Blogger Break But Now I Am Back

Last week we took a blogger break too much was going on in our lives, and I didn't want to burden y'all with the details.  Lets just say it was "complicated".....lol

On to breaking news in our sweet little home we are tackling a huge project, so huge, I skered about how its going to turn out, but win or fail I will share our results....lol

Yesterday while picking up some last minute party details for little mans 3rd bday, I came to the isle for making and dying tees.  And I had a thought maybe I could die our sofa slip cover a nice dark blue or grey color.

See we have this great Kivik Sofa from Ikea, that I bought when we moved to this house.  And I had grand ideas of having a white sofa.   HA life laughs in my face!  I have a 2 year old, and let not even mention that I have butterfingers.

Via Ikea

Well one night I was relaxing with hottie hubby on the sofa after one of our "complicated" days and maybe the Cabernet got to me, but the glass slipped from my hand and broke splashing our great white sofa in a nice shade of dark red.  I've been trying to cover it with a throw across the seat, but it still ate at me knowing it was there.

So back to Joanns, I was there in the isle looking at the die, and I said what the heck.  I walked out of the store with 10 boxes of royal blue powdered fabric die.  OH BOY!

And as I write this the slipcovers are upstairs in my washer being died.  Talk about terrifying!!  We on to the details.  I am using this tutorial posted by Sherry @ Young House Love.  And I promise tomorrow morning there will be pics and results, and our epic fail posted on here....lol.

Look how awesome hers turned out.....

Via www.younghouselove.com

Here's to hoping mine come out that well.....lol

Hugs and Kisses,

Ivette

Patio Chairs Part 1

Happy Hump day everyone!  Just wanted to share a project we are working on for our covered patio.  Since moving in December, we have been at a lack for furniture moving from a 1000 sq ft home to a 2200 sq ft home.

We have a cute little covered patio now, that I'm dying to decorate and make cozy and comfy for sitting and relaxing having a glass of wine or watching little man play, even having a great dinner.  But alas all the patio furniture I love is REALLY expensive.  In comes Ana White and her awesome diy project plans, that are budget friendly :)

We are planning on building a sectional sofa and table with chairs for the patio similar to this style from West Elm.
                                  

Luckily Ana has a identical version of the build in her plans online wooohooo.  So me and hottie hubs printed our cut list and supplies and headed over to Lowes to pick up the wood and other necessary items.  Mind you me and Jon are novices when it comes to building furniture.  3 years ago we (helped) renovate our first little house, but that was mostly hanging drywall, installing sinks, and toilets, and laying tile.  Nothing this complex.....

So we bought the Kreg Jig recomended, the wood, wood glue, wood filler, and screws.  I was even able to get the guy at lowes to cut the wood for us to sizes listed on the cut list!  Once we got home we got to work reading and re reading instructions.

We laid out all the pieces, sprayed ourselves from head to toe with mosquito repellent, because let face it we live in Miami, in which the mosquitoes loves this Latin blood in my veins.

We jigged we glued and we screwed it all together, and you know what.....we had fun, we really enjoyed it!  Oh boy what a can of worms that is, I already have eyes on about 25 other plans on her site for my house.  

Here are some action shots and the obligatory beer shot from that day.

Great Beer by the way, we got it at whole foods, nummy nummy.

You know what?! It came out great! Wanna see???

I'm so stinkin happy with this chair its not funny! now we only have four more pieces to build.  But the best part of this whole thing is that the chair only cost us $17 in material....yes $17.  And the Kreg Jig only cost us $39, and I KNOW we will be using it alot from now on, so it was soooo worth the money.  Not only that, be it took us exactly 1 and a half hours to put it together.  Isn't that awesome! We still need to stain it and make some cushions for them, but that will come soon.

Sorry Im a bit excited, maybe it was the two cups of coffee today.....lol

So if you haven't seen Ana's site, or you feel like it may be too much. GO AND CHECK IT OUT, its a must, and trust me, if clumsy me can put it together so can you!

I will post the additions as we go.

Hugs and Kisses,

Ivette

 

He's Turning 3.....(Sob....)

Time goes by so quickly, my little man will be 3 in a couple of weeks, and I'm ecstatic because I get to play with my new Silhouette, but I'm also sad because hes no longer a little baby.

So I wanted to show you all what I have been working on this week.  I found the cutest website called Lala Land Crafts .  We already knew little man wanted a pirate theme as his FAV cartoon is Jake and the Neverland Pirates, not to mention he also walks around all day saying Awww Coconuts! and Arrrrr Matey!.....lol gotta love him. :)



And lets face it Momma loves the pirate rock!

