Chloe and Isabel by Kasha

Hey Guys,
I am so happy to finally announce the launch of my Chloe and Isabel Online boutique, Chloe and Isabel by Kasha. I have been working so hard putting together stylish designs for all my fashionistas.

Chloe and Isabel is the new go to fashion destination for creative and confident women of all ages. We offer more than just beautiful jewelry, we offer a lifestyle brand with a genuine and unique personality. The Chloe and Isabel brand was created based on the friendship philosophy that opposite personalities attract. Chloe and Isabel aren't just friends that express themselves in different ways, they are friends that create the perfect bond. Chloe represents the woman who is friendly, optimistic, creative, and brave. While Isabel represents the woman who is timeless, confident, smart, and chic. Who are you? Are you a Chloe or a Isabel? Maybe you are like me and have a style of a little Chloe and a little Isabel.


Most importantly we believe that empowerment and self-exploration lead to the truest version of oneself, and the ability to reach one's full potential. BE CREATIVE. BE CONFIDENT. BE YOU.

Our innovative and originally designed fashion jewelry are exclusively designed by the Chloe and Isabel in-house NYC designers that have a combined 35 years of experience from top fashion houses. Above all, it is important to have a high quality product. No worries there. All the jewelry offered by Chloe and Isabel by Kasha are:

• Hypoallergenic, nickel free, and lead safe
• Packaged in keepsake pouches that will prolong the life of your jewlery
• Under the Lifetime Replacement Guarantee

I am so excited to bring a little sparkle and glow to all my fashionistas! Check out the new Moroccan Summer '14 Collection launching May 6th. 

You can shop our selection at www.chloeandisabelbykasha.com.
Follow us on Facebook to get news about the latest styles and schedule an online pop-up!

Happy Shopping! 

Homemade Bubbles

I don’t know about your kids, but mine are obsessed with bubbles! Everything has to do with bubbles. We have bubble machines, bubble blowers, and bubble wavers. My son will play with his bubbles until there is nothing left to play with. At first I thought buying the large oversized container of bubbles at $5.00 a piece would be enough, but no. Between my son and our three dogs that oversized container of bubbles would be gone in two days. Who has time to run to Target every two days to pick up bubbles?

I quickly found the answer to my bubble prayers after my 19-month-old son had a temper tantrum of all tantrums over his empty bubbles…..I could make our own bubbles with ingredients right from my kitchen quickly and wicked cheap.

Ingredients needed:

2 cups water

1/2 cup liquid dish soap

1/8 cup corn syrup

large container

Add all the ingredients to the large container and shake or mix well. I would let the mixture sit for a minute before using. After a few minutes sit back and watch the bubbles fly!

If you really want to get unique and fancy you can add food coloring to the mixture. Just be careful not to play with the bubbles on surfaces you do not want to stain ( I learned my lesson the hard way).

By son kept storing the mixture. That is why it is the off white color. 

Sanity out the window

For the past two weeks our house has been crazy! Now when I say crazy, I mean diaperless babies running around screaming while I follow behind wondering where I left my sanity. 

Of course our road to the crazy house had to start right when the weather is getting nicer and there are a million and one things on my husband and my to-do list. I don’ t know if it is like this for all married couples, but my husband seems to live in this fantasy world that our home and everything in it just magically stays clean and put away. Now if he came home at lets say 11:25 am, right after my son finished his snack, our home would look like a miniature tornado just went through it. So one of the first things on my to-do list during the weekends is to catch up on the deep down dirt that my little monsters and three dogs like to drag through our home. Now for some reason this seems crazy to my husband who thinks that the only thing on the agenda is to tend to his “baby”, our yard.

Don’t get me wrong, I like to work in the yard every now and then to de-stress and give it my mom touch, but lets face it, the yard is dirty. I think I spend enough time during the week dealing with dirty things, I don’t really want to dive head first into a big pile of dirt that has bugs in it. Yes that may sound prissy, and I don’t care.

Anyway, I digress. For the first time in two years my husband and I thought it would be a wonderful idea to have a BBQ. This would be our chance to show our new friends our beautiful home while exchanging stories and sipping wine. At least this is what I had imagined in my head. Now for the reality, my husband left almost the entire to-do list for the day of the BBQ, twenty-five different chores to do in the matter of five hours, while chasing down a toddler, a baby, and two puppies. I was ready for bed before the party even started. By the time everyone got there I felt like a walking zombie, just going through the motions.

