Spring Break... :)

Twelve years ago we met a girl that would change our lives:)

She came to us a foreign exchange student and left as our daughter.

We all seriously adore this girl.

We've continued to keep in touch, and

this week she came for a visit and brought along her 

sweet little family.

I love this pic of my brother giving her a big ole hug

when he saw her last night:)

We've been so blessed to see this girl graduate high school, college,

become a doctor, get married and have the most

adorable little baby girl.

So I know I said I was going to post about the details of my bedroom,

but that all fell apart with this sweetness in the house:)

I get to spend my spring break with my family

planning meals...

 Cooking 'em up...

 And chowing down to the sounds of lots and

lots of laughing:)

Me sooo happy!

Oh! and guess who turns the big 8 today??

Yep, this sweet lil adorable frenchman was born on March 25. 

This guy too.... changed my life:)

As promised.... :)

Ok. So here's what happened.

I took all these pics of the upstairs and loaded them on

my computer. Because I'm a clean freak (emphasis on the freak)

I always delete them from my camera after loading them.

Weeell then I deleted them somehow from my 

computer:( I seriously have no idea how that happened, I mean

I've got mad computer skills.....no I don't. I have no computer skills.

Well thank the good Lord above that Trevor Smith just happened

to have taken these pics for me!! He came to shoot the kitchen for 

Denovo, and I asked if he'd shoot the upstairs.

Whew!!

So here we go.

These are the beautiful old doors that we salvaged from the

downstairs when we did the kitchen reno. They're tall 

and skinny and absolutely adorable:)

When you walk past those doors, the closet is on the

left, and the master bath to the right.

The entire upstairs is painted Benjamin Moore Hush. The trim
and cabinetry is....you guessed it! Swiss Coffee:)
I still need something above the toilet, and curtains
or a roman shade on the window.

The hanging light is from FOUND and I found the sconces
at Pottery Barn and they were a perfect match!
The rug is from Home Goods.

I searched high and low for the perfect mirror and couldn't find one,
so we just went with a very inexpensive plain one and trimmed it out.

The marble in here is my new favorite!! It's called Divinity or Frosted White. It's got more
 tannish goldish streaks in it, where

carrerra marble goes more grey.

I really wanted wall mount faucets. The hubby came up
with this design and Chrissy at Custom Stone Works worked her magic:) 

Speaking of magic.... this is where it all happens.
And by magic I mean BLACKOUT curtains!!
Yep. I found these lovelies at Pottery Barn.
Seriously, you close them and... presto! morning never appears:)
I may or may not have woken up to my hubby eating lunch
on more that one occasion:)

Ok and now is probably the time to address the...gasp! ceiling fan.
I live in ARIZONA. And I'd rather die a thousand deaths then go a summer
without one. Oh wait, I do die a thousand deaths every summer....

Ugh. The TV. Or as my mom referred to it my entire childhood- the beast.
One of these days ima gonna have the hubby recess that thing
into the wall so I can cover it with a picture of....anything.
Anything is better than that black square of ugly.

So that's what I got so far.
I'll take more pics and talk the details
next week!! 

As promised..... kinda:)

So let us take a trip upstairs:) 

The upstairs of this house had been an apartment since

the 70's. The entrance was at the bottom of the stairs

onto the front porch.

We removed the door and added an old

salvaged window that matched

the others in the house.

When we removed the disgusto carpet on the stairs,

we found these beautiful old green painted steps underneath!!

Yeah, you can just imagine my face!

Like I've said before, I swear I used to live here in another life:)

So at the top of the stairs, we made a little library out of what was

once a teeny tiny bedroom. We removed the wall where the

staircase railing is now to open it up and add some much needed

light into this little space:)

This is where my green recliners ended up. I almost sold them! I couldn't

figure out where to put them at first and I was in one of my- 

just get rid of it! times in my life. So happy the hubby talked some sense into me:)

He's always the voice of reason when I'm having a fit of crazy.

Speaking of crazy.... I clearly have a design book problem. 

I can't help it! I LOVE to look at pretty pictures!!

Then there's my old green book problem....

Oh my goodness, just look at my 17 year old self in that frame! 

Tan, 110 pounds, and a perm....

And hubby's 'stache!! We just celebrated 27 years on March 6th:) 

Oh the memories.....

Ok, back to what we're really talking about here.

This is the other side of the tiny room, and this is where you 

can find my hubby on most nights. 

 This shelf of books are totally him:)

So because I know inquiring minds will want to know...

The curtains and table are from World Market. I don't think 

they carry the table anymore:(

The green recliners are from La Z Boy.

The floor lamp is from Target.

The table lamp is from Home Goods.

The hubby made the wood shelves out of the wall we 

took down when we opened up the staircase:)

Next week- the Master Bedroom and Bath.

I promise:)

                                               

Running and waffles.... :)

Soo...Saturday morning I was startled awake by my son yelling

"They're already running!!"

I bolted out of bed.

You see, the Phoenix Marathon runs right down the middle of our street!!

It's the coolest thing EVER!! I  ran out of the house sans make up,

coffee and a bra. Apparently I found it more important to support

complete strangers than my boobs.
Seriously. I couldn't believe myself.
I was just so excited!!

