Treasure hunt!

New Address Labels

Now that we're married, I am looking into a "family" address label for Thank You notes and holiday cards. In particular I really like these labels from Felix Doolittle that Mrs. Bee suggested. There's something classic about their illustrations. You can choose from dogs, flowers to hobbies on your labels. $42/100 custom labels. I wonder if they could superimpose our house onto the address label.























Mrs. Violet blogged about Sweet Paperie, a rubber stamp vendor from etsy shop. For $20-$30, the owner Farrah can create a custom stamp. I'd prefer the rubber stamp since it would never "run out" like the labels. You can use any color ink you like to match the related holiday.

"New" furniture!

We got this old bureau from our neighbor. Keith will take anything home, even if it's a junker. He wanted to put it in his office for storage. Even though it's old, it makes a good storage piece to put in your basement or attic for various things. ie. tools, wrapping paper, old pictures, video tapes. So I gave in. What the heck, right?

Turns out, it was a HUGE bureau! Too big to put in his office, but would make a great tv console! Just what we needed too! I love those tv consoles from Restoration Hardware, but I can't imagine spending thousands of dollars on one.

It had a lot of water stains/damage on the top surface. It was really worn.



The front was really worn, dirty and had a huge scratch on the front of the cabinet door and dresser drawer. The picture on the left is more accurate of how worn it was. The picture on the right is actually really flattering.




Keith decided he would sand it down and give it a new coat of stain. He was sanding and vacuuming at the same time to reduce the amount of dust in the house.







Once he got started he decided to sand the whole thing.




You can see where he had to really sand the damaged areas. It was still a little discolored. Then he wiped it down with a damp rag to get rid of any excess dust.



Then Keith began staining it with the first coat. As you apply the stain, you have to do it quickly and spread it evenly so there aren't darker areas.




It looks really pretty and glossy when you apply the stain. It really smells, so do it in a well ventilated area, preferably outdoors.




Then allow to dry for at least 4 hours before applying a second coat. As you can see, when it dries, it soaks into the wood and it doesn't look as nice as when you first applied it. It just needs another coat.



Then he stained the cabinet doors and dresser drawers.




The following day be sanded it again so that you could no longer feel the grain of the wood. It almost looked laminated afterwards. Then he gave it 2 more coats.



Then he also did the sides. The results were like night and day.


And tadaa!!!

Leak no more

I blogged about our leaky kitchen faucet that was leaking 2 gallons per day. The leak was getting increasingly worse and after trying to tighten our current fixtures, we threw in the towel and decided to buy a new fixture set. We are on a budget. Mr. Snow Pea researched a set on homedepot.com for $24.99, but they didn't have it at the store. Instead we bought a set for $65 that was a little more updated and has one handle rather than 2 knobs.







After an hour, tadaa! Leak no more!

Baby Bunches

I went to a store called Scarlett Alley in Olde City, I noticed something called Baby Bunches. For anyone throwing a baby shower, I thought these were great! They are expensive in my opinion $50-$70 per bunch, but a GREAT DIY project. If you're looking to buy or make centerpieces, I think these make really creative and useful substitutes. Just buy a pack of onesies in any color, roll them up into a "rose", wrap it with floral tape and wire. It's just like a flower pen! Then add some greens from ACMoore or Michael's. You have yourself a beautiful centerpiece for mommy-to-be.

Uh Oh

We have had some warm days which lead for these bulbs to start sprouting. I should have waited until it was cold col before planting them. Oppsie! I wonder if they will survive through the winter now and come back in the spring?


My melons. I have 9 in total. A couple of them slipped to the other side of the fence. I did my best to bring them back, but some will have to stay where they are like this one.

Butterfly videos






Kellyann has a surprise for me.

More from Sam Simon Project

Just to clarify, NO, we are not having a baby and I wouldn't make that information public anyway. This is just some room inspiration to my friends who are having babies.

This is my favorite. I used to have a canopy too. I do believe that these canopies, namely the ribbons that were attached to them as decoration do act as a choking hazard.



We saw this peacock at ABC Carpet Store and it's gorgeous. I love it. They even adhered little crystals to the "eyes" of the tail.


I like how this one draws your eye up to the ceiling.

I have an affinity towards elephants. I loved elephants!



I really love this floral vine. It really draws the eye up.



My office (spare bedroom) has this bay window just like this. I was actually considering painting the walls a differnet color than the rest.


We like this dark wood furniture.

