is it 2011 yet?

man, we have had one of those "one thing after another" seasons over the last six weeks. you know the kind. . . the car that starts becoming a money pit, unexpected medical bills, sick kid after sick kid, a growing list of household projects on a shrinking budget, blah, blah, blah. . .

i seem to be unable to rest until this little cottage of ours is to our liking.  with the last several weeks being so hectic i couldn't tackle some of the larger projects but i did manage to get our tiny little bathroom updated.

it was one of those projects that just happened. you know the kind? i didn't have a plan or a vision and it wasn't on my agenda for the day. as a result i didn't even snap a before picture for you, so i'll have to 'paint' you a picture of the before.

here it is today. not an "after," but an "almost done."

what we started with in here were walls that were a fleshy color.

i honestly don't know how to describe the color; most of the house was painted

with it. fleshy with pink undertones. not attractive. the cabinet

in this bath was a standard oak with modern silver pulls.

because i needed to do this one on a dime i went to

our shed and pulled from paint we already had.

the vanity was painted alabaster by sherwin williams and i used some old rusty pulls

i had on hand from a project that never saw the light of day.

the walls are blue hubbard, a sherwin williams color i had mixed

at home depot with behr paint and primer in one. this color was

used in our front room and i had just enough left over for

our small bath.

the wall over the toilet had a standard towel bar. i removed that and filled

the holes and personalized the space a bit with pics of

the boys and warmed it up with a couple candles.

you can see the wall across from the toilet in the reflection of the mirror. that is the only

floor to ceiling wall space in the bathroom. the previous owners had

a vertical towel holder on that wall that held about six towels.

i put up a chippy shelf with four rusty hooks.

i picked  this up at hobby lobby for 50% off, making it $10.

so, now we have a place to hang our towels. hanging them over the doors was

not working for me! :)

this is another hook i had on hand. it has three different

sized hooks that pivot. i took down the ring towel hook on the wall

beside the vanity and replaced it with this. i need to go back and

paint the silver screws i used to put it up. i touch of hammered bronze spray

paint should do the job!

and because i love to display my blue ball and atlas jars i had to

make a spot for one. i just shoved a bunch of

white candles in and called it done.

to finish it out i will frame out the mirror and change the lighting

and faucet. i will likely put a couple cute knobs on those

two faux drawer fronts on the vanity, too.

but for now, it's a big improvement!

and the best part? the total out of pocket was $10 because we used what we had.







mabel's house

at some point each day

i sit down and peruse some of

my favorite blogs.

one that i never miss is mabel's house.

liz posts on all sorts of things: home decor (mostly vintage inspired and thrifty!),

family life, her childhood, food (cooked by her husband, usually), and of course, mabel.

her dog.

she was recently asked, along with three other blogger's, by better homes and garden to

participate in a fall contest. 

i love her latest creation.

liz is a great writer. that's what takes me back each day.

she writes thoughtfully. she is witty. every sentence is robust. she's become

one of my favorite reads in blogland.

so, go check her out. and read through her archives.

i think you'll be hooked, too.

front room

my, how this house has changed in four short weeks.

this blue room is no longer.
the wall to the right is gone and,
if you look past the naked kid to the wall behind him,
that wall is opened up to what we now refer to as 
the front room.

here it is in process.

beginning to take shape.

it was the forth bedroom.

a small space that we decided

would be best used as

more living space in our tiny

cottage.

and it would open up the front

entry which was essentially

a short hallway with very little room

for anything functional.

once the room was opened we

had to figure out how to make 

it functional.

the closet in the corner felt awkward

but the wall the closet is on was the longest

and only one suitable for the sofa.

we knew we needed our tv

in  this room but our large armoire

was sold prior to moving, knowing

it would not fit.

after messing around with the room for a few weeks

i think we are almost done.

this is the only living space that is not painted

white. we still kept it light. three walls

have a light bluish green and one wall is

white and will eventually be covered

with horizontal  planking.

the door came off the closet.

we threw on some paint we had from

our last house along with a few shelves

and voila, we have a book nook.

we are in pretty desperate need of book space, this doesn't

even make a dent but it's a start.

and i think it adds more warmth to the

room. with room for a round

wicker basket at the bottom it also gives the

little ones a place to put their trucks.

the wall over the sofa is serving as a random

gallery wall that will probably be changed up

with some regularity.

