What a cool contest!

Have you ever seen one of these? I have and I SO want one.  I doubt I will win but maybe someone will pitch in to get me one for my birthday. :)

Check out the Idea Room's Blog for all the details: http://www.theidearoom.net/2012/07/silhouette-cameo-giveaway-2.html#comment-89750

I have to take some pictures but I'll be back to blogging next week.  We've got a rocker, a porch swing and some chairs to introduce you to!  Have a great weekend.

A present for me!

My husband's birthday was Thursday, so imagine my surprise when I saw this sitting on my kitchen floor when I got home from work.

As you can see, my kitties had already attempted to open the wrapped box for me.  A line from "Beauty and the Beast" ran through my head upon seeing this (you know, when Belle returns and the clock and candlestick are amazed? Yes, I am a mom to a five year-old.): "Could it be? Is it she?"

With a grin on my face, I started to tear away the newspaper that was protecting my missing wine rack.
Ta da! It is she!

Of course, no new piece of furniture or anything can go unnoticed without Splotch the cat investigating as you can see in the picture above.  I am so happy!!! Finally, the wine rack be be installed and the kitchen can truly be finished.  As soon as this pieces goes in, there is a large piece of crown molding that will go on top of this section of the cabinets.  The items that are being stored on our dining room and kitchen tables can go back into the cabinets for storage!  More organization can occur.  Wahoo! Can't wait to see how the installation goes! 

Butterflies!

Since I do not have any restoration stories to post at the moment, I thought I would switch over to some of the activities going on inside our dream home. With a child in the house, that means there is always something going on!

It is summertime in the south which means mama has to try hard to keep a very active five year-old occupied.  Last year, I purchased a butterfly kit and stashed it away for warm weather use. The little one found the box and reminded me, we needed to order our larvae!

The tiny larvae were shipped live to us in a cup with pasty food at the bottom. Not long after they arrived, they started to eat...and eat...and eat, which made the grow! Soon, the larvae attached themselves to the lid inside their individual chrysalis. We transferred the larvae lid to the pop-up butterfly cage. While the larvae started to turn into butterflies, we read about what was going on in the book I had ordered at the same time I bought the butterfly kit.

Finally, the butterflies began to hatch, one-by-one. While the butterflies gained wing strength, we made a flower garden for them in the bottom of the butterfly keeper.  With a dropper, we placed sugar water in the dish and along the flowers.  They knew exactly what to do!

Today, we released the butterflies.  One will stay with us until she passes on.  Unfortunately before I knew the butterflies had hatched, the kitties knocked the butterfly house to the ground and hurt the wing of one of the painted ladies. Thankfully, she is eating from the flowers we have dotted with sugar water and seems happy.  She just couldn't fly away with her sisters.  

My little girl seems to understand what is going on with our special butterfly. She put the butterfly house back in her room and said she would be a good vet to the little injured one. We will definitely order more larvae so we can enjoy the butterflies again soon! 

Happiness is...

For me, nothing says "happy" like red, white and blue.  My friend said that I am the most patriotic person she knows.  I am not sure about that but I must say, I do love Memorial Day and July 4th and I truly love Americana decorations.  I finally found stars and stripes bunting for the house locally so that I did not have to order it through the Internet.  Another perk?  It was all made here in the good ol' USA.  Just in time for Memorial Day, I was able to put up patriotic bunting along with my patriotic Glory Haus burlee.  I love this time of the year as many of the home owners in our neighborhood start putting up various styles of red, white and blue decorations.  Here is our front porch all decked out in our happy place!

Nothing says patriotic like huge bunting!

I love my Glory Haus Burlee.  It says, "Land that I love" and I
promise to take a better picture so you can actually see it!

Since this picture was taken, I have added small American flags to the planters
out front.  Goes really well with the princess pool on the porch, don't you think? :)

Still waiting...

