Happy Fall!

Start of fall has been very busy for us this year. One kiddo started Kindergarten and the other Preschool, add the hassle of transferring IEP's to a new school district and you get lot and lots of paperwork. But October has brought both, a settling in our home schedules, and other changes that will effect us later..but for now the dust has settled and we can start enjoying fall in Eastern WA. Crisp morning Air combined with afternoons still warm enough for shorts and T's, makes for good outside play weather. It also brings my second favorite holiday and the decorations that go with it.. HALLOWEEN. This year is going to be a fun one.. we have three different trips to pumpkin patches, with school and with family. My boys are anticipating that great sport of pumpkin wrangling.

So I promise to get more posts up this week.. including a tour of our inside decor, a peek at what I have done outside and a close up tour of my Dept. 56 Halloween collection.

My Craftroom Tour

One of the things I love about our new house is my craftroom. Just the ability to have this space is amazing. It has a walk in closet big enough for shelves for my fabric (though it's currently a mess) and is a stones throw from the kids playroom. So the boys can play Legos and I'm still close enough to break up fights.

 The furniture is the Martha Stewart Craft line from HomeDecorators. We snagged them when they have their 10% off and free shipping. They do this a couple times per year.. and with these large items it saves you quite a bit. All in all I'm pretty happy with them. They are heavy thick pieces and have a nice furniture look. Better than most Ikea stuff for sure. I only had issues with a couple cams wanting to come undone on there own. Instructions were fairly easy.

The table against the far wall is mostly for paper projects, or sewing overflow. My threads are displayed on the wall and a pegboard below for scissors and stuff. Next to the window is a ribbon shelf (empty at the moment) below is my Cameo work area.

 I debated on wall color.. First I tried a deep teal. It just seemed so dark.. It was very pretty on the wall, but when working with fabrics and paper it's always best to have a neutral on the wall to keep your light true. I went with a light celery color. I plan to vamp it up with some art and what not over time. The little blue desk is another thifty redo that I will tell you all about it a bit. The center work area is my fabric cutting and sewing table. On the wall is a storage cabinet for my stamping supplies, glue, paint, beads etc. and a space for my tiny serger.

Here you can see my computer area and printing station. My Ikea shelving holds printer stuff and a library of craft books and scrapbooks.I recovered some plain thrift store bulletin boards with pretty fabric.

It has some work to go still.. but I'm so glad to get it to a point that I can actually work in here.

Kristina

Dining Room Reveal

Welcome to our new home's first "tour". The formal dining is probably the most finished of all our spaces. There are some things I would like to tweak, as always. For sure I'm on the lookout for the perfect new light fixture, I just haven't found the one that says "I'm yours!!" So for the moment were sticking with the builder grade fixture the house came with.

Here is what we started with-White walls and no window coverings-brand spank-in new.

Now it looks like this-

I painted this room myself, I love the richness of the brown in a more formal room. I don't really see this room being used as a diningroom often. With kids I tend to avoid carpet combined with food. I think it will be more of a "have some wine and chat room" or "play board games room" or a "Daddy brought some work home and needs a spot to use his laptop room" The view from the kitchen.

Looking towards the kitchen at the nook space. I'm at a loss as to what exactly I'm doing with it. I think if we didn't have small kids, It would make a neat little bar space. Maybe come Christmas I'll tuck a Christmas tree in here.

The dining set is a Craigslist find. I painted and distressed the chairs using Anne Sloan Chalk Paint in Antique White. The table I had planned to do white legs and re stain the top a darker wood.. but I'm actually liking this color with the bamboo we put on the windows.

 Things purchased new-Bike canvas (TJ Max), Wall Mirror (HomeDepot) The wall greenery cones (Hobby Lobby 60%off) The two wood wall right of the kitchen entrance (ross, the candles (ross), Scentsy warmer, grain sack (Uberchic home via Farm Chicks Show)and the bamboo blinds (Lowes)The bird cage was from our wedding (don't remember what store)The decorative jars on the buffet (Real Deals)Candle holders in the two windows (Ross) and area rug (Ross)

 The table, buffet, black bookshelf, Vintage white curtains, wall candle holder, Glass candle holder on the table and various nic-naks in the black shelf including the garden box with the recently broken handle, lamp with shade and candle tray are secondhand finds.