Ok Enough rambling, So I bought the Pirate Luca Digi Stamp.  Isn't he just the cutest thing!

                             

See Little Mans hand in there trying to grab one while I'm snapping the photo.

So I started making his invites for our big ol friends and family.  Hopefully, I will finish them all this weekend so that I can show you guys the finished product.  And also some of the other ideas I have for the party.

So other than that, I'm almost completely over the pinched nerve in my neck, YAY!  and Ive been getting back to the Cleaning, Cooking, Washing, and Folding that backed up on me while I was out of commission....BOOOO!

Just on a side note, anyone have any ideas on how else to get your kids to eat veggies, I can sneak puree of Carrots, Zucchini, sweet potato, butternut squash and spinach into him, but pretty much everything else is a no go.  Ive even resorted to smothering it cheese or homemade white sauce, but still no luck.  Maybe I can replace the veggies he wont eat with a fruit that will give him the same nutrients?  What do you guys think.  Needing some advice :)

Hugs and Kisses,

Ivette

The Lights Are on But No One is Home

Ok so I promised a couple of projects this week and I mean to deliver. Last night I worked on my "As-Is" lamp from Ikea here. I got it for $19 can you believe it!? Originally $59. It was missing a harp and a shade. But hey I can work with that. Here it is in all its glory when I bought it.

And so I got started on it by, wrapping the post on the interior of the lamp that house the electrical cord.

Then i ceaned out the inside with a damp cloth and let it dry. Next I started spraying it with my fav new product the Looking Glass Spray from Krylon :)

Two coats and I was in love. The shade is just for pic purposes, I plan on getting it anther one. But I wanted you guys to get the full effect.

Hope you enjoyed this little tutorial. Now get out there and give it a try :)

Hugs and Kisses,
Ivette

p.s. Im linking up to Tidy Mom and

Loving Mood Boards

I just wanted to share with you guys a mood board I have been working on for our family room. I made it on Olio Board, great website, you can even upload your own photos. I am loving grey walls and bright accent colors lately, blues, green, yellow, and even a dash of purple.

I own a couple of items on this board, such as the Kivik Sofa in white (which btw not a great idea with a 2.5 year old...lol), I also have the light teal lamp which I purchased at Lowes for $19 what a steal, and a DIY drum shade hanging from the ceiling.

So left on the list to complete the room:
Complete the nesting tables found here
Recover two accent chairs I recently purchased
Get the new cover for the sofa
Diy my own chevron area rug
Diy me some of those yummy pillows
And finally some black and white canvas photos for the wall behind the sofa

So what do you guys think, I would love some imput and maybe advice.

Upcoming This Week

I thought I would give you guys a run down of the projects in our home for this week before we started them, and some before pictures to look at.

First I bought this set of solid mohogany nesting tables at a thrift store this past Saturday for $20, can you believe it? Its in great shape with the exception of the top of the first table which has a glazed piece of leather on the top, that someone used as a stamp pad.....lol cant wait to make it over :)

Than, before the trip to the thrift was a trip to ikea to grab some pretty white these babies, at a steal!

They are the Ritva in 118" see our ceilings are 9' high and it was impossible for this cheapo girl to find curtains that didn't cost me a small fortune, that is until I saw these babies, and the come with stitch witchery to hem them perfectly! how awesome is that!?

While there we always walk by the as is section, I always score something I can use, the last time we went I found our Malm dresser in the brown black color, and its perfect for our bedroom for $75. This time I found this pretty pretty lamp for $19 originally $60, we tested it, it worked and I brought it home YAY! Cant wait to dress this one up.

Then we have a recipe for a cake that we tried and was absolutely awesome.

And finally the hubs is planning on a photo tutorial for you guys, on lighting and settings. I'm in the learning process too so it will be good to be able to go over it.

And know I probably through a couple of other posts in for good measure along the way.

So thats this week, hope you will follow along :)

Hugs and kisses,

Ivette

Hookin Up with HoH

Just a little post to let you know tomorrow I will be Hookin Up at HoH on my DIY Antique Mirror.  Hope to see you there :)

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

So remember when I told you guys I was working on something crafty here, well I had been waiting for part of my supplies to come in the mail.  And I finally received it.  Krylon "Looking Glass Spray".  I first saw it on The Nate Show.  And I thought how awesome is that?  So it came in the mail today, and I started on my project.