I don’t know who made it the social norm that your house has to be clean before you entertain. It’s really a sick joke. You work so hard to make your house perfect, then in the course of 3-4 hours it just gets trashed. There a bottles and cups everywhere, food left in all different corners, your sparkling floors went from perfect to having a slight brown film on them. Then by the end of the night you are so tired, the last thing you want to do it pick up the mess, so you go straight to bed to wake up to a kitchen that looked like it exploded in the middle of the night.  That is exactly what I woke up to this morning.

While I was cleaning my third load of dishes it hit me…..I had invited everyone to our Easter dinner party. Maybe that third glass of wine wasn’t the best idea. Lol. My Easter party has slowly been increasing in size over the past two weeks. The initial small family dinner was now a huge production with 30 people attending. My first thought was how in the world did this happen? I am not a cook, I can barley get through cooking dinner. But then the purpose behind the party came to light. Our celebrations and BBQ’s are to enjoy the presence of the people we like and love. There was no way I would have any of our friends or family be alone on a beautiful day, let alone on a holiday.  So, I guess for the next week our crazy house is just going to get a little crazier while I figure out how to organize an egg hunt and dinner party for 30 people. Thank god for Pinterest and mothers who know how to cook!

Have a blessed Week!

Janie and Jack

Janie and Jack Outlet Store {Hester Way}

This weekend I stumbled upon a wonderful gem. While checking out the Premium Outlet Mall near our new house I found Janie and Jack . If you have never heard of it, Janie and Jack is a higher end clothing store for babies and Children. Usually this store prices their clothing high enough that I can't justify spending that amount on growing children, but low and behold….I found the Janie and Jack outlet store. 

Two great secrets about shopping the outlet store:

1. The Janie and Jack outlet store stocks the same clothing as in the regular store. The only difference is the outlet store gets their collections two weeks after the regular store.
2. 2.     The outlet store offers a minimum of 25% off the new collection clothing and a minimum of 50% off sale/clearance items.

With offers like that, I couldn’t help but spoil my little angels.  After the discounts the clothing came out to be about the same price as clothing at OshKosh or the Gap. I think the quality of the garments that Janie and Jack offer are worth the extra money in the end. Stores like Carters are cheaper but their clothes shrink, fade, ripe or stretch very easily. In reality my children only really wear Carters clothing 10 times before a seam unravels or the item rips. The material Janie and Jack use is heavy, soft, and light so the clothing is comfortable for little ones to wear, and don’t forget the incredible cute factor that every outfit has!

Check out my cute finds for Easter outfits:

 

  



Pindot Two- Piece Set  $46.00 I got it for $34.50.

 Belted Linen Blend Short $39.00 I got if for $29.25

Plaid Twill Shirt $36.00 I got it for $27

Making New Wood Look Old {Hester Way}

Everybody wants the reclaimed barn wood look, but lets face it: who has the money to buy it? Now that it is the Bee's knees, it's expensive! On top of being expensive it isn't the safest type of wood to use in your little one's bedrooms and playrooms, so i figured out a way to make new wood look old. Yes it can be done. And it can be done cheaply. Nothing better than that!

First you need to understand the basics of staining, and it really is easy. Here is my video of how to stain a basic board. My son Winston wanted to help :)

Now that you have the basics down there are so many fun ways to make new wood look reclaimed. 

The great thing about reclaimed wood is that every piece is different, which makes our job even easier. 

Steps to reclaimed looking wood:

1. Sand the edges of the wood to make the boards look worn. I took this step a little further and sanded my edges uneven making them look even more worn. You can do this by applying different amounts of pressure along the sides. 

2. Grab your distress tool and go to town.  Pick any tool that has the ability to leave a mark on the wood. I personally like the marks that large screws leave on the board, but you can use metal picks, hammers, or barbwire. 

I placed a handful of large screws in a plastic bag and hit the bag against my boards several times until i got the look i was looking for. This part is both easy and a great stress reliever :)

3. Stain the board

4. Wipe away the excess stain with an old Cotton cloth

What you will need to get the reclaimed look:

• Interior Wood Stain (a little goes a long way) 
• Old or cheap paint brush 
• Plastic gloves (staining gets very messy)
• Old cotton cloth
• Sander 
• Your object of choice to distress (bag or screws, hammer, barbwire, chicken wire, metal picks etc.)

