Make Pink Hydrangeas Blue But Not White

We just got back from a wonderful Spring Break Trip. More on that later this week. We are still a little discombobulated around here, but I wanted to take a quick moment to join the Pink Pagoda for the Blue and White Bash.

It is finally starting to look like Spring around here, so my first thought when deciding what to talk about this month was that I knew it had to involve flowers since, well, I haven't seen any growing from the ground in several months. Then, I thought about one of my favorite flowers, hydrangeas, which can be both blue and white. Perfect!

I had heard that you could change the color of this flower by somehow treating the soil. I wasn't sure if that was just an old wives' tale, so I did a little research. Apparently, if you make the soil acidic you can change the hydrangea's petals from pink to blue.(This website has the recipe if you ever want to try it out in your garden.) But the white hydrangea remains that color no matter what.

Before we left on our trip. I made a quick stop at my favorite place to place to purchase flowers...our local grocery store. Four dollars later, I had these white hydrangeas blooms to put in a blue planter in our living room. Since this is actually made for potted plants, and there is a hole in the bottom of this container, I added a smaller, clear vase to tuck inside and hold the water for the flowers.

It was a great improvement to the décor of the room. The perfect blue and white to welcome spring into my home.

Linking up with Remodelholic

Make More Storage in my Bedroom: Dressers as Nightstands

I finally finished a project that I worked on for a couple months now. Actually, I worked on it for a weekend two months ago, then life happened, it sat in my garage for awhile gathering cobwebs, and then I dedicated to dedicate all of this Saturday to getting it done. I am so glad that I carved out the time, because I think it looks great!

This was my inspiration photo. It was in Lonny magazine several months ago. As soon as I saw this picture, I knew it was just the pop of color I needed for my bedroom.

Lonny

At first I thought I would paint the dresser we already had, but that furniture wasn't really working for us in our bedroom anyway. Our master bedroom is on the small side, and a bit of an odd shape...more long and narrow.  When we moved into our house, we weren't able to fit our second large dresser. As a result, most of our clothes were in a small chest of dresser. I felt like I was constantly shoving things back in just to get the drawers to close. I needed more storage.

Then I saw this picture on another blog, Little Green Notebook, and got an idea. We had a small nightstand beside our bed. I realized if we upsized it to an actual dresser it would be a much better use of the space, provide needed storage, and I would still have a place beside my bed to put my book at night.

Little Green Notebook

 

 

Here are a few more inspiration pictures, from other sources, of dressers used as nightstands: 

 

Better Homes and Gardens

 

 

Apartment Therapy

 

HGTV

I did a lot of measuring and a lot of looking. Most of the dressers I found and liked were too big for the small space I was working with. Finally, the Tarva dresser from Ikea was the perfect fit.

I painted it Par Three from Ace Hardware.

I found the drawer pulls on Ebay for about a third of the price of what I was looking at elsewhere.  The person I bought them from also has an Etsy store called Lakeway Candles. They were very helpful and responsive to my order.

So here is the finished dresser.

 

 

I moved about half my clothes into the dresser, and it is working out great. There is a matching dresser on the other side of the bed for my husband's things. The extra storage is such an improvement to the bedroom.

I will tell you all more about the lamps in tomorrow's post.....

Also, check out this link up at the blog Serenity Now, Shabby Nest, Tatertots and Jello, and
Not Just a Housewife, and Remodelaholic

Decorate with flowers

When I look at pictures in home design magazines, I always notice the fresh flowers used to beautify a room.

 HGTV

 

HGTV

 

I thought about decorating with flowers in my home, but I worried that it would be wasteful since flowers do not last long and can be expensive.

Then I discovered grocery store flowers...

Enrolauto

I can pick up a bouquet with a few flowers for normally between $5-$10. That's a reasonable expense to me.

I love the orchids that my local grocery store is carrying lately. This was just the dash of color my living room needed to look finished.

I now have a few small vases around the house that I fill with flowers every week or so. Does my home look like the magazine pictures now? Hardly! But it is a nice small improvement.