cicuska

bird collection for the bedroom

flickr

collection of pictures from 2 old calendars. casper helped me arrange them, now i need 12 frames. elyse: i saved all the pictures i didn't use for you!

our first porch tomatoes

 

yum.

vada's room

the sun is out today, so i finally got some shots of the nursery. it was really hard because her room doesn't get that bright and i didn't want to use the flash and make everything look yucky. also, there are still a few missing elements: the crib ruffle (not finished), the mobile (not finished), and a quilt my mom made (finishing the binding). and of course, vada has yet to arrive :) 

anyway, here's a little taste... you can find the rest right here on my flickr! 

i made the crib bumper and sheets

and curtain ties to match

bookshelf

a peek into her wardrobe. SO many clothes. this is just one drawer. AND she has a closet-full.

this is what happens when you have a girl :)

loveseat

i can't wait to see how the room changes as she grows up :) now, if only she would come out to play! don't forget to check out the rest of the shots right here. let me know what you think. also, any suggestions on photographing interiors would be awesome. 

[ images by me <3 ]

a sneaky peek into vada's nursery

if we ever have a sunny day again, i'll be able to photograph the whole room. until then, here's a little taste:

i'm obviously trying to bribe her out with toys. ;)

[ my images <3 ]

make your own dryer sheets?!

i just learned about this on apartmenttherapy... i can't believe i've never heard of this before!

soak a hand towel in liquid fabric softener. wring it out. let it dry. throw it in your dryer! supposedly you can use this one towel for up to 40 loads. i'm never buying dryer sheets ever again!

nesting dolls for vada

i just bought these super cute russian nesting dolls for vada's nursey on etsy. 

i love them! vada's room is inspired by this super cute matryoshka fabric, which will be featured on her crib bumper. (my mom and i are making her bedding <3)

we can't begin setting up the nursery until may- after one of our roomies moves out and after we have the upstairs hardwood floors refinished! hopefully we will have acquired most of the furniture and baby stuff by then, and we will just have to put it all together... bc she is scheduled to arrive on approximately june 6th! SO EXCITED <3

[ images from etsy and flickr <3 ]

coming soon: a new kitchen

ahhh... our disgusting kitchen. it's the worst room in the house, and probably a huge reason we got such a deal when we purchased our home! here's the only "before" picture i can find, taken the first day we moved in. sexy!

it's gotten better since this picture was taken- a new range thanks to mom and a new fridge thanks to the inlaws, greg kind of painted it, and those curtains came down, but that's about it. the whole thing is a hodgepodge of randomness. for example, that "base cabinet" on the left of the stove is actually a dresser with a countertop on top of it! you get the idea. 

with little vada quickly on her way, we need a dishwasher, for real. screw hand washing a million bottles and stuff. plus, we just need a dishwasher. (and a garbage disposal. before i moved to roanoke, i thought all sinks just came with one... it's been 5 years since i've had one and i NEED IT!!!) in order to have a dishwasher in or kitchen, based on the way it is currently / idiotically set up, we have to just re-do the whole thing. whatever, it needs to be done anyway.

so we had a contractor friend come out and give us some ideas on how we should set everything up. he measured and drew up a plan! (about a year ago i measured our kitchen and drew a plan to scale, and it just so happens that his plan is pretty much exactly the same as my plan, so that makes me smart and cool.)

the only thing i'm unsure about with this layout is the sink being all the way at the end of the counter, right next to the door. is that weird? he said he was just trying to give us maximum open counter space (of which we currently have zero) and i appreciate that, but i'm still unsure. is a sink at the end allowed? help me out. the little weird area between the back door and the window is a radiator.. we will most likely do open shelving over that. 

i knew i wanted white cabinets, but other than that i didn't have a lot of direction until i found my inspiration kitchen!

obviously my kitchen won't magically morph into a huge space with a million windows and stuff, but i really like the feel of this one. since we are on a really tight budget, we are probably going to go with laminate cabinets. i love the pretty knobs and pulls pictured; i will be getting a million of these (i think) from anthropologie once elyse can get them at 40% off. depending on the cost, i would loooove to do a really dark grey granite countertop like in the picture, or a walnut stained butcher block type like the one on the island. we'll see. we are going to do that click-together type laminate flooring, something that goes with the rest of the wood floors in our house. i would love that huge apron front style sink, but unless i can find one in perfect condition on craigslist or at the habitat store, they're WAY out of our budget. we will probably go with an undermount double bowl stainless sink, or maybe a pretty white ceramic one. i haven't decided. they have those at the habitat store all the time for cheap! definitely a really pretty faucet with a pull out sprayer thing, and a super intense garbage disposal. mom and dad are getting us a dishwasher for my birthday, stainless to match the stove and fridge. and as far as the backsplash goes, i really like the limestone brick backsplash in the picture! i'm not sure how much that stuff goes for, but that will be done last anyway, by greg. :)

so that's it. what do you think? i'm really excited. hopefully we will be able to finalize all of our decisions by the beginning of next month and the kitchen will be done in april! I CAN'T WAIT

i finally took pictures of my xmas tree

and it's been up since 2 weeks before thanksgiving...

whatever i had the itch. anyway here are some pics!

(you can click any of the pictures and it will take you to my christmas 2008 set on flickr.)

ta da! luckily cica (kitty) only tried to destroy it for about a week so it's not too messed up :)

[ photos by me <3 ]

$85. so?

<3

[image from spoonsisters.com]

lazy weekend

yesterday greg and i did nothing. we lounged around, watched tv, took a nap... i measured our living room and dining room; still working on furniture / layout decisions. i got the swatches from crate and barrel and i've decided on the sofa for the living room:

now i keep changing my mind about what i want to do in the dining room. (actually i know what i want, but i can't have it) i got the fabric for my curtains in there but it looks terrible! what looked like a darker red color to me on my computer actually turned out to be fuscia, the green was lime green, etc. a very pretty fabric but not for my dining room. UGH. i have commitment issues when it comes to decor. i'm really really picky and if something isn't exactly right it drives me insane.

anyway, i added a zillion new blogs to my blogroll, so check those out. i'm off to find some yard sales and stuff <3