K is for Kylie!

You may ask, what do I do with my Saturday nights?  Usually a family dinner out or plans with friends but this past Saturday night I was at home painting, gluing and really feeling like a kid again as I made this wonderful K for my daughter's door.  Not lame...it was fun!

It was super simple to make.  I bought the K at Michaels for less then $5.  Then I picked up some fun ribbon at JoAnn's.  I started with a coat of the same green paint that is on the walls in the room (and on this chair, look they match!) 

Then out came the hot glue gun.  I snipped and trimmed and placed and liked.  No plan, just trial and error (which is how most decorating happens in my life).  A little glue and it was done.  I would never call myself crafty so every time I successfully complete a project like this I surprise myself and probably everyone who has ever known me. 

Side Note: This can also make a great gift!  I made similar ones for my nieces for Christmas to match each of their rooms. 

And now time to use that great hook I picked up at Anthropologie.  Look what a fun impact it makes on my daughter's door.  LOVE IT!

Next weekend we tackle that chair rail.  Wish me luck!

A Few Little Purchases

The fun part of decorating any room is in the details.  The little accessories, the personal touches, the stuff you picture in your mind and then get to go from store to store until you find the perfect match.  It can take hours, days or years to find the perfect items to complete a room.  My advice...don't rush it!  I have made this mistake before and ended up with a bunch of cute but impersonal items.  And we all know the details are all about making it personal.

I have had my eye on a couple of small items at Anthropologie that would look great in the baby's room.  But for those of us who love to browse in Anthropologie we all know its fatal flaw...it is expensive!  I walk through the store dreaming of buying up all the beautiful clothes and wonderful knic knacks, but the price tags stop me from taking that trip to the register every time.  Well, this time I splurged a little.

Two beautiful, match the room perfectly while adding some antique charm shelf holders!  We have been planning on putting floating shelves on the wall in the baby's room to add height and display the stuff that we don't want little hands on.  But when I saw these the "floating" part went out the window.  Aren't they amazing!  But $24 each...EEK!  So we bought 2 and figured we either find some less expensive versions to hold up the other 2 or 3 shelves or wait for a sale (yeah right, sale at Anthroplogie!). 

I also picked up this adorable hook...

I have grand plans for this little guy, but I can't share them quite yet.  But I am getting started on the project tonight.  Yes, I am going to be home crafting on a Saturday night.  It is poker night for my husband so I figure the perfect opportunity to have a glass of wine, turn on girly TV (Say Yes to the Dress, maybe!) and work on a little project. Anyone care to join me?

Some Highlights

Thank you to the wonderful Sarah from Thrifty Decor Chick  for giving some of us newbie bloggers the chance to be featured on her blog!   Please indulge me while I create a "to new to have a highlight reel" highlight reel.  Mission Decorate is only a few months old, but I am so grateful for the support and inspiration from my readers.  So a moment for us to capture some not so distant memories...

We begin with the Fabulously Refinished kitchen table.  A $150 Craig's List find that was worth every penny.  A little sanding, a few coats of paint and voila the perfect spot for my family to eat dinner.

The Before...

And After....

But one thing was missing...um a place to sit.  Two antique store chairs and one Craig's List refinisher later we have three beautiful mis-matched chairs.  (The final chair is still in my garage begging for one last coat of paint.  I however, am begging for the temperature to rise about 15 degrees before that last coat of paint sees that chair.)

To wrap things up you know I can't pass up the opportunity to re-live my daughter's first birthday party (which was only a few weeks ago).  So here are the home made decorations I put together for the Story Time bash.

Thanks again to all for the love, support and minor indulgence!

Stripes Are Complete!

A few small setbacks but the stripes are done!

And of course another HUGE shout out to Thrifty Decor Chick and her brilliant inspiration room!

I will admit taping was frustrating and time consuming, but once I got a system down the pace picked up.  I spent about 2 1/2 hours getting all the tape right. 

