Show Us Where You Live- Dining Room

I haven't participated in a Show Us Where You Live in a while, but I LOVE my dining room, and I really want to show it off, if only to my blogger friends! So here we go....


Okay, before I show you what it is NOW, I want you to see what I started with...

Standing in the dining room, looking into the kitchen-


Nice 80's fixture (it was plastic, by the way...NICE) and bare, flat, nasty white walls...but I had nice moulding. It was the only thing that would stay...


And now....

Here is my Broyhill piece that I got at an estate sale for CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP!!! Love this thing! It was in inspiration for my whole room. I know it looks messy on top, but I am rapidly running out of places to store things!


We took down the cabinets when we redid the kitchen (you HAVE to come back on kitchen week to see that transformation! Awesome!) and added a breakfast bar. This is looking into the dining room from the sink.



The color above the chair rail is called Aegean Teal by Ben Moore. LOVE LOVE LOVE it! It is SO going in our next house!!!



Looking into the dining room from the living room.



I love our plates. They are from BB&B, and I selected the teal color from them. I just HAD to use them in the room, so I picked up these plate hangers at HobLob and hung them on either side of the bay window.


I am a Willow House consultant (formerly known as Southern Living at Home), and this is a piece from our Spring catalog. I just love this ice bucket and stand. We don't drink a lot, but this is great for parties! Wine, beer, soda! Great!


This is my HOG platter. We are big HOG fans here at the Brewer's, and this is great for those watch parties!!!


This is a wall decal that I got online somewhere. I just love it!


This is my Happy Everything Platter. The attachments at the top change, and it is great for every season! I also have a Happy Everything apron (come back for the kitchen tour to see it!) and I am itching for the cookie jar!


Our table has a drawer under it, and this is where I keep my bag of Happy Everything attachments.


I don't have all of them, but I am working on it!!! ;)


This is the cabinet to the right of the breakfast bar. Instead of having a dead space, we put this in, and it is a great place to keep our entertaining dishes.


I cannot believe I am showing this...it is a MESS....


Here is the breakfast bar that we put in. We use it ALL the time- I don't know what we did without it!!!


This guy used to be above the fireplace, but I needed something heavy for this wall. I think he fits the bill nicely! Don't you love him?!?! He was $30 on MEGA sale! Love him now???? :)


Thanks for stopping by! Hope to see you next time! And feel free to check out my other posts and follow me! I *heart* new followers!!! :)

Frugality...

I want to be frugal. I TRY to be frugal. I strain to be frugal. But after ANOTHER 100.00+ trip to the devils store (aka Walmart) I have decided to admit it. To you, by dear blogger friends....

Hello. My name is Rachel. And I am a shopaholic. A "spendy cindy."

Whew! I feel SOOOO much better getting that off my chest.

Now I would like to say that I love getting a good deal. I buy almost everything (okay, mostly clothes and home accessories) on sale. Or eBay. But I am also VERY good at rationalizing to myself why I need a particular item, even if I have no place for it. This trait makes my yard sale customers very happy. But makes for a not-so-happy husband.

For example: My aunt texted me a picture of some baby Uggs. 50.00. Now if you know me at all, you know that in the winter, I pretty much LIVE in my Uggs. Love them, and of course I want my baby to have some. I am sure she will love them as much as I do. But $50.00?!?!?! For baby shoes??!?!?!? I think not! So I hit up eBay. And I find a really cute pink pair. And a really cute brown pair. What's a girl to do? I watch them for a few days, and I finally break down and buy them. BOTH pairs. So now Ava has more Ugg boots than many adult women do. And she MAY be able to wear them all winter.

Then there is my other half...

My husband. Mr. Frugal. The man that was sleeping on a mattress covered in a sleeping bag when I met him because "it worked." BOY, did that change. They say that opposites attract. This is, indeed, the case for us. When we met, and I went to his apartment for the first time, my first thought was "this poor guy!!!" I thought he was BROKE AS A JOKE. He wasn't. He is just thrifty. He thought our house was fine the way it was when we moved in. Flat white walls and ugly kitchen and all. Had he known how much money I was going to dump into the place, he probably would have just bought me the more expensive and fully updated house we looked at and called it a day! LOL!

The moral is this...

