30 before 30

This year I turn 30. I am one year younger than Nick (which I like to remind him) and have copied his idea of creating a list of items to complete before turning thirty. I made my list this past fall, and I am not doing very well. I must admit that turning 30 does not really seem to scare me at all. I still get carded (all the time), I love my hubby and baby, and I am still younger than Nick (see what I mean). So here is my list and what I have accomplished so far. You can see some are really simiple (read a book, go to the movies, go shopping on my own) but since having James even the simiple things have been more difficult to complete. I have until March to complete this list so need to get cracking:

1. Make Macaroons

2. Take a road trip

3. Read a book

4. Decorate our Bedroom

5. Get a mani/pedi.

6. Have girl’s night - DONE

7. Have a TV series/Favorite Movie marathon weekend.

8. Make brunch/Dinner for friends.

9. Take a day to visit museums. - DONE

10. Special Date night with Nick. - DONE

11. Have board game night. -

12. Take a workout class

13. Finish Our Wedding Album

14. Take a family photo

15. Personal shopping day

16. Go to the movies. Done

17. Have grown up party at the house

18. Have the neighbors over for drinks

19. Go to a concert/Comedy/speadker

20. Catch Up James' baby Album

21. Take a photography Class

22. Find my "drink" DONE

23. Complete the Basement Makeover

24. Recover my Berge Chair

25. Update my wardrobe

26. Take a Family bike ride DONE

27. Find the perfect fragrance

28. Make curtains for the living room

29. Have awesome holiday cards DONE

30. Organize My magazines - DONE

New Year and old resolutions

2010 was a great year. No major life changing events, just enjoying spending time with family and friends. It was a year of James walking, talking and entertaining us nonstop. Finishing the guest bathroom from 2009's house project list and having a grown up guest bedroom. 2010 was also a year of voyeur blog reading. I discovered the wonder of Google Reader (I know, I am a slow adaptor). I started the year with full gusto for posting on No. 462 and commenting on others, but soon fell back into just scrolling daily through Reader. I often made list of items I wanted to post about, but never followed through. So for 2011, I am reusing my resolution last year to give No. 462 some love, prioritize my creative outlet and sharing with others I have been admiring from afar. We will see how long I will be able to keep this up, but I have my most faithful reader to remind me I am post due for a post (and to correct my grammar).

Shoppers High

I had a wonderful weekend shopping with my sister and peanut at some of the local thrift stores and came home with some really amazing stuff. I had a shoppers high all weekend off these great deals below.

(1) The First item is a Department 56 vase. I was rather shocked when I noticed the Department 56 sticker, but she has the sweetest face and has a 70’s retro feeling about her.

(2) These are my first purchase of Mikasa china. I got a beautiful bone china urn and a set of Country Manor cereal bowls in an off white. The bowls have a great basket weave pattern and will mix well with our collection of cereal bowls.

(3) I am obsessed with my Buttered Toast & Marmalade plate. I have rearranged its location in the kitchen a few different times already. The bottom marking says it is Queen’s but does not give any more information. It is beautiful and I am officially on the hunt for more of this pattern.

(4) Finally my deal of the weekend was the glass Tiffany & Co Apple for $2. I just thought it was a cool glass apple but when I saw the Tiffany’s marking I was even more excited. Not sure what one does with a glass apple, but I am sure I will find a home for it sometime soon.

The Daycare center

I am on a roll with showing progress made in the house. Here is the current status of our living room, which we are now calling the daycare center because of all James' plastic toys. We have painted the room and purchased two Ikea bookshelves to house all of the toys. We also added a wainscoting to the entry hall and started the Darcy Miller photo wall. Since those projects we have hit a dry spell in the room, but hopefully have taking two weekend off house projects ready to get started again. Here is how the room looks on an average day after a few minutes of picking up James' toys. There is normally at least one balloon in the room at all times since Ball-oon was James' first word and favorite thing in the whole world.

Our For Like Ever posted moved into the living room from the den since we had to move our very nice bookcase to a safer place.

Besides the two bookcases everything else in the room was there before and mostly in the same position as it is now. We move the ottoman around to give more place area as needed, but as you can see LuLu loves to sleep in the room too.

Here is the very start of our Darcy Miller photo wall. Please note the inside portion of the pony wall is still blue. We could not decided to paint it white or the wall color, we have decided white would be best so need to go back and finish painting.


Here is a better close up of the wall in progress. Items so far on the wall include James' first birthday party invite, our wedding cake topper with a wedding photo, a grouping of photo booth prints of us and James from his first year, a amazing watercolor of our house and a collection of matchbooks from places that have special meaning to us. I have a bunch more frames to add to the wall, but am waiting until I have more meaningful art to add.

The $50 Makeover

Ta Da! Here is the (almost) completed $50 guest bedroom makeover!

Ok, it was a little more than $50 since I purchase new curtain hooks and fabric to line the curtains, but the only new decor item purchased was the Vera Pillow from Anthropologie so I am calling it my $50 makeover. We are so proud to have one room in the house that looks finished and totally like us. I am trying to go back through the photo archives to find my previous horrible attempts at decorating the room to show how far we come, but I think I was too embarrassed of the bad color choices to ever take photos of the room. We still need to get some more artwork, make a bedskirt and figure out the accessories, but those items will come over time.

Here is the breakdown of the room:

• Curtain Rod - Crate and Barrel - previously used in the living room
• Curtain Rings - Jo Ann's
• Green Curtains - West Elm - previously used in the living room
• Duvet Cover – Kate Spade (I miss the linen collection)
• Mirrored Side table – Bombay Company, previously used in the master
• Rug - Pottery Barn Outlet, was in James' room
• Antique Side table - borrowing from my parents
  
• Lamps – Home Goods, - previously used in the living room
• Artwork (vintage model home watercolors) – Purchased from Springfield Antique Fair
• Bed and Dresser – Vintage auction purchase painted black

Guest Bedroom Revamp

Since I don't have enough projects started and not completed, I adding our guest bedroom to the list. We have company visiting next weekend and need to get the catch all room back into shape. The only work we really need to do is paint the walls, reorganize the furniture, hang curtains and get some art on the walls. I can do it all in a weekend right?

The colors for the room will be black, white and green. We are keeping the room simple and recycling things we already had (reason for the green) to keep low budget.

The only item I have purchased for the room is this Vera Neumann pillow from Anthropolgie on Sale. Since it was Vera, I would have bought no matter what at that sale price. It is nice and long so will look good on the bed with my black and white striped Kate Spade bedding.

The only item I am considering purchasing for the room is this wall decal from Fern Living-

Never really thought I would find a wall decal I wanted to use before, but this is really cool. Not sure where we have space in the room, so will need to see once I get the furniture rearranged.

I will post photos of the finished room since they will be here next Saturday and will need some place to sleep.

My Ann Carrington Flag Progress

I have made a lot of progress on my Ann Carrington knock off British flag. Getting the measurements correct took some time, but sewing the red and blue sections went quickly. I used scrap red velvet from Jo Ann's bargain bin and I purchased three pairs of denim jeans from the thrift store for the blue. I ended up using the lightest wash and will return the other too via my goodwill donations. I am very proud of how it is looking so far. Now the long part comes of seeing on all the buttons. I will post again to show the progress on the buttons, but expect it to take a long time before finished.