Bee's Buzzings

Our Little Silver Lining . . .

Just chilling - the new addition to our family:

After recently losing our two beloved cats within 6 days of each other (Jinx, 13, to cancer and Bobby, 12, to assorted medical issues) we adopted this sweet kitty from the Humane Society. Despite our sadness, Devon has added many smiles to our lives these past few days.

Relaxed cat? She's actually napping in the above photo!

Isn't she just too cute for words??  ♥

Pantry Cabinet Makeover - The Before And After

There's one really big upside about living in five different brand new homes over the past eighteen
years.  They'd all had great kitchens.  Usually with some solid surface counters, hardwood flooring . . . and pantries.  NICE pantries.  But there was something I'd learned from living in so many places, and cooking in so many kitchens. Surprisingly, I do not prefer walk-in pantries. 

In our last house, we specifically designed the kitchen with a wall of very shallow 12" cabinets, and several narrow, roll out drawers where the cabinets required a depth of 24".  You don't lose food this way, and there's very little 'pull these items out to get at that' going on.

So here we are, in my first house bought as a resale.  A house I love.  A yard I love.  A neighborhood I love.  But a kitchen, that while awesome in layout, will be seeing a lot of updates in the next few years.  First stop:  The Pantry.  As you can see from the above photo, the stationary shelves made this 24" deep pantry almost a waste of space.  I kid you not when I say we lived out of a lot of grocery sacks scattered around the perimeter of the dining area, at least until the new roll-out shelves were installed.

(click photo to enlarge)

And I knew exactly who to call - I'd worked with many master craftsmen in my previous life as a Selections Coordinator at a custom home builder.  Marty Erlien (reachable at (612) 644-9007 if you're in the Minneapolis area) came out, measured, talked about spacing requirements, and his assistant returned a few weeks later to retrofit the cabinet and install some custom made shelving.  As you can see - it's a perfect solution.  Amazing what these guys (and some full extension glides) can do to make a space SO much more functional.  It's now finally fully utilized and a pleasure to use every time we open the pantry doors.  I'm loving it!

If you like this, just wait until you see what they did for the new tub in our remodeled bathroom!

p.s. don't forget about the free Box of 12 Note Cards giveaway, just leave a comment to automatically be entered.  Just a few more days until a winner is drawn at random.

a few of my favorite things

Jim and I are using the same furniture we had in our last house, but have managed to infuse this home with different backdrop colors and accents. Getting away from deep burgundy and sage greens walls, we now have buttery yellows to brighten our days.  And with the purchase of our new dining area rug, we have many more colors to use in our future decorating - for chair covers, additional pillows, and other fun accents.

This rug is one of my favorite things. It never fails to make me smile.  I think that's what decorating should be all about.  The two pillows help pull the palette together.  And the coffee mug?  When our french exchange students were out for a visit, we did "paint your own pottery" and I couldn't resist doing up a mug in the same vein to add even more smiles to my day.

Just a few of my favorite things.

p.s. all comments this week receive an entry in the Giveaway!

 

favorite room in the new house

 At long last I am finally getting around to taking some decent photos of the new-ish place.  (I mean really, it's been six months.  After three months of renovation and another three months of organizing, can it still be called new?)

More importantly, I'm finally finding the time to post here on a more regular basis.  While we still have a garage full of stuff to put away - the inside spaces are really starting to come together.  Cannot wait to decorate for the Holidays.

This is my absolute favorite room.  Love our new house, and especially the Living Room with oversized windows and southern and eastern exposures. SO happy here ♥

notice: Jinx the Cat, on the back of the left sofa (she's a bit camera shy . . . hiding behind the pillow) 

Overlooking the Living Room from the upstairs landing.  This is the sight that greets me every morning.  *sigh* 

Friends and family members questioned why we would want to down-size from our last place, but somehow even after shaving 500 square feet off our previous home's living area, this place lives just as large, and more importantly - it fits us.

More photos soon.

Feathered Friends . . .

Love these little birdie mirrors and just had to share!  Busy morning so far packing and shipping out some Etsy orders, and also designing new Stationery for the shop.  Hope to have time to paint after Thanksgiving is over, but VERY much looking forward to some relaxing time with family and friends on Thursday. 

Finally got the bedroom drapes up

There's always a fine line when balancing "hard" and "soft" elements when decorating.  And of course, personal preference (and climate) plays a part in the equation, as well.  As cold as it is here in Minnesota, I'm definitely drawn towards cozying things up.  And our bedroom is no exception - especially with such a large expanse of windows on the southern wall.  So almost exactly 180 days since moving in, I finally installed the draperies - and WOW what a difference it makes.  

Proof, here is a Before photo

and a shot from the upper landing, looking in.

