2012 Believe Walk - For the Cure

Yesterday we were blessed to be a part of the 2012 Believe Walk in Redlands, California.  This was the 5th Annual Walk presented by Stater Bros Markets, supporting Women of the Inland Empire Fighting Cancer.  Over 10,000 participants walked or ran in support of this Charity event.  Over $500,000 was raised.

My hubby and I posed for a quick photo before the event began.  

This is my wonderful husband Jim, with my beautiful daughter Britney (right) and her good friend Kasondra.

As the walk began pink and white tissue paper floated through the air and rained down on the streets.  It almost looked like snow falling.

We stopped to take pictures in front of the "save the ta-tas" mobile that was covered in decorated bras.

There were both a 5k and a 10k route for runners, walkers, strollers, wheelchairs and even pets.  My husband and I walked the 5k while our daughter and her good friend ran the 10k.  I was so busy taking pictures that I think the girls finished before we did :)

Redlands California is a historical town in Southern California.  It has many beautiful 100+ year old homes lining the streets near the downtown area.  As we walked the 5k there were so many beautiful bungalows, cottages, Colonial and Victorian homes everywhere I looked.  I especially loved the homes with wrap around front porches!

Here are a few pictures of some of the homes that I liked.

This beauty is being restored.  I look forward to seeing it next year after it is finished.

There were so many homes and porches that I could envision decorating for the holidays.  The next is one of my favorites!  

Hundreds of people, including cheerleaders, musicians, dancers, ballerinas and more lined the streets cheering us and all of the participants on.

This next picture is my absolute favorite picture from the entire day, these sweet little ballerinas were so precious!  They were passing out water bottles.  I love how the second girl from the right is holding the water above her head and dancing around.

I was so busy taking pictures while we were walking that the finish line came faster than I would have thought.  If my feet didn't hurt so much I could have walked around this beautiful neighborhood all day!

It was a beautiful day with perfect sunny California weather.  We were so blessed to have been a part of it!

Blessings,
Diana

Steal of a DEAL - 6" Baseboard & Wood Trim SALE

Check out this amazing deal we got on tall baseboards and wood casings.  We got 224 feet of new trim molding for just $90 total.  This is approximately 70% less than it would have cost us at a home improvement store!  We saved more than $200 (yippee... I love a good deal)!

We have a small flea market/swap meet here in Beaumont California every weekend.  This wood trim vendor has been selling at the same location every single Saturday for over four years.  She has a good selection and the prices are unbelievable!  I've never seen molding deals like this!  Even the thickest moldings run under 50 cents per foot.  She has plenty of stock to pull from if we ever need huge quantity from her.  The moldings all come in 8' lengths.  The shorter lengths do make a little more work when installing (due to extra seams)... but for these prices it is so worth it!!!  Plus our little SUV only holds the 8' lengths so they are perfect for us :)

We will be going back for crown molding soon.  I can get crown molding for the entire bedroom for under $40... Amazing!!!

We got all of our baseboard and casing home and put it into our paintbooth.  Then it took awhile to figure out our new paint gun.  You have to thin the paint so it flows properly out of the gun.  It took a few tries, and a little patience but we finally got it right.  Now that we know how, painting projects will be so much easier in the future!

After we sprayed the moldings we moved them to a plastic sheet drop cloth on our garage floor to finish drying.  That way we had more room in the paint booth to spray more pieces.  All of the trim is now primed, painted and ready to install.  The paint finish looks so professional... I'm lovin it!

Next we are painting our bedroom a light silver sage color and doing a wood wall treatment on one of the walls... After that we can install these new moldings.

More pictures of our makeover progress to come soon.

Until next time,

Happy decorating!

Our Master Bedroom Makeover Begins

A few weeks ago I got the idea to makeover our master bedroom to look like a Chic Boutique Hotel Room/Suite.  So last we week as we prepared to begin our project we began with several trips to both Home Depot and Lowe's Home Improvement stores.  On the first trip we got a few new power tools... because new toys for my hubby = a new room for me :) 

We also got a new air compressor so we can use a paint sprayer in our DIY garage paint booth (instead of using spray cans) for the new wood trim that we are going to do in the room.  This will make painting furniture so much easier too!

We (or should I say, my hubby) used a rubber mallet and a crowbar to gently remove the molding from our wall faux headboard.  We were concerned we might have quite a bit of wall damage since we had used construction adhesive and nails to hold it on.  We were lucky that it removed easily and the wall damage was minimal.  

I let my hubby do all the dirty work while I took the pictures :)   I'm pretty smart, don't you think?

We also removed all of our door casing and baseboards.  We will be installing new larger baseboard and door casings in the remodel.  I wanted to add some texture to the room so we are doing a wood wall treatment on this wall.  I have not decided yet whether or not to do crown moldings.  We might, but I will decide that later, as the project progresses.

