Where I've Been....

I've been a little busy....

That's right, I'm currently "growing" the next member of our family.  We are beyond excited, but since my body seems to hate doing this I am conserving all my energy for taking care of my family, working and pretending to prep for Christmas.

*Huge thanks to Jocie at Cards Etcetera...we love our announcement!

Thanksgiving

Life has been a blur since we got home from Florida. 
We celebrated Thanksgiving last weekend and it was awesome.
After a busy week of traveling it was nice to be at home as a family.

I love Fall and Thanksgiving!
One of my favourite things to do is to look for our pumpkin.
We started our trip with Starbucks, of course,
then bundled up and headed to the pumpkin patch.

We met up with my Bestie and her little family,
in search of perfect pumpkins.
We wanted pretty looking ones,
while the  Daddy's were focused on what would make the coolest face.
We settled on a large round pumpkin, and a tall skinny one.

 

Strom's is the cutest little pumpkin farm.
They had so many choices and lots of great photo areas.
I can't believe how the girl is growing, 2012= 3 ft Tall!

Later that evening we headed over to my parents house for Thanksgiving dinner.
As always my Mom's table looked lovely!

,

The cousin's were excited to see each other,
and ran around yelling with delite.
We eventually turned Mickey Mouse on
and taught them the art of "out of sight, out of mind"!
They caught on quick!

 

Cousin love, they have an entire couch 

and yet they choose to sit right on top of each other.

All and all it was a wonderful weekend,

We have SO much to be thankful for!

We went to Florida....again!

We took The Boss to Disney!

Since Mr. D is from Florida he has been dying to take her.
It was a wonderful time, but boy was it exhausting!

Here are the instagram highlights

 Jet Setter

 Dance Muffins made by Gigi because she was missing dance!

 Feeding Fish with Daddy

 Lunch on the patio with Mommy

 Dinner on the Water

 Meeting Daisy!

 Meeting Minnie!

 Dinner with Shamu

I think I need a vacation from vacation! 
So much fun with our Sweet Girl!

Final Dining Room/Living Room Reveal

 The best part of any project is the finished product.  There is nothing I love more than sitting in my home and looking at my hard work.  This was one of the largest projects I have taken on but in return has had the largest impact.  I love this room.  I think if I could put my decorating style into one picture it would be this room.  It's rustic and warm, cost effective and glamorous, vintage yet trendy. 

 
We took a beige box of a room with dark inexpensive furniture and painted it "Sage Silver" from Restoration Hardware.  We highlighted the large windows and door on the one wall by painting it white and hanging sheer white drapes.

Our dining room and living room are connected so it was important to me to find comfortable chairs for the head of the table so they could be dragged over for extra occasional seating.  I also wanted something to anchor the two ends of the table.  These chairs are the perfect colour and the perfect size.

Magazine picture...seriously is this my house?  I LOVE it!

This chair is another focal point of the room.  Mr. D spotted it and I thought it was perfect.

 This sweet toy bin is from Target...our poor OCD child freaked when I brought this home and started shifting all her toys from the old red bin to this...I eventually gave up and waited until she went to bed to complete the switch over.  It didn't seem to bother her when their was no other option.

Dinning Room Makeover {Table}

The next step in our dinning room makeover was the table. We spent time looking at every table known to man kind.  I started with a budget of about $500 but over time bumped that to $1,000.  When I was ready to spend $1,000 on a table I didn't love I knew something had to give.  I just couldn't justify spending that much on a table.  Feeling frustrated I told my family over dinner about our frustration in trying to find a table.  My brother and law said "We have a table you can have."  Excited about another DIY and the possibility of coming in way under budget I double checked that he knew I wasn't going to just put it in our dining room...I wanted to white wash it.  As we talked about it I found out that this table has had many homes and been past from one sibling to the next....so on that note, thank you to all my extended siblings for adding to the character of this table.

Here is the table...

It started as a fairly ordinary, well made, sturdy table.  I love the shape of the table but felt as though the yellowy orange stain didn't match the rustic chic look I was going for.  So I decided to strip the table, sand it down and white wash the top.