Weekend Recap - Visiting Dennis in NYC

We went to visit my brother this weekend in NYC and stay over at his new apartment. It was so much fun just to relax and hang out in the city before classes started. (Sorry, no pictures. I left my memory stick at home.) NJ Transit offered FREE rides to students all week, so it was perfect.

On Friday night, we went to Dallas BBQ in Chelsea. Keith is the BBQ fan, not me, but I have to admit it was really good and affordable. The portions are really large and most entrees were $16.99. We ordered the Full Wings as an appetizer that were really good. Between the 3 of us, we had ribs, steak, chicken, crab cakes, and a filet of fried catfish. Everything was really good. The crab cakes were full of crab, but I think I would've rather gone with the shrimp. The fried catfish was good, but not nearly as good as the fried catfish from Ms Tootsie's in Philadelphia. Everything at Ms. Tootsie's is fantastic!!!

The next day, we walked around and browsed all the shops near Grand Central Station and Union Square. Since we took the train in, it was so relaxing not to be bounded by our car. I wanted to check out the "chandelier" again at Olivier's & Co. It wasn't as impressive as when I first saw it years ago. I am making a note of it because someday, I'd like a scaled down version of the olive oil chandelier that Emeril has on his show. Maybe I can make one myself if I can't buy it. (You can see it in the window here on the right hand side)

We went down to Union Square where they have the open green market every Saturday. I went to visit Cherry Lane Farms; a friend of a friend owns the farm. I bought some of these Fairytale eggplant. Aren't they cute? We're going to skewer them and grill them. Now I am going to want to grow them next summer.

Then we had to stop at Paper Presentation, so I could pick up some stuff for our Christmas cards this year. The store has been "revamped" since I last visited. There were a lot more choices in scrapbooking embellishments, ribbon, and a wedding invitation consulting area upstairs. I am in love with their new mini tags. I was thinking of things I could make with them just so I could find a reason to buy them. But alas, we are on a budget and have to avoid buying "extras".

After that, we checked out a sleeper sofa at Jennifer Convertables that my brother wants for his apartment. It's crazy how small apartments are in NYC. We browsed all the shops around there for decorating ideas. He's going for a contemporary cream with black and red accent look. Sister to the rescue!

We went to Fishs Eddy and I gasped so loudly that I scared the lady next to me when I found these! Ceramic labels 6/$2.00 for my garden. I am going to run either a wire or ribbon through it and tag all my flowers and veggies! I am so excited about this.

I love all things Alice in Wonderland! We were already on our way out of Fishs Eddy when I spotted the collection. These are definitely going on my Christmas wish list!

Then I did a little Back to School shopping and by that time we were hungry again. My brother was in the mood for Minado (AKA To dai) in Koreantown, so we went there. We walked in and ROLLED out since we ate so much. Yummm We went back to my bro's apartment, watched MadTV and fell asleep. Overall, it was a VERY good weekend and it wasn't even over yet.

Sunday morning, we took the train back home. Keith had to go to work and I had the itch to clean. Every once in a while I get the itch to decorate or take on a new project. I rearranged the living room furniture to give it a "new" feel. The living room was too spread out before and we wanted it to be a little cozier to encourage newlywed affection! It's not my ideal living room arrangement (I hate things caddy corner), but for just 2 people, I think it works. Our living room has no solid walls (ie. window or opening in every wall), so that makes things really tricky. After 2 hours of playing doll house, vacuuming 10 times and dropping the tv on my legs OUCH! This is what I came up with.

Yes, Keith is playing video games and wouldn't move out of the way for my picture.

I moved the kitchen hutch/cabinet thingy out to the living room. The wood matches the coffee table and actually completed the look of the living room. It balances the room out so that the couches don't seem to be sticking out in midair.

The enclosed porch out front.

Our jade plant is doing much better thank goodness! Apparantly, it's telling of your financial situation. Let's just say that in the summer, it was shriveling up and thin. Now it's plumping back up. I hope that's good sign!

Time to empty out the fridge! I made soup with ground sausage, peppers, leeks, tomatoes, arugula, parsley, garlic and orzo. It was DEEEEELICIOUS!!! Everything but the sausage and leeks were from my garden.

Then at night, I just worked on our scrapbook some more and started my wedding shadow box. I am also working on framing 8x10's of all the places Keith and I have visited over the years. We were thinking of hanging them along the wall going up the stairs and progressing chronologically up the stairs. Unfortunately, the pictures of France and Italy are low resolution since we took those over 4 years ago. This week, I start classes so I'll be pretty busy until Christmas. I hope I can get to the rest of the gardening and fall decorating by this weekend.