I used these basic steps to make my son's reclaimed wood wall in his bedroom. Here is the picture of my reclaimed wood wall inspiration. I love how the stained wood plays off the painted boards. To make every board have it's own personality was fun and it allowed me to play around with ideas for future projects. 

To get the really old reclaimed wood look i added 2 parts water to my bowl of stain. This dulled down the color of the stain and gave the board a whitewashed look. I personally love the way this turned out with my darker stain! 

The important thing I learned when working with stain is to not be afraid to play around. Play with colors. It never hurts to mix two stain colors that you like to get the perfect tone. Reclaimed is never perfect so don't strive for perfection. The less perfect it is, the better it is going to look. 

Reclaimed wood can look good in any room in your home. How are you going to use your faux reclaimed wood? 

Happy Staining!

Kasha 

Reclaimed Wood Wall

 Wood Panel Wall {Hester Way}

One of the first project I decided to take head on was my son's room. I contemplated what to do in his room for days. He has been growing into such a big boy and I wanted his room to represent his amazing personality but still be able to grow along with him. Of course his room still needed to stay soft and relaxing enough for the baby he still is. At least in my eyes!

 I finally knew what I wanted to do when I saw a picture of a wood panel wall on Pinterest. It would be the perfect contractual design element that I had been dreaming about this whole time. 

But the BIG questions were could I pull it off and could we afford it? The simple answer…..YES! Well thanks to the help of my dad who has 20+ years experience remodeling homes and building commercial buildings. Without his expertise and tools, I would not have been able to pull off a wall that looks as good as this! And of course I have to give a shout out to my sister for helping distract the little ones. A project this size takes lots of hands, tools, help, and patience.

Here is a list of supplies we used. The supplies you need might differ with your project depending on square footage:

Chop Saw -My dad brought his RIDGID10 in Sliding CompoundMiter Saw with Dual Laser Guide. This made cutting boards easy and fast. You can rent similar saws at your local Home DepotStud finder- We bought the Zircon Corporation e50 StudSensor for $19.97Hammer
Interior White paint
Wood – We used 5/8 in. x 5 ½ in x 6 ft Cedar Pickets. We had the lumberyard pre cut the wood into random sizes to make it easier for us. 15 boards cost us $215 and they cut it for free!Circular saw- We used the RIDGID 15- Amp 7-1/4 in. Circular saw $99.00. This made cutting the wood to fit the top of the wall easy.Tape Measure

Nail gun -We bought the new Ryobi One Plus 18-volt 2 in18-gauge cordless Brad Nailer for $149.99. This was an amazing buy and worked better than we thought it would. You can also rent a nail gun for your local Home Depot for around the same price

Nails for nail gun -We used Porter-Cable 2 in. x 18 gauge glued 5M Electro-Galvanized Steel Brand Nail—5000 pack -- $19.98

Pencil

Level

Interior Wood Finishing Stain

Interior Red paint

 After we bought the wood, I spent the next two weeks contemplating on how to stain the boards to make them look like old barn wood. I would do a board here and there with a different staining technique I had learned each time. It wasn’t until I was on my 6^th board that I realized if I continued at this pace it would take me a year, and we had a dead line. Winston’s room had to be finished before grandma came to visit. 

Anyway, I had decided to put up the stain and paint brushes and put the bare wood on the wall.

Before you nail the boards into the wall, it is important to use the stud finder to find the studs in the wall. Once you find the studs us the level and draw a line up the wall where the studs are. Believe me, this will make your life so much easier! The last think you want to do is have to search for the studs on every layer of boards.

Remember: Nail the boards directly into the studs (wood behind the drywall) and corners of the wall so they are secure and will not come loose.  I would not recommend using liquid nails! If by any chance you decide to take the wall down…it will be impossible with liquid nails. 

This is me showing the nail gun who is boss. lol. After the 5th layer i finally got the hang of it!

After the guidelines have been drawn on the wall its time to apply the boards. I recommend using 3-4 different size boards in each layer to get the old barn look. 

Even though the boards were pre-cut for us, we still had to cut the end pieces to fit the wall perfectly. My dad used his chop saw to get the job done accurately and fast. I would have helped him, but I have a fear of cutting my fingers off. :( 

My dad using his new toy to cut the boards 

Once the first layer of boards are up use the level to make sure the layer is level with the floorboards. Continue this process up the rest of the wall.

Remember: If the first layer is not level is will cause major problems when you get to the top of the wall.

