A Quickie

Here's a quick project that took little to no time. Remember the group of old lamps I was saving in the basement?

 I took the maroon one with the "genie in a bottle" shape and gave her a little face lift. First, I wiped her free of all dirt and dust. Then I taped the cord and other parts that I didn't want painted. I took a spray paint can of Kilz (primer) and began to prime. The key when using spray paint is layering. This way you don't get those dreadful drip marks.

After the base is dry it's time to apply your color. I found this amazing shiny brown from Rustoleum. It added some metallic without being over the top in the den. Then I pulled out my $14.99 linen shade and voila... lamp for less than $20!

PS I don't think I ever mentioned that I am lucky to have a working bench in our garage and a husband who lets me leave unfinished projects around.

Something new, something not blue

Remember this post? It was right after we bought our home and decided we weren't "yellow people." Actually, I like yellow. It was a lot when you consider how light and yellow our kitchen cabinets are, which makes for one YELLOW kitchen. So the hubs and I took many trips to the home improvement store to try and figure out what colors we should paint the kitchen.

We love green. I mean love love love green. The problem is it's everywhere in our home. So when Team Nelson decided to go for it and paint the kitchen an icy blue we didn't realize what would happen. What was originally cool and neutral ended up Smirf blue on our walls. I couldn't get anything to work. Fabric was totally out of the question because inothing worked in my Smirf world. After making excuses about the paint needing something else, I stopped kidding myself and admitted the paint was not working. It didn't work in the space for us or go with anything else in our home.

So I found a fabric I loved and decided to start over. Her name is Lulu Corn Yellow Kelp by Premier Prints and it caught my eye the moment I saw it. Apparently it caught other shopper's too because fabric.com sold out within two days of my discovery. Luckily for me Alabama has a great store on the coast that also has a website. My mother-in-law went by to check out my selection and graciously picked it up and offered to begin sewing for me!

So we have fabric and finally settled on Notre Dame grey from Valspar. It had the same affect we tried with the blue, but it was lighter, and definitely the new neutral. I cannot tell you how much I love it.

So cheers to the new kitchen! Thanks for making my mornings happy, my evenings calm, and being one more thing checked off my "mental list" for the house. (Below is a picture of the photo wall I did). I am really proud of this and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be!

Until next time,

guest room mirror

Hey hey! I hope you are going well and you are enjoying the summer. I have been busy the past two weeks with some home projects and I have been eager to share this one with you. Our guest bedroom needed to get uncluttered and have a space where our visitors could get ready. I knew I wanted a mirror with a unique design and finally found a piece I love.

I found this mirror for $50 I loved the shape and the price when I learned it was marked down to $23 since there was a small scratch on the frame. I have learned that a lot of retailers will take futher discounts on floor models or scratched items to try and move them out of the store. I didn't mind because I knew I would be painting it a high gloss white for the guest bedroom. So I took my time taping off the mirrior and protecting the glass before priming.

After it has been primed I put a couple of coats of spray paint on it. The key when applying spray paint is to do it in layers when the piece is dry so that you do not get any of the drip marks. Even coats can help you get the shiny clean look you are looking for.

I am really pleased with the end results. I decided to go with black and white pieces and minimized the amount of clutter I had on the dresser. The room has random pops of blue and there are even some blue books under the horse figurine.

I know this is our guest room, but it happens to be one of my most favorite rooms in the house. The pops of white and light linens just make this room look so peaceful. I hope it makes our guests feel welcome and want to curl up on this comfy bed with a book and relax.

The Boy Who Lived...

Can I please tell you that I am so soooooo excited (and sad) to see the final Harry Potter?!?! I grew up taking my little brothers to see all the movies when it use to come out around Thanksgiving time. Every year when we were done eating the family would load up the car and head over to the theaters. It brings back such great memories.

After reading all the books myself and watching the movie trailers I was thrilled when my friend Jessica (at Empress Stationery) decided to host a Potter Party! Of course, all my friend's creative juices came to life to pull together an array of goodies!

I miss working with these girls, but luckily they still tell me when all the events are and I am glad to partake!