First I prepped and painted the Ikea Ung Drill Frame I purchased with Rustoleum Gloss Pure White.

Then I cleaned and dried the glass for the frame and sprayed it with the Krylon "Looking Glass"
here is before the spray.

And here is after three coats. Hanging over our entry table just so we can show you what it looks like now.  The lighting in the garage was not the greatest.

I love the antique look it gives to the glass and there is still one more thing I am waiting on to give it a personal touch, which should be getting here sometime today.

And then Hopefully I will be able to show you the completed project and where its permanent home will be.

Pizza Pizza Pizza!!

This weekend we did alot of repairing the big hole in the side of the house.  Thanks to my Dad and the Hubs they patched the hole pretty well and repainted so it looks like it never happened.

Other than that we made homemade pizza crust and pizzas for dinner.  I made a whole wheat crust from this recipe Pizza Crust Recipe came out awesome!

I made a spinach tomato and garlic pizza, on the whole wheat crust, and the hubs made a peruvian pizza....heheh he loves spicy food so he wanted to pay homage to his heritage.  He made a grilled chicken tomato and red onion pizza.

He sauted the chicken in aji amarillo paste, salt and pepper, and garlic, and then browned it and set it to the side, and then sauteed up some red onions and tomatoes in aji amarillo paste and salt until they where soft.  Then he layered sauce, chicken, italian shredded, cheddar shredded, and then the sauteed onions and tomatoes.

Me and little man had a couple of slices of the spinach and tomato and the Hubs ate his Spicy little number.  I tasted it and it was really good!  Gotta add that to our rotation :)

Well hope you guys had a great, restful or productive weekend as well!

Hugs and kisses,
Ivette

Monday Morning Weekend Recap

So Here goes our little recap of what we did this weekend.  I made a fresh batch of my carrot cake muffins with cream cheese frosting (yummy!) at the request of my momma.  I make these alot for my little man, and I can rarely get him to eat his veggies.  Don't get me wrong I still put them on his plate and try to get him to eat them.  But when all else fails I sneak it into the regular food so he doesn't know what hit him :) 

Recipe as follows:

1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour

1/2 cup sugar in the raw

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1 egg white

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking flour

3 small organic carrots shredded into the batter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp Cinnamon

Combine all dry ingredients, then add oil, eggs and carrots.

Bake at 375 for about 12-15 mins depending on your oven.

I usually bake for 9 then check and adjust. 

I have also used the same batter for Zucchini muffins.

The frosting is as follows:

1/2 block of Organic Cream Cheese

1/4 Cup Organic Powdered Sugar

1 cap full of vanilla extract

Then I moved on to make the hubs, little man, and I snack for the week, I am on major major diet, so this consisted of hard boiled eggs and string cheese and bananas for Moi.  And Trail mix for the hubs and little man.

Half bag of bittersweet chocolate chunks

1 container of pumpkin seeds

1 container of freeze dried pineapple chunks

half of bag of coconut flakes

i bag of almond slivers

and 2 cups of granola

Supppppeerrr Duuuupppperrrr Yumm!

My hubs Fav mix so far

Then well prepared for the week ahead, we tackled our first home project of the weekend.  Our shared office had no light fixture.  We bought a 3 year old house that had been in foreclosure for 3 years (practically brand new) and it had NOOO light fixtures....lol except for the occasional pot light.  So slowly we have been adding lights here and there, or making lighting on the cheap. This is what it looked like until Saturday.

So we thought about what we wanted to hang there.  We are planning on painting the walls a nice rich Grey so that the hubs awesome photography will pop, and so will my white Ikea shelves.

The hubs only request was that I please not make the room too girly.  Sooooo I remembered we had a Ikea Knappa pendant light.  And thought that would make the hubs happy not too girly, but still white and clean looking for my suppa modern hubs. So we got to work. 

Striping the cord on the light.

Reveling the electrical wiring.

Stripping the coating from the two wires.

And then connecting it to the wiring in the ceiling, and adding the cap we bought from Lowes.

So what do you think? I'm also planning on getting some Green and White Geometric pattern fabric and DIYing my own curtains for our HUGE Window.  Check this out, its almost the entire length of the wall and has that arch at the top.....lol talk about design challenges...lol

Yes thats our little man doing his usual....lol he has a little play area under the window so when we are in here he can keep up company.

Well that was it for this past weekend. This week I hope to paint some thrift store frames for us to use for prints around the house, and making the little man a blackboard for his room.  

Ivette