After waking up this morning to 20 degree temps outside (and a slick of ice covering every imaginable surface), we really appreciated how comfortable things are finally starting to feel inside.

Jim teases me that he's tired of hearing me say it . . . but I really LOVE this house ♥

six months later - new house, new pool, new addition

Okay, I'll admit it. Six months since my last post I'd hoped to have everything in my life in order and be eating bon bons on a regular basis.  Or at least be sipping lemonade by the pool while reading magazines - yes the ones that go mostly unread month after month for too many years to count even though I continue to renew my subscriptions (after all I can get THREE years for the price of one!) but alas, the stack continues to grow.  Much like the items on my To Do List.

But things are definitely looking brighter.  And one thing Jim and I made certain to do amidst the chaos was enjoy our newly installed pool, if even only for 20 minutes a day.   For those of you who have had one built, you know exactly what I'm talking about.  The 'we paid waaaay too much to not get in it'.  Right??  And growing up outside of Boston, I have a case of what's know as Yankee Thrift.  Buy a new shirt?  Heck, if it's on sale for only $35.99 and I wear it at least once a month for the next three years, it's only a dollar each time I wear it. What a deal!

So I've decided to live in the pool.  Even in the winter.  In Minnesota.

All kidding aside, we had a very interesting six months.  Sold our house, packed it up, moved a lot of stuff into storage, moved into the new house, closed on both houses the same day, broke ground on the pool less than a week later.  And two weeks after that we moved more stuff into a second storage unit and ripped the roof off the garage to begin a 700 square foot, 2 bedroom addition.

It's been a wild ride.  More details and photos coming soon :)

 

New House = New Adventures

How life changes!  About two weeks after my last blog post, I was awake in the wee hours of a chilly, early March morning.  All my Etsy orders were filled, and it was far too early to wake anyone else up with housecleaning chores . . . so I filled some time scanning the For Sale listings at EdinaRealty.com - and one caught my eye.  It was love at first sight.

By the time Jim woke up, I was convinced it was "The One" and tiptoed through a somewhat calculated plan of attack to talk him into putting our house back on the market.  As it turned out, my planning was in vain.  He agreed with little or no resistance.  Our intent to downsize last Fall had brought on dreams of a lake lot (and future retirement home) that enticed him more than even I had realized.

So I called the Edina offices later that day and set up an appointment to see some homes early the following week.  "The One" was first on the list.  Upon entering, Jim and I were both immediately enchanted by the story and a half ceilings, open floor plan and walls of windows.  Peeking out to the backyard my enthusiasm only increased - a southern facing backyard with some mature trees already in place.  I could barely contain my excitement . . . until I'd seen all four bedrooms.  This house that seemed absolutely perfect (4 bedrooms plus a spot for my studio at an amazing price!) had one big flaw.  Two of the four bedrooms were way too small.  And the 'laundry room' could hardly be called a room.  I tried not to let my disappointment show too much, but it was hard.

We saw a couple of other homes that night and realized how committed we were to downsizing here and eventually building Up North.  The next morning I once again woke up in the wee hours and had a lightbulb moment.  An addition over the garage at my Dream Home would make everything perfect!  Later that day I was on a wing and a prayer as I called the agent back and told her we'd be ready to list our house by the weekend.

. . . to be continued

New Mini Art Magnets - super strong and super cute! Comment to WIN

Which is your favorite?  Leave a comment below for a chance to WIN a 4 pack of these little lovelies!  One winner will be chosen from comments left here (a second from comments left at BeeDazzles Facebook page!)  Winners to be announced tomorrow morning, 9 a.m.  Good Luck!

Have been almost too busy lately - getting new inventory into the local shops, working on new art and *tada*!  Finally have all the packaging and formatting done for the Mini Art Magnets I've had on the back burner (for way too long).

Hope you like the new designs.  Most are in the shop, the rest will follow shortly.

Each magnet holds over 8 (yes, 8!) sheets of paper.  Super small, super sweet and super strong!  Get yours now :)

Love Notes - for Valentine's Day

I had so much fun painting the designs for these sweet Love Notes earlier this week!  New heart mini notes (or gift tags) are just in time for Valentine's Day and come in 15 different designs in red, hot pink, purple and light pink.  This line joins the other sets of mini notes and gift tags already in the shop (Dragonflies, Owls, Mittens and Assortments).  Available in the shop at BeeDazzlesGifts, they retail for only $8 for a sweet box of 15 notes and envelopes.

I've used the other designs to surprise the girls with a note of cheer from time to time - they always love getting an unexpected word of encouragement tucked into their bag or backpack.  And with the addition of these Valentine notes - I'm thinking up some great ideas to use these for a little surprise for Jim. 

Are you planning on playing cupid this year, too?