you say basement, I say guest suite

You are supposed to be singing the title of my post to the melody of "you say tomato, I say tomahto"

No? 

Very well, so what do you do when a new baby will be joining the family and the free bedroom is the guest room?  Well, in our case the guestroom becomes part of the basement.  What I shall now refer to as the "guest suite" and the former guest quarters will become baby number two's new digs.  We have many months before baby's arrival but I'm impatient and wanted to start fussing with the new decor.  Also the big boy bed upgrade for our little guy is imminent so the crib will cross the hall to the baby's room. 

We carted the bed down to our basement and we decided that styling it as a day bed would help it blend into the decor rather than scream "there is a bed in the middle of the room!!!!!"

We pushed the frame against the wall and I realized I was going to need to modify the dust ruffle since your standard dust ruffle has nothing at one of the short ends of the bed which for our purpose was not gonna work!

 

After taking these pics I realized I should have shown you the empty end... oops.  You get the drift...

 

The above pic is a little hard to understand but I cut away the back panel of the dust ruffle that would now be pushed against the wall and modified it to cover the short end.

 

I folded a little faux pleat for the corner and attached the length with glorious hot glue

 

Perfect!

Now to dress the bed with what we already have.  Some shams from our old bed set, white sheets, a tan blanket and some throw pillow that were already down there on the sectional.

 

 Not bad.  It blends well enough with the decor.  I may switch up the blanket and add a pillow or two but for a no cost change it isn't too shabby and the wall sconce centered above the bed helps it look all the more intentional.

The guest suite is open.  There is a sitting area, desk, bed and a play area.  What else do you need?

In another matter the lights we had in our living room will be going into the kid's rooms, one to the baby's room and one to our son's room.  I found new lamps at Marshalls today for only $20 a pop.  I removed the shades they came with and replaced them with my shades.

I really like the lamps but my question is do I paint them white?  It looks a little beige-a-riffic in here.  What do you think?

 As you can see Olive has decided to sleep on it...

 

 

gift

I'm visiting a friend at her new house tomorrow and didn't want to show up empty handed.

I found this little bin at Target

 and stuffed it with this pink paper filler I had

 

I made some simple sugar cookies and dyed half blue.  I individually wrapped them in little cellophane treat bags I had.

 

placed them in the bin

 

then replaced that blah blue ribbon with fuschia

 

and there is even room for the card

 

Now I have a sweet treat to bring.  My favorite gifts to receive are the edible kind and I love to give them as well.  What do you bring for housewarming or hostess gifts?

 

photo banner

When we celebrated my father's 60th birthday at the beach we decided to put together a bunch of photos from his life.  At first I thought we'd make a big poster/collage but then I realized I would have to transport a huge piece of poster board in the car with us which wasn't going to work.

A photo banner was the perfect answer.  I took some red and white baker's twine and tiny little colored clothes pins I had purchased a while ago for decoration in our son's room.  

Here is one of my favorites.  Dad as a little guy playing at the beach.

Below is another banner we put in the window.

A good celebration.  Happy Birthday Dad!

Beach Baby

Where have I been?

At the beach!  Doing lots of this

and more eating than I care to mention and visiting with family and all around relaxing.  It was lovely and went way too fast.

While we were there we had a birthday celebration for my father's 60th birthday.  His actual birthday is in August but since we had family together it was a perfect time to celebrate.  I made some little favors for everyone to take home.

I had initially planned on putting some Jordan's almonds in a little favor box and topping it with a sticker but I was having a really hard time finding inexpensive gift favor boxes in a small quantity.  I needed less than 25 which can be tricky to find.  So I decided I would fashion some little favor bags instead.

I purchased a pack of little cellophane treat bags from the craft store.

 

and I discovered in my paper stash some red cardstock

 

I cut the cardstock into strips the same width as the treat bags and folded them over using my metal ruler for a crisper edge.

