Craigslist Furniture Find!

So tomorrow I will be picking up my very first furniture purchase from Craigslist.

My search criteria was:

• Solid wood dresser
• Under 63 inches in length 
• Traditional lines
• Under $100.00 
• Had to include a photo
• Located in a surrounding city... Home girl was NOT going to drive over 15 minutes for this thing 

If you remember my mood board for the spare bedroom... it included a painted wood dresser and I really wanted to replicate that in our space (but in a different color)

The dresser in my mood board came from the awesome I heart Organizing blog and she found her dresser for only $40 on craigslist! What a great find to give me some inspiration!

So after two weeks of searching I found the below beauty for $85.00. Not as cheap as my inspiration piece but it has good bones! I cannot wait to pick it up and start my painting!!! I'm beyond excited!

Homemade Chocolate croissants

I want to share with you the easy and delicious chocolate croissants that we always have on hand in the Park Household.

When I make these I will typically do a large batch and I keep them in the freezer so that we can pop out a few at a time or a lot of we have people over.

I love how fast and YUMMY they are! After reading I highly suggest that you go and make some!

here are the details!

First, purchase some Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Sheets which can be found in the freezer section of your local grocery store.

Let the sheets defrost and unfold on a lightly floured surface.

 Lightly brush on an egg wash (scrambled eggs)

 Cut the pastry sheets into small squares

Get some gourmet chocolate. I typically do half milk and half dark chocolate. 

 Break Chocolate into smaller pieces and place into the center of each of the pastry squares.

 Fold the pastry sheets over to conceal the chocolates and lay on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Next I place the backing sheet into the freezer for one hour.

After the chocolate bites are frozen I remove from the baking sheet and I place in a plastic freezer safe container. At this point I freeze  the puff pastry bites until we are ready to cook them.

When we feel like eating one of these delicious chocolate treats I just take out the number that I would want to cook and place on a cookie sheet.

I give the tops a quick coating of egg wash..

And I bake at 400 for 10-15 minutes!

AND ENJOY!!! But let them cool first! It is always super tempting to bite right in... but be warned the chocolate on the inside is VERY hot!

Sophie Park... The rug destroyer!!!

So yesterday I came home from work to THIS!!!

YES!!! Sophie decided to have her way with the rug that I JUST moved into our dining room!!! To make matters worse we had people coming over in just a few hours. To say that I was stressed out and upset is an understatement... Now I need to figure out what to do... all ideas welcome.

LOVING World Market

Over the weekend I ran to World Market to find some AWESOME dining room chair pads for our newly styled dining room that I shared on Monday.

While I was there I saw SOOOO many great items and I wanted to share my top finds!

I REALLY want to focus on our sun-room next month so that room gets the most love on my list... here is a mood board made from all World Market items!

Cameron Coffee Table , Drum Stool, Indonesian Day Bed Frame, Venice Paisley Pillow, Turquoise Blue Pillow, Seagrass Hurricanes, Potting Bench, Outdoor Curtain, Amelia Wingback Chairs, Parthena Arch Mirror, Blue Glass Yorkshire Drink Dispenser, Metal Pendant Lamp, Jute Rug

Dining Room changes

I had a lot going on this weekend to get ready for a Stella & Dot event that I'm hosting on Friday but that didn't stop me from making some big changes in our dining room...

If you remember, I had removed everything from the dining room in order to create a "sleepover room" for Emma's 9th birthday party sleepover.

that was over two weeks ago and I had still not place the furniture back in... slacker.

This is what I was looking at on Friday... Yes I took the opportunity to deep clean the rug! One item off my spring cleaning list!

Next... I decided that I was ready for a change and brought up my orange and cream zebra print rug (overstock) from the basement. (The basement is more of a playroom and I really wanted to showcase this fun rug)

The table was brought inside from our screened in porch.

ehhh let's take a closer look at those chair cushions...

The green just was not matching the new rug.... off to World Market where I found these great Kavita Chair cushions for $14.99 each

I love the vibrant colors!

Much better! (I love that Sophie always needs to get right in the picture)

and here is the table all set!

I love looking into the dining room and seeing the bright colors!

Here is a side by side of what the room use to look like on a "typical" day and what it looks like now.

New fav things

So I went shopping this weekend and found my two new favorite items and wanted to share!

I LOVE these Sharpie Paint Markers!!!

 They come in some great colors and are oil based! This means that if you want to write on glass or ceramic you don't have to do the whole bake at 350 degrees thing... I'm a little obsessed and using them for an upcoming party! Cannot wait to share!

