Color in the Dining Room

Well a few weeks ago I painted my dining room. I'm just getting around to posting it because I'm still playing with decorating it. I love my dining room now. I think it's my new favorite room. We spend as much time i it now as the living room. It has windows all around it, so it feels more like a sun room.

It had really ugly grey fake wood paneling and a really big piece of particle board that I am afraid to remove because Lord knows what's behind it. So I knew that any color would be better than what was there. I don't know how many paint samples I tried before I picked one. I was looking at some more subtle shades of yellow and some taupe or a light blue, but I kept going back to the bright yellow. Needless to say, I was a bit nervous putting on the first coat.

This is what it looked like with some of the samples on the wall. You can see the ugly wood paneling that covers thee walls in most of my house.

It came out so beautiful. I am still playing with the decorating part. I feel so much more inspired to cook knowing we will be dining in this room. It's as nice as any restaurant for me. I still have to address the book case and floors but that is another day and another project.

Happy Memorial Day

I'm proud of my Army Brother and Marine Cousin!

I love that all my flowers are starting to open up! I like to keep flowers on my dining room table and it is nice to be able to cut them from my garden rather than having to buy them.

Here are a few of my favorite things in my yard this weekend.

Have a fun and safe holiday!

I'm Back!

I've been gone for months. I got a little to busy for a while and fell off track. I hosted a batchelorette party and a wedding shower. And I was a bridesmaid in the wedding.

My hair was a mess by the time I got it out of the do. This is only after I was half done picking through it. I had a full frow by the time I was done.

I'm not going to punish anyone with pictures of me all dressed up. The dresses were green and shinny and as one of my friends put it "we looked like Genovian pears."
We (as in my husband and step-dad with me directing) put new floors in our living room.

Yes it was heinous. I hate carpet. We went on a rampage and pulled up the carpet in all the house except the bedroom (which is next). The living room is the first to get new floors put in. The rest of the rooms have the various different kinds of flooring that were hidden under the carpet for only God knows how may years. After we pulled the carpet up we had a sandbox in our living room. Gross. And I vacuumed and steamed it a lot too. Never clean.

But the new floors are so beautiful! I love the cherry finish. We got the Lock N Seal from Sam's. Now my living room doesn't smell like dog and 50 yr old carpet. Happy me! One room down... 4 to go!

Some Historical Inspiration

So my friend and I decided we needed a girls day out. My husband had told me there was a historical house just a little ways from where I live so we decided to go check it out. The lady that was there said the last owner had no children and no heirs so she left the house to the City of Tyler to preserve it. I'm glad she did because it is a beautiful place.

I thought the front porch was really interesting because the ceiling and shutters are painted different colors. I love the robin's egg blue. But I think one of my favorite things about the house was the little kitchenette. It is the newest addition to the house and it is very small compared to the rest of the rooms, but isn't it so cute! It was blocked off so I couldn't get a good picture of the sink and old stove. But just trust me, it's all really cute.



Just look at the lace! I love the mismatched chairs. Everything else in the house was so perfectly placed. The little quirkiness was welcome.

The portrait is of the lady who last owned the house. I really liked the use of yellows white and gold. This was over a mantel. There is a fireplace in every room in the house, but this was my favorite one. The woman had some talent too! She painted an entire china set! The set is out on the table and makes great eye candy.

This is the table setting. Isn't it wonderful! I love the colors. We just wanted so bad to sit down and have a little tea party. I think if I had a set like this I would have a tea party every day!

Just look at the beautiful detail! It's so elegant!

This is a close up of the tea pot. Look at those salt and pepper shakers! Oh, so cute!!

The woman actually hated this ceiling. Her mom had it painted. It was covered by wall paper for years but was later discovered after the museum curator read an entry about it in her diary.

This is a close up. I was told that this painting is considered the original Tyler roses. Don't ask me what that means exactly but just ooh and ahhh like you do.

Now this baby belongs in my living room! This is called a square grand piano. I have never seen one before. It is not original to the house but it fits in all the same and I'm glad they put it there so I can covet it the rest of my life...because there is no way I could ever acquire one of these babies for myself.

And here we are on the nervereckingly steep and narrow stairs. If you look closely there are orbs around us. Kinda spooky huh. Well it's probably just dust. We had a great time and will probably go back again sometime because there were a lot of pictures i didn't take I wish I did. I was amazed they encouraged us to take pictures at all. I hope some of these pictures were a little inspiring. I have to get to my hubby now. He is going to starve if I don't start dinner very soon.