Who Needs Spring?

Do you know what I love about living in Iowa?  It’s totally the weather…oh wait…

It was 90+ degrees yesterday.  It was 45 last week.  I LOVE the heat….but I also love spring.  We haven't seen much of spring yet and I would like to enjoy a few 70 degree/low humidity days before we head into the dog days of summer….Ike is all about the dog days of summer…he missed sunbathing…

It was so nice out that we decided to FINALLY bring out the deck furniture.  Our furniture is from the Martha Stewart line at Home Depot (aka inexpensive).  We purchased it last year.  We both love it.  The furniture is super comfortable and is the perfect size for our space.

The deck is our favorite summer hang out spot. It’s like adding a whole other room to our house.  We love the tree house feel that it has.

We are creatures of habit and the deck definitely plays a role in our nightly routine.  We get home from work, eat, walk 3 miles, and then sit on the deck until it’s dark. Nate plays on his phone.  I read. We occasionally talk to each other (what?, we just went on a 3 mile walk together).  It’s a fabulous way to end the work day!

Here’s the view from the comfiest seat on the deck…the loveseat…

When building the deck we decided not to have stairs to the patio below.  We did this for two reasons.  Reason #1, the dog.  We had to use a baby gate to keep the dog on the deck at our first house.  Neither of us was really digging that for this house.  Reason #2, I’m paranoid and didn’t like the idea of someone coming up the back of my house at night.  The things we do for my craziness…and this guy…

And I hate to admit it…but I was the one who decided to turn on the ceiling fans when I got home last night.  It was painful. It seriously hurt my ego me a lot. All of my pretty chandelier/fan destroying dreams came crashing down into tiny pieces….and then the room was cooler…and Nate gave me that “I told you so” look that I love so much. I actually hate this fan the least of any ceiling fan.  It’s called the Dragonfly.  I don’t remember who makes it.  I just liked the name.

How are you preparing for spring/summer?  Do you have a favorite spring/summer hangout?

**If you’re bored, feel free to vote for us on the right hand side of our blog..it’s only 1 click!**

Linking up to: HOUSEography, Savvy Southern Style

Oh Snap!

Do you have an Android phone, iPhone, or Blackberry?  If not, I highly recommend a smart phone.  I was totally against it.  I was afraid of a phone being smarter than me (which mine is).  I didn’t want to become one of those people who was always on their phone (and I am)….still totally worth it.  My Samsung Mesmerize is like my tiny little child.

Why am I so in love with my phone? For calling people?  What? You can do that?  No, actually it’s the apps.

Nate ran across info on Sherwin-Williams ColorSnap app…isn’t he an awesome husband?

The free app allows you to:

• capture a color that inspires you and match it to one of 1,500 Sherwin-Williams paint colors.
• Create a custom palette or Ask Sherwin-Williams for colors that complement your color.
• Search for specific colors or browse the full Sherwin-Williams color palette right from your iPhone or Blackberry, or Android smart phone.
• Fine tune colors using lightness, saturation and hue features.
• Save colors to your "My Saved Colors" library to compare palettes or share via Facebook and email.
• Learn detailed color information, including color names, RGB values, and LRV numbers—all with the ColorSnap app.
• Find a Sherwin-Williams Store Near You

Pretty awesome, right?  I feel like this will definitely come in handy!!

I tested it out in our house.  I used my favorite pillow ever as a guinea pig…

After analyzing the color, the app came up with Golden Rule as the matching color.

I tried the app on our walls…which are all painted with Sherwin Williams paint.  It did not match on any wall in our house.  The glares/reflections/flash on the phone camera all probably play a role in affecting the results.  Your phone camera may work better than mine..who knows!

After testing it out, I think it will be useful for matching accent colors….like using Golden Rule as an accent color on some frames in our guest bedroom.  I wouldn’t rely on it for wall colors though!

Who else has a phone that is smarter than they will ever be?  Any other thoughts on useful ideas for this app?

Update Kitchen Tour

While Nate cooks supper (yeah, I’m a lucky lady…I have the dishes to look forward to though…so it’s not all rainbows and unicorns..but I’m definitely not complaining!), I am going to link up to the House Tour over at HOUSEOgraphy.