I placed some Jordan's almonds in a cellophane treat bag and folded over the top

Then I slide the red cardstock over the top of that

punched two holes through the cardstock and the bag

 

so it looked like this

and was ready to secure with a ribbon and embellish with a sticker of my Dad as a little boy with their pug.  I ordered these photo stickers from Shutterfly and thought they came out great.

Easy as that

always better in a group

 

They were simple and turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself.  The best part was my Dad was totally surprised and touched by the celebration.

Ah, wish we were back at the beach... 

not just a housewife 

cucumber madness!

So this is our very first garden and we didn't know what to expect as far as what it would produce and how it would grow.  Thus far we have enjoyed a little salad, two side dishes of green beans, about 4 strawberries (yeah we probably won't grow those again), maybe 8 pea pods and now the cucumbers have started to ripen and whoa!  I can't keep up with them.  Yesterday I brought in three and I'm holding off on picking two more that are about ready. 

Luckily I like cucumbers and if anyone has any recipe suggestions please share!

I love a cucumber salad and I threw together a quick one yesterday.  

1 Cucumber peeled and thinly sliced
about 1/4 white vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1/3 cup sliced onion
couple tablespoons of fresh dill
 

Let it sit in the fridge for at least an hour.  The longer it sits the better it is.  This is pretty forgiving and if you use more cucumbers up the amount for the vinegar and sugar. 

It is fresh and summery and perfect for 90 degree weather!

There has been an awful lot of food talk on here lately huh?  I'm hungry all the time.

Our kitchen cabinetry is finally on the horizon and should be done within the next few weeks.  I have a stool makeover to take care for the little "desk" spot we'll have that I'm hoping to share next week.

Happy Friday!

Happy 4th, have a cookie!

Our good friend is coming over with her boys this afternoon to eat and celebrate.  She let this pregnant lady be lazy and she is bringing along the main course, BBQ sandwiches, yum!  So, I didn't have to do much but grab some chips and chop some veggies for dip. 

I did want to make a special cookie and this recipe from Annie's Eats sounded delicious

Ingredients:

For the cookie bars:

• 5 cups flour
• 1 teas salt
• 1/2 teas baking soda
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 teas vanilla extract
• Zest from 1 lemon

For the frosting:

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 teas vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• 4 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 5 tbs milk
• Food coloring

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a large baking sheet (13″x18″) with parchment paper and grease.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time until incorporated, scraping down the sides as needed. Mix in the vanilla and lemon zest. Add the flour mixture a little at a time until just combined.
Using your hands or a flat bottomed glass, press the cookie mixture into the prepared baking pan. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until light golden brown. Cool completely on a wire rack before adding the frosting.
Make the frosting: In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the vanilla and salt. With the mixer on low, slowly add the confectioners’ sugar. Add the milk, if needed to create a smooth texture. If using food coloring, mix it in now.
Spread the frosting evenly over bars, cut evenly, and serve.


The quantity sounded like a bit much and truthfully I was terrified if they were there I'd just eat them all so I halved it and they turned out great.  I tinted my frosting blue then did my best attempt at firework designs in red.  They kinda look like spiderwebs but who is gonna complain when they are eating a frosted sugar cookie?

Enjoy!

art shelf

Remember when I updated my shelf in the dining room so that it looked less like a folding shelf by adding a top?

You can read the details here.

Since I did the transformation I have rearranged the books, frames and other chotchkes many times over.

When went to Ikea on Saturday, this was my husband's first visit by the way, we found something that reminded us both of childhood and we couldn't resist.

Huh?  I know it doesn't look like much.  It is to hold a roll of drawing paper.  You know those big rolls you had in elementary school?  Something about the endless possibilities of that big roll held nice memories for us both so one came home with us.

But where to put it?  Space is at a premium around these parts and I wanted it to be accessible for our little guy otherwise what was the point?  I realized that I could shift the contents of that dining room shelf once again and make room for a little art shelf.

I put our crayons in a little tin pot,

stamps in a tupperware bin,

 tucked our stickers under the paper roll and voila!

A little art shelf for our little one.  I'm glad to say he spotted it yesterday morning and asked to draw : )

not just a housewife