The evening came full of Bertie Bots Every Flavor Beans, Acid Pops (Blow Pops rolled in honey, rolled in Pop Rocks) Chocolate Spiders (haystacks), Chocolate Frogs, Butter Beer Cupcakes (from Malinda at Baked in Birmingham), Licorice Wands, Quidditch Players Pie (shepards pie) and of course, Butter Beer.

We had so much fun and I cannot wait to see the movie tomorrow! Have a wonderful weekend and bottoms up!

Lake Livin'

Greetings from this lake-dipping, no-makeup-wearing, sunscreen-applying, full-tummy, relaxed blogger! Hubby dearest and I have spent the last few weekends at the lake and boy did we have a great time. A group of our friends gather a various houses on Lake Wedowee. If you don't know where that is, you are asking the wrong person to explain. I am merely a food planner and passenger when we head out of the "big city" to Randolph County Alabama. I do know it's two hours away from Birmingham and to me, it's the perfect couple of hours for me to unwind and prepare for lake livin' with good friends.

This weekend we also celebrated our friend's Lesley and John son's first birthday. They had a "Blue Dog" theme, which was absolutely precious. And while I wish I had some pictures of my own to share I offered to capture the festivities on Lesley's camera so she did not have to worry about missing a thing! After barbeque, visiting with family, and learning what a "smash cake" was we all headed to the water.

It was awesome getting to visit with a group of our friends from Atlanta. Most of them used to live near us until recently and we miss them immensely. I am sure each of you can relate to us when you have close friends move. I can easily say this is why we are so eager to do anything and always seem to be gone on the weekends to see them or meet somewhere in the middle.

Above is mom (Lesley) with birthday boy Jeb. Out of the group that stayed at the lake we had all little boys ages 3, 1, and 10 months. It was hysterical watching them play and even more hilarious watching the parents put on these super bulky life vests and coating them in sunscreen. My husband, whose nickname is "Prince" with all his friends magically became a "Mr. Prince" over the weekend.

The past couple of weekends have been different though. Years ago we would all stay up until the wee hours of the morning. Now 10 pm rolls around and the party goers start dropping like flies. Our mornings would start at 9 am with bloody marys, laughing at who passed out where, and recapping events from the night before. This time it begins at 6 am (if you are lucky) with black coffee, poptarts, and Backyardigans playing in the background. My favorite quote for the weekend was, "the volume of life does not stop when you have a hangover." So true.

While all this is different it's a new kind of content for me. I love that our friends have kids and I love even more that they want us to be a part of it all. It means a lot that during these moments their children are learning and developing they want Mr Price and Aunt Katie there. One day I can't wait to share my children with them and hope they grow up together and be an extension of our family.

Lastly, I could not help but share pictures of the boys getting into the American Spirit. Jonathan stopped and picked up "real American" tshirts from the dollar store. The boys spiffed them up a bit and grabbed a few props for the picture. Their creativity is in full force and all within the first few minutes of our arrival.

Lastly, I held the air gun while the boys got situated. I look like a regular ol' Annie Oakley, but I am sure she did not look as intimidated as I did here. At least it was proof that I was there this weekend as I am usually the one behind the lense.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend!

Independence Day Greetings

Happy Fourth of July sweet bloggers and hope you had a sweet weekend!

I think I got Board

You heard me right and I didn't spell it wrong either. I decided to make another headboard. For me, I get on random kicks where I will spend a little time working in a room. I know you are technically suppose to move onto one room after finishing another, but I like small projects here and there.

Remember the guest room before?

I rearranged some items and decided I needed something over the bed...

I had some extra fabric that matched the creamy gold hues that are shown through out the room. I decided it would work perfectly as a faux headboard.

Additionallly, I had an extra picture frame that was sitting in a corner of the basement. This worked great as a base frame to my fabric. A few staples and making sure I didn't put a million nails in the wall and voila!

Something on the wall and helps pull this little guest room together. Not a Pottery Barn headboard, but this quick little fix was free! (Thank you PB and I'll take free any day of the week!)