Today’s feature room is the kitchen!  My previous kitchen tour posts are lacking so I thought I’d whip up a new one real quick like…(whip up...because it’s the kitchen…oh, I’m killing myself…this is what 9 hours in a pharmacy will do to you…)






Room info
Wall color: Svelte sage (Sherwin Williams)
Cabinets: Woodland/Provincial doors/Ivory
Granite: Epic stone/Black
Fridge: GE profile, french door
Cook top: Whirlpool
Oven/microwave: GE
Dishwasher: Bosch

Our pantry is located under the “EAT” letters….the floor plan required this wall for support.  I decided that it was a good spot for a pantry.  Yeah, that was good move.  I don’t know what we would do without this space.



I like glass and brightly colored dishes.  It’s liking opening up cupboards of happiness…




What kitchen tour would be complete without checking out the inside of the fridge.  It’s like MTV’s Cribs…except I’m not a rapper…I only wish I was…




Linking up to: The DIY Show Off, Cottage and Vine

Garage Sale Results

We had our our 2nd ever garage sale on Saturday morning. It was a beautiful Saturday morning and I am happy to report that it was a success!

 

We started with a whole garage full of crap treasures…

I’d say that we sold half of it.  (I forgot to take after pictures.  We were ready to get the remainder loaded up and taken to the Salvation Army…before I decided that I needed to keep any of it.)  Not horrible for as much stuff as we had.

How much money did we make?

• Nate and I:
  • $170.00 (We had some large items..an old laptop, 2 bikes, bathroom faucets a papasan chair..the rest was clothes or household items.)
• My brother (who was an awesome garage sale assistant):
  • $15.35 (childhood toys..broke my heart a little.  My little brother is growing up…at the age of 26. :) )
• Nate’s mom:
  • $48.00  (household items)
• My mom:
  • $2.25 (all clothes)

How much time did we invest?

• We had our last garage sale 2 years ago.  We usually go through our house about twice a year and throw everything we haven’t used in the past 6 months in our basement storage room.  We did make a quick run through (probably about 20 minutes) for final items.
• We separated the items by category and marked them: 1 hour
• Setting up tables/carrying items from the basement to the garage/final marking: 2 hours
• Selling items:  4.5 hours
• Packing up/hauling items to the Salvation Army: 45 minutes

Things we learned/tips:

• We held our garage sale on the week-end of our town-wide garage sales.  We live about 10 miles outside of the Quad Cities and town-wide garage sales usually draw pretty good traffic in Iowa.
• Having a full garage helps attract potential “customers.”
• Placing large items outside (if it’s nice) also draws in “customers.”
• Marking items “cheap” will help you sell more and probably make more of a profit than prices items higher and hoping they will sell at that price.
  • I had at least 6 large garbage bags full of clothes (don’t judge).  We sold all clothes for $0.25.  We ended with 1 1/2 large bags.
• Be willing to negotiate.  We had the laptop marked at $50 but took $45.  We may have been able to sell it on-line for $70-80 but the garage sale was much easier. We had 2 faucets at $25 a piece and took $30.
• Keep the signs you make for garage sales in the future….just be sure to spell garage right…

It’s amazing how far pharmacy school gets you.  This picture was from our sale 2 years ago.  We kept all of the correctly spelled signs for our sale this year.  It was nice to not have to to go through this embarrassment again.  Check out my Motorola Razr phone…oh getting old…

My brother and I did sneak away for about 30 minutes to see if we could find any treasures. We walked away pretty empty handed.  I did purchase this table for my niece for $0.50. 

 

Nate’s sister had been looking for a small table for our niece’s room and I didn’t think I could go wrong for $0.50.  Stay tuned for it’s make-over!

What are your thoughts on garage sales?  Awesome way to clean house?  Too much hassle?  Do my messy garage shelves make you want to organize them?…yeah, me too…

Happy Mother’s Day

Nate and I would like to wish our moms a Happy Mother’s Day!

(This is the only picture I can find of Nate and his mom together.  We need to work on that!)

