Lilo?

We've been wondering for months what Miss Lilo might actually be. The person who gave her to us said she thought her mom and dad were both beagles. Her mom was definitely a beagle (I saw pictures), but the jury is still out on her daddy.

Not that it matters. She is cute and sweet and perfect -- whatever she is. But its fun to wonder. And we were thinking maybe she is part rat terrier. So a google image search occurred.

She may be part rat terrier, but now the more pressing issue is how does she know Dave Coulier and what does a girl have to do to get a sit down with him to discuss possibilities of a Full House reunion? C'mon, Lilo, cut-it-out and pull some strings already!

(photo pulled from http://www.diamondsintheruff.com/carol&dana.html via google image search)

Mixing up the old with the new

Mike and I have been trying to figure out what to do with our living room/dining area. You see in the post below I finally broke down and did something to the ginormous blank wall. We still have other plans for the room. Some easy ... some seem impossible. I won't talk about the ceiling (cracked plaster that looks horrendous) or the light fixture/ceiling fan. I won't talk about the lack of window treatments and the inner turmoil the thought that causes me (I love the woodwork and don't want to cover it up!). I won't talk about the perfect corner liquor cabinet we picture in our mind but can't find (hey, dad, don't you make things?). But I will talk about this:

This buffet will soon be in our living/dining room. My dad thinks it was about 100 years old and guess what .. it was completely free. My lovely parents picked it up from family over the weekend and dad is currently storing the beauty in Clay.

So let's talk about it. We already have 3 (?) types of wood in our living room ... the trim, the dining table and my old table in the corner you have seen on here before.
This wood is a bit lighter than any of the others. I think it will mix well (hope it will). I'm not sure I like the scrollwork above the mirror, but dad says it can be removed. I can already see pieces of our Christmas china sitting on top of this with candlelight flickering in the mirrors. Can you?

A blank slate no more

We have this huge, blank wall in our living room I've been trying to figure out what to do with. I visited a dear friend over the weekend and made a pit stop at a store called Christmas Tree Shops in the hopes of finding her new baby a "baby's first" ornament. Little did I know this store is nothing like a Christmas Mouse ... it's so much better. Instead, I found an abundance of decor to use on the Bungalow's front porch (check back soon for that fall-tastic post) as well as lots of stuff Devon might want for her favorite holiday. Among all the fiscally responsible madness (note: do not use "cheap" to describe your home decor) there were some reasonably priced frames. I came up with an idea.


I decided we needed a photo gallery in our living room. I've started our basis and there is room to grow. I felt this is a good start and we can move the frames around, add pictures and add coordinating frames if needed. For now I chose two 11x14 frames (some of our wedding pics), three 8x10 frames (Hunter, Ma and Pa X, Ma and Pa Caz), two 5x7 frames (Josh and Jess, Devon and Mike) and one 4x6 frame (lil Lilo). All of the photos have a sepia finish to complement the walnut frames. Lil Lilo's frame features a coordinating ribbon I glued on (using my new glue gun!) to add texture and depth. I still haven't found a vertical picture of Ma and Pa Caz, so that frame still has the stock photo in it.



I had some help along the way:


The finished product. The frames cost about $40 together and the prints at Walgreens were about $10. A nice little project for about $50. I'm still trying to get used to it, but I think I like it. Mike just walked in the front door and he thinks he likes it too. Lilo loves it. She told me so. Then again, I think this is the first project she has worked on.

For all you non-Green Thumbs

Early in the summer I opened several envelopes of seeds and threw them in the ground in hopes something would happen. Mike and I were not well prepared for landscaping at the new home but wanted to do something in the effort of pretty-ing it up. I diligently weeded the flower bed beside the garage and often wondered where most of the little seeds were. We had a few flowers, but not in one particular spot.

Well ... it would help to know what you planted and what those plants look like. It seems I was frequently pulling out what I thought were weeds.

Fast forward to me getting behind in the weeding. A few "weeds" became very tall. I left them. It looked better than having just dirt down there.

Please note: These are not weeds. I know this now. Hopefully you do, too.

I think it's sweet the two surviving zinnias are orange and hot pink (our wedding shades). And there are some kind of blue wildflowers there, too.

Oh, and this is not a weed:

She likes to help me clean out weeds by eating them. She's a doll.

See! It IS pumpkin time!

Enjoyed one of these --iced -- over the weekend. Mmmmm ...

This is exciting

When we purchased our house our realtor told us he was almost positive it is a Sears kit home. I think I found our proof.



I think it is safe to say Mike and I live in style #3323, The Plymouth. Only our floorplan is opposite this one with the bedrooms on the left side of the house.

Apparently this design was available from Sears from 1934 to 1937. That means our house probably wasn't built in 1920(s) like we were told. I'm going to be looking further into this and see what I can find in the County records. And I think i'll buy a replica Sears catalog.
Here's more
http://www.arts-crafts.com/archive/sears/page163.html

It's Pumpkin time... almost.

I went to Dairy Queen last night to pick up an ice cream cake for a friend and saw they have the pumpkin blizzards. You know what this means, right? It's pumpkin time again ... almost (I usually wait til late Sept. to get excited for all things pumpkin).

Pumpkin candles, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cakes, pumpkin pie, pumpkin decor, pumpkins with Flying WVs on them (I saw these at the mall and must have some even though they will probably be stolen from our porch) will ALL be in abundance very soon. I can't wait to light my pumpkin candles, bake some pumpkin cookies, and put pumpkins all over the house. And maybe some mums.

Stay tuned for pictures. Pottery Barn has given me some ideas ...

I can't find a picture of what I want to replicate from pottery barn other than links to buy stuff, but I stole this lovely vignette from a google search (from http://farm3.static.flickr.com/)