Return from Snow Carnage 2014

The rare and illustrious Snowcorg - day two of Snow Carnage.  Corgi on, Snowcorg!

                             

Hey folks!  I've been away for a few days, buried under all the snow we got here in NC last Wednesday and Thursday.  I love snow and we don't get it very often here.  Rarely do we get more than an inch or two and I get a little jealous seeing how much snow other parts of the country get..  That is, until I'm trapped in traffic for over three hours trying to get home!  My normal seven minute commute became a total ordeal, complete with two police-dictated detours, a car dangling over a creek, very heavy snow, and massive amounts of sleet.  I was kind of a nervous wreck by the time I got home.  My Dad's phone call to fuss at me for leaving work too late and for not going a different way home didn't help either, but he meant well. I couldn't leave until all of our patients and employees were gone and every route I tried to take home was just a nightmare.   The Hub was cool as a cucumber, but the Bub was worried that I would have to sleep in my car out in the mini-Atlanta we had going on here!  Here's just a peek of the traffic on one of my attempted routes...

This route wasn't too bad, or so I thought.  It turned out to be a bad choice.

I waited here for an hour in heavy sleet before police re-routed us.

While I was out navigating the mean streets, the Hub was out playing with the dogs.  They loved it.  Daisy tried to catch it in her mouth and Ducky just wanted to slide around playing with his football.  The sleet eventually got too painful and they had to go inside.

You can still see the grass here...

15 minutes later - no grass.  That's how fast it was coming down!

Once I finally got home, I couldn't believe how hard and how long it sleeted.  It was still sleeting at 4am, so over 12 hours!  Then it snowed pretty heavily until 3pm the next day.  We shoveled our driveway, and both of our elderly neighbor's driveways once it stopped.  We got a snowman built too while we watched the fire truck that got stuck going up the hill in our neighborhood try to dig it's way out.  They were stuck for two hours, blocking the entire street.  Not sure why they thought it would be a good idea to come down the hill in the first place, ya know?

The Bub shoveling away.  Yes, he's not wearing a coat or hat.  Teenagers!!

Their snow chains snapped, so that didn't help any...

And what every yard needs - a Saints snowman!

Once it got dark and all the little kids had gone inside, we got out our big Minnesota snow sled and headed for the hills in our neighborhood.  We had a blast and a few wipe outs!  Then it was inside for some good old fashioned hot chocolate in our cozy little cottage.  I slept really good that night from dragging that sled up the hill so many times!  And I didn't blog at all - I just enjoyed the time with my family.  Now it's back to business though.  Aside from the traffic nightmare, it was a fun snow overall, but we're glad it's over.  I just hate when the snow becomes snirt (snow mixed with dirt) - it's so ugly!  

Toodles,

My Ironstone Collection

Howdy folks, how was your weekend?  Mine was fantastic, thanks!  I got a lot done around the house and spent some quality time with the family.  My parents came over Sunday for pintos and cornbread.  Ain't nuttin' better than a pot o' pintos in my book.  Yummy in my tummy!

As promised, I'm showing off the beginnings of my ironstone collection today.  My mom has some pieces that I'll inherit someday and she was commenting on how pretty mine looks in my $30 cabinet and I have to agree.  It does look nice and I'm glad I didn't paint the cabinet white like I originally planned, otherwise my ironstone wouldn't stand out the way it does.

I love these pitchers and bowls.  I mostly collect small pitchers and creamers - there's something about their dainty, curvy handles and spouts that I just can't resist.

The two floral pieces aren't ironstone of course, but they belonged to my grandmother.

She didn't have a lot of fancy or beautiful things, so I'm thankful to have gotten these.

This platter with the lacy edges is a favorite of mine.

This small tureen is also a favorite - I love the detail on the lid.

Dried hydrangeas and ironstone are so classic together.

Here are a few of my other pieces.  Some aren't real ironstone, but they'll do until I 

find more of the real thing to replace them!

My collection is small and nothing fancy, but I love it.  What treasures do you collect?  Tell me in the comments - I love to hear from you and read every one!

