Monday, September 10, 2012

OH. MY. GOSH.

 
We spent the weekend moving & it was crazy.  Really really crazy.
 
We moved into this:

(Well, minus the boxes...  We threw them there in an attempt to get some normalcy happening upstairs.)
 
Our new house is pretty much down to the studs. 

{You can spy our kitchen through the dining room in this pic.  We're expanding the kitchen 2 feet closer into the dining room & a wall will be going back up.}
 
There's a lot of this (below) going on because we're trying to live here through the construction.
 

(our foyer, quarantined ;)
 
We live up here now:
 
{The upstairs loft living room.  There are 2 bedrooms & a bathroom off of the living room.  Dave & I are squatting in baby Luke's nursery for now.   We're eating most meals outside or at the little table on the left.  }
 
We still have a few things at our old house to do & touch-ups there of course, but we're almost completely done.  It's pretty surreal.  I haven't really had a minute to think about all of the design decisions I need to make for the new place.  There are sooooo many coming up that I'm really excited about but I've got too much other stuff on my plate to even really go there right now.  I'm trying not to delay anything constuction-wise!!
 
And....
 we have a new office! 
 
Check it out:

(The Garage = stylin' new digs for Lauren Liess Interiors ;) ;)
 
rigggggght.
 
Although I'm kind of in love with working basically-outside.
 
Here's my new spot:

 
We epoxy'd the floors last week before moving everything in.  
My job was to sprinkle the sparkles. 
(I had waaaaaaay too much fun with that.)

Have a great week!!! I'll keep you posted!




If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Here Comes Fall

Fall is almost here.  The weather turned cooler here this weekend and it finally got me in the mood to decorate.  This year I am going to use what I have and try to evoke the fun of the season without spending money.  First up is my vignette on the buffet.  Gone is the back-to-school vignette and in it's place is a simple arrangement that speaks fall to me. 

The crab apple and bittersweet were from mother nature and the license plate and iron stone are from my collection.  I added a little pumpkin I have used for several years and the look is complete.  Are you getting your fall on yet?    
 Sherry
Tweak It Tuesday at Cozy Little House
Cottage Style Link Party  at Lavender Garden Cottage
Sunday's Best Party  at My 1929 Charmer
Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper
Sunny Simple Sundays  at Sunny Simple Life
Mod Mix Monday  at Mod Vintage Life
Share Your Cup Thursday  at Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson
My Monday Muse at Carter's Cottage 

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Our Nature Box

I'm back from a whirlwind week of work & packing for our move! We leave our house Saturday and I'm bittersweet about it. 
 
We've been trying to take some time to enjoy our house as much as possible before we move & one of our favorite things to do is to take walks & spend time outside.  The boys & I have been working on filling up our "nature box" which is actually an old printer's tray:
 
 
 
 
We love coming home from walks & trips to display our finds in the nature box.  Some of the finds are from our beach trips this Summer & Spring, while most are from around our neighborhood.
 

 
Lately, we've been starting to see the acorns!! (yay Fall!! :)
Some are still green & a few are brown.  The seed pods are so pretty too in their own way.
 
I don't know the names of half of the stuff in the box, but of course we have our own names for our finds.  When we get our books set up at the new house, we'll look them up the old-fashioned way.
(I.e. "spikey balls" -  below)

 
The boys often come home with pretty little stones to add to the boxes.

{What are these green crazy things we found on a tree??!!!  seeds pods??  love them!}

Anyway, I hope you've been having a great week!  We have so much going on right now & it's starting to make me a little nutty in the head.  I'm forgetting things left & right and I can't seem to keep anything straight.  I am so excited about everything and, emotionally, I'm totally fine, but it's my brain that's going! :)  I'll be back as soon as I can to share pics on the DEMO going on over at our new place!!



If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Home Sweet Home # 83

Hello and welcome to Home Sweet Home!  Here is a peak of what I have been doing all week.  I tried my hand at taxidermy with my Fabulously Rustic  goofy Antlers. 

My David Austin rose was the star of my Late Summer Rose photography session.

And, there couldn't be any easier (3 ingredients) fall baking than this Pumpkin Cake Delight  and it smells fantastic baking in the oven!

Now I would like to highlight some of the posts that caught my eye last week.

Gina at Random Thoughts From an Incoherent Mind tried her hand at upholstery and she won!  Isn't it gorgeous!

Shannon at North Dakota Kitchen made this cake......out of fondant......yes, it isn't popcorn!

Lynn at Cottage & Creek gave a makeover to a little table that was really cute!  she even decoupaged a little script in the front.  

Pollyanna at Pollyanna Reinvents  showed off the most adorably remodeled garden shed.

There are many great links each week!  Thank you to all who join me at Home Sweet Home!

