Would you rather

have a skirted

La Belle Vie

or exposed pedestal sink?

Elle Decor

Finally!

I thought we may not get a good snow this year.

But I was wrong! 

I am too embarrassed to post a picture of our pathetic snowman but we did make one along with hot chocolate and homemade snow cream. It is hard to believe just a few days ago we were outside riding bikes in the sun.

As much as I enjoyed the snow yesterday, I have to admit I am ready for Spring. But it was nice to finally feel like we had a Winter!

Before & After: Coffee Table

Same old story:

I found this piece of furniture with great lines, great hardware and great potential but it needed a little help.

I sanded it down, painted the top and re-stained the base.

One of the best things about this table is the storage. If company is coming over, you can shove everything inside, close the top and no one will ever know how cluttered your living room was a few moments ago.

This is my first time mixing stain and paint on the same piece of furniture. What do you think?

Happy Valentine's Day

I decided to make valentines with Riley this year to give to her classmates. Afer perusing the internet for ideas, I settled on making heart-shaped crayons. Basically you take a bunch of old crayons,

unwrap them and break them into pieces,

and put them inside heart-shaped molds.

I got these silicone ice trays in the $1 section at Target and they worked great.

Once the trays are loaded up, you put the molds in the oven at a low temperature for about 20 minutes.

When they have completely cooled, you pop them out of the molds and you have pretty little multi-colored crayons.

Next, we used a stamp and decorative paper to make simple Valentine's Day cards. 

We used sticky-tack to attach the crayons to the cards.

And finally, we slipped the cards inside clear plastic envelopes to keep everything together.

The crayons are fun to use because the colors change as you draw with them.

Hopefully her friends like to color or they are going to be disappointed that there isn't any candy in her cards! I am sure there will not be a shortage of candy though. I think we still have some leftover from last year's school party! 

Valenitine's Day usually comes and goes without much fanfare at our house. Paul and I usually sit this holiday out. Restaurants are always so crowded and it can be hard to get a sitter. We decided to just do cards this year and a little something for the girls. Maybe we will cook a nice dinner over the weekend to celebrate. What are your plans for the day? Do you make a big deal or take it easy on Valentine's Day?

Feeling Better!

Thanks for your sympathies and suggestions regarding mastitis. I am very happy to report that between the heating pad, the antibiotics and constant nursing, I seem to have made a full recovery. Poor Hayes probably gained another 10 lbs from all of the forced nursing but she was a good sport about it.

I can not thank her enough for her cooperation because I was miserable. I hope I never experience that again! 

Now that I am feeling better I have big plans for the weekend. I am hoping to upholster a headboard, create some artwork, finish staining a coffee table and complete a mirror makeover that I have been working on. If I complete even one of these items I'll consider the weekend a success :)  I hope to share at least a few of these projects with you soon so stay tuned! In the meantime, some things I can't get off my mind:

This canopy

via Shelter

This mantle styling

Tommy Smythe

This soup

{Recipe via Yummly}

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Tortilla Soup

4 boneless chicken breasts (cooked and shredded)

29 oz chicken broth

4 oz diced green chile

10 oz diced tomatoes with green chile peppers

1 onion (chopped)

2 cloves garlic (minced)

1 TBSP fresh lime juice

2 TBSP fresh cilantro (chopped)

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (ground)

1/2 tsp ground cumin

4 flour tortillas (10 inch)

1 TBSP olive oil

Shredded monterey jack cheese

Combine chicken broth, green chiles, tomatoes with green chiles, onion and garlic in a soup pot. Add the shredded chicken. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Reduce heat and simmer for 30-35 minutes.

Add the lime juice, cilantro, cayenne and cumin. Simmer 10-15 minutes longer.

Cut the tortillas into 1/2 x 2 inch strips. Fry in hot olive oil in skillet until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

Ladle the soup into bowls. Garnish with shredded monterey jack cheese and the tortilla strips.

I had this for dinner last weekend and twice this week for lunch. It is so good! And easy! And healthy! 

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I'm off to make Valentine's with Riley. Have a great weekend!

$15 Find

I found this brass and marble desk lamp at an antique store this week. 

It has great lines and beautiful details.

It is the perfect addition to this little corner of my desk where I keep a bowl of office supplies, a collection of rocks and shells from various travels and a source of inspiration I found in a fortune cookie many years ago.

 

Not bad for $15.

{I apologize for the late post today. I woke up with a terrible case of mastitis :( It is so painful and so far nothing is helping. I know a lot of you are mamas - any tips for getting some relief? I feel like I have tried everything! Hopefully the antibiotics will help. I am going to use this as the perfect excuse to lay on the couch the rest of the night eating comfort food and cheering on my UNC Tarheels! GO HEELS!}

Would you rather

have twin beds 

Katie Ridder | Elle Decor

or built-in beds for a shared space?

Traditional Home Magazine 

Brass is back!

