Saturday, July 31, 2010

Need.. Want ...Desire ..Den Curtains

I've been hunting down fabric for beautiful curtains for the house at an affordable price. We have several rooms that need curtains and I'm leaning towards starting fresh and getting new stuff. There's the den, the office, the powder room, the kithcen, the dining room, teh living room, kavan's room, jeevan's room, master bedroom, master bath, boy's bath. Now that I type that all out - we will NOT be getting all new stuff :// Time to get creative.

As much as I love Ikea, I'm NOT so crazy about their geometric patterns and floral designs for fabric. It's a bit too bold and prime colored for me. Or - I haven't seen something there i like yet, Yes, shocker. I made curtains for our kitchen in our old house a while ago from Ikea and everytime I walked into the room, the curtains made me grimmace. Not a good thing. I believe the curtains dress a room and can make or break the look. SO i am completely willing to splurge on beautiful curtains.

I'm going to have to tackle one room at a time. First, the den. Yesterday I looked through our linen closet and only had two sets of long curtains for a door for our den. One was a transparent creme colored curtain and the other a clear creme curtain with floral embroidery all over. These have worked in apartments in the past but after combining them and putting them up on our Den sliding Door/window - not so much. The wall color is called indulgent mocha. These curtains blend in too well. I need a bit of a contrast. (Ignore the broken up slate outside - outdoor rennovations are being put off til oh, let's say a year or two or TEN from now).

I prefer a more subdued look and color for a curtain. I love prints of trellis designs. I can't put into words what I like as much as I can readily identify what I like vs. what I don't if I see it. My splurge choice would be either of these two from West Elm.They're having a sale right now of 20% off through August on curtains so if I was a wise woman, I would oder. 



I saw something like this online you can make at home that I really liked and looks simple enough? Maybe.

I saw some pretty fabric at Lillian August - a local designer furniture store I like to go and walk trough if I can convince my hubs. An evening there consists of him cleaning up the drool coming off the side of my mouth. That's a gross visual sorry but my point is that everything there is LUXURY and gorgeous and expensive but quality - so worth it. I'd love to make my own curtains with some luxurious fabric but with everything I have going on in the house after renovations and the perfectionist I like to be, making curtains is a project I'm starting to think will never happen. ....The research continues.


Monday, July 26, 2010

Dining Room Progress

Here are some pics of our dining room before and after!

We replaced the screen sliding door with french doors which both open out onto the deck. We changed the lighting fixture to something a bit more....modern. We did the raised paneling that has the shadow box look on the walls and we had the doorways into and out of the kitchen shaped into arches. I also had an arch entrance shaped out between the living room and dining room. The arches the contractors did and it's the one thing out of all hte rennovations that took the longest time. I had no idea a little curve would cause so much ruckus! I was also trying to do something with my buffet table. I first had it behind the couch as a sofa table but love the design to it and felt it was just hidden back there behind the couch and also didnt want to hide my wicker baskets because let's face it - a girl can't get enough wicker! This girl at least! :) SO i had an idea and my sweet hubs so sweetly just went along with it. I stuck hte buffet table in the dining room and got one of these storage pieces from Ikea as opposed to having a traditional hutch in there. Now we sort've have the hutch Look. I wasn't sure how it was going to work out but it's not so bad and both pieces are pretty functional so yay and phew! because that was a close one. 

So here are a few before pictures. I apologize for the move in pic but it shows the original lighting fixture. What's under the old gold lighting fixture is what WAS our dining room.

And here are a few After pics....


Err....I need to get better at before and after pics! The walls look mustard in these super awesome cell phone pics (sorry!) but they're actually a camel color. I Added a few plants and some baskets and voila! Not sure why I am saying voila since it isnt done yet and still a bit messy but I was anxious to post a pic! Oh and the pack and play for my 11 weeker is riding the wall between the living room and dining room at the moment cuz... we're real like that :)

Linking to Anything Related @ All Thingz Related and Show me the Progress Party at Serenity Now.

Sesame Place!

