Step 1 (and a Teensy Bit of Step 2 Too)

Here's the first little project to send my little cottage to the beach.

When we were at the little beach cottage a couple of weeks ago, there was the cutest little dresser in the master bedroom.  (It was built into the wall, which I loved, but that just won't work at our house.)

Now.  Was I a good blogger and take a picture of it?  Of course not, so you'll just have to take my word for how adorable and beachy it was.

Here's what we started with…

And this is what we have now…

Simple.  The little dresser at the REAL beach house was pine and had a different knob on each drawer.  They were all in colors of blue, green, and yellow.   This is an end table in our living room/family room that started off as a nightstand in our bedroom but I'm of the "Anti-Matching Nightstand School" (yeah, there's night school for it and everything - I'll show you my diploma some day).

Wanna' know what we keep in there?

We keep our DVDs in there!  Please note the slight addiction Worker Bee has for The Simpsons.  (And he converted Baby Bee too!)

So Step 1 is complete.  Yeah, I know.  Too easy.  But, hey.  It's a start, right?  Weather is supposed to cool down a bit later this week so maybe…finally…..I'll get some painting done!  But no promises.

Oh and here's a tiny bit of Step 2 too.  

Found the perfect fabric for welting on our white denim slipcovered wing chairs in the "library."  

Currently they have a mustard/barn red gingham check for the welting, but we're replacing that with this…

Isn't it gorgeous?  And only $8 a yard for decorator fabric!  

Well, Baby Bee has a friend buzzing over for the night, so I better get dinner ready….yeah…ha…..calling out for pizza!  I know how to make those teenage girls happy!   

P.S.  And you'll never guess where I got the knobs.  No you won't.  Okay, you're right.  I found them at World Market.  (aka the "Bad Place")  Don't judge me.

P.P.S.  Linking up with….
Share Your Cup
&
Tweak it Tuesday
&
Show and Tell Friday

Have You Ever Loved a TV Kitchen?

Besides the Brady Bunch kitchen, right?

Well, I am in 

with the kitchen 

on

Damaris (I feel like I can just call her Damaris) was the winner of last year's Next Food Network Star.  Worker Bee and I enjoy watching that show and we were both fans of hers.  

She is quite quirky (does that remind you of someone?) and has a fun sense of humor and she is a culinary teacher (remind you of someone again?)  I find her quite endearing.

But in all honesty, as much as I like her and her show,

it's the KITCHEN I'm smitten with!

And it's not even the cupboards or counters that get me all excited.

It's the accessories PEOPLE!

I struggled to find images on the internet to show you all the delightful little containers and tools she uses.  And with my World Market Eagle Eye (yes, that is a medical condition and it can only be treated by frequent trips to World Market so you can spy new things to want with your World Market Eagle Eye) I noticed quite a few of the little aqua delights are from there.

 Not sure if the little birdie butter dish is still available, but most of the other items I saw at the store just the other day.

Best way to spot the cuteness for yourself is to watch the show!  I am not usually home when the show airs, but I catch it on demand.  

So what TV kitchen do you LOVE?

And what have you been making in your kitchen this hot summer?  Well at least it's hot here in Central California!  

My sis-in-law just sent me pictures of the flood at the lake they live on in Minnesota.  Sure wish they could send that rain our way.

P.S.  Notice the beachy colors?  I wondered if you were paying attention.

Sweet Bee-ach Cottage

Please forgive the spelling in the title.  I just couldn't resist.

I've come back from our beach vacation, freshly inspired.

When I first started blogging, I was all about the 1950s vintage cottage - inspired by vintage tablecloths.  I still have quite a bit of that style, especially in my kitchen, and I'll always love it, but I'm finding myself drawn more and more to the blues and greens inspired by the beach.  

So I'm going Sweet Bee-achy!

Now, I'm fully aware that I live about 130 miles from the beach, so I don't want to go too beachy.  I think it would look a bit ridiculous to have tons of sand dollars and shells in a house where we frequently have 10 or more days in a row of 100º+, but wouldn't the cool colors from the beach be so refreshing when it's so hot outside. 

