The livin' is easy...

On a shady side street there is an old beach house... 

with a white picket fence...

come on in the gate, and see how busy I've been...

the porch lets in dappled sunshine, it's lovely!

Yes, I've been real busy reading. I finished "The Help", it was such a good read.

I'm starting to get into the "vacation" mode. Life is just so simple here, the biggest decisions are, do we go to the beach or the park this morning, and what should we make for dinner?

Seafood, of course!

We left home on tuesday as soon as Big Sister got out of school and drove straight here arriving at 5:30 wednesday. 

I'm thankful for safety on the road.

Yesterday was filled with buying groceries and settling in, also naps.

But we did make it to the beach and of all things, I forgot sunscreen! So, we're a little toasty today.

This morning Little Brother climbed into our bed at about 5:30. Neither of us could sleep after that, so we quietly got up and went to the beach to watch the sun come up.

I've always wanted to do this, glad I did.

Then, when the others woke up, we all walked to Starbucks for breakfast and swung by Whole Foods for some groceries before we came home.

Now, we're hanging out at the house waiting for evening when Grammie flys in from California.

I'm thankful for this chillin' time, it's what we needed.

Wishing you all a happy, blessed Thanksgiving! 

Packed and ready to go!

In just a while we'll be on our way to The Sunshine State.

We've been counting down the days - this is our first real vacation of the year and we are more than ready!

So stay tuned for some water and ocean fun coming soon!

Armoire Transformation

I bought this armoire a few months ago with the intention of painting it white. 

And I finally did! Yeah for me! I love getting things done!

So here are the before and after pictures...

I thought that I would try homemade chalk paint. Bad idea - it is great for a small project, like a picture frame or a little chair, but for this, it didn't work so well.

No matter how much I stirred, it still had little pieces of grout in it, made the surface really bumpy and I had to sand all the little bumps out. So, I switched to regular paint.

I'm really happy with how it looks now! And I got some new knobs for it as well.

Now, I need to paint the inside.  :)

Pine Cone Garland

This was fun and easy.

 And if you buy the cinnamon pinecones, your house will smell great!

Go HERE to find the great tutorial for making this.

In this house...

I brought this little pallet up from my husband's shop a while ago and have been staring at it, trying to figure out what to do with it.

Then I started seeing all these cool signs floating around on the internet.

 I really like these words.

I bought 2 inch stencils at Lowes and traced them on to the pallet. I tried to just paint the traced letters but I couldn't stay in the lines. So I held each stencil up to it's letter and painted through the stencil.

Worked much better :)

And that's it - really easy!

I really love the way it turned out, but I can't find a spot for it!

I'm going to keep looking though!

I'm linking up to PRIMP'S WEDNESDAY LINKY PARTY.

The Note Book

That's the name of my sister-in-law's new blog. You may remember her previous blog, All Things Vintage.

Blogging is such a great way to stay in touch when there are a lot of miles between.

I'm looking forward to all the cute pictures of my little nephew!

So, if any of you would like to follow her new blog, The Note Book, you can email her an invitation request at sarahunt88@gmail.com

My blog has been pretty boring lately, I apologize. There's been a long dry spell of no new projects around here. But I am working on a few things. 

Big Sister's room is coming together nicely, I hope to have an update in a week or so.

And I'm experimenting with homemade chalk paint, I like it so far, I'll let you know how it turns out.

Remember our kitten? Well, he has decided to stay with us. He's very happy and loves Mosby our dog.

But he is a shy one, only letting me pet him while I feed him, and it's too bad that he won't let the children near him.

Big Sister named him Pumpernickel.