Water In The Basement....Again.

We were under a tornado watch last night in the 'burbs. It was pouring buckets and we had scary "snake" lightening (according to the hubs)and loud thunder. I turned to the hubs and said "thank god we got our gutters cleaned last week". 

Confession - we hadn't had those bad-boys cleaned in over a year. Ugh, who knew you were supposed to get them cleaned like 2 times a year? I'm only 5'4" so am clearly not tall enough to monitor their clogyness (made up word). 

But our clean-as-a-whistle gutters were no match for the buckets or rain we got last night. Our gutters were overflowing all over the place which caused our weird outdoor basement drain (as seen in this post) to overflow and some water seeped into our basement. Not a ton of water, but enough to sop up with towels. Grrrrrr. Needless to say a wet/dry vac has been on our list of "things to purchase" for quite some time. Guess we will be going to Home Depot this weekend. 

Featured Favorite - The Old Lucketts Store.....& Givaway!

Lucketts is a small town in Northern Virginia. It is home to THE BEST antique store EVER. Good thing I don't live close, because I know for a fact I would probably be in credit card debt because of it. If you click on the link above you can check out some of their goods and their funky style. If I could decorate my entire house with their stuff, believe me, I would. 

Their Spring Market is coming up in May. Yippee! And even better - they are giving away a $100 Gift Certificate. You can click HERE to enter this giveaway and for more details. Good luck!

Happy Easter!

Blessed In The 'Burbs

Time really does fly when you're having fun. 4 years ago today I married my college sweetheart, biggest fan and best friend. I remember the crisp April day and bright blue sky like it was yesterday - a day I will never forget. A day full of happy memories I cherish forever. Thanks to the hubs for putting up with me and my not-so-great weekday dinners which may or may not include scrambled eggs and tater tots, my crazy obsession with horrible reality TV, the stupid songs I make up and sing at random times, etc., etc. Looking forward to creating many more memories together in the 'burbs.  

Where's Waldo...I Mean Emmit?

Those of you who know Emmit are very familiar with his energy. He's certainly tested my patience, made me question my sanity and has probably given me a few gray hairs. But it's moments like this that make it all worth while.


I had to make the bed around him this morning so as not to disturb nap #1. Let me explain...

His morning routine: stretch, go for a walk, have some treats, drink some water, run upstairs and jump in bed, lick my face (good morning!), settle under the comforter for nap #1, move to the couch for nap #2,  and finally nap #3 in the crate. Here he is all tucked in for nap #1.

Priceless.

"Is it time for nap #2 yet"? - Emmit 

 

Dining Room Table Reveal - Finally!

Our dining room table re-do started back in November - as  seen in  this post. The table was graciously given to us by my in-laws. It has been in their family for 30+ years and the hubs and I plan to use it for many years to come. We decided to strip the original stain and when we did, we fell in love with the table in its natural state. We ended up just putting several coats of clear (satin finish) polyurethane on it - which sounds way easier than it really was. I think we did about 4-6 coats just to be safe.  

Here is the table in it's original form (top view).

And here it is after the makeover and finally set-up dining our room! 

And yes, those are the Craigslist chairs! I have one left to paint  - hence the missing 6th chair. 

Here is what our dining room looked liked for the past two years. I love this little dining set that we bought when we first moved into our apartment together. It then followed us to our condo and ended up here in the 'burbs.

I was sad to see this table go, (it's not really gone - stay tuned!) but also excited to get a bigger one that could seat more people. I mean, let's be honest, you could barely fit 4 people at this table - and add plates, cups and any serving dishes - and it's overcrowded!

This new (er, old?) table is much larger and fits very well in our small-scale dining room. Check it out! I love it!

The space is still a work-in-progress. Here is what's left on the ever expanding dining room TO-DO list:

1. Re-cover the chair cushions
2. Finish painting the 6th chair!
3. Get an area rug to put under the table to break up all of the wood tones
4. Put up blinds (coming soon! yeah!)
5. Hang window treatments (thank mom!)
6. Paint the corner cabinet a new color - I think?
7. Paint the hutch a new color - I think?
8. Hang some things on the wall
9. Etc., etc., etc.

More to come...stay tuned!

Easter in the 'Burbs

I am still accumulating decorations for every holiday. I added a few things to our Easter decor this year, thank god, because we were really lacking. 

Here is our mantle decorated for Easter. It's not much but it's festive and reminds me of Spring. I almost always have fresh flowers on the mantle. I love flowers, love to have them around, they just make me happy (hint for the hubs)! I got the  egg wreath at Target for $2, a bargain!. It's too small to put on the front door so decided to hang it over the mantle with some ribbon.

I filled our candle holders with pastel jelly beans - which I also purchased at Target. 

I made this bunny (yes this is a bunny) topiary using a tutorial I found online. Once I find the tutorial I will share.

I bought this bunny at TJ Maxx and put a ribbon around its neck to make it more festive and Eastery (just made up this word).

I am not sure what these two things are - candle holders perhaps? I got them on clearance at Home Goods during Valentine's Day. I figured the pink color could work for Easter too. And I had these plastic eggs from a few years ago and just piled some in each holder. Voila!

Holly & Butch Get a Haircut

I learned something new the other day thanks to my sis. She informed me that a holly bush doesn't produce berries unless there is both a male and female bush. Something about cross-pollination. Interesting and weird.

The hubs and I have 2 large holly bushes (that came with the house) on either side of the front stoop. And yes, they both get a lot of berries. I nicknamed one Holly and the other one Butch (get it, holly bush....Holly & Butch. I crack myself up!) Anyway, they both have grown significantly in the (almost) 2 years we have lived in the 'burbs - despite the hubs trimming them on occasion. Check 'em out...

As you can see they both overwhelm the stoop and it was time for a haircut. So the hubs let me tackle them with our hedge trimmer - which I have never touched before in my life. How the heck do you use one of those things anyway? Well I figured it out eventually. 1 hour later and with a little help from my sis, they got a well deserved haircut.

I would have liked to have trimmed them down even more but then we would have 2 bushes with no leaves - a.k.a. Holly & Butch would be bald. And I wasn't having any of that.

They are a little sparse in spots but trust they will fill in sooner than later. And these photos don't do the trim job any justice. The stoop feels far lest jungle-like now...I swear. And yes, my life is reduced to blogging about trimming holly bushes. Yikes!
 

Dresser Mini-Makeover

As most women, I am shopper. On our recent trip to Brussels we browsed around some great home furnishing stores. Completely unexpected and totally drool worthy. I mean, if I wasn't restricted to a medium sized suitcase, I would have swiped my credit card many more times. But I am sure United Airlines appreciates me resisting such purchases.

I came across these cute nobs in a store called Nunc. They had a bunch of other adorable stuff, but figured these were easy to pack and I had the perfect piece of furniture for them. 

To continue the black and white theme in our guest bedroom, I wanted to put these on this dresser that I painted black. My blonde moment was not remembering how many knobs this dresser had. But figured I was safe with just going with 2 for the top drawer.

The photo above is horrible, sorry. But I think they are fun and quirky...love them! A dresser mini-makeover!