One of my favourite parts of this project was spending time with my husband.  Normally when I launch into project mode, he rolls his eyes and heads for the couch...he watches football while I work on projects via trial and error.  This time he was excited about the project (maybe just the money he was saving???).  This is him stripping the table and next is him using a power sander...not going to lie, he looked hot with a power tool.

Once all the sanding was done I mixed one part paint with two parts water to white wash the top and since it has been awhile since I actually finished this table I can't remember what the final measurements were that I used.  I added more white paint as I felt it was too subtle.  Essentially I painted the mixture on then wiped it off.  Just that easy!  We wanted to seal the top without getting a shinny top so we sealed it with a matte clear varathane.

Our first dinner for two at our new table!

Dining Room Makeover {Chairs}

We did a Dinning room makeover a few months ago, but as life got busy I never got to share it.  Since it is one of my most successful makeovers (if I do say so myself) I had to share it.  Better late than never right?

I have wanted to get a new dinning room table for some time now.  Our old table was a Bistro set and the tall table and chairs were just not working with a Toddler.  My style has also changed a lot and I felt as though the Target set I died to have when we first got married (way back four years ago) was way to matchy matchy!

I recently purchased these chairs, 4 for $35 dollars from my favourite thrift store.

They needed lots of work, sprayed, recovered ect. but I loved the shape, their style and their price.  Enter blog world!  Here are some chairs that have inspired my transformation and confirmed in my mind that purchasing second hand gives character and style to your home, not to mention is completely cost effective.

Chairs from blog He and I, seen here.

By Sarah, from Three Boys, See Before and After here.

Chairs from All Things Thrifty, See Before and After here.  Isn't this fabulous?  Everything Brooke does is this beautiful.

All Things Thrifty

Sarah Richardson, Design Show 2011

Bold, pops of colour scare me a little but when done correctly they are awesome.  It makes a statement and keeps your space unique.  When my Mom suggested I paint my chairs navy I was really nervous.  I wanted them to be a statement but I was leaning more to white chairs with a loud fabric.  Well, Wendy came through again!  She was right..the navy is awesome!

When it was all said and done the 4 chairs cost about $100 to purchase and re-finish.  This was just the beginning of our Dinning room Makeover!

Long Weekend

I'm spending the last weekend of summer with these two!

The next few weeks are going to be crazy busy for us so,  today we relax.

Happy Long Weekend!

Second Birthday Party Project #5 ~ Gift

Here is the fifth and final project for The Boss' Second Birthday Party! (Thought I better post it before she turns three...jk).

One of my biggest pet peeves are houses that look like Toys R Us threw up in their living room.  There are a few reasons for this but the biggest is that the space no longer belongs to the family but the children and linked to this are all knids of other issues such as greed, entitlement ect.  Since The Boss is spoiled by family and friends Mr. D and I try to focus on one main gift rather than buying her everything in sight.  Don't get me wrong, we spoil her all the time (she loves Starbucks as much as her Mommy) but we are trying to teach her to enjoy what she has.

Last year it was her kitchen seen here, she LOVED it.  This year I really wanted to add a table for her to server her "guests".  While it took a little convincing Mr. D eventually saw the benefit in it and since then we have enjoyed many "romantic dinners" of coffee and soup served by an all too eager two year old waitress!

I purchased this table on Kijiji for $25.  We sanded and painted it to co-ordinate with The Boss' room.

We sanded and primed it first since it had a varnish on it.

I took The Boss to her room to get dressed and Mr. D brought out her table...she instantly knew what to do.  I think it was love at first sight.    She wasted no time at all.

We then took the table to her bedroom where she hosted her first tea party...and Mr. D again found himself wrapped right around her finger.  He swore he would NEVER sit at a little table drinking tea...

Looks pretty comfortable here to me.  Dad of the year, and the happiest two year old in town!

Linking up here:

Sugar and Dots
Domestically Speaking