Its the Simple Things

If you are ever in the north Texas area, you must visit 

Simple Things Furniture Company.

They are re-opening their store this week

in a brand new location and it is amazing!

I asked them if I could share the news and

some of the pictures here on my blog because 

you just have to see this place.

This isn't just a regular furniture and home decor store 

where you walk in to see the merchandise.

It's an experience. 

   How many stores do you go into and actually marvel at the walls of the building or notice the ceiling and the floors.  

The place is a beautiful structure.  

You'll want to move right in. 

Can someone put these floors in my house please?

Once you get past the stunning architecture of the building

 (which they created from a generic warehouse space),

get ready for your jaw to drop.

Here are some pictures of inside Simple Things.

Those seltzer bottles are not just any bottles.

See the tag?  It says Joe T. Garcia's which 

is a restaurant icon around here. How cool.

This is so me.  Love the pop of red!

Not only will you want to buy everything,

but you will be inspired with decorating ideas.

I know.  Your jaw dropped.

Close your mouth before you drool.

Are you wanting more?

Get ready to blow up your Pinterest account.

Click here to visit their blog and see more pictures

of how they built this store and more of what is inside.

Better yet, visit them at 

7401 W Vickery

in Fort Worth, Texas.

What do you think?  Are you in love with this place?

What did you pin?

4th of July party needs

There's a little town in Texas called Dublin.  

If you don't live around here, you may have never heard of it. 

 It's really small. 

Maybe you have heard of it though.

Ever heard of Dublin Dr. Pepper?

It's been in the news.

It's a long story.

My husband's family is from that part of Texas.

He had relatives from Dublin.

Recently, he and my son stopped in at the former Dublin Dr. Pepper plant

which is now Dublin Bottling Works on their way to DeLeon

(which is an even smaller town).

They brought home a case of this:

Dublin Bottling Works

If you can't get to Dublin, you can order some.

How about some cherry limeade, cream soda, cheerwine,

Texas root beer, blueberry breeze, cola, lemonade or gingerale?

mmmmm.

Aren't these great retro vintage style bottles?

They're chillin' in our fridge.

They would be great chillin' in a big tub of ice

for a party or a July 4th celebration.

The twist off caps would make cute little

vintage aqua magnets for that fridge.

They would also look great with these pretty little paper straws.

I want some of these pretty little straws so bad.

Terrain

I like these chevron straws too...but not quite as much.

Terrain

I'd like to add the pretty little straws to these.

Terrain

Maybe these would be better.  They're bigger

and unbreakable.

World Market

All of these would make a fun celebration

that much better!

Happy 4th!

porch and garden makeover

These first two pictures of my front porch seem to be the post popular pictures on my blog.

They have been pinned and repinned hundreds of times.
I'm so surprised by that. 

It seems people like the bench and window table.

I do too.  However, the material covering the bench gets really dirty

and a pane in the window table cracked so it's now missing a pane.

We'll get that replaced but for now it's been moved safely to the garage.
That means I get to redecorate the porch! 

So, I needed to recover the bench.

I decided to go with a bright oil cloth that's easy to clean

and simple red and white everywhere else.

The little pop up red camping tables are filling in

while the window table takes some time off.

This fabric pattern is different for me but I like it.

It's a bit brighter in person and really perks up the place.

We also gave the front yard a lift.

We dug up most of the plants in the garden and started over.

The plants are already starting to fill in and soon

the garden will be full of red and white color.

I love my little front porch and garden.

Lantana in the bucket.  Lantana is the best plant for the

hot Texas summer heat coming up.

A little water occasionally and sun and they thrive.

We sit on the front porch when it's cool

and watch the birds at the feeders.

My husband's attempt at following a Pinterest idea.

See his little water feature?  It's like a miniature birdbath.

The new bright bench fabric goes well with the new door mat.

It's a nice welcome home.

solar lights

My husband ran an errand last Saturday morning and 

when he came home, he had these solar lights for the backyard.

We've never discussed solar lights or any other lights for that matter.

I had no idea he thought we needed these.

We have a pretty bright porch light about where I'm standing 

to take the picture that lights up the backyard.

So, I asked my husband, "Why do you think we need these?"

His reply?  "We don't.  The dogs do."

Of course they do.  

What?

Yes, these lights are for the dogs.

Sometimes he has to let them out in the middle of the night.

He doesn't want to turn on the bright porch light

(for reasons that escape me) 

but he does want them to have a little bit of light

so they can see when they take care of business.

Whatever.

They do look kind of nice.

They only line this one fence.

I guess this will be the the main spot

where the pups take care of business...

which is by the back door...

not on the other side of the yard that we don't use much...

which means all of the dogs' business will be

right by the back door...

which means we'll have to watch our step off the back porch...

and we'll have an abundance of smell...

if he doesn't remove the dogs' business regularly...

because two of these dogs are big labs....

who poop logs...

a lot.

You may have noticed that I don't have a picture

of what they look like when they're on at night.

They give off a nice little glow.

Not actual light, just a little glow.

Not really any usable light to actually see anything by

but more of ambience...a glow

because every average backyard 

in which no entertaining takes place needs that.

So, if you read the last post before this one,

you'll know that we brightened up our main downstairs bath 

with a little makeover

and apparently we brightened up the dog's main bathroom

with a little makeover.