Happy Mother’s Day to our moms and all of you moms…and dog moms out there! :)

Guest Post- Primitive and Proper

Happy Friday!! I want to thank everyone for their nice comments this week!  I tried to get back to most of you but this week has been CRAZY!!  I’ll hopefully catch back up early next week.  Blogging is time consuming..but I LOVE it!

I also want to thank you for voting for us at the Picket Fence Blogs (We’re currently #9 thanks to all of you…and you can still vote daily (click the button on the right side of the ol’ blog)).

Today I am over at Primitive and Proper sharing our guest bedroom…

Cassie is an extremely talented blogger and she does amazing things with paint and junk furniture (a girl after my own heart)!  I first found her through her link party, Piece of Work Wednesday, and I have been hooked on her blog ever since. Be sure to stop by and check out our guest bedroom!…

On an annoying note, we are having a garage sale tomorrow.  It’s sucking my will to live.  Seriously.  It was Nate’s brilliant idea.  What dude thinks having a garage sale is a good idea?  My dude, I guess. We’ll share Monday whether it was a success or an epic failure.

So many treasures….

Happy week-end!! What are your plans?  Who’s crashing our garage sale??

Sleepy Scotcheroos

Not all Scotcheroos are created equal.  It’s a fact. 

My favorite recipe is courtesy of one my best friends since childhood, Mary.  I’d post her picture below but then I’d no longer have her as a friend…so I won’t…this time.

Get ready to make the tastiest Scotcheroos to date.  You will want to have some place to take them otherwise you will eat the entire pan.  I made them a couple of  week-ends ago and shared them with Nate’s family.  They are so good my nephew was sleep eating them…

 
Funniest. Thing. Ever.  The poor kid didn’t take a nap and was falling asleep at the table while gnawing away at the scotcheroo….they are THAT good.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup white syrup (Karo)
• 1 1/2 cup peanut butter (Jif)  (I think the secret is the half jar of peanut butter.)
• 4 cups Rice Krispies
• 1 cup chocolate chips (Nestle)
• 1 cup butterscotch chips (Nestle)

I’m usually not a product snob but I totally am with this recipe!!

Bring white sugar and white syrup to a boil.  Remove from heat.

Add peanut butter and mix well.  Add Rice Krispies and mix well.

Pat down in a cake pan.



Melt chocolate chips and butterscotch chips.  Spread over bars.  Cut when set.


Enjoy!



You won’t sleep until they’re gone…

Hanging Out at Remodelaholic

Today I am guest posting at Remodelaholic!

I was VERY excited when Cassity contacted me to write a guest post about our West Elm Window Headboard Copy Cat…

Remodelaholic is a great site for “Before & Afters” (one of my favorites) and many other DIY projects.  They also host weekly link-ups for DIY projects (Fridays), recipes (Sundays), and Etsy stores (Saturdays).  If you are a new blogger, linking up is one of the best ways to get your blog read. I posted about our headboard back in January.  It didn’t get noticed until a couple of weeks ago after I linked it up to places like Remodelaholic.

If you’re visiting our blog for the first time, Welcome!! Feel free to leave comments…they are what get me through the work day! :)

**If you like our blog, please vote for us DAILY by clicking the “We’re on the Fence” button on the right.  We’re really close to the Top 10…thanks to you all!! :)**

Citrus Themed Bridal Shower

The blog may be lacking a little this week.   Why? This past week-end I made the 3 hour journey back home to host a bridal shower for my best friend since the 2nd grade, Melissa.

(We didn’t plan the black cardigans…I swear.)

We decided on citrus theme for the shower.  I’m not really into themes but showers just work better with a theme.  I’m not really into showers either but I made it through this one…probably because I didn’t have to participate in those horrible shower games.

Here are a few party details…

The Invites: I designed the invites and had them printed at FedEx Office (aka Kinkos).  I had never used Kinkos before.  I highly recommend printing a test invite before ordering 50 of them.  They turned out fine but I would have made a few color changes had I been patient enough for a test print.  Lesson learned.

Guest Book: In place of a boring ol’ guestbook, I decided to make a photo book where guests could write wishes/advice for the happy couple.  I recorded the gifts the bride-to-be received at the end of the book.

