early morning sweetness

A Fabricated Post

The Creative Suite is stepping down for a few short months due to the husband's overwhelmingly strict budget, so I've moved on to another project that I've convinced myself and him will be less expensive - curtains.

The truth is - Matthew doesn't like to be exposed. While he says it's not safe to have no blinds/window treatments in our living room and den, I know he just doesn't like the entire neighborhood peering in on his countless hours of baseball watching. He'd rather some things be left behind closed doors.

So, I'm using this "safety" excuse as an excuse to buy fabric, something I'm learning to love. The fabric buying will be easy, but it's the construction of these (roman?) shades that will be the real doozy. No, I won't be sewing these - ha. But finding someone that doesn't cost a bundle will be the difficult part.

Here's the style of curtain we had in mind for the front main windows in the living room/den.

Source: centsationalgirl.com via Melina on Pinterest

Look pretty (difficult) right?

So far the color scheme in the living room is navy and an apple green and the den is shades of purple/black/gray, SO I'm thinking of gray curtains for both rooms. Here are some ideas...

Source: etsy.com via Lauren on Pinterest

Source: buyfabrics.com via Jessica on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via stevie on Pinterest

Anyone have a preference? Guess we'll have to see what F&M fabric store in Springfield has to offer. (FYI if you live in the Nixa/Spfd area and are not buying your fabric from F&M - you're crazy! Most inexpensive and best selection out there!)

Creative Suite

I'm on a blogging roll today.

It's been announced that Matthew has a man cave - that he can keep - for possibly forever. So I'm sure my friends and family are wondering, so what the hell does the wife get in return? Besides not having to listen to Matthew listening to the Royals game on his stupid radio, I get this room all to myself.

Ah the ideas are swimming in my head. My own room to make as girlish as I want. The possibilities are endless, but I've already nailed down a color scheme. We're going seafoam green and pink. Think this (but with pink instead of peach).

Source: tissosweetcandy.blogspot.com via Melina on Pinterest

Isn't it glorious? What purpose will this room serve you might ask? It's my creative suite. If Betty Draper would get the stick out of her ass, it's possibly how she might design her Mrs. Don Draper room. But for me, it'll contain all my favorite things, house all my current inspirations. I plan to use this space to tackle DIY projects, blog, dream up house projects, tackle a future business plan...it will probably be Matthew's worst nightmare given the dollar signs that will be attached with all of these "creative ideas." Can't wait!

Another decor idea I love for this space.

Source: urbanoutfitters.com via Melina on Pinterest

A Little Man Chair

So, per our previous post, Matthew is extremely excited about his man cave and even more thrilled when I told him I (probably) won't turn it into a playroom when we have kids.

What he failed to mention in his post was the new addition to the room. Ashley and I went to Good JuJu (our favorite

flea market store in KC) and I picked up this ridiculously adorable dark green leather kid's chair. Not only does it go perfectly with the room, but its just so damn cute, I can't stand it. I'm envisioning our future son rocking out in that chair with a bourb

on glass filled with apple juice listening to a Royal's game. Ah love. Best.Purchase.Ever.

Chalk Full of Ideas

We have a small room off our dining room with beautiful pocket doors. I was somehow able to convince my wife to let me turn this into a bar/man room/entertaining space. I might still be able to convince her to let me keep the room in its current function rather than turn it into a storage room for kids toys down the road.

My mom was here for a long weekend, and we painted the room. We painted one wall with chalkboard paint, so that I can write cocktail recipes or keep a list of needed ingredients or just play hangman. For now, I just need a better name for Matthew's bar.


The other walls are an olive-ish green that Melina picked which you can see behind the bookshelf below.


Melina can attest that it's my favorite room in the house. I'm thankful that we could turn this space into a fun/entertaining area. And as long as I can keep making Melina tasty cocktails, I think I'll be thankful for a long time.

Stewart's First Popsicle

Sorry video is sideways.

That's All Folks!

The. Kitchen. Is. Done.

That's right - now the pressure is on to learn to cook because this room is just too beautiful to fail in the kitchen department.

Although, I did hear a funny piece of wisdom at my friend Janna's bridal shower this past weekend.

"Focus your attention on being perfect in one room of the house . . . and it doesn't have to be the kitchen." :) haha

Anyway, here are the long awaited final pictures. Enjoy - we sure are!