right now i have three round mirrors that

i had from hobby lobby, i just slapped some white paint on

them. underneath each mirror

is a special piece of art from each kid.

the chalkboard was a mirror that i painted

with chalkboard paint. i also painted the frame which has

been  more colors than i can count!

the ladder i found on a mountain junking/antiquing trip.

the "home sweet home" platter is from target and the 'w' is also from

hobby lobby with a coat of rustoleum's "straw" spray paint.

this is the white wall that will soon have wide white horizontal planking

across it. i think it will add tons to this room.

the picture over the blue check chair is a painting

my brother did years ago. i have always loved it and decided that the

darker, more brooding feel of the painting

really anchored the light, airy feel to this room.

the best piece of furniture for this space

turned out to be this dresser that

 i redid last year. i'm not crazy about

not having a tv cabinet where we can close it

off but we gotta work with what we have.

the dresser also gives us the extra storage space we need.



i think i may have to take a wall painting break to make a wreath,

and this one, that my friend's lauren and aimee made is

very fun! check it out.

i'll be linking up with cottage instincts and domestically speaking.

warming things up

with nights in the mid-40's and days in the low 70's fall has finally landed in south carolina! it's my favorite time of year. i absolutely love having the windows open and waking up cold!

we are still getting settled in here at quinby cottage. i have been a painting maniac but still have a good bit left to do. my arms are petering out on me, though. every wall and every bit of trim work in this house needs freshening up so even though it's a small house it is a time consuming task, especially since i am the primary painter.

with each finished wall i am able to pull out some simple
decor and thereby empty another box. i do love an empty box!
my trash to treasure dresser is serving as a bright spot in our dining area. i pulled in a few pine cones and had the boys collect some acorns from the yard and called this space done. i love this tray, i use it year round.

i'm having to get used to lower ceilings again. in our last home the fireplace was in a room with two story ceilings so i had all sorts of room above the mantel to play with. you can see here that i don't have a ton of space between mantel and ceiling. i found the oval mirror from tjmaxx and pulled the rest from around  the house.

mr. blue bird there is constantly bouncing around the house. i found him at the dollar store, brought him home and painted him blue. he's our waldo.

sorry for the horrible picture. this little vignette really isn't as boring as it looks. i stink at photography!

i'm snubbing orange pumpkins this year in favor of white no particular reason, just a little tired of plain ole orange. (though we will be carving an orange pumpkin, and the pressure is on for pastor j to do something super fantastic because i plan to win $50 in a carving contest with it.)

i threw this together last night before our small group came over. i still have another coat

of paint to apply to this wall but i couldn't stand the random stacks of stuff accumulating on

the secretary desk anymore.

there's nothing special going on here, i just grabbed a few empty

frames, stripped a lamp of fabric, and put some twigs in one

of my blue ball jars. i am really drawn to the

industrial look but only in small doses so this naked lamp

gives me just the right amount for our small space. i'm trying to decide if i should

 paint the whole thing - base, frame, finial and all. for now this will do.



nothing special going on here, either. but i gotta tell ya, after having our house on the market for.ev.er i am excited to have family photo's out again!

they really warm a space up, don't ya think?

an almost empty bowl of candy corn is my only punch of fall in this corner.

man, my kids go through this candy fast. me? i don't touch the stuff. ahem.

nothing particularly fallish going on here. i just wanted to show off that i got some pictures on the wall. this is our hall of black and white family photos of old. see that white door thingy in the middle? kind of a pain.

it's the electrical box. i'm trying to figure out what to do with it. i may paint the trim black to look like a frame and put something fun in the center. just don't know what yet. i'm totally open to suggestions!? anyone else have something awkward like this smack in the middle of open wall space?

so, that's a little of what i've been doing around here.

like my new pillow. i love it. also from tjmaxx.

when simplifying isn't simple

WARNING :: this post is filled with words, no pics of projects or house updates today! I'm not even
going to go back and read this so it may or may not make sense!

it's been quite a week.

in fact, it's been one of those weeks that

has forced me into near constant prayer.

we moved into town and into a smaller home for the

purpose of being close to our church

family and the community where most of our ministries

take place. it's also been or desire to simplify

our lives on a number of levels, from material possessions

to decreasing travel time for pastor j to how we spend time as a family.

while we love our home, neighborhood and proximity to the city,
not everything in our life feels
simpler. more simple? simpler? anyway. .  .