Hint: make sure to measure twice and cut once. Also don't forget about using the level. We forgot to check if a few layers were level and had to take them down because they were so off. And believe me you don't want to take the boards off. It is a major pain in the butt!!!

 If you have electrical outlets on your wall like we did, they can be a totally pain in the butt! Thankfully I had my dad there to know exactly what to do. When we came up on the electrical outlets he measured the outlets and cut the boards to fit the outside of the outlet opening. We then screwed the electrical casing to the closest boards giving the electrical outlets a smooth finish on the wall. Please be careful when doing this…you are working with live wires.

Due to the nature of the wood the board pieces will not fit perfectly together. This is totally ok! It will make the wall look more natural and vintage if there are some odd spaced boards.

Hint: If you find there are overly large gaps in the spacing, use black paint fill in the space…you will not even be able to notice the space at a distance.

Once you get to the top of the wall measure the distance between the ceiling and the boards to ensure you will have boards that fit the opening. We were a little off at the top and had to hand cut the wood using a circular saw to make the boards fit.

This isn't the last layer, but this is the only picture i got before we were finished with the wall. 

You have the option to put edging around the wall or leave it unfinished. We opted to put the edging around the wall to make it look more finished. You can choose any edging you would like. We used ¾ “ round edging to finish our look. Here is how we applied the edging.

Here is the finished wall with the edging. We still have to finishes painting and staining the remainder of the boards. I was so happy that it turned out so good! 

By the time we were fully finished with the wall our backs were killing us and it was time for some relaxation and the Big Band Theory. 

The next day we strategically placed where the red and white painted boards would be placed. Now when I say strategically, I mean we used blue tap to mark random boards red and white. I only wanted a few on the wall and just wanted to space them randomly throughout the wall. To get that old barn look I whitewashed the board using the red paint I had left over from a previous project and the white paint that was left over from painting our trim.  Whitewashing is extremely easy! 

I honestly liked the way the boards looked on the wall without being stained, however it was not the look I was going for so I had to stain the remainder of the boards. I decided to use Minwax 1-Qt Oil-Based Ebony Wood Finish Interior Stain,  Minwax 1-Qt Oil Based Dark Walnut Wood Finish Interior Stain, and Minwax 1-Qt Oil Based Jacobean Wood Finish Interior Stain. I went with using three stains to give a mismatched look similar to reclaimed wood.

My tips for making new wood look old. 

Remember: When staining please make sure you are in a well vented area, uses a drop cloth if the boards are on the wall, and use cheap brushes. There is no need to use expensive brushes because the stain will ruin them.

 I can't wait to hear about your experiences! 

Kasha 

When Daddy is Away, the Monsters Will Play

Isn’t if funny how you don’t really know how much you miss something until it is gone? Well lets just say that I came to that realization very quickly this week. For the first time since having our kids my husband went on a work trip this week. Now if you had asked me if I thought being a stay at home mom was easy, yes would have jumped out of my mouth without hesitation. But now that I have been lets say solo for a few days… I look at the garage door at 4:00pm and wish my husband’s bright-eyed face would come walking through that door!

Now don’t get me wrong, I love my kids to the end of this world and back! But after being in a house with an 18month old and 4 month old for days without a break….it is enough to send a mother to drink. My son is at that adorable age when he wants to talk but just can’t formulate words let alone sentences, and as a result just loud screaming and whining come out.   Of course on any other days these things are just down right adorable. Those daily phone calls of what mysterious color I just found in my sons diaper or how so much can come out of something so little, turn into calling anyone that will have an adult conversation with me for the few minutes my living room is quite. Today I think my son finally realized that daddy is away, and as a result wanted me to Facetime his father every second. My heart broke every time my son had to say Goodbye to his daddy and then the pain of the phone colliding with my nose brought me back to reality. Got to love the terrible 2s.

Oh and lets not forget my sweet daughter who just wants to smile and laugh at me with those big blue eyes, but the second I look away or god –for-bid have to go to the bathroom, world war three breaks out.

As I read the word quite, I am looking around and basking in the sound of absolutely nothing. The sound of small baby breaths and pacifier smacking is one of my favorite parts of the day. 

I know in my husbands head he is jumping up and down with joy knowing that I truly need him to help me run a smooth operating home. All of those fights about how he doesn’t do anything now seem obsolete. He may not clean, or be as attentive as I am, but he tries and that is all that matters. At the end of the day when we can divide and conquer, that is when I know we make a great team!

My little love bug telling daddy all about her brother. I just had to share this!