This stuff is goooood.

Stay with me till the end for the Bomobob giveaway winner! :)Speaking of Bob, I had to brag about my advertisers yet again, cause you know -- they RAWK.My newest advertiser, Amanda at Imperfectly Beautiful, has the caaaaautest Etsy shop you ever did see. When I saw these on her blog, I had to have them. They were even packaged so sweetly when they arrived, I could just die: Squeal! I did! I

Lemons or Lemonade

A few months ago our sons reported that "something strange" was happening to the wall behind their toilet. I sent hubby downstairs to investigate. He discovered what can only be described as "blisters" on the walls, and being the manly man that he is, he popped one and found that it was full of water. Blistered, sagging walls meant only one thing, we had a leaky pipe somewhere above or behind that wall. Fortunately we found the leak without having to tear out the entire bathroom. The leak was repaired and we treated the ceiling and walls with a mold blaster and then we waited and waited and waited. Would the repair hold? Would we find another leak? How were we going to repair the ceiling to match the existing texture? Would we have to tear the walls off down to the studs? Would we let our misfortune drag us down to the depths of depression or would we rise to the challenge and meet it with a truckload of creativity?We choose the latter.

We covered the hole in the ceiling with inexpensive tongue and groove paneling.The original plan was to cover the damaged walls with strips of plywood, but when we found subflooring for two dollars a sheet we went with plan B.Sure it resembles a sauna right now, but wait until you see it with a few coats of paint.

Open letter to a new Momma

Today we celebrated the upcoming birth of a new baby boy. The mom-to-be is one of my last friends to have their first child, and there is something so incredibly special about that. Something so special you just don't get when you are pregnant with that first baby. You wonder why everyone has constant big goofy smiles, fluffing all over you and can't keep your hands off your belly. :)And then you

Wall art or wall stickers

For about a week now, Rose & I have been constantly discussing (rather debating) about painting the walls… or using wall paper or wall stickers. I’d like to share a few inspirations with you…

Which one do you like? Do you have a beautifully painted wall, or wall stickers that you’d like to share? (go on…. Inspire someone!!) Don’t forget to email it to me… at torresp27@hotmail.com!!

A Rocky Before

I came across a photo of what our fireplace looked like when we moved into our home. How's this for a "before" photo.Yes, we had our own rock climbing wall. Our boys loved climbing those rocks! However, they weren't too fond of having to pull the rocks off the wall and haul them into our yard when I decided to remodel the fireplace. But thanks to my hubby and sons hard work, we have an "after" to be proud of.Joy @ JOYSOFHOME

Garden Architecture

Ever since we moved into our home, we've been adding architectural elements to give it more style and character. We've been doing the same with our yard and garden. We've bought and built simple structures to add character and height. They look beautiful from spring to fall surrounded by blooming vines and bushes. During the winter months when the yard and gardens are so gray and barren the structures give a charming visual interest and stand as a monuments to natures life and beauty.
A few years back we built this rose arbor using doors.Then we added this trellis and door that leads into our vegetable garden.Recently we used scrap wood, found next to a dumpster, to build two seven foot tall obelisks. Once we figured out how to cut those pointed tops (thank you internet), they were a fairly easy build.
Son #3 painted them with a mis-tint exterior paint.We placed them in our vegetable garden. They serve as tall, fancy tomato cages. There's only one problem---I want at least three more of these beauties!
Joy @ JOYSOFHOME

Linked to ASPTL DIY Day

I can tile?

I pose that title as a question because the answer is questionable. The walls haven't come down yet, so I think I was successful. Maybe, YES, I can tile.There are a few large projects in our home that I have avoided because of FEAR. Plain, good old, I-am-a-big-huge-sissy fear. One of them is the marble that surrounded our tub. It has bothered me for over a year now, since I added the molding to

Does It Make You Smile

I recently changed out the accessories in my bathroom. A while back I had placed a weathered blue lantern on the counter with a candle and a pencil starfish inside. It was simpe, beautiful and beachy.But I found myself looking at it and thinking, "Blaaaahh." Maybe it was because, with the kids going back to school, I'm not in a beachy mood. Maybe it was that it had been sitting there long enough that I had begun to look at it as clutter instead of beauty. Or maybe it just didn't have enough layers as I find myself being drawn to in my accessorizing these days. Whatever the reason, it no longer made me smile. So it was time for a little change.
I pulled together a collection of white soap dishes, added in some wonderfully smelling decorative soaps, fake pearls, faucet knobs and a delightfully fragrent candle. Then I placed them a top an old china platter, layered on a tarnished silver tray.

Now that makes me smile.What about you? Do you have accessories that you feel Blah about? If so it's time to make a change. Rearrange items, pull things from other rooms, give them a new coat of paint, or live without any accessories in that spot for a while. Whatever it takes,
give yourself another opportunity to
smile about your home.

