2012, bedroom, blue, boys, paint

A bedroom for Alex

by casadeberry4 Comments on A bedroom for Alex


While my oldest boy’s bedroom boasted a pirate theme and then got some superhero goodness as our boy’s tastes changed, our youngest, Alex, had a Mickey Mouse wallpaper border and a couple of Disney paintings. Meh.

Last week I went through Alex’s closet, which had become a dumping ground for old TVs and VCRs, and even his little bookcase was loaded with old shoes he’d outgrown.

Definitely not cool.

The project started when I decided to paint his dresser – Alex chose blue and when I showed him various pictures of blue items, he chose the rug in Emily Clark’s living room. I’m telling you, the kid has good taste. Inspired by the navy-and-off-white rug, I painted his dresser in Valspar’s Night Sky and Keystone.



Alex was so happy to see his dresser in the color he chose, he kept coming up to me as I painted the drawers and saying “that’s my blue!”.

I had some sailboat fabric that went very well with the grayish blue of the dresser, so I made a new cover for his body pillow:

Alex’s bookcase was loaded with some of his favorite books:

And his shelves were decluttered and only a few friends made it back on 😀 along with one of my all-time favorite pictures of my sweet boy.

Considering that Eric Carle books (and Bill Martin books illustrated by Eric Carle) are some of Alex’s favorites, I purchased a set of prints to liven up his walls. By the way, Alex also chose the color on his walls, Valspar’s Woodsmoke.

A new set of favorite books are the David books by David Shannon. These are hilarious stories about a little boy who gets in so much trouble but everything is well in the end. Alex read one at school and loved it, so I bought him two books from the series.

Here is Alex’s all-time favorite page in the No, David! book – David running nekkid down the street. Hmmm, must remind him of someone, huh?

The final touch, for all those creative moments, was a table I had, which I painted with chalkboard paint.

My boy was very happy with his room and as soon as he saw his David books asked me to read them with him, so we hopped in his bed, with his new pillows, and read them a few times.

I made just a few subtle changes to Alex’s room but now it reflects his preferences, which was the goal, to have a room that has things he likes and colors he chose. Also, the Eric Carle prints can be changed as Alexander’s tastes change, which I am sure they will.

Hope you enjoyed a peek into my sweetie’s room!

2012

Lisa Leonard has a show!

by casadeberry1 Comment on Lisa Leonard has a show!

If you’ve spent any time on the blogosphere, you’ve surely come across Lisa Leonard and her fabulous designs.


If you follow her on Facebook as I do, you’ve seen pictures of her lovely family and all their adventures, and guess what? They are going to have their own reality show! Wanna check out the trailer?

Lisa’s sweet spirit comes across her posts, and I for one can’t wait to see the new show!

2012, craft, decor, fall, husband, october, paint

Insane Asylum sign

by casadeberry9 Comments on Insane Asylum sign

This past weekend, my husband made an awesome sign for Halloween.

Although, considering how crazy we tend to get around the holidays, I might be keeping that sign up for a while 😀

The backing is an old puzzle tray we had, pieces had gone missing long ago but the tray itself was perfect for this project. Steve added plain thumbtacks, then cut out the letters from foam – yes, by hand, I keep entering those Silhouette giveaways but haven’t won one yet – and then glued them to the frame. The first coat of spray was a metallic copper, then he did a wash with black paint so the pigment would settle into the crevices, and finally he added some greenish paint for a rusted, patina look.

I think he did such a great job!!! He has a lot more planned for our front yard but we wanted to share this bit for now.

So creepy!!!

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shabby creek cottage

2012, craft, glam, gold, paper, ribbon

Glitter and Ribbon Matting

by casadeberry2 Comments on Glitter and Ribbon Matting

Matting, not mating. Not that I wrote mating the first time around or anything.

I found a great hemisphere map at my favorite paper goods store – in my favorite blues and greens – and needed a frame large enough for it. My husband volunteered a frame he had, which was the perfect size, except the mat color didn’t really go with my map.

I had also purchased gold glitter wrap paper and decided to tape it over the existing map. This frame does not have glass so it’s just the backing, the map, and the mat over it.

The strips were cut wide enough to go a little beyond the original mat:

As a finishing touch, I added teal ribbon from my sewing stash:

The finished product:



The wedding picture you see above is also matted with lovely wrapping paper, in a music note pattern.

I hope you like this craft, it was an inexpensive way to use something we have and give it the exact look I wanted. Now the frame coordinates with the map print and has a bit of glam, which my office can always use ;D

2012, canning, fruits, gardening, husband

I’m a convert!

by casadeberry2 Comments on I’m a convert!

Okay, so the subject of grape jelly is one that has been hotly debated in our household for the past decade. Steve, my husband, LOVES it. I think it’s bleh. So when he came up with the idea of using our Concord grapes to make jelly instead of just eating them fresh off the vine, I was all “what the . . . ?” Seriously, you can get grape jelly at WalMart for under two bucks, why go through the whole production of making grape jelly?

