I am in Love!

I am in LOVE, and just in time for Valentines.

Straight From the Factory

Don't you just love this nightstand I bought for Jayna's big girl room I am working on? The color is great and the finish is factory perfect. You know you can make and refinish furniture, but the finish and quality of already made store bought furniture is way superior.

NOT!!!

That is just a $10 yard sale find that I painted.

This post is going to rock your painting world...

Upholstery Reveal!

BEFORE

I got my living-room chairs back awhile ago, but have been trying to wait and show you the whole room makeover, but now that some projects are on hold and the Halloween decorations are up, I decided I can not wait any longer and have to at least share my chairs with you.

Sleeping Beauty

I love love love my new bed! It is everything I could have hoped and dreamed of. I have really bad leg, joint, and hip pains with my medical problems and my new bed has cut that pain down by about 80%. My problem before was that I would already be in pain before going to bed and then because I could not get comfortable in bed all my moving around would just further inflame and agitate my pain. Now I am able to sleep in pretty much the same position all night long. I love it!

The Bed and Breakfast is Now Open

The husband and I have been sleeping terribly lately, and I have been pushing for a new bed for awhile now.  So this past Labor day weekend we went out and made the big purchase for our new King size bed. I am so excited about having a new bed and am crossing me fingers that it will be the solution to our tossing and turning.

Since we upgraded from a Queen to a King I need all new sheets, toppers, comforters, quilts, bedskirts, and a headboard. I thought it would be fun shopping for all these things, but for some reason it stressed me out big time. All those items can add up quick and trying to figure out what I wanted, and need and then matching it to the existing things in the room ( like this new piece of art we picked up at Tuesday Morning for $20) turned out to be a little of a challenge. After two days of searching the entire Salt Lake Valley Jayna and I managed to pull it off some how and we only had to make three trips to Pottery Barn. 

The other thing I have been really excited about with this new purchase was moving our old bed down into the basement guest bedroom. In the past we have had a Queen full size Air mattress down there which has worked out well for guests, but I wanted something a little more long-term setup. So last night we went to work doing moving the bed and I worked on all the bedding and decorating for the guest room. 

Princess Perfect Gift Bags

We have a trip to the Magic Kingdom coming up soon and we are going with my husbands whole family. I am super excited to take Jayna for the first time, and know she will have a blast since she has two cousins about her same age. One that is four months older, and one that is 4 months younger. So when I came across a cute little tank top with three Disney princesses on it at Walmart it seemed like a no brainer times 3. From there I kept finding cute little things for the girls and finally had to just stop myself and package them all up. These would be really cute gift bags for a Princess party though.

Let the Building Begin...

I happened to weasel my way into getting some of our tax return money as a stay-at-home-mom "yearly bonus", and decided to make some big purchases with my dough. 

Pantry Makeover & Cansolidator Giveaway!

Cansolidator Giveaway!
Giveaway is now Closed

The winner of this Giveaway will receive a Shelf Reliance Cansolidator of their choice.

Featuring SmarTrac technology, the Cansolidators are a front-loading system that automatically rotate up to 60 cans. The adjustable, expandable, stackable system takes the hassle out of can rotation and allows you to organize cans the way YOU want. The Cansolidators are easy to assemble and guarantee a more organized pantry in minutes. Sturdy, compact, and reliable, the Cansolidators are the perfect stand-alone solution for any pantry.

To enter this Giveaway and see my pantry makeover and experience with Shelf Reliances Cansolidator System click the Read more button below.

Perfect Plastics

I am not a big fan of plastic cups, plastic plates, and plastic bowls. Which I knew might pose a problem when having a child. I just hate it when people have nothing but cupboards full of plastic. So I have been determined to find a kid friendly solution to this idiosyncrasy I have, and I am happy to say that I have found it.

Check Out My Newest Sponsors

If you haven't noticed I have three newer sponsors on my side bar. I am so excited to have them onboard, and am even more excited that they are all local and run their businesses out of Utah. Please check them out.

Put a Wrap on it is a cute little business run by Brenda McQueary that makes custom candy wrappers. Put a Wrap on it is ready to add fun to your candy with designer looks, by turning ordinary candy bars into memorable and personal gifts or favors in a few simple steps. I had her send me some custom wraps for the Bake Sale that is this Saturday and boy was I impressed.

Semiprecious Candies

I am gearing up for next weekends Bake Sale and have one more item to sell checked off my list. 

I made these cute bags of candy jewels with custom labels to match my Bake Sale flyers. 

A Little Urban Is On It's Way!

Spring left us her in Utah on Tuesday and hopefully will be back by Saturday. Until it returns I feel like just watching movies with the Jayna Berry (who has a stuffy nose) and shopping online instead of going out. 


Click the Read More button to see what I found!

Utah Home Remodeling Show

Friday night the husband took me out for a little date night. He knows just what I like to do and took me to a Utah Home Remodeling Show. It was a nice night out, but I wish the show had been better. It was mostly heating and air companies, roofing companies, and randomness. I wish there would have been designers, decor items and ideas, wallpaper, and fixtures etc, but to my disappointment there wasn't. I did run across a few things I loved though.

Like these guys! 

Utah Shopping "Flight" Map

With all the new changes to my blog I was not sure if you all noticed the new button I have added

This Utah Shopping Map includes all my favorite shopping destinations and secrets. I will continue adding to it and will update each location with photos and possibly even some video as I go visit them again. I tried to make the location descriptions as informative and interesting as possible so I encourage you to read them. 

