before and after goods: my dining room!

i am so excited to show you my dining room today! like i said yesterday...it's not "done" yet, but then again, my house will never be "done". but i dare say that it is blog worthy. ok, you've waited long enough.....

here is the dining room before:

and here it is after:

i have so much to tell you about the furniture, paint colors, thrift store finds, etc. but it's really late and i'm going to bed!  hopefully i'll get a chance to post about some of the details in the next few days. until then, enjoy the photos!  i know i'm enjoying the real thing.

have a great day!

~elisabeth



blog goods: i linked up!

some good things going on around here!

i recently started following the blog, theletteredcottage. i know, i know...where have i been?

they did a post the other day on how to make a spring wreath and then offered the opportunity for other bloggers to link their own "how to" posts at the bottom. it's called a "linky party".

here's the wreath...cute, right? (click the link above if you want to make one, and check out their blog while you're at it!)

this "linking" happens all the time on blogs.  for those of you who blog, this is old news. (i'm going into a little detail here because i have a lot of friends and family who read this who probably have no clue what a linky party is.)

i have never "linked up" before. i know, i know....where have i been???

so, i linked my "how i paint a room" post.

when i got on blogger to check my stats yesterday, there were tons of hits to my "paint a room" post.  i had totally forgotten that i did the linky party and i was like, what??? then, i started getting comments to that post and i was like, oh yeah....the linky party!  i am still a very small blog and comments are like gold to me. i was so excited to be getting such sweet comments! it seems as though that post i did has really given some confidence to people who want to paint their rooms. what a great feeling! 

in all honesty, i really seriously almost didn't write that post. i just wasn't sure anyone would care. but they do!

thank you to everyone who has left a comment. your sweet words make me want to keep right on blogging! and thanks letteredcottage for being my first link-up. ;)

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another good thing....i am waiting until the afternoon sunshine pours into my dining room and then i am going to click away with my camera. so, hopefully by this time tomorrow i can share my dining room with you!  this is my first big room reveal. are you excited? i am!

i hope your day is filled with good things!

~elisabeth

magazine and dining room goods

happy monday everyone! i hope you had a wonderful weekend. the weather was just gorgeous in our neck of the woods and it looks like it's shaping up to be another beautiful day today.

my mom was here last week and oh my, did we have some diy fun.  we thrifted, and spray painted, installed shower heads, hung chandeliers and dealt with electricity and everything! pictures to come...

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yesterday i spent some time with this

and this

and this

boy, i do love my blogs...but there is something about holding an actual magazine in your hands. it will never get old.

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my dining room is finally blog worthy! of course it's not done. because nothing is ever done. but hopefully i can find some time this week to take some pictures for you.

have a great day!

~elisabeth

organized goods: storage closet makeover

the play room is coming along really well. it's almost ready to share. i need to hang the chandelier and do a modge podge project with my kiddos and then i will take pictures.

in the meantime i thought i would share this little closet re-do that i did a while back.

i think off season clothes storage for children is about one of the most daunting things to tackle. when the season's change and it's time to pull out those boxes of clothes, it takes me a whole day to rotate, switch out, try on, put away, sort and organize all the clothes. anyone with me here?

i already had a semi-organized system but i needed it to be better.

here is what i was working with- mismatched boxes, not very well labeled with all kinds of things thrown in together.

here is the closet that i decided to use. this closet is in our guest room. i moved all of the stuff you see into the closet in my sewing room. it made more sense to have the office supplies and artwork in my room.

enter the label making machine!  thanks mom, i love it! 

i already had a bunch of plastic bins. i rounded them up and started labeling.

each bin got an age; newborn, 3-6 months, 6-12 months, 12-24 months, 2T, 3T, etc....

there are also special bins for  "shoes", "keepsake clothes", "family clothes/knit sweaters", etc.  (my grandma- was an amazing knitter and we are very blessed to have dozens of sweaters that she made for my brothers and me, and for all of our children.

