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Tuesday, February 10, 2015

wine and a pretty dress + sweater #27



Sir Olaf.
love love love.

This ensemble (sweater 27) went to a friend's house for wine and tasty little morsels. So, wine, a new Lilly Pulitzer dress, and my sweet new pup. Oh oh, and a statement necklace + ankle booties.


dress: Lilly Pulitzer
cardigan: Banana Republic
booties: Old Navy

Monday, February 9, 2015

brunch + sweater #26





This tan cardigan makes sweater 26. Sorry for my absence this past week - this girl has been pretty busy. But, in other news...

I had brunch with several girlfriends a few weekends ago. One of them is recently engaged, so this was a celebratory brunch.

We were within walking distance of  her wedding venue, so she took us there and showed us around. We all ooh-ed and aah-ed over the venue.
The staircase.
The ceiling.

It's a beautiful place, for a beautiful girl.
me and the bride to be

doing what we do best - cracking each other up
*squish squish*
the brunch crew
So great to see my friends - I wish we could do brunch a lot more often.
Is every day too much?


dress: Target
sweater: Dillard's
scarf: WalMart
boots: Nordstrom

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

guest posting

Good morning!

I'm guest posting over at Work Clothes, I Suppose while Bri is getting married/honeymooning/on safari, with a fun, print-mixed get up. Be sure to check it out.

Later, gators,
Annie

Monday, February 2, 2015

sweater #25




If you thought I was joking about loving my dogs and wearing them on my shirt, you were wrong. Very wrong. And if smiling bulldogs don't put a smile on your face on a Monday morning, then do tell - what will?


tee: J. Crew Factory
cardigan: Eddie Bauer
jeans: local consignment shop
Converse One Star: Target

Sunday, February 1, 2015

sweater #23 + sweater #24 + Olaf



new kicks from Target. they're cute, they were on sale, but they're a titch small and they cut up my heels. not sure if they'll be make the cut to stay in my closet...

This gray sweater makes 23. Gray, buffalo plaid, skinnies, and fun reptile print sneaks.

sweater: thrifted (J. Crew)
scarf: WalMart
skinnies: c/o AĆ©ropostale
shoes: Target


And now, on Super Bowl Sunday, the cutest pup.
his face.
so perfect. and handsome.


such a lover. so many kisses. and nubbin tail wags.

A cream-ish lace tee under a white cardigan + an oatmeal scarf. Skinnies and my boots. And my handsome Olaf.

He's such a great pup - so happy, and jovial, and attention loving, and active. As much as Turbo loves to sleep, Olaf likes to play. And as much as Turbo likes to lay in front of the fire, Olaf does, too. They're too cute for words.


shirt: from a friend
sweater: Hollister via Plato's Closet
scarf: knitted by me
jeans: c/o AĆ©ropostale
boots: Nordstrom
bag: TJ Maxx

Saturday, January 31, 2015

the sweater saga, part 7 + sweater #22




previously, the sweater saga...
part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / part 4 / part 5 / part 6

I'm not at all an expert, and I'm not saying you have to , or should do, the same. But I find myself leaning more and more towards less. I've accumulated a lot of stuff in my 20-some years, and have some sorting and tossing to do, as I always will. But my goal is to never be a "manager of stuff" - keeping things just because I MIGHT someday, in 30 years, need it. For one thing. One time.

But, instead, keeping around and actually using the things I use and wear and enjoy every day, as opposed to things that the maintenance of stresses me out - you know, a 90% piece of furniture, instead of a 10% piece. Or appliance. Or feature of my home.

And this argyle sweater is the perfect layer on top of my bulldog tee. I just love my little sweeties so much, I wear them on my shirt. They're so stinking cute, you guys. Olaf runs circles around me when I get home and can't wait for me to play tug of war with him. And a little update: we adopted him with several infections - ears, eyes, and skin (fungal & bacterial). He's got quite the pharmacy, but it seems to be helping!! Hoping we can get his skin issues sorted out soon, so he's not quite to itchy.


shirt: J. Crew Factory
sweater: from a friend (J. Crew)
pants: J. Crew Factory
flats: Target

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

house pretty - guest room

I'd like to share a few home improvement projects here on my blog. Don't worry - this won't become a big DIY blog, or decorating blog, but we've made a few changes to our house since moving in over a year ago, and this seems like a good place to share.

I don't have all the technical terms for everything we did and used, but I've done my best to gather all the information and keep it simple. If you've got more questions, please leave a comment or send me an email: sweetbananie@gmail.com

This was our guest room a few months after we moved in. Nothing fancy.
guest room before
In Colorado, pine beetles invade the pine trees in a forest, and eventually, the trees die and can become fuel for a forest fire. Bad news. However, the inside of the pine trees get this pretty blue color from the beetles, and some entrepreneurial folks have started to chop down beetle kill pine and sell it. Which is pretty smart - each piece of lumber is different, kinda pretty, and very "Colorado."

One of my mom's friends was fixing up a condo that they own, and they had found some beetle kill pine at The Home Depot and used it to cover a wall. It looked pretty cool and rustic, and we thought we'd give it a shot. My mom's friend used the boards horizontally to cover the entire wall - we decided to instead go with vertical and only as tall as a chair rail. The boards are six inch tongue-and-groove boards, so they fit together easily.
air compressor (Sears)

One of the first things we did was purchase an air compressor (I think the Mr. thinks of projects to do that require new power tools to get the job done...funny how that happens).

Then, we measured and purchased the boards from The Home Depot. The side we faced-out has a groove in the center of the board, but the other side does not. We chose the side with the groove to add texture. In the meantime, we pulled off the existing trim and cleared a lot out of the room so we would have space to work.
during
during
during
The Mr. used the air compressor, nail gun, and finishing nails to hang the boards on the walls.
Then, we ran into a snag.

Trim.

Beetle kill pine doesn't come in trim. And most of the other trim options we looked at didn't really "go" with the look of the room. And, since these boards are technically flooring, they're much thicker than standard trim, so any trim we did find wasn't deep enough to "cap off" the boards on the wall.

Following me?

We searched and searched. And finally, about six weeks later, found some rough cut beetle kill pine at a local lumber yard.
local lumber place for the trim
trim - rough cut beetle kill pine
more rough & unfinished than the boards
the trim after the first couple routers, unsanded
the trim after a rough first sanding
the final trim
after
after
after
And then there was lots of sanding and puttying for the chair rail to really be finished.

We love love love how this turned out. Originally, we thought about doing this to every bedroom in our house, but the trim proved to be such a problem (the Mr. had to free hand the trim with the routing table), that we decided against it. Instead, we think it's a nice touch on one room - a very "Colorado" touch. And if you can't tell, we love Colorado.

Our biggest expenses for this project were the lumber, the air compressor, and the routing table. BUT, we've since used the air compressor and routing table several times on different projects, so those were investments we'll continue to use. I didn't know way back when that I'd be posting this, so I don't have a cost breakdown - whoops. 

And here's a list of the tools we used for this project:
air compressor
nail gun + finishing nails
sanding block
routing table
circular saw
palm sander
putty knife + putty

So, that was our first project in our house. And we're slowly adding more to our reportoire...