Random Happenings To Share

How many of you got up to watch Prince William & Katherine get married?

We sure did..bright and early at 3am.  My girls and I camped out in our family room.

Had a fire going...

One of my daughters made this in honor of the big day : )

And here I am in all my exhausted glory..lol.  We had a great time.  

Another random happening..I received my first blog award from Curiouser and Curiouser.

There are rules to the Versatile blogger award which are below:

Thank the person who gave you the aware by linking back to them in your post

Tell us seven things about yourself

Award Fifteen recently discovered new bloggers

I think this is a great way to spread a bit of wonder across the blogosphere and introduce you all to some new people so here we go:

 

Seven Things About Me

1.  I love all styles of interior design

2.  I am not a morning person

3.  I like my coffee with lots of sugar

4.  Would love to be known as an inspiration for change

5.  I am Puerto Rican

6.  I am always looking for the store no one else will shop at and finding hidden treasures

7.  I am a wife and mother of 3  (doesn't that make 8 things about me? )

Fifteen Newly Discovered Blogs

1.  Oko Design Blog

2.  SWITCHEROOm

3.  Nuestra Vida Dulce

4.  Stylizimo blog

5.  My Sweet Savannah

6.  Pure Style Home

7.  katiedid

8.  Watchful Eye of Venus

9.  Vintage Revivals

10.  Maison B

11.  Faded Plains

12.  Design On The Edge

13.  apartment 34

14.  Dearest Home

15.  Curiouser and Curiouser

BTW  ..

I will continue my trip to Chicago on Monday's post.  Lots of neat things I will like to share with you.  Have a great weekend all and take time to recover from the lack of sleep.

Our Trip To Chicago: The Olive Oil Place

Hope everyone had an enjoyable Easter.  We had a great time with friends and lots of food.

Last week I shared that it was our 12th anniversary

and we went to Chicago (one of my favorite cities).

There is so much to do and just not enough hours in a day to take it all in.

For this blog entry I want you to visit with us The Olive Oil Place.

They have so many different types of olive oils and vinegars that are fresh.  Olive oil and vinegar do have a shelf life and the problem when you get them from a grocery store you don't know how long they have been sitting on the shelf.  The Olive Oil Place keeps track of time lines.  

They keep their items fresh by keeping them in stainless steel tanks and only bottle them on order.

(choosing which olive oil to get)

Aren't those stainless steel tanks gorgeous?  Would love to have one of these for my home.

Isn't this shop beautiful?  I love the dark ceiling and the Italian architectural interest they brought to the place.  The lady that worked there was such a great help : )

Here is what I bought ..

Roasted Onion Cilantro Extra Virgin Olive Oil and 18yr Traditional Balsamic Vinegar.  Their most popular vinegar that has been aged and extremely delicious. 

Check out The Olive Oil Place either in person or online.  You won't be disappointed.

Home & Garden blogs

Happy Easter

HAPPY EASTER from Modern Earth Design

Martha Stewart

Pottery Barn

attractivehomedesignforless

my favorite

Martha Stewart

My Fuel For Inspiration

I am so honored today to have Ahndea May from HeirBloom be featured as the guest blogger for April on our series Design = Passionate People.
Her personality and drive for life is infectious.  Let her journey inspire you to dream and to "Design the Life " you want.

My Fuel For Inspiration ~ Ahndea May

When I think of "Design" I instantly become inspired to create and when I say create, I mean no limits, no boundaries. No one telling me I can't or giving me rules but just me looking at something allowing what is within me to be reflected in "real life".

I have always been a "creative" as we are called, even as a child I loved to sing, write music, do crafts, draw, there was something about it that calmed my soul. Life has it's ups and downs as we all know, and for me I lost my dad at a young age of 14. During that time of sorrow and confusion, I began to use creativity as my outlet for these feelings and truthfully that is where the healing began. I think this is the core of my passion to be creative.

There have also been others in my life that have motivated and inspired me, like my Yia Yia! Yes, my grandmother was 100% Greek and boy did she have STYLE! The kind of style that came with a sense of confidence and assurance of her inner beauty and strength.

She would doll up me and my sisters and take us around town so proud and introducing us to anyone who would listen. She passed away last July and how I remember her will always be her long jet black hair with her purple beret, dangling cross necklaces, pointed glittered nails with a ring on every finger, a fitted velvet purple suit with black 2 inch heels! And, yes, she was wearing this at 89!

Once she passed, she was also a jewelry collector and as we went through her home, I was able to find thousands of pieces of vintage jewelry that she had worn over 50 years worth. I felt I had to do something with this gift and so was born "HeirBloom". 

