Etsy Finds: FabricWorm

While it rained outside today, I spent the day surfing the web for the perfect fabric to make new pillows out of for our living room update- yes, another room that I want to change, just little things. First stop Etsy. Of course there are tons of Amy Butler fabrics, how can you blame them, her fabric designs are lovely, but I was looking for something different. I wanted a vintage feel with orange accents and some humor. FabricWorm had just what I was looking for. 

HOLD THE PHONE! It's perfect!! I found this awesome package with three fabrics that met my needs perfectly! So it is ordered and on its way! No need to look any further. 

The Plan: I'm thinking of using the birds (with a felt ribbon accent) and the wood-grain (with a piped edge)  for pillows for the couch, and the Amy Butler polka dots for a lumber pillow for our leather club chair. There are a few more surprises for the room, but I'm not going to post until it's done! More work to be done...

© The Simple Wife

Weekend Warriors

Saturday morning started nicely with a yummy breakfast at one of our favorite spots on the square. Chocolate filled croissants and fresh fruit, delicious. We then headed to Home Depot for a few things to help us with our To Do list for the day. We were working on staining our basement doors and building a gate for our front porch. I used some of the stain left over from the porch project and worked on the basement doors.

{ The Before }

{ The After }

Erik built a gate for the end of our front porch. Our porch is raised above the ground so you can see underneath it and it isn't pretty so Erik built a lattice screen for the front, so he was just finishing the job with the gate for the end. He put brackets on it so if we needed to get under the porch we could lift the gate and go. After he built it, I stained it. 

{ The Before }

{ The After  }

Not bad for a couple hours. Our next weekend project is to paint our retaining wall that is my nightmare and Erik has a plan for finishing the top of it. Here it is in its current state. Shocking, I know.

© The Simple Wife

A Christmas Miracle!

The hallway is finally illuminated! A couple days ago I got our new modern hallway light hung. I painted the cord so that it disappears against the wall. Because it is a corded light, I chose to put it on a timer so that I don't have to plug it in every time I need a little light. Now  can actually see everything in our linen closet and it brings a nice glow to  our living room! YAY! Another project done for now...

© The SimpleWife

Revealed! My new Master Bedroom

I cannot express enough how much I love my navy oasis of a room! The color turned out perfect and everything wonderfully feel into place. The Art wall came out amazing, the new shades are nice and fuzzy, and the bronze Japanese tea table looks beautiful. Here it is:

{ Oh dreamy blue... }

{ The mustard velvet shades pop against the wall, and the tea table glows. }

{ My drawings, prints and pictures of Mr. Grubbs and I are all featured on the Art Wall.}

{ My orchid is flanked by the crystal candlesticks- beautiful sculptures without candles. }

My only concern is with the new accent pillows. The golden pillow will stay, but I'm not sure if I want to introduce the fabric I had originally purchased for the accent pillows. I was going to make 2 patterned pillows with this fabric and two solid orange ones to play off the hints of orange in the fabric. What do you think?? Too funky for the room, or just the right amount of funk?

© The Simple Wife

Update: Master Bedroom

{ www.midatlanticpaint.com }

Bright and early Friday, the painting began. I got up semi-early, grabbed some leftover Thanksgiving goodies for breakfast :) and got the paint out. I edged, rolled, then rolled again. Our room took almost the entire can of paint with a little to spare for touch ups. Then I caulked the trim for a nice clean line and waited to move the furniture back. It was so stinky in the room that Mr. Grubbs and I had to have a slumber party on the couch for the evening (yes, we forgot that we have a guest room.) But it was worth it because the color turned out AMAZING. It has a nice edgy-preppy style to it. Our gold Japanese tea table really pops. I also switched out our old paper lamp shades for these cool mustard yellow velvet ones from Ikea:

I also got all of my artwork and photos framed and hung on the Art wall. Our dresser is updated with more crystal candlesticks that are in need of some new candles. All I have left is to get the new pillows sewn. I'm waiting until then for the big reveal, so hold on for just a little bit longer!

© The Simple Wife

Drumroll Please.

Here it is in all its glory! My new and wonderfully chocolate brown porch! * Please excuse all the leaves, it's very windy today!

I'm so excited that it is finally done. There is no better feeling than the feeling of accomplishment. I have such a great sense of it on this project. I did everything by myself. I moved the furniture, pressure washed it, and stained it without any help. I love saying "I did that" and today is no different! Now on to the next project...updating the landscaping for the winter!

OMG!

HALLELUJAH!!!! The porch is stained! The porch is stained. The porch is FINALLY FREAKIN' STAINED!!!

Pictures tomorrow. 

Wow, I feel 10 lbs lighter.

