Don't even get me started on how absolutely delicious that pie was... seriously, I could eat an entire blueberry pie by myself, and would have thought about it if I'd even thought about going running in the past two weeks (bad sciatic nerve, I'm not just a lazy bum). Anyways, don't you love that spoon holder?

Each table had a mix of antique books and bottles on them.

Okay, if you were even doubting Jade's incredible craftiness let me stop you in your tracks. She hand made each of the napkins and dyed the lace on them so it wouldn't be a bright white. THEN she and Brian scoured antique shops and yard sales for vintage dishes and silverware. She said it was cheaper than renting them. Jade, don't forget I like the blue set if you are going to get rid of it. :)

Each guest got their own mason jar for the evening, can you read the tag on each glass?

A photo, which unfortunately turned out blurry :( of the entire table. Each toasting glass was unique as well as all the plates, teacups and silverware.

Last but certainly not least, the happy couple. And folks, I do mean happy... I'm pretty sure Brian's face was going to fall off if he smiled any larger.  :) And Jade, well, she's basically a super model and looked like a gorgeous character out of Pride and Prejudice.