Crazy!!! So many things to do. I should be sleeping right now but I'm so happy I'm almost done with Chloe's party decorations. I hope the weather is nice this weekend (at least no snow!) but it is mainly indoors. Some people have rsvp'ed but maybe like 4 out of 20... Ray is sure they're going to show up (the other 16 are his family) but mainly our friends are going to be there, which is the people that Chloe knows most.

I've taken so many pictures of my work on the decor!! I may post everything in one go....

I still need to buy plates, tablecloth, trash bags, soda, juice...

Btw, it is all ladybug with a daisy here and there...

I also joined The Toy Society, as if I need more things to do! But I would like to do it, I make so many plushies and Chloe doesn't need more but I can't stop.... so I'm going to give them away every time I make one that I know I can say good bye to and hope it'll get a good home... I think I'll drop it around Lafayette after Chloe's birthday.

G'night!

After having french toast for breakfast (Ray used is chef skills) we got ready and went garage sale shopping. Only 3 this time, now that summer is done and getting colder maybe this will be the last weekend for them. But by mid day it got hot and we came back home. I bought some earrings and a necklace but I forgot to take a picture.




The decanter was $2 and the cake plate $1, the buddha watch is big like I use them and I had to have it $1.



Lovely gold wood frame for $1 and a white/gold mirror that in this picture looks like another frame $1.50. Now the picture tray is one of the items I love most! For $1.50 and dark chocolate color and the blue is what I'm decorating now adays. Perfect for the coffee table and to serve drinks with!!


Ray followed Chloe who followed me to the bedroom where I was taking pictures, then they were just playing there. The glass containers shown here are from a set of 14. I just took pairs to show the different sizes the came in $3. The white fish plate was so cute that is the only reason I bought it $0.25. The asian plate has a daisy (which is my name) $0.50. The white plate was adorable I wish they had more than just the one and I loved it more because of the silver medallion you see under the fish. Check the next picture!



Can you see how lovely they look together? It's going to be used like this after I glue it and hang on the wall (of our new place!)



This is new! Still has the tags and plastic. Picnic cheese set for two $0.50! Such a steal! Great for next year's summer outings, I'll get Chloe a Hello Kitty set later.

Talking about Chloe, while I was taking pictures she just wanted to grab and we with me. Ray got in his boxers and started playing with his gameboy (he bought a new game)  and Chloe just kept jumping him to get to me.



( More Chloe pictures... )

Now that we may have a house (we do the inspection next friday) I'm going to do Chloe's birthday there. I thought maybe we would have to do it at her grandma's, but we'll see (the new place needs new floors, I don't want carpet and then the moving part....)

I'm stuck on theme:
Ladybugs or Monkeys?

Her second name means ladybug but she is our chunky monkey. It depends what I like more too, and how she is going to dress.

Halloween is coming up too and I already choose to dress her as a monkey.

Maybe I'll do ladybugs for her b-day and that way she doesn't have two events that are almost the same (she was born on oct. 28th.)

Soooooo.......

The past couple of hours instead of looking at ideas for our new place I looked for b-day stuff and I found Lauren Meader. Her blog is full of inspiration, and she sells this cool templates but I can't decide yet which one I'm going to use. I still have time until her day comes but this year has been so fast (a year, a year!!) I can't believe it!

Chloe is crawling, travel walking, hitting, whining, she sleeps all night, her first tooth hasn't made an appearance.... so many things.

Well, here is another before and after.
I had already posted about this mirror before and now I'm just showing the details that are very note worthy. I glued the parts that had fallen off and when I took the backing off I discovered something that made me pause. There is a stamp/carving that says the company and date 1934! I felt bad to paint it and took me an extra day to finally do it.



I used Ralph Lauren Aegan blue semi gloss. Funny story, I went to home depot and they couldn't find the mix to make it and then they couldn't find 1/4 base so they made me a gallon for the price of a 1/4! Don't be surprised if you see many before and afters in this color.



