Christmas Tag Swap

The Burton girls were at it again with a Christmas tag swap. We wanted to do the swap early enough in December that a) we would be able to put up our tags for Christmas decoration, and b) Our Sis who is currently lining in Australia would get hers in time for Christmas. I think we made it!

This year our Christmas theme was more of a color scheme. The theme was Winter Whites. Our tags were to focus on white, cream, silver, gold, and sepia.

I made a banner with the Christmas tags and strung it across my piano for the holidays. I love the look of these tags. They turned out beautiful, and look great displayed together.

A few of us have already had some great ideas for next year’s theme. I’m already excited. Thanks ladies!

-Lynnae

Where Bloggers Create Studio Tour

Welcome!

I am on vacation in England right now, but I wanted to Join in the wonderful Where Bloggers Create studio tour anyway. Greetings visitors! I’m pleased that you stopped by.

I have changed a few things around since the last studio tour I participated in two years ago. This is what my studio looked like then.

I have rearranged the room a little bit and taken down the colorful wallpapers for the time being. Like many of you, my studio is also the guest bedroom. Since I am having a string of visitors this summer, the beds are set up for company. These pictures are from my studio, when I was setting out costume dresses for my Jane Austen party this spring.

Because my room is set up and waiting for the next guest, we had a makeshift studio in the breakfast nook. Here I am, in the black shirt, painting a still life with another friend in the room just off my kitchen.

We wanted to do some plein air painting, but when the day turned out rainy I put together a still life for us to paint.

And the finished project from that afternoon……

Thanks for stopping by!

-Lynnae

A Pink Fiesta

Look what I just found!

Fiesta ‘Flamingo’!

This will be a great addition to my lovely rainbow of Fiesta dinnerware. I’m so excited!

The color is still in preorder but I ordered a few to add to my collection. I’m so excited. They look so lovely!

In other news…. Our England trip is less than a month away. I’m freaking out a little bit right now. And I’m so very grateful I have a sister who lives there to not only invite me, but be familiar with the area a bit. It’s strange to travel without my husband.

Speaking of his deployment, he ate camel meat. Can you believe it?

And on the home front, today is the last day of school. My daughter went to the park with friends and I brought them a bag full of treats to celebrate. And in an unusual twist for Washington, it actually LOOKED like summer. Hoorah!

-Lynnae

Painting Play Date

Why do we wait so long to get out the paints when we love it so much?

That’s what I’ve been asking myself.

A friend and I have been planning to have a painting day for a long time, but so many things kept getting in the way. Finally we settled on last Thursday (we had to do it before school let out).

Our plan was for some plein air painting, but living near Seattle we had to have a back up- I ended up putting together a still life in my breakfast nook.

Even though I’ve painted with oils before I’ve never taken a class, so she had some tips and tricks to show me as far as setting up and maintaining my supplies.

The hours FLEW by. We had to stop for a yogurt break at some point, and then it seemed only minutes before the bus was dropping off kids and it was time to get back to the mommy world. But boy did we have fun.

And you know what? I’m thinking of clearing out the breakfast nook and just setting up an art room there for the summer.

-Lynnae

PS- Speaking of Art Room, I have a link on my sidebar to the 2012 Where Bloggers Create blog party. Join in! It’s so much fun!!!

One Week Down…….

My sweetie has been gone just over a week now. Over 9 months to go for his deployment. Just writing that sort of takes the wind out of my sails a little bit.

I know I’ve been a crummy blogger lately. Between getting up at 4:30 every morning for an early morning job (which tires me out), and preparing for my husband to be gone (which saddens my heart) I just haven’t had the mental energy to sit and blog and say everything except what I’m thinking about non-stop.

I have done a few little projects around the house this week. One that I’ve had a lot of fun with is fixing up my porch with more flowers and trying to make it more inviting.

Here’s the view from the front Yard….

-Lynnae

Cured by a Hot Glue Gun

January has been a little crazy, and no, I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth.

I was sick early in January, then in mid January we had crazy snowstorms, school cancellations, and an ice storm, followed by a three day power outage.

Then my husband left for a short Army Reserve training in Pennsylvania and I had big plans. I was finally going to paint my family room, get ready for my Jane Austen party, and do a bunch of other cool stuff, and low and behold, I got sick again.

I was a miserable, laying around, achy eyed, coughing kind of sick, for about a week, and did almost nothing except the basic laundry and food for my daughter, and taking her to school.

