Meet Shannon

Hey Everyone! I would like to officially introduce myself and thank Kim for welcoming me aboard. Here it goes...

Name: Shannon Emma

Birthday: September 22

Born In: New York

Currently Live: Still here!

Significant Other: Soul searching

Kids: 1- Son, 12 months

Cameron & I on his first birthday

Pets: Boxer named Penny Lane, Cat named Maui

Favorite Color(s): Coral, Peach

Peach picking in Upstate NY

Favorite Drink: Pumpkin flavored coffee, flavored seltzer

Blueberries, Cranberries, Blackberries & Mint in Rhinebeck, NY

Favorite Food: Sushi, Sweet Potato fries

Favorite Season: Summer

Sunset in Rhode Island



Blueberry Picking in Rhinebeck, NY

Favorite Holiday: Christmas

Favorite Movie and/or TV Show: P.S. I Love You, Desperate Housewives (even though it is off the air), Criminal Minds

Latest Read: Where We Belong by Emily Giffin

Favorite Way to Exercise: Hands down PILATES

Guilty Pleasure: Cookies, Shopping

Favorite Place(s) to Shop: Target, TJ Maxx, Local consignment shops

Favorite Beauty Product(s): Right now it is BB cream (Garnier) and CC cream (Oil of Olay). And always Morroccanoil.

I look forward to this new journey with you all!







Q&A with... Kim

I'm sure you're all more than ready to meet Shannon but I'm going to keep the suspense going a little longer and be the first to take the "official" middle-school-style Q&A.

Shannon and I in our friend's Wedding (October 31, 2009)

Name: Kim(berly)

Birthday: March 7

Born In: New York

Hudson River

Currently Live: Georgia

Significant Other: Single

Kids: 1 - Daughter 4yrs

Pets: 2 Dogs - Kingston (boxer 1yr) Lola (mutt 7yrs)

Favorite Color(s): Cool colors - blue, turquoise, aqua, green, white

dresser I painted last month (SOLD)

Favorite Drink: Coffee Addict. I also love a cold beer :)

My sister pointed out I always have a coffee in my hand (2009)

Favorite Food: Sushi, Grilled Chicken, Trail Mix (sounds so boring, but it's what I eat!)

 Favorite Way to Exercise: Just being active outdoors! Take my dogs for long walks (and loading furniture on a daily basis certainly helps)

Favorite Season: I LOVE Fall.. I really miss NY in the Fall

NY

Easy Fall Outfit (2010)

Favorite Holiday: Christmas, hands down.

Favorite Movie and/or TV Show: The Office, Mad Men, You've Got Mail, Breakfast at Tiffani's and Design Star

mad men

Latest Read: Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris


Guilty Pleasure: Watching the Real Housewives of Orange County.
And New Jersey.
And sometimes Miami.
Also frozen Reese's. So good.


Favorite Place(s) to Shop: Good Will, Anthropologie, Target, World Market, Home Goods

anthro

Design Style: Modern Vintage.. maybe eclectic.. there's no one category,  I like what I like :)

Nashville 2011

Ok, so I threw some relevant questions in there at the end..
Come back tomorrow to meet Shannon!

Times, they are a Changin' ((Big News))

Hello Friends! I'm going to cut right to the chase here - In order to make this blog as well-rounded, informative, entertaining and inspirational as possible, I have recruited my best friend, Shannon,  to join me. (because let's face it, two is usually better than one)

So what does that mean exactly? 

The majority of the blog will still pertain to furniture and home decor. But there will be more, including; beauty, fashion and tips on living a healthy life style.

You see, Shannon and I share the same love for all these things. But we also have a good bit of differences that will bring different perspectives on the topics.

She will bring the Northern (NY) point of view, while I have a Southern (GA) influence. When it comes to fashion Shannon can give advice for petite women while my pants are labeled "tall."
While most of you know I'm the mom to a 4yr old girl, Shannon is the mom to a 1yr old boy.
You get the point, I'm sure.

 

We will be introducing our selves (an official introduction for me, the first for her) and then getting right down to business.
We also thought it would be fun to "introduce" ourselves the way we would have when we first met 15 years ago, in middle school.
What's a middle school style intro you're wondering?  A Q&A survey of course. We'll probably leave out our favorite boy band though, sorry to disappoint.

I truly believe this will improve the blog greatly, so I hope those of you who have been so wonderful to follow me thus far, will stick around, because it's about to get even better.

Living Room Changes. Yes, Again.

Simplify, Simplify.
My Living Room was too busy for me, I need calm and relaxing, so I did some editing.