Interview at Houzz!!

I am just thrilled, honored and humbled that houzz.com has decided to feature little 'ol me on their site. I did a brief interview with them and when I went over this morning to check it out -- there are pics of my house on their front page!!Go here to check out the interview. If you do, and you comment at houzz.com, you can win this beauty from Ballard Designs (the big one!):Awwwww yeah, I told

Design your own screens

Have you ever seen anything like this?? Frou-Frou & Claude are luxury screen makers. The screens can can be used as room dividers, backdrops or simply screens.

The best part is that you can design your own screen by choosing a design/ colour / pattern of your choice. I thought that was a great idea!

A (cedar) chest redo.

I had to throw the "cedar" part in there -- you know what I'm sayin'? (Hang in there till the end for the winner of The Sheet Boutique giveaway!) Remember this lovely I found last week for $40?:At first glance, it was perfectly lovely on it's own, but the lid had a yellowish paint on it, drip marks and a really awful stencil. I think the person that painted it put too much poly on top that

Unfortunately Fortunate

We had a busy weekend, unfortunately it did not include working on our current home improvement project. But fortunately, I did manage to get a little thrift shopping in (I can always manage to squeeze thrifting into a busy schedule).
Here are some of my finds from last week:
Two framed botanicals for two dollars each. The frames need a little care but I love how large and beautiful they are.A four dollar, perfectly primed and ready to paint, plant stand. Isn't it gorgeous? Can't you just see it topped with a luscious fern, or for fall, a large pumpkin with autumn leaves draping down.And last the best of all the game, this Honey-I'm-not-sure-where-we'll-put-it-but-how-could-I-pass-up-this-gorgeous-Ralph-Lauren-twenty-five-dollar-sofa.Actually I'm thinking of cleaning out an area of our unfinished basement for a "reading room". Being the only female in a house with a hubby who likes talk tv and three sons who love guitar hero, I need

a pretty, little quiet place of my own.

Linked to Southern Hospitality

DIY weekend

This weekend resulted in a LOT of do-it-yourself projects I hadn't even planning on doing.They involved a few hours of this: A lot of this: An insane, I-never-want-to-touch-sand-again-in-my-life amount of this: Which resulted in a lot of this:No, that's not me. But I feel like it could be right now. So bear with me! I'll announce the winner of The Sheet Boutique pillow (contest is now closed)

A Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peek

at what's been keeping us busy.And this is how those
two dollar a sheet pieces are being used.

Jaipur Hotel

There are loads of beautiful hotels in Jaipur. I’ll do a post on a heritage hotel later… but first I want to show you the Holiday Inn Jaipur – not only because we stayed there… but for the following reasons -

The courtyard was beyond impressive!! I have a soft corner for courtyards and this totally took my heart away -

The view from the top -



This was always filled with flowers -



Another view of the courtyard …



There were flowers everywhere…



And paintings adorned very wall … of kings & queens …



This is the wall at the entrance of the hotel… I heart this wall… its beautiful…

       

A closer look… I’m going to do this (below) on a small wall in my home for sure.



If anyone of you has the guidelines on how to go about with this, what materials to use, etc, please email me on torresp27@hotmail.com

Rewind: Kitchen Island

I thought it would be fun to "rewind" every once and a while and show you some of my earlier posts and projects and then the updates I've made since.If you've been with me for about five minutes, you've seen my kitchen island. But it's one of my favorite changes rehabs I've done in our home and is also one of the cheapest and easiest.It started way back when, when all five of my friends read my

Corbel Love Two

After living with these little cuties for a few days, I decide to give my giant corbels a makeover.I treated them to a few coats of white spray paint and a little hand scraping with the paint scraper.
I think I'm going to give this whole wall a bit of a makeover. I'll be gathering up the supplies----right after I finish a few of the other projects I'm working on.

A-thrifting we will go!

So if you follow me on Twitter, I took you along on my trip through a few antique stores today. My friend Jen told me about the great shops in Pendleton, Indiana, and I have been waiting weeks for the right time to take a few hours to head out there.They did not disappoint! It was so fun, I wish you could all go with me! Well, not all of you. We'd be sure to break something, all thousands of us.

Jaipur – a few memories

I’m still sorting & clearing my holiday pics. I found these of a little boutique store at the Amber fort.

The statue of the Ganeshji invited us to this store -



Here is the first glance ….



Then the prettier stuff -

the books



the standing lamps



the peacock wall lamps



the flowers





the candles…

 

the seating….

   

and finally the windows…. with arches & pretty lamps… *sigh*

I hope this has inspired you for now…. More posts to follow…