Now the fog is lifting. Laryngitis has left my voice a little raspy, but I have felt bad for so long that now I almost feel hyper. Which is good because now I have less time to do all the things I wanted to do.

I’ve spent the last two days catching up on laundry and crafting with my daughter. She wanted to try this cool art project with melted crayons that we saw on Pinterest.  She had a lot of fun and it turned out really cool.

As for me, my BFF’s daughter is expecting her first child, and I am helping out with the baby shower. I’ve been experimenting with all kinds of tissue flowers and coffee filter pom-poms. Next time I’ll post a picture of what I come up with!

-Lynnae

PS. wanna have a peek at my Pinterest Boards? Click here!

Halloween 2011

I usually don’t do as much Halloween decorating as some people in my neighborhood, but since it’s sort of the kick off to the holidays I had to do some. Pictured above is my feather wreath. I love it, it’s dark and spooky but still sort of pretty. I’ve had it for a couple years and it holds up pretty well despite the fact that the wind keeps tossing it across the porch. I added a wood trim piece onto a cheap wreath hanger and painted the whole thing black.

This is one of a pair of grape vine wreaths I made last year. I patterned them after the decorations on The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.

I also made this Happy Halloween sign last year. The banner, which is the only new thing I added this year, is a printable from Moselle that I found on Pinterest, I printed it and cut it out, and then to make it stiff cut cardboard from used cereal boxes in slightly bigger triangles, painted black and glued the letters on. The whole thing says ‘Happy Haunting’. I think it is so cute. Here’s a close-up of the printout.

-Lynnae

Living Room Corner

For a while now I’ve been working on this little corner of my living room. I had this crazy idea to paint an ugly 70’s lamp, so of course I did. My husband HATED it. Oh well. I was sad but more determined to put it front and center. I returned two shades to the store as ‘not quite right’ before my sister and I stumbled upon this one at a local Goodwill. It looks like it was made for my room. Once the lampshade came home everything else started to fall into place.

  I did try two or three ‘objects’ to set on the books, moving them from other locations in the house and nothing looked quite right. Then, while eating Thai food and thinking about the neon sign of our local Thai restaurant, with it’s mommy and baby elephant, I got the idea that what I really needed (OK, maybe not NEEDED) was a little ellie of my own. The next thing you know I come across this ceramic elephant on the clearance shelf at Michaels. Happy me.

Our Kana Poster is from our stay in Japan, and the Heywood mirrored bedside cabinet in from Pier One (there’s a similar on the other side of the piano).

How do you like it?

Five Days until the Wedding !!!!

…..And my head is a bit of a blur. I keep thinking of one more thing to check on, one more thing to do……

I did have a couple little work parties with some of my sisters and my sister-in-law and daughter. Last week was sewing…..

  And yesterday was all about sewing, ribbons, and flowers.

And a little sisterly craziness

Sorry AJ, even sister-in-laws have to participate….Thanks to Shannon assisting her with her laurel headpiece.

And a soft focus picture for one sister who commented that having three sons she’s never been surrounded by so much pink.

Thanks girls! I love my family! What would I ever do without you.

On another note, I’m so excited to post my daughter’s bridal pictures, but not allowed to do so until the wedding. SOOOOoooo, I’m going to try and create the post that will publish right after the wedding on Friday morning. Then, while I’m in the middle of my daughter’s busy and wonderful day, it will be like you are there with us. So check in on Friday.

-Lynnae

Intricate and Beautiful

Look at the lovely screen I picked up on my last trip to Hobby Lobby. I fell in love with it the first time I saw it when we were on a trip to Utah. We came home and I dreamed about it for the next two months. When I went back to bring home my college girl I made a trip to Hobby Lobby in Orem with my sister. I picked up a few iron easels for the wedding reception. I also saw ‘my’ screen again, and it was on sale. It’s a lovely green color that looks fabulous in my house, and looks great against white walls too.

Since bringing it home I have tried out several locations. I love this area in my living room, and it’s stayed here the longest, but I really would like it in my family room just so I could stare at it more.

What do you think?

-Lynnae

Vanity Project.

I was looking for a new vanity dresser for my bedroom. I couldn’t face another summer of getting ready for church at my sink in a busy, humid bathroom. But I was hoping to go the cheap route, with either an inexpensive new vanity dresser, (under $150ish) or a thrift store desk that I could fix up cute and add a mirror to.

