Antiquing...again

Andrew's parents came down this weekend to see our new house and visit. We took them around our part of Ohio which included the most delicious restaraunt ever, Smokey Bones and the Air Force Museum. We even drove to West Virginia.
We also went to our favorite antique store, squee :)

It never fails that when we go to this store we find something. Even if we weren't looking for something.

We've been waiting to find a ladder of some sort to use as a blanket/quilt holder for the guest bedroom. It had to be tall, and rustic. Our downstairs ceilings are nine feet tall and all the windows are just under that.

We found this beauty and snagged it up! $25

And of course, we found some more paintings.

Another winter scape, with a barn. $14
And this more summer-y painting, $9.99

There were also some insulators we bought that Andrew's going to use for a project. I'll wait to show those until he's done with his fun.

Overall, it was a great weekend. We're tired, but it was so fun to show of our home!

Giant Ice Cream Cones and a Hail Storm

It's been wonderfully spring like, thunderstorms and warm days. Our heat has been off for close to three weeks. Woohoo for energy savings!

Well, when it gets to 65 degrees one day and Andrew just happens to hear about a dairy farm from one of his patients, you just know I'm going to be there.

Oh, and Andrew neglected to mention until we were almost there that there is a petting zoo.

And I didn't have my camera. : (

The petting zoo was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, those are necessary.

There were baby cows and goats and the dairy cows are Jersey cows. Which if you didn't know are my favorite cow. Fuzzy ears.

The ice cream, cheese and any other product made from milk they sell is all made there at this working dairy farm.

We both got a waffle cone with 2 scoops.

Bad idea...Say it with me, bad idea.

This picture is from day 2. I couldn't even get past the first scoop and had to put it in the freezer.

It was delicious! And inexpensive, for both our giant ice cream cones, $5 and some change.

Warm weather, passing thunderstorms and ice cream. That's all fine and dandy until you're on your way to a nursery to buy plants and get stuck in a hail storm and the temp has now dipped to a whopping 38 degrees.

I'm pretty sure I'm being punished for not bringing my camera to the petting zoo.

Art

We've been working on getting a lot of art in the house lately. I'm not an art snob by any means, I just have to feel drawn to it to buy it. What I love about a lot of the art in our house right now is that it's mine. All Hattie original art.

Well, except for this thing. We got this a few weeks ago at our favorite antique mall. We took a mental break from painting the office and I was rewarded with this pretty thing.

I love the frame, the giant circle to hang it from, I even like the dead plants in it. There's not much to it, but it was hiding behind another piece of art, laying on it's side and I was instantly drawn to it. Plus, the dealer was there and gave us $10 off, that sealed the deal.

This is one of those Hattie originals. I took this for my black and white photography class a few semesters ago. I developed it in a dark room and everything.

I'm not a professional photographer by any means, but I have so much fun taking pictures.

This is are big art project right now, a picture rail.

In a gigantic wood pile behind the garage we found the old rail for our garage. It's probably original to the building which makes it close to 100 years old. It was old, rusty and in need of some love so I sanded it down with my dremmel and we spray painted it.

Old metal rail + pictures = art only Andrew and I will probably love.

Oh, and I took all those pictures myself, too.

A Substantial Post, Maybe

I've been thinking. Why do I blog?

Well, mostly I blog for myself but, I also blog for family.

I happen to be the only member of my family that lives in Ohio. Blogging is a great way to share our life with family back home(mostly, my mom) with a few family members that stay connected with Facebook.

So, while my blog has no organization and definately no theme, it's filled with our adventures and now our home.

Like this post here. Andrew and I had an awesome weekend. Saturday we went to an outlet center, specifically to go to Pottery Barn since Andrew had never been to one. We found some cute things on major sale that I'll post later, not all of them have been settled into the house and I'd rather post them in their new environment.

Sunday was even more random. We went to breakfast and the grocery store from some produce for the week and decided on a whim to go for a drive. If you know us personally, this is our favorite pastime.

We saw a sign that said Ohio Caverns and in a split second I shouted for Andrew to turn. Stopping to turn at 60 was pretty awesome. hehe.

We weren't sure what we'd find and if we'd be able to get in. But, after a few miles there was a park and building advertising tours and a cave.