 Sherry
I will join these ladies today:
Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground 
Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage
Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home
Home and Garden Thursday  at A Delightsome Life 
Potpourri Friday at 2805
Inspiration Friday  at The Picket Fence
G'Day Saturday  at Natasha in Oz


 Guidelines for Home Sweet Home Party:
Attention: To link up with inlinkz you must have a permalink back to this party in your post or they will not allow you to link.  
Link up anything in your home or garden.  I love seeing neat shops too!
My button is on my sidebar for the party, if you want to use it.   If you are new here I hope you will become a follower. Please don't link up more than two posts.  No Etsy link ups or direct advertising, please.  Please visit some of the other blogs and get some great inspiration.  Thanks.:)
Now let's see your beautiful homes!


Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Pumpkin Cake Delight

This recipe was so simple I had to try it!  I was curious if it would work, because it has only three ingredients!  

Ingredients:
1-18.25 oz. box of yellow cake mix
1-15 oz. can of Pumpkin Pie Filling ready to use
1/2 cup of butter, melted

1. Pour the pie mix in the bottom of a loaf pan (could use a 8 x 8 inch).  *Note: the recipe called for a 9" x 13" baking dish.  I used this and I thought a smaller pan would work better.  The cake was also pictured made in a loaf pan.  
 

*Note:  I could only find a 15 oz. can of pumpkin in our grocery.  The Pumpkin Pie Filling was not on the shelves yet.   Just add these spices to a can of pumpkin to make it a can of Pumpkin Pie Filling:
3/4 cup of sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg



2. Sprinkle the yellow cake mix over the pie mixture.

3. Then pour the melted butter over the cake mix.  Bake at 350 degrees for about 30-40 minutes.  Test it by using a knife and see if it pulls out clean, then it's done. 

The smell of this in the oven was like a pumpkin spice vanilla candle!  The kids said it tasted amazing too.

Enjoy!
Sherry
I will link this to: 
Friday Food at Mom Trends
Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum
Thriving on Thursdays  at Domesblissity
On the Menu Monday at Stonegable 
Rooted in Thyme Simple and Sweet Fridays
Wow Us Wednesdayat Savvy Southern Style
A Pinteresting Party  at Tutus & Tea Parties

Late Summer Rose

I took a picture of my last David Austin rose against the colors of the crab apple twig.  I loved the pale summer rose color in contrast to the vibrant fall colors of the crab apple.

Faded and beautiful is the late summer rose.  
I used textures on these photos:
#1- urban, soft light 70%
#2- urban, linear burn 47%
#3- urban, linear burn 50%
All textures by Kim Klassen.

  Sherry
  I will join:
Texture Tuesday at Kim Klassen Cafe
Table Top Tuesday  at A Stroll Thru Life
Tweak It Tuesday at Cozy Little House

Sunday, September 2, 2012

Fabulously Rustic

Source: scanned  Romantic Prairie Style  Summer 2012

One of my favorite magazines to premiere this summer was Romantic Prairie Style by Fifi O'Neill.  The magazine delivered much inspiration and drool worthy interiors all with a vintage twist.


Source: scanned image from Romantic Prairie Style  Summer 2012

The vintage all mixed with the rustic was so up my alley.  I couldn't help but be intrigued by this one home photographed with the deer antlers mounted right on the wall!  I happened to have a set of antlers just like this!  What to do...what to do.   I thought about it awhile.  Should I just mount them right on the wall? 


Well bare antlers can look amazing in a lot of spaces.  I am not against mounting them as is.  But, I wanted to display them in my dining room so, I thought they needed a little more modesty.  Yes, that meant I was going to try taxidermy!  How hard could this project be right?  Here are my supplies:  wooden plaque, antlers, hot glue gun, leather square, and upholstery tacks.

I spray painted the wooden plaque first.  I then hot glued the antlers to the plaque.  Then I sketched out a pattern for my leather cover.

I then cut the leather out.
I then trimmed the leather even more and positioned the tacks.

I did a few tacks to anchor it first.

The bland spray paint just wasn't the look I was wanting so I sanded that up and applied a glaze to the whole plaque to make it look a little more aged.

So here is where I wanted to put them, right above my buffet in the dining room.  I was pleased with how they turned out.  It wasn't hard at all to do this.  A bit of a rustic touch for fall and winter.

That vine hanging in the side of the photo above is this.  I found a real bittersweet vine for fall!!!  Love this stuff, talk about fabulously rustic, bittersweet is it!
 Sherry
Tweak It Tuesday at Cozy Little House
Cottage Style Link Party  at Lavender Garden Cottage
Sunday's Best Party  at My 1929 Charmer
Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper
Sunny Simple Sundays  at Sunny Simple Life
Mod Mix Monday  at Mod Vintage Life
Share Your Cup Thursday  at Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson
Before and After Party at Thrifty Decor Chick
My Monday Muse at Carter's Cottage