Maria's special day

I just wanted to quickly share a few pictures from Maria's birthday... a couple weeks late I might add.

On Friday (her actual birthday) she opened gifts bright and early and reveled in all her new goodies, including some new washable markers and a set of pony sheets.

Later that day we went to a park in Duluth with Maria's cousin Luke and second cousin Zhaina.  The kids had a blast running around and afterwards we took them all to Bridgeman's (Maria's favorite restaurant) for dinner.

On Saturday we spent the day at home with family... lots of family.  It turned out larger than planned, but was fun nonetheless.  We visited, opened more gifts, ate lasagna, sang happy birthday, and enjoyed rainbow cake.

After it was all said and done, Maria confided in me that it was 'the best birthday ever', but I think she says that every year. :)

what i've been up to

This time of the year can get quite hectic with birthdays, graduation parties, baby and bridal showers, and the onset of 'wedding season', but all the excitement really gets me going.

I recently returned from my first trip to Las Vegas.  Four great (and long time) friends from high school joined me for a weekend in the city that seriously NEVER sleeps.  We stayed at the beautiful Paris hotel for three nights, wasted away the afternoons sitting by the pool, and danced, laughed, and talked the nights away at some of the city's hot spots.

We all had such a wonderful time together and we're all looking forward to our next girls weekend... this time maybe a bit closer to home. ;)

We received our new rug from Overstock yesterday.  We had originally ordered it several weeks ago, but they sent us the wrong one and then claimed that it was sold out.  Scott somewhat surprised me with this when he got an email saying it was back in stock.  I love it and I now feel like I have something to work off of for this room.

I've also started a new knitting project for Maria and have been busy sewing in my new sewing room.  It's sew nice to finally have a permanent spot for my machine without having to drag it out every time I want to use it, especially when it comes to repairing clothing.

And tomorrow is a VERY big day in our house.  Maria turns 5!!!  I can't even believe how fast she's growing up.

It just so happened that Scott had the entire weekend off, so tomorrow we will travel to Duluth with her cousin Luke, and meet up with my cousin Stacy and her daughter Zhaina at a local playground.  Afterwards we will treat them all to dinner and ice cream at Maria's favorite restaraunt, Bridgeman's.  Yum!

On Saturday, Scott's mother will be here along with some other guests for an afternoon of talking, laughing, and playing.  A lasagna dinner and my version of the 'Super Epic Rainbow Cake' will follow.  It should be a fantastic weekend.

Oh, and one last tidbit of information... I have finally upgraded to an iPhone!  Seriously what was I thinking two years ago when I didn't think I needed it!  What a great device!  I have completely fallen in love with the Instagram app for taking pictures and have used some of them for this post. My mother mentioned that I'll never use my real camera again, and I think she may be right. :) My username is lateniteknits if you choose to follow me.

Lots to do today, so I guess I'd better get crackin'!  Enjoy your weekend folks!!

pieces of home

I thought I'd share some pictures of our newly decorated living room.  Scott got some shelves up a couple of weeks ago so I was finally able to bring out some things that have been packed away. The room still isn't finished, but will it ever be?

I'm still trying to sell our recliner that I've tried to crop out of the picture, but no bites yet.  Our coffee table (which was left here by my parent's) used to be about a foot or two taller, but I had Scott cut it down so we could use it here.  It has a drawer on the other side where we currently store all of the DVDs.  The table on the far right is actually a record player that I found at an estate sale.  However, We need to take it to 'the doctor' because the sound coming out is really quiet.  That's on my to-do list. :)

The plaid chair was a $20 steal from Goodwill.  It's one of my favorites.

I made all the pillows except for the one with the bicycle.  I intend to make one more yellow chevron pillow but haven't gotten around to it.  The quilt was an Arizonian birthday present to myself last year.  I love it!

The sea fan (or whatever you call it) was purchased at Hunt & Gather in Minneapolis.