I was excited because I had talked my husband into helping me put the pant on the walls.  I figure we each have a roller and one color green and the job is done in minutes, the perfect plan!  We got the rollers, paint tins, drop cloth all set up and ready to go, opened the paint, which had been in the garage for a couple of weeks and it was FROZEN! And not just a little goopy, it was a solid block.  Didn't see that one coming!

So plans were on hold for a bit. I suggested microwaving the paint but that idea was shot down (just kidding...DON'T TRY THIS!)  But eventually the paint thawed and we were back up and running.  The cream colored stripes are the color that was already on the wall.  Utilizing the existing paint was a huge time saver.  I put a cream stripe in between each green stripe so I didn't have to paint any back to back stripes, which involves waiting for the paint to dry and retaping...yuck.  All the cream stripes are 4 inches wide.  The green stripes randomly alternate between 4, 5 & 6 inches in width.  The chair rail is measured to go in at 32" from the top of the base board so this is where I stopped painting.  The greens I used are Benjamin Moore Pear Green & Wales Green.  The existing cream matches Benjamin Moore Mannequin Cream almost exactly, just in case you aren't lucky enough to start with a color you can use.  I didn't even use half a quart of each color green so no need to buy any more then a quart.  Oh and the Frog Tape worked like a charm.  Worth the extra $ for sure! 

  
So next step is to put up the chair rail.  We have a gigantic hardware store chain here in Madison called Menards.  Actually "hardware store" barely does it justice.  It is the monster version of Home Depot.  Yes, BIGGER than Home Depot.  For the most part I stick to my local ACE Hardware.  Much less intimidating and I have gotten to know the guys who work there so they are extra helpful.  But for some things, like molding, you have to go to the bigger stores.  Anyways, I was in Menards picking up some final painting supplies and stopped by the molding section to see my options, simple enough. Wrong!  Menards has 8 isles of molding and they all look like this (sorry for the blurry pic, my cell phone camera has had a few run in with the floor, thanks to my lovely daughter)...

I was thinking I would have to decide between 4 or 5 options, not 200!  EEK!  So I guess my plan is to do a little research...unfinished, primed, finished, oak, cedar....you get the idea.  This will hopefully help me narrow down my options and then I can go back and tackle all 8 isels of molding like a pro.  

Oh and one other fun addition to the room!  My husband suggested we put chalk board pant on the area behind the door to help create a baby art wall.  Gotta love a man full of good ideas!  So as soon as I can find black chalk board pant (been to two places and they are out of black and only have green, but third store will be the charm) we will get that up on the wall.

I am slowly getting closer to having one room in my house complete! YIPPEE!

Oh Mason Jars, How I Love Thee

We all have our obsessions; shoes, chocolate, wine...mason jars. Yes, I love mason jars. Every time I go to my favorite antique shop I play a little game of "I Spy". I walk around and oogle at all the creative uses of mason jars. I love the variety of size & color.  I want to buy them all up and fill my house with them.  But alas, I hold back and just dream of the beautiful mason jars as they sit on the shelf.  Just look at them...

I love the green tint of the mason jars playing off the cobalt blue of the surrounding accessories here. 

These look GREAT upside down on a small glass bowl.  Put a candle in the jar and poof, a center piece!



Twins in a lovely wire basket.

This is my favorite! And yes, I bought it!  I will fill this with hand soap and put it in my main floor bath.  Ah LOVE!

The perfect spot for a tea light.

Now here are a few non-mason jars, but lovely none the less.  And the same thing could be done with mason jars!





Ok, thank you for indulging me. You have no idea how much fun I had searching out all the mason jars and taking these pictures.  Yes, I am a dork but I know you have your own decorating obsessions.  Please share...."hi, my name is _____ and I love____"

The Bean's Bedroom Plan

I have dozens of nicknames for my daughter, but Bean is one that has stuck.  And lucky for her I have finally decided to dig in my heels and decorate her bedroom.  The Pack-n-Play is set up in the guest bedroom so it is time to get to work. 

Have I mentioned that I do 95% of these projects while my daughter is sleeping?  So basically I get 2 hours (if the nap goes well) during the day and then from 6:30 or 7 until I decide it is time to hit the couch for a crucial TV shows like the Bachelor.  (Not sure Brad really deserves a second chance.)  So yes, you do have time to make your home beautiful!!!

