Thursday, November 20, 2008

China Buffet

My grandparents had a cabin at Cresent Lake in Alpha Illinois for years. I loved the cabin as did the rest of the family. As you came in the door to the right was the toy cupboard. This was a fantastic piece of furniture that held toys, games, coloring books, and odds and ends of Grandma and Grandpa Vans. We all knew right where to look or ask to go to for things to do at Grandma and Grandpa Vans. A couple of years ago the family as a whole made the decision it was time to sell the cabin at the lake. It was a very sad time and like loosing my grandparents all over again when we had to go through all of the belongings at the lake. We all went through the cabin putting our names on things we'd like to have. My cousin, Brandon, and I both wanted the "toy" cabinet. My brother thought I was nuts and was ready to burn the thing because it was in such bad shape. However, I, the hopeless dreamer, was sure it could be restored and used forever in my own house someday...
Brandon was so kind and gracious and gave the china hutch to me.

I finally sent it away to be refinished. Travis gave me the refinishing piece as my birthday/Christmas present.

After several issues with the refinishing of the piece we picked it up today! It is BEAUTIFUL! I never would have thought the piece would end up like this. I can't believe it's the same piece! I also, want to kick myself because I forgot to take a before photo...however, I, along with the rest of the "Vancil" family know what it used to look like.
Are you ready?????




Monday, November 17, 2008

Marriage and Friendship

Travis and I have a wall in our living room devoted to wedding pictures. We've had a space below the pictures that has always seemed "empty". I have found the perfect thing to fill it up!
A friend from school was having an Uppercase Living party. For those of you who don't know, it's a home party that specializes in the new cool thing...I think it's new and cool....who knows...well, I like it so that 's all that matters right?
Anyway,
It's decorative stickers that are phrases, or quotes. They have something for every room/area of your house, kitchen, laundry room, bathroom, office, bedrooms, living areas etc. There are pictures for kids rooms and nurseries and more that you could possibly know what to do with. You pick out the quote you want, then you pick the size of the lettering and the color and poof, when it's delivered to you it's customized!
I surprised Travis and bought this for us. I love it and it matches our living room colors. It's called Bordeaux...basically, it's maroon :)


Thanks to Molly for coming over and helping me hang it....it's good to have friends that live near by. This was definitally a 2 person job. It wasn't hard to hang, but it took 2 sets of hands!
It's pretty cool right?
Check it out: