Project Beautify MacDonald.... :)

Say hello to our latest completed project.

This little cutie was born sometime around 1932.

It was love at first sight for us:)

Those windows.....!!!!

And that swoopy roof!

This is how she looked in January when we happily acquired her.

And here she is today!!

Does she look happy or what??!!

Her new beautified swoopy roof:)

Let's just step inside...

Can you see the beauty??

Cove ceilings, original windows, original front door

and......wait for it.......

original hardwood floors underneath that carpet!!

I die over these windows!!

complete with the original adorable hardware!!

Looking from the front door to the dining room and the kitchen beyond....

And now! Look at that gorgeous original built in!!

Here's a better view.

And how bout that cute little space for the telephone!

I can't take it.

Down the hallway...

all original cabinetry:)

...just needed fresh white paint.

The bathroom...

original windows and medicine cabinet.

Let me just say that the shutters were behind the windows! and then 

behind them were metal bars like a jail cell. Weird..

Jail cell be gone!!

I have to say that this bathroom is what really sold me on 

this place. I just knew it could be adorable!!

And last but not least...

the kitchen! Whyyyy is that window covered up???

And now! Such a beautiful bright kitchen by the amazing

peeps over at Denovo Fine Cabinetry 

aka- our family biz:)

We had planned to have an open house so everyone could see this

amazing transformation up close, but MacDonald sold! 

Yep, she sold during demo if you can believe that!

The details:

Exterior paint- 

Body- well, it started out Briarwood by Benjamin Moore but we

wanted it to be more grey so we had it specially tinted:(

Trim- Whisper White by Sherwin Williams

Front door and shutters- French Beret by Benjamin Moore

Interior paint-

Walls- Worldly Grey by Sherwin Williams

Trim- Whisper White by Sherwin Williams

Wishing you all a very Happy and Blessed Easter! 

Check it.... !!! :)

This porch is one of our favorite places to hang out and watch 

the world go by:)

But seriously? How hideous is that floor??!?!!

I've been wanting to paint it ever since I laid eyes on it.

So paint it...we did!!

I went with the colors below-

White Cloud and Woven Willow.

We taped off the edges and rolled on 2 coats of the 

White Cloud. It's a really good creamy color, not

too bright white and not too drab either:)

After that dried, the hubby and my adorable son did the hard part.

Ok, hard for me part! I was seriously absent the day the Lord handed

out patience....

....and math skills

Then we just rolled on 2 coats of the Woven Willow in the

squares that did not have the little square tape:)

trust me, if those little helper squares weren't there this 

girl with no patience would have surely screwed up!!

and OH MY!!

LOOKY!!!!

Yes, there's chips and cracks all over this oldie of a house that

has stolen my heart....but I LOVE them!!

And how lucky that the color Woven Willow is just a tad

darker than my house color!

I've been spending a whole lot of time on that swing,

just watching the grass grow:)

See it back there?? 

Oh man I can't stop walking out there barefoot:)

I best get out there and enjoy what's left of our good weather.

The heat is just around the corner....

waaaaaaa!!!!!

Cruel Crewel.... :)

crew·el

ˈkro͞oəl/

noun

1.                                    1.  a thin, loosely twisted, worsted yarn used for tapestry and embroidery.

2. my most favorite fabric for bedding ever!

cru·el

ˈkro͞oəl/

adjective

1. The real name for the above named beautiful fabric!! :(

Seriously! I've been in love with crewel fabric forever. I think because it has so much texture with the raised embroidery? It's delicious I tell ya, but holy EXPENSIVE batman!!

Crewel is...CRUEL :(  Every stinkin time I would find a duvet that I loved,
it was always waaay more than I wanted to spend. 

Join me in a round of applause for eBay!! or should I say the place where my
daughter Rio finds everything:)

I typed in crewel bedding and...

imagine my excitement when I found this discontinued duvet from Pottery Barn. 

It was less than half of the price of some of the others I was looking at.

Score!!

I was nervous with the blue in it at first, but after adding

all my green (surprise!) pillows, I love it:)

The bedspread is Pine Cone Hill, and it just might be my favorite

thing in this room:)  I love not dealing with a bedskirt! I ordered mine

from my fab friends at FOUND:)

The pillows-

The back striped Euros were made by my son (proud mama!) from

a piece of fabric I found at SAS.

The cruel  crewel pillow came with the duvet:)

The grain sack pillow I bought in Roundtop Texas years ago, and

my mom crocheted that beautiful edge and sewed it on for me:)

The velvet green pillow is from FOUND, and after all these years

it's still one of my favorites!

I found the headboard at Home Goods. It was leaning up against a wall

hiding behind the hanging rugs.... just waiting for me to look at those

rugs (that I didn't need and had no intentions of buying) and find it!!

It was $299

Score!!

I found these fab lamps on that same trip! 

Cue choir of angels.... :)

The blackout curtains are from Pottery Barn.

And ok I lied. These curtains are absolutely my favorite thing!!

Cue choir of snoring angels.... :)

And that gorgeous antique little dresser that I'm using for a nightstand?

It came out of one of our Project Beautify houses.

I know!! It's a beaut! I'm hoping to be able to share pics

with you all next week of that adorable place:)

We're hoping to have our Project Beautify website up and running soon,

but until then you can follow us on Instagram!

We're doing a giveaway right now that ends April 4th !

@PROJECT_BEAUTIFY

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:)