birthday baby!

My dear, sweet little niece turned 1 this weekend!  

My little sis threw a wonderful party for her!
She came dressed in a cute little pink tutu with her birthday hat.

The cake was so cute - covered with ruffle icing and with a little birdie on top!

My little sis made the cutest decorations! Pink balloons, little birds and birdhouses, tissue flowers.... So cute!

And I love any chance to get together with my mom and sisters!

black and brown

Have you ever found a piece that you love the finish of what it was, but there is no way to restore that all over (at least I am not sure how to)
I came across this pretty little buffet and china cabinet.
It had some really pretty burled wood in some areas.  I decided to let that wood show through where it was pretty and paint up the rest.
I really love the combination of black and brown together I think it is really rich.
Here are a couple before and afters....

 I think the burled wood was so pretty on the doors, but it was so damaged in other places.  I was lucky both the doors survived the years!

little french map

One of my gifts to myself this Christmas was having my vintage Paris map framed.
I have been lusting for months after the Paris map that Restoration has for sale for $1900.

I wanted it soooo bad.  I actually bought it.
I then came home and had buyers remorse. Big time!
What on earth was I thinking spending $1900 on a map!  But I LOVED it so much!!
Then I remembered this fold up map that I had from Paris.  
I also remembered some wonderful vintage HUGE frames I had purchased for $5 at an auction last Spring.  (a steal!)

hmmmm......  wonder if I put the two together if I could get the same feeling of the Restoration Hardware one I love so much....
Not exact, but still very stunning!
So I called Restoration and cancelled the map!  Whew!  That was close!!
You could use any type of fold out map.  
Sometimes the back of Paris tourist books have nice little fold out maps in them.  
Once you unfold them, mount them and frame them, they become a piece of art!  
We took it to Joanne's to have it professionally mounted and we noticed that this one doesn't have the Eiffle tower on it because it predates it!

miss match

On our trip on the longest yard sale I came across a booth that was filled with old hardware.
Some of the prettiest ones, were singles, not pairs.  
They were so pretty I couldn't pass them up!  
I knew sooner or later I would figure out something to do with them!  And highlight their uniqueness!
For months I searched for a narrow dresser  and then I came upon a pair of these old pine dressers.

I took off the two drawer pulls and filled them in with wood putty and painted them a pretty cream color.  

A couple coats of wax and I added their jewelry onto them!

 Voila!
A pretty pair of dressers!

another pretty piece

I've been working on this pretty scroll buffet for a while. 

I decided I wanted to get her down before the super bowl!

I bought this at a separate auction but I thought she would look good with this piece I had previously done.

She is painted with french linen and cream. I love the scroll work!

new bath room vanity

As part of our home updating, we decided to update our upstairs bathroom.
We fell in love with the vanities at Restoration hardware, but they did not have the size we wanted and they were very expensive....

So after much research we found a very similar vanity at 
Tradewinds Imports....
http://www.tradewindsimports.com/double-bathroom-vanities.html for about two thirds the price.

I think the one we picked was very close to the one we loved at restoration hardware!


Here is our old one....

 and now, our new one...

 We bought it as raw wood vanity, with the idea to paint it.  

After getting it, I decided I would just wax it.
So I put a coat of clear wax and then dark wax and then several clear wax coats.

We are in the process of also redoing our shower, but it has been a very drama filled experience.  
Not one I would recommend to anyone.  A lot of miscommunication with the vendor, so I am not very happy with the outcome and progress of that part of the project.  
I will show you pictures when we finish it.
We will end up with a nice shower, but it is not the shower that I had hoped for.
But I am very pleased with our vanity :)  It came with beautiful carrera marble top and we chose Martha Stewart  faucets from Home Depot.