Toodles,

Closet Organization Progress

Happy Friday everybody! And I mean T.G.I.F., people! I am ready to do some puttering around at home this weekend. I really need to get back to my organizing projects and do just one little rearrangement of some furniture so I can feel like I've accomplished something. The closet in the entryway and the hall closet can be checked off my list and I promised to show the before and after, so here you go...but remember, don't judge!

You may or may not be able to tell that this closet once had some semblance of organization. However, you may also know how tough it is to convince the male species that it's a good idea to put things back in their rightful place so that it's easy to find the next time you need it.                                                                                                                  

My plan for organizing my garage craft/work space includes an area for tools and drills, etc., so that will free up a lot of space in this closet.  I want to remove these wire shelves and hang something better in here, but that's a project for later on when I can also do my pantry and the other closets.

At least now I can find a container for leftovers when I need one!  I went through the "overflow" cookbooks (i.e., the ones I don't have room for in the kitchen) that were on the top shelf and only kept the ones I really love and use.  The ones I'm keeping are stacked in the laundry room for now until I figure out a good place for them.

So, on to the closet in the entryway...

Things fall on me or spill out onto my feet every time I open this closet.  It also had some semblance of order back in the day, but  - well, you know.

Ducky wanted to help but was distracted by the site of his harness and thought we were going for a walk or a ride.  When he realized we weren't going out, he sulked off to go pout on the couch.

It's not pretty, but it's clean and organized!  I'll do my best to keep it looking like this, but we'll just have to see how much cooperation I get from my male counterparts.

So, on to what's next on my list:

Junk drawers
Entryway closet
Hall closet
Utility closet
Linen closet
Garage (for the 1000th time!)
Storage barn (for the 500th time)

Utility closet, here I come!  There's not much room because of the hot water heater, but you won't believe all the junk that's crammed in there.  That one's mostly my fault, I admit, so I won't grumble (too much) about making it right.

On Monday, I'll be showing you the beginnings of my ironstone collection, so be sure to stop back by and take a look.  Have a great weekend!

Toodles,

Can I Get A Little Love?

Hey Y'all! Hope you've all been having a lovely week so far. I've been really busy with work and am so looking forward to the weekend. I did take a quick trip to IKEA Tuesday to get a couple of things and spent a couple hours browsing at The Depot in Concord, NC. Saw some cute Valentine's decor and plenty of chippy and rusty goodness to add to my wish list. I love that place and am dying to have a booth there, but it's just too expensive for me right now. But a girl can walk around and dream, right?

Meanwhile, LOVE is in the air at my house right now. I've been doing a little Valentine's decorating. "Little" is the operative word here - I don't go overboard with Valentine's Day, just a touch of lovey-dovey as you come into the house and some pretties in the entryway. This year, I'm decorating on the fly since I can't get to any of my decorations in the storage barn. Our backyard is off limits right now due to the swamp situation. Shoot, I'm just gonna go ahead and tell it like it is - we now live on our very own piece of waterfront property. Or as we like to call it, Lake Lavender. We are getting close to a solution we think - fingers, toes, eyes - everything is crossed hoping we can get this fixed soon. Maybe I can trudge through the dankness to get out there this weekend. But for now, I have managed to plant a little heart garden by the front door...

Here's the little bit I've done in the entryway. The garlands were made from a kit that I got from Micheal's. And the "all you need is LOVE" was inspired by a post I saw on 320 Sycamore a couple of weeks ago.

Now, if I can just stay out of that candy that I pass by so many times a day, I'll be okay!

Mini Beach House Tour

Well, as it turns out, I don't have as many before pictures as I thought of the beach house.  I have a few of the kitchen before the cabinets were re-done and we got new appliances, but the rest of the photos I have are after we started the paint and decorating transformation.  It's been a collaborative effort and we're all very proud of how it's turned out so far.  Just try to imagine all the rooms with the same dark brown paneling and decor from the 80's...

The bar stools used to be plain round ones with country blue vinyl seats until they were replaced with these. One of the first updates made were the new floor tiles.  They don't show dirt nearly as bad as the white floors we had before.

The paneling in the kitchen, main living areas, and the Master BR won't be painted over because they are solid cedar, but we've made other changes to lighten things up.  For starters, this picnic style dining table was replaced with a much nicer cream colored table with gorgeous black chairs.  The light fixture was replaced with recessed lighting.  

