Cuteness

So, I had a major cleaning day over at mah house. And now I feel like decorating lavishly :)
Since my wallet and my husband has a tad bit more masculine taste, here are some eye candy pieces I am swooning over from Heather Bullard:

I have a weird French Country Gothic Traditional stlye.

I like French Country Furniture with more Traditional lines and Gothic decor.

I love the ecclectic style but in small dosages, I'd rather be more minimalist having eveything in its place.

Cardboard Safari:

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These are from Z Gallerie

Way too many funs at that store!

Giveaway at Fantabulously Frugal

Check out this fantastic giveaway over at one of my favorite blogs:
You Deserve The Best Giveaway

BOOTS!

Winter is here. What a bully she is to kick out poor Autumn this year!

So, after a conversation with my dear friend Nat this last weekend about knee high boots, I dedicate this one to you dear :)
Up here in Minnesota, winters are kind brutal and always icy no matter how much salt you dump on the ground. High heels are a slip-on-your-butt-faster-than-you-can-blink so these are all flats that I simply adore!

FreePeople.com

Charlotte Russe

Blue Fly

Dorothy Perkins

Are there any other sites where you have your favorites on wishlists?

Kitchen Remodel Inspiration Board

So, we want to remodel our kitchen. Here are some things we would like to do:
1. Paint the cabinets white/bleached wood look/ivory
2. New backsplash
3. Dark counter tops, not sure on laminate or not yet
4. Paint the walls a softer color and more neutral to whatever cabinet color and countertop colors we choose.
5. New floors, maybe wood

Here are some pretty ideas we are looking at:

Check out the ceiling in this one! Husband wont go for it, but its really pretty!

ANNNND here is our kitchen now (sorry for the mess):

Ok, here is one of my biggest problems... Should I paint the trim along the top and bottom of the cabinets and around the windows? If I do, look closely (sorry about the flash, I was hurrying, battery was dieing) the color around the windows is a faux wood, how would I paint that?

What do you think?

Geneology

Ok, I am doing a huge project for my families and since none of them read my blog I am safe to spill the beans HA!

For the past several years I have been working on my ancestry which created a full-blown obsession with Geneology. So, for Christmas I am making the families geneology posters. I thought about doing a family tree but after discovering over 12 generations I decided go with geneology chart (versus the family tree which generally only show up to 3 generations).

I am on ancestry.com just about every day looking up census, military and newspaper records and hoping to come across some pictures especially after seeing these lovely inspirational pics:

Which I read about here.

Pictures from here.

Using mycanvas.com I can easily upload all of the ancestors straight from ancestry.com.

Here are a few other options as well:

http://www.misbach.org/pdfcharts/

http://misbach.org/charts/

http://www.ancestryprinting.com/

Felted Pillow

Felted Pillow

I just found this adorable tutorial for making a felted pillow on Etsy's How-To
I think it would be really cute as a purse too... hmm I might be busy this weekend now ;)

Favorite Things - Etsy!

Favorite Things - Etsy!

I love people's hand made stuff. Here are some of my recent favorite sellers and/or items that I thought I would share with you all from Etsy :)

• Camias Shop - lots of really pretty elvish-looking jewelry


• DNTX shop - Cutest bicycle handle bar bags :D which are also convertible to a hand bag.
  


• Adorakable1 - First, I love the name! She has these cute novel covers... I have an issue with really bad vampire novels and teen vampire novels. I am not ashamed... but I hate it when people try to read the cover on my books riding the bus.
• I just bought these crochet cuffs from whiletheyplay and a slew of patterns from her.
• Seraart - Oodles of vintage reconstruction items with a Steampunk look sometimes <3
• Gorjuss - I have these prints from her

All Things old

Beautiful Homes

My recent obsession with European culture/Architecture has lead me to fall completely in love with this home in East Sussex, England.

All seen here: http://www.shootfactory.co.uk/view-uk-location.php?categoryID=4&PropID=455

Vintage little Finds

This is the Best Miniature portraits site I have ever found <3

This man's name is Lefroy, rumored to the inspiration for Mr Darcy from "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen. I am thinking he looks an awful lot like Charlisle from Twilight (nerd, I knows it).

But how fascinating would it be to maybe find an ancestor in one of these miniature portraits? http://portrait-miniature.blogspot.com/

leading us next to:

Ancestry.com

Ok I have tried to use this a dozen times before. It takes a lot of time to first figure out the site, then more time to start working on your ancestors. The best advice I can give is talk to your grandparents first! Write down as much as you can, I am sure they all would love to chat about their past and stories they heard from their grandparents and so on. Any pictures, old family bibles or books to help find names and birth/death/marriage dates. Then start your 14-day trial on ancestry.com, you can research on old newspapers, draft records etc and even connect with distant relatives. I have discovered one link going all the way to Richard I of Normandy in the 9th Century. And that Duncan the I of Scotland was the predecessor of Macbeth, who Shakespeare roughly portrayed his play on. oOo :D

http://www.ancestry.com/