Super cute appetizer plates

Go ahead and add these to my list of things I have to have but don't need in the slightest.

oliver appetizer plates

Ikea purchases

I made a trip to Ikea today and like always, picked up more than a few things.

The main purpose of my trip was to get the Hyllis shelf that I saw in bryn alexandra's blog

I bought two and plan on putting them on either side of the desk in the office. I kind of like the stainless look, but I'm debating painting them white...or maybe black. I don't know yet.

Then I got two of these Ribba frames.

They have a silver foil finish on them so I might hang them in the office as well. And if I leave those shelves unpainted, it would add some more silver color to the room.

Another thing I picked up was this Lillholmen accessories stand.

I'm not quite sure where it's going to go yet, but I'm thinking either the bathroom or our bedroom, to hold some of my jewelry or other little items.

I picked up this cheap Bomull rug for our laundry room.

Not very exciting, but it'll get the job done.

Then I picked up these cute Godis glasses...like we don't have enough glasses. But for $6.99 I couldn't pass them up!

Another item I got was this Jonsbo Egby lamp.

I currently have it on the dresser in the office but I'm not sure if that is it's permanent home. It looks cute for now though.

I also bought this Ung Drill frame.

I'm thinking maybe that will go in the office as well, but I'm not sure yet. I don't know if I want to leave it black or paint it a really fun contrasting color. Still deciding on that one.

I also picked up some white curtains for the window in the office. I bought the Ikea Stockholm Figur curtains.

And last but not least, I bought the Kristaller chandelier. And this is definitely for the office!

Jim already hung it up and looks so awesome!

So that was my Ikea trip. The closest Ikea is almost an hour away, so the 2-3 trips I make there a year, I make worth the drive

Fun foodpod

I think I might need one of these...

foodpod

How fun is that?

Dresser makeover

This dresser has been around for as long as I can remember. I'm pretty sure my parents used it many moons ago. When I moved out and into the condo back in 2003, this dresser went with me and into our 9x9 closet. It spent many years hiding in that closet in its sad state but I wanted to change it up for use in our new office.

BEFORE

This was my second attempt at making over some furniture. I painted our desk as well which was a cherry wood color before, but I haven't taken any pictures yet. I'm not going to go into the details of how to paint furniture (a simple Google search will give you the answer) but it involved a little wood filler, sanding, priming with Kilz, painting and poly.

I used Benjamin Moore Cloud White in semi-gloss for the paint and it took three coats to get the best coverage. Since I used a latex paint, I needed to use a water-based polyurethane so I used the Minwax (in a blue can) semi-gloss finish. I did the first two coats with a can of the poly and a brush, but once it dried, it just didn't look right (and my dad warned me about that). I went ahead and bought a spray can for the last coat and it worked like a charm. A little more expensive, but much easier to work with.

And here's the finished product...

I went ahead and added glass knobs since there weren't any sort of handles/knobs before.

I also lined the drawers with a black & white patterned drawer liner that I found at Meijer.

It's being used in our office, which is SO not finished yet so a full office redo will be blogged at a later date.

I actually painted my nails

I'm not usually one to paint my nails. I work in the lab sometimes with solvents so that ruins it right there, plus I hate dealing with removing the nail polish once it starts to chip. So maybe like 2-3 times a year I actually paint my nails. I usually have paint on my toenails for sandal season but even those are still bare. But lately I've been on the lookout for one of those trendy lilac-pink pastel colors and came across OPI Panda-monium pink at Meijer yesterday.

I really like it! Maybe next up will be my toes.

Better ways to Google

I came across these Google tips the other day and thought it was a much better way to put Google to use than searching for song lyrics or those cute shoes I saw the other day. Some of them I already use pretty often like measurement conversions and calculations, but searching for files with certain extensions in them was a new one to me.

To Find:  PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, or PowerPoint Presentations

Use: filetype:pdf, filetype:xls, or filetype:ppt
Example: Canon manual filetype:pdf
Why: If you include the file type in your search, Google will turn up only relevant files. For example, entering filetype:pdf will find all the PDFs that have to do with operating your new camera. (For Excel files, use filetype:xls; for PowerPoint presentations, filetype:ppt.)

To Find:  Narrowed-Down Information

Use: a hyphen (minus sign)
Example: jaguar -cars -football
Why: You want information about jaguars―the animal, not the car or the sports team. Placing a hyphen before terms you want to exclude will omit pages with those words. Type a space before the hyphen, but not after.