Adding new faces to the cabinets and painting them a creamy white absolutely changed the look of this kitchen.  We've also gotten all new appliances to update the kitchen.

This buffet was built and has made a HUGE difference in the kitchen.  All we used to have here was an open bookshelf that served as our "pantry".  This looks so much better and gives a lot of added storage.

These canisters were a birthday gift to my mother-in-law from the Hub, the Bub, and I.  So pretty.

Sorry this picture is a tad blurry, it was taken hastily for insurance purposes.  But this is what our Living Room furniture used to look like - sturdy, but not very pretty or comfortable. The bucket on the left is probably full of Oxyclean - it's the best stuff for getting stains out of the Berber carpet.

This is a pretty little vignette hanging in the Living Room.  I love the little sign that says "Home is where the waves are".  A renter left that for us, wasn't that sweet?

We replaced the furniture with this cream colored leather furniture that we bought secondhand.  It's so comfortable and it's much easier to keep clean, especially with kids flopping and eating all over it!  And the Bub, my niece, and I found the new end tables and coffee table at a consignment store.

I love this big see-through starfish.  The rustic candle holders came from my house and the little starfish were a Big Lots find.

These shelves around the fireplace used to be filled with old books, board games, and piles of seashells. My friend Jennifer and I cleaned all that stuff off and completely transformed this area.  There are still lots of sea shells, but a variety of other pretties make the shelves look nice as well.  This chair is the best one for reading and relaxing - you have a nice view of the dunes from here.

This is the room the Hub and I sleep in.  The color here is very soothing.  We do have nicer bedding that we use when we come (although I do love these old bedspreads), but we have renters during the summer months and we keep the nicer linens locked away.  Trust me, renters WILL steal nice things, but they also steal weird things like salad bowls, 30 year-old hair dryers, and bedspreads.  It's sad that we can't leave our nicer stuff out for them to enjoy as well, but that lesson has been learned.  That's why we don't have fancy TV's or other electronics in the house.  Besides, people are supposed to be outside enjoying the beach when they're here - not inside watching TV, right?

 

This is the only decent picture I have of the yellow bedroom.  All the others turned out bad from the glare in this room.  It's painted a soft yellow with white trim and the bedding we have for us to use is a dark royal blue and white.  It's a beautiful room - very bright and sunny.

This picture hangs in the yellow room and I think it's so cute.  I couldn't resist buying it when I found it in a little boutique at the beach.  All the perfect things to do when you're here!

This is my sister-in-law's room and it hasn't been painted yet.  We're waiting on her to pick a color, so Leigh, if you're reading this - pick one already!!  Just kidding - it's a big decision and you definitely don't want to paint it a color you'll hate.  Once we have a color to work with, we'll set about finding her some beautiful bedding. We have a nice white headboard that will go in here and are looking for some new bedside tables too.  One thing's for sure, I think she'll love it once we get it done.

This bedding is at least 15 years old - definitely TIME TO GO!  We're keeping that painting on the wall, just updating the frame and are on the lookout for some more pretty artwork for this room.

This is the porch on the beach side - the front porch.  The picnic style dining table is now out here and allows for much more room to eat.  It's basically the kid/teenager's table now! We have several more rocking chairs on the other end of the porch as well. And yes, the house is purple.  Our last name is Lavender and the house is named the Sea Lavender after a variety of the plant that grows only in coastal regions.

Here's our pretty sign.  Looks like the lettering needs to be touched up a bit.  I'll just add that to my list of things to do when I go back in a couple of weeks!

This is the back porch on the street side.  We have removed the green carpet - it clashed really bad with the purple!

Ferns grow so great here because it's so humid and they get lots of sea mist.  Our renters are asked to keep them watered for everyone to enjoy, and for the most part they do.

This is the best part about the beach though - watching Daisy try to dig her way to China.  She's gonna dig her way underwater if she's not careful!  That's my handsome Bub holding the leash.  Ah, to be that skinny again...

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little tour of the Sea Lavender.  We still have much to do to get everything just perfect.  I will have more pictures in a couple of weeks of the completed bathrooms.  Thanks so much for joining me today!

Toodles,