To get things rolling I wanted to share my plan and inspiration with you.  Before we had even moved into our home I was struck over the head by this pic, instant LOVE!  (I should say something cute here, like just when I met my husband, but the first time I met my husband he was in a dress, long story!)   But LOOK...

 
Thump, thump...thump, thump (that is my heart pounding for this beautiful room)!  THRIFTY DECOR CHICK is amazing!  She is not only the creator of this beautiful room, but she is my inspiration for many of my design projects, including this blog.  So a shout out of LOVE to her!  http://www.thriftydecorchick.com/

I instantly fell in love with the green stripes.  I also have white nursery furniture and light carpet and this just drew me right in.  She created this room for her baby boy, accenting the green with a light blue ceiling (so cute) and other boy accessories.  So my plan to girl it up is to add hot pink highlights...curtains, storage bins, sheets...great pops of pink throughout the space.  And then I will reuse all the great elephant items I have collected and been given since Bean's last room was elephant themed - grays, pinks, greens, blues...perfection.

The trickiest part of this paint job is the taping.  As always true with painting, taping is the key, but especially in this case.  So much so that it is a little intimidating and has kept me from getting started until now.  But I've taken the first steps!  I have taped the base boards, doors, outlets, all the basics - as well as the top line for the chair rail.  I measured 32 inches from the top of the base board.  This should take me right to the center of where the chair rail will be.

The next step will be to tape off the stripes.  I used basic blue painters tape so far but I have been told that "Frog Tape" is the only way to go when doing stripes.  It is pricier but apparently totally worth it so I made the investment and will let you know what I think. 

I got started on a few stripes here few here, but still have a long way to go.

I am planning to use the current wall color as my base for the stripes and add 2 shades of green.  From there I will vary the stripe width, 4, 5 & 6 inches, but I need to see it on the wall before committing.  Then I (really "we" because I am hoping to get my husbands help on this part) will add the chair rail and POOF it will all be done.  It sounds so simple and I'm hoping it really will be...famous last words!

1st Birthday Party to Remember

My daughter turned 1 on the 16th...HAPPY BIRTHDAY KYLIE! And I had so much fun planning her party! I did some research, since I have never done this before, and found a few good tips that I wanted to share.

1. Keep the party short! If you are inviting a lot of kids, which we did, keep the party to two hours. If guests stay later great! Also consider nap times when selecting a time. We did 12 to 2pm and it was perfect.

2. Pick a theme! Picking a theme makes decorating, invitations, favors and activities much easier to plan. Our theme was Story Time, super fun!

3. Plan an activity! Now your one year old may be a little young for a magician or a clown so save that till next year, but do pick a simple activity to keep parents and children involved. Keeping with our theme we did a Story Time!

4. Designate someone to take pictures! If you have a friend or family member who doesn't have a child to watch over ask them to be in charge of taking pictures. You will be so busy that you will totally forget and then be really sad later.

5. Make your own decorations! This is my money saving tip. I made all my own decorations and saved a ton of cash. More details are below.

To get the party started we needed invitations. I am a big fan of Shutterfly. It is easy and cheap...two words I LOVE. So that is what I used. On the inside (not shown below) I included a great pic of my daughter "reading"" a book, to go along with the Story Time theme.

But my favorite project was the decorations. I looked online at Story Time decoration packages and they were all expensive and cheesy and I knew I could do better. So I did! I went to the local library and checked out some of our favorite children's books. I made sure they all had bright and colorful picture pages. Then I photocopied the pages I liked.  So far about $7 spent on the copies.

Next I bought some clothes pins, $2 for 50 at Target. I painted 10 or so pink to brighten them up a little. I used paint I already had so $2 more spent for clothes pins to add to the total.

I found some rope in the garage, attached the pics to the rope alternating natural colored and pink painted clothes pins and voila, banners! I did the same spelling out "Happy Bday Ky!" and the house was decorated! Add $3 more for the 3 balloons I bought at the dollar store for the front entry and that brings us to a grand total of $9 spent on decorations!