This project will take us a few weeks to fully complete since my hubby works full time.  He is only available weekends and nights to be my handyman.  I've mentioned before that I have a chronic pain illness so I come up with the ideas.  If my ideas  involve physical labor, he gets to do it.  I am so lucky that he enjoys it!

The plans for this bedroom also include DIY headboards from drop-cloths that will look like linen, furniture makeovers and vintage find up-cycles.  It's going to be fun.  I hope you follow along.

Tomorrow I will share more of our progress.

Until next time...
Happy decorating!

Happy Fall Y'all - Kitchen Pumpkin Decor

This scarecrow is so cute.  I actually bought him for our backyard, but once I got him home, I propped him up in the corner that enters our kitchen... and I decided to keep him there :)

The Fall decor in my kitchen was really easy to throw together.  I just bought a few real pumpkins, then found the Burlap lined wire basket, the pie sign and the little wood pumpkin crate on sale at Michaels for under $20 total.

A major no no to many people are the use of silk flowers.  Oh no, no faux :)  Many swear that they will only use fresh flowers.  But that does get pretty expensive.  So yes, I did use silk flowers... Please don't hold it against me.  I am okay with them if they are a good quality.  Although I should mention that I do use only fresh flowers when they are at the dining table. When people sit close to them, it becomes obvious when they are faux!  I had gotten the silk Fall leaves, flowers and floral picks at an after season clearance sale and I like to be able to use and re-use them.  I put a mason jar in the back corner for the flowers.  I popped the floral picks into a few places (wherever I thought they looked good).  The scale I already had from a prior thrift store trip... and the chalkboard I had previously DIY'd for $3.

I did not take the time to do fancy chalk art (although I probably should).  For now I just put a cute little saying on it.

 I love the way the fall colors pop off of my dark backsplash wall.

How do you feel about the use of silk flowers?  I'd love to hear your thoughts...

Happy Fall Y'all...

Shared on the following sites:  Fox Hollow Cottage, Funky Junk Interiors, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

How to Pick the Right Paint Color

Have you ever had trouble picking paint colors for your walls?  Don't feel bad, because I think we all have!  Sometimes picking paint colors can be difficult even for the best decorators.  Trying to pick a color from a little paint chip is almost impossible to get right on the first try.  The lighting, furnishings and surroundings in a room can completely change the look of a color.  A paint chip is not a large enough representation of what a color will actually look like when it's up in an entire room.   

I admit that I've actually had my husband re-paint a room three times until I got it right.  Since then I've started painting samples on the wall in the room I am working on.  It helps me to get a much more accurate look at the color... It may cost a few dollars for samples, but ultimately it saves time and money, because you don't have to paint, paint and re-paint a room... (sorry honey!).   My wonderful husband, who does all of my painting, probably prefers that I get it right the first time from now on :)

I leave my painted samples on the wall for a few days, making sure to look at them several different times a day (since lighting changes throughout the day, it is best to look at them morning, noon and night) to see and know for sure which you like best.  If you decide you don't like any of them, then it's off to the store for a few more samples.  But at least this way you didn't paint an entire room before realizing that it is the wrong color for you. 

In case you were wondering, in the above posted picture, if I had painted my headboard?  No I did not.  That is not a real headboard.  It is a wall that is painted dark chocolate with trim moulding (casing) around the edge to make it look like a headboard.  Since I am re-doing my master bedroom, this faux headboard is going away... which made it a perfect place to sample these new colors.  

Most paint and home improvement stores now have sample jars available that can be mixed for most of their colors.  These samples are large enough to paint about a 3 foot square on your wall, which is much better to look at than a tiny paint chip!!!

I am working on re-doing my master bedroom.  So, yesterday I got a number of paint samples from Lowe's.  They are less than $3 each and are worth every penny!

The current color of my master bedroom is sort of a baby blue (it is more intense of a color than this picture is showing and it is a bit too blue for me).  I want something with a bit more grey in it.  I want the room to have a peaceful serene retreat feeling (not feel like a baby boy's room).  The top left sample color is "Light Silver Sage" from Restoration Hardware.  I've used this color once before (about 5 years ago) at a rental we used to live in.  I love the color!  The color on the right is called "Linen".  I am loving this color too but I'm thinking about using it elsewhere in our house.  The middle color is the one I've decided to use for our bedroom.  I actually mixed the light silver sage 50/50 with a lighter greyish white sample that I have.  I love the outcome of my mixed color.  I am going to go back to Lowe's to have them do a custom paint match of the color for me.  

Most paint stores have a computer that can take any color and match it for you and mix you custom paint.  Color matching is a free service and a good way to get a specific color that you can't necessarily find on a paint chip.  

Over the next couple of weeks our master bedroom will be undergoing some major transformations... A wood wall treatment, new paint, new mouldings, new beds (yes, I said beds, plural... I will explain that in the future).  Also, possibly new DIY headboards. some fun furniture changes, new lighting and more... I can't wait to share each step of it as we progress.

Looking forward to next time,
Happy decorating!