Awesome.

(yep, with a little sarcastic tone)

on the bright side...

 The main bathroom downstairs used to be my son's bathroom as well as the main bathroom guests used.  It was decorated with a darker, more masculine theme with items special to my son.

We had a HUGE black "G" on the wall.

We had painted the cabinets black and changed the toilet seat to black.

These were necessary changes if I had any hope of this bathroom at least 

looking clean for more than a few minutes.

The plaid patchwork shower curtain matched his bed quilt.

My son's artwork hung on the wall.

The vintage black medicine cabinet was on the opposite wall.

My son moved to a bedroom upstairs a couple of years ago and

he has a bathroom up there all to himself (which is scary).

So, one of the things on my 2013 "to do" list was to give this

bathroom a little fresh makeover. 

We managed to brighten it up for a whopping 60 bucks. 

Here we go!  It's so much brighter and seems so fresh.

The shower curtain is from Ikea for about $14.

We got this shelf from our neighbor's garage sale for I think $15.

We painted it grey.

The towels are from Ikea too.  

Nothing says fresh and clean like white towels.

We already had everything else.

The little pot with our family's number 3

was a gift from a neighbor.

We kept the vintage black cabinet.

The grey bath mat and super cool new cream trash can

are from Ikea.  I think we paid about $35 for them plus the towels

and it was all on sale!

We kept the G and the black cabinets.

One day and a few bucks

really brightened this space up.

I think I hung the shower curtain a little high though.

Imagine it a few inches lower and we'll call this room done.

Let's get a little real as we start the new year.  I've got secrets to share and they aren't pretty.  I'm coming clean about some things I need to fix.  Maybe if I list them here, it will motivate me to make changes and get things done before year's end.  I'm not including pictures yet because to see them all in one blog post would be, well, embarrassing.  There are a lot of projects that need to be done around here and a few projects that I would like to do but aren't as necessary.  If I can get even half of these done...a third of these done...even one or two of these done, I would be happy.   Do I have hope that I can do it?  Sure, there's always hope.  Am I confident that I will do it?  No way.  Did you see my 2012 best projects post?  That's because there wasn't one.  That's because I didn't do any projects this past year.  Oh wait, there's one; my big huge industrial chalkboard but that's it.  

So here's what I would like to accomplish this year (sorry it's kind of wordy):

1. stairs: we have nasty carpet on our stairs and I would like to take it off and paint them.  Two years ago (yes, TWO YEARS ago), we took the carpet off the first two steps to see what the wooden stairs underneath looked like.  It's been two years since then folks.  I was that disappointed.
2. garage: what garage?  It is a storage warehouse and filled to the brim. We have never had a car in our garage because there is no room.  I've got to change that.  You would be shocked to see what's in there.  That space (and thankfully only that space) could be on "Hoarders".  Hopefully there are no dead anythings.
3. entry closet: we never use it.  I have no idea what's even in there but my husband says it's full.  I want to clean it out, put up shelves and make it a second pantry to store small appliances, etc.  That would free up so much room in our kitchen.
4. tornado room: there's a great story behind this room but I'll save it until I post about it's redo.  This should be an easy one to accomplish.  Fingers crossed.
5. master bedroom: it's time to freshen up this room.  I've got everything I need to do it except paint...and the will to start it.  It's going to be a lot of work.  
6. master bath:  Technically, it's not a health hazard but it's a mess.  No offense to homebuilders or homebuilding designers but one of them is an idiot to put carpet in a master bath.  It needs to come up.  I also need to pick up my clothes I often throw on the floor in a pile even though there's a HUGE walk in closet two steps away.  I have ideas for this room too and all the stuff I need to do it except paint and that dang will to start again. 
7. redoing main bath/updating: this one isn't a must but I would like to change it up a bit.  There's nothing wrong with it.  It's just been a few years since it was done. DONE!
8. painting kitchen cabinets: This will never happen.  Remember that will to start thing?  I don't even want to think about how much work is involved.
9. redo office: We did the office about 3 years ago in the style my husband wanted.  It had a lot of green and a lot of wood.  It was a bit manly let's say but nice.  It was so nice that my son slowly started taking in his music equipment bit by bit and before we knew it, the office became his recording studio.  Do you know how neat and tidy and careful young teenage boys are?  Let's just say the office isn't so nice anymore.  My son has moved his equipment to his room upstairs now so the office is ready to become our home office again.  Yes, I have everything I need for this room too and I might have the will to do it.  I just need to pick a paint color.
10. laundry room, upstairs tv room, guest room:  there are little projects I would like to do in these rooms.

So, that's my "to do" list of projects I want to do in 2013.  I've already completed one project already and it's not even on the list and it's only the 2nd day of the new year.  Here it is!

I moved this plant from the kitchen bar....

and put it on this cute stool next to the front door.

 It was a little bit of work because it's kind of heavy.

 Sorry the pictures aren't better and that I don't have a tutorial.

 

 

You have to start somewhere, right?

Any words of wisdom? motivational speeches?

financial incentives? fun advice?

Happy New Year!

Here's to family, friends,

happiness, good health, 

financial stability (afraid of heights on the fiscal cliff), 

more projects completed and more blog posts

in 2013.