decoration: Month in review!

Well hello! You are all SWEETAYS for your sweet comments on my aqua and pink flag cake. I cut a piece off tonight for hubby and I must say, it’s pretty cute. Not Fourth of July cute, but CUTE. :)

And as many of you mentioned, I’m just on the cutting edge with the hot colors of aqua and coral. I totally did it on purpose. NOT.

I have decided to start doing a review of posts at the end of each month – just in case you’re new around these parts. :) Also, there’s usually a few things I forget to mention or that you lovelies share that I think will be helpful to others.

The beginning of the month was FUN because I took my first two trips to IKEA – both within a week! Whoohoo!!

My plan for a sofa table in our great room had fallen through and all of the sudden I had to have the Hemnes coffee table instead:

Isn’t it loverly? I LOVE YOU IKEA!! Kisses!

I posted week three of the kitchen redo, where I shared some more of my IKEA goodies and an update on the progress of our kitchen:

I swear I’ll do another update again this week – I haven’t gotten as much done lately as I had hoped, but I do have a few more projects to share! (No, it’s nowhere close to done.) :)

The June Before and After linky party was kicked off with my first attempt at strawberry freezer jam:

And it was YUMMY!! Hmmm…now I’m hungry.

It only took three weeks, but I finished the beadboard backsplash in the kitchen:

And I LOVE it! It is by far the biggest transformation in the room, and the cost for the beadboard was less than $50. I used the eight foot panels of primed beadboard from Home Depot, and they run about $15 a package.

Many have asked how it’s held up near the sink, and it’s GREAT! I used semi gloss paint on beadboard, and it’s sealed really well. I can wipe water right off. I was a little concerned before I installed it, but now have no worries about having the beadboard near the sink.

I shared my hatred of evil laundry, and since our dryer is on the fritz, I drooled over one of these:

You all were SO helpful! The great majority of you love your front loaders, but those who don’t passed along some important info we’ll consider when buying a new washer and dryer set.

There were so many great suggestions on trying to get our current dryer to work – all we had tried, unfortunately. Bummer. One of those was to really clean out the lint trap, which is a good tip to pass along. It looks like it’s clean, but you need to use dish soap and a bristle brush to clean it out. You want water to run right through it.

Overall, nothing we tried worked, so the repair guy is coming tomorrow because the mounds of laundry are taking over!! Ahhhh!!

Every now and again I like to share what I’ve learned about blogging, and this month I talked about the importance of leaving comments:

blogger-comments-page

It really, really will bring more readers to your site! Try it out!

A couple of weekends ago, two girlfriends and I headed out to my favorite city in the world – the fabulous New York City!:

We went for the last of the NKOTB concerts (at least for a while?). I forgot to mention that the concert that weekend was the BEST one EVER. I’m not even kidding. Those Boston ~~boys~~ men know how to entertain!!

OH, and I forgot to tell you something wonderful!! I’ve mentioned before that there is a fabulous old Italian woman who used to sit outside our favorite restaurant in Little Italy:

Her name was Lucy, and for years, every time we’d go, she’d be there. Our last trip she was nowhere to be found and we had assumed her time had come (she’s got to be in her 90’s!). So when I was there, I just had to ask our waiter about her.

Well he looked at me weird when I mentioned her name, and I almost teared up, thinking the worst. But he was just surprised I knew who she was – and Lucy is alive and well! :) She had just walked out right before we came in that afternoon, and he was hoping she’d return in time so I could say hello, but I never got the chance.

I was SO happy to hear that the pasta and wine (Lucy swears that’s the key to a long, healthy life) are still working!! :)

The peeps at Silhouette sent me a craft cutter to try out, and one to give away to one of you Squeezies!! For my first project, I made a stinkin’ adorable herb crate out of a thrift store find:

And later that week I fed my labeling obsession:

And it felt gooooood. ;)

Last week I shared my cutie American flag door decor:

It was less $10 and took less than an hour to make, start to finish. I love seeing it as we drive up! :)

Many of you commented on my flower growing skills and I must say, I have little to do with the gorgeous petunias. :) I give props to Mother Nature for that one – the petunias just love the water!! (And it’s rained like the Pacific Northwest here lately!)

And finally…the beautiful pink/coral/aqua/turquoise cake, for your enjoyment:

It really is pretty darn good. :) If you want to try it out, check out the comments first. I used gel coloring, (not the icing stuff), but many of you bakers shared your favorites products that work much better – I’ll be sure to try them out next time!!

I had some fantastic giveaways this month from My Design Guide, The Pumpkin Patch, American Express and of course, Silhouette!

And I have to send out a big fat thank you to my advertisers for this month:

Bomobob’s beautiful photography: