Nester’s having a collection inspiration linky today. The first thing I thought about was my obsession with finials. Is that what they’re technically called? Every time I see one I debate in my head whether to buy it or not. They’re purely decorative. They serve no real purpose other than to confound my husband as to why I love them.
We added some moulding onto the mantel this weekend, and decided to line up my pretties. I love how they’re each different, but the colors all work together.
I often get asked about my workspace design. I was lucky enough to have an open loft area upstairs that was basically unused before we turned it into an office/workspace. A talented neighbor who does custom cabinetry and woodwork created some custom built-ins for the space.
1) Maximize Floor Space: The space is approximately 10 x 12, which is not that big. One of the most important design decisions we made was to have the cabinetry built from wall-to-wall to maximize the amount of countertop. I can line up three sewing machines across the stretch of countertop and bounce from one to the other as needed. When the machines are stored away, there is plenty of room to spread out papers and work.
Note to self: Organize cords under desk
2) Maximize Storage & Organization: Full extension drawers are incredible. I knew this was something I definitely wanted to incorporate into the drawers. Everything in the drawer is within easy sight and reach. Nothing gets lost in the back, unlike my kitchen drawers which do not have full extension slides.
Another area of storage are the baskets I have on the shelves above. I need to add some labels to the front, but they hold tons of items I don’t need immediately handy.
I’ve been saving and collecting some old frames as I come across them. I hot glued some cork tiles to the glass on this frame to turn it into a countertop message board.
3) Large Cutting Board & Tools: This is an indispensable item to have to accurately cut. The table itself can be folded up and stored away if needed. The cutting board is approx. 36″x60″. Underneath is a cover that can be ironed on, which is very handy for items larger than a standard ironing board can handle.
4) Stuff that Makes Me Smile: The area has turned into a family art room as well. I love having artwork around me that was created by my kids. I’ve reused many frames that I’ve collected to frame this artwork. I always have a pile of artwork handy waiting for the perfect frame.
This is my first sewing machine…a Holly Hobbie machine that actually worked when it wasn’t jamming the thread. I still love it.
This always cracks me up. My oldest created this for Mother’s Day in kindergarten. It says:
The important thing about my Mom is:
- She takes us to the park
- She takes out my splinters
- She cooks our food
- She is nice
- She loves me
I’ll be listing some miscellaneous items on ebay at incredible savings. Check them out!
Beautiful light green & taupe bedding set includes: 4-piece bumpers, crib skirt & comforter
This photo shows the bumper interior detailing. Note the corded edge on top of the bumper. So cute.
Solid taupe grosgrain ribbon ties, and inverted box pleated skirt with pom pom trim
Closeup of the comforter's corded edge detailing with minky dot reverse
I got myself up extra early this morning and headed out to get some photos. There are a few fields around here that get the most beautiful morning light.
I listed a few miscellaneous items on ebay. Be sure to check them out and let anyone know who is in the market for some beautiful nursery items!
There are: set of (3) nursery pillows, a diaper stacker, and a matching toy bag.
Okay, so it’s not a pot roast or roast chicken. But it is delicious. We’ve been making an effort to eat more vegetarian meals during the week. I shoot for having vegetarian 4 times per week. Some weeks it doesn’t happen, some weeks it does. It conveniently allows us to feel less guilty about the big juicy hamburger we seem to enjoy on the grill this time of year.
The jumping off point for this recipe was on the back of the red quinoa box from Trader Joe’s. I used it for the inspiration, but made my own dressing & added a few other veggies to the mix, including the fresh spinach.
First up, the red quinoa. Power house of the whole grain family.
Trader Joe’s has some delicious frozen roasted corn. I added 2 cups of that to the quinoa to conveniently cook both at the same time. Don’t judge this final dish by the picture below. The cooked quinoa serves as a bed under the dressed salad/veggies that we’ll add to the top.
Have you checked out the hispanic food section at your local Wal-Mart? I was shocked to see the variety of items there. Items that would cost twice as much at some of the markets we usually frequent. Case in point - - last summer we had a Mexican themed fiesta for the hubby’s 40th. I made a Rick Bayless recipe for dessert which called for goat’s milk caramel as the flan’s topping. Needless to say, I was sweating where I would get an ingredient like that. Voila! In the hispanic food section of Wal-Mart. I kid you not. And it was delicious.
This is also in that section of the store, and so good to have on hand. It’s a bullion of cilantro flavor. Perfect for this dish in addition to the fresh cilantro.
To take the bite and sting out of fresh garlic and onion, I roasted them first. The garlic got added to the dressing, and the onion was chopped into the veggies.
The cast of characters in the dressing. No firm measurements here.
The dressing (with fresh cilantro) gets whizzed up to a sort of loose cilantro pesto.
Dress your veggies in the delicious dressing and pour on top of your quinoa/corn mixture. The veggies included: a can of drained black beans, 1 pint cherry tomatoes, handful fresh spinach, 1 diced avocado.
I added a little crunch with some pumpkin seeds on top. This was a healthy, satisfying, main entree salad. We’ll do this one again for sure.
Over spring break, the boys and I headed to New York City. We had such a great time. The highlight of their (and my) trip was a helicopter ride over the city. I was snapping pictures left and right while trying to peek from around the camera at the same time. The weather was absolutely beautiful while we were there.
The Nester is having a tassel party today. I’m loving this little guy. It’s fun to see everyone’s creative talents in these fun tassels.
These tassels below are from Christmas. I wanted to create something that said Christmas without being too over the top. For some reason I was drawn to the red & brown combination this year.
A few weeks ago, I bit the bullet and came home with my trunk loaded of moulding from Lowe’s. It was a long weekend with plenty of time to figure this out. The worst that could happen was that I ended up returning anything I hadn’t cut. I was bolstered by a sense of confidence from several other blogs out that have shown their beautiful results with trims and moulding.
I’d been wanting to do this on our stairwell for a *long* time. It turns out kids are incapable of walking up the stairs without dragging their hands beside them. It’s just a fact of life. It led to a messy wall that was impossible to touchup with paint or clean. No matter what I did, the big expanse of wall was unsightly. The touchup paint never matched, and the worst part is that the stairwell wall is two stories tall.
It’s hard to get a sense of scale here, but the chair rail moulding is actually approximately 68″ high here. The first thing we did was cut the pieces and tape the moulding into place to make sure everything looked right. If I hadn’t fallen asleep so often in geometry class growing up, I probably could’ve figured out these angles up the stairs and skipped the dry fitting stage. The 45 degree angles were simple–but the angles going up the stairs were a bit trickier.
Once I felt good about the way everything looked, we nailed the moulding into place. Once the moulding was all permanently attached to the wall, we caulked around the edges & miters. Then we painted. I would say the most tedious part of the entire project was caulking and painting. We used semigloss paint to match the baseboards in the house. Semigloss finishes are always tricky for me to get the sheen just right.
Here’s how it looks all finished and painted up. Now, when the wall gets marked up (which it will), I can simply repaint the area below the chair rail without any trouble!
We did this job with a miter box only. I have to say it was not very difficult. I can’t imagine how much easier it would have been with a real tool.
There were several blog sources were so helpful in taking on this project. Check them out!