We went inside and figured what the hell? Cave tour on our Sunday morning.

It was just 9am and we were the first tour of the morning and it turned into a private tour! We were the only ones there plus our tour guide.

Due to the spontaneity of our trip I didn't have my camera. This photo is from the Ohio Caverns website.

It was really neat, since I'm a girl that grew up on Niagra Cave in Minnesota this was pretty different. And there were even some friendly bats flying around.

Well, now you know. I blog for me and family.
We shop at Pottery Barn.
Take random cave tours on Sunday mornings.
Love to drive around.

And need to remember to have my camera at all times.

A Simple Post for a Simple Fix

We are lucky enough to have a see-through bathroom cabinet left behind from the previous owners and right now have no desire to replace.

You can see all of our things, packages included. And, well I for one don't like toiletry packages. Especially q-tips and cotton balls. At first, I wanted to buy some pretty apothecary jars, a la Pottery Barn, but those could set me back a pretty penny.

We had another idea ...jars. Plain old jars.

During our mental break last Saturday we were on a look out for Mason style jars with lids. We scored this babies for $2 a piece.

And they hold our things so nicely. By the way, I don't approve of the blue q-tips. Andrew bought those during training and I hate wasting things, I can't wait until they are gone and I can get all white ones. Yes, I'm a q-tip snob.

For another project we are going to take the glass out of this and replace it with tin that I'll stamp some art into. Woohoo DIY.

Paint, Pictures and Fans, oh my!

We did our office too! After yesterdays post and my enthusiasm over our guest bathroom it might be hard to believe there are other nice rooms in the house.

But, there are.

This is the before of our office. This room was also decked out in Ohio State decor. At least there were no blood red walls to contend with.

After: Quite the transformation, if you ask me.

We took a mental break Saturday, I was so mad at the paint and the rollers for the extension pole kept collasping. I was angry! Anyway, we took a break and went to our favorite antique mall. We found some neat things.

One piece was this artwork.

And this fan, it still works too!
That will be the cleanest my desk ever looks.

It was a very productive Saturday. We snagged a few more antiques, but I'll blog about those another time. The color on the walls is Lyndhurst Jade, but it borders on a sage, mint, seafoamy green. I love Lowe's Valspar paint, but the colors on the wall are so hard to describe.

My Favorite Room...So Far

Three rooms down, and this is by far my favorite. Which is funny, since it's the guest bathroom!

This is the before, and before.

The first is from when we toured the house. They really love Ohio State. They thankfully took everything except the silver etagere and the shower curtain.

After some elbow grease and about 4 coats of paint to cover up that red, we had something that looked like this:

We are just waiting for a piece of artwork for above this towel rack. I don't buy art I don't love, I'm hoping the right one will show up soon, the poor wall looks empty.

Can you see what I'm talking about? This is the best room ever!

This is a custom made cabinet by a local furniture maker. Gorgeous!
It's cedar lined and smells delicious!

These were one of our antique store finds, love!

Isn't this room the best? It's easily the biggest difference so far in the house and I love the warm, rustic feel of it.

We re-did the office too, which was an amazing transformation as well. But, more on that later. This is a guest bath I'll be proud to show people.

Don't be afraid, let me know what you think!

Upstairs Bathroom Redo

We had to get to work right away. Our new house has great bones, the people that lived here before took very good care of it. Did I mention this house was built in 1881?

My first project was the upstairs bathroom. I knew the color I wanted and it needed some serious tub work.

While Andrew pried and scraped the dirty, moldy caulk from around the tub I washed and painted the walls. Yeah, I know it's pink...but it's better when things are on the wall.

See? Better. We also changed the icky yellow outlets to white and replaced the gold towel bars to shiny chrome to match the light fixture.
We saw these towels and shower curtain at Target, and both fell in love. They were perfect for what I wanted in that bathroom.

It was a little bit of a shock at first, with the pink, but we both love it. Andrew re-caulked the tub and around the toilet and it looks brand new now. I didn't take before and after pictures of that mess, I'm afraid it would have inspired some nausea.

Eventually I'll refinish the furniture they left behind I can't decide if I want to paint it dark, like the vanity or white. But, that is a summer project and I need to get myself a sander...Andrew? Are you reading this? Sander...