NEW Diningroom - more tales from the home improvement phase.

As promised - here are pics of my completed diningroom.  This was the last room completed prior to my husband returning from deployment, and by far, the WORST project.

Started with absolutely horrifying vomit green walls...the kind of color that can only be conquered by gallons and gallons and gallons of heavy covering primer.  Walls and ceiling.  The geniuses that lived in this house before liked to live in a drab, dark cave it seems. 

So about 5 gallons of primer and two coats of paint later (nevermind the drama of clinging like a spider monkey to the ceiling and ladder to paint around the ceiling fan, since the previous owners puttied the fan cover to the ceiling.) and a lot of new accessories, I finally had a diningroom I wanted to eat in.

I updated my antique mahoghany sideboard with a little copper

foiling and some new hardware, it absolutely glows in the late

afternoon sun!

The stenciling on the pushouts came out great and it was super

easy to do.  I used the darkest color of the three on the stencils to give it some contrast.

And found these amazing enameled wrought iron wall hangings at Gordmans, which I used to accented the casing wall, as well as over the inspiration piece; the Felix Mas seriagraph.  We picked the picture up on our honeymoon and the framing is very Art Deco.  Looks amazing with the new linens and rug.                        

I was able to extend my dining table to its full length (can seat 10), and couldn't believe how large the room really is.  I guess that vomit color threw off my spacial recognition.

Such a brighter, happier room.  Even if Thor thinks it looks "pinkish".  hahaha.

And in my looooooong absence....

Hi there!  I know....I know....where have I been?  What have I been doing?!!  Why haven't I been posting about anything.

Well, as with most things...life kinda snuck up on me, got extremely crazed for awhile, and then if by miracle...suddenly cleared.

Top news tidbits -

1.  My house is done.  Finished the diningroom up a couple weeks ago.  Look for a separate post on that coming in the next couple of days.

2.  Fall shows have started in full swing.  Am booked up solid until beginning of December.  Check out here for a list of my shows until the end of the year.  Am adding a couple more soon...who needs to sleep?

3.  Hubby is HOME!!!  After many months deployed in Afghanistan, he is home safely.  *happy wife dance*

4.  Mini- vacay planned to KC next weekend.  Will be sure to post pics, etc. from that.  Possible Ren-faire action too.

5.  2 weeks until my next show which is incidentally my LAST outdoor show of the season.  Pray for me for good weather.  And rejoice with me that my special helper (hubby) is back to help with the heavy lifting.

6.  New web design is coming SOON!!  I will post some mock ups if I can (in my limited computer brillance) figure out how.  May need to send up a "I'm stupid, HELP!" SOS to big bro to help out with that, dear readers.

And that's all I can think of right now.  Hopefully that will tide you over for a bit whilst I get the pics in order for the separate post on my diningroom re-design...which I promise will be up by tomorrow.

Thanks for hanging in with me during my absence...and feel free to pimp me out to all the cool people you know.  haha...

Toodles,
Leah :-)

Nebraska Balloon & Wine Festival - part 1

So, it's been a coon's age since I posted anything new on here - sorry about that....have been busy prepping for my next 3 shows, which are all outdoor.

First up is the Nebraska Balloon & Wine Festival.

Well, so far I am pretty unimpressed with the promoter.  Packets were extremely late going out - just got my final contract today.  And set-up was supposed to start today at 8am for vendors.  And after dragging my ass out of bed at 6am and hauling my butt as well as 3 very kind helpers to the venue...I was told by said promoter that they were not ready for vendors and to come back tomorrow.

Nevermind that I called to confirm a week ago.

So, worked on some more new stuff in the meantime...and will try it again tomorrow.  A loooooong day to be sure...will be setting up for several hours and then at the show until 11pm.

Will have my camera with me - so will take a bunch of pictures of the new tent booth my husband got me.  Along with my new display set up and packaging.

Told you I wasn't being a slacker in my absence.

Bye for now - part 2 soon!

Home again...home again...jiggety jig - aka. My trip to Keystone

So, some of you may know that I was out of town for the last couple weeks.  And some of you may remember when I was a full time travel agent.  This trip had me pulling my travel agent cap outta storage to be dusted off for the week and change.

Headed to Keystone, CO to play travel agent for Specialized Bicycles annual Dealer Event.

Here are some snapshots I took around the resort...had a difficult time with the altitude so kept to the "lower levels". 

Lots of mountains and water...things I miss from home now that I live dead center in the country.

Enjoy!

I'm dreaming of a warm, sandy VACATION!

It's only a couple months now...until Thor comes home and life returns to blissful normalcy.  Well, until the Air Force decides to deploy him again...but we won't think about that now.

I am dreaming of a loooooong vacation with my husband, a second honeymoon if you will to celebrate him coming home.

Buuuuuuuut....as luck would have it, it looks as though he may be slightly delayed (fingers crossed that doesn't actually happen), and we will have to postpone our vacation for a couple months due to a training class already scheduled.

Photo by eggneckface33

Here's the itinerary I'm hoping the universe will line up to let us have.  I can almost feel the warm sand squishing between my toes.


Saturday,  NEW ORLEANS, LA 4:00pm

Sunday,  FUN DAY AT SEA

Monday,  FUN DAY AT SEA

Tuesday,  BELIZE 8:00am 5:00pm

Wednesday,  ISLA ROATAN 8:00am 6:00pm

Thursday,  COZUMEL, MEXICO 9:00am 5:00pm

Friday,  FUN DAY AT SEA

Saturday,  NEW ORLEANS, LA 8:00am

But hey, even if we have to postpone until November or December - it'll be fine.  We'll figure out something to do as a vacation closer to home.
 
But here's hoping....

I can feel FALL coming on....shop, shop, SHOP

Well...Fall shows anyway. 

Now, normally I do not start planning or designing for Fall shows until late July or early August...but the muse decided to descend early this year.  So for the past week or so I have been having designs in a jumble in my head, swirling around along with colors and textures.

So I had myself a little shopping spree - and decided to share with you some of the colors and textures I have planned for my Fall collections.

So take a peek and see if you can guess what the stones are from the pics.

And I have also been collecting tons of vintage tidbits over the Spring and Summer: stones, costume jewelry and chain that I am excited to add to these new beauties.

New Books - a Saturday stop at Barnes & Noble

This morning the fuzzy horde woke me up an hour before I wanted to open my eyes and so I resigned myself to running my errands bright and early.

The bank, then Petco to get the fuzz people a new cat castle so Pig would stop trying to sharpen his on my bookcases.  And so Munchkin would stop using the rug as a scratching post.  And then to Barnes & Noble to check out some new books.

Found something for both me and Thor - it was a great visit.

For Thor -


 













And for me -