Posts by Laura
2013 Holiday Dining Room Decor and Centerpiece
Tomorrow the family I referenced in the hallway painting post will be here. I already have my mantle all worked out so the only other place I really wanted to spruce up was the dining room. You can see the stripes are gone and the creamy color I used on top of my 3 layers of…
Read MoreWinter Holiday 2013 Mantle
Round two for the new mantle! This time I de-cluttered it some. I switched out the two black candlesticks for a huge wooden one and made use of the gorgeous pine cones from the previous house. I also made a boxwood wreath and topiary ball from the hedges and used vintage Mason and Atlas jars filled with…
Read MorePaint it… then paint it again just in case
This is a little late, but in early November I volunteered my house for invasion when I invited my extended family over for Christmas. Nothing makes you think “Gotta get the house in order!” like knowing you’re about to have a few dozen visitors. Anyway, when we moved in we decided the painting priority would…
Read MoreMarie Therese Chandelier
So I cleaned that adorable glass chandelier in the breakfast room. It looked dusty… but it was actually FILTHY. Like sticky, nasty, can’t-tell-if-that’s-dead-bugs-or-old-kidney-beans kinda dirty. See the difference? So gross! (Though I honestly had no idea until I got on the ladder to change a bulb.) Taking it apart also let me see how it…
Read MoreWindow Wieners!
Yes. That’s right. I’ve invented something and I’m naming it Window Wieners. I got a new sewing machine for my birthday and I’m putting it to good use. Our windows are very drafty thanks largely to an attempt to seal them shut a very long time ago. They were partially closed, nailed (partially open) to…
Read MoreFall 2013 Mantle
This is my first mantle decor! This is very exciting because the last house didn’t have a mantle so I finally have one to decorate. Unfortunately, due to the lack of unpacked decorative items, it’s sort of a mash-up of whatever I could find. Vintage books, grapevine pumpkins, sticks with dried orange berries, jute spears,…
Read MoreUgh, stripes.
In the day-of-closing post, I posted a photo of the dining area. It has stripes. They have become the bane of my existence. There was a little prep work to do before I got started painting. Normal stuff: taking down the previous owner’s curtains, filling nail holes, discovering why we got a free mirror… It…
Read MoreTrust him, he’s an engineer.
When we moved our three Uhaul-fuls of big stuff to the new house we opted to wait on moving the washer and dryer down to the basement. After thirty minutes of psyching himself up, Jeremiah got the wheels of the dolly just barely over the first step and suddenly declared “Nope. Never mind. I don’t…
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