The idea of taking something old, something new, something you. They are silk flower brooches, hair pieces, coat pieces, etc. and each one is made with a vintage jewel. The cool thing is, it doesn't have to be one of my heirlooms, but I can custom make anyone an HeirBloom with their own family jewels, you know the ones that sit in a box and collect dust.  

So, that is my story of inspiration... and it doesn't stop there. I am a mom of three with TWINS on the way! I am a stylist, which allows me to work with photographers and style models and families for portraits etc. I love making people feel beautiful! I have an etsy shop for my HeirBlooms but mostly do custom orders directly with clients. I use my pieces in a lot of styling and photography as well, which I feature on my blog 

http://ahndeamay.blogspot.com/ 

My encouragement would be to find a source in your life that will bring fuel and passion to your design and run with it!

http://heirbloom.etsy.com/

http://thehillsarelivin.blogspot.com/2011/02/heirbloom-review-and-giveaway.html

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

It Only Gets Better

My husband and I have just celebrated 12yrs of marriage.  I can't believe it has been this long..where has the time gone?

Here we are when we first started dating.  

I wouldn't trade all these years for anything.  

 

He gave me these..

So thoughtful.

We work as a team and when it comes to design.. he understands exactly where I am going with an idea.  He is my buffer : )

We went to Chicago yesterday (I can't express my love for this city) and I try to go there as much as I can.  We both went for design inspiration and some quality time together.

I will be showing you some of the cool things I found in my next blog.  Stay tuned..

Spring Is Here - Thatch Has To Go!

I am so glad that you all get to hear from my husband, Corey today.  We had a little adventure this past week that he would like to share with some tips along the way.

Spring Is Here - Thatch Has To Go
By Corey Pelley

Spring is here and it's time to pick up where we left off in the fall with our lawns right?  Wait a minute; we didn’t do anything with our lawn last year. As a matter of fact, there were weeds and crab grass all through our lawn before the snow came.

This is exactly how many lawns will look again by mid summer, but not yours! Here’s why: you can begin the process of getting the lawn-you-love by first and simply removing thatch. That’s right, thatch. Its dead grass that begins to build up year after year if you don’t remove it each spring and it will soon prohibit new grass from growing and leave you with a weed filled yard.

Thatch can be removed with a traditional gravel rake

or an efficient thatch rake.

The difference is the latter removes more at a time. We have a large yard and rented a power rake for $30. About the cost of a thatch rake.

The best way to remove thatch is to criss-cross the lawn. Start in one direction row-by-row work your way across. Next do the same thing criss-crossing your previous direction.

Once thatch has been removed it will soon pile up like hay.

This can turn into a great time if you have kids or family that jump in and load each others bags and wheel barrels making an afternoon full of fun and exercise together. That’s what we did.

With spring rain sure to come your exposed green shoots will soon grow and look better than they have in years.

Can It Be: Hallway (Tear Out)

I hope you all are having a good week so far : )

It was beautiful here yesterday with the nice 80 degree temperatures and my first tan of the season.  Really exciting, I know.

I want to give you an update on our hallway that I spoke about last week.  As you may remember how we put hickory flooring in our family room and how much I like it.

You can read more about it in our Can It Be : Family Room series.

My idea was to bring the hickory into the hallway.  I wanted to get rid of the carpet to help with the allergies we were dealing with. I find carpet to be dirty especially when you have kids and a dog.

Do you see the stains?

Here's what it looks like with the carpet gone..

Thanks to my husband, Corey, and our friend Curt of (Signature Remodeling), who were the hands of making what I see become a reality.  BTW .. you can see Curt if you look closely.

It's already beginning to look better even with the sub floor exposed.   

Love progress.

Draping The Outdoors

I am getting my back porch cleaned today.  It so needed to be freshened up.  Pillows and cushions washed and smelling delightfully springy ; )

As I am looking over the space I was thinking about putting drapes to make it feel softer and even more inviting.  Here are some pics that were inspiring me..

 http://blog.alluminare.com/

 This back porch resembles mine .. should I say the bare bones, lol.  This gives me an idea of what mine could look like.

more here

One more for the road

great ideas here

Just beautiful.

Would be a great weekend project : )

Tell me what you think about outdoor drapes?

Can It Be : Hallway

I remember taking this picture when I was doing my homework assignment for a home staging course..

This is our hallway.  Now we did paint the walls, a color that I love, called "head for the hills" by Behr Paint.  The color of the walls prior were white, just wasn't doing it for me. 

If you look closely there is that horrible carpet again that I loathe (yes, I know it's a strong word..lol) and the stains that wouldn't come out.

I guess you know what is coming...

And this guy, Corey, well,

he could hear me saying, "Oh, Honey, I have an idea."

Stay Tuned.