The next item that I've fallen in love with is the new bowl from Homegoods.

It was only $5.99 and while I took home a lot that day from homegoods... this was the first item that I took out of the bag. I'm trying to embrace my pink counter tops and This little bowl helps out a lot.

Spare bedroom updates!

Yesterday I shared our new spare bedroom window panels and I shared a sneak peak of a HUGE DIY lighting project that I took on!

Head over to Just Be Thrifty to see what I did with the lamp below thanks to the motivation from my mood board. 

As a reminder this is my mood board:

and here is an update on what I have done / still have to do:

• Fix bedskirt
• update bedding
• DIY Sunburst Mirror
• Rug
• Sewing table 
• leather chair
• Restyle Bookcase
• Blinds up 
• Window Treatments
• New lighting
• Buy dresser
• Repaint and style dresser
• New Laundry Hamper
• Organize Closet

We are getting there.

And the Panel winner is...

The last time I posted about the Spare bedroom it was to get some advice on which window panels to use... as a reminder these were our options:

Dark Brown linen panel from target

Table Cloth from TJMaxx

Or a combination of the two...

and since NOT A SINGLE PERSON offered any advice I was left to make this decision on my own!

and the winner is....

It had to be the table cloth! When I got both table cloths up it was EXACTLY the look I had been going for! I love that the print incorporates each of the colors that I wanted in the room. The lighter brown, light green, blue, cream and golden colors just  pulls everything together so nicely.

Those striped sheets are really bugging me. I think I need to go do something about it this afternoon!

You can even spy another project in the above photo! I'll just leave that as a little teaser!

Back on Travel

I know that I have been a slacker this week in the blog world! I have tons of posts that are almost ready but I have not had the time to bring everything together... because there is that reality that I HAVE A JOB!

This week was my first week back on travel with my boss and for my first trip we headed out to California. It was bitter/sweet as I love to travel but was sad to leave Hunter overnight for the first time. It was a relatively short trip (3 days & 2 nights). Hunter of course was fine without me and probably didn't even know that I was gone and Matt says that he really enjoyed his time alone with the little man! I of course cried multiple times!

I'm happy to say that I was able to pump while on travel and only went into the negative 5 oz which is VERY good. Meaning what I produced while I was away was only 5 oz under what was consumed by Hunter man so my freezer milk supply remains fairly well stocked.

It was occasionally hard to find the time to pump and I did end up pumping in some odd locations... for example a kitchen at Stanford University and in the back of the G-5 bathroom multiple times...

I have much more travel to come in the next month... to include a longer international trip so my breastfeeding/pumping adventures are sure to continue.

I just feel blessed that I was able to hold off on travel until Hunter was 7 months old!

There will be another post later today but just wanted to take a moment to explain my absence.

Spare Bedroom: Curtains

So this is what the spare bedroom looked like yesterday. A big improvement from where we started but now it is time to layer some decor and finishing touches on this area of the room.

CURTAIN TIME!!!

Task one was to get Matt to hang the curtain Rod. I had purchased an extra long rod from HOMEGOODS for only $29.99. Curtain rods are a fairly new product at homegoods as I have only started seeing them at the stores in the last year... but I love the addition even though the actual curtains that they carry are a bit lacking. Rods comparable to the one that I purchased typically retail for $60-75 so I feel like I got a great deal!

 

 So I asked my super cute hubby for some help... well in reality he wanted to go out with his friends last night and I said "fine if...." I'm not against bribing to get things done around the house!

Matt screwed two holes into the drywall for each of the curtain rod brackets.

Next he used some dry wall anchors that we already had on hand... the rods came with some but he prefers to use his own which were a bit longer and he knew that they would hold the rod securely!

Place them into the hole

and hammer in

next look at your cute helper!

Crew in the brackets

Repeat for the other two brackets.

Get your Rod

and there you have it...

Now to figure out the curtain situation... I'm going to nee your help with the one.

OPTION ONE: Dark Brown Linen Curtain panels from Target that I have gad FOREVER and never used.

OPTION TWO: This is actually a table cloth that I purchased from TJMaxx for only $12.99! I bought two thinking that they would make great curtain panels in this room. I like that they have the green, blues and yellow.

Here is the fabric up close! I love that I was able to use a table cloth. Plus curtain panels can be pricey and this is a much more economical option. Shower curtains are also a great alternative.

 

 In case you are interested here are the details on the table cloth...

OPTION THREE: Combine the two panels... I would sew the two together and think that it could possibly give a layered look to the room.

Which do you think I should do???? All advice welcome!