Croctastic!

I was strollin through a local craft store a couple of days ago brainstorming for a desk that I refinished a few years back.  On the scrapbook paper aisle I came upon an UH-MAZING find.  Faux croc paper.  This stuff looks sooooo REAL! SCORE!  The minute I saw it, I knew exactly what I would do.

To add to my freakish, over the top, excitement for this project, I was rocking the Little Mister during The Nate Show (soo addicted to) yesterday and low and behold what is he chatting about?  A $12,000 Ralph Lauren croc cocktail table and how you too can get this look... YEAH BABY! 
Well I forgot to take before pics because I was way too excited to get this underway.  Here ya go...

Soup and I also did a little work in our back yard as well.  The pool area is supposed to be calm and relaxing.  Ours is just down right stressing me out.  I feel like I need to close my eyes every time I walk out, but that wouldn't be a good idea because I would totally trip over one of the stinkin posts jutting up out of the concrete.  The previous owners needed MAJOR protection around the pool, and I get that, but I think they went a little over board.  Anyway, we have a looong list of things to do back here, starting with this lovely dirt bed here.  Before I took this photo, I removed the rock garden that previously lived here.  In all honesty, I do NOT qualify a pile of cement squares and quartz rock to be a "garden," but that's just me. 

We added some tropical plants, some oleander (which I'll be sure not to let my little ones munch on, it's poisonous), and some other little purple flowered creeper that Big Sis picked out.  Soup lined the bed with some really pretty stones so that all the dirt and mulch doesn't seep out into the walk.  I think it finished up nicely, can't wait to get crackin on the other areas!

I'm sure it will be a fabulous haven for the DISGUSTING  lizards that call our dwelling their home. YUCK!

Here is Little Sis doin some work.   As you can see our list is still in need of some check marks.  Fencing, concrete work, those stinkin posts... It could possibly never end.  :)

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A black and white story.

I bought this amazing mini chest at a "marriage" sale about a month ago.  I thought the idea of the marriage sale was pretty cute. The new couple had previously been married and were getting rid of all their stuff from their old relationship.  Great for me because I totally scored on this find and a larger chest with mirror.  I also purchased a sweet little frenchy set of nesting tables that I will be featuring soon.  So here is the before of Miss Amelia.

This chest is built with fabulous maple and extremely sturdy.  I planned on painting it from the beginning, but Soup put up a great fight.  He's all about the stain!  It did have a nice grain, but the warm rustic look just isn't what I'm goin for in Littlest's room.  Here's how it turned out!

 I am super happy with the clean chic look!  I'm sure it will look fabulous in her room! As you can see, this is not the icy purple, feminine little girl room I want for Littlest Miss.  This is in fact our sun room.  It's my photo room because it has the best light in our house and has the ONLY decently painted walls in our entire house.  Sad that there is only about 5 sq ft of nice paint, but still... :)  I'm workin on it!  I hope to have some energy to finish Bub's room this week, and then you can see some house progress! Yay!

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Let there be light!

I've been itching to start this lamp since the second I saw it sitting on the table amidst the junk at the yard sale.  It painted up VERY nicely, but I knew I couldn't use the old shade because I didn't like the size.  I wanted to slim the whole silhouette.  I was wanting just a plain cylindrical shade, no sloping, so I figured I could make one-easy enough... Did I have poster board? No.  Matte board? No.  Any type of flexible plastic something? No....... Soupy finally said, "Did you ever think about going to the store to buy one?"  Where's the creative, Susie Homemaker, I did it all by myself fun in that? Well, guess what? I caved and went to Target.  And guess what else? They didn't have what I wanted.  So I settled. 

I absolutely LOVE it! I am soooo happy with the results! I hope this new lamp inspires you girls to go out and snatch up that fabulously figured but maybe not so made up find and fix her up yourself!  Here's how I did it.  First, I removed the old lampshade.  You screw off the top screw and remove the shade.  I then taped off the piece that holds the light bulb and the base of the cord, where it attaches to the lamp.  I spray painted the entire base a high gloss black.   I couldn't leave well enough alone with a white shade, I wanted to jazz it up a bit.  I couldn't find any gross grain ribbon in my stash, so I used some ric rac.  I may change it later, we'll have to see how it looks when the whole room is complete.  So, I hot glued the ric rac along the bottom and top edges and then popped on a flower with a bead accent.

Before I attached the new shade, I had to modify the lamp a bit because there was a large metal framework protecting the light bulb.  I removed that, then had to remove the light bulb to slide the new shade to where it could sit under the bulb(weird placement I know, I should have taken pictures-but you can figure it out if you need to!).  Hope you like!

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Zebra Craze

So, just had to share these photos because I am so so so IN LOVE! These chairs look so fabulous at my dining room table! If that room looked anywhere near presentable, I would show you.  I don't think you want to see photos of a room that has polka dotted walls because of removed floor to ceiling mirrors!! To do list keeps growing: texture, painting, decorating...  Anyhow, here is the before of my dingy garage sale chairs!

Here is the after!

Lovely! I have a few people interested in these, so hopefully they are on their way to a new home!

Also, I painted the lamp a chic glossy black but I'm not going to share until I've got the shade. I can't decide if I want the PBTeen one or if I want to make my own! It'll be a surprise!

