Voila! C'est finis!

And it's finished! All I need now are some drawer pulls for the desk! I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out. Now, onto my next project. I'm going to build a storage ottoman for our tv room. I found some plywood pieces at my Habitat store and a shelf (for above the desk). I just need to find some good deals on foam and fabric and I'll be ready to roll! Or shall I say build? I love visiting the Habitat for Humanity store. I found my bedroom dresser there for a steal of a deal and love checking out their new inventory. Lately, I've been a little obsessed with their door selection. I don't need a new door, but I love thinking of new ways to use them.



Anyhow, I have my plywood in the garage and hopefully this weekend will be nice so I can atleast get the frame made. I've searched for some DIY plans and found a few so it should be a pretty uncomplicated project. We'll see! It would be nice to have a place to put your feet up on to watch tv. Especially after the kids go to bed, that's our 'quiet time.' This project will give me a warm up to the fabric headboard project. A girl's got to find something to do when the kids are in school or napping!


Did I mention that while I was putting the desk together we had an earthquake here in VA? 5.8 is what they said. Crazy!

My kind of fun...

Well, the desk is finished (almost) and was moved into our bedroom last week. I've been working away on the mirror and it needs one last coat of paint before I move it into the house.
With that project almost complete I've been on craigslist to spot a find for a dresser (my hubby's), a nightstand (for me) and a chair (for the desk). No luck yet. Lots of beautiful antiques in need of some love and lots of great furniture for other areas of the home. I really would like to have our room finished before I try to tackle any other projects. I think I'll start on a fabric headboard for the bed next. I've seen tons of gorgeous ones with fat price tags on Pottery Barn, Williams Sonoma Home, and Restoration Hardware. While they're simply divine, I find it hard to pay so much money for a headboard. So, I've been doing my research on DIY fabric headboards and came across many other 'thrifty gals' such as myself that have made similar looking headboards. Here are a few that I love.


I know the 1st picture isn't of a fabric headboard, but I love the romantic feel of the room. The old, weathered doors are beautiful and nothing's 'matchey matchey.' It seems like every piece has a bit of history. Anyhow, a new Goodwill store opened down the street and I'll be making a trip in to see what kind of treasures I can find. There are also 2 stores in Franklin/Suffolk area I want to check out, maybe on a date with the hubby (he'll love it, NOT).


We had our first camping trip this weekend and it was so much fun! We went to Kiptopeke State Park on the Eastern Shore, Va. The kids made light sabers, we roasted hotdogs and marshmallows on an open wood fire, camped beneath the stars and swam in the Chesapeake Bay. My only complaint would be that other campers in our neck of the woods were not so quiet in the wee hours of the morning. Stella and I saw a toad in the woods as we walked back to our tent from the bathroom, I found a beautiful shell at the beach (that had a tenant living in it) that I had to send back to the water. We had a great time with our friends and have made plans for next year's visit. I can see why so many people fall in love with the Chesapeake Bay. The beach was nice and shallow, you could see through the water to the bottom and the water was very gentle. The kids loved playing in the water. The guys fished while the women tended to the children, funny huh? Just a few pictures from our trip.

95% finished with Project #3

I completely finished sanding and painting the desk today. A big thanks to my Mom for keeping the little guys entertained this afternoon! I used the paint from our master bathroom and gave the desk a 'white wash/pickled' kind of look. I am in love with the look and can't wait to get it moved into our bedroom. All that's left is to find the perfect drawer pulls and then sand/finish the mirror. I've had lots of fun searching through etsy for some glass drawer pulls. I'd really love to find some vintage/antique pulls to go with it. Stella even gave me a hand with painting the drawer fronts, now she wants to paint her dresser! Here's the finished product after 4 days of work:

Day #1 of Project #3

While my little guy napped, Stella and I enjoyed the beautiful summer morning with the garage open and began sanding our new, old vanity. Stella took a bag of coloring books and toys out to the shady lawn and sat on a beach towel under the tree. She was occupied for a while and Bro slept for a few hours so I was able to sand all of the top, legs and sides of the vanity (all the easy stuff). I started tearing off the 100+ year old veneer that covered the sides and inside of the panels. Whatever kind of glue they used back then sure was worth it's weight in gold! I had to dig around to find a tool with a flat, sharp edge.

At first, I tried a paint scraper, but it wasn't sharp enough. I went through Al's tool box and found a small chisel and that did the job. I still had to put lots of elbow grease into it though.

After an hour and a half of work, I called it a day. Maybe I'll try again tonight. Of course, all that's left is removing the rest of the veneer and sanding the front (that has all the detail work). I should be able to paint it by next week. I'm pretty excited this has been an easy project so far. Hopefully the mirror stand won't give me too many headaches!

Project #3

Before leaving for vacation, I was surfing Craigslist and came across a vanity/desk. After finishing my dresser project, I have been looking for something I could use as a desk/nightstand for my bedroom. I wasn't having much luck and started to get a little discouraged. To my delight, I found a piece of furniture that would be perfect. I called the lady the next day and arranged for pick up. It is a very old piece of furniture, from the 1890's-1900's and the style is very similar to the dresser. I'm pretty excited to get started on it and clear out our old desk that is much too big and bulky for our room. Hopefully you'll see an update on it in a few weeks or less! The hard work is pretty much finished, someone started stripping and sanding it. I think I'll paint it a black semi-gloss since the wood isn't as pretty as the other piece.

I've recently become obsessed with looking at master bedroom ideas on the internet and came across this beautiful room done by Emily Hewitt. It's very romantic and inspiring. Not too sure if my husband would agree to something to girly.


Ideas are still brewing in my head. It was a lot easier to do the kid's bedrooms and I know it's going to be a while before I get things the way I want in my own bedroom.




Cheers to another project and happy sanding!

