Dine-O-Mite!

The dining room has come a very long way folks. When we bought the little gem it was a tiny claustrophobic sherbet green cell. I hated it!

The mint green wall is not well represented here...but minty it was.

Dining room into front room.

View from the kitchen into the dining room through a swinging door.

Tearing down the walls was the first major renovation and it could have not happened any faster. Now getting the paint on the wall was a little drawn out. 

We came home from New Orleans to hanging electrical.

What's prettier, hanging light switches or those curtains?

Linoleum....gag!

Have you tried to pick out paint recently? It is stressful! Especially when your husband says the color you like looks like sea foam. Ewww gross, that's what we have now! Are we looking at the same paint sample? The color I see is an awesome grey-ish turquoise....more blue less green."

I learned my lesson with the laundry room paint and I wasn't going to buy anything until I saw it on the wall, in the room, in all light. It was so funny, the paint looked different in every spot I painted. But we finally decided on Sherwin Williams Silvermist. It is kind of a funny story. We went in two Fridays ago to buy dining room paint (wall, ceiling, trim) four gallons max. While we were about to check out the guy tells us if we wait until the 20th we could get 40% off. I was waving out the door before he could even finish his sentence. Y'all know I am too cheap to pay full price when the sale is the next week. Sure enough April 20th rolled around and we left SW with 20 gallons of paint! No lie...20. There was a dolly involved! We saved over $300...I consider this a decorating victory!

Mr. R worked his tail off! He rolled the ceiling and all the walls. I forgot he had never painted before. He did great, I was proud of him! When the first coat went on I knew we had made the right choice and it only got better with the second. You can't believe what a change it was to have the trim painted. It felt so finished and warm and cozy.

The trim was a little tricky. We wanted to keep the existing trim to match the rest of the house in the front room. But this trim no longer exists. Our contractor said he had never even seen it before. So it was patched together from the old door frames. They did a great job, I just had to fill a few more nails holes than I really wanted to.

I had to show the before and after of this light fixture. It was covered in dust. It looks so beautiful cleaned.

We had the black and white rug from one of the Kings Highway apartments (there were three in total). We bought it at Ikea for $200. I knew early on Mr.R was the one and planned carefully all of his big decorative purchases. It had to look good with my stuff eventually, right? Of course the table is my Craig's List steal, $100? I still can't believe it. This table rocks and so do the chairs!

What we still need:
Skinny Buffet (going this weekend to the flea market/junk store on Jefferson Ave...eeekkk, so excited!)
Mirror or Art....so many decisions....probably mirror though.
Curtains
Chair upholstery
Three switch light cover...I just need to make a Lowe's trip for that one.

It's slowly coming together. Gosh, what a difference two knocked down walls, a light fixture scrubbing, and a fresh coat of paint makes. This room will be finished sooner than later and I can't wait to share to official before and after photos but until then we will be scrubbing and painting all the other rooms in the house.

Happy Painting!

Our lil Jake-a-roo

This weekend we headed back down to Glen Rose for our four year old nephews Cowboy Birthday Party. And a party it was! There were tons of activities for the kiddos and adults. Great food and drinks and of course....decor! The entire family banned together to set-up, cook, and decorate. I asked my brother if this is what it felt like before our wedding and he said yes....times 100!



Happy 4th Birthday to this guy!



Feeding the cows.

Ropin' some cattle....sort of

I had to crop this one...baby brother wanted to wear his birthday suit to the party!

Sweet Mav came out for the party!

Activities:
Panning for Gold
Rope 'em Cowboy
Hayride
Feeding the Longhorns
Wanted Poster Photo booth
Water balloon War (kids and adults)

The best part of the day was hearing the birthday boy say "This is the best party ever!". Add another great memory to the Brazos House file!

Happy  4th birthday to our lil Jake-a-roo!

Going Green

So I keep seeing this moss graffiti stuff on Pinterest. People paint words and simple images with this moss paste and it actually grows on the wall. Mostly in urban areas. It's really beautiful. I did a little research on how to make the paste.....it ain't happening people....moss in my blender....nope! So I faked it. I had some left over moss from my wedding, the kind that comes in sheets from the craft store. Not sure what the original plan for it was but I had two packages just sitting in a box so I thought why not. 

This is the back side of our chimney. So plain!

X-Acto knife, scissors, Sharpie, moss, foam board.

I just free handed my letter. Wishing now I would have done something more whimsy.

Hot glued the front and then folded over the edges. Don't use your good glue gun!

I had to piece it together in spots but you cant tell at all...very forgiving!

This is definitely an outside project. Quite messy!

My awesome vintage baby blue chairs courtesy of my Lady!

Stuck them on the brick with double sided foam tape. Similar to the tape on removable hooks you use for stockings. This area gets zero rain, thanks to our mega porch, I think it will be safe here for awhile.

Ta-Da! Looks a little small here...and quite serious! Next time it will I'll go big and bold!

Total project time: 1 hour
Supply Cost: $12 -ish, I mean, I had everything already but I think the moss was about $6 a pack.

You could for sure use those pre-made letters from the craft store and save some serious time. I wanted mine to be flat, like it was actually growing on the wall, so I used the foam board. I might rough it up a bit around the edges. It's just too perfect. I am going to make these for the next baby/bridal shower I throw....who's excited? I thought too, if I can't decide on address numbers this could be a solution for a little bit. Is that obnoxious?

Fake it 'til you make it!

Mail Call

Our sweet little ol' house has many sweet little ol' things that came with it. We have an attached mail box on our tiny porch that has seen better days. While I was at the home improvement store I strolled by the mail boxes to see if there was anything that gave me a warm feeling inside.....nothing! Everything had a lock on it. Who needs an extra key to haul around? I can barely keep track of my house and car keys. That's out! I looked online and they are all eeehhhh and the ones that are semi ok are too big AND crazy expensive. There are some things I can splurge on but a mail box is not one of them. I'm on a budget folks.

Who needs new when you have spray paint in your garage?!?!? 

I used my trusty screw driver to remove it from the brick wall. Threw it on some newspaper in the back yard. A few quick sprays and she was all done. While spraying/fanning/being impatient I realized the vines at the top came right off and so did the hooks at the bottom. It felt too small and sad without the hooks so I left them. Which was perfect because I really wanted to hang something from them. Entire project....12 minutes. Cost....$0.

I got this awesome "R" from a bridal shower gift topper. Great idea! I just added some new ribbon. It probably wont stay forever but I wanted to give the mailbox some extra love today. 

I couldn't resist leaving a little note on the inside....it was just too perfect of a space.

In addition to the newly painted mail box the glass door is now transparent and the porch has been scrubbed and de-bugged. Which included me screaming when a large moth dive bombed my face and I fell off a ladder...I'm fine. The worst part was trying to justify my screaming like a crazy person. 
ME:"There was a moth....like a big huge one....not a normal size....it attacked me!"
Mr R: (Shakes head in front yard)
ME: (out of breath) "I'm ok, but there was this moth....it was big.....bird like...."

What we still need: 
outdoor pendant light
cute door mat
new address numbers (I can't make up my mind on this one, ideas are appreciated)

What would be nice to have eventually:
A new porch! Ours is so small! That is phase 694.

Happy Mailing!