Easter Blessings!

Happy Easter to one and all! This morning we woke up and went on an Easter Egg hunt, the tiny dinosaurs tucked into the eggs in Lincoln's room were definately his favorite, the jelly beans and chocolate filled eggs were almost a dissapointment to him after finding the dino ones!

After the egg hunt we dyed easter eggs.

As promised, here is a look at my quick and easy Easter centerpiece. I used what we had on hand late last night, otherwise I would have used a kraft paper shred instead of the bright green. I also would have rather used Hyacinth that was actually blooming....but I bought these for $1 each and planned to put them outside before I planned to use them in here. They still look nice, but white Hyacinth blooms would have been perfect. Oh well.

One of my $.99 thrift store ceramic birds nestles perfectly in the front.

I used an antique drawer with the cutest little wood handle. It's divided into sections, and I tried to get the wood dividers to show through just enough.

Hoping everyone has a happy and blessed Easter!

Cherish "Every Day"...

What a perfect Saturday it's been! I worked this morning, so I was feeling productive and useful (somedays I feel very far from that), after work I made a relaxing trip to JB Knacker in Gilbert, have you been here? It's fabulous, and in fact my brother-in-laws wife (does that make her my sister-in-law...? I'm not sure how that goes) works here, so I spent a little while chatting with her while browsing for some fun finds. After my shopping trip I headed out with our good friends Nick and Jess who are newly engaged to visit a wedding reception site that was absolutely amazing and breath taking, a winner for sure!

Here are my favorite finds from JB Knacker today. Loved this old rusty lunch box as soon as I layed eyes on it. (Please excuse these horrible looking photos. I had to use our old camera and forgot how to use the proper settings, plus I took these photos without any natural light...so you get the idea.)

Another quick grab was this adorable burlap sack which was filled to the rim with birdseed. I love the little canvas pocket sewn to the front, which has a barely legible printing of "birdseed" on it. We decided to put the birdseed in the feeder out front, and stuff the sack with grocery bags to give it some fullness back. I'm happy and I think the birds will be as well. :)

Peeking out in the bottom left corner is a little sneak peak at my last find. The store has a whole box full of vintage flashcards. As soon as I found this one, printed with "every day", I knew it was speaking to me. Simple enough on it's own, but I like to look at it as a challenge - a reminder - a blessing.

Every day be the best person you can be. Every day love with your whole heart. Every day cherish what you have. Every day feel blessed.

And one last thing to share...my reciept. All this for, that's right! $11.00 Love.

If I have time tomorrow I'll share my quick and easy Easter centerpiece with you all. If not, have a blessed and wonderful Easter! He is risen!

I've Had My Eye On You- Farmhouse Wares

EDITED: So...I just jumped onto the Farmhouse Wares Blog and what do I see.....20% off the Canva Bordeaux Buckets with code blog310. Oh my gosh how did I manage to see this only an hour after I ordered?? But a quick call to their customer service and they were so friendly and quick to refund me 20%. Yes!! An even better deal! So, but sure to use code blog310 when orderding your bucket, I know you want one too! :)

For the past few months I have been longing to own one of these Canvas Bordeaux Buckets from the amazing farmhousewares.com. Well as of this morning, one of them in on their way to me via UPS, and I just can't wait to display it in our home. 

I ordered the smaller one, which cost me an amazingly reasonable $16.00 (the large is available for $24.00). I hope to use this in our entryway, as a catch all for sunglasses, hats, toys, you name it. It also makes a great grab-and-run-bag for errands.

I hope you will check out Farmhouse Wares, but be prepared to love everything you see there!

A Skirted Sink

Even though, as of right now, we won't be getting rid of our peach sink/tub/toilet combo in our only upstairs bathroom, I'm still planning on making a few cosmetic changes, that will hopefully give our bathroom a minimal facelift.

I always wanted a purple bedroom growing up, and when we moved into our house I knew right away one room would be purple. For Mr. Z's sake, I decided to make that one room the bathroom, rather than the bedroom. If I had to describe the kind of look I went for in the bathroom, it would be an English Cottage Garden. Soft purples with a lot of natural and floral elements.