Let me know what you think of the map and if it was helpful for you. I love feed-back so I can make my blog better for YOU. 

Hope you enjoy the new blog feature, and hopefully I will see you around town!

"All is Safely Gathered In": Family Home Storage

I am so excited to announce that the Bird and the Berry will be partnering up with a local Utah company Shelf Reliance. We are still working out all the details, but are both excited. I can tell you that there will be awesome giveaways and a chance for everyone to save on their products in the future.

SHELF RELIANCE is a company that specializes in food storage, storage rotation, and emergency preparedness products. If you are Mormon or live in Utah those words are old hat, if you are not check this out to learn more about how you and your family can become self reliant. It is less about religion and more about being prepared.

With Shelf Reliance that task may have just gotten a lot easier for all of us. After months of planning, testing, and experimenting, Shelf Reliance has come up with the perfect answer. I introduce to you …

Kids Picnic Bench: Finished and Painted

I finally finished painting Jaynas picnic bench. My husband thought I was crazy to do two coats of paint, antiquing, glazing, staining, and two coats of top coat on an outdoor kids picnic bench, but I love how it turned out.

I am hoping this will be one of those items that Jayna will want to pass down to her kids someday. I built it well enough and treated it well enough that it could be. That is if I can part with it and the memories it will hold by then of her being a little girl playing in my backyard.


For Painting Technique How To Click the Read More Button Below...

April Giveaway: Citristrip

Our first Giveaway starts NOW!

Brought to you by...

The winner of this Giveaway will receive a half gallon bottle of Citristrip Stripping Gel.

Which is a powerful, industrial-strength remover. It is easy to use because it stays wet and active for up to 24 hours, allowing stripping of multiple layers in one step. It contains no methylene chloride, is non-caustic and is safe for indoor use. This special orange stripper has a pleasant citrus scent and is also biodegradable. I have used it for many of my projects and have talked about it on the blog before. I am so excited for one lucky reader to be able to try it out! Citristrip products are available for purchase at both The Home Depot and Lowe's and can be purchased online at The Home Depot.

This Giveaway will end on April 17th at midnight mountain time.

Open to United States residence only.

How to Enter Giveaway:

1. Become a follower of the Bird and the Berry to obtain one entry for this Giveaway. If you are already a follower of this blog you will gain an entry as-well.

2. Visit the Citristrip website to learn more about their products and leave a comment on this post to obtain a second entry to this Giveaway.

The winner of this Giveaway will be announced on Monday April 19th.

Good luck!

Our First Giveaway!

I am so excited to be announcing that the Bird and the Berry will be having its first giveaway next month! Brought to you by my sponsor

I will be giving away a half gallon bottle of citristrip gel.

Which is a powerful, industrial-strength remover. It is easy to use because it stays wet and active for up to 24 hours, allowing stripping of multiple layers in one step. It contains no methylene chloride, is non-caustic and is safe for indoor use. This special orange stripper has a pleasant citrus scent and is also biodegradable. I have used it for many of my projects and have talked about it on the blog before. I am so excited for one lucky reader to be able to try it out! Citristrip products are available for purchase at both The Home Depot and Lowe's and can be purchased online at The Home Depot.

The giveaway will start on April 12th and end on April 17th at midnight. You can secure one entry for this giveaway RIGHT NOW by becoming a follower of this blog (button located in the side bar).

More information on rules and how to gain other entries for this giveaway will be provided in the official contest post on April 12th.

The New Addition

This is the new addition to our family that we got yesterday. I am still having mixed feelings about it, because to me it is in-between cute old truck and white trash truck. I am glad it will solve all of our "how do we get this?" and "how do we get rid of this" problems though.

This getting a truck thing started last week when we realized we have no way to get rid of a ton of sand in a huge ghetto sandbox in the backyard to make way for our landscaping projects we want to do this year. So naturally this week we bought a truck. Ridiculous! It was only $1000 and we bought it from a kid who got it from his grandpa and had been fixing it up forever. It is embarrassingly loud with duel exhausts (just like a 20 year old boy would like). I have to admit it is fun to drive and ride in though, and will for-sure add a sense of adventure to all our future Ikea and Home Depot runs.

Don't laugh, but I had to call the fire-department to see if it was even legal to put Jayna in her car-seat in this truck. It was, in-fact they said the older trucks are safer because they have no airbags, although I do not think we will be driving on the free-way with her in this truck anytime soon. So last night we drove to In and Out Burger for dinner no license plates and all and then went to Lowes to look at some things. There is something about driving an old truck to get burgers that is so right and 100% American. It was a blast!

I told Ryan that it was my the Bird and the Berry truck and he got really disgusted and told me "We are not Bird and the Berrying this thing up". I am guessing that means I can not put my blog logo on it or reupholster the bench seat in a print or tweed. But we will see about that.

Expensive Accessories Are For The Birds

These cute birds have brought a little feeling of spring to my home, and these birds sing "cheap, cheap, cheap", instead of "chirp, chirp, chirp". At a dollar each from the Dollar Tree you can't beat the impact they make on a table arrangement like this one.

I am crossing my fingers and hoping my bulbs (also from the Dollar Tree) bloom shortly so I can enjoy them in the front room.

What says Spring to you?