At first it was just blue, but Ray nor my mother liked it that simple, they said it was missing something, too plastic. I liked it, but peer pressure and all.  So I used the same antique gold rub paint that I used for the chest legs and now they are happy wiht the result... and me too.



I know this aren't great pictures but I tried so many angles and this were the best I could do.

Now is Chloe's Toy crib. I bought it 3 months ago for $2 at a thrift store, Ray didn't want me to get it but I did anyway and now is the girlyest thing she has in her room. I bought her some daisy kingdom dolls, I love their faces and also because their eyes are painted and not those plastic eyeball eyes the open and close (they freak me out! Those kind of eyes remind me of Chucky!). Sorry I don't have a before picture, I started painting it and I forgot, but it took me 6 coats of paint to cover all the curves and make it this deep chocolate color. I re-padded the mattress with left over filling and fabric.





When we move to our new place I'm changing Chloe's room decor and when that happens the toy crib will have the same coordination as Chloe's bed.

Jack (black scotty) and Guero (orange cat) had to be in the pic with the dolls. I'm super allergic now to cats and dogs and this are the kind I had and wish I could have again.

Chloe has a horrible cough since tuesday, and today she is at the peek of her sickness. Well that is what I hope.
Ray is leaving work early so he can stay with her while I go to work. I don't want to but I already asked and they can't cover my clients, plus the state is doing test today.
The only good thing about today is that I get paid (yay!) and last night our realtor told us our offer got accepted. FINALLY! This is the seventh house we had put an offer on. Buyer's market my ass,  the banks are so picky on what you buy and houses are bought like hot cake by flippers that is very hard to get anything in the area that we want...any area. Plus our realtor and broker suck, big time!

I have a new before and after that I'll post later.

Amazon, I can find anything in Amazon, and yes I would share it with family and friends, what with the holidays coming up and all.

I bought this Lane Cedar Chest that is 50 years old. The veneer was peeling of at the top and back from water damage, I think someone spilled soda on it, and the lock was not child safe and I went to Lane's website to get a free replacement (very fast shipping).



I wanted a chest since before I got married and I was looking for a big one for the bottom of our bed. When I saw this chest I had to have it. I paid for it and had to come back a later time to pick it up because it wouldn't fit with Chloe's car seat in the car. Heavy too!! Now that I had it I wanted to match with the headboard as close as I could and Joann's had a 50% sale (Got 2 and half yards and same for padding). After 15 different fabric samples, ones of different texture and color, I choose this faux dark brown leather that was very similar to our headboard's fabric (even though in the picture the headboard looks black). Then last week I got very sick and I went to urgent care on sunday, where they gave me oxygen and medicine to fight an allergy attack that had made my lungs fill with sputum. I'm still getting rid of it.
Finally yesterday I got in action and finished the chest. In total I spent $50 in material and counting the chest I spent less that $100 to have the chest of a lifetime, because YES!! this is staying until I die.
BTW the legs are from an ottoman I bought for $5, and bought only because I liked the legs which I had the idea at first to install on a small bookcase I have but I'm loving them like this!!!




( More after pictures and open chest! )

Chloe had to be in the picture!! She wanted to grab the chest but the angle came out weird so I got her in the bed, real quick! She wanted to go to the edge.




( Step by step and leg details. )
Sorry for the lack of decoration in our room, we are buying a house and we have almost everything in boxes ready to move. Also, do you see the lamps? They're the ones I got at the garage sale for $5 the pair!

This is not my first furniture makeover but it is my first re-upholstery!!



( Check my step by step!! )
Finished at 9:58 pm 8-23-09. Chloe had been crying for half an hour already but I just wanted to be done with it.



( Another view of the chair... )

Yesterday was laundry day. It always surprises me how much clothes Chloe uses in a week; Ray's and my hampers are full of uniforms and some extras here and there but Chloe's is always a load and half or two.

Ray has sundays and Mondays and I have weekends, so he comes with me to work, taking care of Chloe. After we went to this antique mall "Serendipidy" I found like a month ago but we haven't gone to yet and yesterday we finally did:

There were a lot of pretty things (pricey, but reasonable) and we saw this and had to take a picture!