After a cup of coffee, and hiding for a half hour behind this most awesomest sign

that Rio made... I ran home and fixed the problemo:)

I live in the best hood ever. Really I do!! A lot of the neighbors 

came out, rang cow bells and cheered on those crazy runners!!

My friend who has no idea how to play the trumpet... played it anyway!!

Seriously hilarious:)

By the time the runners got to our street, we were about mile 22.

It was the most inspiring sight to see:)

We cheered and rang our cow bells for over 3 hours.

I lost my voice, and had blisters to prove it,

but man! was it a fun time in the neighborhood!!

Check out this guy. Serious focus. Serious muscles.

Bet he don't eat waffles....

 Nice segue eh? 

This Saturday we here at Project Beautify are going to have our

first open house! The sweet gals at Waffle Love are going to

be serving up some scrumptiousness from their

adorable waffle truck!!

So come check out Rio's adorable 1942 early ranch style house!!

Yep, it's on the market and ready for it's happy new owners!!

Waffles and a house tour??

YES PLEASE!!

Saturday March 8th

11am-3pm

226 North Robson

in historic downtown Mesa:)

** the first 50 people get a treat!!

It all started with.... :)

This adorable old green chair.... I bought it at 

The Old Brick House Vintage Market that happens once a month

in downtown Mesa.

I walked in, saw it, and was immediately smitten:)

I mean come on! look at the color??

It HAD to be mine:)

Well after getting it home, I looked around and realized..

I really needed to balance out all this green.

I haven't been able to decide what exactly I wanted to do for curtains in 

the front room. I still had the oatmeal ones from the previous owner, and they

always gave me the worst case of the drabs:(

Then I remembered I had bought this Tatiana curtain panel at World Market

to show someone else for their house. Weeell, I hung it up and 

LOVED the way the blue worked so well with all my green!!
I might add a liner to them for thickness, but for now-
and for the price ($31.49 a panel!) they're working!!

Who knew I could love blue?? :)

I think it's just what all my green needed!!

I went over and raided Rio's pillow cover stash and brought

home the blue chevron and ikat prints:)

I KNOW what you're thinking....

how in the world do you see the TV over that crazy fern??

Haha!! Apparently not just my furniture is green, 

my thumb is too!! It's going to have to find a new home soon,

it spent the last few weeks on the floor while the

Olympics were on:)

I'm hoping to show you all the upstairs next week!

And after examining this pic, someone needs to clean 

some risers...!!
Man! I wish that someone was Little Bully....  :)

Spring Green.... :)

Spring is in the air!! At least here in AZ it is...

With temps hovering around gorgeous,

the springtime weather in Arizona is heaven! You can eat your dinners outside,

ride your bike for forever, and enjoy pretty flowers.

I could do this everyday for the rest of my life...

Or until June:(

Anyway.... let's just take a moment and enjoy the beauty that is

staring back at you...

How beeeautiful are these green ball jars!!

I have the best Tuesday followers ever:)

Thank you, thank you to Karen M who emailed me to 

let me know about these cuties!

These are the new Heritage Collection in Spring Green:)

I ordered them online from the Fresh Preserving Store, but

just like the blue ones, I'm sure they'll be in Target and WalMart

before long.

I use ball jars for drinking glasses. I also use them to store my rice, 

beans, pastas and such:) 

And especially for flowers:)

Look at the word on the bottom.....

Yep, PERFECTION:)

Project Beautify.... :)

So you all know how I have this thing for old houses right?

How I love them to pieces and dream of restoring each and every one?

For the rest of my life?

Well luckily...I'm not alone. Yep. My entire adorable family

shares this same wacky dream of mine.

So we decided to put all our crazy (to put it gently) heads together

and make it happen!!

So let me introduce you to the team at Project Beautify:)

Chase- Rio's bf who (God bless him) had no idea the craziness he was walking into

when he started dating Rio 6 years ago!! He's our realtor and sniffer of deals.

Rio- Where to start with this girl? She can do EVERYTHING. I'm not even kidding. She can use power tools, bake amazing cupcakes, and sew just about anything. She heads up our creative arts dept. and by that I mean logo, website, pr, and all things tech!

Ryne- I mean come on! Is he gorgeous or what?? He's our model. Just kidding. Ryne is just like his daddy. This boy can create, create, create! He's our master hood maker and can, well- pretty much make anything!!

Me- hmmm, what do I do? Well, I guess I'm the dreamer....I look at the houses and dream of what they could look like! I get to pick paint, tile, wood, counter tops, appliances etc.

Roger (the hubby)- He's the brains in it all. The guy knows what he's doin' I tell ya! 

He's our visionary- big picture guy, and truly the one that heads up this dream:) 

I just thought I'd show you how many stinkin times it took to get the right picture.... UGH!!

Ok, back to Project Beautify. 

So I know you all know this is my hood in my kitchen.

And you know that I love it....

Sooo, we here at Project Beautify are going to share that love!!

That's right!! Ryne made this hood and we are 

GIVING IT AWAY!! 

Just go follow us on Instagram at

project_beautify

and share this pic and tag us for a chance to win it!!

And to keep sharing this love,

for the week of February 11-18 you can purchase

one of Ryne's hand crafted wood hoods for 35% off!

Just enter the promo code Tuesdays35 at checkout!!

I'm hoping to post pics of some of our current homes we have going soon!

I can't WAIT to show you!!