What's there to do in Virginia anyway?

Well, our summer vacation consisted of a quick visit to Silverspring, MD and a few stops in Southwestern Virginia. We had several stops plotted and pretty much had everything in our favor for the week, except TRAFFIC!

Stop #1- Silverspring, MD to see my brother and sis-in-law just outside of DC. It unfortunately took us almost 6 hours to get there when it should have been a 3 hour drive. We stopped for lunch and stretched our legs for a spell before sitting in the car for another 3 hours. Note to self: leave super early in the morning next time we head that way on a Saturday. We had a fantastic time visiting with our family. Staying up late (kids included) talking, enjoying some wine and great company. We even got to tour their downtown area (totally envious that everything is in walking distance) and sample some of the local cuisine. The kids had their first trip on the metro and we visited a few of the museums in DC before heading back to lounge at the pool. I think this stop was one of my favorites, we just don't get to spend as much time with The Kiger's as we'd like.


Stop#2 - Dinosaurland in Woodstock. This was just about an hour from Silverspring and we discovered that Stella gets car sick. This was her first trip through hilly terrain, but she was a trooper. Dinosaurland was a pretty cool stop. It was connected to the back of a gift shop that had about 40 different kinds of prehistoric creature statues. It was a great break for the kids to run around and explore before driving another 1.5 hours to our next destination. Bro and I weren't paying attention to our surroundings and got attacked by a Pteranadon and a lizard type dinosaur.


After a quick check in to our hotel we ventured onto Stop #3, Luray Caverns. As a kid, I always wanted to visit this place and I think I enjoyed it more than the kids did. It's a pretty large compound with lots of things to do, but we just went to explore the caverns and gift shop and headed back to the hotel. Al carried Stella a good portion of the way and I carried Bro the whole time. The little guy fell asleep in the car and didn't wake up until the tour was almost over. When he woke up the first words out of his mouth were, "Eeeewww! Big rock! Cool!" He seemed a little more interested than Stella, she thought it was kind of spooky and creepy. She really loved the gift shop and all the trinkets. Our GPS took us through the mountains back to our hotel, we were really in the middle of nowhere. We were able to visit 2 restaurants and enjoyed some local fare. We really enjoyed the Italian restaurant we visited for dinner. The kids had spaghetti and meatballs and you could tell they loved it by looking at them (with their tomato stained faces). A nice breakfast at CrackerBarrel (the Sganga's on the road breakfast stop) and off we went to Roanoke.

Stop #4 - the Hotel Roanoke. I was very excited to get to the Hotel Roanoke. In all the years that I lived in Blacksburg, I passed that beautiful hotel many times. Driving up to the hotel, I almost felt like I was in a different country. It's very reminiscent of an Alpine mountain sky lodge or something you'd find in the mountains of Europe. The hotel was built in the late 1800's by the local railway line. It had all the old world charm and patina that I absolutely love. We were greeted with warm chocolate chip cookies and off to our room we went. The hotel is right in the heart of downtown and that gave us lots of opportunities to explore and check out some of the restaurants. We even got to see lots of trains passing, which the kids really enjoyed.

We headed to Corned Beef & Co. for lunch and then up the mountain to the Mill Mt. Zoo. The zoo was much smaller than the one at home, but it was very nice and shady and we saw everything they had to offer. We even ended our mountain trip with a visit to the Discovery Station. They had some pretty neat, hands on things for the kids and then back to the hotel for some pool time. We had dinner downtown at a bar and grill and then back to the hotel for baths and bedtime.

Stop #5 - No trip in SWVA would be complete without a stop in Blacksburg to visit our beloved VT campus. Al and I were excited to stroll through our old stomping grounds and show the kids where we went to school. We needed to load up on Hokie gear so we headed to the S.Main book store. It was a lot different from the last time I was there, nice and updated. We probably spent almost an hour in there looking at stuff. Most importantly, the kids walked out with things they really loved. Stella got a little stuffed animal kitty and my sweet little boy walked out with 2 VT pompoms. That's right folks, he wanted pompoms. As we walked through downtown, he proudly waved his Hokie pompoms in the air. We went to Macado's for lunch and the kids were thoroughly entertained by all the statues and tchotchkes. The grown ups were just happy to enjoy a delicious sandwich, they just don't make them like that around here. The Cowpoke and Bobagger were super yummy.

We headed to Pandapas Pond (our old fishing hole) after lunch and walked the perimeter of the lake. We saw a little of the wildlife, butterflies, minnows, frogs and geese. Bro was very sad to leave the pond. We stopped once more at VT's drill field to let the kids run wild and then headed back to the Hotel Roanoke.

It was our last night in Roanoke and we enjoyed some more pool time and then headed downtown to one of the best Thai places ever. The kids gobbled up their noodles in record time and Al and I were able to enjoy a delicious dinner. The owners were very gracious and accomodating and even entertained the kids with magic tricks. If we lived there, that totally would be our Thai place. After dinner, we walked down to their version of Skinny Dip called Frogurt and had a little dessert.

Bath time and pj's and then a nice evening drive up Mill Mt. to see the Mill Mt. Star. Stella was the only kid awake so she and I went to see the star. She was in awe of how big it was and loved having her picture taken with it. She called it the 'North Star' and had fun playing peek-a-boo with the star on our ride back to the hotel. I couldn't believe that Bro slept through the car ride, a walk back to the hotel and an elevator ride! The boy slept all the way through to the next morning. Our last morning in Roanoke, we had a yummy hotel breakfast and then started our trek home via Rt. 460. The kids slept a few hours and then we made our last stop at the Virginia Diner for lunch.
It was a week filled with fun and and adventure, lots of great memories made. Who knew Virginia had so many great things to offer! I look forward to planning our next trip, but not for a while! :0)