here are some of the boxes with labels:

now the long daunting task.

sort, fold, and place.

once everything was sorted and in the appropriate bins, i stacked them in the closet.

this closet also houses coats, extra hangers and the occasional halloween costume.

i am happy to report that after 9 months, the system is still in place and is working beautifully!

i have added an empty plastic bin on the top that i throw clothes in that are outgrown between seasons, or holiday clothes that need to be put away. i  am not dragging out that box on the bottom just to put away one halloween shirt. so, i throw it in the empty bin and when spring comes and i'm "rotating" clothes, i'll put away whatever is in the empty bin at that time. this saves me from having random piles in the laundry room of "i don't know what to do with these clothes right now" clothes.

so, here was our closet before:

and the closet after!

i just love it when things are nicely organized like this. i wish my whole house looked like this closet. i think it saves so much time and effort when you have a good system in place. if you are inspired by this project and want some more organizing projects to explore you need to visit i heart organizing. jen has TONS of great systems in place in her house. her three year old even folds his own clothes! check her out.

i hope your weekend is full of goods!

~elisabeth

etsy goods: for the playroom

i just bought this

from here.

i just love her little striped socks.

thank you lindsey,

for posting it on your blog.

hope you are all having a super week!

~elisabeth

a couple of goods: starbucks and painting

you will never believe what happened to me this morning.....

....i went here

to get this

(keep in mind that i got the extra big tall one, like embarrassingly tall- no one needs this much frozen anything tall.) i was feeling a little guilty, as this was the first time ever that the word venti flowed from my lips. but then.....

....i didn't have to pay for it!

the lady at the window said that a customer about 6 cars ahead of me had given his starbucks card and told the employee to put $40 on it and then give every car after him one free coffee until it runs out!

wow. wasn't that nice of him?

what a way to start off my morning! i have thought of doing this before but i have never actually done it. next time i go through a drive through i am totally going to pay it forward.

do you think since i didn't have to pay for it, the calories don't count either?

(*all starbucks images were found on google images.)

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i received a lot of feedback from the post i did on how to paint a room.

i must say, i was surprised how many people found it useful. there were three or four people that said i inspired them to tackle painting a room in their house. that makes me so happy. that right there is one of the best reasons to blog.

there were a few questions about the whole "W" painting technique. here is a picture to clear things up. (it was hard to find a picture of exactly how i do it, but this is close. it's from here.)

you paint a W on the wall with your roller and then just go back over it filling in the empty space. i paint over and over this section three or four times to make sure the wall gets totally saturated.  in this picture, he is going from ceiling to floor. i don't do this. i paint in much smaller sections. maybe 4'X4' sections.  but do whatever works for you. if you do bigger sections, like the picture, i would re-load your paint roller a few times. one paint roller worth of paint will not be enough for this huge section of the wall.

hope that helps!

it's friday! have a great weekend.

~elisabeth

bova goods goods

i added some goods around here.

i realized that half of the blogs that i love dearly and read every day were not listed on my blog list. so, if you will, please take a look at "good blogs" over there on the right hand side. take your time. grab some coffee and give yourself at least two hours. you won't be sorry. some gooooood stuff over on that there list. (new ones that i am really enjoying: "house of smiths", "gus and lula" and "i heart organizing")  please just make sure you come back here every now and then, k?

toward the top, i added a little section called, "goods i'm dreaming about".  this is my wish list. there are links to things i am obsessing over currently and/or have been loving for quite some time. i am more than happy to send you my shipping address if you are feeling generous. ;) hee hee.  i am always so interested in what other people are pining over and wishing for so i thought it would be a good place to list mine.  now, let it be known, in no way am i expecting to ever actually own all of these things...but a girl can dream, right? and also let it be known, there are actually a few pretty affordable things on my list...and i do have a birthday now and then. just sayin'. ;) 

hope you enjoy the new goods!

~elisabeth