Martha Stewart Poms:  Martha makes them seem easy.  I wouldn’t go that far.  They were kind of a pain.  They did turn out sort of cute though.

 

And they made fun kites for the flower girl after the shower…

The Food:  The bride’s mom and aunt were in charge of the food and they did a fabulous job.

Table Decorations:  Our options for location in a town of 800 were either the church basement or the Community Center.  We decided on the Community Center.  It is very brown.  I tried to add some color but didn’t want to go too over the top.  Things back home are simple.  It’s one of the qualities of small town life that I miss.

 

The Gifts:  The bride received some lovely gifts…

She’s lucky this mixer ended up in her house.

My mom and I purchased her a pintuck duvet from Target.  What can I say?  My friend has good taste!

 

What are your thoughts on shower themes?  Do you loathe showers like I do?

**Shameless plea…Please vote for Decor and the Dog below…we’re currently #12!**

Parade of Homes- House #11

Welcome to Decor and the Dog, House #11 on the Parade of Homes Tour hosted by A Bowl Full of Lemons!

If you are new, let me catch you up! My husband (Nate) and I are living in our second home.  We built both.  We did a lot of the work ourselves which has allowed us to build our dream home without breaking the bank!  We are now working on decorating our home…on a budget.  Pharmacy school left me with a hefty student loan payment and we are working hard to pay that off while still creating a beautiful home! Unlike many other blogs, we show you the finished and unfinished!

Come on in!

When you open our front door, you will first see our circular staircase and the two story living room.

On your left is our dining room…

We used Photoshop Elements to make create a professional looking photo of our dog (read about the process here)…and yes, we are THOSE people who use their dog as art. :)  I purchased the hutch from the Salvation Army and refinished it.  We plan to add crown molding soon!

Straight ahead is the living room…

We spend most of our time in this room.  We wanted something that looked like grown-ups lived in the house but was also super comfortable and inviting.  You can read more about the living room and our plans for it here.

Looking left from the living room is our kitchen and breakfast area…

I’d like to tell you that I spend a lot of time in our kitchen cooking…but in reality…I spend a lot of time sitting on one of those bar stools watching Nate cook.  He cooks.  I clean. We’re a good pair.  Our favorite things in our kitchen include the island (you can read how we added the bead board here), the microwave/oven combo, and the stainless steel hood.

On the other side of our living room is our office….

You can read more about our office here.  You can read about how we installed crown molding here.

Other rooms on the first floor include our powder room and mudroom…both are obviously still in progress…

Heading up the stairs you will find our master suite (on the right of the walk way), laundry room (top of the stairs), and Jack-and-Jill bedrooms/bath (on the left).

Let’s head on into our master suite.  Here’s our master bedroom…

 

You can read about how we made our West Elm inspired Window Headboard here….as seen on Apartment Therapy…typing that is funny.  We do plan to build a bed frame soon (to replace the lovely bed skirt).  Stop back for that!

Off of our master bedroom is our master bathroom…

You can read more about the master bath/tub here and here!

The second floor also includes our laundry room…

And Jack & Jill bedrooms and a bath.  We currently use one of the rooms as a guest room and one as a “craft” room.  We haven’t done much with them and I asked Nate to take a picture of them before we left for the week-end…I wasn’t home to spruce them up…so you get them as is.  It’s nice to see a few messyish rooms though, right?..like my ironing board that doesn’t fold up but I’m too cheap to buy a new one…

Now we’ll head to the basement where we still have quite a bit of work to do.

Here is our family room area.  It needs help.  If only time and money grew on trees…

Next we have a guest bathroom.  We plan to paint this room grey, add a white shower curtain, and maybe add some board and batten.

Last we have our guest bedroom…

You can read more about the guest bedroom here.  You can read about how we reupholstered the headboard here.

That concludes our house tour.  We’re glad you stopped by and we encourage you to stop back for updates!  Check out our Projects tab above for some DIY ideas!  Paint colors are listed on the House Tour tab above.  Let me know if you have any other questions!

House #12 is next.  Click the button below to head on over to Casa Greer…

If you would like to start the tour from the beginning, click the button below!

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