Happy as a Kid on Christmas Day!!!!

I totally felt a rush of  glee this afternoon when I opened my front door and there was my package from Tonic Living!!!! Woo freakin Hooo! If you have followed my blog at all you will know that I change my window covering pretty frequently... I never seem to find the right curtains or fabric for curtains, well that is until recently when I was randomly googling another fabric I was considering for living room curtains but it just wasn't speaking to me... Instead I ran into this gorgeous fabric called Sweet William from the Canadian company Tonic Living 

The bloggers RamblingRenovators used it for bedroom drapes and it turned out so beautiful

You can read all about their experience and see more beautiful photo's

 here  http://ramblingrenovators.blogspot.com/2010/06/tonic-living-custom-drapery.html . Funny thing is I still wasn't sure although I couldn't stop thinking about the fabric, that is until one day I was in Homegoods searching for something for my mother's home and I spotted the same fabric used on a lampshade!  I purchased the lamp and decided to order the fabric the next day!  Here is a not so great photo of my new lampshade although I decided to use it with a lamp I already had and use the lamp it came with in my bedroom (I'll save that for another post).  Oh and yes I know the lamp shade looks crooked although it doesn't look that way in real life...

So here is quick photo I snapped of my 12 yards of fabric I got in the mail today!!!!

I can't wait to get started on my new curtains!

Best Thrift Store Score Ever and a Small Project!!!

I've written about my love for collecting china a couple of times and the other day when the kids were out of school for a snow day we were bored and the streets were clear so we hit up a couple of local thrift stores and I found a very gently used set of Dresden Rose china by Mikasa!  The set was priced at $39 but the store manager knocked off $10 and I only paid $29 because one teacup had a slight yellowing around the edge which after getting it home and washing all the pieces turned out to be just some good ol dirt which washed right off! I left the store feeling like I had hit the jackpot! Here is my "new" china in my china cabinet along with my milk glass collection.

Oh and also don't know if you noticed but I also painted the inside of the china cabinet! I'm super excited about it since I was extremly afraid to do this but I love the results and it really makes the white dishes pop!  Here is what it looked like a couple of days ago when I first purchased the china.

As always thanks for reading and a heads up that I'm going to do a giveaway very soon so stay tuned!

A Bit of Sparkle

I don't know about you but sometimes I just love sparkle! Especially during the gloomy winter days, I really need a bit of sparkle in my life.  My husband and I have been looking at crystal chandeliers for 5 months and we had just about decided to purchase the New Orleans 5 light crystal chandelier from Overstock.com.

At $159 it is definately in our price range and has great reviews.

Then today I saw this one on the Zgallerie website!

I love that this one is a bit more modern but can work with traditional decor as well I think, but at $369 she is most definately not in our budget! She sure is gorgeous though...

Another thing I've wanted for the house for quite a while is a venetian style mirror, I'm sure you see a theme here right?.... I love sparkly, girly things...me the woman that has a house full of nothing but boys:)

I've been checking this one out at Anthropologie for a couple of months now...it too has great reviews and at $198 it's one of the least expensive Venetian mirrors I've seen for sale online (if only I could find one at homegoods in perfect condition for half that).

And last but not least the beautiful Pier 1 Hayworth vanity and bench!  

The vanity is currently on sale for $299 I beleive, the mirror $199 and not too sure of the price of the bench.  I would love to have this in my bedroom, have dreamt about having a vanity since I was a little girl but never had one and this one is right up my alley, although with a toddler in the house I'm not so sure mirrored furniture is a wise idea.  Maybe I'll skip this one until he's a bit older:)

My First Sewing Project! Tablecloths into Curtains!

I know it's been a really long time since I've posted and I do apologize for that, I've been fighting through a bit of depression  since the past holiday season was the first one without my father... but I think I'm back on track now and I've got lots of projects to work on and share with you!  I don't know if anyone remembers my blog post about using tablecloths for curtains back in June, http://idreamofdecor.blogspot.com/2010/06/tablecloths-into-curtains.html.  Well I finally did it, I'd been searching for curtains for my living room windows for a long time and while I found a few prospects at World Market and ZGallerie, ultimately I just never found any I really loved.  I had planned on having some made with this fabric from Waverly of which I have loved for a really long time but ultimately after doing my monthly budget I just couldn't swing the price of the fabric and the price of having them made.