It is the end of May and my wine rack is still AWOL.  However, I think we are getting closer.  The husband has loaned a staple gun to the guy who has been doing the painting for us.  He has returned to us the wine glass holder that goes under the wine rack.  It is pretty close in color to the cabinets! Thank goodness.  I may find a way to stain it so it has some character to it like the cabinet doors.  I'll have to wait and see once the big piece arrives.

In the meanwhile, hubby has finished painting the bathroom and we have gotten a "new" piece of furniture for storage.  My sweet Aunt has given me my cousin's victorian wardrobe.  It belonged to her great grandmother and it is truly special.  You see, my cousin and I were raised together like sisters and she was a year younger than me.  When we were in our early 20s, she was taken away from us painfully early.  There isn't a day that I don't miss her or think of her.  This piece will always hold a special place in my heart.  I am honored to own it.

This is the mirror that goes in the top right of the wardrobe.

Splotch the kitty checks out the wardrobe.

These are the beautiful pulls on the drawers.  I am on the lookout for three of them to
replace the ones that are missing.

The finished bathroom paint job.  I LOVE the color!

Purge, purge and purge some more

I had a great meeting with my fairy godmother about the kitchen yesterday.  She made me admit that I am a stacker and that my husband is a stacker and as long as we confront that issue, we can get our arms around it.  Low and behold, she told me that she and her husband are stackers (who knew?) and they too have to have a basket for mail, etc. so it doesn't do what we are doing now...cluttering up the joint.

She is coming back on Saturday to do some organizing while I am away.  God, bless her! It is a start and I am thankful. Points of entry will have new dump spots that will have to be sifted through on occasion but that is better than having tons of piles just about every where.  Hopefully the five year-old will learn from example!

Some of that fairy dust must have landed on my husband while she was around because yesterday afternoon, we spent our day off purging our bedroom closet, bathroom and sleeping area at his initiation.  Tons of magazines were sent to the recycling bin; clothing was packed in boxes for MUST ministries; and things were thrown away or shredded.  He also did a deep clean vacuuming of the floors, closet and bathroom as well as a good mopping of the tiles in the bathroom.  What a difference a few hours of team work can bring.  We still have a long way to go but it is a start.

If you are in the Cobb or Cherokee County areas and need a charity to donate to, please consider MUST ministries.  They are always in need of clothing, food and monetary donations.  We find more and more of our no-longer-needed-things going there.

A gift from the organizational goddess!

There are times where I think I know exactly how Cinderella felt when she was told by her evil stepmother that she couldn't go to the ball.  She sat there in the garden in her torn gown and tear stained cheeks, praying for a miracle to end her sorrow and helplessness.  To wash away her pain, her fairy godmother arrived.  With the wave of a magic wand and the sound of the words, Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo, she was transformed into a squeaky clean, beautifully put together princess.

As I stand in my kitchen, frustrated with the boxes, messy counters, small appliances I am not sure to do with and chaos in general, I want to pull my hair out and cry for my fairy godmother to come save the day.  There is still no update from my husband about the guy who is painting our wine rack to match the new cabinets.  I really, really don't want to put things away to just take them out again when we have to install this large piece of wood into the existing cabinets.

As all this crosses through my head every time I enter my kitchen, I decided to reach out to a friend of mine who I have dubbed the "organizational goddess"for some ideas.  She is so good at what she does! Everything in her space has a place.  I dream about her kitchen and its neat and tidy ways.  My gal pal is unfortunately moving to Missouri soon but has made time in her busy moving schedule to come and act as my fairy godmother.  Here is how the text conversation went:

Goddess:  I was thinking, wouldn't it be grand to have a meeting
you and me
talk about what you want
then let me at it during the day after kiddos are school
while you're at work??

Me:  Are you kidding me?

Goddess: You can come home all surprised!!

Me:  OMG! That would be so fun!

Goddess: I have you in my calendar.
I want my hands on that kitchen!!  :)



With that, the magic words were spoken and it felt like a wand had been waved.  I am still in shock but wanted to jot it down while it was fresh in my giddy-stricken mind.  Thank goodness for fairy godmothers with goddess-like organizational qualities! This should be a fun adventure and a good lesson for me!