Easter Decorating!

Hello barbies and HAPPY SPRING!

At the BDH we are beyond ecstatic that Spring has sprung. I don't know if it's because of the 4 separate ice storms this winter in NC (which is about 4 more than in a normal year) or us missing Texas's warm weather, or both, but we're extra happy to usher in the sunshine. I planned on celebrating the first day of Spring with some time outside, but ended up working a 13 hour day on Thursday so that plan was scrapped, but I made up for lost time doing lost of yard work with hubby outside this weekend. I'm usually not a manual labor type of gal (understatement of the century) but I was so sunshine-starved that I didn't mind.

In addition to the much needed time outside, I pulled out all of my little Easter bunnies to get the house ready for Easter! The pics are below - how do you dolls celebrate Easter?

First and foremost, I couldn't resist putting our precious little pekingese Toula in her bunny costume. This little bunny melts our hearts.

 

Here's our first ever 7 ft Easter tree, filled with eggs, bunnies and ears on top. :)

  

 

 

  

 

These bunny bar stool covers have become a running joke with my mom and I. They're cheesy as can be, but too funny to resist at this point, and for some reason I'm kinda obsessed with them.

 

 

 

 

 I may have over done it with the eggs, but there's so much you can do with them!

The bunny banner above was a gift from one of my favorite ladies - she's incredibly crafty - don't you love it?!

Also, I celebrated my birthday last week! It was perfect - I took the day off and spent it with my mom and hubby at the mall shopping. Then, over the weekend, several friends and I had drinks at Big Easy in downtown Raleigh (and the service was HORRIBLE - the worst I'd ever experienced - every staffer we encountered was incredibly rude to us) then headed to the Oxford and Neptune's Parlour (much better experiences at these two). Here was my (first) outfit - I chose a pink pencil skirt and simple white crop top.

Here are some photos from my birthday celebration and my actual birthday:

 

Thanks for reading Easter barbies!

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250,000 views!

Late last night, as my birthday was winding to a close, I got a very special birthday surprise from you all - the blog hit one quarter of a million views! I can't think of a sweeter coincidence! Thank you all for your wonderful support!

To celebrate, I thought it would be fun to count down the top 5 viewed BDH posts since the blog's creation.

5. Our DIY chalkboard tutorial (for under $10!)

4. A compilation of some of my favorite dream swimming pool inspiration photos.

3. The recent reveal of our dining room makeover, with custom paint job and wainscoting.

2. Our 2013 Christmas Home Tour, complete with 26 full sized Christmas trees!

1. The reveal of our 11 ft Restoration Hardware inspired table, 100% built by hand by my hubby.

Thanks again for all of your loyal visits barbies! You're fabulous!

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Media Room Reveal!

Hello barbies!

Hubby and I finally got around to getting our media room situated! As you know, it sat empty (aside from it's obnoxiously bright red walls) since we bought our house, but in late January we began making some changes. We moved in our beloved sectional sofa from our master sitting room, broke down and bought and projector, hung curtains, bought some matching red throw blankets and last but not least, hubby built our 100 inch projector screen by himself! He welded aluminum for the frame, used white low-gloss laminate for the screen, and created a 2 inch thick felt border - go Ross! Some of the screens we were looking at cost upwards of $1,000, but he built ours for about $100.

Here are some pictures of the finished product, aside from framing our movie posters, which is our next goal. What do you think, dolls?

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Wine Cellar Update

Hello barbies!

 

As you all know, our wine cellar is one of the biggest projects we hope to tackle in 2014. In fact, it was even on my New Year's Resolution's goal sheet, because it's been sitting empty (well, it does have probably 50 bottles of wine in it... sitting on the floor) since we moved into the BDH almost a year ago!

 

While hubby hasn't yet had time to build the shelving along the inner walls, we did add this cute little bistro set against the far wall for wine tasting! Isn't it cute? It was a Christmas gift from my mom - she knows me too well!

 

More to come when hubby finds time to do the shelving, which will hopefully be soon!

 

xox



 

 

 

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Dining Room Makeover!

Hello barbies!

I'm so delighted to report that we've finished our dining room makeover! We started over two weeks ago and thought we would be able to finish it in a weekend - boy were we wrong. With a TON of measuring and taping (we went through 8 roles of painters tape!), painting the walls twice (once white for the lines and then gray over it), painting the tray ceiling, hand stringing crystals for the chandelier and adding full wainscoting to the room - it was quite the undertaking!