We also had a lot of fun with the Story Time activity. We gathered the guests around and first I read Birthday Monsters by Sandra Boynton. LOVE this book, LOVE all her books, LOVE her! And then I recruited my brother to lead us all in the Eensy-Weensy Spider. There is a great series of "sing-along stories" that take your favorite songs and make an extended story out of them. I printed out the words to The Eensy-Weensy Spider by Mary Ann Hoberman & Nadine Bernard Wescott and we all sang along together. The activity only took 10 or so minutes which was the perfect amount of time before the little ones lost interest.

To tie everything together we gave out books as party favors. Simple paperback books at Barnes & Noble are $3.99 a piece. I bet with a little work you could find even better deals online, but I just ran out of time. I wrapped some ribbon around each book and made tags with each child's name, simple and fun! I always love getting books as gifts so hopefully they did too.

I know I had a hard time getting started with all of this. I am new to baby birthday parties and I bet many of you are too. So if you have ideas, tips or stories from great birthday parties you have created or attended PLEASE SHARE! Even post pics!

Side Note: We also made a Whole Foods knock off Curry Chicken Salad as part of a "sandwich bar" that was so YUMMY I wanted to share it.  The recipe is below.

You will need:
2 or 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts cooked and cubed
Handful of slivered almonds
Handful of currants (I found these in the bulk section at my grocery store.)
1 bunch of scallions chopped
1/4 cup light mayonnaise (Next time I make this I am going to try plan Greek Yogurt and a little mayo to cut some of the fat.)
A couple tablespoons of curry powder
A couple tablespoons of Major Grey Chutney (Yes, this is what it is called and it is the secret ingredient so don't skip it.  I found it by the marinades.)
Salt & Pepper to taste

Mix the Mayo, Chutney & Curry Powder in a bowl to create dressing.  Add it to the chicken and then add the remaining ingredients.  Refrigerate for a couple hours or over night.  Then EAT!

Painted Chairs

Alas, I must admit defeat. My goal was to complete the kitchen table and chairs by my daughter's birthday party, but you know what, it just isn't going to happen. The final chair still needs more sanding, primer and 2 coats of paint. Oh well, next week!

But the only pictures you have seen of the completed table where in my garage which were no fun, so I wanted to show it to you in the kitchen with 3 of the four chairs (and one lovely folding chair).

Pretty, right! I just love how the table turned out! And after shopping around for 4 matching chairs we decided we could spice up the kitchen a little and make it more fun. So first I sacrificed the "my room" chair, which I was happy to do since it looks perfect here.

We got this and the red chair at our favorite antique shop. Now let me say I am not much of an antiquer. I usually find antique stores to either be fancy and very expensive (fun to browse but not to buy) or dingy and full of odd junk. But Odana Antiques (in Madison) is my new love! It is laid out perfectly, not to crowded but lots of inventory. It has all types of price ranges and has great accessories and large furniture items. It has become a regular stop by and walk thru for me. I just LOVE IT! So back to chairs. The yellow chair was $20 and the red $32.

Side Note - Some antique tables and chairs are shorter then what we are used to so take a tape measure with you. The top of the seat should be right around 18".

The third chair was a Craig's List find. It was already stripped so just needed a quick sand, primer and 2 coats of paint. And I picked it up for $20. It looks a little yellow in this picture, but in person it is apple green. Bright and fun!

The final chair, yet to make it's debut, is the buy I am most proud of. Thrifty Decor Chick always finds great stuff at Goodwill so I thought I would check it out. And I found this chair for $6.95. Yes, you read that right $6.95!!!! A little more sanding, primer and two coats of bright blue and it will be done.

So that is one Craig's List table for $150. Two antique chairs for $52. One Craig's List chair for $20 and one Goodwill chair for $6.95. Plus about $20 in sanding and painting supplies. Drum roll please...that comes to a grand total of $248.95. Are you impressed? I am!

Let's Accessorize!

