Entertain Me...

Finally.  We found the perfect little piece of furniture to put our stamp on, make our own...all to set a television on top of:)  I am excited about this piece.  I have been waiting for just the perfect thing...and because I have been waiting so long I was about to buy a new piece!  But HURRAY we get the chance to up-cycle a gem of a (use-to-be) sideboard.  So excited!  Jeremy just left to pick up the piece and then the project will begin!  I will post pictures of before an after for your entertainment:)  Fun Fun Fun:) Fingers crossed that this works the way I have envisioned in my head!

Sneak Peak....

Above is before...and below is in the process...

After three coats of paint, some stain and a little distressing...this is what the product!  Love it!  Now we just need to find the right hardware and we are done!  It is the perfect fit for our room:) 

 Looks a little cluttered right now...Need to hide the speakers, hang the art and move some wires.  We are also planning on opening one of the cabinets with glass or taking out completely and adding a shelf.  But progress....

Deck Garden...pics coming soon

Over the weekend we decided to plant our deck pots.  Usually I plant in an array of colors, all different flowers.  This year I wanted to try something new.  We chose the color palette of every shade of purple, green and lime green.  But instead of only using flowers we mixed in vegetables and fruit!  We have potted blueberries, raspberries, grapes, eggplant...intermixed with flowers we have beets, beans, peas, cilantro, chives and rosemary.  It is so beautiful and I am so excited to see how it will work:)  Fun to think of just walking out to the deck to get a few ingredients:)  I love it!  And it really is pretty!  There could be so many ways to make this look great with other veggies!  Again, we will see that works and what does not as the spring/summer progress:)

Little Garden Project...How does your garden grow?

We have now been living on Whidbey for, well, 5 years in August!!!  Can you believe that?!  And all of that time we have spoken about planting a garden.  We have been dragging out feet because of our darn rabbit and deer problem and I really did not want a huge fence up on our property (other than the one we have for the dog).  But this year we found a simple project that takes away the commitment level of large garden project and lets us get out feet wet.  To see what works for us and what does not.  We found the raised garden project here, realizing it would only cost a fraction of the other raised bed ideas, and got to work:)  It was SO easy and SO worth it:)  The whole project (including the rabbit fence) was around $60.  And that is not from the big box stores but our local stores (meaning it could be even cheaper than that if you live in a more populated area).  I am can't wait to see what this summer holds for us!  The plants are already sprouting:)  WOOHOO!!!!  Next stop, nectarine tree!!!

This is the backyard.  Gets sun most of the day, has a fence (for the dog) all around it that will protect from deer, and we put the rabbit fence just around the boxes.  We also have smaller planter boxes filled with lettuce and spinach.  The bricks are a perfect place for now...already level and close to the water source for the drip system.  Happy happy:)

Little helper

 So far we have cilantro, parsley, basil, thyme, spinach, kale, red lead lettuce, romaine, pole beans, tomatoes (heirloom and cherry), cucumber, jalapeno,  red pepper, summer squash, corn and artichoke in the backyard:)  Sound like an awful lot for the space huh?  Hahaha:)  We will see what works and what does not in a hurry!!! :)

Before the Storm...After the Rain...And HERE is the Rainbow...

Here it is...our biggest project to date!  The men did such a great job on this:)  A vision realized.  I will post more details soon...I just could not wait one more second before sharing:)

Before Picture

Here are the spindles that I have been talking about....

Today is the day!  They are coming out!  Wish us luck...this will be the biggest project yet.  And I am SO excited!!!  Project 15 of about 1,000 underway:)  Love it!

What is Happening this Week...

We are gearing up for a big project this weekend. Well, big for us anyway:) We are taking out the spindals in our kitchen and replacing then with columns. I am beyond excited for this:) I will try my best to take pictures along the way...but the picture below shows the inspiration although we will have straight columns and not tapered ones. Wish us luck!

More pictures for here.

The Bench

Here it is.  Our first building project (not attached to a wall) that we used plans for:)  I am so happy with the way it turned out.  We had been looking for a bench for months.  I was thinking that I would find something I like, refinish it and then upholster the top.  But then I came across this post from a wonderful blog (that I will be using TONS more ideas from) and knew that this was going to be our bench:)  I am happy to say that I think I have finally found a hobby that we can ALL get use to:)  The kids have fun, we have fun...and we actually walk away with a finished piece!  Love that!  

The room is coming together.  We have a few more things to do in there and then we will move on to the next room:)  Okay, who am I kidding...I will be all over this house, I am NOT that organized:)

And here is the main inspiration....Pottery Barn Rustic Bench $249!  We saved $204!!!  WOOHOO!