Happy Halloween

It's been a fun week.  On Wednesday, I had  a girls dinner at my house.  Sushi, wine, cupcakes, and good friends equals the best medicine for anything.  Yesterday was one of my schools Halloween festivities.  The kids were all dressed up and really hyper thanks to the loads of candy they consumed.  The office staff dressed up as school girls, we had bows in our hair and light blue Polo's.  On Monday, my other school's office staff will be dressing up as witches.  I have to go buy myself a witch hat before they are all taken.

Martha Steward via Pinterest

I hope you have a fun weekend full of candy, good times, and friends.  Happy Halloween!

Another $0.75 Cent Chair Makeover

I found this chair for $0.75 at the Faith Farm Thrift store a while back.  I refinished it, took pictures, and forgot about it.  I found it last night while scrolling through pictures.  The fabric was some kind of embroidery that had seen better days.

I took it apart and gave it a couple of coats of Annie Sloan chalk paint in Old White.

 I used some fabric I had in my stash and recovered the chair.

 It was a remnant piece of fabric, so I couldn't really center it on the chair, but I loved the combination of colors.

It was an easy fix and it made for some afternoon entertainment.  What do you do with your fabric remnants?

I'll be linking up to these parties

and Beyond the Picket Fence, Between Naps on the Porch, DIY Showoff, Remodelaholic, Addicted 2 Decorating

Polishing Marble

I'm so glad to be back to my regularly scheduled program.  Last week we had our floors polished and had been to lazy to reconnect the computer. I asked/begged my husband to do it for me, until I finally did it myself this morning at 6:00 a.m.  Here are some before pictures of our floors.  These floors were once mirror shiny.  You can see, especially in high traffic areas (like our kitchen), how dull they look.

Here's another dull spot.   

The first step in the process, is getting all of our belongings out of the way. Luckily the workers did this for us. An option that would have sped things up was placing everything outside, but as you can see the dull skies in the background, that was not an option.

Here are all our accessories.  I had prepped this myself the night before.

 Look at this craziness. 

So basically, the first step of the process is they strip or take away a hair thick layer of the marble.  They use a cleaner, water, a salty like substance, and a grinder (not sure the name of the machine).  You can see here the floor completely stripped.

They spot treat any holes or imperfections.  They then use the polishing machine with another polishing liquid.  Here you can see where he has placed the liquid.  Then they put a sealer and then buff the floors to get maximum shine.

 Here you can see the start of shine.

I took these pictures this morning and the sun hasn't really come out yet, so you can't get the whole effect. (I'll update the pictures later today).  This is the same spot as the first picture.

You can see the furniture, vases, and art reflected in the floor.  When the sun is out, you can see the trees, as well.

The difference is huge.  The house feels so much cleaner.  The floors feel brand new again.  We had this process done 8 years ago and it should really be done every 3 years.  The company was great and a team of 3-4 guys worked for 12 hours straight.   It was a long day.  I took advantage that I was home and organized papers in our office and cleaned out those corners in the house you never get to.  It feels so good to cross something off the list.

Vacuuming and Napping

About 8 years ago, we had our floors done.  Our house had the original Terrazzo floors, which we thought about polishing up and keeping.  However, they were pretty much unfixable.  My husband's friend convinced us to install 24 by 24 marble.  We went out shopping and loved it.  We bought Crema Selecta marble and a pretty decent price.  We had it installed and polished.  Wow, our floors were like mirrors.  We vowed that day that we would have our floors polished every year.  We did so the first year...and never again.  Marble is a pretty delicate floor, spill something on it and get to wiping quick and dust and dirt plus walking equals dull, lifeless floors.  That's were we are right now.  There is NO shine left. 

Since I've been on this major getting the house fixed up phase, I'm having my floors polished today.  I'm ecstatic.  My husband agreed, but on one condition, I must vacuum daily.  Umm. Yea, that's not me.  My floors get vacuumed and cleaned every Thursday when the house gets cleaned.  There is only two of us and not a lot of traffic.  So guess what I got.

The iRobot 560 Roomba Vacuuming Robot, Black and Silver and can I tell you that I'm in love. Like real love.  Like I have him scheduled to go off everyday and when it starts I actually feel a little butterfly in my stomach.  Is that normal. Is it normal that I have found myself talking to it.  It's like I'm cleaning my house and I'm sitting on the computer or laying on the couch or maybe even napping.  Well actually, the first day it started, I found myself lying on the floor watching it under furniture and following it room to room to see what it did.  As I'm typing this, I promise you I'm not nuts, promise.  

