Thursday, June 30, 2011

[6th street design school]






brightsides will be featured on 6th street design tomorrow!
i'm super excited!
i've been a follower of kirsten's beautiful blog for some time now
and feel so honored she'd ask me to be a part of it!  
i'm a big fan. her hip sense of style and design poise amaze me! 

be sure to go there & check it out tomorrow!
her post will include some of my home office and daughter's room pictures i haven't yet posted here along with a special freebie for you!
have a great day!


Wednesday, June 29, 2011

[freebies & a new blog]


a B c d E f g ...
last night i came across this blog on Aimee's pinterest board.
the handmade home offers these free retro feel alphafantastical printables!
so cute!
this is such a darling blog!  i'm quite in love!
they have lots of DIY projects like these adorable soft cuddly plushies (below)
right now they have a shabby apple giveaway!  you know i'm entering!
go here to enter!  you have until this thursday night.
shabby apple is also offering an exclusive discount to the handmade home's readers.  check it out!


Monday, June 27, 2011

[welcome to the circus!]




 it's been birthday season at our house! whew! it's literally been a circus around here!
sabrina celebrated her big sixth a few weeks ago!
this little cutie chose to have a circus party, which is fitting because she should really belong in the ring!
just this last week we found her literally hanging from the rafters down in the basement.
she's a climber and such a little acrobat!
sabrina is our little peacemaker.  she is so good at sharing, even if it's her new favorite thing.
sabrina can be the quietest little little thing or the biggest chatter box you've ever heard :)
she is growing up so fast and we love her so much!
happy birthday sis!
my darling sister-in-law beki stayed to help and positively saved my life that day!
we originally planned to have the party on a saturday, but it ended up not being a good day for us &
most of her little friends, so we moved it to a weekday afternoon.
sam was at work, so it was all on me.  i totally underestimated my abilities and didn't realize how 
involved the face painting we planned would be and just how "circus like" this party could actually become!
between this music playing and twelve little ones running around, it was quite a show!

well, cute bek to the rescue... she stayed and painted faces, passed out popcorn, held jack, held her baby myles, painted more faces, picked up gift wrappings, and much, much more!
i was so incredibly tired by the time this party was over.  i know i wore her out too!
thank you beki!  you're over the top amazing!

the party was really fun!
i think her friends had a great time!

also, a big shout out thank you to olivia!  she did an amazing job painting faces and helping out!
she painted this pretty purple butterfly (below left) all by herself!  she's such a little artist!
party inspiration & templates from one charming party 




©2011 brightsides, all rights reserved.

Friday, June 24, 2011

[pinterest fun]



okay, so you may have noticed the red follow me on pinterest button in my left hand column...
i have a little crush on pinterest.
do you?  do you have an account?  if so, let me know!  i'd love to follow you!
happy pinning!




Tuesday, June 21, 2011

[ice cream party]



i scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

my dear sweet olivia turned nine!  my oldest is getting so old!  how does that happen?  it's killing me!
this cutie is the best helper ever!  i don't know what i'd do without her!  i'm going to be sad when she
has to go back to school in the fall.  olivia is such a hard worker.  she seldom complains when asked to do chores, her homework or practicing.  she has the most adorable little laugh, and she's really funny!
she cracks all the kids up!  we love her to pieces!

every other year we throw them a friend party...  olivia wanted an ice cream one!
prepping the party premises.  i cut up scrapbook paper i never use and made these flag banners.
i shipped sam off with the two littles and my cutest friend heather happily helped me with the party! 
 i know i could never have managed all eleven girls without you dear friend!  thank you!

ideas, templates and inspiration found on one charming party!


©2011 brightsides, all rights reserved.

Friday, June 17, 2011

[galettes]




here's what i'm cooking up this morning.


we have a little whipping cream obsession going on at our house!
it's super low in fat, carbs & calories 
and it's oh so creamy and delish!  it even looks pretty!
  it sure beats butter and syrup on the health-o-meter.
my kids love it!
so i figure, spray one more!


dukan oat bran galettes
arguably the healthiest pancake ever
makes 8 large pancakes

• 1 c fat free or low fat cottage cheese
• 1 c oat bran
• 4 packets splenda
• 8 egg whites*
• cinnamon to taste
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder (opt)
* note: if cocoa is added, add one more egg white

blend all ingredients together well.
heat griddle to 350º and cook like a pancake (approx 3-5 min each side)
top with whip cream & maybe even a little chocolate syrup!