Vintage

I looked up the meaning of vintage this morning because for some reason I associate the word vintage with having to be soooooo old.  Like before the 70's.  But the actual meaning is: old, old fashioned, dated.  Interesting.  In that case, I'm definitely a vintage piece collector! So, check out these awesome vintage chairs the kids and I found at a yard sale this morning!

Littlest was so proud of our find. She just had to be in the photo! My favorite find is the lamp.  As I said before, I'm trying to copy a PB Teen room for Little Miss and this lamp is exactly what I've been looking for! I'll paint it glossy black and slap a chic shade on her and call it good!

(via PBteen)

Stay tuned for these updates! If you're interested in the chairs let me know and I can cover them to your needs!

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Sew Day

My biggest Lily Jean Designs client is my Sis.  She put in a onsie order for two different friends who are both having boys.  One dad is a fireman having twins! Both boys names start with Z, so here is what I did for them!

I still need to stitch the ladder onto the fire truck!

This is the next onsie.  Just a simple initial, those are my favorites!

In between working on these two tops, I needed an extra creative boost and Little Mister needed some more shitrs, so we made this one for him!

He also wanted to share his new trick! :)

Happy Tuesday!

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Temporary Mantle

Here is the reveal of my lovely new mantel.  I don't think this is exactly how I want it yet, but it's coming along!  Adds nice color to our dingy living room!

Remember the tragic before life of the shutters?

Hope you enjoy! That's all for today, I've got lots of projects in the works and Little Miss is in camp with Soup this week so stay tuned for some freeze tag action shots!

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Interiors

Before we moved into the new house, number 1 on my list was to get the Little Missies' rooms done.  I wanted them to have a smooth transition into their rooms for privacy and sweet slumber.  Well, we've been here a month and Littlest Miss only has strips of wall paper peeled off one wall.  Little Miss' room is still an 80's nautical paradise.  Soup and I still have a "camp out" style mattress that the Missies sleep on every night.  I tried once to put them in their own rooms, but honestly I don't have the strength or the heart to battle with them 3 hours a night! I hold onto the thought that if they helped decorate a precious, fun place to call their own, maybe they wouldn't struggle with being on their own so much.  Here are some of my ideas for their rooms:


I LOOOOOVE these designs from PB TEEN, but all in the icy purple color that I want for Littlest's room.



I am crazy about the puffy pom pom duvet!  I am totally loving the ruffly rose pillow in this pic below!





I am really stuck on the feminine texture of these though! I hope to figure out a way to pull it all together in an inexpensive knock off DIY way!







I have tons more ideas for the girls' rooms, but until the money tree in our front yard drops its bountiful goodness, I'll just keep drooling over these photos!

Onto my contribution to the House for the day.  It's a decor addition to our living room.  But it came from our master bedroom, which was once the family room, are you still with me? :)  When I walked in and saw these babies, I was foaming at the mouth and already planning their next life!

Since they are still drying in my front entry (where most of my painting action happens), you'll have to wait till tomorrow to see their new home!

MMM mmm mmm, delicious!  I just love this turquoise! Hope Soup does too!  :)

Introductions

   So, my husband and I recently moved our little family into a new house, a new neighborhood, and for me, practically a new life.  Our old home varies significantly from our new home.  We built the old house from the ground up; the new house is almost 40 years old (and not aging well).  Although our old house was nearly the same square footage, it consisted of 2 stories, not very convenient with young ones that didn't do stairs very well!  Our current home is 3000sq ft ranch style and boy do we use every square inch of it!  We were quite a drive away from Soup's work and most of the people we know.  I didn't attend many work functions and didn't have much of a social life.   In the short month since we have moved, our events calendar and social interaction have dramatically increased!  I have experienced many days where Soup gets home hours earlier than usual and am very happy that the alarm clock is not waking us at the previous wee hours of morning!  Altogether I think our favorite and most uniting change of the move is gaining a fabulous swimming pool.  We've been in the pool almost everyday and I'm pretty sure that my ducklings are growing webbed feet! On that note, I think it's time to share the project I started today BEFORE our pool party!

If you're a facebook friend, you've already been introduced to these lovely ladies.  I found them at a "marriage sale" in my neighborhood.  They are in great shape and have fabulous legs! I took these girls out back and gave them a quick sanding, and as I started to spray paint them I noticed the paint was bubbling in some areas.  Maybe these beauties will be the perfect candidate for the famous chalk paint I've been hearing about.   Hmmmmm I think I'll have to get an order placed.  Anyhow, this is what the girls and  I did to pass paint drying time:

Little Miss has been swimming with her life jacket all around the pool.

If you're ever around our pool, this is how you'll find our Littlest Miss.  She's a lounger.  She swims with her life jacket too, but she'd rather float and soak up the rays! :)

Here's the after of the beautiful french ladies.  I am so happy with the way they turned out(sans bubbles)! I will be posting a proper beauty shot of these girls when they're complete, but I was so excited about their transformation-I just had to share!  If you have fallen in love with these nesting tables, I will be placing them on esty as soon as I have my shop set up, or if you can't wait-just leave me a comment!

Please stay tuned for updates on the reno of our house-the big Kitchen Project is coming up in about a month! I am so excited!

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