Our shelves are made from some old barn wood my Dad had in the attic of the garage.  We had them in our old house too.  The Angelus picture was another Goodwill score for $1.  My mother had the same framed print while she lived here, so I think it's kind of funny that I found one that's almost exactly the same.  The black framed photos are of my Mom and Dad.

And this is our current mantle.  I'm sure it's something that will always be changing, but it currently holds the pussy willows that Scott picked for me last week...

a couple of vintage cameras, a bird's nest, and an old photo of my Grampa.  And you can see our new gray carpet!!

It's a work in progress and I'm hoping to get a lot more done this spring before the weather gets nice and warm outside.  Once that happens, I know I won't want to be inside too much.  I still need to finish up the east room, both girls' rooms, and the sewing/playroom.

We're in the process of painting Ginger's big girl bed and I'm on the hunt for a retro school desk for Maria's room... one with the flip up top. :) The majority of our walls still need pictures hung too.  I swear it never ends. :)

Wishing you all a joyous Easter week.

I painted my parent's hutch

My parent's had intended on taking the hutch with them when they permanently moved down to Arizona, but it was either unable to fit in the trailer or my mother couldn't figure out where to put it in their new house.  So, I told them they could leave it here. I knew I wanted to repaint this and another shelving unit in the kitchen to match, but I didn't realize what a pain in the butt this project was going to end up being.

I originally bought this color paint to use on these two pieces as well as Ginger's dresser, but right away I knew it was the wrong color for the kitchen.  I ended up loving it for her dresser, but now I have a full can of paint that I don't know what to do with.

After that mistake, I knew I needed to go lighter in color so I 'quickly' picked out a new color (paint choice #1) off a paint chip.  After painting two coats I realized I didn't like it.  There wasn't enough contrast between the wall and the hutch.  I ended up taking the can back to Menard's to have them add more color.  I came home with paint choice #2.

I put one coat on and it was definitely darker and a lot better, but the color was still to blue and 'cool' for the rest of the colors in the house.  Now you are probably going to say to yourself "but the last color and the final color are the same", but trust me, they weren't.

I made the decision to go to my local hardware store and get a new  can of paint, this time with more green in it and with a warmer tone.  This is the final product that I'm fairly happy with, but mostly I'm just so sick of thinking about it that I'm leaving it as is.

Don't get me wrong, I DO like it. :)  It was so hard to get the color right in the pictures, but it closely resembles a teal colored Fiesta mug.

The room in which the hutch sits is still pretty sparse.  We just bought this 7 ft. circular rug (which should be here tomorrow) to go in this room and once I find someone to help me recover some box cushions and reupholster a couple of chairs, it will look more full.  I plan to put a large vintage school map that we found in Minneapolis in this room as well.

I filled the hutch up with all my pretty things and a few sentimentals as well.  I found the Taylor Smith & Taylor dish set at Savors before we moved into the trailer.  It was a steal of a deal and I've slowly been adding to the set every time I see a matching piece.

This is a photo of my mother's parent's when they were young and in love... new love. :)  I love it!

This is my first Polaroid picture I ever took.  It's of our rose bush from our old house.  I loved that place.

This photo is of my Grandpa (my Dad's dad), not sure when it was taken, but I'm going to guess he was 18 or so.  The tin was an estate sale find.  I remember my mother having the same tin when I was young, only it was square and a bit bigger.

And here we have an handheld antique mirror and one of my many bird's nests.  The nest sits atop a collection of old children's books that I found at an estate sale.  

I believe the books date back to 1880 or something like that.  Completely adorable too!

I'm relieved that the hutch is done.  What intended to be a couple day project turned into a project that dragged out over a week or two.

Scott's planning to paint the kitchen mid April and I'm hoping to paint the kitchen 'unit' fairly soon as well.

I'm heading out today for a solo trip to Duluth, which is always so nice, and a lunch date with my older sister.  We haven't done that in ages!

Enjoy your day!!