Hello and Happy Monday Readers -

SURPRISE!  We’ve decided to launch our etsy shop today and website tomorrow!  We are so excited to share this passion for thrifting with you and can’t wait to hear your feed back.  So, without further ado, I bring you Pipe & Pepper!

Click the picture to begin exploring!

Okay, I know you’ve all been dying to hear what my big announcement is and I’m so excited to share it in full detail with you… on Monday!

But for now, I’ll give you a little background:

You all know my friend, Creswell.  She’s an amazingly talented photographer, great friend, and inspired person.  When she and I get together, its magic.  We love thrift store shopping, creating, repurposing, and taking photos so we’ve decided to put some of our skills to good use.  We’re starting an Etsy store and blog!  I can’t really give you all the details yet, but it’s been a project in the works since March of this year.  We are so excited and are having a blast finishing up the details for our big launch this Monday.  Keep an eye out if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook; and of course here!

Have a great weekend and get inspired!

This week’s photo is brought to you by Home Sweet Home; a fun inspiration blog of home photos.  I love the serenity of this room and don’t you just LOVE the wall paper?!  I die.

Happy Friday!

Okay I’ve decided to make three posts today, we’ll see how this goes.  One is this post about the bathroom, then check back today at 10:00 am for your Friday Foto.  Then check back at 12:00 pm for my special announcement (and no, I’m not prego).

Anywho, back to the bathroom.  Now, again… the bathroom is a work in progress so it’s really not finished in the least bit.  We have great plans for this room including a large mirror, possible double sinks, painting the claw tub and adding tile to two walls around the tub (we’ll see how much of it actually gets done in the next year; but at least we’re got a vision, right?).  Okay, so here’s a

BEFORE:

“AFTER” / CHRISTMASFIED:

First of all, my apologies for the towel on the floor.  The dog dragged it in there from his bed, guess he thought that the room just needed a little something to prove that we’re messy… sometimes.

Now, it’s it amazing what a few additions does to a room? I can’t wait to slap some paint on those walls and get everything in there as white and clean as possible; right now it’s kind of a cream-white.

For Christmas I did the beads and bulbs like in the kitchen and living room.  I also added a few touches like a gold pillar candle, some christmas bulbs and pine cone soaps.  Not much, but just enough to spread the Christmas cheer around.

Okay, so tell me, what did you do to decorate for Christmas?  Got a link to a photo or blogpost you want to share?  Add it to the comments section, I’d love to see what other ideas you’ve had.

Happy Christmas and Get Inspired!

On to the kitchen!  We haven’t done much to it, so it’s not much of a before an after, but here’s a few pictures anyway.

BEFORE:

“AFTER” / CHRISTMAFIED:

First of all, I apologize for the horrible lighting.  It was early this morning, but there wasn’t any light coming through the windows so I resorted to the nasty yellow lighting we have currently.  Anywho, about the decor.

We received a generous gift from my grandparents, a fridge.  I decorated it with fake poinsettia and pretty glass bottles I’ve collected from friends and family over the past two years.  

We purchased out little espresso bar storage unit from IKEA and felt it was the perfect place to make and serve coffee to our guests.  We love that the smell of coffee brewing in the morning wafts through the house.

I didn’t go with anything new as far as Christmas decorations on here, just used some of our old items and repurposed them. So, for fun… just check out the decor and get inspired to recreate and re-purpose:

I mirrored the hanging bulbs and beads from the living room here as well.  And I purchased that funny little tree from the a thrift store with Creswell.  And I made thos napkins for Amber’s shower.

And here’s a quick shot of the counter decor.  I want you to remember this, because we are saying. “good-bye” to these hideous countertops… someday.

Whelp, that’s it.  I have some uber exciting news to share with you either later today or tomorrow, but until then…

Happy Christmas and Get Inspired!

Do you all remember that amazing dress that Liv Tyler (Faye Dolan) wears to the award show in the 1996 hit, “That Thing You Do“?

I know I wasn’t the only on wishing that was me getting dolled up to go to an awards show where my totally awesome boyfriend’s band was playing (who turns out to be a jerk not many scenes later – but it’s okay because I get to make out with Guy Paterson at the end of the movie).

Anyway, what was I saying.  Oh yeah, so imagine my enthusiasm when I saw this piece from ModCloth.

A lovely tribute to these grey, satin, knockout of a dress.  I might need to purchase that last medium before someone else does.  Can you say New Year’s Eve party?

Happy Wednesday Readers!

I got such a great response from pictures of my living room and wanted to share with you our Christmas decorations.  I love that Christmas decorations can liven up a room; for example, our kitchen.  I’ll be showing you that tomorrow because boy, it’s plain without all that red and green sparkly stuff.  But for today, let’s do a little before and after with the living room, again.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

One more time!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

So you may have remembered last year at christmas I did some garland around the windows, did ribbon around the tree, and bows on the lamps, but I think this version in white is much for grown up, don’t you?

Here’s what we did last year:

The white just brightens it up and modernized everything.  I love it.  And the bulbs hanging with the beads, gives it an adult glam feel. Right?

It’s fun, easy and cheap to purchase those Christmas bulbs and place them around the house.  We put them in jars with candles and when lit, the light scatters all around. 

We also bought a few dark red pillows for a touch of Christmas elegance.

I think Boone approves.

So there you have it.  Christmas in the living room.  Tomorrow, it’s Christmas in the kitchen and then my Friday photo will be of our little bit of Christmas in the bathroom. 

Happy Christmas and Get Inspired!

Happy Monday, Readers!

I hope your weekend was as productive as mine.  We cleaned the entire house, raked and cleaned up the front yard (a huge under taking with the two HUGE trees we have), and decorated for Christmas.  We had a few bumps along the way, but overall,  I really like what we came up with. 

It’s our first Christmas in our house so decor was sparse and due to a cat incident last year, we needed to purchase a new artificial tree.  We went to Target and found a really great one for about $75 and we purchased new, more grown up bulbs for the tree.  Approximately 40 bulbs for about $15.

We lugged out some of our old decorations which are all hand-me-downs and thrift store finds and tried our best to incorporate them into our new, grown-up-living-in-your-own-home-paying-for-the-mortgage Christmas decor.

So all that to say, I’ll be showing you some more of the house in all it’s Christmas glory.  So stay tuned this week!

Happy Friday! 

This week’s photo is brought to you my Cathe Holden of “Just Something I Made.”  Cathe is a talented-work-from-home-designer, mother and craft blogger.  Last week she posted about these lovely vintage christmas cards and I thought I’d share with you my favorite.  Check out the rest of her “collection” here.  Pick you favorite! 

Happy Christmas and Get Inspired!

Happy Thursday, Readers!

I’m getting into the Christmas spirit more and more these days, aren’t you?  In the Lopez house we have a tradition where starting the first day of December, we do one “Christmas” thing every night.  Last night we watched Home Alone.  Man, that movie is so funny (my hubby is laughing now because towards the end I started falling asleep – but I swear, it’s a good movie).

Anywho, the whole reason for writing this post is to talk about traditions.  What are your favorite ones?  Which ones would you rather live without?  One of my favorite Christmas traditions is mistletoe.  I’ve always loved it; even before I was allowed to kiss boys.  I always thought it was such a sweet tradition.  I did a bit of research and found out that In Greece exchanging kisses under the mistletoe was a tradition at festivals and marital ceremonies. If a couple in love exchanged a kiss under the mistletoe, it was interpreted as a promise to marry; as well as a prediction of happiness and long life.

Happy Christmas and Get Kissin’!