As my good friend and fashionista Maria said "Never be afraid to accessorize, accessories are the flare! A simple black dress gets that extra punch with a statement necklace and brilliant clutch. The same can be said for that beige couch you have been longing to cover, add some mismatched pillows and a colorful throw, et voilà, new again!" (Check her out at Frolic in Tulle.)

Accessorizing is what takes an outfit or your home from functional to finished. It adds your personality, your creativity and your point of view to any room. And the best part is there is no right or wrong way to do it! But here are some ideas for how to get started...

First sort through and collect items you already have...pictures, vases, books, plates, bowls, candles and candle holders, items from your travels, really anything that catches your eye. Think about colors, textures and height as you put your pile together. Then pick a room or space in your home. How about we start in my entryway. (I always start with items I already have and then fill in with a little shopping.)

Think about a theme or a feeling for the space. In my entryway I wanted to use items inspired by nature. I knew I needed height to balance out the space in between the table and the picture collage on the wall so I stared there. I already had the tall tin container, glass vase and green bowl. All I needed was stuff to put in them. So keeping the nature theme in mind I bought the tall reeds (actually I have no idea what to call these) for $6 at JoAnn's Fabircs, the 3 wicker balls at Pier 1 on sale for 98 cents each! and the flowers from my local grocery store for $4.99. So in all I put this together for $13.93. Impressive right?!?

Let's check out my dining room. (Yes, another opportunity to oogle at my latest Craig's List find...did I mention I love it!) This space is all put together from pieces we have been given as presents over the years - from our wedding to Christmas gifts. Dig back through your stuff. You will be surprised at what you find! Actually I did purchase one item, the little bird on the dresser. I found this at Marshals for $4.99!

Side note - The home section at Marshals and TJ Maxx are great for accessories...but the ultimate supreme place is Home Goods! (It is all owned by the same company.) Do you have one close by? Is so you HAVE TO go! In California we had one right down the street. Now the closest one as 1.5 hours away. Oh how I miss it.

So moving on, here are a few more shots of other accessories I have in my home. Remember it takes time to collect and accumulate all of this stuff. I tend to want to fill spaces so I sometimes run out and buy stuff only to bring it home and realize it doesn't feel at all personal. My husbnad reminds me we don't want to live in a Pottery Barn catalogue...WHAT! WE DON'T! I know, shocking! But as always he is right...we want to live in our own version of a Pottery Barn catalogue - just as beautiful but personalized to our tastes, our family and our experiences. BTW- I hate admitting when he is right.

Laughter is so important in my home! Now if we could only agree on who is funniest.


Yes, even your remote controls can look nice!

I bought this white lantern from a grab bag for $5. I had no idea what I was getting, but decided no matter what it was, it was going up on the mantle. Luckily it wasn't something horrible like a cows head or a dirty sock!

So go on a little treasure hunt in your own home and have fun with it. Remember there are no rules which means no mistakes. Now that is my favorite kind of project!

Thank You Craig's List...again!

I cannot take any credit for our most recent Craig's List find. Between my husband and I, we cruise the Craig's List For Sale Furniture listing almost every day and my husband discovered this amazing find yesterday!




Beautiful, right?!?!? I am very lucky in that my husband really does have a great eye for design, clothes, you name it. So he spotted this on Craig's List yesterday, I emailed the seller right away, since I have been missing out on some stuff lately, and she called me right back. The seller, a super nice mom, explained that she bought it at an antique store but since they are moving and downsizing don't have room for it anymore. She said the past owner had sanded the top, with plans to refinish it so we may want to paint it. We packed up the fam into the car this morning to go look at it and fell in love! $175 was well worth it. And we LOVED the top just as is! It is unfinished and beautiful. Thank goodness no one ever refinished this. That would have been so sad!

We originally planned to put it in the guest room, but once we saw it and fell in love we couldn't stand to put it in a room that we never go in. So now it has replaced the "soccer ball" side table in our dining room. (I call it that because the tile work on the top looks just like a a soccer ball. Not my best purchase but it is functional so we keep it around.) And it is perfect! Can you tell I am thrilled, excited and did I say in love!

Once again, THANK YOU CRAIG'S LIST!