'Blessed Blocks' Update & A New House Sneak Peek

Happy New Years bloggy friends!!

I can't believe it's already 2016... I figured I should pop in and make sure you knew I was still kicking it in this new year :) 

To explain my MIA status... I decided that taking care of the new house and focusing on the holidays with my family took precedence over keeping up with blog posts. I hate it but I have to make sure I'm keeping myself sane!! 

In case you missed the big news...we bought a house in October!!

We are officially homeowners.

And me, being well me, had quite the to do list to get started on. 

Isn't it pretty though?

I'm in love with the arched details and our gorgeous steps leading up to the entryway. 

The steep hill is a bit of a doozy but well worth it for the house :) 

And sledding will be a blast!

In case you missed my first 'project' in the new house, check out how I decked out our new mantle for Christmas over here. 

We have made a lot of big changes and tons of small ones. 

Every day the list seems to grow :) 

So no full room reveal at the moment- with work starting up again on Monday, it'll be a million times harder to get things done.

So I'm aiming for a couple room reveals by summertime. 

In the meantime, I'm hoping to share some of the smaller things we're doing to either 1) change the house to fit our personalities 2) just plain move in and get things hung on the wall. 

So let's check out part of the dining room today. 

So two things to remember before you check out the finished...er...wall? 

One, remember my 'Blessed blocks' from last fall? 

Well they got a little update. 

And two, remember my absolutely to die-for, gorgeous china cabinet redo from a couple months ago? 

Well I might not have been able to part with it...

But together they make a great pair don't you think?

The blocks hung out on the kitchen counter from the moment they were unpacked. 

I knew I wanted to use them somewhere so I kept waiting for the perfect spot to open up.

And I kept waiting. 

One thing I didn't want was for them to feel cluttered by sitting just anywhere.

So I thought maybe hanging them would be a fun idea & make them more of a statement piece. 

But they still just hung out on the counter.

My sweet hubby ended up getting me a pile of raw cabinet doors for Christmas (because he loves me!) and one of them just so happened to be the perfect length for all the blocks to fit in. 

Since the blocks were already done, all that needed to be done now was painting the 'frame' 

I'm having the hardest time settling on colors in the new house guys!!

But my beautiful aqua blue that I love is still the main color :) 

So because our dining room/kitchen is very brown & beige at the moment, I decided that added a splash of blue with some art was just what it needed. 

I painted the inside of the frame with several coats of a blue that I mixed together from several blues & whites I had on hand. 

The outside area of the frame was true wood (vs the middle which was just MDF) so I started out staining it. 

I love when stained wood peeks through paint so I put on several coats of a few different stains to give a weathered type look.I used a weathered wood stain & a mix of dark walnut to get a nice weathered finish. 

Then I just slapped some blue paint on. I wasn't going for full coverage so I went over the edges lightly and then went back in to fill in some areas more than others. 

The end result was an imperfect finish that gave a weathered & antiqued look which is basically my love language :)

To attach the wooden 'Blessed' blocks, hot glued them on initially and then flipped the whole thing over and put several finish nails through the back of each block with my nail gun. 

Nice & sturdy. 

It looks gorgeous sitting above my china cabinet!!

I went back & forth about switching out our china cabinets when we moved. 

I loved our wooden one- the cabinets underneath store a lot more & it used to be my grandmother's so it's sentimental. 

But I really didn't want to paint it and I knew I didn't want anymore wood tones in our darkish kitchen so we decided to try the grey one and I love it! 

You can check out the dining room from the old house here. 

It's definitely different as far as decorating and filling it. 

The shelves are more narrow so it's a fun challenge :)

I love having a place to display my vintage Pyrex and china. 

I have an eclectic mix of items and just love how they all go together!!

A quick run-down on some of the items: 

Polka dot China Plates: Kate Spade Larabee Road Collection

Gold striped Bowls: Mikasa (thrifted)

Blue Plates: Vintage Pyrex (thrifted) 

Milk Glass: (thrifted) 

Mason Jars: (thrifted) 

Essentially all the items shown were thrifted in one way or another.

I love hunting down my aqua pyrex- it's a bit of a challenge to find around here.

Those plates were the score of the century and are probably my favorite pyrex pieces.

The gold Mikasa bowls were a Goodwill find for under $10!!

My Kate Spade china was from my grandmother from my wedding and most of the glassware was either a gift from her or passed down from her when she passed away. 

Hubby has gotten me several fun pieces over the years too. 

I love seeing all the new & vintage pieces come together!

So there you have one tiny wall in the new house!!

I'll be sharing more soon- I'm still working on figuring out the lighting in this place :) 

Hope you enjoyed the small update- I'll be back soon!!!

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