To Find:  A Product You Saw Online (But Can’t Remember Where)

Use: intitle:
Example: intitle:“Frye boots”
Why: Using the term intitle: searches the words in the title bar of Web pages and can be particularly helpful if you remember the name of an item you liked but not where you found it. Just be sure not to put a space after the colon and to use quotation marks around the phrase.

To Find:  A Verbatim Phrase

Use: quotation marks
Example: “Bikram yoga”
Why: Using quotation marks around a phrase or a person’s name can eliminate many of the irrelevant links you would otherwise turn up, says Hock.

7 Things You Can Do Directly in the Google Search Field

• Perform calculations. To figure out what 15 percent off that $78 shirt amounts to, just enter “78 x .15” into the search field, click “Search,” and the answer will show up at the top of the results page. No clicking on a second link required.
• Convert measurements. How many cups equal a liter? Simply type “cups in liter.” You can also find out currency conversions (“15 dollars in euros”).
• Track flights. Find out if your flight is on time by entering your airline and flight number.
• Locate packages. Hunt down an MIA delivery by entering “track” plus the tracking number for a direct link to the status page.
• Look up addresses. Type in a person’s home phone number and, if he or she is listed, Google will turn up the mailing address.
• Find movie showtimes. Enter “movies” plus your city or ZIP code to see theaters and showtimes for the next three days.
• Listen to songs. Thanks to a Google partnership with the music site lala.com, you can type the title of a song and its artist and a playable file will appear at the top of the results page.

I &hearts peonies

I don't have peonies growing in my yard, but with my parents living pretty close to us, I can go over and cut some whenever I want.

So pretty...

Painted Family Room

So this was a project that wasn't really on the immediate list of things to do. I figured I could live with the colors in there because I didn't think they were all that bad. But...once it came time for me to buy some curtains for our sliding glass door, I just couldn't work with the colors in there. So we decided to paint. O.M.G. This room took FOREVER to paint! Getting in all those little cracks and crevices in the paneling took quite some time. Jim had to use a 3/4" nap roller just to get in all the grooves.

It worked out well and we're quite pleased with the results. Although, this room will never be painted again lol. I'm not in love with the textured ceiling (or the paneling for that matter) so when it comes time to redo this room, it will be a total gut-out. There's no drywall behind the two layers of paneling. That's right, two layers of paneling. There's your typical thin layer of paneling and on top of that is 3/8" paneling. Fun stuff.

Moving on.

We ended up using Wheat Bread by Behr in eggshell.

You can see what the colors were in there in my previous post. I mean, they weren't horrible but it was kind of dark in there and needed to be lightened up a bit.

Here's what it looks like now...

It's kind of hard to tell in these pictures, but this is the color of the curtains...

So now I just need to figure out what to put over the chairs on the wall.

New couch!

Ok, another house update. This past Monday we FINALLY decided on a new couch. We had visited multiple furniture stores many times, but really had no clue what we wanted. At first Jim liked the idea of a sectional, then he didn't, then he did. At one point Jim just decided hey, let's go home and tape out on the floor the dimensions that we are comfortable with.

As you'll see in the pictures, we couldn't go too long on one side as it would cover the doorwall and we couldn't go too long on the other side because then it wouldn't leave an opening to actually get onto the furniture.

Well we finally decided on Cindy Crawford's Illusions sectional in light taupe and I'm pretty happy about that. We didn't get the chaise because it would have been too big for the space. I want to eventually get an ottoman though.

Don't you just love the paneling and textured ceiling? And don't forget about the beautiful ceiling fan.

We plan on painting, adding curtains and replacing the ceiling fan. I know, why paint after we get the furniture? Well we have other things going on and I didn't want to decide on a paint color before I actually saw the color of the couch in the space.

And this has nothing to do with the couch, but this is Cheeto's favorite spot :o)

It's hammer time

Seriously? I get some of the 80's fashion come backs, but others, not so much. What the hell...



...it looks like she's carrying around a bag of sand in her crotch. M.C. Hammer anyone? Yikes! It sort of reminds me of what Tyra has been wearing on this season of America's Next Top Model.

Maybe it's just a better way to hide these...



I gave into the leggings come back but I don't think I'll be giving into this.