My handy hubby, who also built our Restoration Hardware inspired dining room table himself for under $150, did the wainscoting himself in about 3 hours. Our builder charged $1500 for a room of wainscoting and Ross did it for about $100 in materials, which is great considering our dining room is 18 feet long! We're so happy with the finished product though and were really pleased to be able to take our builder basic tan room to a glam space with wainscoting and a custom paint job.

BEFORE:

DURING:

We created the diamonds by carefully measuring and marking where each line should go. The diamonds are each 12 inches wide and 8 inches tall. Taping perfectly straight like this is definitely a two person job - for us Ross was on a ladder and would start the line, and I would stretch it down diagonally while standing on the floor.

 

AFTER:

Our china used here is Lenox Butler's Pantry, which I've loved since our wedding. The crystal glasses are Crystal Darques in Baroque.

 

Last but not least, I have to point out that we survived Raleigh's 2014 Snowpocalypse last week, which ended up getting tons of national media attention. My normal 35-40 minute commute took 5 hours, spanned 4 cars (mine which I had to abandon because it got stuck, two strangers' cars who I hitch hiked with (everyone was hitch hiking because they had to abandon their cars), and my husband's truck (which also got stuck when he tried to come rescue me), and two separate stints on foot between rides. It was a nightmare!

Thanks for reading barbies!

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Happy Valentine's Day from the BDH Blog!

Happy Love Day! 

I hope you all enjoy this day with your spouses, significant others, friends, furry companions or even your own couch and wine glass. Whoever/whatever you're spending this day with - I hope its perfect!  Don't skimp on the chocolates (remember, calories don't count on Valentine's Day) and remember that wearing an obscene amount of pink is suddenly acceptable, so dive in!

Hubby and I are headed to Virginia Beach for a romantic weekend, even though it's supposed to be relatively cold and windy. To check out all of the BDH's fab pink and red decor, click here!

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Swimming Pool Photos

Hello dolls!

I hope you're all managing to stay warm despite all of these recent snow storms that don't seem to discriminate against any region of the US! We've had a couple major snow storms here in NC (including a couple snow days from work!) and all of this cold weather has really got hubby and I dreaming of warmer days and beginning to put our pool construction wheels in motion.

Ross and I have both known we wanted a pool since before we even built our house. He grew up with one in his backyard and I basically spent my entire childhood in a pool (I was a competitive swimmer). We got a really ghetto used inflatable one on CL (for $30 - we were big spenders) for our old rental home in Texas and we LOVED it. We spent every sunny, waking moment in it, bought all sorts of pool toys (which was kind of hilarious since it was only like 12 ft wide and 4 ft tall) and even built a "waterfall" for it. Eventually it popped (which is the risk you run mixing inflatable swimming pools and dogs) and we've been sadly poolless ever since.

So now that several things might be beginning to align, we've begun researching pool options and designs. What I've found so far is that they're pretty freaking expensive even for the most basic, not upgraded setups. Sheesh. On the other hand, I've found some absolutely AMAZING inspiration photos, many of which are even more spectacular than my pool inspiration photos from 2012. Many of these are indoor, a notion I'm obsessed with despite it's complete lack of feasibility with our current house.

This shape - Roman - is my favorite right now. I also love the dark bottom and the fountains crossing it.

This indoor pool has a convertible lid! 

I generally don't prefer the lagoon type pools but we might end up doing one for no reason other than doing a beach entry like this one. I love this! I'm also partial to the elevated area for laying out!

I love this combo! Ross has come really close to building us an outdoor fireplace like this a couple times (he's a super handy professional engineer - we've even toyed with the idea of him getting his contractor's license and leading the pool construction himself!), but we keep holding back on this and other backyard projects to ensure that the entire backyard is cohesive once we get around to it.

Love this indoor pool! It feels so perfectly integrated into the house - like its just another room.

Can we take a moment to swoon over this dramatic indoor pool? Agghhh! I'll take five of these please.

Here's another dark bottom Roman pool. I don't like the grass around it but the pool itself is gorgeous.

This pool has its own custom water slide (which I'm sure is worth more than our entire pool budget!). Look at the tile work on that thing!

I don't know why, but I love the island in this one. It takes away a lot of the pool's functionality, but its still so cool. I'm also digging the beach, which again only seems to fit with lagoon type swimming pools.

Now last but not least, these guys just seem to be showing off! It's a pool and hot tub surrounded by a personal lazy river, with a bridge of course. This is a little crazy but I definitely wouldn't complain if someone put it in the BDH's backyard!

I'll update you guys if we make any more concrete (pun intended!) progress on the pool front. What are your preferred pool styles and amenities barbies?

xox

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