house-sitting.

for the rest of this week i am enjoying staying at my parents' beautiful house. as i speak.. er.. type.. i am being completely spoiled with a king size bed and hgtv. the unsellables is on and i am shocked by what people do to their poor homes... sheesh.

anyway, i thought this would be a good opportunity to show you my mom's beautiful decorating. any sort of sense of decorating i may have comes from my mom. i have watched her be amazing since i was little and it has pretty much taught me all i know. she does a gorgeous job. especially since i'm here to tell her what to do... ha joking : ). so i am just gonna show you everything. and this is only part of the first floor. just like all of us, my mom is always improving, changing and redecorating.

her latest project is her beautiful bedroom. which is still being worked on. i know she has plans to make a headboard, window treatments and artwork over the bed. but it's already so beautiful so i'm going to show you anyway : )

she recently bought new bedding, which was the jumping off point for the rest of the room. we recovered the bench at the end of the bed to match the new color scheme. she also chose paint chips from the colors in her new comforter that she loved, then of course we bribed my stepdad into installing all the board and batten.

the armoire across from the bed used to be black. my mom painted it herself and it's just beautiful. it totally lightened up the whole room and i mean, come on. look at that beautiful blue color. it adds so much to the room. can you tell i am in love with it? and i'm also totally jealous of the gorgeous painting she found. i should have found it first. dang it.

perfect. love the texture with the glass and color. so jealous.

love this table. and the lamp. and the blue throw. geesh.

are y'all as jealous as i am right now?

so let's move to the living room.

my mom likes natural, warm tones. she has more traditional style than i do, but i completely love it. even if i do try to talk her into more color occasionally : ) oh and that big orange guy is our dog dallas. he adds to the warmness of the room, don't you think?

love this chair. my parents made the artwork on the wall by framing wallpaper with molding. then they added the swing arm sconces. so pretty and clever, right?

i love the fireplace. it was one of my favorite parts of the house when i first saw it. i love the stone and the giant white mantel. it's all dressed up for fall right now. i helped my mom do the mantel this year, but all the best parts were her ideas. we decided to go somewhat simple and natural-ish. then she added hydrangeas and the pumpkins. then we found those awesome white pinecone things at michaels and she decided she just needed them.. i agree : )

beautiful, right? i bet i've used the word beautiful more times in this post than any other. if i kept track of things like that...

okay. and i just had to show you this detail.

okay. i love that painting going up the stairs. so lovely, right? but okay. look at this wallpaper. the gold catches the light and reflects it so beautifully. my mom wallpapered this wall because it kept getting marked up. it's a high traffic area and it was driving her nuts. well i guess this was a gorgeous solution.

ugh. need wallpaper that reflects light like this when i buy a home. must remember.

i found that ceramic urn with a flower arrangement in it in the basement. we took it apart and just stuck leaves under the pumpkin. cute right?

hmm. i think i did a good job. : ) and those are my cute little parents in that picture. yah they're all happy and cute and annoying.

right off the living room is the eating area off the kitchen. yep, they've got that enviable open floor plan. but look. look at this view from their eating area

love the light fixture. love the furniture. but look. i'm serious. they have woods behind them that lead to a lake. which you can see perfectly in the winter once the leaves fall. it's so. gorgeous. phil and i ate dinner at this table last night and just enjoyed each other and the view : )

so i also want to show the entry way and dining room.

i took this picture to show how the entry way is to the left of the picture, the dark doorway is a bathroom straight ahead, the light doorway right of that is the master, and i took this from the dining room. also, check out the beautiful blue ceiling. love.

so here is the entry

love. love the mirror. love the lamp. love the table. love the little blue bird. love the pot arrangement. love. it. all.

tell me you love it too. i know you do.

the adorable little half bath. the walls are a gorgeous blue and the ceiling is a few shades lighter. i love it.

don't you love this? my mom hasn't decided she likes this bathroom yet. so leave her some love and tell her how it's beautiful.

and this is the beautiful dining room. another one of my favorite places in the house.

i had to show the centerpiece i helped my mom create. we just took strands of leaf garland and sort of wove them around the candle in the center over top of a table runner. then my mom added the tiny pumpkin-y gourd things. my sister bought the mercury glass for my mom for her birthday, so she added them to the table. simple and lovely.

yep. my sister has good taste too.



the dining room hutch. i love it. my mom bought all the dishes over time from marshalls. they are white and blue. oh, and gorgeous. also i am totally envious of those artichokes.

i love this thing. i gave it to my mom for her birthday. but now i want it back.

okay. i realize i am breaking blog records here with pictures. and it's quickly becoming the longest post maybe ever. but we're almost done. but come on. you're enjoying the beauty so quit complaining.

i basically had to show this guy because it's my mom's favorite thing. she loves it. it's always out and it always has tall grasses coming out of it. it's awesome. and beautiful.





the last space i want to show off is the deck right off the kitchen. it feels like a little oasis.