I never in a million years thought I would be a fan of brass. As a child of the 80s where every metal surface seemed to be covered in shiny, yellow brass I was more than happy to see it lose it's popularity.

 However, tarnished, unlaquered, almost matte brass may be my favorite finish of the moment. So I was pleasantly surprised to find this curtain hardware in the buffet that I recently painted.

Since I replaced the curtains with mirror in that buffet I didn't need to rehang the hardware. As fate would have it, we had one of our bathrooms painted last week, including the cabinets, and I realized this was the perfect place to reuse the curtain rods. After some taxing moments spent figuring measurements and making sure things were level, I have new cabinet hardware in the bathroom.

I love the brass next to the gray paint.

I actually have a brass light fixture on order for this bathroom as well. I promise to show more of this room once it arrives.

How do you feel about brass? I feel like it is really popular in the blogosphere but it is still a tough sell to most of my clients. I think they just fear the shiny yellow brass too much to accept brass in any form :) 

Tips on Painting Furniture

{First of all, thank you so much for your feedback yesterday. I know it was a boring post but I like to check in with y'all once in a while and it sounds like we are on the same page!}

Now on to a post that I am probably not really qualified to write. I get asked fairly often how to paint furniture. I actually find it funny because I feel like I just pick up a paint brush and start painting without putting a lot of thought behind it. But I guess there are a couple of tips and tools that I use pretty consistently so here they are: 

Angled paint brush and 6" foam roller

I use the foam roller for large flat surfaces where you don't want brush strokes. The angled brush helps you get a nice straight line when painting edges and corners. Someone asked in the comments recently if I use a sprayer to paint my furniture and I have never used one but I have been thinking about trying it out. If anyone has experience with sprayers please comment and tell us the pros and cons - How hard are they to use? Are they difficult to clean? Do they save a lot of time? Worth the cost? 

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Wood Filler

Obviously it is a no-brainer to use wood filler but I like this one because of the pointed tip. It makes it easy to squeeze the filler into tiny cracks and holes.

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Advance Paint by Benjamin Moore

This is a new product for me but I used it on the buffet I recently painted and I was really impressed. It covers well and doesn't show brush strokes even in a high-gloss finish. Of course, it costs more but I will definitely use it again. 

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Cleaning Hardware

To get dirt and paint off of furniture hardware I boil it in a water + vinegar mixture for about 20 minutes. The hardware below is covered in years of grime and paint. 

After:

Still tarnished, but clean. At this point you can polish the hinges to clean them up if you want them clean and shiny but I actually prefer the aged look of tarnish and patina so I leave them as is.

A note about hinges that I have learned the hard way: THINK VERY CAREFULLY before you remove the hardware. I don't know why, but if you take all of the hinges off at once it is almost impossible to get the doors rehung correctly. I made this mistake on the dining room cabinet makeover. I decided to buy new hinges instead of cleaning the old ones - BIG mistake. I thought I would never get the doors to close again. Since that disaster, I have started removing one hinge per door at a time and I rehang that hinge before removing the next one. This process takes a little more time but it works great and I don't have any problems getting the doors to close correctly when I'm done. 

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I didn't talk about sanding and priming but I obviously do that if needed before moving on to the steps listed above. So, this is my usual approach to painting furniture. Do you guys have anything to add?

A little blog analysis

(and my first, and hopefully last, picture-less post)

Every week I tell myself I am going to write at least three blog posts and then the next thing I know the week has ended and I only managed to put together one post! Like everyone I am struggling with time but also with content. Finding time is always going to be an issue but I am really trying to work on that. Finding content is a bit harder to "schedule".

Lately I feel pressure to just post something but I am usually not very happy or inspired by these forced posts. When I first started this blog I was so worried whether or not anyone would even read it. Now that I know you guys are reading I feel obligated to provide you with quality posts even if they are less frequent! 

I've found the posts that I enjoy the most are the ones with original content - design projects I am working on, DIY posts, interesting ideas I've stumbled upon, and, of course, pictures of my kids to ensure that my family will keep reading :) Not only does original content make my blog more unique but it also pushes me to create and design more to have something to share with y'all. From what I have seen from my blog analytics and comments, this type of post also seems to interest y'all the most. 

Don't get me wrong - I still love a good inspiration post every once in a while with beautiful pictures to help resolve a design issue I may be stuck on. However, with the amount of blogs out there and now Pinterest, it is extremely hard to post photos that haven't already been seen a million times.

SO, this is a long-winded way of asking you for some feedback.

Do you prefer original content over collections of inspiration photos even if means less frequent posts? 

How do you feel about the "Would you rather" posts? Love them or over them?

Is there anything you would like me to post about more or post about less?

I truly appreciate you taking time to visit my blog whether you are a silent observer or a frequent commenter and I want to make sure it is worth your while to stop by! So, don't be shy - tell me what you think!