Here is what it looks like right now:

Shutter and Chair are Vintage

What I did:

~Rearranged the Furniture

!~Removed the rug - it was the number one thing driving me a little crazy (It's for sale at A Classy Flea)

~Removed the clutter that was on the mantel

~Took out the old little farm table and large tole lamp (Lamp is For Sale)

This is how it looked last time you saw it:

BEFORE

Once I moved the TV, the proportions of the stand were way off. So I sold it and replaced it with a dresser that I painted.

The top drawers didn't have knobs and I haven't decided what kind I want

The new art work about my TV was a fun DIY that I used my daughter's help for.

I needed something in that space

So I hand painted a bunch of 4x6 frames I had on hand. Then I had my little artist go to town with three different shades of blue. I then cut out pieces of her work to fit into the frames.

So simple and fun!

they are not this bright in person

The color of the frames were inspired by my ikat pillows

And look what pillow is on one of the (4 awesome) Country Living Covers this month

Country Living apparently got theirs for $163 at lacefielddesigns.com
FYI - I paid no where near that much for mine.

One more time -

AFTER

All I need (right) now for my Living Room is a new rug (again) - something neutral this time.
New curtains and a ceiling light.

Off Topic - Back to School

Warning: This is not a Furniture or Home Decor Post.

It's back to school time (here at least) so I'm sharing a couple cheap ways to get ready.

 I've grown to love toddler and kids fashion and my daughter has been very blessed to have so many clothes gifted to her through the years.

 Mini Boden Boots, Tights, shorts and sweater. White shirt from Kohl's

Sweater- Garnet Hill Kids, Sweater Dress - target, Tights- mini boden, Shoes- The Children's Place

Dress - Mini Boden, Tights- Old Navy, Boots - Timberland

Well to be quite honest, this year my budget is very small. 

So I used two easy ways to save during "back to school"

#1 - DIY Hair Cut


I cut my daughter's hair and it was not like the memories of my child hood hair cuts from my dad.
It actually looks good.

before

This is such an easy way to save. I know with older kids and for sure with teenagers you probably can't get away with this, but elementary school in under, just cut it yourself!

after

 #2 Second Hand Clothes

Another great thing to take advantage of with young kids -you can totally get away with buying second hand clothes. And since you are saving so much (Good Will's children's clothes are $2.92 each) you can say "yes" a lot more to what your child picks out in terms of staying in budget.

I purchased; 3 Dresses, 2 skirts, 1 button down shirt and 1 short sleeve shirt for a TOTAL of  $20.00
Not bad right?


And these aren't Walmart brand clothes that will disintegrate in the wash. The purchase includes a Tommy Hilfiger skirt, Mini Boden Dress, Old Navy Dress and a H&M shirt.

The nice thing about girls clothes is that they tend to have so much that they out grow them before they wear them out. This allows you to find pieces in almost new condition.
 I'm not so sure it would be this easy with boys clothes to be honest, since they are so much more rough on them.


And here's my little fashionista in one of her "new" dresses

Her shoes (that seem to be glowing in this pic) are new, but they were a gift from her grandma. (Gap Kids)

I was getting her ready for her dad to bring her to his Birthday lunch, so I had some fun with her (newly cut) hair.

I followed Katie's bow bun tutorial from "Running on Happiness"

It was so easy that I followed her "top knot" tutorial to do my own hair :)

Yay for easy to follow hair tutorials and inexpensive clothes!

Cliff Notes

Oh how I miss putting a good post with good pictures together. But life has just been busy lately so to avoid another post-less day, I've complied a bunch of some what random phone pics to get us all caught up.

Speaking of random: I'm addicted to painting small items at night while watching mad men in my office.
The results:

 little wood stool painted with ascp and distressed. I added the cushion top and covered it with a chevron burlap fabric (obviously)
<SOLD>

I really love this little bench that I also painted with ascp. The top is covered with some fur fabric I had on hand

Lamps anyone? I painted the bases of all three and matched them with new shades.

center lamp <SOLD>

And if I didn't have something small to paint, I made one. This blue stag was free handed on a piece of grey-stained wood.

I even painted this guy inside
<SOLD>

There was much more that I didn't photograph so lets move on to my day time work.. you know, the stuff that's too big to move from my garage or drive way. I actually love painting outside because it's the only way I get any kind of tan ;)

I had fun with this dresser. It was done for one of the owners of the flea, so it is available for sale in her space.

This dresse actually lives in my Living Room. There's been a bunch of changes in there (already) that I will share some time soon.


And my latest completed project is this french-y style table and chairs.

I have a bunch of fun new items, including some vintage brass decor for etsy that will be available soon too.

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