Notice we already have a 2011 Royal's schedule on our fridge.


One of my favorites. This is the view as you walk in the front door. Love it!



Steward in the den next to the chaise we had recovered. Still need some additional furniture in this room, the chaise turned out awesome. Thanks Mom and Dad.

And yes, Stewart tries his hardest to get up there and take naps!

Feeling Rakish

I bought a rake! Now all I have to do is find someone who will use it.

We're Getting Close...

Yesterday, Matthew and I came home to a wonderful surprise - the counter tops were in AND so were a few of the appliances! It was such a great surprise and started our evening off to a perfect start before Matthew had class. Here's how our night played out.

-surprise, kitchen is almost done!

-walk around the neighborhood

-dinner on our front porch (second night in a row!)

-the huge front tree is blooming purple flowers (I think Ashley called it a tulip tree?)

-our first HOA newsletter arrived! And it had our names in it welcoming us to the hood. I read that thing cover to cover. :)

-the ice cream truck came down our street! At first I was a little embarrassed to be running after the truck with no kids in tow, but it was so fun! We even got a treat for Maeve and Mabel to split as we knew they'd be stopping by.

-visits from Ashley, Mabel and James; Elizabeth, Maeve and Zeke and David and Marianne






Right now we're feeling so blessed to be living in a wonderful house, near friends and family with a NEW kitchen. Thank you to everyone who has been just as excited for us as we are.

Love, Matthew, Melina and Stewart

We're Floored!

Check out our new floor! We are so happy with our selection! We love the contrast of the dark floors against our white cabinets.



The tiles are super dusty and these aren't wonderful pictures, but you get the idea.

Love/Hate relationship

Hi! My name is Stewart. You may be familiar with me from previous blogs, but this is my first time wandering over to this here cleverly named site. What a name! They tell me my dad came up with it, but it couldn't a been him. He's not that smart as he's always yelling at me, and I don't have the first clue what he's yelling at me for. Anyways, I've got a love/hate relationship with my new house. I love all the new smells, and it has all the paint chips/dirt one can eat. It's like a Golden Corral! I hear there is a backyard but I can't get to it yet because something is going on in the house that they won't let me see. Strange men show up at all hours and start hammering away, making all kinds a noise. Wonder what is going on? They've got it blocked off with chairs and boxes and what not. I even try to get around these blockades by going up the stairs, but then I get all confused and don't know where I am. Stairs! I almost forgot to mention em. They are cool at first but I can't seem to figure em out. I go up, I go down, I go up, I go down, and I can't find where those noises are coming from. I guess my house is kinda like my dad, I love it but can't seem to figure it out.

I'm gonna go now, but if you have any tips on how to catch squirrels, post them in the comments. Thanks.

A New Addition to the Bland Home

NOOO it's not a baby, silly!

It's a ping pong table! In true Melina fashion, I gave him his birthday present a month before his actually birthday.

I'm off to New Orleans this weekend for my good friend, Kimberly's Bachelorette Party, so Matthew will have something fun to do this weekend while I'm gone. Enjoy hubby. I love you!

If you were to be stranded on an island..

You'd choose this one, right? After several months of searching, we've finally found a kitchen island that we love!

We found this beauty at the Vintage Market, the same place we bought the mirror in our bathroom. It's the perfect dimensions for our kitchen and is going to be super functional. We can't wait for the floors to get done, so we can move this baby in it's new home!

The exciting thing is that you'll be able to see the glass from the hallway as you enter the kitchen. Now we just have to find an awesome light to go above her and all will be complete!

Top this! - Concrete Counter Tops

One of the most exciting days since this kitchen renovation was last week when we saw a sample of our concrete counter tops! Most exciting because Matthew and I both agreed that we loved them, which meant no Melina breakdown! Plus ONE for me.

We are so excited about having concrete in our kitchen. After watching one too many HGTV shows where everyone says, "Ohhhh I love the granite" or "Oohh no granite, that's unfortunate", I was excited to break away and try something new. Here are a few pics.

I love the grainy look. I think it gives it some texture and will hide crumbs. :)

Cabinets are in!

Here are a few more pictures of where we're at (as of this weekend) with the kitchen. Cabinets are in, minus the glass fronts on the uppers.

