the NURSERY TOUR! and a giveaway!

Here it is, in all it's crafted and vintage glory. My goal was to have Adelaide's nursery "finished" (is decorating ever finished?) by Ohdeedoh's Smaller Cooler contest and I did. I still plan to either wallpaper a wall or do a wallpaper or fabric mural, but that just didn't come to fruition in time. I'm happy with it as is though. I have included all of the details- probably way too many- at the bottom of the post.

NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY- What you have to do is head over to Adelaide's Kooky Hideaway entry on Ohdeedoh and vote "Big thumbs up- proof that small is stylish!" by 8am PST on Saturday. When you've voted, come back here and leave a comment with your e-mail address and you will be entered to win an 8x10 Have a Nice Day print by Katie Daisy of The Wheatfield which is no longer for sale in her shop. It's a great big thank you for voting! I have the poster size (pictured) and love it! Thanks for your help!

THE DETAILS:

Bought or Gifted:

name banner: gift from annalea hart - bird mobile: crafted as a gift by Kristen of Smith & Daphne based on Spool's Tutorial - quilt and bedskirt: Pottery Barn kids (gift from my parents) - bumper: Target - fitted sheet: Target - sheepskin rug: IKEA - horse hanger: gift from Monkey and Squirrel - porcelain boat: KG & AB - white cubby system: Target - silhouettes: Disneyland - bird softie in cubby: gift from kiddins - porcelain origami crane: thrifted - blocks: gift, vintage - dreidel: gift - monster puzzle: gift, Target

Crafted by me or Vintage:

embroidered pillow: sewn out of a large vintage hankie - clouds - house cubbies: found at a thrift store then painted and papered - shelves: I painted all of them white, they were mine as a teen - chair: vintage - Lord's Prayer and alphabet stitchings: vintage, thrifted - lampshade: crafted - pink bow: repurposed out of a dress shirt - crib: vintage, was hubby's as a baby - dresser: vintage, my mom's and then mine as a teen - books: mostly vintage, some thrifted and gifts - carousel horse window hanging: vintage, thrifted - sock monkey: sewn in high school - dresses: vintage, thrifted - toys in house cubbies: most of them are from the inside of Kinder Eggs brought to us by our German exchange student when I was in highschool, they are sadly now illegal - Avon perfume girl: vintage, thrifted - porcelain children: vintage

There are more details/toys in the room that I haven't linked to--- let me know if you have any questions about anything not mentioned. I ran out of linking/mentioning-everything-by-name steam. :)

UPDATE: The winner is Michelle! Congratulations! I'll send the print right your way!

CORNERS of the living room

If you have been around Crooked Shmooked since the beginning then you know that this blog was started as an attempt to follow what was supposed to be a quick remodel. It turned into over a year of the husband and I living with my parents while our house was worked on by family on and off. It was finally finished a month or so before the babe was born, but I haven't given a house tour yet and have been nervous to show any photos with decorating gaps throughout the house. My ideal was to have the remodel and decorating done before April of 2010 when Lil' A was born, but as Robert Burns said-- The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft a-gley.

So, no living room tour yet, but these are some corners that I am liking right now...

1 - our unfinished photo wall: prints by Katie Daisy and JellyBeans, triangle collage by me

2 - thrifted globes

3 - a dottie angel wall hanging, gma and gpa back in the day, a tin found in my German gma's sewing kit after she passed, a bird terrarium a friend brought me when I was sick, thrifted milk glass with gma's wooden daisy

4 - IKEA lamp, World Market curtain, Nick & Nora zebra print blanket, vintage embroidery

5 - thrifted paint by number, vintage and antique books from various places, brass swans from the sister

baby steps in DECORATING

Yes, I'm still alive and kicking! .... well, maybe not kicking... more like lounging in the amazingly comfortable rocker/recliner my husband bought me for Valentine's Day. The decorating is slow-moving. So slow that it's not happening. My due date is 4 weeks from tomorrow and my body is definitely letting me know that daily. We are working on getting the nursery ready and have been organizing the house as well. I hope to decorate before our little girls arrives, but we'll see! Three steps in the right direction are--- #1.) Finding our living room color palette inspiration in this vintage doily from my grandma. (Excuse the horrible photo quality.) #2.) Finding money that we didn't know existed while moving and purchasing the IKEA cabinet I was loving. #3.) My mom buying me this sweet Dottie Angel wall hanging.