In fact, at our wedding, Worker Bee promised to never grow tired of the colors blue and white, so I know he's fully committed.  Ha!

 Are you inspired?

I love seeing you've buzzed in for a visit! 

Thanks for hanging in there with me.

P.S.  Collage images snagged from my Pinterest board - I Left My Heart at the Beach.

It Came! It Came! A Rug to Match My Shoes!

I might have mentioned a post or two ago that I found a fun new rug for Sweet Bee Cottage.  Well Worker Bee and I decided to use a bit of my etsy money and bit of some Christmas money to buy the rug for our upcoming anniversary.  

And.........it came today!!!!!

And.........it matches my shoes!!!!!

Who knew???

We don't really have time to unroll it and put in place tonight (or probably for the rest of the week) but I couldn't resist taking a peek at it.  Wouldn't you?

I thought you might enjoy a peek too.

Thanks for buzzing by!

Shhhhh......I Have a Secret......

Well, let's be honest now, it's not much of a secret if I'm sharing it with you, now is it, but still.....it WAS a secret until I decided to spill.

I bought something I shouldn't have.  I know it.  Worker Bee knows it.  Baby Bee doesn't know it yet, but she will when she reads this.  Now before you get all worried about me, it wasn't a house or a car or a brand new kitchen (all things I might consider buying).  It was.....

a quilt.  

Yes, and some shams too.  (No, not shame....sham! You people.)

And it might get a bit embarrassing to admit this part too.  It's for our bedroom and......please don't laugh......it's from Pottery Barn (for Kids).  All right, I'll say it loud and proud.  It's a quilt for a room for grown-ups from Pottery Barn for Kids!

I couldn't help it!  It was being discontinued.  I loved it.  It spoke to my new burning desire for aqua and red and green.  

And, you know what?  Worker Bee likes it too.  I know!  Who woulda' thought?  I was afraid I was going to have to sneak it on him one night when he was asleep, but he actually likes it.  

Now, the bad thing is, it is just a start.  I will need to figure out some additional bed coverings, curtains, a new paint (aqua) color for the walls.

There was however one thing that made us really sad.  For our 20th anniversary we won a custom monogram designed by Cathe over at Just Something I Made and sent to us by the wonderful folks over at Back 40 Life on etsy.  

Here's pretty much what our bedroom looks like now - just a few minor changes - and to see more, head on over to this post.

WE LOVE IT!  But our taupe (or what I like to call light grocery bag brown) walls just will not go with these new linens and inspiration and I don't think I can peel this off the wall and save it.  (Do you?)

And the furniture that I've painted white and painted black will now get painted another color.  

Here's our current dresser....

and wouldn't it look fabulous a bright red like this?

Isn't this the best part right now?  

Just the dreaming these things up???

C'mon......let me show you some things I've already pinned from Pinterest.

Definitely a certain color palette going on, right?

These are a few other things I've pinned for romantic inspiration with a cottage spin.

Found this vinyl decal on Back 40 Life (the place that made our original monogram) and I like it a lot.  But.....maybe they still have the original custom made design sitting around somewhere - in the cloud - and we could reorder it in the future?

One last picture from the Pottery Barn (for Kids) website that made me fall in love with it.  (BTW, our pillow shams do NOT say Victoria on them.)

I'll keep you posted as I find things to go with our new bedroom.  

I can't wait!  And the best part?  Worker Bee is along for the ride!  (Well at least for now.....)

Thanks so much for buzzing along with me dear bloggy friends.  

Your sweet comments and visits are such a day brightener!

Linking up with
My Romantic Home
and
Mockingbird Hill Cottage

The Floor Is Done (Mostly) and a Checkerboard Floor Tutorial (The Easy Way)

Had to take a break on the Girls' Clubhouse project for a few days.  I needed to finish organizing everything (and I do mean everything) in my classroom so I can really enjoy my summer break.  Whew - it's all done.  Worked until Saturday at 6:00, but I'm finished!  YEAH!