Someday, I'll have a classic farmhouse sink, huge and deep, simple and country. Today, I have a peach sink, and an old wooden vanity which we painted white upon buying the house. One element that I love about farmhouse sinks is the skirted bottom. So feminine and elegant, and whimsy at the same time.

Ballard Design offers DIY instructions here for this simple project.

However, for my sink skirt, since I am working with a large vanity, I won't want the skirt to go all the way around. Instead I plan to remove the front doors, and add a skirt only on the front from side to side. Like this:

It's baby steps with the bathroom, but as soon as I have some concrete changes made, I'll be sure to share!

An $8 Find...Things That Make Me Happy

I do believe Spring is finally here, she has been teasing us all through March, but by the looks of today, and the extended forcast, she won't be hiding for much longer. :)

In honor of this beautiful open window day I took a quick trip north to one of my favorite consignment shops - The Sister Act in Ellsworth. I can always find a little bit of everything here, depending on what type of mood I'm in. And their prices are almost always reasonable. Today I left with two new floral prints which will be going in the bathroom (I'll share them later), and this amazing old beauty:

Only $8! Awesome, she is a little wobbly, but sturdy enough to hold Lincoln at least. The ring on the seat I assume is from a potted plant of some sort, but I like the worn character it adds. I know she worked hard in her past life.

I decided to dress her up with a pot of fresh Daisies in honor of spring, and I quickly made a burlap cover for an old worn out and stained pillow.

I like the way she looks in our humble little entryway, which, by the way, is slowly starting to come together.

Oh and see that hideous sea of blue carpet....not for long my friends!!! New carpet is in the works and I am really super pee-my-pants-excited about it!!

What's been your favorite under-$10-project lately? I'd love it if you shared! TTFN!

A Blank Slate

Don't you love the feeling you get when life gives you lemons, and you turn around and suckerpunch it right back, with a big ol' glass of fresh lemonade? Well, I do at least.

A few months ago, exactly 20 days after our Wedding day, we were dealt a whole bucketful of lemons. Our 75% finished basement was flooded with a city sewage backup caused by tree roots blocking the city line outside our house. In the wee hours of morning, sewer water crept up through our downstairs shower and proceeded to dump 3 inches of standing water from wall to wall to wall to wall. Luckily our homeowners insurance agent was quick and easy to work with. He topped us out at our max coverage and waived our deductable, since it was obvious to everyone that between the damage to the carpet and walls, our unsalvagable belongings and the cost of hiring a clean up crew, we would easily exhaust our $5000.

The cleanup crew at up about half of our insurance money, and luckily for us most of our belongings we had in the basement were items from Mr. Zs bachelor days, or stuff I didn't need/want upstairs where we spend most of our time. 

For a while it seemed like we bought our house and took 2 steps back, losing the major selling feature of a finished basement. Thankfully, one of our good good friend Adam stepped up and offered to help us restore it, even make it better, than it once was. He said we could pay him in beer. Sa-weet!

This morning the boys showed up bright and early to get started on tearing out the damaged drywall, and rehanging new walls. Adam ran a few options by us, drywall, greemwall, and then the magic words - or wainscoting. Yes please! I love love lurve the beautiful detail that wainscoting adds to any room, and since the main room in the basement already had a picture ledge running all the way around, hanging wainscoting below would be a perfect addition. So it was set, the boys got to work, and boy does it look pretty now!

Aside from simply redoing the walls, most of our old furniture needed to be thrown out because the water rose high enough to saturate the material. Since we aren't the type to go buy a brand new room set, we have been collecting big nice "man chairs" as Mr. Z calls them, from Craigslist, for either free or less than $30 each.

Other than this, the room is a blank slate, ready for me to add a personal touch to it. I'm envisioning a clean and sophisticated, bright Man's Cave. Here are a few photos I've collected. I am so excited to really work on putting this room together a little at a time, and then enjoying a little lemonade as I remember what it once looked like. :)

I'm baaack!

Wow! Sorry for the, ahem, extended absence, life has been super busy and blogging got put wayyy back on the back burner. But I'm happy to say I'm back and we have some exciting changes taking place around the home, which gives me a great new jumping off point. :)