It will all come together in time. Baby steps!

we're IN!

We moved into our house! It took 1 year and 3 months of remodeling on and off by my dad, hubby, father-in-law, bros-in-law, uncle, dad's friends, and random other friends. We are living surrounded by piles of stuff and I don't know where half of my possessions are, but we are IN. We have no internet and no windowshades, but we are IN. Our stove isn't quite hooked up and we are living by microwaveable meals, but we are IN! I know you thought I was teasing you all these months. I know you thought, "Suuuuure she has a crooked little house that is being worked on. Living with the parents for over a year and saying she's moving in soon about once a month? Sounds like crazy talk to me." Well, I'm not crazy! (Okay I'm a little crazy...) I tell the truth! And the truth is- we are in our little crooked house and we couldn't be happier! Well, we might be a little happier if we had some awesome organizing superpower where we could snap our fingers and everything jumped into place, but that's probably the only way. So excuse me while I purge and organize and decorate (and take frequent breaks to rest and eat- after all, I am almost 32 weeks pregnant). I'll post pics when I am able and can't wait to share actual decorating projects with you rather than random wishes and inspirations. It is a good day, friends! Hugs to you all!

a REMODEL peek

Here's a sneak peek into the latest remodel progress. The kitchen cabinets are white, the floors are in, and the granite is ready to go in. (And we have a dishwasher for the first time in 3 years!!!) Our bedroom is all painted- I'm so excited about the green wall! The carpet is scheduled to go in the rest of the house next week. Yes, carpet. I've lived in houses with wood flooring and i've in ones with carpeting and I like the comfort of carpeting on bare feet in the living area. And I think our little girl will appreciate the softness when she is crawling and walking and falling the first years of her life. Once the carpeting is in, we go in- as in move back in... oh my gosh. I am SO ready.

a painted, wait before speaking, CROOKED REMODEL UPDATE with a side of sugar

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You're going to be getting a lot of updates on the remodel in the next two weeks. The update for today is:

#1. The kitchen and our bedroom are painted and look great. Yay for my painter husband! That means all of the rooms are done being painted!

#2. I should really learn to keep my mouth shut until something actually happens or is finished. The concrete countertops I was so excited about? Not happening. The estimate was $600 and then my dad's friend came around saying he had a bunch of granite slabs left over from his own kitchen remodel. The cost for that? Free or so. My dad showed it to me and it's a nice white/gray/black speckled granite, and in the name of the budget- we are using it. And also, c'mon... whose budget-cutting countertops ever end up as nice granite slabs? We're pretty fortunate there!

#3. Our kitchen floors are being leveled by one of the brothers-in-law right now. The crooked little house is still going to be crooked (in some places it looks like the ceiling was intentionally slanted, but then you look across the room and it's not... ha ha) but at least we won't be walking on slopes.

I hope you are all having a wonderful, productive (or restful), and delicious weekend! I am munching on Babycakes NYC chocolate chip cookies hubby made last night and some fresh Babycakes NYC blueberry scones he made this morning (have I mentioned he's amazing?). And now I will be entering a gluten-free, alternative-sugar coma.

P.S. I have been saving glass jars left and right for months so none of my flours, sugars, or grains will be without a window from their place on a kitchen shelf. I just love homebug's example.

our bedroom is going GREEN

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It's about time for our bedroom to be painted and I can't wait to live in it. We are doing white walls with a dark green accent wall behind the bed in Dunn Edwards Bonsai (the color it shows on my monitor is not at all the color on the card- it should be more like the 1st photo above). We bought the West Elm Organic Cotton Pin-tuck Duvet in Sea Grass on sale the day after Christmas and I'm thinking we'll go for some yellow accents (loving these sheets) and whatnot in the room. We also need to find some gorgeous blackout window shades- I sleep best when I can't see a thing. We added a built-in closet to the bedroom, so the bedroom that was previously small is now itty-bitty. I think we'll have room for bedside stands and a chest of drawers. And there is also a DIY upholstered headboard project on our list, but that can wait until we are in the house again.... as can the 100s of other DIY projects I have in mind.