Enjoy,
Kristina

Distressed Style Union Jack Dresser

In the spirit of the 2012 Olympics, I'm introducing my version of a Union Jack dresser. I have been wanting to done one for ages, ever since I spotted Miss Mustard Seed's HERE and then the others popping up on Pinterest. This dresser was a thrift store find a few years ago. I painted it black and added new pulls in antiqued brass.

Here is a shot of it in the old house in it's black form....

 

.....and now it looks like this.

Much better...
I'm loving the Anne Sloan Olive over the black. It distressed perfectly, letting that black come through.I also got a bit of a suprise, the cream that was under the black started showing up also. Bonus for me, and gives the dresser that old been around look.
 The tone matches my decor more than the traditional white, blue and red...as much as I love the looks of those dressers too.

Here it is in my entry, just for fun I added my London subway art canvas I picked up awhile ago at Ross. Though this wall is going to be my gallery wall eventually... It has already gotten a start on that, but that will have to wait for another post.

Linking up to:

New House, New Blog

Well, I know it's been a long time between posting on a blog. We have been a super busy family with moving into our brand new home and then just the usual summer activities and family gatherings.

We love our new neighborhood and had looked at the older area, close by, wistfully when house hunting over a year ago. Everything we saw however needed work and was priced at the top of our budget, and at the time we weren't sure if we would be living in the area long. So we bought the little house as a place to live in the area so hubby wouldn't have the long commute, and as an investment. A little elbow grease while living there and then try our hands being landlords. Then a new development started right in the area we wanted...we watched it grow and saw a couple of houses go up. Well we just had to do it.. as much as I love cottages with a bit of history, we couldn't turn down living just houses away from sports fields, dog park, splash park and bike trail. Not to mention the fact that our kids could go to school via a bike path. All within biking distance to grocery and Starbucks...

So with the major change and the planning of our new spaces, I haven't had much time for blogging. And speaking of which, I felt that along with the move I should move to a different blog. Something that fits the new house, with a new name and a fresh start. I moved my older posts here of course, though I'm far from having the posts all organized an a helpful manor. So now I will be blogging from The Sagebrush Cottage. Our new house is too big to be a "cottage", but I hope to give it a cozy cottage vibe. From our house you can see the hills surrounding our valley covered with sagebrush and the tang of it on rainy spring nights.
Best of all, I have some new projects to reveal here in the coming weeks...

MLS Tour: Ravenna Craftsman

I found this adorable craftsman cottage while browsing this week. I love the cozy feel and it has a farmhouse kitchen that is drool worthy. This house is pending...so I'm not sure how long the link will be active, but if you get a chance give the other spaces a look too. HERE

The blue paint and red door look just right to me on this house.

One of the things I really love about craftsman homes, is how designers were starting to really open spaces up and add natural light. From the looks of these spaces the windows are original and you can see how the open living and dining work well even today. This house will probably be very liveable another 100 years.

Check out those pretty windows surrounding a bright built in. I really like their choice of dining set too with the dark table and light settee.

This kitchen is perfect! I love everything about it. The style of the cabinets is a good match for the age of the home..

This laundry would also make a perfect craft studio, right next to the playroom area. Love the mint green paint on the cabinets.

This house has a good family feel and perfect spaces.. no wonder it's been snatched up by some lucky buyer. I have to say I'm glad the market in Seattle seems to be hopping again.. it usually trickles into Eastern Washington and maybe our local market will show an improvement too.

Bathroom Update

Our bathroom is still in progress..but looks soooo much better now than before. The new floor, paint, tub and cabinet hardware make a huge difference. The new tub and shower were of course the most expensive part.

You will have to excuse photo quality. I have misplaced the battery charger for my camera...so these photos are taken with the phone. (sigh)

The floor was the most time consuming with hubby having to rip out the old tile and cement board and put down some new plywood and then put down the vinyl floor.

I painted this ceiling white, it gets a lot of moisture from the shower and was gray and spotty. It's now bright and clean. My Anthro shower curtain needs an iron after I washed it today...I'll get to that someday when I'm not so busy.

New shiny hardware on fresh painted cabinets.

Fresh blue paint and some beach accessories. I found this canvas print at Ross and I looove it. In fact at the next house it will have a different life than bathroom art.

Next on the list is counter top and sink re-do and finally wall trim and new door. A few little things like a new register cover and outlets. But it feels much fresher now.. and cleaner.