this rocker in the corner here is my favorite chair. we all fight over it. especially when we go out to the fire pit : )

and lastly, here is the reason i am here

our golden retriever dallas

and

golden doodle cheyenne. she clearly needs a bath haha.. she's kind of a tomboy : )

so i obviously love my parents' house and i knew you'd love it too. and if anybody is really bored and feels like counting how many times i said things like "beautiful" and "love" then let me know the count. it may be somewhere in the cajillions though... count at your own risk : )

fall wreath and other stuff.

sorry it's been so long pals. honestly my only excuse is that i have literally done zero projects. i've been enjoying fall, spending time with my family, celebrating birthdays and trying not to spend any money. so basically that stuff doesn't really equal tons of great projects. i may have had a little money to spend but any hopes of that were dashed when this little rascal came into our lives

this is emily. she came into our lives about a week and a half ago. literally. she came right into our apartment. my husband had been out for the evening and as he walked into our apartment he said, "uuummmm... jess! you better come here...." which really is not something you wanna hear. so i came to see what the commotion was all about and found this little kitten just wandering around, you know, just checkin us out. then she curled up on my rug and went to sleep. so clearly we couldn't kick her out! she is so tiny and of course cute, so the next day we took her to the vet. and named her emily. and she was officially ours. i guess. she is a pest. and a rascal. and always moving and doing everything she isn't supposed to. but somehow we love her anyway. 

i mean, come on. would you have had the heart to send this little face back out on the streets?

i doubt it.

so since we spent money we weren't planning to on getting her shots and flea medications and all that, i pretty much had to say no to any and all spending on projects. problem was i needed a fall wreath for my front door. it has been officially fall for like, a week people! or something like that... maybe... when is the first day of fall again??... but i had yet to put a fall wreath up. dear me. so it had to be free. basically using what i have. and that's it. problem was i was completely inspired by this picture

so cute, right?

 i thought that would be so pretty for fall and i loved the numbers on the wreath... but zero dollars = no fancy numbers. no new wreath form. and no new flowers. so i did the best i could with what i had.

i took out this wreath i had made for spring

i figured the brown yarn would look fall-ish enough. so i just ripped off the flowers and luckily for me the bird was a clip-on, so i still have the cute little guy for another year. then my project was stalled...... i won't say by whom..

i really have no idea why this would be a good spot to sleep... mind boggling.



so after i found a new spot for hobbes to sleep, i was left with a poor scarred wreath form

so i gathered anything fall-ish i had and pulled out some old hydrangeas. i liked the big full flowers in the picture and i knew i would get that from the hydrangeas

i hot glued the pumpkins on first, then i started gluing.. the word gluing looks so wrong to me right now... but i know it's not glueing... but what the heck. what a weird word.. so as i was saying, i glued the hydrangeas around them to fill in the spaces. i just ripped the heads off the stems and globbed hot glue on em and stuck em. easy. and it started to look like this

this is about 3 hydrangea stems and a couple little bunches i pulled off



after i used up all the hydrangeas i had finished i was left with this little cutie

i really liked it, but i loved the idea of house numbers on the wreath. it added so much charm and character. sadly i had no such numbers to speak of, so i had to make some. this is where it got a little too crafty for me, but it was worth it in the end.

i don't have one of those awesome cricuts or whatever they are called that just print out whatever shape you need, so i had to print out some numbers.

then i used mod podge to put them onto a cardboard box so i would have more substantial numbers

haha it looks ridiculous.



i cut out my numbers (which was annoying and honestly kind of painful for my hands) and i decided to decoupage dictionary pages to my numbers to make them look all homey and cool. i like the look of book pages and for some reason they remind me of fall, so i figured it would be cooler than just spray painting them or something. so i was left with these cozy little numbers

no they're totally not perfect. but come on. cardboard is hard to cut people.

and of course i tried to use words that reminded me of fall from the dictionary

i hot glued the numbers on and i have to say, i was pretty pleased. especially once i hung it on the door

i really like it. and it was free. and it didn't even take that long, considering i made all the numbers. if i liked everything i made as much as i like this, i would make things much more often. unfortunately things don't always turn out this well... but of course y'all know how that goes.

i am trusting that no murderers or killers will be able to see this and figure out where i live... so if you are a killer or some kind of weird stalker (hey i am very stalk-able) please forget my apartment number. thanks so much. : )

Linking up to rhoda's door decor linky party and thrifty decor chick's fall outdoor spaces party!

it's here!! it's finally here!!!

september!!!!!!! yay!!! i think this even deserves a "wahoo!!"! let me tell you, not many things deserve a "wahoo!!", but this does. i'm talking about fall coming people!! the single greatest time of the year.. i love going to the store and seeing all the school supplies! it makes me want to buy one of the erasers that looks like a pen. you know what i'm talking about? it's a long eraser inside a tube and you click it out to erase stuff... i always wanted one of those but was never lucky enough. my mom always got us the fat pink square erasers. still useful, but nowhere near as cool. my friend had one. i was jealous.