Okay, so bringing us back to the floor of the clubhouse.

I knew I wanted a big sponge to make this as simple as possible and so Baby Bee could do a lot of this project herself.  Of course I couldn't find a square sponge, but Worker Bee did find a nice big dense sponge at our local Ace Hardware.  However, it was a rectangle.

So here's how I made it a square:

 1.  I measured across several times and marked it so I could connect the marks to make a nice edge.  Then I took a sharpie (Can you believe the only color I could find was brown?  Who can only find a brown sharpie??? Me I guess!) and connected those marks so I would cut a straight line.

(photo by Worker Bee)

2.  Then I used my exacto knife to get a crisp clean edge.  Below that edge I didn't care how raggedy it looked. 

(photo by Worker Bee)

 3.  Then I labeled the WRONG SIDE (in brown still) so we wouldn't load any paint on that jaggedy side.

 4.  See?  At the top there is a nice straight edge, but down the side it's just a jumbled, raggedy, jaggedy mess.

Now to proceed to the painting.  It's just the clubhouse and the floor isn't level, it's plywood, etc., etc., so I knew there was no way it was ever going to be perfect, but we could still make it look pretty good.

1.  First thing we did was find the middle of the floor from side to side.  The floor in this case was 63 1/2 inches wide so we drew marks every 31 3/4 inches down the center of the floor.  Then Worker Bee had to come out to help us draw the line (we couldn't hold the tape measure and draw at the same time) and he connected all those marks and we had a line going down the middle of the floor.  Hope that all makes sense.

2.  I knew I wanted to paint these on the diagonal so we placed the first one with the top and bottom point centered on that line.  I continued following that line down the center of the floor. 

(Baby Bee and I both loved how imperfect it looked but we still had the brightness on the floor we were looking for.)

 3.  I thought about drawing lines across, but we decided to free hand it instead.  So I then stamped my square sponge all the way across the back, making sure the top point was right up next to the wall and that the side points lined up too.

 4.  Then we proceeded to move along matching point to point.  

 5.  The edges were a bit of a problem.  I didn't want to cut the sponge in half yet to do those so I tried making them right up against the edge of the wall with some cardboard protecting the white wall.  They turned out sort of okay, but not that great really.  They were of the squint variety - you know - you squint at it and it looks doggone good but quit squinting and you see how it didn't work.  So we decided to finish the rest of the floor, let it dry and then cut the sponge to finish. (More on that in a bit.)

 6.  It's getting hot and we're getting lazy so we decided that the floor looked perfectly fine without it going all the way to the edge of the walls.  Look at the left side to get a better idea of what I mean and then look at the right side to see those messy half triangles.  So I think we're going to just go in and paint back over the 4 half triangles in our white base coat and be done with it.  (Unless I hear a howl of protests from you guys - be sure to let me know if you think we really should go all the way to the edge - but I might not listen anyway 'cause it's hot and it's summer and we want this done!)

7.  Voila!  Red and white checkerboard floor.  Took about 1 hour for the first base coat (cause it needed three coats of the white), about 15 minutes to prep the materials, and about 30-45 minutes to paint the floor (that's total time - we had to take a break to let a bit of paint dry before we could do the section right up by the door).  Oh yes, better add 15 more minutes for base coat touch ups (especially since I - yes me, not Baby Bee - stepped in wet paint and there are partial footprints on that floor too).

Still don't have fabric - didn't have a chance to get any in the big city - but we'll be back up there tomorrow.  

Please click here if you want to see some of the other things we've been working on for our clubhouse!

Thanks for buzzing along with us as we work on this project.  Can't wait to have it done.  I think we'll be done with all the big projects by 4th of July and then it will just be some sewing projects to finish it off.

It sure was a treat to see you today!

(I'm making a dark chocolate iced mocha to enjoy this afternoon - care to join me?)

P.S. Linking up to
Cedar Hill Ranch
for

and

Rednesday over at It's a Very Cherry World!