The List

Something, always something brewing To Do! I have a list that is my mission to complete before or during the Thanksgiving break. Here is my wish list:

1. FINISH staining the deck- I have to get a second can of stain, I ran out yesterday.
2. Update/Refresh landscaping for the cold months- shift a couple of shrubs and plant annuals, then refresh mulch.
3. Work on the painting for the master bath.
4. Find a delicious receipe for dinner when Katie and Cj come over for dinner while visiting from Omaha.
5. Find a suitable and cheap organization plan for our master closet

We'll see if I can get all of this done by Thanksgiving day. Then "Black Friday" is reserved for Christmas card writing and decorating!!

Stain- I hate you.

Day 5 on the porch. 

Bad news: may have to get another can of stain to finish. 

Bad news: still not done. 

Bad news: my back and legs are KILLING.

Good news: it looks awesome so far!!

Status: Porch

My projects have been pretty dormant for the past week. While I was in Pittsburgh Mr. Grubbs was AMAZINGLY wonderful and tried to work on staining the deck for me. I only had the front section of the railing done and he got another section done for me before he couldn't take it anymore. Disclaimer: he is NOT a painter. In our first house, we repainted almost everything, even though it was a rental. We were painting our bedroom a fresh coat of white when Mr. Grubbs kicked the whole bucket of paint over onto the hardwood floors! It was awful so he hasn't had a brush since. Needless to say, I still have lots to do to get it done. I'll be working on it today for as long as I can before Sunday dinner at Mom's.

Here is what the stain looks like. It is a deep rich brown, I adore it!

The BEFORE:

Here is my current master bathroom in its celery green glory. It has been nice for a while but it has to go. The semi-gloss finish was a HUGE mistake. My mother-in-law Anita gave me a "painted bathroom" for my birthday so I can't wait to see the finished results. Today I'm going to Ikea to use Ashley and Scott's giftcard to pick up some goodies to help with the new bathroom. After pictures to come...

Holy Crap, It's Done!!

The BEFORE

Well folks I actually did it! The back corner of my little abode is complete. This spot has been an eye sore ever since we moved in. It was awkward, sloped and full of weeds. Plus it is right on our property line. So I chose plants that help with erosion and are evergreen and spreading so they should create a beautiful carpet to hold the dirt in. The arborvitae will grow to be about 30' high which will create some privacy along with the other 2 I have in the back bed. I went on a little trip this weekend and when I was gone my wonderful hubby surprised me with a beautiful whiskey barrel planter with a gorgeous red begonia in it. He also completed the river rock trench for the drain pipe and he put in a french drain under our porch to help with the water flow that was causing most of our weed and erosion issues. (Drum-roll....)  

Introducing our new and improved corner in all its glory:

My new planter.

New Coneflower in back bed.

Back bed, nice and evergreen!

It was a very difficult and time-consuming project but well worth it! 

Next up: propagating my hydrangeas!

UPDATE: Landscaping Project

I have removed all of the weeds and debris from the back corner of the house. I also used every bit of strength I have to dig and remove one of the two fence posts- Erik is going to have to handle the other one! The drainage pipe for the down spout has been dug out and it has been given a new, clean end also a deeper and better trench was added. I'm going to add a river rock bed to the top of the pipe to help the water flow better instead of all the puddling that happens now. 

The next step is to buy the plants and put them in the ground. I will be purchasing 4-5 juniper shrubs and 1 arborvitae tree. I'm also going to divide my lamb's ear from the current bed and place it as a ground cover around the arborvitae. The bed of shrubs by our porch is also going to get a face-lift. Once I have thinned out the lamb's ear I'm going to add some Echinacea or white coneflowers that are perennials to dress it up a bit. Hopefully I can have all of this done by Friday!! It would be nice to not have to worry about it when I go back to work next week. I'll have more pictures of the finished project soon!

Landscaping Woes

I am a self-professed do-it-yourself kind of girl. I was always taught if no one is there to help, figure it out yourself, so usually I do. Thanks to the help and inspiration from my neighbor Lesley- who has an amazing green thumb- I have really gotten into caring for my lawn. I have replaced our pine straw back 'yard' with an evergreen garden of arborvitae trees, lambs' ear, and phlox. But the corner of our back lot, I'm convinced, will be the end of me. It mainly consists of a huge tree stump and dirt. And when it rains it becomes a weed jungle. I have hesitated to landscape it because it is technically not our property but no one owns the house next door yet and I have to take action immediately. So here is a BEFORE picture of what it looks like now...

Yikes! Don't you just  love how our builder left the old chain link fence posts! I have removed all the weeds and will be removing the posts this weekend. This is the plan:

1. Re-dig the trench for the drain pipe, and fill with river rocks to aid in the drainage issue.
2. Plant an arborvitae  tree next to the house.
3. Fill in area around the tree stump with juniper plants to assist with erosion.
4. Transplant some of my lambs' ear to the side of the house to dress the arborvitae.

I'll post the after pictures when it is complete. Wish me luck!