Home front Updates!

 I spent all day cleaning and sorting and gets things straightened out

around the house! It feels sooooo good to do this.  When you have a job

that you are at instead of at your house, things can pile up and all of a sudden

your nice pretty house can look not so pretty.  I have had a ton of stuff to 

do and the house always comes last.  However this weekend my mom

came up from Martha's Vineyard to go to her 60th college reunion!
While she was up in the Boston area, my sister Ellen and I 
went out with her on Saturday to shop for Justin and Madison's shower gifts. 
 They are getting married in the fall and Madison's shower is next weekend!
 So I took Saturday off~ Justin filled in so I could hang with mom and Ellen.

Well I almost had the whole day off on Saturday, but we did have to deliver a piece

of furniture, so I came in for a bit so Justin could get the job done.  My sister

Ellen took this pic of me ringing up a sale on the ipad while my mom watched.

This is how it is if you ever come in the shop~it looks just like this. I grab the ipad

and ring my customers up! Unless its Gina or Cindy or Justin doing the ringing.

But I digress...so I had Saturday and Sunday off and I got a lot of stuff done.

 I finally straightened out my dining room enough to start taking photos in here again. A small pile started brewing in the corner in front of the window there.  I had Dillon's kennel in here, and it is big and ugly.  I just couldn't stand it, but wasn't sure what to do with it. But today I had a great idea~its in the TV room now! I removed an end table that had a lamp on it that no one ever turned on. So out went the end table and in its place went the dog kennel and all of a sudden I had my dining room back.  And underneath the dog kennel was my old expired Passport! haha! I had put it someplace for safe keeping and couldn't find it anywhere. Well I guess it slipped off a pail of "important papers" that I had on top of the dog kennel and it ended up between the wall and the kennel.  Well since it was expired it was no big deal, but it was creeping me out that I couldn't find such an important document.  I have a new passport on the way as I plan to travel to France this year. But that's another story.

 The big reason behind getting everything straightened out and looking pretty
 is that I will be doing a guest appearance at a big blog this week~
so stay tuned for that on Thursday.   No hints. 
How about these pretty Florentine style frames from HomeGoods?
I love that they have a vintage vibe, and they have the colors I love.
Yummy blues and greens and even one in lavender.  I placed them all on our piano
and they tie in to a painted vintage  mirror I did a few years ago in aqua blue and green.
You can see more of this room when I guest post on Thursday!

 While I was excavating our dining room, and making things pretty in the living room.
Mr. Maison Decor was doing the same to the backyard.  
He is making a big change in the landscape.
 I am getting so excited about how it is coming out. 

That pile of huge granite blocks will be a big wall and a terraced area!! 
So I decided its time for those French doors in the dining room I have wanted forever. 
 It will lead right out to this space, and I can just imagine how wonderful it all will be.

 After washing the curtains and the slipcovers, 

Dillon just had to get up on the couch.

Its too irresistible for this guy, so I completely understand.

 Plus, he's our favorite guy and we love him to pieces.  

 An action shot from earlier in the day~I stripped the wallpaper off the dining room! It came off  so easily. I just pulled and it came off in complete stripes and the wall looked great.  Better lucky than good, my husband likes to say. But I know I did size the walls, and that makes for easier removal when you go to do this task. I love love love this paper, but I got the big French provincial cabinet and it just looked silly having the feature wall blocked by a cabinet.  So down it came.

This is the big cabinet~I am still painting it and deciding upon the finish.  When this room gets completed I will do a full post on it.  But for now, I am showing off a few snippets of whats going on around the Maison.  I am supercharged! 
I love working on my home! It gets me in a happy place, you know? 

Hubs and I finished up our beautiful Sunday with a ride on his Harley
to see my mom and dad at Ellen's house before they headed back to the island.

Speaking of islands....
 Look how cute the shower gift came out!
I found some great wrapping paper and shredded papers at HomeGoods 
and packed all the gifts in one of their nostalgic wooden crates.
Hey, we are more Vineyard people than Nantucket people, 
but its a great crate all the same, don't you think?
I hope your weekend is going great and I will be back with more
 updates later in the week and will spill the beans about whose blog I am guesting on!

Note: Part of this post was sponsored by HomeGoods.  I am one of their Happy by Design Pinterest board designers! Check out designer tips using items from HomeGoods by clicking here.