Ray bought this wood plate with a gold painted buddha for $18. It wasn't a price I like but if he likes it I'm okay with it. And this brass figure for $12.



Today is my mother's birthday so we also went to the Flatirons Mall and bought her two pairs off shoes one by Jessica Simpson and the other are Gianni.



I hope they fit, they're both size 6 but she is 5.5 and we couldn't find smaller size. We also got her this Bebe dress shirt made of blue silk and links hanging in the V neck.



At Bebe I saw this bag and I had to have it!! Lovely olive green color with ruffles, there was another one the same color but different shape, like a bowling bag, but this on is bigger (which is the kind I like) and everything that I carry will fit with no problem.



Ray had a face of no but  he let me get it, I love him so much, more so for even going with me to the mall because he didn't want to and after buying the shoes I made him walk more (to the other side of the mall) to get to Bebe. plus he was the one dealing with Chloe, who was sleepy and hungry and cranky.

Had a great time buying at garage sales today!! Big haul!!

Ray was very nice today and woke up early with me (he woke me up!) and we got Chloe ready for some shopping. But we did go to mc'd for breakfast first, which was a bad idea because we were nauseous for a while.
Chloe had a nice time, she was wearing her bronco jersey (they lost) which makes her look like a boy.




Anyway, yesterday I saw a Estate Sale sign and we headed over there to see if they were still doing it. We got lost but we found it! There were so many goodies but I was just looking for wood toys to Chloe's collection ( I don't let her play with them yet, because of lead paint from the yesteryear's).

I found a toy trunk for Chloe's room for $2! Looks from the sixties. I'm going to keep it like this (but clean it) until I know which fabric I'm going to use to give it a new look.



They gave us this vintage brown faux leather high chair for free!




We got this Sonnet fine china gold rimmed for 8 people for $10, has dinner plates, dessert plates, bowls, creamer, sugar bowl, serving oval plate, cups and saucers.




Also a silver saucer with plate$2, a silver hotplate$3, a silver handheld mirror (mirror down) $1 and an asian comb and mirror set $2.





And this mirrors, big one for $14 (before $88 but it fell and broke, easy to fix but lost value, whatever) and the small one for $9 (heavy, made of wood). They are gold right now but I'm going to paint them a different color.


Not bought victorian love seat at the flea market for $200, olive green and very sturdy and heavy, needs more padding but great none the less.


Not bought secretary desk at the antique store, on sale for $595 (before $695). Ray is thinking about it, I loved the bull shape pattern on the door. He should offer $300 for it and go from there.




I forgot! this is the loot from saturday!!



In all I spent $46 or so. The girl and boy art was $5 for both and the buddha was $5 (you can see it again reflected on the mirror above).



Flower lamp $0.75, Blue wood jewlry box made in poland $0.25, Buddha bell $1, Metal lady bug lamp $2, Amish doll $2, Asian boy and girl figurines $1 each, Porcelain critter doll $0.50, world $2, Sweden 1978 wood lamp $3, Black metal Holmes electric fan $4, Grape shape glass containers $0.25 each.



Wood carved eagle $2, Milk glass container/vase $0.60, Century old glass cold container $2.50, Cake plate Royal crown Roman Festival fine china $2.50, Sugar cube tong $0.50, set of eight silver shrimp forks $2, one silver fork $0.50, Two bedside lamps $5 for both, Book $0.25,



Cristal wall lamp $2.50, can you see that gold stick on the lower tier? is the lamp top, I had to take it off so I could hang it on the old nail I already had on the wall. I can't have things in the floor anymore, Chloe is an energizer bunny around the house.

The kid stuff, lamps, figurines, that you see is going to Chloe's room decor; the bedside lamps to our room with the small mirror, the other lamps are for the living room (when we get a bigger place, stupid realtor!). Ray still hasn't told me what he wants to do with the other stuff.

Btw the dresser that everything is on I found next to the dumpster, very good condition, I'm going to paint it turquoise. Maybe.

Go check out the party at Southern Hospitality to see smokin' hot deals other people found this weekend.