I had a small (Matthew would say rather large) meltdown last week when the uppers were put in because I thought they had a green tint to them. Thanks to Ashley for coming over at 9 p.m. to reassure me that aren't in fact green, and I was paranoid. :) All is well with the kitchen world now.

Looking good, right?

The weekend was a productive one as we also purchased our kitchen faucet, bathroom pedestal sink and faucet AND picked out a microwave.

Here's a look at the bathroom faucet that Matthew picked out.

You know us, always looking for something different. Can't wait to get home to see what else has been done. More posting to come!

Kitchen update

The walls are painted! The pictures I have don't really do it justice, so I'm going to wait until the cabinets are put in (hopefully today!) before posting. We chose Mindful Gray from Sherwin Williams.
We did get our awesome SS Farmhouse sink in. We think our future kids can take baths in this thing til their like 5! (kidding) but seriously, it's huge!
It gives Matthew lots of room to pile up his dishes instead of putting them in the dishwasher!

Master Bedroom Makeover

I'm excited to share some pictures of the new master bedroom. We painted this room immediately after we closed on the house and before we knew the kitchen construction was going to turn our house into a dusty mess. Here's a pic of the bedroom before we painted.


And here are a few pictures of the new master bedroom!


The color we picked for the wall is Behr's Raging Sea. I love it. It's a great blue-gray color, really soothing and it went perfect with our Crate and Barrel comforter we received off our wedding registry. Doesn't the yellow sofa look amazing at the foot of the bed? My sister-in-law Ashley had the idea to put it there. Though the bed now screams HEADBOARD, I love having a piece of furniture at the end. We're thinking of DIY'ing a headboard, so we'll let you know if we decide to go that route. Oh, and I forgot to mention, we got the antique yellow sofa at the Curiosity Shop in Nixa, Mo for only $90! Such a steal.
We love the french doors in our room that go out to what used to be a sleeping porch. There's quite a drop from each room, so you have to kind of jump down, but eventually we're going to turn that room into a master bath. Ah the potential!

Redoing the Throne

I realized soon after we purchased the house that the bathroom was going to be a top priority. Nothing says "doesn't feel like home" when you have a dirty bathroom, no hot water and a gross toilet seat, so that became our first big project before moving in. Thanks to my mom, sister and the Sallas family (for stopping by and bringing dinner!), we were able to drastically improve the only bathroom in the house and it looks amazing!!

Dark picture but hopefully you can see the before. Half the bathroom is navy and the other half white. There is a maroon painted brick column thrown in there as well. AND those curtains could be original to the house, ick!

After!

We got almost everything from World Market (curtains, towels, bathmats) and the fabulous mirror from Vintage Market off 79th and Lee Blvd. And the brick column, we painted white, which I think adds a very clean, fresh look to the bathroom, which is what you want, right? Dingy is gone, thank the Lord!

And I can't forget about the new toilet seat. It's my favorite thing in the bathroom because it has a built-in kid's seat. Perfect for a baby Bland down the road, and of course, our nieces!

Day 1 of posting but day 55 of being a homeowner

First, I'd like to say that this WILL NOT be the design of our blog, I'm just so exhausted of making decisions (already) that I can't choose a background. So here it is..for now.

Most of you know that we followed our hearts and the offer of a home improvement loan and on December 30, closed on our (pile of crap) dream home. :)

I have a list of blog posts in my head including, my emotional breakdown in Home Depot, the huge cracks in our walls from having to raise the ceiling, the moldy toilet seat, my new built-in kids toilet seat! and many more, but I'll start with the most startling aspect of our house....the kitchen (or lack thereof).

Before:

Now, before you go and say, "Well that's a kitchen, Melina said the house didn't have a kitchen at all!" Yes, I'll admit to being a tad dramatic about the kitchen, but this is my first time, I'm allowed to freak out about all new "house" things. AND let's be honest...this is not a working kitchen. It's horrendous. And you wouldn't be inspired to cook here either, even if all you cook is frozen Totinos.

So, the kitchen had to go. We're on week 7 of total demolition, so here's a bit of what's going on.

Pretty, right?

Luckily, as of a few days ago we have insulation up and drywall is happening this week - Fingers crossed because we move this weekend!

Promise to post again soon!