We took the boys to sesame place last weekend and had so much fun. The drive there was unexpectedly long. We planned for a 2.5 hour drive and it took just about twice as long. :// It made for a very cranky toddler, sleepy baby and grouchy parents. We stayed across the street from Sesame at a hotel so we made sure the boys stretched out and rested before going to the park. The place was amazing! I had no idea how much fun was to be had. The baby was in his carseat the whole time and getting very hot so I kept dousing him with a wet washcloth to cool him off which did the trick. My little guy was overwhelmed i think - he had a poker face on the whole time except for when he got to meet his very favorite - COOKIE MONSTER! the elmo show was a blast and we sat in the front row. Cookie monster came up and tussled Kavan's hair and gave him a high five - i thought my kid was going to pass out in utter joy. I can't explain the happiness in my heart seeing him have so much fun.  We went with 3 other friends of his and their mommies and daddies. The pics are adorable :)

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Another Ikea Beauty

Ikea, u never fail me. In fact, u take my breath away. :)

After waiting 8 long weeks of staying indoors and avoiding public places so baby Jeevan doesn't get sick, the first place I wanted to go to was Ikea. Jeevan had his 8 week shots and we were off sailing down a highway of promises to the promiseland itself. :) 

We bought a bunch of goodies and spent ridic amounts of money but I wanted to show u this beauty below that I got for the foyer entryway. I've been experimenting with several small bookcases and random tables in that space but nothing quite fit and they're all dark and brown and for some reason I just want white everywhere these days. Maybe it's a CT thing, a new england thing or just a summer thing because me and the hubbernator usually go towards dark browns. I'm shocked he's letting me run with this white phase. 

I saw this and thought it'd work best. Will post pics later of the final result! It's still a work in progress!



P.S. I wish this whole joking thing about Ikea was an exaggeration but it's not. It's heaven there and I feel so bad for those who are too far from one to visit. U poor, poor lost souls. :)

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Behind on Blogging but Moving forward with Pics!

I've come to the realization that life is truly chaotically hectically manically insnae now with 2 babies under 2 and will be like this until.... they leave for college? not sure. I have accepted that I will never have that magic day where I catch up on all my blogging, responding to emails and phone calls, putting together my imaginary baby scrapbooks or pictures of our rennovation process from start to finish. There has just been TOO much going on in our little world in the last few weeks. Reminder for those of u new to us - new house, new job for hubby, new state, massive rennovations, end of a pregnancy, new baby and an 18 month old. THAT BEING SAID, I plan on moving forward with the blogging and here and there I'll find the time or space to fill in the missing gaps. No reason to put everything on hold now is it!

Here is a pic of my 10 week old chicken nugget in the arms of his 18 month old big brother! :)

 I've been obsessed with dressing them in matching outfits. I find it irresistibly cutie!! I thought I never had to buy another baby outfit with having all the hand me down clothing from my first son but my philosophy has changed - they must now match. always :) hehe. Hopefully I'll stop around the teen years :)

Here is an action shot with mama (me) and my boys. Note the matching outfits :) Oh and ignore the excessive baby weight on me as well as the cluttered living room.



Here is my little gem goofing off at the store with sunglasses which he calls - "EYE" :)



Here is the littel clown again wearing daddy's SHOOOOOS (which is how he says is) :)

Here is my golden ray of sunshine around 9 weeks. How could u not fall in love with this "totally handsome" little onesie man!


BROTHERLY LOVE - which is usually the scene at the house these days :)




Here is one of my favorite pictures of when little lion #2 (Jeevan) was about a week old sitting with little lion #1 (Kavan):

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

More Renovation Pictures

Im getting there guys. I promised pictures - but never promised them quickly :) Now life with two little babies means u REALLY don't get anything done unless they're BOTH conked out during a nap :)

Ok the first pic is of the hardware we chose for all the cabinets in the kitchen including the pantry door, the fridge (which isn't finished being paneled yet) and the dishwasher. It is the first handle in the picture and we just love it. We got it from Klaff's and paid a pretty penny for this pewter beauty but it's perfect and we love it.

The second picture is a closeup of our granite called Gallo Ornamental. The tile store's mixup actually ended up working in our favor. It looks amazing with the white cabinets. More pics coming. :)
 
Now this last picture is a shot of the master bedroom. We took on a project in there to knock down the small walkin closet that shared a wall with the TINY bathroom and then build a closet on our own in that bedroom out of drywll. While i begged for a nice updated master bath - I wasn't so sure how much I liked the idea of this compromise. How is a girl to choose? walkin closet? master bath? AH the torturous nights I stayed awake pondering this one. So i opted for a master bath. 

The bathroom that previously was in there was miniscule and grimy and out of the 70s and just felt ikky to me. It was clean but still felt ikky with the way the tiny shower stall was squeezed in there in teh corner bteween the toilet and miniature vanity. The built closet int he picture will do the trick. We just have to be very selective with what comes into the bedroom now. The master bath turned out BEAUTIFUL and mamma got her wish - mama now gets a little piece of serenity in my pseudo spa like bathroom after the kids go to sleep and i close down the kitchen. Nevermind that this happens at 1 am. I;m working on that part. Pics coming!

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