I watched him harvest about half of the grapes on the vine. The rest were still greenish and have been maturing these last few days. He came back into the kitchen with this:

which I looked at kind of like this:

Undeterred, Steve found a recipe (or three, he scanned a few, got the idea and then did his own thing) and began cooking it down – and oh my goodness it smelled SO GOOD!!!
I kept looking over and over, and finally he gave me a taste of super hot jammy goodness.

I told him that even though it looked like the remains of a vamp on True Blood, it was Oh. So. Fricking. Delicious!

So, yes, I now love grape jelly. But not the store-bought kind. So I guess we’re going to plant some more Concords next year ;D

2012, autumn, bath, craft, decor, fall, ribbon

Fall accent craft

by casadeberryLeave a Comment on Fall accent craft


Recently I decided to make a little something something for the bathroom — I was walking around Daiso and saw plain wood boxes, so I grabbed one and decided to fall-ify it a bit.


Two coats of dark brown paint later — this was the bit that took the longest, waiting for the paint to dry — I added a lovely dark orange bit of ribbon I have had for a while. I used yellow ribbon to make a little flower accent and added the year in a cardstock circle.


I had leftover brown cardstock so I made a little tag and added glittery chipboard letters to spell out “autumn”. The filler apples, scented cinnamon sticks and candle were also in part of our fall decor bin, so this was a super cheap craft, I paid less than $2 for the little box and everything else I already had.

So there you have it, a little piece of fall for not much money — hope you have a wonderful week!

2012, autumn, kitchen, red

A bit of fall in the kitchen

by casadeberry4 Comments on A bit of fall in the kitchen

Last week I decided to bring some autumnal bits and bobs into our kitchen.

I purchased some lovely mums destined for some baskets we have hanging outside the front door — aren’t these gorgeous?

These red cup and spoon measures were much needed, we have had the same measuring cups and spoons forever, are, in fact, missing a few, and a couple are even cracked, so I got these super cheap ones at WalMart, and love the pop of color they bring:

Those plastic bins with handles are from the Container Store, but HELLO!!! I just found similar (i.e. practically the same) bins at a Daiso store — sort of a Japanese dollar store, except most things are $1.50 — and I bought three there. If they have more next time, I will be getting some more because I love them.

Snack bowls in chartreuse are stacked on the lower shelf – these don’t go in the microwave but are so useful for quick after-school snacks:

My morning coffee tray is ready so waking up goes as smoothly as possible 😀

My dear friend J got me hooked on Torani Sugar-Free Salted Caramel syrup – so good! My usual Vanilla and Hazelnut are taking a break for now.

I also got a mat for the area in front of the sink and my feet are loving it while I do dishes, but it didn’t make for a very exciting photo, ha!

The dining room is getting fall-i-fied soon!!

2012, friends

Art & Wine Festival

by casadeberryLeave a Comment on Art & Wine Festival

We spent this past Saturday morning at the Santa Clara Art & Wine Festival.  We walked from our friends’ home to the park where the festival was taking place and spent a few hours browsing through all the crafty booths, doing a lot of people watching, and finally, enjoying some yummy food.

My husband and our friends M&J stop at the beer and wine booths:

There were lots of lovely creations and M treated herself to some beautiful earrings

The pretty duckies were enjoying the warm morning

We got to the festival early so we could avoid the later heat and crowds.

The food smelled great – my husband and I chose cheesesteak sandwiches and J&M had some portuguese meat sandwiches:

We ended our meal with some funnel cakes – we split one of the plain ones:

and then headed home – my awesome mother-in-law was watching the boys so we could have some fun grown-up time.

The rest of our weekend was pretty mellow, I made a little fall accent and switched some summer decorations for fall ones. I am pretty much over this hot weather. I know, I know, 80 is not that bad, but when it’s almost 9pm and I’m still sweating, it’s too hot for me.

Fall is almost here and I am soooo ready to welcome it! Have a great Monday!

2012, hair

I’ve been chopped

by casadeberry6 Comments on I’ve been chopped

I had been thinking about cutting my hair for a while.

This is how long my hair was last week – I had gotten it trimmed after our friends’ wedding in April but it had been a couple of months since so I figured it was back to this length:

I had this inspiration pic saved for a while, I loved that the cut was short but still soft and bouncy:

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I tracked down the original source of the pic – Stephanie from life.love.babies, isn’t she gorgeous!? – and found a few more on her haircut post.

My fab stylist did a wonderful job!

This was my waaaaa! moment ;D

This was my hair after I left the salon on Thursday:

And, can I tell you something?

I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It feels so much healthier, bouncy and full of body. I’ve styled it straight as in the picture, and I’ve let it dry naturally so it has some waves and it looks great both ways. If a stray curl flips the other way, it just makes it quirky. Love, love, love it.

Off to another adventure-filled week – hope yours is wonderful!