I've had it for a week and I'm really liking it.  It does make it around the house to every room.  It's weird how it goes into a room, leaves, and goes back to it again after.  It really does vacuum and it does a good job at it.  I've had places in my house vacuumed that I'm sure nobody has touched in years.  Our kitchen cabinets are on legs and it actually gets under the cabinets.  Woo hoo.   The best part about it, it docks itself when the house is done.  I don't even have to worry about that.  Love I tell you.

The Joys of Homeownership

The weather here in South Florida has been anything but sunny the past few weeks.  There was a crazy storm last Friday night.  We went over to a friends house and drank some wine and hung out.  We headed home in the rain and went to bed.  I woke up relatively early on Saturday and started picking up a bit.  I looked out my backdoor and saw this.  I thought to myself...damn storm is going to make me have to pick up branches and chairs in my yard.  As I looked closer, I screamed...I can see the street.  I ran screaming through the house and woke up my husband.  It put me in a foul mood (which could be why I didn't blog all week).

Look at the mess.

Yea, that's my fence.  The one we replaced when our old fence came tumbling down after Hurricane Katrina.

I ran out to my front yard and found this on our side yard.

Here's the view from across the street.  Yes, that's a huge tree resting on our fence.

Up close...

We worked on it Saturday afternoon.  Our dad's came to help and we got it down in a little over an hour.

Here's a view of my backyard from the street.  Remember, my family room has no window treatments.  Fun.

I never really liked that tree.  It was pretty randomly placed on the side yard.  Our house has quite a few mature trees, so I guess one less is OK.  Now, to fix that fence. 

Have a Great Weekend

I'm loving this room for so many reasons.  The white, the wood, and those stripes.  I'd love to work there.


I hope you have a fun and relaxing weekend. 

Such a Cute Idea

You have to see this cute idea my friend Gail did.  I love the possibilities of this.

I could see this with a really cute frame sitting on a mantel or hanging in the kitchen.  I love it.  I'm already counting down to the last day of school.  Is that bad?

DIY Abstract Art

I was raised in a very art filled house.  My mom is an art teacher and my dad is an architect turned artist.  Somehow, it took this little blog of mine to get my creativity going.  My sister wanted some art for her house.  We started with a canvas from Michael's that we painted with blue house paint. 

I somehow mangaged to not get a single picture of us in the process.  I used some of the leftover Decoart paint which I love.

I just dragged a paintbrush over the canvas.  I love the mix of some of the metallic paints.  The day after we did the painting, she found this little vase at Target.  It's like if we would've planned it.

I kind of improvised as I painted. We had no real plan or idea, but it seemed to work.  I'm loving it and my sister does too.  We had my nephew on his own canvas as we painted, which was great.  What do you all think?

I'll be linking up to these parties

and Beyond the Picket Fence, Between Naps on the Porch, DIY Showoff, Remodelaholic, Addicted 2 Decorating

Painted Vanity Table

I had a crazy busy day yesterday.  I left work and got home five hours later.  I was exhausted.  I have an easy project for you today.  I'm still trying to catch up on posts from my sister Ivette's apartment.  She found this vanity on Craigslist and she couldn't pass it up. The lines are so cute.  She brought it straight to my house for some paint.

I used Annie Sloan chalk paint in old white.  Look at the mirror compartment.

Here she is.   I didn't get a straight on angle because of the placement in the room.  She had a small area that she used to sit on the floor and do her make up and hair.  The vanity is a perfect fit.

Look at these gorgeous handles from Anthropologie. We did some light sanding on the edges.

What do you think?  I love its new look.

I'll be linking up to these parties

and Beyond the Picket Fence, Between Naps on the Porch, DIY Showoff, Remodelaholic, Addicted 2 Decorating

Happy Monday

I have a busy week ahead of me.  I'm hoping to ingrain this image in my head and think of it every time I feel the stress creeping in.

Via

How awesome would an outdoor picnic like this be? My great grandmother (whom I was named after) used to do the most amazing picnics.  Full on glassware, utensils, and china were just the basics.  They were quite lovely (a word she actually used).  Have you thrown a full on picnic, or are you a paper goods kind of person?