One day I happened to be in TJ Maxx with my 14 y/o Devin and I think I was purchasing candles or something for the house and happened to see some gorgeous April Cornell Tablecloths and loved the floral pattern as well as the color scheme of periwinkle and aqua which would match nicely with our aqua walls!  As luck would have it they had two rectangular tablecloths although one was 90 inches long and one was 120 inches long I knew I could hem one and have the right length I needed.  I also purchased a matching table runner for my dining table, a pack of 4 napkins to make small throw pillows and 4 placemats, my total was only $65 for all of this so I was super happy! 

One of my Christmas gifts from my husband was a sewing machine, something I'd wanted for a long time but just never purchased for myself seeing as though I don't sew much but right before Christmas i had read a post on Centsational Girls blog about teaching herself to sew and that was really the inspiration I needed, if she could do it then darn it so could I!  Once I got my tablecloths home I got to work, the previous night I had threaded the machine and got it all set-up so all i needed to do was to make a pole pocket for my soon to be curtains and hem the longer of the two.   Trust me if I can do this, anyone can! The only sewing I've done in my life was with my grandma as a little girl and then in Homec classes in middle school which was about 18 years ago (that makes me sound really old!).  The photo is really bad because my camera is on it's last leg but here is a photo of my final result (the damask sheers are from Lowes if anyone is interested).

 I love the pattern on the curtains and can't wait to do some more sewing, right now I'm working on pillows!

Decisions, Decisions....

Our kitchen is almost complete, Jerry my husband just finished up the aqua backsplash tile last weekend and we are now contemplating knobs for the cabinets.  Since most of the kitchen is white/neutral we thought about adding aqua/turquoise glass knobs to match the backsplash but then again you can't go wrong with a brushed nickel knob and pull... I also really like the look of a clear crystal knob/pull.  Which ones are your favorite?


Aqua flower glass knobs from World Market

Aqua glass knobs from Amazon.com (These are my husbands favorite but also the most expensive at $10 per knob)

Faceted Acrylic Pulls & Knobs from Target (these are so pretty in person!)

Polished Nickel Cup Pulls from Target for Drawers

I was thinking of using the faceted clear knobs on the cabinet doors and the satin cup pulls on drawers but my husband really thinks the turquoise knobs would make the kitchen pop, I'm just not so sure, I love color and whimsy but don't want it to be too crazy...What do you guys think? I know it's hard to help when you haven't seen the kitchen and I promise to try to take some photo's of the progress very soon and post them so I can get opinions... Thanks so much for all the feedback you all give me, it really and truly makes my day:)

Found!!! Beautiful and Affordable Curtains

I've been on the hunt since we moved into our house back in August for some very specific curtains with no luck. I didn't want much.. just that they be somewhat inexpensive, lined, and a floral print with aqua or turquoise in them, seriously is that too much to ask???..  So recently when I met Christina from The Seam on Etsy and had some pillows made I thought about having some custom curtains made even though they are a bit out of my price range but I really wanted some pretty curtains on my windows.  The only problem was  I couldn't find a fabric I loved except for the one that had been discontinued...  By chance the other day I was online looking at curtains on the World Market website and spotted these

I loved them and since they were only $30 a panel I get to stay on budget! but I still had to be sure I loved them as much in person.  When my Mom said she needed to go Christmas shopping today I got a chance to run into World Market and see them in person and let me tell you they are just gorgeous in person! I can't wait to purchase them and check one more thing off my house to do list:)

Fun New Christmas Ornaments!

I recently won a blog giveaway from Sheena at http://sheenacolleen.blogspot.com/ who has my dream job of being an elementary school art teacher! She has a really cute blog and I love here artwork so check her out if you have time.  She was giving away a $25 Michaels gift card and I actually won!!!! I was super surprised and very happy since I never win ANYTHING!!!! So the day I got my giftcard in the mail you know I had to make a trip to Michaels which I spend way too much time and money at by the way:)  I pondered what to get, should I make a new wreath? should I get a new tree topper? new ornaments? what???? I had no idea but these little guys won me over

They were just so cute and colorful and happy and made me smile!  I had planned on using just aqua, silver and red ornaments but alas I'm doing red and green on my main tree but I also have a table top tree that I'm going to use my aqua and silver ornaments on that I'll put in my dining room.  Short post I know but I had to share:)