Clearing the Clutter

Matt and I had three goals that we wanted to accomplish before our sweet baby girl's arrival in October, and I'm pleased to say that we're getting very close to finishing them. 

First, we wanted to get the back yard in order so that little Billie (who will be named after Matt's grandmother) would have a nice yard to play in that didn't consist of random trees, weeds, branches and dead grass.  If you look closely, you can see the old pots pictured below looking nice, shiny and red alongside our water feature below. Nothing goes to waste around here. :)




Fun place for babies to play, right?



We had the fence build a few months ago and stained it ourselves.  The "fence" before consisted of chicken wire, stumps and trees, so this was quite an improvement.  After the trees were cleared, sod was laid, sprinkler system was upgraded, flower beds were designed, and new trees were planted, this is where we stand now.  





Arg - don't even get me started on the holes in the sod...boo.  I guess we'll worry about those next season.

We still need to do some finishing touches (add some plants along the fence and mulch the flower beds) and maybe hide the car port a little bit more, but that will come in due time.

Here are a few pictures of the side yard improvements as well:



Behind the deck

See that nasty bench behind Matt?

 


Same old bench after a deep clean and fresh coat of paint! 

As you can see, Matt planted some plants, laid some mulch and added a lattice to keep the dogs from digging under the deck.  We will soon have a fire pit on the flagstone where we plan to roast marsh mellows with little Billie and our neighbors.  :)

 



Matt also built a gorgeous water feature in just a few days which we decorated with pretty plants.  It helps drown out the noise from the busy street on the other side of the fence.  We even have a couple of gold fish in the bottom pond who help us out by eating mosquito larvae.  I gave the little guys to Matt on his b-day (along with a cordless drill) and he was beyond thrilled.  ha!

 

That's the salvaged red pot that I mentioned above




Not too shabby, eh?
 

Our second goal was to finish our mudroom, which started out as a screened in porch.  This wasn't just any porch, it had dirty brown carpet, yellow plastic covers for the screens, a metal floral awning and a security gate on the insite that made getting into the kitchen really fun.  It would get REALLY cold in the winter which made walking from the garage to the kitchen totally awesome as well.  We called it our trash room - and I was SO happy when we had it completely destroyed and rebuilt.  Several neighbors complimented the new addition as well, which means that they equally hated the eye-sore on the front of our house.  Here the only photo I can find of the disaster before we took a sledge hammer to it:

And here is the mudroom now! 

We just had these lovely shelves from IKEA installed yesterday and I couldn't be happier. 

I still need to get everything organized, work on the décor and remove the excess furniture, but I think it's a little better, don't you?

And finally, our third goal was to transform the guest room into the nursery.  It currently looks like a tornado passed through the room, but I can (oddly enough) see my vision coming together.  Sweet Billie be here in less than two months (if all goes as planned) so I have some work to do!  Thank goodness for the long weekend ahead!

Wall Art

I'm sad that the weekend is already over, but luckily today's 6 hour childbirth class wasn't torture - and was actually quite enjoyable.  I'm not sure how the other couples felt as most of them looked miserable for some reason, but Matt and I learned a lot - and it made us even more excited for little Billie's arrival in 8 weeks! 

 

I was able to complete another project for the nursery this evening - the hand-painted "B" wall décor.  A few days ago, I discovered that these cute little yellow flowers (which match Billie's room) are actually called Billie Balls, so I had to incorporate them into the nursery design.  And I added a little bumble bee to the piece as well to fill the excess white space.

 

 

Here is the before "B" which I picked up for a few bucks at Hobby Lobby.  All it needed was a little primer, high gloss white spray paint for the background and acrylic paints for the details.

 

 

Now I just need to find some more frames in order to complete the gallery wall above her dresser.  Luckily, the ottoman arrives this week and the rocker should be here soon - I can't wait to put everything together and complete the nursery!

Nursery End Table

I'm having so much fun decorating Billie's nursery, which is slowly but surely coming together.   I love the little end table makeover that I completed last night.  I bought these brown/black wooden night stands at TJ Maxx a while back but didn't want to get rid of them once we started turning the guest room into the baby room.  I decided to paint it white to match the other furniture and add a little detail around the table top with a chevron burlap ribbon that matches the other décor in the room.  This will be a good table to have next to the rocker, which should be arriving in the next few days. 

 

And here is the before photo...

 

 



Upcycled Lamp for Nursery

 

My dog woke me up three times in the middle of the night...and forced me to finally get out of bed at 5:37 am so that she could go hide under the bed downstairs.  What a weirdo...and not a good start to my day!!  We're having a sweet baby girl in a couple of months (yay!) and I think I'm more nervous about my crazy Yorki-Poo waking me up constantly than I am the baby...or maybe it's the combination of the two that's giving me anxiety.  Maybe I can get her vocal chords removed within the next couple of weeks.  Help!

 

Speaking of babies, I'm slowly but surely getting the nursery together and am trying to add a few hand-made pieces while repurposing items I have in the house to save money.

 

The other day, I transformed an old TJ Maxx lamp into a beautiful, white, lacey lamp...below is the before photo.

 

 

And here is the completed lamp.  I actually used an old shirt from Target to cover the lamp shade!  The lace was wearing out in a few places so I couldn't wear it anymore, but I thought the pattern was so pretty and figured I could use it for a project.  I love how it turned out - and all it took was a little hot glue and pair of scissors!

 

 

And here is my crazy dog, Sophie, staring at a bug in Crested Butte last weekend.

 



AnneTique Designs

Well, I am giving up on my Word Press Blog.  Unfortunately, I paid $200 or so for a website, but I cannot figure out the Word Press template for the life of me.  I am not normally a quitter, but I do not think it should be SO complicated to format a website (just a simple header with a nice background and font).  I do not have the time to spend more than 2 hours on a single post with a few images (that won't upload properly).  And I don't really care to pay someone to do it for me! 

Therefore, I'm going to attempt to create a blog with Blogger.  For now, at least. 

I just need a place to share my love of decorating, thrifting, DIYing and refinishing furniture/décor.  I'm looking forward to sharing my projects with you!