Place Cards, Pumpkins and Leaves

I met my mom in Dallas this weekend at my grandparents house and had a lovely Saturday of shopping, chatting, and eating. We started talking about Thanksgiving, which will be at grandma and grandpa's house, and now I've got Thanksgiving tablescapes on my mind....

place cards are always fun...

 My daddy and I made the turkey last year and we've been nominated to do it again. (He is the turkey master, I'm just his assistant ;)

So since we will have such a lovely turkey, we will need to have a lovely table, of course!

Maybe I'll steal some ideas from these pics....and hopefully it'll turn out cutie-pa-tootie! I will try to remember take pics so you can seee!

 I thought this was fun too...an easy little craft project that is super cute! 

If you have any table decor ideas...please share with me! Thanks!
hope you are all having a lovely fall week!

Before and Afters are Fun!

I was thinking about how much I love a good before and after.They are sooo instantly gratifying.You can quickly see the disastrous beginning and the divine end result! I want to get better at taking good before/after shots at each clients house, because even if it is a LONG and tiring process to get from start to finish...it is so nice to come back later and see what a huge difference the before is from the after.

Here are a couple of quick snapshots I took of a bathroom I remodeled this summer...
BEFORE...

sweet wall paper, brass/plastic fixtures and saloon doors to the pottie...

and AFTER...

My two favorite things on this project were the awesome HOTSOAK tub, and the glass/travertine mosaic accents in the tub surround...

This sweetie pie client wanted to warm up her kitchen without redoing the cabinets or counters.
BEFORE...

 so we installed this 5 inch, hand scraped wood flooring.
It really made this builder grade space feel much more inviting...
AFTER... (those floor mats were not my idea, just fyi ; )

And here is a Before/After from our casa:
When we bought the house, there was an entertainment center sitting right in front of this lovely insulation filled hole in the wall. This hole used to be a window, until the garage was added on, and this was the solution that the previous home owners came up with...hmmmm niiice.

I wanted a focal point for this wall so Lucas and i came up with this simple idea to cover up the dirty secret...I call it my dining room mantle. ; )

I will definitely start taking before and after shots on all my projects. I tend to just not think about it or just don't take the time to do it. But, it is definitely worth it to have something to look back on, so from now on I'm gonna make it happen. ; )

Hope you all have a Wonderful Thursday!!! Peace Out, Girl Scout.

Porch Reno

So this August/Semptember I decided it was WAY past due time to scrape all the old icky layers of peeling paint off of our front porch.... it looked really rough...needless to say, just check out this lovely pic...

There were MANY layers of paint which included: an orange, a blue, a gray and a yellowish white layer. It took me 30 or so hours of scraping. I tried all different methods, and got several opinions on the "best" way to get it all off. When it came down to it...muscle and patience are what FINALLY got it done! My right arm is now much stronger.; ) Once I got it all off there was still paint down in the cracks and there were LOTS of little cracks so I got this cement patch stuff, patched it all up, and let it dry. Then came the Epoxy paint. It was stinky, but it is supposed to last for 15 years...so it was worth it! 

I haven't taken any more pictures recently...this is right after I finished...but I just wanted to show you my brand new porch! I'll put more pics up later once I have some potted flowers or pumpkins. ; )

 P.S. You can also see the carolina jasmine has really grown alot since May. It's about 7 feet now!!

Shoppin'

In case any of you Abilene Laidies haven't heard about "My Sister's House"  consignment sale that has been going on this past week...you need to go check it out! I've found a great pair of dark wash trouser cut jeans, 2 shirts, 2 pairs of shoes and a belt and I've spent 50 bucks. The half price sale starts today so you should go check it out! It's on Pine Street, right off of North 1st. Click here for more info.

I'm wearing these super fun shoes today that I picked up for $10 last night. Go get ya some good buys! : )