New art

Yesterday afternoon I had the priveledge to paint with one of my dear friends Ashley Johnson from Johnson & Johnson. I ended up painting this little piece for my bathroom. Whenever I photograph this bathroom the colors always look way off- the painting is not lime green it is the same green as the towels.

The beginning of working outside ...............

We have been working the last few weeks on the outside of the house! Memorial Day my parents came over and helped Rob and I put up shutters and paint the dreaded wall. If you don't remember what the wall and the old shutters looked like let me refresh your memory!

Needless to say I believe there has been an improvement!



The above picture is so far the finished product of project extend the flower beds. Please exscuse the fact they need to be weeded! Also it is so hot outside my camera is fogging up.



We also planted 9 yellow knockout roses and a white spirea. Look over the cracks in the wall we haven't finished patching yet.

Finally a picture of the front door.... I need some help thinking of a summer something to brighten my door.

Oh Electrolux how I love Thee!

Yes - we tooke the plunge and bought an electrolux washer and dryer! It is FABULOUS! Highly recommend and totally worth the money! I mean Rob and I sat on the garage floor and watched the first wash cycle (I know we are dorks). We joked that one day our kids will say " My parents bought a hideous red washer and dryer and all they talk about was how great they were back in the day." HAHA. Anyway they have definitely made my life easier and our bills cheaper. Overall, GREAT INVESTMENT!

The Return of the Wall

This spring I decided to turn some of my attention outside. I mean after the long winter we had this girl needed some vitamin D back in her life. And last week God ordered just that - basically 5 beautiful days of sunshine! It even got hot one day!

TUESDAY
Mom and I got to work on making flower beds in front of the azaleas! They look fabulous! All they need now is some mulch and flowers, but that will have to wait.



WEDNESDAY
Mom (have I mentioned I have a fabulous mom! She so generously gives up many of her free days to come and work in my yard) and I cleared the brush from above "THE WALL." It definitely needed it and it was some HARD WORK. But now the wall definitely needs to be painted. I forgot to take pictures of the complete before but imagine the whole wall covered in the vine that starts halfway down the wall.



THURSDAY
Power washed the deck- sorry no pictures forgot because I was soaking wet!

Overall, I would say Mom and I had a pretty successful week!But don't worry there is more to come.

Back from my hiatus!

Well you all know I like to take a blog hiatus every so often. Well I am back at least for a few posts for now. Right now life is crazy and I am sure that you can say the same for your own family.
So what is going on in the Bensinger home these days? Well lots....
1) When we got back from our trip to Williamsburg- Oh yea- we went on vacation to Williamsburg a couple of weeks ago. It was Fabulous!!- we decided that we needed to replace to ugly and nasty old back doors. The upstairs door wasn't so bad but the downstairs one - well lets just say I don't want to talk about it.Needless to say it turned out to be a much bigger project than anticipated so it took an additional day than planned. This wouldn't have been a huge deal excepet we didn't get the downstairs door installed. This being said- the wifie didn't happen to look at the weather because she had just returned from a vacation where we had fabulous weather and the weather was fabulous in Birmingham. Needless to say the next day was 30 degrees outside and rainy and we had a tarp on the door. My sweet hubbie worked in the rain and cold to make sure we had a door in case it snowed! Lesson learned: Check the weather before taking doors or window off your house! HAHA. Oh well looks great now! Just needs a few finishing touches!

Always wondered....

I always wondered why my nice white bed skirt in the guest bedroom was always covered with fur! I mean I had some idea why becuase there is only one thing in our house that is covered in fur. But I didn't know what she was doing. A picture is worth a thousand words!

20 minutes re-do!

So the pup child graduated to dog child. Meaning she no longer needs her cage! YAY! So this made me very happy because it CLUTTERED our office!

Before:



After:

The banister downstairs!

I have always loved my MIL's( Mother-in-love)stairwell. It has a black main banister and white spindles. I thought this would be perfect to dress up the downstairs.So yet again off to home depot we went. By the way.while we were there I found it quite humerous that the "Manly" store home depot was playing the Mama Mia soundtrack!
Anyway we chose:
Black Suede ( For the main banister) and Vermont Cream ( For the spindles)

Here are some initial pictures of the project!

Beginning of the downstairs re-do!

Well I know you all have seen pictures of the downstairs dungeon! Uh that room makes me cringe, but hopefully not for much longer!

First we started by picking the paint color Cobblestone by Ralph Lauren. It looks more gray here but it does have some beige undertones


Ah the back wall I know! I told you the downstairs is scary!




We had to remove the nasty carpet on the stairs! And whoever installed this carpet definitely was not ever planning on it being removed. Needless to say it was a beast to get off of the stairs! That is what Rob is working on in theses pictures.



How Rob feels about the carpet on the steps!

We are so lucky to have friends ( Thank you Johnson's!) that allowed us to borrow their ladder so we could get the stairwell complete!


I promise I did help and didn't just take pictures the whole time!

New additions to the Living Room!

Well the living room is still a work in progress, but we are getting there! So a couple of weeks ago we got to put up curtains. It always amazes me how much curtains can transform a room!

Before:


Excuse the blurriness in the next picture, but I thought Macy looked cute watching Rob.




After:


Other additions to the Living Room:
Some pillows that I have been working on and finished right before Christmas!


And finally my mom found this at Kirklands and new it would be perfect for over our sofa! Rob and I both love it!