Hanging Out

It's summa time!  This is my second day to bask in the gloriousness that is summer vacation!  As you may or may not know, I have a difficult time sitting still so I'm accomplishing quite a bit around 912 ELM Tree.

To start, I finally got around to hanging my vintage plate that I talked about purchasing here. 

I didn't want to use a bulky plate hanger, so after a quick Pinterest search, I found that you can bend a paperclip to discreetly hang plates!  Hot glue and a tiny piece of fabric are also necessary.  The plate has actually been hanging for a couple days now and so far so good with the stability.

Here's what it looks like close up.  I just love it! 

Also, on an unrelated note, if you have a minute, please go to this website: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/5/prweb9535043.htm.  One of my best friends, Christen Kitchell, has worked very hard on this project and needs our support!

Weekend Recap

Only 1 more sleep 'til summer!  We had a GREAT weekend chock full of bbq's and birthday parties.  Sunday we celebrated this little chicklet's second bday. 

Man Cave Happenings

Gooood morning!  With school winding down, I've had some extra free time on my hands this past week and things are movin' and shakin' in the man cave!  From the get-go, I wanted to challenge myself to use things we already had around the house (minus paint and window coverings), so most "updates" you see were completely free!

Starting in this corner, I brought in the little blue table that I talked about here and hung the airplane picture Eric got from his grandpa.  It had special significance to his grandpa because it was the type of plane he learned to fly in the Navy.

Here's a closer look.  I homemade the coaster with a bunch of "M" stickers.  The little dude on the right is a genuine airplane compass.

This isn't that exciting, but it's a definite upgrade from what was there before.  The dresser was given to us by Eric's grandma and used to be covering the little problem area you see to the right from when we took out the bookcase. 

I'm still glad we did it (even if there was no carpet underneath.)  The balance was off since there was only one.  A handyman came out to measure for built-in's (across the whole wall) and we're waiting on his estimate. 

Wavy table was moved out from behind the couch to hold some pictures that used to live at various places around the house.  Wavy came from my grandparents because they got a new one.  I'm seriously thinking about painting him a fun color like the other guys in this room. 

This space between the entrance to the cave and the porch door. I was always weary to put something there because I didn't want it to feel crowded, but it always felt like that side of the room was missing something.

Close up!  I did purchase the little A & W and Kriege pics (which I talked about here) but the New Orleans pic and gold airplane clock were reused from around the house. 

Same deal with this stuff.  I purchased the Northside art, but the "m" and picture were relocated.  "M" is probably going to get a new paint job soon.  It previously was silver and used in a gallery wall until I sprayed him orange.  I'm not digging the orange so it might end up yellow instead.  Or maybe royal blue...

The airplane picture flew in from the hallway and decided to reside in the cave with the other airplane dudes.  My BFF Patty got this for us Christmas and we love the cool details of it!

Finally, sticking with the accidental "flying" theme, the bird pillow relocated from the guest room to the cave sectional.

The unfortunate side effect of moving wavy table to the empty space is that there's now nothing behind the couch for our lamp to sit on.  Ordinarily it wouldn't be a problem to not have anything back there, but this lamp is the only lighting on that side of the room.  Since there's no over head lighting, we kinda need something there.  So I'm on the look out for a table of sorts, as well as some chunky lamps that I can paint. 

FLOR?

(from here)

Wowza! This is so cool that I spent an hour looking at all the cool options on the FLOR website.  We know that our man cave flooring will have to be replaced eventually (reasons why to come later) so I wanted to consider all the options out there. 

Has anyone out there tried FLOR tiles? Are they easy to install? How do they hold up? I'm intrigued.

White Shelves

I'm very pleased to announce that we FINALLY got around to hanging these fresh and fun shelves I received as a Christmas gift.  They hanging out in the pink master bathroom and are replacing the flimsy, stand alone shelving unit we had before.  The styling of the shelves may change here and there, plus we're also considering some hooks underneath for additional storage.

Aren't the peonies pretty too?!?

Succulents

Succulents are kind of the chevron of the plant world right now.  There are tons of people making their own terrariums and I love the look of them!  They're also pretty easy to maintain: very little water is necessary.

Despite loving the look, I didn't feel like going for the whole terrarium shebang right now.   Jade is one of my fav plants so I grabbed one for $2 at Home Depot a couple of weeks ago.  Add a glass candle holder that I already had laying around the house and voila!

This little guy currently resides on the kitchen window sill, next to the bamboo.  The rocks at the bottom are for drainage (and I think they look kind of cool too!)

Yellow?

Oh that little yellow tidbit?  I painted it over the weekend, but only after a lot of mulling it over for quite awhile.

I picked this table up on clearance at Marshall's a couple years ago because the rest of the nesting tables that went with it had been purchased.  It was a shiny, lacquered black and it just didn't do much for the man cave. 

Here's a better look.  The color in this picture is reading more greenish-yellow than "sunburst" like the spray paint can says.  In real life, it's much sunnier.  

Huge shocker-the hubs actually liked it!  I purposely didn't tell him about it because he's not much for flashy colors so it was shocking to me when he mentioned he liked it.

Also I forgot to post this yesterday with my thrifty purchases.  I'm thinking this lovely little lady is going to go on the wall in the dining room.

Fab finds

Last weekend I went to a great antique/resale shop in my hometown. It's a neat little shop on main street and I almost always find cool treasures. Here's the stuff that is now taking up residency at 912 ELM Tree.

This little guy had me from hello.  I spotted it on the sidewalk as I was walking up and I literally ran to snatch it before anyone else could.  (Oops, still need to take the tag off!)  Everything from the color to the pedestal-goodness makes me swoon.  I keep hanging out on the porch and walking by the window just to gaze at it. 

Here's the view from the top.  It has such a cute shape!  (And as you can probably tell from the pictures, something is missing from the porch! More on that later.)

This picture is a little blurry, but I also happened across some postcard-sized, framed art of notable/historic businesses from our hometown.  I thought these could look super cool as part of a gallery wall in the man cave. 

The frames were regular 'ole wood and as you can tell I've already dolled them up a bit.  With the walls being a neutral creamy gray, the blues and greens really pop. 

Have you found any treasures lately?

Blooming

Things are blooming around here this weekend!  *Most* of our flowers have been planted and I'm sooooo happy with the way they turned out this year! 

These are from my cell phone so they're not the best quality.  Purple and yellow was the color scheme of choice and I'm LOVING the way they look against the yellow door!  The black pots are actually chalkboard painted.  I'm still trying to decide what to write on them. 

Here's a view of the backyard fleurs.  We get tons of shade so lots and lots of impatients.  There are two of these baskets on the patio fence.

And here's the back corner of the patio.  When we moved in, we found this bird bath stand had been left, sans top.  You would not believe how difficult it is to find a stinkin top!  I've looked at Walmart, Target, Lowe's, and Home Depot with no luck.  Garden Ridge is next up on my stop.

Anyone else do any planting lately?