vivianne's homemade quilt.

I make my children, nieces and nephews (pics to come) a quilt with their name on it (see previous entry links to view: Alivia's quilt   Emilia's quilt   Jackson's Quilt)  As many of you know our family is expecting another baby girl this October and I have finished Vivianne's quilt this past week. Above are the photos of the finished quilt and I am feeling very anxious to snuggle this new bundle of love soon.

vanity seat and classic dressing table.

I am currently redesigning my dressing room-such a treat.  I am lucky enough to have this beautiful space to display my love of fashion and feel like a lady.  My husband rescued this gorgeous antique vanity and we cleaned it up.  I love it "as is" and have only added new knobs, accessories and a new vanity seat to this rescued beauty.  I bought this old brass chair at a garage sale for $5.  My husband painted it mint for me and made a base for the new upholstered seat.  I bought this beautiful chevron fabric and we remade the seat exactly as I wanted for under $10.  I cannot wait to finish this room's makeover and upload pictures :)

a smokin' deal on quilting wheels leads to a day of crafting.

 I scored this basket full of quilting wheels at an antique store for $2.50-the remaining supplies needed to make the projects below were found in my home. 

 I made this mobile, for our daughter Vivianne, from an embroidery hoop, leftover sheer fabric from our wedding and many many quilting wheels.  I think it will make our newest addition smile and coo.

 I recently found this child's apron at an estate sale for $2 and was able to personalize it for my girls by adding a few quilting wheels. 

 All of these plain headbands were leftover from my daughter, Emilia's "baby" headband collection and I was able to make them sweeter for both her and her baby sister by adding a few quilting wheels for personality.

She was more than happy to model for mom.

vivianne is sharing a room with her sister.

I am currently 6 months pregnant with my 3rd child, a baby girl who we will name Vivianne Lou.  She will be sharing a room with her sister and we are beginning to make additions and changes to the room to accommodate two beautiful girls.  A great friend of mine, Sarah, made "Emilia" in  the same type of letters as shown above and of course Vivianne needed a set to match.  I would like to share the pictures of how "Vivianne" turned out and of course I will post pictures of their room and the furniture makeovers that are currently taking place later.

my succulent/rock garden.

There are some pavers between my carriage house and home that I envisioned as a rock/succulent garden since we moved in last year.  I have been adding to it and I am on my way to having the variety of succulents I want.  The idea was sparked from my love of hen and chicks and has really taken off as I have discovered a wide variety of succulents I love.  I am anxious to watch these pieces grow and fill in the space. 

growing a sweet potato vine.

My grandma is always teaching me old-timey tricks and recently she showed how easy it is to grow a sweet potato vine. My grandma's mother used to do this on the farm many years ago.  All you need to do is put a generous amount of water in a pot, set a large sweet potato in the pot and place the pot in a sunny window in your home.  Keep the water replenished and in a few weeks time it will be about the same size as the one pictured above.  Enjoy growing this old time vine in your kitchen!

springtime home decor.

It is such a refreshing time when the cold weather lifts and the opportunity to decorate for spring arrives.  My decorating style is obviously for a lighter and brighter color scheme and spring really gives me the opportunity to decorate with light colors and give my home a fresh facelift.  I used flowers, bunnies, light colored eggs, birdhouses, and wreaths to brighten my home and ring in Spring.  Above are a few pictures of some of the main areas of my home this year. 

bathroom makeover.

 before:

 after:

As you can tell from the above pictures, our bathroom was quite charming and green when we originally bought our home.  It looked as if some sweet, old lady really took her time coordinating the carpet, avocado tub and pink floral wallpaper.  While this was sweet, it is a far cry from our style so we gave our bathroom a clean, airy facelift to go with the rest of our home.  We took down the wallpaper, painted all the trim, hardware, cupboards and vanity and hung new mirrors. Redid or bought all the light fixtures, made new window treatments, took down shower doors and installed a shower curtain, got rid of the green toilet seat and put in brand new flooring.  A special thanks to my handy, dedicated husband-he did all the work himself. 

antique laundry drying rack.

I was lucky enough to find this antique drying rack in a neighbor's trash late last summer.  I took the piece down into the laundry room and tried to think of  way to hang and utilize this unique piece.  Turns out I had the perfect spot for it upstairs in my living room the whole time and about a month ago, this piece found its new home in our old home.  I love being able to display linens and doilies simultaneously with shelved items.  The primitive paint and texture add to the antique charm and the piece is perfect in our home. 

doorbell cover.

Since we moved into our home, our old doorbell mechanism has been exposed. I have kept it covered with pretty wreaths for the Fall and Winter season so this Spring I was itching for a new idea. I did not want to buy a generic, plastic cover-I wanted something unique. I found this old frame at Goodwill, put a wallpaper remnant in for a printed background and pressed these vellum letters on top to say "there is no place like home." I am pretty excited about my new doorbell cover that I spent $1.99 on and a little elbow grease.

primitive chair in entry.

I am loving how this has turned out. This summer I bought this primitive, turquoise chair with no seat for a dollar at an estate sale. I bought the "World Book" to substitute as a "seat" for a dollar at the same sale. The antique mirror was my husband's grandparents and the new plant I found at a adorable shop in downtown Bay City last week. I love the simplicity of this display and everything about it is an example of my style: inexpensive, collected, unique and light/bright colors.

valentine's toast for breakfast.

Happy Valentine's Day! This morning I woke to find a beautiful display of flowers from my husband (thank you honey) and the kids and I shuffled downstairs to make breakfast. We decided in the spirit of Valentine's Day we would make cinnamon and sugar toast, dyed red and cut into hearts...it sure was a treat and a fun start to a special day. The kids loved it and it was very quick and easy. Now I am off to spend the day with my lovebugs!

alivia's homemade quilt.

I so enjoy being an Aunt. I have one niece who is 9 months old. She lives close by and I have the opportunity to see her often-equally as important my kids get to play with their cousin frequently. She is a happy, round, bundle of personality and I love her dearly. As you may remember from earlier entries I made my kids each a quilt embroidered with their names Jackson's Quilt and Emilia's Quilt. It is my goal to make these for all of my children, nieces and nephews throughout the years. This entry is all about Miss. Alivia's quilt. The backside of this quilt matches the ruffle and is all purple polka dots. I think the vibrant print and lots of purple suits my niece and I hope she enjoys it for many years and remembers it as a special gift her Aunt Kate made just for her.

half bath upgrade.

before:

after:

Downstairs in our house we have one half bath for guests and the way it looked when we bought this house was not our style. The brass fixtures, maroon, green and pink color scheme were just not us. As always we like to make as big of an impact as we can while spending as little as possible. We have a pink sink and toilet in this room and knew replacing those was not in the budget. I found a beautiful Simply Shabby Chic rug at Target that inspired my color scheme of pink, white, grey and greige. I sewed an oversized valance from the grey paisley fabric I used previously, found a home for my oversized pink jar I bought at the Midland antique festival, changed out the hardware on the storage and bought a new light fixture. The striped wallpaper was replaced with a greige wall color and the towel bar was replaced with a brushed nickel holder we received for our wedding. The room is very small, but is now more light, bright, clean and inviting than before. The only thing I would still like to add is some molding around the top (this room is one of the few in our house without and leaves it a bit unfinished looking).