But low and behold, one day at the thrift store I found a darling vintage vanity. It wasn’t a cheap desk to fix up, but it fell within my loose budget for a vanity. I was hoping for something with character that I could paint a charming white, or a sassy black, and it would look so good in my bedroom. I debated for a few minutes, and then, assisted b the encouragement of a gray haired lady who was also shopping there, I bought it.

All the way home I went back and forth between white and black paint. But you know what? The more I looked back in the rear view mirror, the more the sunlight caught that wood grain, the more I knew I couldn’t paint it- yet. There’s no rush. It’s great as it is. And I’m a sucker for a glorious wood grain. And, just like the white or black paint, the wood grain would look awesome in my bedroom. (That’s the beauty of having a turquois bedroom!)

So, for the time being the vanity will keep it’s grain. The wood is in great condition, except for the table top area, which I can cover until I choose to fix it. The furniture is sturdy, strong, clean and well made. I am so excited to ‘girly it up’, like a cross between Elizabeth Taylor’s vanity in “Whose afraid of Virginia Wolf”, and Molly Ringwald’s cheery dresser in “Pretty in Pink”.

This………

plus this……..

will someday soon be mine!

Other things on my agenda:

My Army Man husband has been gone for a month for training. It’s good to have him home!

Also, my daughter’s bridal’s are coming up, and wedding plans, wedding plans, wedding plans!

-Lynnae

Lovely Finds

I was at the local Ben Franklin store to get a few items for my daughters costume for the school play and ran across these lovely, old carved wood print blocks. They were in a bin in the back, dirty and well used and absolutely beautiful. I had to get a couple to display around the house.

They had a lot of other great things there too. I feel lucky to live close to a Ben Franklin store, and just need to get there more often!

Aren’t they gorgeous?

-Lynnae

Stand a Little Taller

I saw this cute sign while I was out shopping the other day. I don’t know what I like more, the cottage style, the Empire State Building, or the cheery message.

“Stand a Little Taller- Make Each Day a Little Better Than the One Before”.

That’s just what I need to see when I come down on a groggy school day morning.

I bought the sign at Cost Plus World Market. They had a lot of merchandise out for spring and I couldn’t resist a photo of these brightly colored decorations.

It’s good to have your camera with you.

Last week I also got a little tired of the shelves in my family room. So they went from this……

To this…… I need to switch out some accessories I think, But I only can seem to get a little done at a time, so it’s a start. To some people (like my sweet husband) it may seem like I randomly pulled out some paint and started painting something, but this shelf has been bugging me, and I’ve been thinking about painting it for a long time.

Not that there’s anything wrong with randomly painting something……

-Lynnae

No Time to Craft

My head is full of plans for my daughters wedding so I haven’t had time to craft or paint (or blog much for that matter) lately. I’ve been feeling like I’m constantly behind when it comes to housework, and when I do have free time I feel too exhausted to even get out supplies.

I did put up a couple of things around the house. Do you want a peek inside?

One is the lovely tray I got at Pier One. It has a rose and a dragonfly. I won’t say I collect dragonflies, but my name ‘Lynnae’ is part of the scientific name for dragonflies, so if I see something cute with one on it I feel like it’s meant for me. This is in my kitchen over the door that goes into the dining room.

I bought these plate holders over a year ago at TaiPan Trading and they’ve just been sitting in a box. So I finally got some nails and put those up too, in the breakfast nook. The two smaller plates are also from Taipan. I do use these plates from time to time, but I like the display and will just take them down and wash and use them if I need too.

Finally, I’ve got my Fiesta ware, which I’ve wanted for years. It was a gift from my SWEET husband for Valentines Day. I had a blast picking out the colors, and they were on sale, too!

  Now I need glass front cabinets, wouldn’t you say so?

I am doing the decorating for my daughters reception. I will enlist the help of some friends and family, but I am so excited to make it a beautiful sight to add to her special day. My head is spinning with white and shades of pink,  pictures I’ve seen, flowers, and centerpieces. I have tons of ideas that I will then scale back into what’s ‘do-able’. Other things are coming together. We have the dress, the location, the photographer……but there’s still much to do.

-Lynnae

Living Room Before and After Pictures

I finally finished painting my living room and moving my furniture back in. Above is the BEFORE picture, and below, the AFTER.

What do you think?

Here are a few more pictures…….

Painting this room was a dream come true. It made such a difference.

Signed….I Love Color!