Happy Mother's Day - DIY Jumpstart

I'm coming off of my Mother's Day high. First off, I treated myself to a few fun goodies at, Where else?, the Target dollar bin. Some sunglasses for $2.50, Hello Kitty to-do pad and post-its, and some little bins with a Greek-Key motif.

Then my lovely chica, Yvett, got me new Crocband flats! She bought me black ones for Christmas that I wear TO DEATH! I will go get other shoes and Will picks up the black ones and goes "Momma! Shoes! Here it is!". Well, now I have these fabulous white ones to throw into the mix. I am obsessed with keeping them clean. Thank God I have baby wipes in my bag at all times and can wipe them off the second a speck of dirt gets on them. These are total Mom shoes and I love them! They are cute and comfortable and easy to keep clean! What more could you ask for?!

And then! My lovely husband gave me this loot on Saturday night. Happy Mother's Day to MEEEEE! I love how he couldn't wait until the next morning to hand over the goods. He walks in the house with TWO GIANT Crate&Barrel boxes = Heaven! I got a a Dual Citrus Squeezer, which will be a lovely help when I make Lani's Easy Squeezie Lemon Curd that we can't get enough of. I'm pretty sure there's crack love in it. There was a reamer for the smaller juicing jobs. A lovely tiered basket to keep my onions and garlic in because I was bitching about keeping them in this wooden bowl that takes up precious counter space. And a cool orange tray to add a pop of color to our kitchen!

Will also picked out a fabulous orange blow dryer. Hubby said mine was comical when I would use it because the concentrator attachment would fall off at least 3 times while I was drying my hair. Then I would have to touch this HOT attachment to put it back on. The back fan cover thingy would constantly fall off. It was in sad shape. Hubby took Will to the store and asked what to get me, Will ran to the hair dryers and said "Momma! Brrrrrrrrrrr" making a dryer sound and acting like he was drying his hair. So cute! I love that kid!

Sunday morning we headed to our favorite bagel joint for some breakfast.

We took a drive down to my In-law's house for the afternoon. They are moving to Chicago, so it was time to help pack and take anything we wanted. So I snagged a pair of these little wooden elephants...

And then Will helped me find a few more he liked, and Mickey.

Hubby has had his eye on this mantel clock for many many years. After a thorough cleaning, it's so much prettier than this picture. I'll be sure to take a better photo when we put it in it's new home. We grabbed some Q-Tips, some Pledge and got to work that night. Talk about a romantic date night!
It's circa somewhere around 1890 and 1910... an antique winding clock! So So Cool!

And I scored this lovely corner hutch! It's a perfect fit for our kitchen. It's that extra storage and style that we needed. I had been cruising Craigslist for a long long time and had only come across ones that were too country. This is only country-ish because it's a clear coat of finish on pine. Guess who's going to get a lovely coat or two of paint!

The top part is going to house our wine glasses that are currently on the tippy top shelf of our kitchen cabinet. I have to either get a chair or climb on the counter to get them, and really? It's not one of those "rarely used" items in our house... if you catch my drift. And then the bottom will be the new home for my cookbooks. I cannot WAIT to get this project to be finished. I reorganized my spice area at the beginning of the year (check it out here), but this setup:

did not last. The spice selection has grown and migrated in front of the flour & sugar which is exactly what I didn't want to happen. So now when I have to grab them, spices are falling out of the cabinet and it's a mess. I want to scream!

Once my cookbooks move to their new home, I'll have this little shelf empty!

Flour/Sugar and a few baking items in one area, and spices in another. They will have their own homes to grow and wiggle as they please!

This is round 2 of the paint swatches I was looking at for the hutch. After a day and a half of looking, and eliminating, and then reconsidering... we decided on Martha Stewart Shale (second row, far right). We want contrast and the greys just don't have quite enough punch, so the top row was out. I don't want green, so the 1st two on the second row are out. And my original instinct of going an yellow-orange was off. It might make an appearance on the inside of the cabinet though! Woohoo!

After putting in some work, we treated ourselves to some mexican food and a margarita the size of my head!

 So now we're in full-on, balls-to-the-walls, DIY mode! Thrown into the mix is a makeover for our kitchen table and chairs. They were hand-me-downs from my Grandma. She got a new dining set, so we got her old one. They've been around for a while. And they will get a whole new breath of life once they get a coat of white (or slightly off-white) paint, and new fabric on the chairs. Can't you just picture it?! Clean, sparkly, all new furniture for just the cost of some elbow grease and paint!

Happy Mother's Day!
Happy DIY-ing!