ANYWAY, so fall. i love it. we are already planning our trip to north georgia to go to the apple orchards. i officially pulled out my fall candles. aaaaand i put a new scent in my scent portable in my car from bath and body works. it's called sweet cinnamon pumpkin. it smells so. good. even phil approves : ). before you know it, it'll be october. then november and the holidays will be here. *sigh* this is the best time...

so of COURSE i have been pulling out my fall stuff. i have had a hard time deciding what to do. i wanted it to look different from last year, but i still love all my stuff from last year. so i had to reinvent some things. i bought a can of white spray paint to help with that. then i pulled out my new stuff from hobby lobby. i tell you what. my mantel took forever. and it's not really all that different from last year.

here is how it looked last year

 okay, looking back at this picture i guess it really is kind of different from last year... well a lot different. plus the entire layout of my apartment has changed. but it doesn't seem that different to me.

okay here it is. my 2011 fall mantel (this is a big deal. probably to only myself. but a big deal nevertheless.)

tah-dah!

okay this seriously took forever. those leaves and bead things are seperate pieces, so getting them to stay together is a piece of work. and then getting all the heights right... AND getting it all to stay on a narrow mantel is muy dificil. that's spanish for very difficult. for real. but i am happy with it in the end.

i took a lot of pictures of the details, then i just had fun editing and messing around with contrast and all that. so get ready for picture galore



see what i mean about keeping all that stuff on the mantel? tricky.

and just for good measure, my favorite one again



so, lucky you i haven't blogged in a few days because now i feel like i should show you something else. yah. that's right. today is a two-for-one special.

i made a fall centerpiece. i bought one of those candle wreath type things. you know what i'm talking about? it looks like a wreath but you put it around your candle? i know there is a name. and i know i am losing all credibility by not knowing it at the moment. oh well : ) so anyway, i bought one of those half off at hobby lobby. then i took some fall fruit i had from a couple years ago i didn't like all that much and sprayed it white. i found a couple other things to add and vwah-lah (the french will now be coming to destroy my computer) i was left with a centerpiece.

the lazy susan i've had. it's from ikea, but it recently got a paint job. i like it much better now. by the way, when i first learned about lazy susans i forgot the name and called it a granny smith. just a free little fun fact for you. (please note that i was 13 at the time.) the bowl i got as a wedding gift. it was on our target registry. it's one of my very favorite things we got. the little nuts are from target also. i had all those things. the only thing i purchased for this baby was a $3 can of spray paint. and a $2 candle-wreath-thingy. see? you don't have to buy a $2000 centerpiece from a certain-place-that-won't-be-named-but-rhymes-with-schmottery-parn in order to have a nice fall centerpiece. all you have to do is be willing to move things around, think of new purposes for things you already have and be willing to spray paint. a lot. : )

oh. also, i meant to tell you. if you are having a hard time getting into the fall spirit, just search "harvest time" in google images. you will immediately want to carve a jack-o-lantern and bob for apples. trust me.

HAPPY SEPTEMBER EVERYONE!!


linking up to layla's mantel party!!

fall preview.

okay okay. i know i wasn't going to put anything fallish up until at least september. however, i had a little project to do. and i wanted it done. mostly because there were a few things i have that i wanted to spray paint white. i also wanted to paint some of my fall decor white. so really, i was just trying to be smart and make sure that i would have enough paint for everything.... that's my story. and it's pretty much true.

so what i did was i bought three little pumpkins with picks on them from hobby lobby. i also bought a grapevine wreath. they have some really nice ones. and they were half off. i paid $2 for this sucker. that's awesome. it's really pretty. so anyway, i painted the little pumpkins white.. so naturally i wanted to see how they would look on the wreath. then i naturally wanted to see how the wreath would look hanging up. which led to me changing around the stuff on the mantel. which makes me wonder what i'm doing because i am going to change it again next week with all my fall stuff. but now i really like it. darn me and my impatience.

so this is what my mantel looked like after that

i'm really loving the silver/green/white/blue combo. i'm going to find it hard to change it now for fall. dang it. i feel like it looks so pottery barn-ish. okay, maybe not exactly but it has that feel. and i'm loving the wreath.

so i liked it a lot, but i knew it needed some height (thanks for teaching me those things mom : )) so i decided to do it the free way and just gather sticks and put them in the pitcher. sticks are fall-ish right? so now it looks like this

i don't know. what do you think? is it too stick-y with the wreath and all those sticks? i mean, how many sticks does a mantel need? or is it natural and fabulous? i can't tell. i like both ways honestly. hmm. tricky.

anyway, this is my fall preview. don't you love my wreath? i mean, i don't want to brag or anything, but i'm totally in love with it and i think it's so pretty. see? mixing the natural with the feminine is a winner. always. i want another one on the door. i probably will try to do something else though because i mean... you can't have the same wreath all over your house, right? oh, by the way this wreath in total cost me about $5. that's pretty good. considering i'm in love with it and i want to leave it up all year. but i won't. don't worry : ).

oh, also. i maintain that it is now acceptable to talk about fall considering i got three fall catalogs yesterday. yup. better homes and gardens, pb kids, and ballard. if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me. that's what i always say.