1. inner city schools. NOT a simple transition. it's been
rough in fact. really rough. it is important to us
to support our local school, to be present and encouraging, to offer
solutions and not be the parent's that just point out the problems. this is going to
require more time.

2. we have come to realize that bean is going to
need more therapy than the school can provide,
at least one to two hours outside of school.
this is going to require more time.

3. little quirks in tank's development, that we have been
only mildly concerned about have turned into larger concerns.
after being observed for three hours by a specialist
from the university we are now
getting set up to have him go through a full
developmental/psychological eval.
additionally, we found out he failed his recent hearing test
and have been referred to a specialist.
we know that he will need speech therapy at the very least.
this is going to require more time.

4. as things are, we don't have much more time. something's gotta give.

*************

it's ironic isn't it? that as we seek to simplify our lives things get infinitely more complicated.

complicated, yet the decision that needs to be made, for me, is a simple one.

my family needs more of my attention. not the kind of attention they get inbetween
projects or the kind they get when i have so many other things on my mind.
they need my full, undivided attention.

the only way for that to happen is for me to give up some things that are  forcing me to divide my
time. namely, green seed creations, the business.

i have decided that now is not the time to develop green seed. i will be turning in my
business license, finishing up some custom orders and not accepting more, and pulling out of the shop
where i currently have some of my wares. (also ironic is that this is all
coming about the week my little blog is getting a more professional look.)

i will maintain this blog, because i think it's important for me to have
something for me. and i enjoy this, even if no one's reading i enjoy it.

one day i will want to look back at the changes we made to our sweet
cottage and this is where i will look. so, i'll continue to document what i
do around here, with the reno and other projects, like the built in's i'm
going to make for the boys bathroom.

at the moment, i can't find my camera or i would show you some of my fall
decor. it is in keeping with our theme of simplifying and i am really loving it.

i'd love for those of you that come around from time to time to keep popping in
and hope you'll understand if my posts are not terribly consistent.

bear with me. . .

green seed site is undergoing a face lift and things are a bit of a mess. the gallery is all wacky, the sidebar is disorganized, the content is hit or miss. . . feels completely congruent with the rest of my life, actually!

anyway, bear with me. . .

swimming in paint

phase two of home reno is underway.

painting.

followed by painting and then some more painting.

oh, and putting horizontal planks in the dining and sitting room.

while i am working on neutralizing our walls

i thought i would show you one of the

furniture makeovers i did the week

before we moved.

did i really redo three pieces of furniture while

packing our entire house, enrolling the kids in new schools,

and taking care of all the administrative details of moving and closing

on two houses?

uh, yes. and that may explain my fatigue!

this little table was a piece of cake though.

like so many pieces in my home this once belonged to

my grandmother. it had a marble

top that was never secured. it wasn't pretty marble either.

it was icky, with swirls of brown and lot's of stains.

(sorry, in my haste to rid myself of that slab

of marble i got rid of it before snapping a pic)

i had a table runner over it for years and

used it in our upstairs hall to hold a lamp and some of the kids' books.

there was some decorative wood inlay on the drawer that i also wasn't crazy

about along with a brass rim around  the lower shelf.

i took the easy way out and just sprayed it all!

(sorry about the poor quality pics. this piece doesn't have a home yet so i just stuck it here for the pic)

i had some wood laying around and, remarkably, one piece fit

the top perfectly.

it even  had a beveled edge on the front.

all i did was stain it and glue it down with some liquid nails.

add a couple new knobs and she's got a whole new look.

for those interested in the details of the paint job i used a spray primer (kilz), followed

by rustoleum's heirloom white, and used deft lacquer spray as a protective finish.

i sanded ever so lightly with 220 grit in between each coat.

************************

did i mention i am painting the whole house white? alabaster, to be exact. this is new for me as i have always
had color on the wall. i made great progress today and will hopefully have some
reveals of some or our rooms in a week or so.

in other news. . . in my fatigued state i apparently put my paint roller and brush (thick with paint) in the freezer. i went to look for them after i picked the kids up from school and couldn't
find  them anywhere. later when i went in the freezer, there they were. frozen.

in between freezing paint brushes and taking care of the fam i also have some special orders
for the thomas company.
oh, and did i mention i had an emergency tooth extraction yesterday?
yeah, that was fun.

i think i'll take the rest of the night off. :)

y'all have a good one!