Looking at the gorgeous greens in the photos above excites me. Green is my favorite color- it will be nice to live with it staring me in the face every day!

a CONCRETE dream come true

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Dear hubby has painted our kitchen cabinets white and the news is just in that his father is going to make concrete countertops for us! I am so very excited. Concrete countertops and white subway tile backsplash. That was my ideal kitchen in the beginning but I never thought someone would actually do the countertops for us! This is a wonderful surprise.

I know I keep saying it, but the end of this remodel is in sight!

P.S. Can you imagine how amazing the white cabinets and concrete countertops are going to look with our vintage stove? Ah!!

crooked BATHROOM update

Happy Friday! Lord willing we will be back in our crooked little house next month... or at least before Christmas. I am pushing for it to be finished in time for hubby and I to have our last Christmas without a little one in our own home. Rooms are being painted, the bathroom is almost done and everything is looking great! Here's a peak into the bathroom.

The new and improved tub/shower with subway tiles. We are loving it. No more mildew, crumbling shower wall, or pipes poking up under the tub floor.

The new flooring. Yay! The bathroom has also been painted a pale gray that we love. I'll have photos of that in the near future when the toilet and pedestal sink are in.

And some more inspiration:

anyone know of a source?

I collect jadeite and milk glass and this photo has made me realize the bathroom might be the perfect place to stick some of my pieces. I love the pop of the jade against all the white.

via absolutely beautiful things

We still need to figure out some storage spaces for the bathroom and this is definitely speaking to me. I love the idea of open shelving in a bathroom. It is perfect to display towels, glass jars filled with cotton balls and bath things, and even stick wicker baskets in to hide the ugly necessities like all of my hair products.

It's all starting to come together, friends! I am so, so, so excited that the end of this never-ending remodel is near!

REALITY check

As much as I like to live in la la land, it is time I share with you the actual present state of our house. It will be painful and horrifying, but it is time to reveal the truth.

The view from the front door.

The living room.

The gutted and very sad bathroom.

The kitchen. At least I think it is under there somewhere...

Yes, that is my antique pink couch upside down on top of our other couch. Don't ask. When I ask my dad to help, I just have to close my eyes, grit my teeth, let go of my control, and say "thank you" with a smile.

The view into the guest room/craft room and the hard-working husband.

So how did our house turn into a pile of craziness, you wonder? Well, the story goes that we were going to start our remodel with just opening up the living room (check!) so all of the living room furniture and decor was moved into the guest room and kitchen. But then we decided "hey- why not do the bathroom at the same time", so all of our bathroom pretties were also moved into the kitchen and we moved out of the dust-filled house and into my parents' guest room (where we currently reside). The living room was finished and painted (see the blue walls?) and my dad gutted the bathroom. Somewhere in there, hubs decided to do the guest room (which is almost done... *fingers crossed*), so everything that was in the guest room moved back into the living room. It's been a whole bunch of ridiculous shuffling. 

What I learned:

No matter how short you think the remodel is going to be, box up the items from that room and store and cover the furniture in a safe place.

What we did wrong:

Shuffling without packing ANYTHING. Our belongings are now a scramble throughout the house and if you asked me to find something, I would not even know where to start looking (thank you, husband and father and father-in-law and bros-in-law for your moving muscles). Pretty much everything is covered in dust because men don't always think of covering things. And the outlook for putting the house back together is bleak. Everything will need to be completely reorganized and dusted. Organizing= something I love. Dusting= something I loathe.

The remodel status: 

The living room is done including lighting and painting. The bathroom has turned into more of a problem than expected and is at a standstill. The guest room is sheet-rocked and the built-in cabinet was finished today. The walk-in closet, the kitchen, and the master bedroom haven't been touched. We may move back in once the front of the house is finished and close the back of the house off from the front while it is worked on. We shall see. I am no longer making any promises that have anything to do with the state of our little crooked house.