You can't really change WHO you are. But you can change HOW you deal with WHO you are. I am a shopper. I like to buy things. It makes me feel happy. So I try to buy things that are a great deal. That is how I cope with this awful issue I have. (hehe)

Have a wonderful day! It's beautiful here in Arkansas!!! Hope it is as nice where you are!!!!

CRAFTY!!!

So as I mentioned in my post yesterday, I have been making some crafts for people. Diaper cakes, canvases, etc. So I wanted to share. I have had many requests for these, so I think I am going to have to start charging. But I will do my best to keep costs below what similar items cost on other sites. After all, who says you have to spend a lot to be a HOGS fan? (I can do other schools, too. I just won't like it as well. Especially if it is UT, LSU, or Alabama.) :)






I also picked up a red pair of Toms shoes the other day to paint. I have a black pair and a pink pair, and have been itching to paint some, so I figured what better time than now to grab up some red ones and go "HOG WILD" on them. So this was the result...







And here are some sneak peaks at my next project- something for my sweet sister Amber. Any guesses on what I might be up to??? ;)

Hello Again, Blogger World

I have been a BAD, BAD blogger. I know. I am sure my 11 followers have really missed me. HA! I really want to try and do better. Because I am not a scrapbooker and I am not good at keeping a journal. And this is a great record of my family and Ava's life! So with "all" of my spare time, that is what I am going to do. Call it my Autumn Resolution. :) The frog is a little friend that was visiting my porch this morning as I took out the trash. I am told that frogs are good luck. I always have them on my porch, so I hope that is true!!!

So what has been happening....well I am still going through a somewhat difficult time, but I am in a grove and things are going well. I PROMISE to tell you all about it in April. And no, it has nothing to do with babies!!! ;)

Ava is growing like a weed!!!! She is SUCH a happy baby, and I am so thankful for that. She really is the joy and light in our lives, and I thank GOD for her each and every day. Especially since I seem to have many close friends who have gone through fertility issues recently, or the loss of a child. Life is so precious. I look at her and I just can't help but think of Christ's love for us. I don't think I really understood the sacrifice that He made...His ONLY Son. WOW. It just leaves me speechless. Thank you, Lord. Every night I say a prayer to Ava- just a simple little rhyme prayer that I used to say as a child-

"Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And if I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take."

She usually laughs at me when I say it over her. I guess the rhyming makes it funny. But one night, I was just having an emotional night, and after I said her prayer, I opened my eyes, and she smiled at me and put her little hand on my cheek, as if to say "I love you mommy." Melted my heart!!!! Every night I tell her how much I love her. I say "I love you more than the world and everything in it." And that is SO true. I want to be there for her, always. But if I had to, I would gladly lay down my life for her. In a heartbeat, without question, without hesitation. She is my world, and I love her so dearly. :)

We are STILL working on our house. I know it will be done. Someday. Maybe the day that we decide to move. Which, with as much stuff as the aforementioned booger has, may be sooner than later! LOL! I can't even think about having TWO! Although I am already asking Cole when we can have another! But we really want Ava out of diapers before we start down this road again. If for no other reason than the cost!

I have started making diaper cakes and painting canvases. The diaper cakes were an intentional business. The canvas painting was not. Although I think that it has more potential. Wider market. ;) I just feel like I need to contribute to the household. With money. :) Or at least make a little of my own spending money. Cole is such a good husband, and really spoils me. Never has he made me feel as if it is "his" money or that I had to ask to spend. Although sometimes I do wish he would put me on an allowance. I get a little spendy sometimes!!! Spendy Cindy!!! I really am trying to be better. I have some personal goals and I am really trying to stick to them.

I will have to add some house pictures soon. If you are my FB friend, you have already seen a lot of our work. If not, you will be pleased with the progress, I hope!

We got a new computer and I haven't had a chance to get my old stuff transferred (our old motherboard fried. Thankfully the hard drive is okay. Stupid Acer.) so I don't know if I can get my before pictures up and on here. I will try. In the meantime, please enjoy a boat load of pictures!!!!



The flashed scared her....




Working on crawling. She ALMOST has it. She will crawl before she really sits up for any length of time. She is too busy to just SIT. :)




Mommy and her sweetpea!




She loves to chew on her thumb. Not suck. Chew! Hello teeth! Come on out!!!




Beauty.




I know this is in here twice. But can you really get enough of that yummy face!? Yeah, me either!!!



These are her playing with her BFF. The penguin. She LOVES that crazy thing!!!