©2011 brightsides, all rights reserved.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

[our house]



okay!  i said i was going to post about the recent projects we've completed... i was finally able to take some pictures of our play pen (i call it that because it's always full of little tikes and toys) during the ten minutes it stayed clean!
jack's blessing was the perfect excuse to freshen up the house.

once the wheels started spinning and my motivation kicked in, i had all kinds of stuff i wanted to do to this place! i knew i couldn't go super crazy due to time and money, but it's amazing how far a little fresh paint and a few new accessories can go!  i really should have taken some before and after shots.  why must i always forget to do this?  i guess it's not that much different.

so here's what we did with our kitchen and family room area.

first off, like our master bedroom, we sam painted our vaulted ceilings white.  again, such a huge difference this made in the overall lightness & brightness to this north side of our house.
such a crazy hard and big job, but, i think if you were to ask sam, he'll agree it was worth it.  he did an incredible job!

next, i painted stripes on our island pony wall to match the backsplash stripes i had painted previously (like 5 years ago).

i replaced our tan/gold chandelier shades with crisp white ones
and my island lamp with this glass base with white drum shade one.

and finally, i added this daily bread print art that i made with photoshop.
i saw this saying on similar artwork, but i needed a vertical picture instead of horizontal, so i designed this (below right)
and threw it in an ikea frame :)
done.
next came the surprisingly hard task of finding new throw pillows for my sofas.
this yellow and white flower one was found by a tip from kirsten at 6th street design!
much of my inspiration and ideas have come from her!  love her!  she's so amazingly talented!
but i had no idea how much work went into finding the right combination of pillows. 
i went from store to store, website to website in search 
of the right colors and patterns that would mesh well and jive with what i already had goin' on.
do you recognize the words spelled out on this our house print above?
the lyrics are from crosby, stills & nash's our house song that i've always loved.
one night i was lying in bed with this tune in my head and came up with the idea to re-write 
the lyrics a tad and make a poster fitting to our family.  kinda fun.
so, the biggest lesson i learned about myself is that
i don't do spray paint!
for the life of me i can't make it look good!  everyone talks about how fast and easy it is.
that is so not the case for me!
i need serious lessons.
these enjoy it words ended up taking me hours to fix after a botch spray job.  i ended up hand brushing them out with a primer & re-painting.
so, if you have any advice or tips, i'll gladly take them!
i shared my spray paint woes with my cute cousin-in-law stacy from not just a housewife and she told me to apply many light coats 
and also to not buy the cheap stuff.
i'm scared to try again.  it just made me so frustrated!
i think naturally i'm just a lay it on thick kind a girl.  i'm comfortable with a brush.

next comes painting the walls in our front office.
we've painted a test swatch and i think it'll look really sharp!
here's the color we've chosen.  
now we just need to plan a party to force us to get it done!  

ciao



©2011 brightsides, all rights reserved.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

[feed me]




i frequently refer to him as my little hunk of burnin' love
he's delicious to me like grainy mush is to him
jack tom opened wide and ate his first spoonful of food the other day...
rice cereal
little liv is the best helper!  she jumped at the chance to help me feed him.  
oh so messy!  oh so fun!




©2011 brightsides, all rights reserved.

Monday, June 6, 2011

[master of the house]


my cute parents had the girls sleep over last night, so i've been able to catch up on a few things today!
i'm sitting here typing one handed while feeding jack lol.  it's hard.

i'm excited to finally post my bedroom makeover!  sadly, i didn't even think to take any "before" pictures,
 but here's what we did:

home

first off, we painted the ceilings white.  this made such a huge difference. 
i was going for light and bright in here, and wow, it sure opened up the room.
next, i painted my our headboard white.  it used to be a whitewash finish. 

i designed this mr & mrs print on photoshop and collected all the bedding, lamps and artwork 
at several different tj maxx & homegoods stores!

Photobucket
Photobucket

i am still working on my south wall (above).  
i have tons of white and gold frames;  some ornate and some simple... just a whole assortment with white mats.  

i've developed pictures to go in all of them, now sam and i just have to agree on how to hang them. 
i planned to hang a whole bunch of them over our bed and sam wouldn't go for it. 
so, i guess we'll have to position all of them around this mirror.  
wish me luck.


©2011 brightsides, all rights reserved.